One of my recent passions has been the most low-tech innovation of the past three years: netbooks. In theory, netbooks should never have been successful: paying close to the same price as a normal laptop for inferior hardware? The old me would have said, “No way, Jose,” but after actually owning one for a year and becoming immersed in the the Mac netbook scene I have a whole new understanding and appreciation of function-over-specs.

One huge problem with netbooks is that they really are limited in their modern capabilities. For example: Adobe’s Flash Player software, commonly used on YouTube and online games, is just barely functional on most netbooks. Soon newer models with new processors and video technologies will lure a lot of current netbooks to ditch their old model for an upgrade.

So what’s a person to do with an underused netbook? Here’s a few ideas to keep you netbook in practical use beyond just the normal e-mail and web browsing.

1. Portable Video Player
You know those little portable DVD players that you can buy at most retailers? They are usually junk unless you start getting into the $150+ range. By that point you can almost pay for a decently-discounted netbook! So why not make your netbook a non-DVD video player?

Despite the diminutive specifications, netbooks make formidable video players. (Well, except for Flash video, but I digress….) Even when encoded in high definition, most popular netbooks are more than capable of playing most video files.

Use video conversion software, such as the excellent Handbrake, to convert your DVD’s to MP4 files. They’re smaller and easier to transfer over to a netbook. Heck, you could even use your netbook and an external DVD drive to do the conversion. (That will be slower, but you won’t be using up valuable resources on a more powerful computer.)

There are two more major advantages to this setup for parents. How many times have your kids grabbed a DVD with slobbery, food-encrusted hands, while scratching it across a hard surface? There’s no physical media to worry about with a netbook video player. And what about those forty+ cartoons that the kids can never leave home without? Now they’re all stored on the hard drive, without the need to swap discs mid-trip.

2. Teleprompter
(I got this idea from a system utilizing an iPhone, as reported on Make: Online.)
Giving an important presentation? Creating your own video podcast? You’ve got yourself a great prompting system waiting for you on your desk.

Unlike conventional laptops, netbooks are usually really small and light. This makes them ideal for setting in peculiar places, like on a shelf. Using a presentation program such as PowerPoint or OpenOffice you can view your notes in large words (as compared with an iPhone teleprompter) without having to shuffle papers. This is especially important for podcasts, no one wants to see a stack of papers on the screen.

This idea really comes into fruition if you use a netbook with a webcam; you can record your podcast with the same screen that you are reading your script from.

3. Really Expensive Wireless Adapter
This one was almost too ridiculous to mention, except it is exactly what I have been using for Xbox Live the last month or two.

While most modern technology have 802.11 technology built-in, there are still some useful products that don’t. Notably, the original Xbox and the current Xbox 360. Yes, you could buy a dedicated wireless adapter, but both consoles’ options are fairly expensive. And sometimes you need a quick temporary solution for a desktop computer in a remote spot of the house. You’ve got a netbook that isn’t getting used much, why not put it to work?

It’s really simple; just set your operating system to share the wireless connection with your wired ethernet port; Windows provides a fairly simple check box for this. It may not be as simple, elegant, or beautiful as a dedicated adapter, but it gets the job done.

Another related trick is for travel. I visited a hotel last year that used powerline networking, which required an adapter in the hotel room. The adapter only had one ethernet port, but we had two computers. We simply hooked one to the adapter, set Windows to share the ethernet’s connection with the wireless, and connected via ad-hoc. No need for a router, we were both able to surf the web off one ethernet adapter.

Today, exactly one year since the 0.9.3 release, Handbrake was updated to 0.9.4. With this update come a whole slew of changes, both good and, well not bad, but not-so-good.

The most important change is a faster, higher quality conversion engine that outputs files in an optimal size. What’s not to like about that? I personally dislike when a video takes longer to convert than it does to watch, so any improvements in this field are welcome. New features such as soft subtitles (you can now actually turn subtitles on or off when you watch a video if this is enabled) and live preview are also handy for first-time users. Some codecs were dropped in this release due to antiquity, which is understandable but I still wish there was still the option available for whatever crazy video device I might need them for.

Some of my original gripes were also addressed: a new engine allows Handbrake to read more DVDs (which I can only assume means it helps for converting DVDs with newer copyright crap protection) and a better, more refined interface. But my largest gripe is still there: no DVD encoding, so I can’t create a DVD, just rip it.

Overall this release looks like a huge improvement for the software. You can download it from the Handbrake website; let’s just hope it doesn’t take another year for the next version to come out.

That’s where VideoVangelist kicks in. It’s really simple: either drag-and-drop or use the Open menu to select you video(s), select you preferred output (there are tons of presets including iPod, Xbox 360, PS3, Flash, and of course DVD) and then just press Start. If there are more advanced features, it will prompt you when you enter the file name. It’s really nice that you can have it either just create the VIDEO_TS files, create a burnable ISO, or just have it burn the DVD automatically. The flexibility of the software is what makes it amazing.

There are only two flaws I find with the program. First, it’s Mac-only, so there’s no way I could use it on Windows or Linux. Second, if I want to get really technical with the settings, some of the advanced settings that Handbrake provides aren’t there.

Overall, I love VideoVangelist. Oh, I almost forgot- it’s totally free, so you’ve got nothing to lose.

Update 5 December 2009: As Leeward mentioned in the comments, it looks like Whimsplucky Software, the developer of VideoVangelist, has closed its doors. You can still get the software, now at the updated Download.com link, but there will not be any updates coming to this application.

That’s where HandBrake comes into play. HandBrake is able to take nearly any video file or DVD and convert it to a major video format, such as AVI, MP4, and MKV with codecs such as h.264 and MPEG-4. For most purposes, it gets the job done. There are even presets for your device of choice, or universal presets that should work on most devices.

But being able to convert video files doesn’t set HandBrake apart from other conversion utilities, nor does that fact that it is completely free and open source. No, the reason I like it is because all of those features are available no matter your choice of Windows, Mac or Linux. Too often cross-platform apps don’t resemble each other very well, but HandBrake breaks that stereotype. You’ll be able to find the same look and feel on all three operating systems.

There are a few drawbacks to HandBrake. It’s no the prettiest program I’ve used, nor is it the most user-friendly; non-hardcore users will probably be intimidated, and the presets are not always optimal. DVD conversion is a one-way process, you can’t make a DVD from your video files. Copyrighted (otherwise know as DRM) videos will probably not be readable by HandBrake. Also, the fact that it hasn’t been updated in nearly a year is somewhat disconcerting.

Overall, though, I’ve been rather pleased with the program. I’m not saying it can meet every need, but it gets the job done for me, no matter what OS I am using at the time.