Netbooks have become extremely popular over the last two years, the price and size are extremely appealing. Nearly every major PC manufacturer has got in on the netbook craze and plenty of other unexpected companies too. Nokia is one of those companies stepping outside of its comfort zone with the Booklet 3G.

I have always been partial to the idea of a netbook although I am not completely sure why. Over the last 12 months I have had a look at a few options (the HP Mini 110, the Compaq mini 311 and Dell Mini 10) but for the most part the build quality of the machines has been pretty poor. Plastic chassis and flimsy keyboards are a common feature.

The Good

Nokia seem to have the build quality wrapped up well. The Aluminium body feels extremely sturdy and while the keyboard is plastic, its feels strong and responsive. It is a stunningly well designed and attractive little gadget. Inside it packs the very standard Intel Atom 1.6 GHz processor but despite this it seemed fast enough for most netbook related activities (web, video, music). Perhaps this is testament to beautiful things working better? Other highlights of the booklet 3G include the battery life (around 12 hours) and the built in 3G sim card slot – negating the need for a large 3G dongle.

The Bad

While size is one of the big attractions of netbooks it leads to many compromises. The screen resolution is too big (1280 x 720) for such a small screen and the keyboard feels cramped when typing. The screen is surrounded by a large black bezel which suggests the chassis could accommodate a larger screen and it would certainly benefit from it. The keyboard area also has space for larger keys which would be a big help. The other two negatives are the price (£650) which is twice the cost of similar specification machines and the operating system: Windows 7. Having used OSX for the past six years it seems like a step backwards with Windows 7. I would rather see and use a well thought out Linux distribution, perhaps Jolicloud?

Conclusion

Netbooks are a fairly strange concept if you think about it. As our mobiles get more powerful, do we need a device to bridge the gap between our (bigger) laptops/desktops and phones? After all the gap between our computers and phones is getting smaller all the time. My feeling is that I do not need a device that sits in this space, at least not at the moment. I am left wondering what are people using netbooks for and when?

If you would like to find our more about the Nokia Booklet 3G you can find the full specification on the Nokia site and we have also uploaded a few unboxing photos to Flickr. We would also like to say thanks to WOMWorld/Nokia and Carl for supplying the test unit. Keep an eye on the toggle shop for netbook cases arriving in the next few days.

iPad

When we first heard about the iPad we were disappointed. Our biggest complaint is that the device runs the same operating system as the iPhone, this instantly limits the software that can be run on it. We were hoping that the iPad would be a laptop replacement, allowing applications like Photoshop to be controlled with touch. A touch controlled tablet could have massive implications on the way we design with computers.

On refection its quite easy to see that this device is not aimed at creative computer folk. It is a consumer device that offers a platform for consumption: music, film, games, applications, TV and books from iTunes and the new book store. While this is a limitation for us, it does open the device to a massive target audience. It is the first computing device I can actually see my less technical grandparents using. With the 3G version they would not have to take out a broadband contract and we could finally send them emails. Touch is a massive part of this change as it negates the need to learn how to operate a mouse and the app store provides the right kind of software if they wanted more from the device. This will make the iPad a hugely popular gadget.

A few people have asked us: “Will the iPad mean we need a new website?”. From the looks of the Keynote and demonstrations of the iPad, the built in browser (Safari) will be loading the desktop version of a website (rather than the mobile version). So those of us with HTML based websites should need to make very few changes (if any). Like on the iPhone, Apple have decided not to include the Adobe Flash plugin. This means that anyone with a Flash based website may need to consider some changes to their site. At the very least you should be serving a HTML version of your site to those visitors without Flash enabled. We will talk a bit more about the future of Flash in a moment.

While we may not be rushing out to buy the iPad (although I am sure we could be tempted), we will be making a new range of cases for it. We are waiting to have some of the dimensions confirmed to make sure our cases offer the correct level of protection and still allow access to the dock connector and necessary ports. We will be launching the cases in our popular fabrics (vege leather, polka dot corduroy and upcycled garments), so keep an eye on our twitter feed for updates.

