Why Netbooks are crappy

It doesn’t pay to run after every shiny new object with unrestrained glee:

But over time the problems started surfacing. Like Wired.com’s Charlie Sorrel, I grew to despise the Wind’s dinky trackpad: Whoever designed it had in mind an infant’s hands; navigating became so tiresome that I started carrying around an external mouse to make it tolerable.

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And then the hardware issues kicked in. Minor ones, actually: Screws at the bottom of the clamshell kept falling out, even after I screwed them in as tightly as possible. I inspected the case more closely and realized it no longer clamps all the way shut, which is why the screws aren’t staying in. This issue was probably a result of cheap plastic or shoddy clamshell design. Unfortunately this created another annoying problem: The battery kept popping out of the case ever so slightly — just enough to shut off the computer whenever I nudged the netbook. I eventually resolved the problem with some double-sided tape, but I wasn’t happy about it.

What $299 gets ya! It’s not like Tim Cook and Steve Jobs just call it crap without (probably) giving it a whirl. Like I have said before, shrinking a Ford Edsel into a small form factor, does not make it a hybrid!