Laptop, notbook, tech news

Dell apologized Wednesday for online pricing snafus that have hit its Web sales in Taiwan over the past week, and moved to settle the issue as the island’s Fair Trade Commission launched a probe.

The world’s second-largest PC vendor has also shut down sales on its Taiwan Web site until it can clear up the issue.

Two major online pricing problems have hit Dell’s Taiwan Web site in less than a week, prompting strong responses from the island’s consumer protection watchdog and the launch of an investigation by the Fair Trade Commission.

Should the Fair Trade Commission find violations of fair trade laws in Taiwan, Dell could be subjected to a fine of up to NT$25 million (US$759,000), an official said Wednesday.

Dell was ordered last week by Taiwan’s Consumer Protection Commission to make good on sales from an online pricing error and deliver 19-inch LCD monitors to local consumers for NT$500 (US$15.26). On Sunday, the company’s Taiwan Web site ran into a new problem, offering Dell Latitude E4300 laptop PCs that normally cost NT$69,000 (US$2,101.34) for just NT$18,500 (US$563.40). In both cases, tens of thousands of orders were made by consumers.

The transactions have all been cancelled.

In a statement, Dell said the causes of the two errors were different, but did not elaborate.

“To avoid further confusion to our customers and to facilitate further investigation Dell has made the difficult decision to close our Taiwan online store,” the company said.

Dell has offered consumers who purchased a mispriced Dell Latitude E4300 a coupon worth NT$20,000 good for use on its online store when it resumes operations.

In the earlier case, Dell offered customers that had ordered LCD monitors at erroneous prices up to two NT$1,000 discount certificates good for purchases on www.dell.com.tw, and NT$3,000 coupons to people who had purchased laptop or desktop computers at misprinted prices.

“Dell is going to contact affected customers as soon as possible to inform them in detail of how the coupons should be used and to make refunds as quickly as possible,” the statement says. “It is Dell’s hope that the courtesy coupons demonstrate Dell’s respect for its customers and to apologize for any inconvenience caused.”

The company is working with the Consumer Protection Commission, Fair Trade Commission and other Taiwan government agencies to resolve this issue.

Dell is also a major customer for Taiwanese technology companies. The U.S. PC vendor spends over US$10 billion a year on Taiwanese computer parts and contract manufacturing services.

When I reviewed Apple’s prior, “unibody” 15-inch MacBook Pro, I gave it high marks. For the money, there is no better-built notebook. With its rigid one-piece machined aluminum frame, glossy LED-backlit display, flat backlit keyboard, huge multitouch trackpad, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and 8X slot-loading, dual-layer DVD burner, the unibody MacBook Pro defined the state of the art in design, construction, and manufacturing. Now Apple is building on that peerless platform with higher performance, an upgraded display, longer battery life, and a lower price.

The latest 15-inch MacBook Pro, introduced in June 2009, costs less than the model that preceded it, and yet it puts competing commercial high-end notebooks back at the starting line. The new machine’s specifications are more 64-bit-friendly in anticipation of the Snow Leopard OS, due in September, and they reflect updated offerings from Apple’s component suppliers. Core 2 Duo CPU speed now tops out at 3.06GHz. Using 4GB DIMMs, the new MacBook accommodates 8GB of RAM. Recent introductions of larger and faster notebook hard drives are reflected in 15-inch MacBook Pro’s configure-to-order options, which include 7,200-rpm drives that close the notebook/desktop performance gap.

[ Mac OS X Snow Leopard is due in September. Find out what businesses can expect from Apple's new OS. ]

As you read, keep in mind that the machine I’m describing doesn’t fit in the mainstream 15-inch PC notebook class, a strictly two-year service group typified by painted-on key legends, breakable tray-loading DVD drives, and slow integrated graphics. The MacBook Pro is a five-year machine, by design and by track record. If you choose to replace a 15-inch MacBook Pro in two years, you’ll be able to sell it for most of what you paid for it.

A true hybrid

Much of what’s new about the 15-inch MacBook Pro is inherited from Apple’s supply chain, but Apple also made a few carefully targeted changes to MacBook Pro’s core design. The nonremovable rechargeable battery, an idea hatched with iPod, has found its way to Apple’s commercial mainstay. Apple claims that by making the battery a non-user-serviceable component, it was able to use battery technology that lasts for up to five years, a thousand charge cycles, before losing significant capacity. This claim will take five years to prove, but it is conceivable, with deep knowledge of battery characteristics burned into the notebook’s intelligent charge management circuitry.

