Will an iPad replace my Dell Mini 10v hackintosh laptop? I asked my dad to get me an iPad during his trip to the US. He managed to buy a unit at the Apple Store and the iPad is with him at the moment. He’s still holiday-ing over there.

My dad seeing an iPad for the first time in the Apple Store.

Viewing Photos on the iPad.

I’ll get it when he comes back to Malaysia sometime next week.

Since I use my hackintosh Dell Mini 10v mostly for surfing the net, viewing digital comics and reading ebooks on my bed; I think the iPad will be a great replacement for the netbook.

Will write more once I get my hands on the iPad in 10 days time.

hackintosh, iPad, netbook

If you’re a Dell Mini 10v owner standing on the edge, looking into the turbulent waters of installing Snow Leopard on your netbook, I have good news for you. Gizmodo has come up with a step-by-step guide with lots of hand-holding to help you leap into the world of hackintosh laptops.

You only need 3 big steps to install Snow Leopard 10.6.1 on the Dell Mini 10v hackintosh.

1. Prepare a USB Flash Drive with Mac OS X Retail and Netbook BootMaker.
2. Install OS X.
3. Run Software Update to get Mac OS X 10.6.1 or above.

If this is your first hackintosh installation, you probably need mini-steps instead of 3 big steps. There are 19 steps in all in the Gizmodo guide, get it from Gizmodo: How to hackintosh a Dell Mini 10v into the Ultimate Snow Leopard netbook.

The conclusion at the end of the guide:

You’ve got yourself a fully-functioning, beautifully small Snow Leopard netbook, which’ll do 90% of what a 13-inch MacBook can, at 70% the size and about 25% of the cost. Mine’s close to perfect: With an extended battery, I’m pushing 7 hours of battery life with Wi-Fi, which makes my MacBook pro look like a LOSER. And tiny extra bit of size over the Mini 9 means the keyboard is just large enough to work on, meaning this thing isn’t just a toy—it’s a decent investment. This from a guy with banana fingers.

Performance is acceptable, meaning you can run regular apps like iTunes, Firefox—and even Photoshop in a bind. It’s not noticeably slow during normal use, though it’ll choke on higher-res Flash video (no YouTube HD, but SD works fine). As with any notebook, this pretty much can’t be your main machine. But it’s a brilliant extra portable machine, for toilet browsing, travel, class notes and the like.

If I had this guide when I was installing my hackintosh Dell Mini 10v, I would have saved myself from the mistakes I made. If anyone wants to learn to install Mac OS X on their Dell Mini 10v, this is the go-to guide.

hackintosh installation, netbook

Your netbook options – Light, cheap and fast. Choose two, but you can only choose light and cheap. Fast is not an option with the netbook. Netbook owners who bought their machine hoping for a fast machine will be sorely disappointed. If you’re getting a netbook and expecting it to perform like an entry-level laptop, you’re in for a big letdown.

If netbooks are not fast, then what kind of performance can we expect? Most netbooks from Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Asus, Acer and Samsung, available today come with the Intel Atom 1.66GHz CPU. My Dell Mini 10v with the Intel Atom 1.66GHz CPU is less than half as fast as my three-and-a-half year old entry-level MacBook. How did I get to that figure? Look at my Geekbench and Xbench results below.

Geekbench benchmark score:

MacBook 1.83GHz: 2473

Dell Mini 10v Hackintosh 1.66GHz: 1042

Xbench benchmark score:

MacBook 1.83GHz: 113.75

Dell Mini 10v Hackintosh 1.66GHz: 48.10

Does this mean netbooks are bad? Of course not. They are not meant to replace laptops. A laptop is like a general purpose workhorse while a netbook is a pony for having fun. This “pony” was designed to access the web and web-based applications. Remember that, and your netbook performance will not be a problem for you.

I for one, am happy with my Dell Mini 10v netbook’s performance. Are you happy with your netbook?

benchmark, macbook, netbook

After six months, Brian X. Chen decides to part ways with his hackintosh laptop, a MSI Wind. The relationship got off to a great start with hopes of love, thrills and delight. So, what turned the MSI Wind from being a great companion device to a frustrating and impractical gadget?

According to Brian, over time, little irritations with the netbook made it increasingly frustrating to use. First, the small trackpad made navigation tiresome and he had to use an external mouse. Second, software utilities hacked to run on his netbook didn’t work perfectly. The netbook’s wifi connection stopped working suddenly while he was on a trip to Europe. I guess it’s related to the quality of kext files (similar to Window’s hardware drivers) for the MSI Wind written by hackers. His third complaint, the build quality of cheap netbooks. His netbook screws fell out and the case no longer clamp shut all the way. All these, caused the battery to pop out slightly whenever he nudged it. When the battery pops out, the netbook shuts down.

In the end, he gave up on his hackintosh netbook, sold it along with his old MacBook Pro and bought a refurbished unibody MacBook.

I have to agree with Brian that a netbook’s small trackpad can be frustrating to use. At times, my Dell Mini 10v trackpad seems to have a mind of its own. Sometimes, it needs some coaxing before the click or two finger scrolling registers properly.

As for the overall hardware and software reliability, the Dell Mini 10v hackintosh laptop is a champ. I’m still thrilled and delighted by it. Let’s see after six months, will I still be saying the same thing.

msi-wind, netbook