Elonex 1t+ Netbook

Well my Elonex ONE+ mini laptop arrived the other day.   My thoughts so far.  Pointless.  A complete waste of space and its rare that a gadget will hit my doorstop and fail to envoke any type of excitement of trouser excitement.  The marketers did a good job of this even suckering yours truely and thats the last time that I get a product if I cant find even one single review.  Basically if you think of a netbook thats powered by by a Spectrum 128k+ with a color screens coupled with buttons that have the tatile feel of using a sledge hammer then you are thinking along the right lines.  Read more here. EBAY AUCTION NOW ON!!

To make matters worse an “upgrade” pack was offered along with this for an extra tenner and then the laptop case for another tenner.  Well ok thats forgivable as postage alone on a laptop bag is more or less that

Mine comes with the following spec
Bluetooth, 2Gb, 256Mb
Jet Black Chassis (yes I know its silver, dont know what happened there)
Splash-proof Removable Keyboard
Power Pack
User Manual
ONEunion access
1 Year Warranty

Now don’t get me wrong, to expect a power house with zippy response wouldn’t be fair on something for that cost and it can do what it says but that’s a grey line….

I could, for example, swim across the channel, and trading standards wouldnt be able to take a hammer to that statement.  Yes the Elonex one+ can browse the internet, slowly.  To put into comparison my smaller HTC Touch Diamond managed to load and render the same pages quicker AND faster than the ElonexONEt+.

If a page has flash then become a private doctor because you will need loads of patience (see what I did there)

Interestingly enough a google search for ElonexONEt+ Silver reveals nothing at all.  This leads me to wonder where is this being pitched at, yes it was about before the EEEpc stuff but, in my mind at least, if you are going to offer a device as in introduction to computers it needs to be better.  A first time experience for anyone using a device will lead to wonderment about what all the fuss is about with that new fangled interweb.

The keyboard feels like some spare parts from the old Psion era but without refinements which lead psions to take the lead at the start of the decade.  To say that the mouse buttons are firm is an understatement.  Having used it for a few hours you soon realise that you type, move your finger over the button and press with a touch of force.  It’s really not fesable to use the side of your thumb unless you have shrek type hands, and if you did you wouldnt be able to use the keys so tightly packed together.

As for the screen is what to be expected for something of this price, vibrant and clear though you do find yourself leaning forward into it to view things, again rendering a bit of a “whats the point” feeling of the device.  Netbooks as a whole really have been lost on me.  Either get a decent enough mobile phone or get a small laptop that actually has some processing power.

So far the experience has left me feeling like Im more on dial up than a portable device i could take anywhere with me.  Definatly not for a small business trip as trying to bring up data in front of clients is going to take too long.

In my next update Ill post about the MSN client, Pidgin, and see how we get on from there.

Updated on 16/5
Seems that this is the most popular page on my little old blog.

So its been a few months and I have to say that I havent, if at all barely used the thing. Its just too slow and even when you do wait for a boot up forget anything to do with flash based browsing.  It really does kill the cpu and what with the advent of the new netbooks it is looking a tab obsolete at the moment but its the price tag that really sets it apart.

Ok so its slow but if you just want to twitter, facebook on something that can be hooked up to a monitor then ok it just about passes muster… just but like I say my phone (htc touch diamond with the new room) is more responsive and at least has apps written for it that use it properly.  One something like this things need to be simplified and almost designed for an underpowered netbook.

Ill get some screen shots up if there is a bit of demand for it.

No demand for screen shots, shame really as this is one of the most read articles on my blog.  however… I do have it for sale now on ebay!!

But seeing as I’ve put the pics on ebay I might as well put them here as well

The Elonex is now up for aution on ebay starting at a low price idea for an xmas present etc

Elonex ONEt+ Full Specification

Processor and Ram

Storage Hard Drive

Interfaces / Networking

Display

Audio

Dimensions / Weight

Battery

Miscellaneous

I received a strange email earlier this week, which I simply thought was a piece of spam which had simply missed the usual excellent spam filters.

