Call me what you will- Apple-Fan-Boy, Mac-Convert, Lemming- regardless, I have happily been using Apple products pretty much exclusively for a little over a year now. It started with my Gen 1 iPhone in August of 2007 and it has been downhill (uphill??) ever since.

That “gateway drug” led me to a white 2.2 ghz MacBook.  That in turn led me to a 20 inch iMac. When the MacBook died shortly after getting it (yes Apple’s “it just works” is a distance memory) I used Apple’s willingness to replace it as an opportunity to upgrade to a black 2.4ghz MacBook. Thanks to my frequent visits to eBay to sell lightly used gear, there have been an assortment of Mac notebooks ever since. My current Apple arsenal includes an iPhone 3G, Touch (for reviewing apps for www.whatsoniphone.com) a 24 inch iMac and a new 13 inch unibody MacBook. It all works nicely and the sheer enjoyment I get from using devices built with an eye to both form and function is tremendous. The integration between devices is pretty nice, too. Yup, Apple had me at “Hello”.

So how is it that I a started this post last week from seat 24D on Continental flight 1638 to Aruba on… a 10 inch HP MiniNote 1000?

It all started a week ago when I realized that vacation would be a great time for me to catch up on some posting. (Happy hour margaritas, a nice view of the ocean and a bit of blogging… not a bad way to spend a week.)  Thing was, I haven’t had a chance to put an InvisibleShield on my shiny new MacBook and since I have no illusions that it will likely be part of my on-going serial-notebook ownership, keeping it in pristine condition was a must in order to get top dollar when it eventually makes it to eBay. Add to that the fact that I would have to schlepp it everywhere with me since the safe in our timeshare is not large enough to hold the 13 inch notebook and it didn’t make sense to bring it.

Apple may well come out with a netbook at MacWorld this year (Sir Steve is protesting a bit TOO much!) but that is still the stuff of rumor and wishful thinking. Add to that the fact that, as proficient as I am with typing on my iPhone, it is still not nearly in the same league comfort, speed and accuracy-wise as typing on a keyboard or using voice recognition and I was left with only one option… get a netbook. (Editorial note- as I posted over on whatsoniphone, I ended up using my Touch far more than planned.)

I had a brief flirtation with one of the original EEEPCs last year but found that while it was groundbreaking it was ultimately unusable. I hated the trackpad, it was painfully slow and, to be honest, I’m just not a Linux kind of geek. You get what you pay for but, for me, even if it were free, the eeePC wasn’t something I would ever use.

NetBooks have come a long way since then so I figured it was worth another try.

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