17 posts tagged “eee”

Asus' Eee PC 900 has left me disillusioned, to say the least.  I've moaned and whined on here about it and I've done the same offline too.  I still get as many people commenting on the diminutive laptop lil'-laptop-that-could whenever I'm able to use it in public.  I say 'able' as the bloody thing lasts less than an hour on full charge!

Word-of-mouth marketing is all well and good, but it works both ways.  I paid for my Eee PC 900.  It's mine, not a review unit, nor a trial unit, nor a loaner.  I was replacing a lost Eee PC 701 and it seemed like a good choice.  I was happy with the original Eee, read the reviews for the 900 and decided to go for it.  Seemed like a no-brainer.  Now I feel like a no-brainer for buying it.  The only thing that delights me now is venting my spleen* to those people asking me questions about it.  I tell them to avoid the Eee PCs at all costs and that there are plenty of other mini laptops (or subnotebooks, or UMPCs, or whatever-you-want-to-call-them) on the market now, with many offering far better value for money and a battery that'll last longer than typing this post out.

How much goodwill have Asus lost from the likes of me?  How many people have been put off buying one after hearing about the problems?  Looking at how easy it is to now find an Eee in stock might be an indicator.  Or, perhaps, they're just churning out more?

Such a shame as I loved my 701 - it was probably my single most favourite gadget ever.  Sure it took work to get it to do what you wanted - but the battery, although still not that great, lasted at least the length of an average movie.

Oh crap, I didn't mean to type this much - I was really just going to summarise my thoughts and provide a link to Improbulus' post about it on her blog - A Consuming Experience.  The post is here.  If you were considering buying one, I recommend you go read that before stumping up the readies.

*interesting fact about me... I don't actually have a spleen, so what I'm venting I don't know!

Orange have hardly been a leader in the mobile data market.  They've previously been pricey, unreliable and less than generous.  However things would appear to be changing for the better.  They've just announced they'll be offering the Eee PC 900 sub-notebook for "free" when you take up their mobile broadband at £25 per month for 2 years.  That's £600 in total but you are getting a laptop that retails at around £270 now and a fairly generous 3GB of data a month.

Like a lot of these deals, whether from carriers or retailers, they might not seem so generous a year down the line when the laptop seems a little dated and newer customers get better deals (like increased allowances) but I guess that's the same as when you buy a phone on contract.

Previously on Fresh Plastic... Anthony had an Eee PC 701, a USB digital TV receiver and posted an article showing the two working together.  Meanwhile the Eee PC decided to split, the USB dongle lay dorment and ultra tiny laptop TV seemed a long forgotten memory.

Well, those days are long gone and I now have an Eee PC 900 and she ain't going anywhere (fingers crossed).  She has a much bigger screen but housed in almost the same sized case (although she's a tad bit heavier, psst - don't tell her that!)  So I introduced her to the digital TV dongle and, after a lot of matchmaking, they got it together!

Getting them working together really was a hard task.  ASUS has made it even more difficult than before.  A lot of head scratching, a lot of Googling, a lot of reading and re-reading of the forum posts on eeeuser.com and a hell of a lot of trial and error.  Got there in the end though - check out the pics below...

Looks like ASUS have been putting some of the money they've been making with their uber-successful Eee PC into their UK web presence.

Check out: EASY TO LEARN . EASY TO WORK . EASY TO PLAY . EASY TO WIN

Yes, that's right, easy-to-win!  But no more details other than a countdown timer.  The page title also includes "Easy to share" - they clearly haven't tried sending files from one Eee PC to another!  Click on the "about" and you're see that they're also bragging about it being easy to carry.

Hopefully I can win one as I'm jonesing for a laptop since my Eee left me...

Sometimes you forget how difficult it was to get some piece of software or hardware working.  And, sometimes it's doubly difficult if you want to get one gadget talking to another.  That was the case with the Eee PC, I forgot how much blood, sweat and tears went into linking it with a 3G phone so I could get on the 'net when there wasn't any WiFi around.

Fast forward to the Nokia N800, and a whole better experience.  I still had problems and there have been some teething problems but compared to the Eee, it was a breeze.  The main problem with the set-up of the N800 involved Nokia's 'wizard' and a hidden "typo" on their behalf.  Once I'd Googled that I had the problem fixed in seconds.

To sum up, getting online using your mobile's connection is easier on the N800 than the Eee - but really that should be expected seeing as Nokia's main business is mobile phones DEVICES!

Check out this earlier post, one that I made last night: HP as well. So they dont just make printers!  I joked about the reasons for why the folks at HP (and previous to that, Dell) were visiting my blog.  Maybe they're gonna launch a rival to the Eee I quipped.  Why did I come to that conclusion?  Simple, my blog rarely has any mention of anything "desktop" (or printer related!) but has a lot to do with the Eee or Nokia.

