| People love taking things on-the-go. And they love | | | | a microwave, but the fastest Internet speed at the |
| smaller versions of the real thing. One of the first real | | | | time only ran at 28.8 kb/s, much too slow for the |
| instances of this was the portable CD player. When | | | | Network Computer to be of any use. Of course, this |
| they arrived, we no longer wanted to listen to music | | | | idea was scrapped. |
| at home or in the car, because now we could listen | | | | One Laptop Per Child |
| to it in the grocery store. Yeah, that's right, the | | | | Then, in 2005, the One Laptop Per Child organization |
| grocery store (Sounds strange, but I know a woman | | | | was founded. Their goal was to create an affordable |
| who's done that). Or how about popcorn chicken, or | | | | device to educate children in developing countries. |
| Pop Tarts, or iPods? All of these are examples of | | | | With funding from major corporations, they were |
| things we as humans have created to suffice our | | | | able to create the XO-1 laptop by Christmas, 2007. |
| need to take things with us. | | | | The lightweight device was made to be durable and |
| And up next, the mini notebook -- a smaller, lighter | | | | have a long battery life, and ended up with a price |
| notebook (sometimes called a "netbook") which leans | | | | tag of 188 dollars, when purchased by thousand units. |
| more toward the wireless internet side of laptop | | | | The creation of the XO-1 solidified the mini notebook |
| usage rather than it's program capability. This new | | | | as a real-deal device, and more netbooks followed in |
| craze is sweeping the nation. And rightfully so. These | | | | it's footsteps. |
| new notebooks are lighter, cheaper, and much faster | | | | The Eee PC |
| than anyone had anticipated years ago. With the | | | | Around that time, ASUS delivered what became the |
| coolest sounding processor in recent memory, the | | | | standard in mini notebooks, the Eee PC. It weighed |
| Intel Atom has created a new way of thinking about | | | | about 2 pounds with a inch screen and a keyboard |
| computers with it's high speed on such a low-cost | | | | about 85% normal size. Shortly after, Everex, MSI, |
| small-sized device. | | | | Dell, and HP all developed their own mini notebooks |
| The Network Computer | | | | and by late 2008, mini notebooks were starting to |
| The idea for the netbook can be traced back to the | | | | take money away from normal laptop sales. |
| Network Computer of the 1990s. Oracle developed a | | | | This craze is now just beginning to bloom. Who |
| desktop computer that relied solely on it's | | | | knows what the future holds for these devices? |
| programming. That is, it had no external drives or disk | | | | What we do know is that we are living on the |
| inputs. This was an idea that was simply a decade | | | | cutting edge of technology, and we can count on |
| ahead of it's time. Not only were desktop computers | | | | much more to come. |
| becoming more and more as essential to a home as | | | | |