Apple claims extended battery running time, too, of up to seven hours per charge with Wi-Fi operational. As a frequent flier and worker away from my desk, this was music to my ears — but could seven hours truly be possible on an Intel desktop replacement-grade notebook? After the MacBook Pro’s first full charge, the battery gauge estimated more than ten hours of runtime. You can’t blame an untrained gauge for showing some gung-ho optimism. A few weeks and several charge cycles later, the gauge has leveled out to a little more than seven hours per charge running a mixed productivity/Web workload, with Wi-Fi enabled. I’ve been able to extend that by nearly an hour with a combination of settings and habits that include a shorter disk spin-down delay and moving documents I’m currently editing to SD Card flash memory.

The move to a sealed battery — the replacement of which requires a visit to the Apple Store — is bound to make some unhappy, but it lowers manufacturing costs, and no competitor has been able to make hay against iPhone on the battery issue alone. The pop-open battery door was a liability on the unibody 15-inch MacBook Pro. With long running time and the (optional) ability to plug in to a cigarette lighter or plane seat power outlet, there’s no reason to argue for carrying a spare battery. Besides, Apple didn’t glue the MacBook Pro’s case shut. If you have any business inside it, then you already have the tools.

Test Center Scorecard

Apple MacBook Pro (15-inch)

Configuration (25%): 9

Usability (25%): 9

Battery Life (15%): 10

Build Quality (15%): 10

Performance (10%): 9

Value (10%): 9

Overall Score: 9.3 (excellent)

Quick, cool, and roomy

The MacBook Pro is a machine with desktop specs. The 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 1,066MHz DDR3 memory, and dual Nvidia GPUs inevitably contribute heat to the design. A plastic PC notebook with similar power would need a noisy fan just to survive. I don’t have a PC notebook in this class that I can bear to share a room with, much less have in my lap. The MacBook Pro runs cool and silent the majority of the time by using its aluminum frame as a heat sink and by carefully managing power. If you push the machine with a desktop workload by running the likes of a 3-D game, an HD video transcode, or a multithreaded compile or benchmark, it will get too hot for your unprotected lap. The problem is compounded if you’re charging the battery while making high demands on the hardware. However, in everyday interactive work, the newest, fastest 15-inch MacBook Pro is also the coolest (in temperature) and quietest notebook I’ve used.

Bigger notebook hard drives make room for more creative configurations. In my case, I decided to divide up the new machine’s 500GB disk before migrating so that I can multiboot into Leopard, Snow Leopard, or Windows 7. Disk Utility in the latest release of Leopard is able to alter the internal drive’s partition table nondestructively, while the boot volume is mounted. For the most part, there is no need to boot from the install DVD or use special tools to divide up your drive.

[ Are sealed-in laptop batteries a good idea? See InfoWorld's report. ]

For add-on storage and peripherals, the 15-inch MacBook Pro has two USB 2.0 ports and one 800Mbps FireWire port. Mac OS X automatically mounts any Mac HFS+, FAT, and NTFS file systems that it finds on newly attached storage devices.

New to this model is a slot for one full-sized SD or SDHC flash memory card, replacing the ExpressCard slot in preceding MacBook Pros. Those who still need ExpressCard will find it in the 17-inch MacBook Pro. SD Card for ExpressCard is a worthwhile trade, although I’d have gone for a bit more spacing between ports as well. You still can’t plug two average USB devices in side by side.

Content from many digital cameras and camcorders can be accessed directly as local files without USB cables, adapters, or the need to put the device in a special PC connection mode. The cost of SD is falling as speed (expressed as “Class;” higher is better) rises. Even if you don’t use the slot for multimedia, you’ll find that SD is the perfect removable medium — faster, more portable, and more reliable than optical. The point I made earlier about using SD to extend battery life bears emphasizing. In two scenarios, Office document manipulation and digital media viewing, moving files to SD let the 15-inch MacBook Pro’s hard drive motor, a prime consumer of power, remain in a spun-down state much longer.

The trouble with Apple’s SD slot is that some of the flash card sticks out of the notebook. You will forget the card is there, and it will catch on the lip of your bag. Even cheap cameras have sunken, spring-loaded (push to insert, push to pop out) SD card slots. Still, it is much more convenient than USB flash adapters, and Snow Leopard has a little secret that makes the SD slot even more useful.

