[nabs-l] Will Netbooks replace notetakers?

[T. Joseph Carter]

The Asus Aspire One runs around $300-350.  Its keyboard is a bit 
cramped, and it seems a little thick particularly next to my MacBook 
Air, but it's a good size, a good weight, and comes with just enough 
horsepower to do the things you want to do.

It should run JAWS or Window Eyes well enough.

Linux accessibility with the distributions that come with the things 
is all but nonexistent as you note, but it's Linux--install what you 
want (or get someone sighted to do that, I guess..)

Joseph

On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 03:24:12PM -0800, Rob Lambert wrote:
>I was thinking about our proprietary notetakers like the PACmate, Braille Note, and Icon, and thinking about Netbooks. This prompted an interesting question: Do you think netbooks will be the new note taker for us? Continue reading for further information if youare unfamiliar with Netbooks. 
>
>For those of you unfamiliar with them, Netbooks are...I guess I could say shrunken down laptops, both in specs, price, & size. For us, I'd recommend any of HP's models since they have the keyboard thing down pat. Why does this matter? Many netbooks LACK a keyboard that can be used for extended periods of time. That's not to say we don't get a full QWERTY keyboards, we do, but some of them can be cramped. The reason their smaller is that the netbooks weigh almost nothing. 
>
>Netbooks run Windows XP, and some Linux (be very careful because the Linux versions have NO accessibility), and when it comes out, they will run Windows 7. Obviously, since they run Windows, they can run JAWS (I think). Many of them hover around a 1 to 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor with about 1 GB of RAM. 
>
>The storage space is also small (especially if you use flash memory). There are, however, some netbooks with full hard drives (usually ranging in size from 40 to 120 GB). If you go flash, it will run you anywhere between 8 and 40 GB. I think one of the eee's has 40 GB of flash with 20 GB of additional storage online. Sadly, that's only for the Linux version. 
>
>Why does all this matter though? Note earlier that I said the system is shrunken in price. Most Netbooks hover around an asking price of $400 to $600 brand new. Be wary though. If you plan to use it as your primary computer, don't. I doubt the Atom processor on board these Netbooks can handle something like Goldwave. 
>
>This, however, would be a perfect solution for note taking for college students. It's light, it's cheap, when running Windows it's Accessible. Do you think that netbooks will replace our proprietary notetaking solutions? 
>
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