The Mac Netbook Revisited
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With Apple’s announcement of the iPad, there’s a lot of talk lately about the "death of the netbook." But for the photographer, a netbook is still a much better alternative to any other portable option. Smaller, lighter, and cheaper than a typical laptop, a netbook provides plenty of storage for offloading images, but can run the same software that you use on your everyday computer. In addition to replacing your digital wallet-type device, having a real keyboard and connectivity options make netbooks capable terminals for the traveling photographer. If you’re a Mac user, though, you won’t find any netbook options from Apple. However, it’s now easier than ever to hack certain netbooks to run the latest version of Snow Leopard. |
For the last year, I’ve been using a hacked MSI Wind as a netbook, but its keyboard played havoc with my repetitive stress injuries. Something about it made me hold my hands in a way that ultimately caused pain. I recently had the chance to type for a while on a Dell Mini 10v and found that I had no pain issues at all, so I sold the Wind and picked up a Mini 10v on sale for only $275.
Compared to my 13″ Macbook, the Mini 10 is considerably smaller and lighter, making it very usable for backcountry trips – something I would never do with my Macbook. With it, I no longer need to carry my Digital Focii FotoSafe for offloading, and I’m not stuck trying to type emails on my iPhone keyboard.
Obviously, if you’re a Windows user, you can use the Mini 10v right out of the box. If you want to use the Mac OS, though, you’ll need to perform a quick and simple hack.
NetbookInstaller is an application that will take care of the hack for you, and using it is very simple. You’ll need a copy of Snow Leopard, and a USB stick with at least 8 gb of capacity. Detailed instructions on the NetbookInstaller site will guide you through the installation. You’ll image your Snow Leopard disk onto the USB stick. and then boot off of that. The NetbookInstaller application will modify the installation to allow it to work on the Netbook.
When you’re all finished, you should have a Mini 10v running the latest Mac OS (at the time of this writing, I’m running 10.6.2). The trackpad supports tapping and two-fingered scrolling, and sleep, restart, shutdown, the web camera, and SD card reader all work fine. The model I got has a gigabyte or RAM and a 160gb drive, though both of these are upgradable. The computer weighs in at 2.6 pounds.
What makes all of this practical, is NetbookInstaller, which provides a simple, painless way to get Snow Leopard running. It only took me about an hour to get the machine up and running, and that included the time spent copying the Snow Leopard disk to the thumb drive. Note that NetbookInstaller does support machines besides the Mini10v, and you can get a full list of compatible hardware here.
Photoshop CS4 runs fine on the Mini 10v, as does the latest Camera Raw. However, because of the short screen height, the Camera Raw dialog box gets cut off at the bottom – you won’t have access to the buttons at the bottom. You can, though, still hit Return to open an image.
Ultimately, I don’t find this a great hassle, because I don’t do a lot of editing in the field. Bridge runs fine, which means I can review images, and begin to sort and organize them, which is all of the in-field functionality that I need.
Finally, at $275, I don’t have to worry as much if the machine falls in a river or something, and it replaces several other gadgets that I normally have to take along – digital wallet, Palm Treo and folding keyboard for email – if I’m not taking my Macbook.
For e-reading, I think the Kindle’s small size, light weight, and superior (for reading) screen will prove to make it a better e-reader than the iPad, so I’ll be sticking with that and my netbook for the time being.
Dell Mini’s fluctuate in price a lot, so it’s worth keeping an eye on the Dell site for sales.
Comments
9 Comments on The Mac Netbook Revisited
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Jack Foster Mancilla on
Sat, 30th Jan 2010 5:22 pm
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Ben Long on
Sat, 30th Jan 2010 5:40 pm
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thinkpadius on
Mon, 1st Feb 2010 12:24 pm
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Bill Griffin on
Tue, 2nd Feb 2010 4:11 pm
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JayceM on
Sun, 7th Feb 2010 6:19 pm
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Bakari on
Mon, 15th Feb 2010 1:36 pm
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Steve on
Thu, 18th Feb 2010 11:06 pm
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Caitlyn on
Wed, 16th Jun 2010 8:43 am
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Ben Long on
Mon, 5th Jul 2010 10:03 am
Any serious photographer shooting RAW would never use a half powered netbook for anything but Quick-and-Dirty-show-a-couple-to-the-customer sort of thing.
