GOOGLE WATCH 
It's Lonely At The Top
by Kaila Colbin
Google, Monopolies, Competition
Netbook aggravation due to faulty buying decisions
What goes up must come down, and lately what's coming down are netbooks, as more and more articles talk about the compact computers disappointing customers. However, we can't blame netbooks for that. We can only blame vendors who overhype and customers who underbuy. Before you buy a smaller, cheaper and less powerful netbook, determine if you need a notebook instead. If so, you can spend about the same money and get more power, albeit in a larger package.
Let's decide what a “netbook” really is. Most definitions focus on the processor, an Intel Atom rather than some flavor of Celeron, Mobile Pentium, Dual Core or one of AMD's models. Screen sizes are small, either 8.9 or 10 diagonal inches, rather than 13 inches like the smallest notebooks and MacBooks. We'll leave Apple out of this discussion since it makes excellent small notebooks but refuses to jump into the netbook market.
Netbooks don't have any type of CD or DVD drives. Even the least expensive notebooks do, however, so be careful if you really need a CD or DVD for work. Or, like many people on airplanes today, to watch a movie.
Continued
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