High-fidelity everything

The MacBook Pro is a machine designed for the office and the seat-back tray, but this one model is also built for the laboratory, the recording studio, the movie set, the TV satellite truck, the helm, the OR, the theater, and other uncommon venues. Basing a volume system design on specialty requirements means that you’ll see features in the MacBook Pro, like the optical digital audio I/O and 800Mbps FireWire, that are rare in other commercial notebooks and that may initially come across as overkill. However, you’ll find that what seems not to matter at first becomes useful later on. A simple conversion cable plugs the MacBook Pro’s audio output directly to the Toslink input on a sound system for noise-free, multichannel digital audio playback. Unlike with other notebooks, the FireWire port drives such bus-powered peripherals as external storage devices, and the FireWire port allows the MacBook Pro itself to uniquely operate as an external hard drive. No platform is easier to deploy in large numbers than Mac clients.

Apple has stepped up audio and video. Just as the whole chassis is part of the 15-inch MacBook Pro’s heat sink, I think that this new model makes use of the sealed chassis as a resonating chamber. The 15-inch MacBook Pro’s sound is richer and truer to life than other notebooks. Better midrange response raises the clarity of spoken material like TV news and podcasts. Try playing some music in iTunes with the equalizer set to Bass Booster; you’ll feel the beat under your palms. A plastic notebook couldn’t go there with its many screws and loose seams, but the 15-inch MacBook Pro is tight as a drum.

Apple chose a new display for the 15-inch MacBook Pro. It’s difficult to characterize display quality in other than subjective terms, but this time there is a genuine difference: The new display is “wide gamut,” which refers to an ability to reproduce colors that don’t fit in the industry-standard sRGB digitized color space. There are so many reasons to be grateful for Apple’s choice. I’m able to read text clearly at minimum brightness, something the past few MacBook Pro models didn’t permit, and lowering the backlight substantially lengthens battery runtime.

[ See how long your battery lasts with InfoWorld's battery life calculator. ]

Wide gamut raises the fidelity of the MacBook Pro’s display. You’ll see no difference when viewing content encoded for the Internet because colors outside the sRGB space (the standard default color space for the Internet) have already been stripped away to shrink files down to size, but RAW-format digital photographs, professionally scanned film and artwork, print proofs and high-quality (that is, HD) video retain more color information than the majority of computer displays can reproduce. With color-rich content and a wide-gamut display profile selected, the 15-inch MacBook Pro can show you details you’ve been missing. For creative professionals, this might mean freedom, at long last, from the meticulously tuned wide-gamut desktop monitor. Color can have meaning as well, as in medical imagery, energy exploration, chemistry, and instrument panels. Expanding the range of reproducible colors means that 15-inch MacBook Pro can convey color-coded information with greater range and precision.

Built for what’s next

The wide-gamut display is a fitting accessory for a machine that is due for a $30 turbocharge in September with the release of Snow Leopard. The 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GPU in the 15-inch MacBook Pro would be a gamer gimmick on a PC notebook, but in a Mac, it’s a compute coprocessor. Snow Leopard will also herald the standardization of a full 64-bit client Unix platform, which speeds up everything. If you have legacy system-level code to run, you’ll be able to select the 32-bit kernel at boot time without having to install a second copy of Mac OS X. Apple doesn’t officially support Windows 7 on MacBook Pro, but it works for me, both in virtualization (Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, or Sun VirtualBox) and running natively in Boot Camp.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro is the best of the tier-one commercial notebooks, full stop. My two complaints — that the SD card sticks out of its slot and the USB ports remain too close together — are overshadowed by the new display, seven-hour battery, faster CPU, and the fact that there is an SD card slot. There are cheaper notebooks, but I’d challenge you to find one that’s faster, quieter, and better built than MacBook Pro.

15-inch MacBook Pro

Pros: Fast and 64-bit ready: Core 2 Duo CPU up to 2.8GHz, up to 8GB of 1,066MHz DDR3 RAM. Wide-gamut, LED-backlit display expands color range for improved photo, video fidelity, and readability. Nonremovable battery rated for seven hours of running time (wireless browsing) and five years of useful life. Gaming-grade 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT discrete GPU switches with low-power chip set graphics without rebooting. Improved frequency response of on-board speakers. All advantages of prior unibody MacBook Pro carried forward.

