There are a few things that set netbooks apart from traditional laptops. They’re smaller, cheaper, and generally have less processing power than most modern computers. But while the conventional wisdom is that you wouldn’t want to run CPU-intensive applications like Photoshop on a netbook, the truth is that you really can.

Musician Arman Bohn has been using a Lenovo IdeaPad S10 since last year. And he used the 10 inch netbook with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor to create a significant portion of his animated music video for the song “No Escape!”

Arman tells me he drew the backgrounds on a netbook in Photoshop and then added them to After Effects for animation. He did much of this work while sitting in cafes. The final rendering as done on a more powerful desktop PC with a 24 inch monitor that could actually display the video at its ful 1920 x 1080 resolution.

You can check out the video after the break.

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MacFormat

A funny thing started happening when people started downloading music from the internet (whether they paid for tracks or not). We started prioritizing songs over albums. It used to be that you’d hear a song you liked on the radio and you’d go out to buy the CD, tape, record, or 8-track recording that contained that track. Now you can purchase albums a la carte, and some artists put out songs one track at a time… but according to a Financial Times article, Apple has a plan to revive the album in the age of digital music. And it may involve the long-rumored Apple tablet.

According to the Financial Times, Apple is working with the four major record labels to offer digital versions of liner notes, artwork, and the other goodies that you get when you purchase music in a physical media format. If the Financial Times is putting its facts and rumors together right, Apple could launch the tablet this fall and use it as a platform for distributing digital albums and interactive media.

For instance, you could purchase an album with 10 to 15 tracks, listen to the songs on the tablet, and “flip” through pages of an accompanying book to read lyrics or other information or look at artwork using the touchscreen device. The albums will also reportedly includ video clips.

I’m not at all convinced that the reason people aren’t buying albums like they once did is because you don’t get liner notes and special content. It’s more likely because many people don’t see the point in paying for 12 songs when you only want two or three. But for music fans who were likely going to pay full price for the latest full albums from their favorite artists anyway, this could be a good deal.

I just hope this isn’t the only trick the Apple tablet will have up its sleeve. Because while a Kindle-for-music would be kind of neat, a device with a good web browser, on-screen or peripheral keyboard, and ability to run third party applications would be a lot more exciting.

via AppleInsider

Flickr: fibra

Mini-laptops like the Asus Eee PC lineup are great if you’re basically looking for a machine to use as a portable web browser for connecting to WiFi hotspots on the go. But they’ve also got more than enough processing power to handle some audio editing and mixing tasks. Indamixx markets a netbook based on the Sylvania G Meso that comes preloaded with Linux and a ton of applications for creating and editing music. But you can also slap your favorite Windows or Linux audio apps on any old netbook and turn it into a digital music machine.

Create Digital Music also has an article on a repurposed computer monitor stand that can be used as a stand for an Eee PC or other digital music hardware, making the tiny laptop feel a bit more like an actual musical instrument.

The DIY stand was created by Sasa Djuric, who also loaded up ReBirth for Windows and pairs the computer with some MIDI hardware. You can find more photos of the project in Djuric’s Flickr photostream.

The Indamixx netbook is basically a Sylvania G Meso with a custom Linux software stack designed for audio production. While much of the software is open source, the Indamixx team has put a lot of time and energy into optimizing the system for musicians, DJs, and others interested in a portable digital audio workstation.

The machine comes preloaded with digital audio editing software, DJ softare, VST virtual instrument software, and a drum loop application with over 2900 drum sounds. It runs a custom Linux distribution called Transmission, which is apparently based on Ubuntu, becuase the Indamixx can reportedly run pretty much any application you can find in the Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron repositories.

The Indamixx was first brought to my attention a few months ago. But the folks at SonicState got a chance to catch up with an Indamixx rep recently and shot a video overview of the device. You can see the full video below, but I learned two new things about the netbook from the interview: It gets about 3 hours of battery life, and right now it’s only available with Linux, but in a few months the Indamixx may be available in a dual boot configuration.

The Indamixx netbook is available in black and white from Amazon for $499.

via NetbookBoards

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Looking for a light weight, ultraportable laptop that you can use to create, mix, and edit audio on the go? The Indamixx laptop is a $499 netbook loaded with a boatload of software for creating and editing audio. The netbook includes a custom Linux OS called Transmission 2.1, and software packages including:

• energyXT for music production
• Ardour for digital audio editing
• Preloaded with 2900 drum sounds and 350 samples
• Over 260 plugins
• Ardour Xchange which will import audio from other digitla audio workstation applications

The Indamixx is based on the same design as the Sylvania G Meso netbook. But in addition to the custom operating system and music software, you get a carrying case, a 1GB SD card, a free t-shirt, free shipping for US customers, and 30 days of software support.

The netbook is available for pre-order with a $99 deposit, and is expected to ship before Christmas.

via Create Digital Music

As I’ve mentioned a few times, I’ve used both the Eee PC and the HP Mini-Note for some lightweight audio editing. For the most part, this means converting stereo files to mono, and cutting and pasting a few sound elements. While I have no doubt that I could do some more serious work with one of these computers, the need hasn’t really arisen and I’d typically rather do the bulk of my audio editing on a faster PC with a larger display.