Let me call you from my Moputer

No battle for netbook and smart phone for your wallet

The merge of mobile and computer into one device is right around the corner, or did we already turn the corner? Shelly Palmer of MediaBytes reports Hewlett-Packard is considering replacing the Microsoft OS in some of its mini-laptops (aka Netbooks) with software developed by Google. It could be a version of Android -- the company's cellphone software.

With the touch screen mobile phones designed to give users a better viewing experience, we see the form factor of the mobile handsets are no longer small is better. With the netbook introduction, "laptops" are coming down in price and form factor. Last week, I bought my Lenovo S10e for under HKD 4000 and my husband, Paul, bought his Nokia N82 for HKD 4200 last year. I use the netbook for wifi access, reading ebooks, and writing notes on trains and meetings. Paul uses his N82 to do mobile blogging, reading ebooks and NYTimes when traveling on trains. If I need a photo taken, I ask him to take it from his N82 because it has a nice 5mega pixel camera. Paul is debating if and when to buy the HP mini netbook, which is also under HKD 4000. If you know Paul, you know that debate can be months long research and shopping and testing equipments from Mong Kok to Causeway Bay.

Last week while at Hong Kong Timesquare Broadway Electronics store, I saw a LG X110 netbook with built in HSDPA. The price is about HKD 1000 higher than other brandname netbooks without the HSDPA feature. Go to this forum for more information about the LG X110.
There may be other HSDPA-enabled netbooks in Hong Kong that I haven't come across. This itechnews link has a review on Acer, ASUS, SamSung, MSI HSDPA-enabled netbooks.