Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Netbook anyone?

Hi. Got a question for people. Anyone here used netbooks for the office. I currently use a HP tablet, but have found it uncomfortable, size and heat production. Recently a few new netbooks have caught my eye, especially giving the price. In particular the Acer Aspire One wich has 1.6gc Atom processor, 120gb HD, and about 2 lbs, No optic drive though, but is it really needed? Most importantly is the price 349 for 3 hr battery and 399 for 6hr battery. I'm also looking at the Lenovo s10, which has a larger screen. Anyone used any of these yet and any comments. I've played with the Acer One at circuit city but it has Linux installed. Seemed fast enough and didn't hurt my eyes as much as I thought it would. They get good reviews on different forums.

For what it's worth:

I'm a big fan of Toshiba Laptops (I have 4 total now) and I just bought a Toshiba L305-s5877 for the office. (I'm typing this reply on it.) It was only $649 (can be had for $599 at Circuit City and other places on sale). It is an Intel Centrino Dual Core processor running at 2 megahertz with 3 MB of memory and a 200 GB hard drive. A lot of power for the money yet you will need a new OS and possibly a longer life battery so total cost could be $600+$139+(battery)+169 (OS-cost estimated and could be less)

I just got it so I haven't used it in the office, yet some things I've observed are: battery life is not as good as on my Toshiba tablet PC's; it seems fast, and it runs cool (turned on and working for about 6 hours now and it is just warm to the touch). I only got 115 minutes this AM yet I was watching Olympic videos online. (The advertised battery life is 3 hours on the standard battery).

I looked at the ACER and Lenovo machines online, yet decided I wanted to buy through a retailer (I already had an unused operating system (Vista Ultimate)). However, I thought some of the Lenovo's were a good buy since they included XP Pro for not much money. I know ACER reportedly has a good reputation yet they used to be the low end machines so I still shy away from the brand. I don't care for HP laptops-they run hot and mine died a year ago when the AC adaptor plug failed.(HP desktops are great however). In a notebook I would stay with an Intel chip since I feel the Centrinos run much cooler than the AMD's.

I have a similar laptop, the ASUS EeePC subnotebook. I do not find these laptops very useful for day to day activity. I got one for my daughter (4yrs old) and it works for her. I would not use such a device for everyday EMR work.
The specs are probably fine for using AC as a single application but multitasking will hurt since it is a single core processor. These subnotebooks are high tech toys that people can run around with at the airport or at the park because of their ultra low weight and good battery life. They work great for browsing and email but more that that you will suffer. An actual useful computer at the same weight and battery life would cost around $2-3000 (like the Apple airbook). I would recommend that you not deploy this particular category of computers into a work production environment.

Did I mention working with such a small screen sucks.

Your biggest problem with using the HP tablet is the usage of AMD processors. They tend to run hotter than the equivalent intel processor. I would recommend that you purchase a tablet computer with an intel processor. They tend to be very portable and have good battery life. I currently have an x61 Lenovo that works well but a new model is forthcoming next month so I would wait if possible.

I also have an HP tx1000 tablet, is this the tablet line you are referring to. This is probably one of the biggest disappointments in my history of using and purchasing computers. It runs hot and the battery life is poor. I would not recommend the use of the consumer version of this laptop to anyone for an EMR. It is a good entertainment platform, the platform for which it is designed but for business I would pass on it for something better.

Geoffrey Thomas

Thanks for replying. I ended up getting the Acer Aspire One. It was at a great deal, and couldn't pass up. Haven't loaded up AC yet.
Geoffrey you hit the nail on the head with the tx1000. I like it but find too many issues to take it room to room. I'll probably keep it in the office to do major stuff.

How did the ACER Aspire work out for you? How was AC. How was the creen size. I just saw one and looks handy.

Bonnie

I was looking at the netbooks, but most of those only ran xp home which didnt work out for my system. Finally found the ASUS N10J - has vista business with downgrade to xp pro, 10 inch screen, full sized keyboard for my fat fingers but still lightweight. I love the size. Hit a problem though. Screen resolutions on these netbooks are not supported by AC - most are 800x600 and the ASUS has 1024x600 but on both of these settings, you loose the bottom of the AC screen. It cuts off about halfway up into the med list and plan on open charts so makes it sorta hard to finish the note! I've tried resizing the windows and fiddled with the display settings for about an hour but no luck. Just out of curiosity, I set my desktop and full sized laptop to the 800x600 setting and the same thing happens, so it doesnt appear to be a graphic card issue, just an AC issue. I've had similar problems on other "non-supported" display settings so hopefully we will get a few more display setting options from the AC team, or at least they will clean up the resizing issues.

Check out any one of the Access form "resizers" out there:

http://www.google.com/search?q=ms+a....microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8

Most are free...

Al

Thanks Al, but I dont think I have anywhere near enough tech knowhow to figure out how to use those resizers. I'm on version 4 too, so do those even work with it since its SQL and uses that .net thing? (see my obvious lack of programming experience!)

Actually, I downloaded and played with the venerable "Form Resizer 2.7" which has been around for years. It's a fairly easy to use tool, but I did find one problem- it will NOT work with MDE databases (as with all completed projects, programmers will convert an MDB Access type to an "executable" MDE Access type database to protect the code). It can be installed in the MDB version of AC by Jon and then that can be made into an MDE again with the code already put in. SQL doesn't matter in this equation.

