Two-pound Linux UMPC on sale Jan. 25th (Linux Devices) [LWN.net]

Linux Devices takes a peek at the Everex CloudBook Ultra-Mobile PC, which was officially announced at the Consumer Electronics Show. "As reported, the two-pound laptop is equipped with a Via C7-M ULV processor clocked at 1.2GHz, plus 512MB RAM, a 4-in-1 memory card reader, and a 30GB hard drive. The laptop features a 7-inch, 800x480-pixel screen, plus WiFi, Ethernet, two USB ports, and DVI-Out. The story adds new details such as the CloudBook's 1.3M-bps Ezonics webcam and its touted ability to average five hours of battery life."

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Two-pound Linux UMPC on sale Jan. 25th (Linux Devices)

Posted Jan 10, 2008 23:48 UTC (Thu) by endecotp (guest, #36428) [Link]

It's encouraging that the first two incarnations of this hardware ran Windows (Packard Bell
EasyNote XS and Belinia S-Book), but they've chosen to run Linux on this variant.  I imagine
that the success of the Eee might have something to do with it.

An earlier LinuxDevices story about this box suggested that a "developer" version would be
available, with a touch screen (which the Belinia has but the Packard Bell doesn't).

Two-pound Linux UMPC on sale Jan. 25th (Linux Devices)

Posted Jan 11, 2008 3:59 UTC (Fri) by error27 (guest, #8346) [Link]

It's pretty cool to see all these ultra cheap little computers.  They're all so different and
interesting.

It's sort of a boxy, retro looking box.  Hopefully they change the color up and maybe a use
green or blue plastic.  

It's great that they went with e17 on the desktop.  I use e17 on my desktop at work and a lot
of people comment on it.  E17 makes sense on the tiny screen.

I really do think this is only the start of a trend.  Right now Linux has the bare minimum
requirements but it's only going to get better.  Linux doesn't have a really great calendaring
tool.  It would be awesome if the Nokia 800 could compete with TI graphing calculators.
Mapping tools as well.  I bet people will write them though once they get their hands on these
little devices.

Typing surely sucks

Posted Jan 11, 2008 7:29 UTC (Fri) by sjj (guest, #2020) [Link] (10 responses)

I hope somebody comes up with a better input method for small devices, cramming a workable
keyboard in these is hard or impossible.

Typing surely sucks

Posted Jan 11, 2008 15:33 UTC (Fri) by tjc (guest, #137) [Link] (8 responses)

Or maybe just make the whole thing bigger.

I'd like something like this with a 12 to 14-inch display, and a correspondingly larger keyboard. Without a hard drive/optical drive it would still be thin, light, and reasonably compact.

Typing surely sucks

Posted Jan 11, 2008 16:14 UTC (Fri) by tjc (guest, #137) [Link] (7 responses)

Never mind -- it appears that they already have something like this (scroll down to gBook).

http://www.everex.com/press/

Some nice boxes

Posted Jan 11, 2008 16:56 UTC (Fri) by AJWM (guest, #15888) [Link]

That Everex page has some nice little boxes on it -- the specs for the gPC mini sound pretty
good, it might make a nice media center box.

No suggested retail prices listed for anything but the Cloudbook, though.

Typing surely sucks

Posted Jan 11, 2008 18:11 UTC (Fri) by leoc (guest, #39773) [Link] (5 responses)

That gBook has a 15" screen so it is going to be much larger.

Typing surely sucks

Posted Jan 11, 2008 19:29 UTC (Fri) by tjc (guest, #137) [Link] (4 responses)

Yeah, it's pretty much a conventional laptop, except 1) it's preloaded with Linux, which gives one some confidence that the graphics, sound, and wireless are going to work, and 2) it's cheap, probably because of the VIA chipset/processor.

I really do think I could work with a notebook this size without out a hard drive/optical drive, as long as it had at least 8GB of flash memory. I've been keeping most of my files on a remote server for about 6 months now, and I would have a hard time going back to having them "trapped" on a local system somewhere. So I have a mostly empty hard drives anyway, except on my main system at home.

