electronics purchase help

[BIG TOM]

Taters wants to buy me a net book for Christmas. she wants me to pick it out...I don't know a thing about them.. Can you guys give me any info and guidence what to look for and what accessories I may need.... when in doubt ask the pros.....also she wants to get me a mp3 player...something I can hook up to the scoot on those longer trips......all help is appreciated.....:sign67:

[Wanderer]

Net books are just that. They are basic computers allowing web surfing and email. They don't have a lot of ports lack good graphics and no cd rom players. Good I guess for carrying along on trips and such. My old eyes find them a tad small too. I too search for an Mp3 player, but don't want to spend the money for Apple.

[Midrsv]

Better go try one out at the store first. I thought one would be a good idea to carry on trips. I bought a Dell netbook at Sams. I brought it home and loaded it up with software and I couldn't get used to the small screen. Not so much the size but the resolution. Instead of being 1024 x 768 it was 1024 x 570 or so. So you only got to see about 2/3rds of the data on a normal screen. When browsing the internet I was constantly scrolling because the menu bars took up the top third of the screen. It drove me crazy. I returned it after a few days.

 

Your mileage may vary.

 

Dennis

[Gary N.]

We bought this one... http://www.acer.com/aspireone/ So far so good. It does everything we wanted it to do. Compact and easy to carry on the bike. $350 CDN at Costco.

FYI....if you hit the F11 key the menu bars disapear. Hit it again and they come back.

[Thom]

i have the same 1 , it's great , at home i use a vga cord and plug it into a 22 in flat screen tv .

it is 4 times more then my 1000.00 lap top , it has lot more usb ports than the old LP plus a sd card slot , i also use flash drives to put some thing on instead using disks

[Gamecock]

save money by buying one with a small harddrive (160 gig) and at least 3 gig's of ram (DDR). don't save anything to the hard drive, put it all on an external hard drive (except for programs)

 

I love my HP and went this route and it has worked out great. Make sure you delete all the BS programs that are on the computer when you buy it.

 

 

Ben

[FreezyRider]

Better go try one out at the store first. I thought one would be a good idea to carry on trips. I bought a Dell netbook at Sams. I brought it home and loaded it up with software and I couldn't get used to the small screen. Not so much the size but the resolution. Instead of being 1024 x 768 it was 1024 x 570 or so. So you only got to see about 2/3rds of the data on a normal screen. When browsing the internet I was constantly scrolling because the menu bars took up the top third of the screen. It drove me crazy. I returned it after a few days.

 

Your mileage may vary.

 

Dennis

 

Hey Dennis....you do know that by hitting the F11 key (Internet Explorer) you can toggle back and forth between full screen and normal screen don't you?

Also, you can turn off whatever toolbars you don't want. Yet another setting on some brands causes the screen to automatically scroll as you move your mouse down or up. Maybe the Dell didn't have that feature.

 

Joe

[BIG TOM]

We bought this one... http://www.acer.com/aspireone/ So far so good. It does everything we wanted it to do. Compact and easy to carry on the bike. $350 CDN at Costco.

FYI....if you hit the F11 key the menu bars disapear. Hit it again and they come back.

 

 

went to www.refurbdepot.com found like four models (for $255.00) of the aspireone....whats the difference between them????:doh:are they all the same????

[Midrsv]

Hey Dennis....you do know that by hitting the F11 key (Internet Explorer) you can toggle back and forth between full screen and normal screen don't you?

Also, you can turn off whatever toolbars you don't want. Yet another setting on some brands causes the screen to automatically scroll as you move your mouse down or up. Maybe the Dell didn't have that feature.

 

Joe

 

Yeah, I knew that but I just didn't like the screen height resolution. I just carry my 15" laptop when I travel.

 

Dennis

[Wanderer]

went to www.refurbdepot.com found like four models (for $255.00) of the aspireone....whats the difference between them????:doh:are they all the same????