Cons: SD card slot is friction fit and protrudes from chassis (not spring-loaded and sunken). USB sockets are too close together.

Cost: Starts at $1,699 with 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 4GB of RAM, 250GB 5,400rpm hard drive, and Nvidia GeForce 9400M GPU with 256MB of graphics memory.

Platforms: Mac OS X 10.5.6 Leopard (included); dual-boot Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows7 with Boot Camp; other EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface)-compliant x86 operating systems depending on drivers.

Bottom Line: The new 15-inch MacBook Pro is faster, runs longer on a charge, doubles the memory capacity, and adds an SD card slot. It also has a gorgeous wide-gamut display and a lower price. In short, the quintessential commercial notebook is now even better.

Tom Yager writes InfoWorld’sMobile Edgeblog.

Sony will begin selling its first netbook computer next month and in doing so enter the only sector of the PC market showing significant growth.

The Vaio W is based around a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 processor, the same processor used in many other netbooks.

Like other netbooks the Vaio W has a 10-inch screen, but its display has a resolution of 1,366 by 768 pixels rather than the more common 1,024 by 600 pixels. That means more of a Web site can be fitted onto the screen, and the user will have to scroll less, the company said at a launch event in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Sony is planning to use the higher resolution as one of the key differentiators between the Vaio W and other computers on the market. It will also promote the machine’s touch panel, which is about the same size as that found on conventional laptops.

In Japan it will cost around ¥60,000 (US$630), which is roughly in line with netbooks from other Japanese vendors such as Toshiba and Fujitsu but more expensive than machines from foreign companies, such as Dell and Acer. It will go on sale in the U.K., France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and Russia from August, and be available via Sony’s online shop. North American launch details have not yet been announced.

The PC industry witnessed a record decline in the first quarter of this year as grim economic conditions caused many consumers and companies to postpone nonessential purchases. Global shipments fell by 8 percent against the same period of 2008, led by a sharp decline in demand for desktop PCs, according to iSuppli. The mobile segment saw 10 percent growth thanks largely to demand for netbook PCs.

Sony came close to launching a netbook earlier this year when it put the Vaio P on sale. The computer is smaller than many netbooks but runs Windows Vista on the more powerful of Intel’s Atom processors. Sony was keen to distance the Vaio P and its higher price from the netbook market.

The Vaio W measures 27 centimeters by 18cm by 2.7cm. It runs Windows XP, comes with 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard-disk drive, two USB ports, 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN and Bluetooth. There’s a camera above the display and a built-in memory card reader

Sony will begin selling its first netbook computer next month and in doing so enter the only sector of the PC market showing significant growth.

The Vaio W is based around a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 processor, the same processor used in many other netbooks.

Like other netbooks the Vaio W has a 10-inch screen, but its display has a resolution of 1,366 by 768 pixels rather than the more common 1,024 by 600 pixels. That means more of a Web site can be fitted onto the screen, and the user will have to scroll less, the company said at a launch event in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Sony is planning to use the higher resolution as one of the key differentiators between the Vaio W and other computers on the market. It will also promote the machine’s touch panel, which is about the same size as that found on conventional laptops.

In Japan it will cost around ¥60,000 (US$630), which is roughly in line with netbooks from other Japanese vendors such as Toshiba and Fujitsu but more expensive than machines from foreign companies, such as Dell and Acer. It will go on sale in the U.K., France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and Russia from August, and be available via Sony’s online shop. North American launch details have not yet been announced.

The PC industry witnessed a record decline in the first quarter of this year as grim economic conditions caused many consumers and companies to postpone nonessential purchases. Global shipments fell by 8 percent against the same period of 2008, led by a sharp decline in demand for desktop PCs, according to iSuppli. The mobile segment saw 10 percent growth thanks largely to demand for netbook PCs.

Sony came close to launching a netbook earlier this year when it put the Vaio P on sale. The computer is smaller than many netbooks but runs Windows Vista on the more powerful of Intel’s Atom processors. Sony was keen to distance the Vaio P and its higher price from the netbook market.

The Vaio W measures 27 centimeters by 18cm by 2.7cm. It runs Windows XP, comes with 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard-disk drive, two USB ports, 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN and Bluetooth. There’s a camera above the display and a built-in memory card reader.

