GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

MSI Wind U160; image via MSI.

Three years ago, Bill Gates looked like a dummy for carrying around a tablet. Steve Jobs was ragging on netbooks and tablets when he was rolling out the MacBook Air. Now, eight months post-iPad, everybody’s pushing out tablets, and netbooks are looking very 2007. But any death notices anyone puts out for the netbook are premature.

Let’s check the numbers. One of the big research reports thrown around is from Forrester Research, which predicts that tablets will outsell netbooks by 2012, pass netbooks in total usage by 2014, and have a 23% share of all PCs (a category that for Forrester includes everything from a tablet on up) by 2015. By 2015, Forrester predicts, netbooks will only have 17 percent of the PC market, just behind desktops with 18 percent.

Wait a minute — 17 percent of all computers in 2015 will be netbooks? About as many netbooks as desktops? And the whole personal computing pie is going to continue to grow? Maybe this is silly, but — isn’t that still really, really good?

The tablet has mindshare, but not yet market share. Netbooks are already starting to strap on the powerful new dual-core mobile processors that will give them full computing parity with notebooks. And the two innovations of netbooks, small screens and small hard drives, have already come uncoupled — you have lightweight, large-screen/low-storage devices like the MacBook Air or Samsung N150 and compact, high-powered netbooks like the 250GB MSI Wind U160. They’re all getting better at managing battery life, too, which remains the real bane of all portable computers, netbook and tablet alike.

Part of the problem has been the unrealistic expectations manufactuers and analysts had for netbooks three years ago. It was foolish to think that everybody and their cousin would buy a netbook and that other lightweight form factors like the tablet (which, people forget, had already been kicking around for a while) wasn’t going to jump up and take a chunk. If you look at projected numbers five years out and assume that all of the form factors are going to look and function the same way they do now, that’s foolish too.

At CNET, Erica Ogg asks “So, Who’s Still Buying Netbooks?” Tech/culture blogger JoAnne McNeil had already written a terrific post answering the question, “Why I Got a Netbook Instead of an iPad.” JoAnne bought a $300 off-the-shelf Asus, took it to Asia for the summer, and loved it.

First, there’s a cost difference: “the price difference wasnt simply $200. The iPad required accessories the case, the bluetooth keyboard, the SD adapter the total price would hoover just under what I spent the year before on my new laptop.” Finally, there’s that keyboard, which some people hate and others need:

As a non-dude with narrow fingers, the keyboard feels right to me [Maybe the Macbook's wide keyboard, like the name iPad and their translucent staircases (Skirts! Steve Jobs! Women wear skirts!) is another example of Apple's failed outreach to women in market research.]

The computer industry — and maybe even more so, the marketers who work for it and the media who cover it — is always looking for products that scale: something that can be put as-is into everyone’s hands. Netbooks don’t have to be that thing any more. They can be quirky, eccentric — just right for one user and for her alone.

Source:wired.com

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On Monday, Wired.com’s Charlie Sorrel wrote about the Wind U120 — MSI’s successor to its popular Wind netbook. Fudzilla had some hands-on time with the U120 and took the liberty to post photos.

Not bad looking. You’ll notice that MSI ditched the first Wind’s all-white scheme in favor of a black-and-white combo. In these images the white also appears to be a lot grayer, but that’s probably just the result of poor lighting conditions for the photos.

According to Fudzilla, the U120 will come in two solid state drive capacity options: 20GB or 40GB; the latter option will be released at a later date. Overall, this should be a small, incremental upgrade to the Wind. The major addition to the new model is 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity and a 3.5G modem.

The netbook, slated for a December release, should cost no more than $600. More photos below the jump.

MSI’s new Wind U120 pixellized [Fudzilla via BBG]

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Back in the 1990s, portable consoles were expensive, underpowered and came with terrible battery life. That Nintendo’s first generation Game Boy (born 1989) lasted for so long, with its chiptune sounds and monochrome display, is an indictment of the technology of the period — the Game Boy Color didn’t arrive until 1998. But what of those old games today? Can we take the cream of the old school on the road? Why yes, and if you have a tiny netbook, you (almost) have everything you need.

As it turns out, the MSI Wind (or any Atom-powered netbook) is easily up to the task of emulation. For this quick project, I downloaded SNES9x, which appears to play most things and gives quick and easy controller configuration (more on that in a moment). The emulator is free and works on the Mac (or Hackintosh). There are other emulators for Linux and Windows which are easy enough to find online.

First, legality. Emulators allow the original game ROMs to run on different hardware. The emulators themselves seem to be immune from prosecution, but the ROMs are just the same as music and movies: somebody owns the rights. In theory, if you own the original game cart, you’re good to go. I did own all of the games I’ve tried out here, but no longer. That said, many of these old games no longer exist in physical form, so the ROM download sites are often the sole custodians of video game history.

Some ROM sites are better than others. Many have complied with takedown requests and have nothing but junk (Altered Beast, anyone?). I won’t provide links, but one site that has everything is pretty dope, and offers ROMs. Happy hunting.

First, go to the local gaming store and buy a USB joypad. These emulators all allow you to use the keyboard, but that gets old fast. SNES9x has a nice, easy pictorial method to set up the pad, as you can see below (and in the video). Next, grab the software and your legally acquired ROMs. There is minimal setup: You just open the game like you would any other file — double click — and then start playing.

The best thing about emulation is that you are playing the exact same game as you would if you used the console. There are a few shortcomings, though. Less powerful computers have trouble with more advanced consoles. The 1.6GHz Atom processor in the Wind will run the Nintendo64 emulator SixtyForce, but it’s a little choppy. With the old 16bit consoles, though, you’ll be fine.

Also, all emulators are not equal. Some support special add-on chips. The big example is the SuperFX chip found in StarFox, a digital signal processor which allowed 3D. Check to see if the games you want to play are supported. There are advantages over the originals, too. You can save the game at any point, or “freeze” it to disk, picking up later from exctly where you left off instead of waiting for an in-game save-point.

In the video you can see how well SNES9x works with Super Mario Kart and Street Fighter 2 Turbo. It’s just how I remember it. The crappy controller I bought has some trouble with some more intricate special moves, but as you can see, I pulled off Ryu’s Fireball, Dragon Punch and Hurricane kick. In short, I kicked Zangief’s ass.

These old games might not look as good as good as the new ones, but they’re still a lot of fun. Best of all, you can take them with you. Finally, the Wind has three USB ports, better than the SNES which required an expensive Multitap to connect more than two controllers. Four-player Bomberman on a plane here we come! Highly inappropriate, yes, but lots of fun.

Product page [Version Tracker -- the original URL is mired in malware right now]

Product page [SixtyForce]

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