My blog as of late has predominantly been about the girly stuff, but I am a tech geek at heart, especially when it comes to tiny computers. I love technology that I can throw in my purse without having to worry about purchasing purses to fit everything.
The UMID SE caught my eye and I'm tempted to pick one up as the conversion rates and time have lowered the price. Since I already have two functioning netbooks with wifi (the Asus and the M1), I can't really justify the UMID SE, but I do see where it would be an improvement.
Both of my other devices frustrate me. The Asus only has a half gig of RAM and a Celeron processor that runs under 1 GHz. Trying to do more than one thing at a time is nearly impossible. The EEE PC runs a form of Xandros out of the box. I've switched to the advanced UI, but it still feels like an oversimplified version of Windows. I miss the robustness of other operating systems. I realize I could throw Ubuntu on it and call it good, but it wouldn't resolve the speed issues. Lastly, it's larger than my ideal machine.
The size issue is resolved with the M1; however, there are other issues. Right now, I need to reinstall the OS. Installing anything off of a disk is problematic as it doesn't have a normal USB port; it has a mini-USB port with an adapter that has to be held in exactly the right position otherwise the data transfer stops. It comes with a proprietary jack for headphones which require an adapter as well. Worse yet is that I can't have the power adaptor hooked up with the adapter for the headphones in at the same time. Add to all of this that it has half a gig of RAM that can't be upgraded.
The SE resolves a lot of these issues. While not a speed-demon, it has a 1.6 GHz Atom processor and twice the RAM, which will run XP nicely and even give the option of Windows 7. The form factor is perfect for me. It's tiny and I lean towards the clamshell design in any of my computer purchases. I love the idea of a miniature laptop in aesthetics. I prefer a keyboard and if I'm going to be tossing it in a purse pocket, I don't want to run the risk of something ruining the screen. In addition, the now-defunct manufacturer listened to the complaints about the use of adapters and switched to a normal USB port and headphone jack.
While an upgrade, is it an upgrade worth the money? Clamshells have taken a back seat to tablets, but who knows when that will change. When I bought my M1, they wound up announcing the BZ and the Viliv N5 shortly thereafter and I kicked myself for not waiting longer. I try keep up on the blogs and haven't heard much, but there have been so many leaps forward since the release of the SE, dual-core atoms, the Nvidia Ion, etc., that I wish I had a crystal ball.
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