22 replies to this topic

[Brito]

Keep an eye on this nice little machine - for 200 dollars you get a 900Mhz CPU, 512 Mb of RAM and a 4Gb flash drive with WIFI connectivity..

http://www.hothardwa...h_the_ASUS_Eee/

[MedEvil]

Now all they have to do is, make it completely fanless and give it a display that can handle more, than what seems to be 640x480 and i take one!
Don't know why they make such a big deal of the fact that it only has 4GB 'hdd space'. 4GB maybe a little to little for ones main computer, but it's more than enough for a carry around system.

PS: 200$ is just under 150€ at the moment.

[Brito]

Inside the article it says that it is near to silent:

Heat wise, the Eee PC 701 felt a bit warm to the touch, likely due to its non-stop use throughout the day on the show floor at Computex. It was however very quiet and the lack of spinning hard and optical drives made for a near silent experience.

Yes, it's near the 150€ barrier - don't know if this would be the price when it arrived to europe thougth. I doubt this even gets anywhere near the place I live..

Did you know that google can convert currencies?

Look here

[MedEvil]

Did you know that google can convert currencies?

Look here

No, i didn't. How did you do it?

[Brito]

You just type the values like this:

199 usd in euros

Very handy - before knowing this I was using xe.com - google is faster to load..

[MedEvil]

Very useful tip!

[was_jaclaz]

Usually the "exchange rate" reference is this site:
http://www.oanda.com/

About the OLPC, I always thought that the idea was good but it was conducted by a moron, (my personal opinion) more interested to his own businesses than to really making the $100 PC.

I have had many requests from friends that would actually have bought one for three or four hundred dollars, as long as other 2 would have gone to poor children, but Mr. Negroponte prefers having big titles (with his name on them) while arranging millions-of-pieces sales of non-existing hardware to countries that do not have the money to pay for them (sounds like a fair business, one gives nothing and gets nothing )

When checking news about the OLPC, besides Official site:
http://laptop.org/
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Home
and sites from people that blindly trust the idea (and the way the project is managed):
http://olpc.com/

Look at the other side of the medal too:
http://www.olpcnews.com/

This eeePC thingy proves that it is possible, without much fuss, to actually build one, without financial aid, nor contributions from the biggest Universities around, just, simply, working on it, in a few months.

jaclaz

[Brito]

Maybe they should bring the OLPC to our countries as well - surely a lot of local companies would help sponsoring to give this equipment to schools, even if the price was slightly bigger than the promissed $100 would still account as a good help both for our kids as to sponsor the whole idea..

[MedEvil]

Inside the article it says that it is near to silent:

I don't want it to be fanless to be quiet. I want it fanless to have no moving parts. Cause usually electronics hold way longer than mechanics.

[MedEvil]

Sales of the EeePC from Asus starts on the 15th, unfortunately only in Taiwan and not as said world wide.

The first test of preproduction models suggests that everything will be soldered. No chance to upgrade ram or even switch later to a bigger flash drive. I really hope they change this!

Besides this, testers are very happy with the quality, the design and the performance of the EeePC.

The 199$ version is the smallest available version and has only a 7"screen. At least 3 other versions with more kick will be available too.
When and to what price the series with the 10" screens will come, is yet unknown.

[Brito]

I think this little Eeec machine is still amazing - Even with all pieces soldered inside I'd still give more use to it when compared against an iphone(y)..

Besides, there's a good advantage of living in a european country - the euro conversion makes it little above 140€ at the moment which is still below the average price for a 2nd or 3rd hand laptop around here (300€~500€) and cheaper than a portable playstation.





---------

About the OLPC project:


This year in Portugal all interested teachers and young students will be allowed to purchase a laptop at the simbolic price of 150€ to fight info-exclusion.

Broadband internet is also made available starting at 5€ per month and all these expenses are tax deductable.

Those who cannot afford to buy this 1Gb-dual-core-mean-machine will have it completely free of charge.

Details: (in portuguese)
http://www.pplware.c...de-portugueses/

---

Look here at these specs:

