Other new laptops besides the new ultra light $1,799 MacBook Air have come on the market, offering portals to the web and with web-based cloud computing, these might make sense. New moves in online news journalism are worth keeping an eye on as well. So... crunching on.
Apple's creative programs make me love my Mac laptop (PowerBook G4) so I'm not changing. Soon I'll install Office '08 for Mac, just out a few weeks ago and then I'll be done w/ my PC.
But portals to the web and the move to cloud computing? The iPhone seems like the handiest way to go, just for simple access and if I knew AT&T had as good or better coverage in Santa Fe than Sprint, I might just have to get one. Business leaders at Davos all had Blackberries (better email) so it will boil down to these two smart phones (Palm is closing stores and new versions, out next year, will come too late). I've been looking into these other lap top portals, though.
Cloudbooks (or SubNotebooks) are trend shifts: The race started last fall for small, cheap, light laptops and WaPo has a good article. Eee PC is one cheap (starting at $245) portable subNotebook I read about that seems to have just hit the market with a bang, starting last fall with a Linux-based system. They've just released in January a Windows based version. Other mass-market sub-$200 desktops have come on the market, tripling from one to three in less than three months. At the CES, PC maker Shuttle debuted it's $199 KPC, loaded with a Linux operating system. Mirus Linux PC, now for sale at Sears.com, is $299 but w/ included rebate is $199, comes w/ Freespire 2.0, an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution. Everex gPC appeared on Wal-Mart shelves for $198 (so popular Wal-Mart is having trouble keeping it in stock), with operating system of gOS, version of Ubuntu 7.10. Linux is getting easier to use: Two of world's largest PC manufacturers, Dell and Lenovo, offer Linux operating systems. You can find a $200 Linux PC -- pre-installed and the average user doesn't have to do updates like on Windows. and Linux getting easier to use.
New Media Developments...In the last five years, the New York Times has declined in value by an astonishing 70 percent, and The Newspaper Association of America reported the number of unique visitors to newspaper Web sites last year rose more than 6 percent to a monthly average of 60 million. Monthly visits climbed 9 percent in the fourth quarter from a year ago. During the fourth quarter, 39 percent of all active Web users visited newspaper Web sites, with visits averaging 44 minutes a month.
Thomas Jefferson said, "I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one in a month, and I feel myself the happier for it," but I bet he'd be following new developments with media tech changes.
Online news continues to shift and there are two things I'm keeping my eye on:
1) ProPublica will be something to watch develop. It is a nonprofit newsroom that plans to launch online this spring with an advisory board that includes five top newspaper editors and collaboration may happen with its original "deep dive" investigative stories appearing in major media sites. As major media sites cut back, hard tough stories will get the short shrift. This is one of the solutions to this problem. The board includes NYTimes Managing Editor Jill Abramson, Boston Globe Editor Martin Baron, Denver Post Editor Gregory Moore, Seattle Times Editor David Boardman, and Cynthia Tucker, editorial page editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Others include U.S. News & World Report editor at large David Gergen, former Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll, Fortune columnist Allan Sloan and historian Robert Caro. Much of its $10 million annual budget has been donated by Herbert and Marion Sandler,ProPublica will fill a void left by cutbacks in the newspaper business that have reduced investigative staffs.
2) CNN will very soon launch it's iReport journalism initiative - user generated reporting. This is a direct opposite move to #1 above and it will take both to work. The site will be iReport.com. Right now, hubs for "citizen journalism" on the Web include well-backed companies like Current Media, which recently filed for an IPO, as well as start-ups of varying size like NowPublic and GroundReport.
Magazines and improving online presence...These changes are needed but I think as things lighten up, deeper reading (intellectual magazines and books) will still be needed. Atlantic Monthly has made changes to online magazine, putting old content by Mark Twain up, having single advertisers pay to bring down firewall, more content up for online-only... Last week the editor announced that the online edition is free.
Lots of timely informative facts here as usual. Really appreciate hearing your view about the Mac as have considered I might eventually change in that direction. Also, want to get a lap top. Am intrigued with the potential for the low priced Cloudbooks.
Posted by: joared | February 26, 2008 at 06:06 PM
My techie son was just tonight telling my husband about one of the SubNotebooks and how reasonable they are for basic computing.
Did you see the headline that Abilene Christian University in good ol' Abilene, TX, is going to hand out iPhones to all incoming freshmen? Hmm. I hope those turn out to be as useful as they think they will be and not a bigger distraction in the classroom!
Posted by: allison | February 26, 2008 at 06:47 PM