Recently, I have gotten a new internet connection – a wireless, 3G-based data stick that cost me $29/month and promises HSPDA speeds of up to 7.2Mbps… in ideal conditions. However, one critical issue is that I couldn’t share the connection unless I bought a wireless router that supported USB devices. Being the poor back-to-university student that I am, I decided to stinge and save. But this is Netbookist.com, and all I can say is challenge accepted!

This tip will come in really handy if you have a new printer that has WiFi as one of its connection options and doesn’t come with a USB cable as standard, or if you are finding a frugal method to share the internet with other devices, or have a LAN party without a router.

In order to create a wireless access point using your computer, you need these programs:

Congratulations. Your $300 netbook is now a wireless access point.

Connectify

Once you have Connectify, install it and follow the instructions. Most likely, you will have to manually select the connection you want to use under Internet as the Lite version does not support automatic selection of the connection. Otherwise, the Lite version works very well – just make sure that your wireless adapter doesn’t try to connect automatically to other networks while Connectify is enabled as it will cause you to lose your connection with other devices.

Once this is done, you need to configure your other devices to access this network, and then, you’re done!

Also, if you’ve noticed, I’m on Wind Mobile, here in Canada. It’s a new telecommunications provider, which also has an awesome data plan for $29/month. In total, I paid $66 (including taxes) for the data stick and one month’s connection. So far, it has been moderately reliable – works most of the time and speeds are acceptable.

And then the other day, I saw my friend bringing his Sony Vaio to get ‘skinned’. He paid $65 for it, and I thought that was pretty expensive. He said that the skin cost $25, while the labour cost $40 or so. He argued that while it’s a lot more economical to do-it-yourself, he doesn’t mind paying the extra cost for someone’s steady hands.

Personally, I find skinning to be one of the most expensive things to do to your computer – even if it’s for ‘protection’. I argued that it made no sense to protect your computer from scratches and dings, because after all, it is a depreciating liability. Once it goes out of date – and gaming notebooks will definitely go out of date since games are merciless on old technology – you basically have a very fast and very large netbook.

Nonetheless, I have recently figured out how one can make your own stickers to cover up things that you don’t like – be it blemishes, scratches or ugly logos. You can stick anything you want, and it is actually very easy to remove if you want to change whatever you’ve stuck.

Tools of the trade

• Photo paper – preferably non-smudge, matte or glossy as preferred.
• Penknife – X-acto penknives preferred for curve-cutting
• Spray glue – 3M Super 77 preferred.
• Black permanent marker
• A high quality photo – low-res photo makes it hard to cut

Reddit alien doing the "seriously?" face, me gusta. Taken via Reddit

Tip 1: if your picture is low-res (such as this), and you need a high-res pic, you can take the original image and drag it into the search box at Google Images. Google will then try to find other images similar to this, and using the filters, you can find the highest-res version.

All cut out, with a cheap penknife. Try an X-Acto for an easier time on the curves.

Nice black edges

Tip 2: If you ever botch up and accidentally draw on the image, you can remove the streak by dipping a fine-point paintbrush in thinner and carefully removing the ink away.

The ultra-useful glue: 3M Super 77.

Ready to be stuck!

Netbook folded. Cool picture, no ASUS logo.

When does the narwhal bacon?

Let me know what you think, of if you face any problems, and I will try to help you!

From HP to Asus. From GMA3150 to ION 2. From N550 to N570. What's it like?

As you might know, I recently blew up my HP’s Mini 110′s screen. I sent it in for servicing hoping expecting to pay about $150-200. Although that is half as much as what my netbook is worth, I wouldn’t mind paying it. Of course, who’d know that the people at the service centre don’t really get this fact and decided to charge me $441. I just gave them the Yao Ming laughing face (cf. f7u12.com) and I went out to look for a new netbook. There are true joys of using a netbook that other, larger computer users will never experience – long battery life, great portability, lightness and netbooks are extremely cheap. Of course, having some experience with a netbook, I knew what I wanted, as I have outlined in a guide.