Near as I can tell some are thinner than others.

[bongobobny]

BJ's has a couple of Acers and a HP I think. You can have lunch and walk over to BJ's...

 

For MP3 go with either Apple or Sansa, and don't get a model with a hard drive. 8 - 16 Gig has plenty of room...

[Thom]

this is the one i have , kinda funning i bought mine new at wally world for only $ 4.00 more .when they 1st came out each store got 6 of them , after that they only carried the 1gb ram 160 HD

 

 

ASPIRE ONE AO751H-1401

Intel Atom Z520 1.2GHz Processor, 2GB Ram, 250GB HD, 11.6" LED WSVGA, 802.11b/g, Crystal Webcam, 6-in-1 Card Reader, 3-USB, 56K Modem, Windows Vista 7359

 

$294.95

[tsigwing]

Taters wants to buy me a net book for Christmas. she wants me to pick it out...I don't know a thing about them.. Can you guys give me any info and guidence what to look for and what accessories I may need.... when in doubt ask the pros.....also she wants to get me a mp3 player...something I can hook up to the scoot on those longer trips......all help is appreciated.....:sign67:

Get one with Windows 7 and a camera. We've got several in our family, a dell and a samsung. the biggest problem is the small screen and no mouse.

[aharbi]

I have the Gateway Netbook, same as Acer Aspire one (Acer bought Gateway). It has 1gb mem and 160gb drive, wireless, 3 usb, multicard reader slot, vga, web camera, power, lan, 6 cell (7hr) battery, Wondoze XP home. I paid $200. If you shop around and wait for a sale. I would not pay $300 too close to a laptop price. I got this speciffically for the bike to do email & gps routing/tracking, and have loaded all my gps map data on it. I find it easier to route plan and transfer to my gps when I travel. Although not a laptop I do find it quite sufficent to use on the road. The 1024x600 screen is a little hard on these 58+ year old eyes but I'm not using it for hours on end either.

 

To load programs that require a CD/DVD drive I copy them to a 4gb SD card first then plug the sd card into the netbook. I also bought a portable DVD lightscribe drive that I can use with it or my laptop or my desktop. I removed all the MS crap demo/spam MS word and loaded OpenOffice and Mozilla Thunderbird.

[dave_wells]

Netbooks are useful for someone on the go

For an every day average computer user no

 

They are still new to market

 

I have one I barely use it I loaded linux on found a desktop designed for Netbooks

Firefox has a browser plugin called meerkat it changes the layout to fit the screen it works well

 

I use my old thinkpad x30 way more

 

Just keep in mind small screen no dvd/cd

 

Get a laptop

1 --- larger display

2 --- play dvd and music

3 --- Rip cds and store music an your Lap top

4 --- Much easier for the average user

 

I deal with users all the time its my job and I would talk you out of buying one

You may save a few dollars buying a Netbook not worth it

 

Trust me

Dave

[Thom]

I have the Gateway Netbook, same as Acer Aspire one (Acer bought Gateway). It has 1gb mem and 160gb drive, wireless, 3 usb, multicard reader slot, vga, web camera, power, lan, 6 cell (7hr) battery, Wondoze XP home. I paid $200. If you shop around and wait for a sale. I would not pay $300 too close to a laptop price. I got this speciffically for the bike to do email & gps routing/tracking, and have loaded all my gps map data on it. I find it easier to route plan and transfer to my gps when I travel. Although not a laptop I do find it quite sufficent to use on the road. The 1024x600 screen is a little hard on these 58+ year old eyes but I'm not using it for hours on end either.

 

To load programs that require a CD/DVD drive I copy them to a 4gb SD card first then plug the sd card into the netbook. I also bought a portable DVD lightscribe drive that I can use with it or my laptop or my desktop. I removed all the MS crap demo/spam MS word and loaded OpenOffice and Mozilla Thunderbird.