Typing surely sucks

Posted Jan 11, 2008 22:16 UTC (Fri) by leoc (guest, #39773) [Link]

Assuming it is accessible and you are up for some hacking, you could possibly replace the hard drive with a 2 slot CF card adapter and get a couple of cheap 4GB CF cards.

Typing surely sucks

Posted Jan 12, 2008 2:34 UTC (Sat) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link] (2 responses)

The most significant thing about this laptop, besides being Linux-based, is that it's tiny.
Being small has it's own advantages that go beyond specifications. 

Which is why I have my EEE PC. This Cloudbook is in the same catagoy.

What in a versus with Cloudbook vs EEE.
gOS web-oriented distro --- Xandros-based web-oriented distro
30gig harddrive --- 4gig flash
1.2ghz VIA cpu --- 630mhz (underclocked 900mhz, can run full speed)
Via onboard video --- Intel onboard video
<5 hours battery --- <3 hour battery 

As far as the keyboard goes.. The EEE is small and it does slow you down a bit, but it is
workable for a touch typist. It's not as bad as it seems. I don't know anything about the
cloudbook.

Remember, the special thing is it's size. It's small enough and light enough that it's easy to
use while standing and holding it.

Otherwise bottom-end 14-15 inch laptops can be had for around 500-600 dollars and their
performance would blow either of these guys away.


As for Everex using Linux... They are part of the same company that spun off FIC (think
Neo1973 and OpenMoko) and have a lot of Linux systems for sale. Also (of course) there is the
success of the EEE PC and their own 200 dollar gOS PC.

Typing surely sucks

Posted Jan 14, 2008 1:03 UTC (Mon) by njs (subscriber, #40338) [Link]

> As for Everex using Linux... They are part of the same company that spun off FIC (think
Neo1973 and OpenMoko) and have a lot of Linux systems for sale.

I think you mean, Everex and OpenMoko are both spin-offs from FIC.

Typing surely sucks

Posted Jan 17, 2008 5:19 UTC (Thu) by lysse (guest, #3190) [Link]

5 hour battery? Where do I sign up...?

Typing surely sucks

Posted Jan 11, 2008 22:22 UTC (Fri) by tzafrir (subscriber, #11501) [Link]

Partial solution: an external keyboard. There are a number of creative solutions here.

Two-pound Linux UMPC on sale Jan. 25th (Linux Devices)

Posted Jan 11, 2008 19:40 UTC (Fri) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link]

Ick, it's got a hard drive.  Ditch it, and raise the screen resolution, and I would buy this
thing in a heartbeat.

Hard drives are so 2007!

Name for these things

Posted Jan 12, 2008 1:22 UTC (Sat) by ldo (guest, #40946) [Link] (1 responses)

I'm not sure I like referring to this sort of thing as a "UMPC". To me, that name has become tainted by overpriced, underpowered machines that hardly anybody really wants to buy.

I'm thinking we should call these new machines "ultralights". Just like those budget aircraft that let you fly for not much money, these budget PCs let you compute on-the-go for peanuts.

"Ultralight". Let me know what you think.

Name for these things

Posted Jan 14, 2008 1:05 UTC (Mon) by njs (subscriber, #40338) [Link]

I think "ultraportable" is already a standard name for such things :-).

Two-pound Linux UMPC on sale Jan. 25th (Linux Devices)

Posted Jan 12, 2008 9:32 UTC (Sat) by Cato (guest, #7643) [Link]

This is a nice box, but since it has a hard disk, fairly complete set of ports, and weighs the
same as the lightest conventional laptops, it's really more of a low-end laptop, not a UMPC.
The only UMPC thing about it is the tiny screen and the overall size.   However, clearly the
lines are blurring between smartphones, PDAs, MIDs, mini tablets, UMPCs and laptops.