Cloud Computers, Notebooks and Netbooks

Cloud Computers | Netbook Computers | Notebooks

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Cloud computers are also known as laptops and netbooks come in sleek sizes these day's as the need for hardware and memory is eliminated wtih cloud computing. If you're looking for cloud computers you really only need something that can use a browser and internet connection since you'll be accessing all your files on the Cloud.

Netbooks are the most popular of the cloud computers as they are literally small enough to be a book that you use to access the net.

The relative success and cult-like popularity of Asus’ Eee cloud computers have helped raise the level of interest in what’s being called a new class of computers. Some call the new machines ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs), others have labeled them Netbooks, and many are safely referring to them as handhelds. It’s hardly a surprise that the PC powerhouses — Intel, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Dell and dozens of others — have gone running after this opportunity.

After using one of the so-called Netbooks, it has become obvious that they really need to go back to the drawing board and rethink how people are going to use these devices if they want to participate in the next big shift of computing.

So far, all they have done is cram traditional notebooks into smaller, maybe-lighter-to-carry bodies. They’re neither good for computing nor for communication. To me, the dozens of models being touted seem like a genetic experiment gone wrong, a fact that was brought home when I tested one of the most talked-about devices: Hewlett Packard’s HP 2133 miniNote.

So after playing around with the miniNote this weekend, I came up with a checklist of features that should be a must in a machine that has to qualify as a cloud computer (or whatever you want to call it.)

Instant On
Doesn’t generate too much heat.
Minimum 5 years hours of battery life.
Must feature at least four communications options: WiFi, Ethernet, Bluetooth & Wireless Wide Area Network connection to, say, an EVDO or HSPA Network.
Less than three pounds (batteries included).
Screen size of 3.5-8 inches (wide-screen proportioned)

More importantly, in less than an hour it was generating more heat than my first Macbook Pro, aka the oven. It is not as if I had dozens of apps open. All I was using was a simple Internet Explorer. (I have not installed Firefox yet.) Maybe it’s a problem with the pre-production demo unit, but if it’s not, then the issue of heat is a dealbreaker for me, and it should be for other people as well.

Any highly mobile device whose primary function is to surf the web should not become a kitchen appliance within an hour. It would be virtually impossible to use it on one’s lap.

The primary function of the computer should be cloud-based activities that can include everything from listening to live music, reading blogs and watching videos.

Writing research reports or cranking out spreadsheets isn’t the primary purpose of these machines. It should cost no more than $300.

This isn’t a computer; it’s a communications device.

It should really be an on-the-go device. It is a device for the moments when your cellphone isn’t enough, and laptop is too much.

An iPhone should qualify.Its innards, ports should be geared for Internet-based activities — from making calls on Skype to consuming RSS feeds — though it should be able to handle external peripherals.

In the future it should move away from the keyboard and have a touchscreen interface that allows one to sift through large amounts of data (or web pages) quickly.

Cramped keyboards and touchpads can be hard to use.

The most popular of the cloud computers is the netbook next to the laptop and soon to follow the touchpads as they become more sophisticated in their technology.

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