I've spent 10 minutes with it, and took screen shots along the way- check out http://www.box.net/shared/static/03typzq9ob.pdf. Just get Jon's programmers to play with it.

It looks like an easy fix!

Al

Sorry for not responding quicker Al, but I did find an easy work around for the resizing issue on the netbook. If I plug in an external monitor and open AC on the external monitor, then drag it to the netbooks monitor and maximize it, everything sizes correctly. I usually have AC up and running all day on the netbook so the only time its an issue is if AC crashes and I have to restart the program (which usually only happens a couple times a week even running the latest beta version. It takes less than a minute to plug in the monitor and get the program up and running, so its not much of a pain, and I really like how the netbook is working out, so to me, its worth the little bit of a hassle.

I have an Acer Aspire One 8.9 inch screen. I did the above, and it didn't work, it cuts off the bottom of the screen, so am unable to send messages or triage patients.
Does anyone have other suggestions on how to fit Amazing Charts into the 8.9 inch screen. My screen resolution is 1024 X 600 (widescreen)

Thanks

Plugging in an external moniter kind of defeats the purpose of these netbooks!

Well guys, I finally saw the Acer Aspire One at a local Office Depot and fell in love and bought the thing right there on the spot!

Steve- I could see the problem that you are having. These little notebooks are great, but they don't have enough screen resolution power to get a resolution that doesn't cut off the bottom of your forms... since the "resizer" idea doesn't work I looked for the fix, and lo and behold found it. It's easy!!!!

Ok, here's the fix:

1) Go to Start-> Control Panel-> Display
2) Select Settings tab, then select the best resolution, which should be the 1024 X 600 as stated by Miranda.
3) Now click on Advanced-> General-> then go to the dropdown field called "DPI setting" and select "Custom setting".
4) I selected 72 dpi, which is 75% normal size.

I warn you- the itty bitty type can strain your eyes, but it works! It sure as heck beats carrying around my 8 pound laptop...



BTW, have any of you considered turning your netbooks into touch screens??? It costs about $70 for the non-solder kit on ebay. Check out these YouTube videos: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=acer+aspire+touchscreen&aq=f, http://images.google.com/imgres?img...e%2Bone%2Btouchscreen%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Al

Acer Netbook, with 120GB HD and 1GB Ram (upgradable to 2GB easily)... $239 at Tigerdirect!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/email/WE...amp;cm_mmc=Email-_-Main-_-WEM1892-_-post

One of the physicians in my practice is interested in using a HP Business Notebook 2133, which is a netbook with an 8.9" screen. The screen resolution is 1280 X 768. My question is what is the screen resolution required by AC? Will the AC window be cut off at the bottom like the Acer user experienced?

Yup- almost the same resolution as the Acer Notebook. 1024x600 seems to be the resolution of choice for the latest crop of netbooks, whether they be 8.9" or 10.2" models. Only HP's Mini-Note offers a 1280x768 display resolution, while 7" models settle for just 800x400 pixels. But the workaround that I mentioned above changing the DPI setting does really work.

There are a whole lot of netbooks on the market now, and most cost the same. Acer's notebook is really cool-looking, very light weight, and can be purchased for as low as the mid-$250 range. Recently, while visiting Orlando with family I came across a netbook review, and they gave the edge to the Asus and MSI notebooks due to the battery life (see http://netbookreview.darrenyates.com.au/?p=375) which is about 3 times that of the HP and Acer varieties. My Acer's battery life is pretty short, and the HP is even shorter! Food for thought...

--- Up-to-date Brief Review of NetBooks: http://comparenetbooks.org/
--- PCWorld Review (with BEST prices, including a $238 Acer Aspire!): http://www.pcworld.com/shopping/browse/category.html?id=10010&filter=|popup3[],90:2327&src=sem&HBX_PK=pcw_01_shop-laptops-SRCH_Netbooks&utm_source=shop-laptops-SRCH_Netbooks&utm_medium=shop-laptops-SRCH&utm_content=shop-SRCH&utm_campaign=Google-CPC



















(Asus vs Acer netbook size comparison)

Al

thanks for the quick response. Alborg, are you using a netbook in your day to day practice?

Hi Ted:

I use my Acer for most of my hospital stuff (admission notes, discharge summaries) and when I go on a short trip. I'll soon place it into one of my 4 examination rooms. At home I use it for looking at Netflix movies when I'm on either another notebook or on my desktop, or both (hey, 3 computers at the same time is wonderful!).

Overall, my Acer netbook has to compete with 2 15" Dell notebooks, 1 17" Dell notebook, and 2 desktops that I use all the time! I would have 4 15" notebooks, but last year my trip to Italy pretty much did in one of my notebooks (i.e. the cobblestone streets) and another simply imploded.

For on-the-go stuff that I have to carry, though, there's nothing like a Netbook. Unless, of course, I have my handy-dandy-1GB thumbdrive with my EMR on it which can be used through any of my hospital's USB desktop connections. You see, they all have MS Office, including MS Access, which I temporarily borrow. I got the idea from a guy at emrupdate who uses his Word EMR (TSMR- http://www.emrupdate.com/blogs/show...cond-medical-record-with-gil-carter.aspx )
in this manner. You can't get any lighter than a USB drive!

Al