[gui-talk] Daydreaming about PC laptops. Any comments?

[Lloyd Rasmussen]

I think you will want to go to a computer store and examine some of the
offerings.  To accommodate DVD playback, screens are becoming wider compared
to their height, which is a good thing for providing a half-decent keyboard
with a smaller screen.  

I read PC World in braille from NLS.  Every month they emphasize different
kinds of laptops and netbooks in their ratings, and the field seems to be
very full of products that are not too dissimilar but may contain gotchas.

Smart Computing and Consumer Reports are available for download on the NLS
BARD website; Consumer Reports issues include the alphabetical index of what
has been reviewed during the previous twelve months, which you might want to
use in order to spot the correct issue to download.  I don't read Smart
Computing, but my impression is that it covers a pretty wide range of
interests, and is more down-to-earth than PC World.  Anything you read in
these magazines will be becoming obsolete, so I would look at the reviews
not for specific models but for features.  The most recent reviews are
available to all and sundry from www.pcworld.com , and presumably Smart
Computing has a comparable website.

The information is out there, but it is going to require some research and a
lot of folow-up questions to come up with good answers.

Netbook is not a brand name, but a form factor and performance level.  Some
netbooks run Linux, but most of them run Windows with a low-powered
processor such as an Intel Atom, Celeron, etc.  In benchmark results, they
may run one-third as fast as a so-called "power laptop" or "desktop
equivalent" laptop, but this is enough to run a screen reader and do many of
the things you are doing.  Handling a database of thousands of e-mail
messages, though, might be slower.  Some of these units use a solid-state
flash-based drive for the operating system and all data, but I think more
and more of them have a hard drive.  But the keyboard is smaller, and
therefore there are some compromises.  That's why you really need to examine
some units in a store or a friend's house.

I am using a Laptalk, which was sold by Beyond Sight in 2002.  It has no
screen, has a 1 GHz Intel Celeron processor and 256 MB of RAM.  I don't want
to try running the most recent versions of Window-Eyes on it, because memory
would probably be too low.  This unit is old, but I can still use it
occasionally on travel, taking notes in meetings, surfing the web with IE 7
at a painfully slow rate, etc.  I don't know what I will replace it with, or
how soon I will do so.  But it did, and still does, make more sense to me
than a specialized notetaker, at least for the things I wanted to do.  Even
though I can afford newer stuff, I'm basically cheap.


Lloyd Rasmussen, Kensington, Maryland
Home:  http://lras.home.sprynet.com
Work:  http://www.loc.gov/nls
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Joel Deutsch
> Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2009 11:21 AM
> To: NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Daydreaming about PC laptops. Any comments?
> 
> Chris G.
> I thought a netbook was a device with keyboard and monitor that has almost
> no internal workings of its own except what's necessary for it to connect
> with the Intent and there find all its applications, from email to word
> processing to , of course, Web browsing. This is not so? Are you quite
> sure?
> where are you getting your information about this? Thank you very much.
> infjo
> use everything
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chris G" <chris at mysticplace.org>
> To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2009 12:36 AM
> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Daydreaming about PC laptops. Any comments?
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> A netbook is a real computer that has a real operating system and a real
> hard drive.
> they are smaller then your conventional laptops.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:02:35 -0700
> "Joel Deutsch" <jdeutsch at dslextreme.com> wrote:
> 
> > Sherri,
> >
> > That isn't a complete small computer. it's another type of product
> > entirely.
> > I want a real computer with a hard drive on which I keep my own
> > applications
> > and files. Not a cloud computer. apples and oranges. Thanks, though.
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Sherri" <flmom2006 at gmail.com>
> > To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
> > Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 11:35 PM
> > Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Daydreaming about PC laptops. Any comments?
> >
> >
> > Seems to me the way to go is the Netbook, though I do not own one. I am
> > using a Del Latitude laptop (not sure of model number) and though the
> > keyboard is flat, the keys are pretty large and I am getting used to
> using
> > the computer. I have this computer, because the Florida Division of
> Blind
> > Services graciously bought it for me and at that time, I did not know
> much
> > about Netbooks. I like the Latitude, because it is light, but very
> sturdy.
> > My daughter who is sighted and now a brand new Mac user says the layout
> of
> > the computer and the way the display looks is very "industrial",
> whatever
> > that means. HTH.
> > Sherri
> >
> >