However I received the following email this morning from Elonex – please note my emphasis.

Dear Customer,
You may have received an email earlier this week that simply said sdfsdf.
This was an internal test email that was sent to a number of customers in error.
You will receive an update email in the next two weeks with details on delivery dates.
If you have cancelled or have an incomplete order you would also have received this mail but your order will remain cancelled and unaffected.

Sorry for any confusion caused.

Best regards
The Elonex One Team

So Elonex may still hit their June delivery date, though to be honest my confidence is not high.  It’s a real shame that Elonex hasn’t been able to capitalize on the buzz that surrounding the announcement of the One.  Let’s hope that this delay is not indicative of a more serious problem.

I know there are other blogs posting about Elonex One, I’ve opened the ‘comments’ section below, it would be great if other people who are blogging about this post a link to their own blogs.

Taiwanese manufactuerer Elitegroup Computer Systems unveiled its G10IL mininotebook, which will feature Intel’s new Atom processors and either an 8.9- or 10.2-inch screen. Like the MSI Wind prototype Crave spied earlier this month, the ECS G10IL features an unfortunate name and a fetching design: clean, glossy, and white. At first glance, it looks like some sort of mini-MacBook crossed with a Sony VAIO. – Cnet.com

The ECS G10IL has three USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet and modem jacks, WLAN and Bluetooth, and a 4-in-1 card reader. Key for any ubermobile device, the G10IL provides mobile broadband; in this case, 7.2Mbps HSPA. Other specs listed on the ECS site include the choice of Windows XP or Linux, up to 2GB of RAM in the lone DIMM slot, an integrated Webcam, either an solid state drive or spinning hard drive, and a 4- or 6-cell battery.

A release date is unknown, but Laptoping.com reports that ECS will talk pricing next month. – Cnet.com

Beside the incredible Eee PC there are a few competitors poping about. Lets see what they have to offer shall we? Most of which are available only in Europe were the Eee PC was a big hit.
1) Elonex One (aka GeCube Genie), £99

The One is an attractive little unit that weighs in at 900g. Elonex says it’s designed to be kid-proof in that it’s shock resistant, has no moving parts and is very reliable. The main components are housed behind the 7-inch 800×480-pixel display. You get a 300MHz LNX Code 8 Mobile CPU — no, we’ve never heard of it either — 128MB of DDR2 memory and 1GB of flash memory. An enhanced version of the laptop, called the One Plus, ships with 256MB of RAM and 2GB of storage.

802.11b/g Wi-Fi is standard, as is wired 10/100 Ethernet, two USB2.0 ports, built-in speakers, and the keyboard’s removable so you can use the One like a tablet PC. The display isn’t touch-sensitive, so you’ll have to use a ‘mouse emulator’ — aka nipple — round the back. The whole thing runs on the Linux Linos 2.6.21 operating system, which comes with a variety of productivity, media and education software.

The One is never going to be the fastest computer in the world, and we’re sceptical that it’ll be without its problems, but you really can’t go wrong for £99. It’s available in pink, green, silver, white or black, and will be released in July 2008. Pre-order yours from the Elonex Web site now for a £10 deposit.

2) Packard Bell EasyNote XS (aka VIA Nanobook), £399

Just 230×171x29mm and it weighs 950g. It uses a 7-inch display with an 800×480-pixel native resolution, a 1.2GHz VIA C7-M CPU, 1GB of RAM and a 30GB 2.5-inch hard drive, which puts the 1GB or 2GB models in the Eee or Elonex One to shame.

It’s disappointing, then, that it costs a relatively hefty £399. The fact it uses Windows is no excuse — the Dell Vostro uses Vista and costs £200 less. Still, it’s the only 7-inch uber-portable that comes with a decent amount of storage right off the shelf.

