netbooks

I'm here at the Intel Developer Forum 2010 in San Francisco, and this has been a great opportunity for a programmer such as myself.

While most programmers might think of Intel as a hardware manufacturer and look to other companies (such as Microsoft) for their development tools, in fact that couldn't be further from the truth.

In addition to creating some amazing hardware technology, Intel has a huge set of tools for developing software that runs on the devices and computers powered by their technology.

More often than not I'll be writing about the security problems facing Windows XP users, such as when I recently reported how a large number of enterprises are still running XP SP2 machines which will shortly stop being supported by Microsoft in terms of security updates, hotfixes and the like.

I thought the answer to this question was pretty straightforward, to be honest, in that a netbook was smaller, cheaper and less powerful than a notebook.

That was until this press release about a couple of new Toshiba models arrived in my inbox which kind of muddies the water somewhat.

This week I went to an annual press launch in London. Called PlayBite, it's not half as salacious as it sounds, just a group of companies that share the same PR company (also called Bite, you can see where they're going with this) exhibiting stuff.

At the end of May, Computerworld reported that Asus, one of the early Netbook success stories had all but given up on Linux Netbooks.

This was telling because the Asus Eee (of which I own one) has a very nice, simple-to-navigate interface. It starts up fairly quickly and has long battery life, but even the simple tabbed interface was apparently too hard for users raised on Windows.

It got me thinking, if this simple version of Linux failed, how will Google's Chrome OS, inspired by Linux fare any better?

Linux is a Tough Sell Even though it will carry a Google Chrome OS label, at its core,...

I bought myself a netbook this year with an eye for light and easy access to email and blogs while on the road.  For a light occasional traveler like me, a netbook makes perfect sense.

Yesterday, Apple announced significant price drops on many of its consumer products including the iPhone and Mac Air.

This is an unusual move by Apple since it carefully controls its pricing--so much so that rarely, if ever, do its products go "on sale." So what's up with this big price drop?

Is Apple out to "get" Linux? Is Apple feeling the pressure of competition from Google's Android, Netbooks, Windows 7 or something else?

Personally, I think that Apple lowered its prices to better compete with an ever-expanding PC market, so the answer is really: All of the above.

I think that Apple is...

The Linux programmers at the chip maker are at the center of its foray into netbooks and mobile phones.