Comments on: Dell netbook coming in August, sans Function Keys

By: laptop repair

laptop repair — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:20:09 +0000

Netbboks will soon be overtaking laptops. One of sonys best selling laptops the t1xp is only 10.6 inch and is one of thier best sellers of all time. im sure all the leading players are heading for the smaller laptop as mobility is ever more important

By: Dell Inspiron 910 full specs and release date leaked | UMPCPortal - The Ultra Mobile Computing reference site

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:45:36 +0000

[...] us lots of purportedly leaked info about the upcoming Dell Inspiron 910 netbook (yes the one that will not include a row of function keys). Swing by the Gizmodo link to see images showing all sides of the 910. Pretty standard as far as [...]

By: Netbooks everywhere! Do consumers really want them? - Alt+Save with the Gadgetress - OCRegister.com

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:46:35 +0000

[...] were also on the way from BenQ, Clarion, Gigabyte and Compal. Rumored to come are netbooks from Dell, HP and even Irvine’s [...]

By: on the other hand

on the other hand — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:20:37 +0000

I haven’t used any function key even once in over ten years.

By: Lyle

Lyle — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:03:36 +0000

I sure hope that the omission of function keys does not affect user’s ability to get into Bios Setup. Is this possible?

By: 451 CAOS Theory » Does Linux wonder about an Apple netbook?

451 CAOS Theory » Does Linux wonder about an Apple netbook? — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:43:24 +0000

[...] They have pretty sharp people looking into these things. Nevertheless, I think as HP enters, as Dell enters and as the players already there push ahead, Linux will help to show this is a new, [...]

By: ProDigit

ProDigit — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:38:39 +0000

You don’t specially need the F-keys!

By using the FONT ket and a numerical key from 1 to 0, plus the 2 keys between 0 and backspace exactly make out 12 keys.

They probably incorporate the F-keys with the numerical keys and the font key.

By: someone

someone — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:39:11 +0000

‘ I agree that there needs to be a way to get to them somehow, but I don’t think the omission of the row makes the keyboard poorly designed.”

Yes, I can agree to that for the most part. But if UMPCportal is right, and Dell has provided no simple intuitive way to trigger the f keys, then YES, that is bad design. And bad design on that obvious level makes me wonder what else could be wrong.

But as harsh I may sound, I await more details before I pass final judgement. Most likely I will buy a Wind though, it seems to be the most balanced netbook for the money so far.

By: Benz145

Benz145 — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:04:15 +0000

Someone - are you saying the keyboard is bad based on the fact that it has no function keys? The point of removing them was to make the more room for the other keys to be larger. Do you really use the function keys that frequently? I agree that there needs to be a way to get to them somehow, but I don’t think the omission of the row makes the keyboard poorly designed.

By: Vicente

Vicente — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 03:59:46 +0000

What is the storage on this device? Flash?

By: Mike Cane

Mike Cane — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 01:08:28 +0000

The more the merrier. Basically people will buy what they can actually GET. Asus was good to get into J&R in NYC. Will the MSI Wind do that? The Acer Aspire One? Only hardcore people will buy sight-unseen. Perhaps with Dell the general public *will* buy sight-unseen, based on brand name, price, and it being located in the U.S. for easy return.

As for the design, it’s similar to the hp Mini Note and MSI Wind. And there have been two different keyboards. No telling yet what the final one will be like.

By: lj

lj — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:10:53 +0000

Im not sure this is such a big deal.. I mean, in windows you could use keymapping apps, and in ubuntu, it would take 2 seconds to assign any key functions you lost…

By: Lawrence "The Dreamer" Chen's Blog

Lawrence "The Dreamer" Chen's Blog — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:09:37 +0000

Dell netbook coming in August, sans Function Keys…

Dell is pushing too little and too late.

Since seeing the power of the ASUS Eee Pc, I’ve been thinking of getting such a device. Though I wasn’t sure if I could handle the sacrifice of hardware to get small, light and low cost. Then others start…

By: PJE

PJE — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:50:01 +0000

‘Someone’, Did I state that the Dell used the [FN][-] [FN][=] for F11&F12? NO I merely stated that it is possible to implement F1-F12 without a function key row.

I assume Dell will fix it before it’s release, otherwise there are a multitude of keymapping apps. Not ideal by a long shot, but it wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me either.

By: Dell Netbook coming in August without function keys

Dell Netbook coming in August without function keys — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:00:56 +0000

[...] via UMPCPortal [...]