Model: Toshiba Satellite L40-15GReference: PSL48E-01T00GPTTechnology/Processor: Mobile Technology Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core 2310, (1.46 GHz), 533 Mhz Front Side Bus, 1 MB level 2 cache, Intel® GL960 chipsetMonitor: 15.4" WXGA panoramic TFTInternal Video Mode: 16.7 million colours, resolution 1280x800Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. 80 GB, SATA (5400rpm), Enhanced IDEMemory: 512+512 MB DDR2 (667Mhz) RAM, expandable to 3072 MB/4096 MBOptical Drive: DVD Super-Multi Double Layer (all recording formats: DVD-R/RW, +-R(DL)/+RW and DVD-RAM)Graphics: Adapter Intel® GMA X3100 (up to 256MB shared)Communications: 10/100 Base-TX, Ethernet LAN, RJ-45, Azalia 56Kbps V.90 built-in Modem, (V.92 ready), 14.4Kbps Fax, RJ-11Wi-Fi Communications: Realtek 802.11(b/g) 13ch-RTL8187B, (WiFi compatible)Audio System: 16-bit stereo with built-in stereo speakersInterfaces: 1x headphones, 1x microphone, 1x DC input, 1x external monitor, 1x RJ-45, 1x RJ-11, 3x USB 2.0Expansion: 1x PC Card (Express card), 2x memory slots (0 to configure)Battery: Lithium ion, maximum stand-by 2.0 hours (Mobile Markâ„¢)Software included: Toshiba Management Console, On-line User Manual, Toshiba ConfigFreeâ„¢, Toshiba utilities and drivers, Toshiba DVD, Connectivity DoctorSpecial features: Slot for Kensington Security cable, Boot Pen drive USBDimensions: (LxWxT) and Weight 365 x 269.5 x 35.3/36.8 mm; weight: 2.75 Kg

http://www.vodafone....programmes.html


Already comes with Vista and Office 2007 included..

[was_jaclaz]

Well, it seems like notwithstanding the fact that my crystal ball is still out of tuning, I can say I still can manage to foresee things , or maybe my NSH suggestion was not that bad :

About the OLPC, I always thought that the idea was good but it was conducted by a moron, (my personal opinion) more interested to his own businesses than to really making the $100 PC.

I have had many requests from friends that would actually have bought one for three or four hundred dollars, as long as other 2 would have gone to poor children, but Mr. Negroponte prefers having big titles (with his name on them) while arranging millions-of-pieces sales of non-existing hardware to countries that do not have the money to pay for them (sounds like a fair business, one gives nothing and gets nothing )

Looky here:
http://www.xogiving.org/



However, my overall opinion on the operation and on the man does not change, we are talking here about a project that reached almost DOUBLE the estimated cost, if anyone in any company in the world, would have made such a gross miscalculation, he would have already been fired and would never be able to find an executive job again, ever.

jaclaz

[Brito]

It's really sad to see what could be a good non-profit project turned into a non-attractive commercial monster..

---

btw: Forgot mentioning that our local cable TV/broadband provider called "TvCabo" is also making a campaign offering wired broadband internet and a full desktop pc for 99 euros in return for a 3 years subscription to their wire service.

We're living a moment of fierced competition around here..

[MedEvil]

So much for 199$.
I don't know about you, but for that money, i rather buy myself a real Laptop.

[Moon Goon]

Newegg has these at the $400 mark http://www.newegg.co...N82E16834220244

Local stores still can't get them through the usual vendors though

I still long for the awesome battery life of the black & white Palm Pilots. 2 to 3 hours isn't worth trying to fit this in my pocket all day.

[Brito]

Not sure about palm but I'd get an HTC touch these days..

Gj8PMcvYTZo

I've been playing with it and listening music for an whole afternoon and the battery didn't colapsed nor size is an issue since it is a very smallish pda.

These have become very acessible and popular around here.

[MedEvil]

Nuno something's wrong with your youtube object, or the board

[Brito]

Thank youtube..

They've modified their code to add clips on websites - It's corrected now!

[MedEvil]

Asus Germany announced that the eeePC will be avilable at local retailers in december.
First september, then october, then november now december. Wonder if they will make it this year at all!

Other interesting announcement was the price.
The official european price, yes you've heared right, we europeans get our very own price!
Will be 299 Euro!

[Brito]

This is just crazy - the USD is falling price against the euro and it's far cheaper to buy them abroad..

It's also less expensive to buy a portable playstation to play games at work than some machine you'd actually use to work..

[Zeke]

Had one of theese in my hands last friday! =)
Very cool thing! We disassembled the computer for a closer look inside.
The procedure for replacing the main board took only a few minutes.
Very nice from a service point of view.
The Asus-guy told us that they will release the "toy" with larger display and hdd.
I must say.... I WANT ONE !!! =)

[MedEvil]

For me the design has at the moment still too many flaws to buy.
I like best that there is no hdd build in.
I don't like that it still requires a fan. I would prefer it without any moving parts, especialy since the CPU isn't that powerful.
But the worst flaw is, that the memory drive isn't on a exchangable card.

Besides for 300 Euro i get almost a new 'real' Laptop.

[Haiphong]

Hello Nuno Brito,

Where can I buy OLPC ?

Thanks !!!