TechCrunch blog founder Michael Arrington says his Crunchpad web tablet is getting closer to becoming a reality, with prototypes due by month’s end. Arrington also told the San Francisco Business Times that he has formed a Singapore company, Crunchpad, Inc., to manufacture the device.

The touchscreen tablet, designed for web surfing, video chat, and light email use, is eerily similar to Microsoft’s failed “Mira” eHome wireless smart display, which PC World recently named one of the “10 Dumbest Tech Products So Far”.

The question for this morning is what the CrunchPad will have to do differently to avoid making such a list in the future? My suggestions:

1. Be superthin, like a legal pad.

2. Run for days without recharging and use a cordless recharger.

3. Have a great color touchscreen.

4. Android seems a good choice for an operating system.

5. Find a way to beat Amazon in the Kindle e-book business.

6. Find a way to (if necessary) beat Apple in the mediapad business.

7. Survive when dropped onto a wood floor in my house.

8. Sell for $99.95. Or not more than$199.95. I think the market is price-sensitive. This needs to be a brainless purchase.

I am not sure that accomplishing all those things will save what seems to be, essentially, a project driven by Arrington’s legendary ego, from some future “10 worst” list. But, it will help.

Speaking of the list, our June edition, included my own pick for dumbest product of all time, the Digital Convergence CueCat, a small scanner that was supposed to read barcodes added to newspaper and magazine ads and take you to the associated Web sites. It was backed by the Dallas Morning News, which gives you some idea why newspapers are in trouble. But, I digress.

David Coursey had a CueCat and lived to tell. He tweets as techinciter and can be reached directly via the form at www.coursey.com/contact.

Apple appears to be exempt from China’s mandate that a controversial Internet filtering program be shipped with all computers sold in the country.

Computers that do not meet the software’s technical requirements are excluded from the mandate, according to one PC maker.

China in recent weeks ordered foreign and domestic PC makers to package Green Dam Youth Escort, a program that blocks pornography and some sensitive political content online, with all computers sold in the country.

While China postponed the requirement from its original deadline this week, state media cited an official as saying the mandate will still eventually be enforced.

Green Dam is not being bundled with machines at the Apple store in Beijing because the software has no Mac version, a sales representative said Friday.

Meanwhile, a Lenovo spokesman said the Ministry of Industry and Information and Technology is not requiring non-Windows systems to come with the program

Lenovo will ship the software only with “applicable” PCs, meaning those that support Windows and other technical requirements, the spokesman said. Lenovo PCs that use Linux will not come with the program, he said.

Apple will still pre-install the program in accordance with the government mandate if a Mac version comes out, the sales representative said.

It is unclear if Green Dam will be released for other operating systems. A service representative at a sister company to Green Dam’s main developer, Jinhui Computer System Engineering, said the company is testing the software on non-Windows platforms and will release an updated version if compatibility is added for other OSes.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment

Dell is developing a handheld mobile device designed for Internet access, following in the footsteps of rival Apple, according to a news report published in the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Dell engineers are developing prototype devices that resemble Apple’s iPod Touch but are slightly larger and lack cellular capabilities, according to a news report, citing unnamed sources. Dell will begin selling the Internet access device later this year, though the plan could be scrapped.

The prototype devices are powered by chips designed by Arm and run the Linux-based Android OS, the news report said. Most handheld devices, including smartphones, use chips designed by Arm.

Dell declined to comment about the device, saying it didn’t comment on rumors and speculation.

If the rumor is true, it will be the first entry by Dell into a category of devices called mobile Internet devices (MIDs), which combine the attributes of smartphones and netbooks in a pocket-sized machine. However, MIDs have had trouble finding wide adoption, with users complaining about the small screens and poor battery life.

It is possible that Dell is developing an MID, but it may not see the light of day, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates. Dell relies on volume sales, and entering an experimental product category like MIDs would be a risky move, he said.

“The MID takes them into a different space than the traditional PC installed base. Netbooks would be closer to what they are selling,” Gold said.

Selling MIDs would be similar to selling smartphones, so Dell would need significant partnerships with wireless carriers who provide Internet access services like WiMax, Gold said. It would also need strong partnerships with companies like Intel, which is pushing WiMax, to subsidize the hardware.

Dell’s limited smartphone presence could hurt its attempts to sell MIDs, and it may be better off reselling devices from other companies than making its own.

“There’s so much stuff in the market. Even Hewlett-Packard’s having trouble selling their smartphones,” Gold said.