When I awoke this morning and checked Google News (in my best news announcer voice... More cheapskateians get their news from Google than from any other source*!) I was surprised to see a bundle of stories regarding HP's er, "Eee Killer", the Mini-Note.  I had no idea!  Really. I haven't been following any of the Eee's rivals that closely - other than the usual candidates (Classmate, OLPC, Elonex One etc.)  I've gotta whole bunch of news articles, press releases and blog posts to catch up with methinks!  It is kinda difficult now that I no longer have my Eee PC, so what d'ya say HP?  Fancy giving this blogger a unit to trial?  You know you'll get full warts and all from me but if the device is as good as what I've been reading so far today, then you have nothing to worry about!

Oh, and HP?  When I had my Eee PC and was using it in public I had a queue of people coming up to me and asking me about it.  All, and I mean ALL were impressed including one of the stewardesses, sorry, female flight attendants who already had a more fully featured, and expensive, Sony VAIO.  People of all ages, colours, geeks, non-geeks, they all wanted to know more.  I've never had so many complete strangers come up to me before in my life!  And you know what?  Most of them left me with the impression that they were gonna get themselves one ASAP (good luck, I told them!) and that was after me listing the negatives as well as the positives of the tiny wonder.  If the Mini-Note is really that much better I won't have much bad to say about it, will I?

For good measure I'll add that, not one person approached me regarding the Nokia N95 8GB I had.  I didn't even garner a sneaky glimpser!   And the Eee got way more attention than my sister's iPhone when we went brandishing that around town weeks before it was released in the UK.

Here's a round of the stories about the HP Mini-Note I've been reading today: IT Wire - 'Note to HP: The Mini-Note PC rocks!' / Reg Hardware - 'Asus avoids Atom to get next Eee PC out early?' / Reg Hardware - 'HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival' / Mobile Computer - 'HP guns for the Eee PC with the ultra-stylish Mini-Note 2133' / AP - 'HP Unveils Small Laptop for Schoolkids' / InfoSync World - 'Hands-on with the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC' (as you can probably tell I'm really excited about the news and, maybe, when my insurance comes through I'll be going for the Mini-Note instead of a replacement Eee PC.

*I know it's an aggregator and not a source and yes, only Americans will get that reference but they do make up the majority of my readership!)

I've been laptop-less (sounds like some crazy beach somewhere, but I digress...) for a week now.  Seeing as my first and only laptop was the ASUS Eee PC and that I've only had it since early December it's strange how I've become so attached to it.

There are so many things that just can't be done on a mobile phone no matter how expensive or feature packed it is.  The Nokia N95 8GB I currently have on loan is great but it can't replace a cheap laptop.  As much as people complain about both the small display and keyboard on the Eee, they're almost as useful, practical and convenient as those found on a 'proper' computer.

You can do lots on a high-end phone and the portability factor can't be beat.  But general surfing, emailing, blogging - they all take much longer to do and the process can be fraught with difficulties.  Some websites don't display properly or have missing functionality with phone browsers, the VOX site a prime example.  Using the built-in Nokia browser the VOX website detects that I'm using a phone and sends me to their mobile

version.  VOX mobile just isn't as good as normal VOX and I have no way to tell the site I want the full version (this is unlike Google who let you choose between 'Mobile' and 'Classic').  Going to the VOX site on Opera Mini (a 3rd party browser that's really worth checking out if you haven't done so already) is at first glance a better experience.  You get the full site like you would on a normal computer, but... you can't log in!  I had to do quite a bit of fiddling around and setting changing to be able to click on the log in "button").  Once logged in via Opera Mini you can't actually post so it's kinda pointless!

Hmmm, delicious!  Note the really old Ericsson and an NEC 808Y as a coaster.  Neither can be classed as 'fresh plastic' but they were once tasty.

Here's my Nintendo-loving Eee PC next to a real Nintendo DS Lite.  Only one fits in a pocket though.  Oh, and only one can out do the Energizer bunny.

Here's my Eee on my sideboard.  It's exciting stuff.  Look ma, no wires!  I can play the bongos on my sideboard, I kid ye not.

The frosted glass barely masks the amount of crap I've just thrown inside the sideboard.  Is that bare foot on the shelf inside the unit or is it just a reflection of my foot when I took the picture?  I'll let you decide.

I managed to pick up a pair of Eee PCs back in early December without much fuss. Our local Toys R Us (in the UK, just in case you hadn't noticed my username!) had plenty.  Skip forward a couple of months and they don't have them, the neighbouring PC World doesn't have them and a quick check on the web produces nothing but 'sold out', 'not in stock', 'discontinue' and warning of huge lead times.

There are a couple of Surfs in stock but they're really not worth it IMHO, but it might be a choice of a Surf or doing without for my friend that now desperately wants one!

Something I did notice in my brief search was that PC World Business now offers to pre-install upgraded RAM - 1GB or 2GB.