Nokia Booklet 3G

The Nokia Booklet 3G is not a new device (it was announced in August 2009), however we were kindly leant a test unit two weeks ago. It is one of the few netbooks around that go head to head with the iPad: offering similar hardware, design and functionality. We will be writing a full review of Booklet 3G once we have thoroughly tested it.

The rise in popularity of netbooks is also changing our perception of design for the web. A few years ago it was assumed that our computer screens would get larger, with bigger resolutions. This has not been the case. Smaller devices have meant that screen resolutions have got both bigger and smaller at the same time. Could we begin to see websites move from pixels to vectors as a result? Having our designs scale to the size of the screen that requests it could be very handy. The HTML5 specification (that we talked about last year) also hints towards this change with support for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). This technology is also competition for vulnerable looking Flash plugin.

Flash vs HTML5 vs Google vs Apple vs Adobe

The primary application for Flash is online video, online games and heavily interactive websites. The Flash plugin has been with us for many years and as a result it is installed on around 99% of all Internet connected computers. Flash will not be disappearing overnight but its future looks more uncertain than it ever has before.

Our biggest problem with Flash has always been that its not an open web standard. To build Flash websites you need to run propitiatory Adobe software and plugins. This goes against the nature of the web. Flash is also notoriously difficult to work with in terms of accessibility and SEO and is believed to be the cause of many browser and computer crashes (for example: this Flash site will crash your browser). The one advantage of Flash has always been its cross platform compatibility. Flash renders the same across all computers, phones and operating systems that support it.

YouTube and Vimeo both recently announced availability of their video libraries in HTML5 (no Flash plugin required). The HTML5 versions of the sites only work in Apple’s Safari browser and Google’s Chrome browser. Both Google and Apple are working together on the same browser technology and right now those browsers are capable of delivering a Flash like experience using nothing but HTML and CSS. Add this to Apple’s reluctance to support Flash on the iPad and iPhone and a technology battle is emerging.

The situation gets more complex though when you realise that Mozilla (with Firefox) are refusing to support the same video format as Apple and Google. Why? Because once again we are staring down the barrel of a closed technology that requires costly licence fees to implement. Very similar problems to those we have with Flash. To top it all off Microsoft have said nothing and the latest version of their browser (Internet Explorer 8) barely supports HTML5 at all.

A Conclusion?

There will never be one. Technology is an ever changing landscape with competing companies and ideas pulling in many different directions. This fast pace is what makes our industry so interesting and I have to say that we enjoy keeping up with the latest developments and gadgets. We are constantly learning and researching to make sure the products and services we design are current, open, stable and the right fit for our clients. What new gadgets are you looking forward to this year?

We have spent a great deal of time looking for UK hosting that is either partly or completely powered by renewables and not found a good solution yet. For now we have to choose reliability over sustainability. All is not lost though, last month we purchased a very cool device called Watson, Watson is described as a “Home (or Office) energy monitor” and that is exactly what it does.

It may look a little bit like a coffee table that glows pretty colours but Watson is an extremely useful and clever device that monitors (and logs to your PC or Mac) your energy usage. It’s actually much smaller than it looks in the photo and has been sitting quietly in the office for last month recording our electricity usage. Before Watson we had no idea how much electricity we used or how much it was costing. The day it arrived we turned off every possible appliance we could get to and then slowly introduced each one, logging how much energy they use. By that evening we had already found two appliances that were consuming about 140W continuously (on standby) and that are now switched off at the wall when not in use. That alone should save us about £170 a year!

We now have an idea of how much electricity our local test server is consuming and which lights are best to turn on first. Each week we are looking at our logged data to see what days are the worst offenders and trying to figure what devices caused it… we are already up £2 on last week! We may not have green hosting (yet) but the toggle office is no longer humming all day (and night).