I then evaluated it for what my son would want installed on it (if possible). None of it is possible, which further limits its use. Hubby wasn't surprised. I tried to call it a glorified iPad, he said it's not even that. Oh well.
With no DVD/CD drive, installing software is a pain. Best Buy put their 'application installer' program on there, which is one way to get stuff. However, if you already HAVE the disk, you have to create an image of it on another computer then 'mount' it remotely for installation. We've done this before, but still.
My kids have discovered that they can easily upload all their pictures to the Asus from their digital camera. They've also discovered the web camera and mike. They were talking about doing their own 'podcast' or other similar thing with it. I don't think they've done more than talk about it, though.
Given that my kids have found more use for it than I have, I have since turned it over to my kids to play with. They like to look at YouTube (yes, I monitor what they watch) and play games like Disney's Tinkerbell or Pirates of the Carribean. It works ok for those. It now lives in my son's room and is their 'laptop' to use. Next week when school starts back we'll see how well it works for the Elluminate sessions that my kids attend. My son has wanted to be able to 'wander the house' while in class, so we'll see if that works.
All in all, I think I'll stick with my "real" laptop. Though I dothink I'll try to win an iPad next and see what I can do with that. :)
1 comment:
You won't find CD/DVD drives in much other than desktop machines in the near future. And even then, it's on the way out. Apple is soon launching the App Store for OS X apps and if that works out everyone else will copy it as usual. It kind of makes sense as usually the first thing you do after installing software from a CD, is go to the internet and get the updates that have come out since the CD was printed which are often as big as the original. You could get an external drive for it.. but then that's $50, which significant copared to a netbook's pricetag.
I liked my similar Acer netbook as it was completely functional, small, and light. I also put Ubuntu Linux on it which it ran very well. However, I have hardly touched it since I got my iPad so I'm guessing having a keyboard, full OS, lots of ports etc. was really more than I needed for a small portable device.
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