Posted on 01/09/2008 6:58:09 AM PST by webschooner
At CES, Everex is launching a $399 ultramobile that will be sold through Walmart.com starting January 25. The low-cost Everex CloudBook uses the open source gOS V2 Rocket operating system and VIA 1.2GHz C7-M ULV processor, same as the $199 Everex gPC.
The Cloudbook is designed for Internet usage, not for heavy duty graphics applications. Like the gPC, it will come with software or links to FireFox, gMail, Meebo, Skype, Google Documents & Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, Google News, Google Maps, Wikipedia, Google Product Search, GIMP, Blogger, YouTube, Xine Movie Player, RhythmBox, Faqly, Facebook and OpenOffice.org 2.3.
The unit weighs 2 pounds and is 9.06 x 6.73 x 1.16 inches. It has a 7-inch TFT screen with 800 x 480 native resolution, and has a 30 GB drive and 512 MB of DDR2 533MHz SDRAM. The Cloudbook averages averages 5 hours of battery life with its lithium-ion battery, according to the company, and also includes a 1.3-megapixel Webcam.
For input and output, the Cloudbook includes a DVI-I port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, a RJ45 Ethernet port, headphone/line out jack, microphone/line in jack and 4-in-1 media card reader. For connectivity it offers 802.11b/g and Ethernet.
The gOS is based on the Ubuntu 7.1 Linux desktop developed by an open source startup of the same name. “The gOS is an alternative operating system that makes it apparent that Google is your entire computing experience,” said gOS founder David Liu regarding the release of the gPC in October 2007. “When you make Linux look pretty and put ton of Google apps on it, you pacify it for consumer. You could say gOS is Google inspired but not official stamped.” gOS uses the Enlightenment window manager and has taken cues from Apple in designing the interface.
Tech ping?
So, unlike the Asus Eee, this one has an internal hard drive?
I’d be interested in seeing a side-by-side user comparison, but I’d give the Asus the edge.
EeePC competition. Nice. And no WinDoze.
So Everex didn’t want $50 M$OS either.
I'd pick this up over an Apple any day of the week.
Apparently. But the Asus disc storage is 2-6Gb (IIRC) whereas this has a 30Gb capacity. That gives this a little more versatility IMO.
Behold the new “telephone”...
You can surely expect online side-by-side reviews and comparisons of this and the Asus Eee PC soon after the Cloudbook becomes available later in January.
I like it, a portble Wi-Fi ready small notebook for e-mails and surfing will be very useful on the road.
For the technically challenged, like me, can I run my windows programs on it? Will it read my Excel and Word files? Can I use MS Outlook?
Hm. I’ve gotta think the market niche for these is going to be pretty narrow. You can get a real laptop for only $100 more, down at Office Depot, or wherever — and it has a lot more of everything that this one offers.
OLD and NEW Eee PC: 
http://gizmodo.com/342468/real-live-pictures-of-89+inch-asus-eee-pc
“For the technically challenged, like me, can I run my windows programs on it? Will it read my Excel and Word files? Can I use MS Outlook?”
It doesn’t run Windows programs. It runs Linux programs.
OpenOffice.org free software will indeed read and write Word and Excel files. They are full featured word processing and spreadsheet programs.
It doesn’t run Outlook, but will run any webmail application you want or several resident email programs like Thunderbird (the email program from the Firefox people). For internet browsing, Firefox looks the same as it does on your PC.
Yep, at $199 they might sell like hotcakes.
The Asus is already a hot seller, and I expect this one will only expand the market. The laptop you speak of has Windoze Visduh on it, which has proven extremely unpopular. Visduh is very slow to boot up and slower to move about than XP was, and particularly so on low-end laptops without ultra-fast processors and 2 or more gigs of Ram, such as the low-priced laptops you speak of.
On the other hand, the Asus boots up in 15 seconds, and zips about on the web quickly. I have watched many vids of it in action on youtube. Plus these are smaller, lighter, more portable. It's different market niches.
All that Google stuff on it, don’t expect to have any privacy.
“Hm. I’ve gotta think the market niche for these is going to be pretty narrow”
I have to agree. I’m wondering what those that like these platforms, like about them. Is it the price? The size? The minimalistic approach to both the form factor and software?
Apparently not. Asus came out with the first generation of Eee PC on Oct 17, and cannot produce them fast enuf to meet demand.
I was close to getting my mother something like this but then I realized the screen size would be rather important so I picked up a HP laptop off craigs list..
I’m aware of that, I just think it’s a fad. They’ll go the way of the Yugo, and Apple’s LISA and Cube.
The question is, though -- is the market niche for this one large or small? I don't know what will run on these things, but if it's limited in what you can run, then you're not going to have a very big market for them.
For example, the article says, "the Cloudbook is designed for Internet usage, not for heavy duty graphics applications." In other words, no games, nor various other common graphics-intensive stuff. And for $100 more, you can get those things and more (including > 3x more hard disk and a bigger screen and keyboard).
I really don't see them making much headway beyond the initial fad buys.
I've got one of those "$100 more" laptops, Even tho it's an Intel duo core with 1 gig of Ram, it possitively sucks, and I'm selling it. It has Windoze Visduh, which takes forever to boot up and is slow moving about on the web as well. A Vista laptop has to have a very powerful processor and 2 gig of Ram or more to have any decent performance, and you don't buy those for $500.
Since I use a laptop for travel, or at home to pick up in the kitchen or liv room to quickly go on the web -- just web, email, etc., I'll either be replacing it with one of these micro-computers (15 second boot-up), or find a late-model 14" laptop running XP for no more than $400-450. I won't ever buy any machine with Vista on it again.
I don't think I'm alone in the market that they have found interested in these products for various reasons: quick boot-up and ease and quickness of use, lightness and portability, price, the bad rep of Vista, etc. After all, considering what many are paying for smartphones with web access, I think there is definitely a strong market segment for these, as though they have no phone, they have a bigger screen and keyboard than a smartphone, but are still much more light and portable than a laptop.
I stopped right there... I prefer not to engage in a religious discussion with you on this.
Open Office (free Linux program) is capable of running most MS Office files.
I am ready to drop my luggable laptop like a bad habit for the EEE. I don't use a laptop as a secondary desktop when I'm away from home. I used it to check email, maybe surf the net a little, and do word processing. THAT'S IT. Therefore, I don't need to lug around a cheap laptop that incredibly slow because it is loaded with Windoze and bloatware.
Given the specs you could run Windows XP reasonably well as long as you toned down the eye candy, but it won't be as fast or responsive as the standard configuration. Forget Vista on this.
bump
Why don't you just keep your current laptop and replace Windows with any one of the free Linux distributions?
Save yourself the purchase price of the new hardware.
Thanx for the tip, but another reason for selling it is that I have found a 15.4" display laptop is too bulky for my uses and taste. I will replace it with a 12-14" late model conventional laptop with XP, or, either the slightly larger second gen Asus EEE PC or one of these Everex Cloudbooks, sometime in the next few months.
“Even tho it’s an Intel duo core with 1 gig of Ram”
There’s your problem. Downgrade to XP and see the difference.
Thanx for the tip. I thought about doing that, but after studying it, I found that the problem would be that many of the components in such late-model laptops do not have XP drivers available for them, so I don't want to go down that road.
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