April is over (has been for a few days, but I’ve been too busy). And that means the Liliputing Birthday Bash has drawn to a close. We gave away a number of great prizes, including a netbook touchscreen kit, universal notebook battery, USB DVD drive, and an HP Mini 1000 Mi Edition netbook. And we received a bit of outside attention for all our efforts over the past year. The Blog Herald published an interview with me about the site’s success yesterday.
I also got a chance to find out a bit more about what you all think about the netbook space. Here are the results of some of the polls that I ran as part of the contests:
What new netbook features are you most interested in?
What’s the best OS for netbooks?
What’s the best screen size for a netbook?
How much is too much for a netbook?
Regarding the last poll you ran (the first of the charts), well, the choice I wanted wasn’t on the poll.
I can’t be the only one… I want a keyboard layout that doesn’t compromise important keys for editing – namely, the ins/del/page up/page down/home/end keys and the right shift key. Usually, the latter four are shared and hard to access, or, on some models, page up and page down are left and right, which makes it hard to remember which is which. Programmers working on lighter apps, authors, and others needing to write a lot of text can appreciate these keys.
If that means manufacturers not using these rectangle-shaped keyboards anymore (like some almost strictly have) to come up with a usable design, then so be it. Why haven’t they sooner?
I’ve said it numerous times in numerous places, but the 1004DN keyboard is a nice compromise until they start moving those arrow keys down. If they did that, there may be some room for dedicated keys.
A second thing I would like is a pointer mouse / touchpoint / g-spot mouse, either replacing or in addition to the touchpad.
Will I get either? …I doubt it. Which is why I still don’t own a mini notebook.
I’m just surprised people really want touchscreens on mobile devices this large. It can come in handy, but touchscreens also reduce contrast, reduce light transmittance, have more chance of being marred and damaged and collect bodily oils and dirt.
You might want to post this on the Lenovo blog where they’re asking for ideas for a business netbook, if you haven’t already: https://lenovoblogs.com/designmatters/?p=1201&cpage=4
I was considering it, but I abhor the standard IBM / Lenovo notebook keyboard layout that puts the Fn key to the left of the left Ctrl key, amongst a couple other quirks of their layout. As it is, I am stuck with an ever shrinking amount of Dell notebooks that have the keyboard layout I want because they are the only manufacturer with the layout I want… :/
Nice interview. Didn’t realize you were the only “independent” on the top 10 list. You have to be proud of that.
Are you people fraking kidding me? The 3G modem is the least wanted feature? Of a mobile internet device? REALLY? Coming in ahead of 3G modem was dual core processor and discrete graphics? Soo.. get an ultraportable, they have both of those things. As for touchscreen, It’s cute I guess, but I don’t see the need for it. It’s a NETbook people, for connecting to the interNET! It should be connected. all of the time, like right now. Every single netbook should come with 3G, right. now….
I agree that the main netbook reason for existence is mobility-plus-internet-access. I actually voted for 3G myself, but I suspect that a lot of people who want it didn’t bother at this point. In the US, buying a notebook or netbook with 3G already installed usually means buying it from the 3G provider or somebody like HP or Dell. In either case you’re likely to have to sign up for an exorbitantly priced 2-year contract, and if they don’t have the netbook you want, you have to take what they’ve got.
I think 3G that’s built in from the start is best, probably giving better reception than an add-on USB 3G adapter… unless you have the wherewithal to install a mini-PCIe 3G adapter that works with your provider and build in an antenna yourself. (There’s probably other viable options I don’t know about–tell me 🙂
I’m holding out for something like the Gobi Global Mobile mini-PCIe card, which enables both EV-DO and GSM (and maybe wi-fi, all on the same card), so you can choose you favorite netbook (if it has a free slot), change providers, and travel to other countries, without having to change cards or netbooks. But I think you still probably need to build in an antenna.
I think the pie charts needs to be labeled or color code the legend. Other than that, I like statistics 🙂
The Blog Herald interview is great. It’s the most interesting and informative article I’ve seen about Liliputing (or can remember now at least). I think it would be good if you could feature it more prominently some way so interested regular readers won’t miss it.
Maybe you could at least put a link to it on the “About” page. Perhaps start a link collection there called “History of Liliputing,” which could include other such interviews from the past and future.
I concur – it was a fantastic interview that I would’ve missed if not for this comment! Thanks, DougC3. I skipped straight to the colourful graphs, wanting to see the results, so didn’t really read the text at first. Hopeully it won’t just get buried.