This is not the first rumor surrounding Dell working on a mobile device. Dell has been rumored to be looking at smartphones, with speculation reaching fever pitch earlier this year when rumors surfaced of Dell showing an Android-based smartphone at the GSMA Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona. However, the phone never materialized.

It is important for Dell to do its research around MIDs, as the wireless space isn’t about cell phones alone anymore, said Jeff Kagan, a wireless industry analyst. With wireless options like WiMax growing in popularity, hardware companies like Dell and Apple want to reach out to new users with wireless devices in new form factors, he said.

Dell’s last well-known pocket-sized device was the Axim PDA, which was scrapped in 2007 on account of poor sales. Dell’s major competitors, including Hewlett-Packard, Acer and Apple, are already present in mobile computing with smartphones and PDAs.

There’s an old saying, widely attributed to Will Rogers, that describes three types of people: “The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.” In matters of technology, I’m a proud member of the third group. As a perfect example, I’m writing this article from the smallest Mac OS X laptop I’ve ever used: It weighs just under 2.4 pounds, and is only 9 inches wide, 6.7 inches deep, and 1.3 inches thick.

That’s right, I bought a netbook and installed Mac OS X on it. Even though Peter Cohen already spent some time with an Asus Eee PC. Even though Jason Snell already installed Leopard on an MSI Wind. I just needed to try out the whole “Hackintosh” thing for myself (though since it’s a laptop we’re talking about, I prefer the term HackBook). Just don’t tell Apple.

Hardware bargain

My HackBook is a Dell Vostro A90, the “business” version of Dell’s now-discontinued Mini 9. It has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, an 8.9-inch LCD screen, 802.11g WiFi, 100Base-T Ethernet, a 0.3MP Webcam with an LED light, three USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth, VGA video output, and an SD memory-card reader. I chose this model for two reasons: First, the Mini 9/Vostro A90 is the most OS X-compatible netbook on the market–once you get Mac OS X installed, most things just work. Second, and just as important, was the price: During one of Dell’s many sales, I purchased the A90, which came with 1GB RAM and an 8GB SSD, for just $199–a price so low I couldn’t resist.

Unfortunately, 8GB of storage was utterly insufficient. Even with the stock OS, Ubuntu, I had little room for media or additional apps. So I upgraded the A90’s SSD to a RunCore Pro 64GB model for $220 (yes, the drive cost more than the computer itself). Although less-expensive options are available–for example, Crucial’s 64GB SSD for $170–the RunCore has a reputation for considerably better performance.

As an aside, I went with 64GB because, having owned a MacBook Air with an 80GB hard drive, I was concerned that a 32GB SSD wouldn’t be spacious enough. But now that I’ve used the HackBook for a while, I’ve realized that, due to screen and performance limitations, I don’t use the A90 for many of the storage-hungry tasks I’d use a “real” laptop for, so a 32GB drive may have been adequate. (Crucial charges only $80 for a 32GB SSD, and a RunCore Pro version is just $120, so I could have saved quite a bit of money. Lesson learned.) On the other hand, I had planned to upgrade the A90 to 2GB of RAM, a $28 expense, but at least I was smart enough to wait on that upgrade–1GB has turned out to be enough for most of the things I use the HackBook for.

I’m not going to get into the process of installing Mac OS X on the A90. Suffice it to say that the Dell Mini community has really embraced OS X, and the procedure seems to get easier every month.

The experience

So how well does it work? It’s important to keep in mind the system’s limitations: a relatively slow processor and an underclocked graphics chip, a tiny 1024- by 600-pixel screen, a cramped keyboard, no optical drive, and a horrible, horrible trackpad. It’s a discouraging list of drawbacks, but apart from the trackpad, you know about these limitations going in: you buy a netbook like this, regardless of the OS, because you’re willing to trade performance to get an inexpensive, 2.4-pound laptop with a tiny footprint.

In that context, the computer performs better than I expected, and I was surprised to find that most standard features work under OS X: The computer successfully connects to my wireless network, the Webcam works with iChat, I can use Bluetooth input devices, and the keyboard’s volume, brightness, and sleep keys function normally. I’ve even updated the OS and various Apple apps several times using Software Update.

On the other hand, power management is a mixed bag. Specifically, the A90 running Mac OS X doesn’t always go into sleep mode after a period of inactivity; I have to remember to close the lid to put the laptop to sleep when I’m not using it. And have I mentioned that the trackpad is horrible?

