Everex throws its hat into the UMPC ring

It's first entrant looks less like the Origami UMPC's pushed by Microsoft, and more like the OLPC XO laptop, however.

Priced at $399, the CloudBook is slated to be sold on Walmart.com beginning January 25. Its battery is said to provide about five hours of continuous use, and features a 1.3 MP webcam, 4-in-1 card reader, DVI output, and 30 GB of storage running on a 1.2 GHz processor with 512 MB of RAM.

The OS powering the device is the same as its budget gPC, the gOS V2 Rocket. It's based on Ubuntu Linux, meaning many Linux applications should work just fine on the device, including Gimp and others, which are included.

Also pre-installed are applications from Mozilla, Skype, Google, Facebook, Faqly and OpenOffice.org, Everex said in a statement.

"With the launch of the new CloudBook our vision remains the same [as for our gPC]: Provide mainstream users with their favorite applications wrapped in a no-compromise, low-cost, consumer friendly product," general manager John Lin said.

The unit features a seven inch TFT screen in a device that measures about nine inches across, and weighs just two pounds. While it certainly cannot be used for heavy-duty applications, the included Ethernet and wireless connectivity make it an lightweight alternative for basic Internet and word processing.