Your editing will be done in a controlled space with proper lighting so that you can give quality results. And you will use the most powerful computer, Mac or PC, so that you are not waiting around for your images to accept your edits.
And you might think about using the iPad to carry your portfolio. … Talk about a game changer, in respect to the way your client sees you. Win! … Using a netbook to show you images, not so much.
Well, I’m talking about for when I’m actually out shooting. I need a place to store my images, and I want to be able to browse images, and begin keywording and organizing. I can’t do that on an iPad. The netbook becomes a very nice storage repository during shoots, with the added benefit of some editing capability, and the communications features I want when on the road. Also, I’m old-fashioned. For presentation, I still prefer prints to looking at images on a screen.
A lot of photographers have been using netbooks for instant transfer of photos from flash storage to disk and onwards. Wire services like reuters have been using them all over the place, its a fast way to get photos on the wire before the competition.
Snow Leopard has an intuitive handling of photos within the OS that I prefer to windows XP, or even windows 7. hitting the space bar to preview an image enables fast selection. combine that with a netbook and the device is great for photographers. The same applies to writers – write to your articles anywhere, post them instantly.
Of course you’re not doing anything heavy duty on the netbook, but it fits into your productive and play life very well and there are countless examples. on top of that, if you get a netbook and don’t know what to do with it, chances are in the future you’ll still be able to integrate it into what you do because its a computer with a full OS and keyboard. The ipad is just a $500 interactive bathroom magazine.
I wouldn’t be so definitive about the iPad just yet without having the item in your hands and watching the explosion of apps that should crop up.
In fact, I’ve already contacted Apple about this very subject.
My opinion is that it will be an awesome viewer / editor ” in the field “.
Besides, if you need something for a client quick and you are using an online print lab who say’s you can’t process the order using the labs editing decisions.
This article may be exactly what I need. I hate lugging my MacBook, especially when I’m going to be somewhere that has only dial-up connections or no way at all the get on the web. But I want to be able to download and backup pictures, look at them, and get them ready to dump into Lightroom when I get home. And if I can put some PDFs of books into a jumpdrive so I have something to read, I’m happy. This netbook sounds small enough to be openable even in really cramped airplanes. I don’t need bells and whistles as long as I can get photos onto the netbook and then onto a portable drive or two. Maybe the second or third or fifth generation of iPad will get real, but meanwhile I can lighten my load.
Ben, I’m not too keen on the size of the netbooks, but I‘m wondering if Aperture 3.0 will run on the sit up you’re using? I use Photoshop CS3, but I use Aperture a lot more. I’ve put off buying a MacBook Pro because I think it’s way too expensive for my needs. I have a Mac Pro at home that does all my heavy lifting. The iPad for me will primarily be a entertainment and social networking device. Sadly, it’s not a good replacement for a laptop or netbook. It has some very significant limitations, like multi-tasking. Thanks for your article.
This is cool. I’m scared to death of taking my MBP anywhere.
This article may be exactly what I need. I hate lugging my MacBook, especially when I’m going to be somewhere that has only dial-up connections or no way at all the get on the web. But I want to be able to download and backup pictures, look at them, and get them ready to dump into Lightroom when I get home. And if I can put some PDFs of books into a jumpdrive so I have something to read, I’m happy. This netbook sounds small enough to be openable even in really cramped airplanes. I don’t need bells and whistles as long as I can get photos onto the netbook and then onto a portable drive or two. Maybe the second or third or fifth generation of iPad will get real, but meanwhile I can lighten my load.
I definitely use the netbook FAR more than the iPad, which I have yet to find any practical use for. The downside is that Dell has cancelled the Mini 10V! It’s a sad sad day for hackintosh makers! Keep an eye on the netbookinstaller site. Hopefully another machine will come along soon that is as easily hackable.
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