I want say thanks

i just down loaded Open Office , its a big program , i would not want to put it on my netbook but for the my main puter it is great ! will it read MS Word and Other MS Docs ?

Thom

[aharbi]

I want say thanks

i just down loaded Open Office , its a big program , i would not want to put it on my netbook but for the my main puter it is great ! will it read MS Word and Other MS Docs ?

Thom

 

Yep, and it will even play power point presentations. For a powerful photo editing program try Gimp. But I have not loaded that on my Netbook.

[KiteSquid]

I bought a Dell netbook just a few weeks ago and I LOVE it!!!!!

 

This is our secondary computer as we have a laptop computer hooked up to a keyboard, mouse and 20" monitor.

 

I will probably take the netbook on rides with me.... it is SMALL and the Dell's keyboard is 94% the size of a normal keyboard, so I can type even though I have sausage like fingers.....

[Cougar]

Like KiteSquid, I Bought TWO of them last month.((Dell Mini 10's)) There pretty neat!

HD/Blue-tooth/TV/the works. even have W7 on them now !~

 

We have normal size laptops and full desktops, these seem much better

for traveling and stuff.Wife just throws hers in her purse now.

Jeff

[Guest tx2sturgis]

There is some discussion in last year's thread about netbooks:

 

 

 

[ame=http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=20372]internet in your saddlebag? - VentureRider.Org[/ame]

 

 

I opened this thread talking about these mini PC's...I had just bought an EEE PC...I still use it now and then but my iphone does about 90% of what I need on the road, so I just dont tote the netbook along anymore....fun while it lasted..

[Squidley]

We bought this one... http://www.acer.com/aspireone/ So far so good. It does everything we wanted it to do. Compact and easy to carry on the bike. $350 CDN at Costco.

FYI....if you hit the F11 key the menu bars disapear. Hit it again and they come back.

 

Tom,

 

Thats the one that Lonna and I won at the arkansas rally this year, it works great and I know you can buy it for less that $300 at radio shack. I would buy one after using this one as it's already hooked up to go wireless to the internet.

[jvbailey3]

also she wants to get me a mp3 player...something I can hook up to the scoot on those longer trips......all help is appreciated.....:sign67:

 

 

Tom,

 

You should check your phone. You may already have the ability to run your MP3s on the phone and connect it to the bike. Same with if you have a GPS. Some if not all have the ability now to store and play MP3s. You may need to purchase a memory card for storing the music for either the phone or the GPS.

[dr_bar]

For listening to tunes on the scoot, any one of several MP3 players will do the job. Just make sure the one you buy has the controls on the player, not on the cord like the iPod Shuffle. Even a small 4GB unit will hold close to 1000 songs, just make sure you can keep it dry when you ride...

 

A 6 foot long cord will give your passenger the controls to run the music leaving your hands and concentration to do the riding...

[yamadawg]

Tom,

 

Thats the one that Lonna and I won at the arkansas rally this year, it works great and I know you can buy it for less that $300 at radio shack. I would buy one after using this one as it's already hooked up to go wireless to the internet.

 

That (the Acer Aspire One) is exactly what I got for Mrs. Yamadawg last Christmas and she loves it. She bought a larger battery off of ebay and carries it everywhere. She uses the wireless connection here at home and uses her phone for the connection away from home. She also uses a wireless mouse and the keyboard is large enough to not be difficult or uncomfortable. My laptop computer is a Dell 15+" screen and I have no problem switching over to hers. I have been very impressed with this computer and would highly recommend it to anyone. Wal-Mart also carries this version. I bought hers there, I think it was around $250 then. We lucked up and got one of the "rare" (scarce) pink ones...

[Freebird]

For MP3, I use my Zumo 550. I also have an IPOD that I can use if we want to. I highly recommend the Ipod NANO. My wife's is 16GB and that holds a LOT of music. My phone also has an 8GB chip for MP3 but I seldom use it for that.