I personally do not like Asus because of previous experiences with the brand. Somehow, they always have some sort of problem and generally do not look as good as computers from HP or Dell. However, the fact that they are always significantly cheaper and still highly functional always makes me overlook these. After all, with the same money, I can get a high-end netbook but probably a standard Atom-only HP or Dell. The two competitors were the AMD C-50 powered 1015B or the Atom-and-ION2 powered 1015PN. Both have discrete graphics which will guarantee good performance when playing 1080p videos. The way both netbooks work is a bit different. While the AMD has only one graphics card – the Radeon – the 1015PN has two – the integrated Intel GMA 3150 and the ION 2 graphics chip. The way this computer is built is simple to explain – take a regular NM10 motherboard from Intel and retrofit a more powerful graphics chip inside, while giving it 512MB worth of VRAM.

I didn't like line art, so I decided to get a new netbook.

Arguably, both netbooks put up a close fight. And initially, it had always been my intention to get the 1015B (the AMD-based netbook), but when I headed into the mall, a store was offering both the 1015B and the 1015PN for $398 and $399 (Singaporean dollars) respectively, although the latter usually had a MSRP of $429 – $449. Effectively, what was a straightforward decision became ten times harder, and after some hasty research using the keyword 1015PN vs 1015B, I came to the conclusion that the 1015PN was a wiser choice because it had better graphics rendering ability. On the other hand, the 1015PN does lose out processor-wise, despite its raw numbers pointing otherwise – 1.66GHz dual-core Atom chip versus a 1.0Ghz dual-core C-50 chip. If anything, I have always found the biggest bottleneck to be the graphics chip on netbooks, and therefore the 1015PN made the most sense. The added ability to revert back to the integrated GMA 3150 chip was also an added plus because I write reviews for games on netbooks, and most first-time netbook buyers tend not to have discrete graphics in their netbook.

First impressions aren’t that great. Asus has much to learn about good design. Coming from a HP netbook, the Asus looks very industrial. The Seashell platform was designed to keep things functional, but not eye-pleasing. On its default configuration, it does not allow you to use Nvidia’s Optimus – which is a technology that will engage the integrated graphics card when you’re doing less graphically demanding tasks, and vice versa, without restarting. Windows 7 Starter presents a greater bottleneck here as you realise that you need at least Home Premium to enjoy the seamless transition between integrated and discrete graphics. The computer is also loaded with a lot of bloatware, and the bloatware really tarnishes the experience significantly, especially on the already-strained 1GB RAM.

All roads leads to the evil Android bot.

Promptly, I upgraded it to Home Premium to enjoy Optimus, gave it 2GB worth of RAM, and threw in a SD Card for ReadyBoost. All was well and all was great, until I realised that Optimus was having issues. And it wasn’t only me. A lot of people have the same problem as me, and it turned out that certain drivers do not work well with the Asus 1015PN. Certain solutions were to revert back to the factory-provided driver, use the 275.33 driver and not the latest ones and install the Intel drivers provided by Asus. It was quite frustrating to say the least, although the truth is that this is something I’ve come to accept when buying an Asus.

EDIT: The ION 2 actually performs worse than the Radeon 62xx. This is because the ION 2 in 10″ netbooks only have 8 cores rather than the 16 cores you’ll get with a 11″ and above netbook. 3DMark scores are approximately – 1,500 for the 8-core ION 2 on the 1015PN, 1,900 on the Radeon-powered 1015B and 2,400 on the 16-core ION 2.

Decisions, decisions...

When you buy a netbook, you’re buying a computer that can last forever. Yes – forever. That’s basically because when you buy it you pretty much have already condemned it to being a second computer, or something you’ll use only for surfing the web and watching movies. Basically, it’s not something you’d trust to keep up with the latest programs.

