The nice folks from Gearzap.com sent me a netbook case to check out. The case is specifically designed for 10.1” netbooks, and is a simple messenger bag which is designed to be worn over the shoulder.
It is smaller than you might be used to if you’ve ever carried a full sized notebook case. It has a pretty simple design with a white stripe offset to the right of the central axis if looking head on. Along the white stripe is a rubber banana logo (which is a bit odd because, well… it’s a banana) which had some leftover rubber around the edges which should have been trimmed better when the patch was cut. Aside from this, all of the stitch work seems rather well done and durable.

The netbook specific aspect of this case makes it really light which is great if you got a netbook with the intention of reducing the weight of your kit. You won’t find the typical shoulder pain from weight being put on one shoulder that you might have experienced if you’ve ever hauled around a monster desktop replacement laptop in a messenger bag! On the other hand, this also makes the bag quite small. If you are a big you might find yourself looking a bit silly with this relatively dainty messenger bag draped over your shoulder. But of course that is personal preference. At least the bag has a nice dark blue hue and metal accents (zipper, clasps, and brackets) that are made to look as though they were finished with chrome. This adds a bit back to the bag in terms of masculine appearance.

The bag is almost more of a square shape than a rectangle, and thus the flap which covers over the main pocket is somewhat long. This makes it sort of strange if you want to access the contents while the bag is actually on your shoulder as you have to go around the flap to get there. Magnetic clasps hold the flap closed. The magnets are reasonably strong, but the clasps are ‘button shaped’ if you will, and since they are on the inside of the flap, you kind of need to feel your way around until the button part finds the receiving hole that is designated for it, though you’ll hear a satisfactory metal click when you get it just right.

The main pocket has your usual padded slot designed to hold the netbook and an elastic strap with velcro to keep the device secured. Since the bag is not very deep (doesn’t go far out from the wearer’s perspective), there isn’t a lot of depth to the main bag, and fiddling with the elastic strap seems like more trouble than it’s worth, especially considering that a zipper already seals the main compartment. The netbook sleeve couldn’t fit the HP Mini 1000 [Portal page] any better. The fit really feels just perfect. There is padding on the front and back of the sleeve. The main pocket also has your standard pen/pencil holder fare, two mesh pockets on the padded separator of the netbook sleeve, and a few other pockets. The main compartment is a perfect size for the netbook’s power adaptor and a few other small items, though if you are planning on using this case for for school, be forewarned, it isn’t large enough to fit standard binders or folders, but you should be able to get plain old paper in there.

There is also a second zipper pocket on the front with no special padding and no holders inside, just in case you want to cram a few more things in there. Also on the back of the case is a final zipper pocket, but this one doesn’t have any depth structured with the fabric, so thin things back here only!

Overall I’d say that as long as the bag fits your taste in terms of style, it’ll work well if you have an appropriately sized netbook. The sleeve fits 10.1” netbooks perfectly, and there is still room in the pocket for the A/C adapter and a number of other curios, as well as the two other zipper pockets.

Thanks again to Gearzap.com. If you are in the market for netbook accessories, they have a pretty extensive collection, have a look! Also if you’d like to see all of the Cool Banana brand cases that Geazap offers, head here.

You’ll probably recall that I got my hands on a matte black retail version of the oft mentioned UMID M1 a few weeks ago. In the initial unboxing, I noted that the build quality felt really good on the retail version. There were a few unsettling reports of some poor build quality on pre-retail models, but all of those seem to have been put to rest with the retail version finally sifting through to folks.

That’s great and all, but a well built blending machine isn’t going to bake good bread, is it?

I strive to find a viable use for the UMID M1 [Portal page] that isn’t already filled by a much better gadget. I really didn’t want to lambast the unit, it feels great as a device, but the moment you want to do something with it, there is a sense of “who the heck designed this thing and how did they expect me to use it?” There are glaring design and usability issues here that I just can’t deny, even if this is a pocketable computer that is capable of running a full desktop OS. It is clear to me that the designers of the UMID M1 must not have had a clear idea of who would be using the device, or what they would be using it for.

Keyboard

Aside from removing the keyboard all together, there aren’t many changes you could make to the M1’s keyboard that would make it worse. Before I even begin to explain, let me just set you up with a mental image: Skis on a car in place of wheels. Doesn’t make sense? Exactly. That’s what the M1’s keyboard feels like to me.

The device is plainly small enough that it should have a thumb-board. What is even more ironic about this is that the M1 is actually spacious enough to allow for a great thumb-board. However, the designers of the M1 managed to find the perfect balance of FAIL. I see the keyboard as the perfect combination of thumb-board and touch-type keyboard – if you were looking to perfectly negate the strengths of both and exemplify the weaknesses.

The keyboard is designed with touch-type keys. You know, the ones you are used to regular laptop. They are super small, but have a touch-type pitch (the distance the key moves up and down). This means that thumbing the keyboard is very hard. I wish it was more easy to explain, but the short of it is this: because your hands are gripping around the sides of the device to hold it – your thumbs come in on a very flat angle relative to the keys from the sides of the device, instead of nearly straight down as they would on a standard keyboard. The touch-type pitch means that it is really hard to realize when you’ve actually pressed the keys all the way down. It is especially hard to hit the keys toward the center because you must stretch your thumb to reach, and this brings them in at a near 90 degree angle, making it close to impossible to press the key without pressing another key, and let alone recognize whether or not you’ve landed a proper press of the key to register input.

Ok so thumb-boarding doesn’t work out, why not just touch-type? Unfortunately, I would go so far as to say that it is impossible to touch-type exactly as you would on a regular laptop using the M1. It is just too small. If you want to even consider touch-typing, you’ll need to drop a few fingers that you are used to using. So let’s say somehow you are comfortable touch typing on this thing. Great, now you run in to the next fail of design.

(continue reading on page 2…)