I’m able to use most of my favorite Mac programs on the HackBook, although some apps, such as GarageBand, won’t launch because the laptop’s screen is too small (not that you’d ever want to run GarageBand on the A90). I didn’t test Microsoft Office; in fact, I didn’t even install it, knowing how much memory Office apps use. Apple’s iWork, on the other hand, works just fine. In other words, when I use the HackBook as a netbook–for Web browsing, e-mail, word processing, and other basic tasks–it works well. I’ve been especially impressed by the performance of Safari 4.

Still, I have had to adjust my workflow for the A90, in part due to the computer’s small screen–at only 600 pixels from top to bottom, you’re limited in terms of how much of each document or Web page you can view. So for the first time in my OS X-using life, I’ve got the Dock on the side of the screen; similarly, this is the first computer on which I’ve set the Dock to auto-hide. I also find myself using Readability on many Web sites to make them more readable on the tiny screen.

But the bigger hitch has been adjusting to the A90’s keyboard and trackpad. To fit the netbook’s tiny footprint, the keyboard has had to shrink quite a bit. Dell claims it’s “89% the size of a standard keyboard,” but that missing 11 percent feels like 25 or 30. Even more of an obstacle than the keyboard’s size is the key layout, which, in the interest of saving space, moves a number of frequently used keys to different locations. For example, the apostrophe/quotation-mark key has been moved from the middle row down to the bottom row, and the tilde key, normally beneath the escape key, is an Fn-key-modified function of the W key. The result is a keyboard that can be frustrating to use, especially if you frequently switch between it and a full-size model with a standard layout.

Then, of course, there’s the trackpad. It’s too small, its surface is too rough, and, most important, it doesn’t track very well. To make matters worse, the buttons–left-click and right-click–are recessed too far into the surrounding case, making them difficult to press. I find myself packing my favorite portable mouse whenever I go somewhere with the HackBook.

This fun is not for everyone

Despite those beefs, as a confessed gadget geek I’ve enjoyed the A90. The small size makes it at times more convenient to bring along than my MacBook; the battery generally lasts over 3 hours; and I’ve found it to be a handy machine for keeping in the family room for checking email and browsing the Web. And by illicitly installing Mac OS X on the Vostro A90, I’ve overcome what is, in my opinion, the biggest drawback of most netbooks: the operating system.

On the other hand, a tiny laptop like this isn’t for everyone. In fact, for many people, a netbook–even one running Mac OS X–is an exercise in frustration. It’s just not what most people expect from a “laptop.” (This is why I don’t see Apple ever making a netbook in the current sense of the word. Indeed, Apple continues to denigrate the idea of a small, low-cost Mac laptop, specifically citing small screens, cramped keyboards, and poor performance. We’re more likely to see a device closer to an oversized iPod touch.)

The HackBook has also rekindled my affinity for the MacBook Air. I bought the first model and really liked it. I sold that model late last year with the intention of upgrading to its improved successor, but for various reasons (mostly relating to me exhausting my yearly tech budget), I ended up with the $999 white MacBook. It’s a great machine, but it’s considerably bulkier and heavier than the Air. The HackBook, on the other hand, is tiny and light, but it’s far from a serious computer. The Air may be missing a few ports (compared to both machines), but for a 3-pound computer, it gets the important stuff–the screen, the keyboard, and performance–right. I’m thinking of selling both the HackBook and my MacBook and Goldilocks-ing it back to the Air, especially now that it’s a better computer than before for a lot less money.

As for “building” a HackBook, it’s of course a risk. If I ever have problems with the computer, I can’t turn to Dell or Apple. And it’s possible–probable?–that a future update to Mac OS X will render my HackBook unbootable, or at least less functional. But it’s at least been a fun experiment.

QuickerTek has introduced the Quicky Jr. II, a device purported to triple the wireless networking range of any Mac laptop equipped with USB. It costs $90.

The Quicky Jr. II looks and acts as an antenna. You plug it in to an available USB port on your Mac laptop and install a USB driver. It supports 64 and 128 bit WEP and WPA encryption, and works with 802.11b, g and n networking standards, so it’s fully compatible with the AirPort Extreme Base Station, other Apple networking hardware, and hardware made by other manufacturers.

System requirements call for Mac OS X 10.4 or later.