RSSCloudbook 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.
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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