Fashionista Centrino Duo Sub-Notebook?!!!

posted by Eleanor Wynn on May 10, 2007

Sign me up! Apparently I may have to wait a few weeks to get the latest Paris or Milan design wristlet notebook, but I am holding my breath.

See the Powers of Smaller podcast here. I have my own take on all of this, but if you want the technical/marketing dope, this does a better job than I do.

“More than 230 Intel Centrino Duo and Intel Centrino Pro processor technology-based designs from PC manufacturers, resellers and integrators around the world are expected to take advantage of these and other features. Notebooks will come in a plethora of shapes and sizes – from fully-loaded, 20-inch wide-screen models ideal for entertainment and gaming to tiny, energy-saving sub-notebooks and even fashionable notebooks that will be targeted for the style capitals like Paris and Milan. Some are available today, and many others will be available in just a few weeks.”

I have a standard comment as I load my corporate-issue 5-pound black notebook into my purple nylon crossbody laptop carrier from the Body Shop. The likes of this rightsized laptop carrier cannot be found at any price—and I got this one free with a lip gloss purchase at Denver airport. I am sewing the corners as they fray, with heavy thread. Soon it will be like those classic hippie patched jeans I so deeply regret throwing away as passe. My comment as I load my burden is this: “I am the information donkey.” Uff da! or Allez-oop! Lift that bar, tote that bale. Only it is just light-as-air information!

I don’t suppose we will get the ultra-lite subnotebooks any time soon from our dear IT refresh cycle, but I will buy one for myself. Geez, they cost no more than a very expensive purse! Why do I need the sub? Well, when I travel I don’t really need all the power (or slowness) of everything that comes with my notebook. I need e-mail, a presentation or two, network and exchange access (that may be the hard part with a non-standard issue). A crackberry is too small for e-mail and too big for phone; and the multifunctionality of phone and e-mail together don’t work for me. I am fine with a phone that just has good reception and takes pictures. I mainly travel to do show-and-tell, take notes, write documents or tailor .ppts, and while traveling, of course I need to keep in touch.

In fact, I REALLY NEED to keep in touch. There I am in my hotel in Manchester UK with severe jet lag and the realization that nobody knows where I am! Upscale twilight zone with high thread count sheets. Desperately trying to connect through the hotel, and needing to call our nearest Technical Assistance Center (which luckily we have in what seems to be every time zone but that’s an illusion of offshored shiftwork.) Of course I am not going to rest until I can log on, no matter what time of day or where. I need to register my presence! And find out what is happening in my virtual world. Connectedness is “who I am”, not the lonely production genius featured in visions of “the thinker” of Nathan’s infomania mania. I am infosania!

But I would rather not carry a large heavy black thing with pointy edges that seem to be magnetically drawn to airport security flooring as I unburden myself for the checkpoint. Of course it falls on the corner, hence a few chips off the block. Nothing that screwing the thing back together won’t fix. While we are on hardware details, I should say I need pretty hard enamel for the characters on the keys—I have worn off most of my vowels, including whatever comes between “u” and “o” on the keyboard, and half my “s” “d” “n” “c” “l” and am working on erasing “f” and “g”. A few extra coats of lacquer would also make the keys shiny.

I would so rather have a light, elegant Pucci-patterned information accessory to pull out at security—and who would dare to run off with it? Not to worry, I keep an eagle eye on my laptop and do not enter the metal detector until the laptop has entered the “do not place hands inside” zone of the x-ray machine. But still, people prefer to steal things that blend in well—“stop that man with the black laptop!” doesn’t do much in a crowded airport. How about “stop that man with the magenta swirl laptop!” He’s a goner.

My other problem is battery life of course and these new Core 2 Duo, Centrino Duos appear to have up to 7.5 hours. As well, harking to Nathan’s complaint about getting his laptop crushed when someone leans their airplane seat back (as they have every right to do!), and thinking especially of those poor very tall fellows in economy next to me struggle to coordinate their laptops, bodies and tray tables all at once—Centrino Duo sub-notebook obviously gives more options for where to perch even as it consumes less battery life.

Somebody on an external blog wonders if Intel bloggers are those drinking the KoolAid only. I hope my past posts show I have been drinking the absinthe or the pepper vodka, not the Kool Aid. This time I am buying the Kool Aid colored sub-notebook!

Comments (5) (closed)

tagged: Centrino Duo, Core Duo, fashion, laptops, notebooks, Travel