Cloudbook Ultra-Mobile PC delayed yet again

By Tim Conneally | Published February 15, 2008, 4:44 PM

Everex's Cloudbook ultra mobile PC has seen another delay in widespread availability.

The company's site previously had an announcement to customers that the 9-inch, 2 pound laptop would be available at Walmart.com and ZaReason.com on February 15. Today, that date was pushed back just under a week to February 21.

Costing a mere $399 USD, the Cloudbook is a member of the new echelon of low cost, ultra mobile connected laptops. popularized by the OLPC XO, and the Asus Eee PC. These models act as smartly-priced alternatives to similarly mobile, but decidedly more costly UMPCs such as the Macbook Air and the forthcoming HTC Shift.

The Cloudbook system is driven by a 1.2 GHz VIA C7-M Processor, has 512MB of RAM and a 30GB HDD, 7-inch (800 x 480) WVGA TFT display, a VIA UniChrome Pro IGP Graphics card and VIA high-definition audio sound card. It runs gOS Rocket, and comes with such open source applications as Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, Skype, OpenOffice.org 2.3, among others.

Everex Cloudbook UMPC

Comments

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Comparing this to the Eee PC:

Eee PC-------------Cloudbook

CPU: 900MHz Celeron-----1.2GHz C7

RAM: 512MB--------------512MB

HDD: 2-8GB--------------30GB

Battery: 3.5 hrs.-----------5 hrs.

Looks: Great--------------Umm...ouch

I still think I choose good parts over good looks, but sometimes I'm not so sure... :)

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Judo, what are you doing here, and how did you get on my computer?

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Doesn't look as nice as my Asus Eee PC, I have to say. But these devices are about to take over the world!

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hey stop bashing it nobody is forcing you to buy it. I think its good for those who don't want to spend too much on a laptop...

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Holy crap that thing is ugly..

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...powered by an OS still in beta.

(cue the "Isn't Vista still a a beta?" comedians)

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hahahaha @ PC_Tool and the sad thing is that these beta testers are paying hundreds of dollars to beta test Vista for Microsoft.

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Here's one now.

See? He even thinks he's funny, folks.

...it is, just not in the way he intended, I am sure.

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I haven't played with it yet, is it any "Good?"

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Actually, yes.

For what it claims to be capable of, it actually delivers quite well. gOS does try a bit too hard to be a GoogleOS, but for the "basics" of computer use, it is pretty capable.

gOS does quite well the things *nix OSes excel at. Making low-end hardware usable and providing an OS and interface for entry-level or low-power/low spec devices.

That said, I still don't think this type of low-power/low-spec ultra-portable will fly. I believe the desktop version of the low-cost PC succeeds in part because the user is fooled into thinking they are getting something closer to a "real PC". The packaging and style are very similar.

The ultra portable doesn't get that benefit. Many folks are likely to think it's a toy, or a piece of junk.

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