However, even if you have already set low expectations for a netbook, picking a good netbook should be something you think really hard – because as aforementioned, you’re buying it for a long time. A netbook will likely have its place in the grander scheme of your mobile computing needs as it often has extremely good battery life that larger, more powerful notebooks cannot match up to, and because its small dimensions, makes it easier to fit in a handbag or some corner of your backpack.

Not all netbooks are equal, although truth be told, most of them have specs that are almost equal. The trouble is that you want to buy something that can perform decently, and not struggle with 720p videos, or hang ever so often. You want something that can surf the web just like you would on your regular desktop/notebook. You don’t want it to take forever to do things that you’d expect to be done in a couple of seconds.

The good news is that even if you buy the lowest-end of netbook – basically one that comes with an Intel Atom N435 such as the Asus X101, you’ll still be able to do everything quite well. But then there’s a problem: HD-videos. Even on a powerful dual-core Atom, you’ll have minor issues with HD-videos, because of its complex compression that puts a strain on your processor. The fact that the integrated graphics chip has the power of a 1999 GeForce 256 doesn’t help either. And then there are other issues: the standard 1024×600 resolution can often cause a range of issues from having websites display poorly to having programs refusing to run at all (a la Photoshop CS5, Civilization IV). Then there’s the standard RAM problem: having a mere 1GB will be the bottleneck for a long time.

With these shortcomings in mind, what exactly should you look for when you buy a netbook?

Recommended Specs for a Netbook

Processor: at least a dual-core Atom (N550, N570), preferably an AMD Fusion chip.

Significantly greater functionality can be achieved by spending a little more dough on your netbook. Let’s posit it this way: most likely, you’ll want to watch high definition videos now and then, and you want it to be smooth. If you got a single-core Atom, you’ll have issues with the playback of such videos as it will be choppy.

Empirically, I have tested 720p HD videos on my N550-based netbook, and playback is usually fine. It can get a little bit choppy at times, but the visual experience is not lost. On the other hand, a 1080p video is like watching a slideshow, especially videos straight off a DSLR. 1080p videos on Youtube are not really enjoyable either.

If you don’t mind spending around $300 on a netbook, then you’re in luck to get a very capable netbook. High-end netbooks have been inextricable from the AMD Fusion (C-series or E-series) line because of its many wonders. If you need a HDMI-out on your netbook, the AMD Fusion will support it. And while the dual-core Atoms play HD videos well, the AMD Fusion does it even better – it does 1080p HD videos very well. This isn’t too big an issue when your screen is at max 1024×600 or 1366×768, but if you output to a full HD monitor, that’s when the extra oomph of a Fusion comes in really handy.

If you’re a netbook gamer, then the AMD Fusion will allow you to play more games, such as the ones listed in the Maybe and Forcible category in the netbook games list.

RAM: At least 2gb

When I upgraded from the standard 1GB that comes with most netbooks, you’ll notice a vast improvement almost akin to doubling your power and halving the frustrations. With merely 1GB and with Windows 7, you’ll notice that your hard drive is often being used to write to the swap file. This degrades performance as a hard drive does not write as fast as RAM.

Another way to speed up your computer is to use ReadyBoost, which acts as something like an intermediate medium of memory between the swap file and the RAM.

Screen resolution: above 1024×768 (i.e. 1280×720 or 1366×768)

Most netbooks come with a 10.1″ screen that can only output 1024×600, which is very low. It takes a while to adjust to such a low-res screen if you’re coming from desktop monitors that output 1920×1080. However, the bigger issue lies in the usability of such monitors – at times they will clash with the minimum requirements of some programs – such as Adobe Photoshop CS5, Civilization III and its later siblings. But most of a times, you’ll just find that the cramped screen makes using some less-than-optimal websites hard to navigate.

Certain manufacturers do make it an option to get a HD-screen upgrade, and I highly recommend that you get this. On the other hand, most 11″ and above netbooks generally have 1366×768 screens by default.