Law Technology

Netbook Flaw - This Seems so Obvious . . .

By Ross

As many of you know, I’ve become something of a Netbook Nut. Starting with the first Asus EEE 7″ Linux 701 model, to the Asus 1000H and now my current Lenovo IdeaPad S10 . . . in fact, I’m writing this post on the S10. While I love the 10.2″ display-equipped netbooks and use my S10 every day for various things (it’s just handy to have the second machine open and running - while working with either my primary Thinkpad T61 and triple display array and my Macbook - so I guess technically it’s a THIRD running unit), I have a problem with almost ALL netbooks.

And the problem is SO easily correctable . . . so why is the new Sony Vaio P (over-priced in that uniquely and absurdly Sony kind of way) the only one that doesn’t have this fundamental flaw. OK, so what am I referring to? The pointing devices - all netbooks except the Sony struggle to cram in a functional touchpad. Some like the HP MiniNote 2133 series (and the similar new Gateway me-too netbooks) actually move the mouse buttons to the left and right side of the touchpad - really odd if you’ve tried working with this configuration.

The issue is that there’s just not a lot of top-side real-estate available if you’re going to have anything approaching a usable keyboard size. So the answer is obvious to me . . . dump the touchpad and use pointing sticks. I’m a huge lifelong aficionado of pointing sticks. First with years of Toshiba laptops, then graduating to the IBM Trackpoint (which is one of the reasons I’ve so loved my series of Thinkpads). I’ve always found the pointing stick to be more practical (for me) than a touchpad. That little eraserhead in the center of my keyboard keeps my fingers on the keys where they belong, instead of bending unnaturally back to work a touchpad (or getting LOTS of finger stretching exercising with the massive touchpad on my Macbook).

Pointing sticks mean you don’t need to reserve space for a palmrest. Angle the keyboard’s front edge design just enough and your typing surface becomes your palmrest. That would leave much more room for front-aft oriented stretching of a netbook’s keyboard area - and also would leave room for top-side speakers, status LEDs, etc. How about even allowing a top-side, upward facing row of USB ports for tiny flash drives to plug in without hanging precariously off the sides of these diminutive little beasties?

So to all netbook makers . . . think about POINTING STICKS! Anyone can get used to them - it makes so much sense in the netbook form factor. Now if that new Sony VAIO P only were half the price and came with Windows XP instead of being boat-anchored with Vista.

Full post as published by Ross Ipsa Loquitur on January 16, 2009 (boomark / email).