3) MSI Wind, £225

If there’s one laptop that could seriously end the Eee’s reign, it’s the MSI Wind. We believe it could be the perfect blend of portability and usability, due to the fact it’s slightly larger than an Eee PC, with a bigger keyboard and a choice of screen sizes. – Cnet UK

Eight- and 10-inch versions are available, as are Silverthorne CPUs ranging from 1GHz to 1.5GHz. You even get a choice of hard drive types: there are solid-state models for anyone prone to dropping things, and 2.5-inch models for anyone who wants to store lots of multimedia files.

Best of all, the entry-level Wind is set to cost just €299 (£225), or €699 (£530) for the high-end model. Like all good uber-portables, it’s available in a variety of colours including blue, silver and pink.

4) Dell Vostro 1400, £233

You’re probably wondering what the hell the Dell Vostro is doing in this list. It’s big, comparatively heavy and it’s, er, a Dell. But let’s not lose focus here, people. It costs a measly £233 — less than you pay for an Eee PC — and it’ll spank the backside off the rest of these wannabEees in performance terms.

The Vostro range is available in a variety of form factors, the smallest of which has a 14-inch display and a chassis weighing 2.5kg. Okay, so it isn’t especially portable, but it does have the advantage of a full-size keyboard and a screen you don’t need ophthalmic surgery to read. – Cnet UK

The basic package includes a 1.86GHz Celeron M CPU, 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 120GB hard drive, Intel GMA X3100 graphics, a 1,280×800-pixel display and the luxury of all luxuries: an 8x DVD rewriter!

802.11b/g Wi-Fi comes as standard, and you can customise it to hell and back to eke even more performance out of it. That’s probably just as well, since it uses Windows Vista Home Premium edition. ‘Downgrading’ to Windows XP Professional will set you back an extra £30. Dell also offers a 15.4-inch Vostro 1000 series laptop for £210 plus the cost of shipping, which is based on AMD processors.5) Asus Eee PC 900, £300

The Eee PC 900 is the bigger, badder version of the original Eee PC 701. Announced officially at CeBIT 2008, this comes with an 8.9-inch widescreen display, an

1,024×600-pixel resolution, and up to 12GB of solid-state memory. It may be released later this year.

6) OLPC XO-1 (aka One Laptop Per Child)

Finally, we should mention the XO-1, formerly the ‘$100 laptop’, which is designed as part of a charitable project for children in developing nations. As the concept has been kicking around for a few years, it’s arguably the inspiration for the Eee. It’s not currently on sale to the public, but last year’s Give One Get One programme meant for £200, you could keep one and they’d send the other to a starving-but-surprisingly-IT-capable child. Hopefully the offer will be back soon. – Cnet UK

The OLPC is undoubtedly one of the weirdest-looking contraptions known to man. It has a rotating 7-inch 1,200×900-pixel screen, runs off an AMD Geode LX-700 CPU,
256MB of super-slow 133MHz RAM, and has 1GB of flash memory, which you can add to via an SD card slot under the screen.

Its quirky ear-like aerials work in conjunction with its 802.11s wireless card to create a mesh network, which means you can piggyback off another XO-1 to share its Internet connection if you’re not quite within range.

Visit www.5millionpageviews.com

Hi all, I’m a new poster to the odeworld blog. My name is Peter Marshall and I’ve recently joined the ode team as a software engineer and was prompted by Mr B to blog a couple of observations that peaked his interest. So here goes!

I saw an announcement today for another £100 laptop for school kids, the “Elonex One” http://www.elonexone.co.uk that will be running the Linux OS. This also comes hot on the heels of the Eeepc from Asus http://eeepc.asus.com/uk/guide.htm and they’re both very impressive.

I can also say, from first hand experience, that there is a lot of interest in these small PCs from my children and their friends. The interest to own one is being driven by the children; it doesn’t appear to be a parent led thing as in “lets buy a PC because its educational”.

I am also seeing a significant change in the way my children use and collaborate on work at school.

I think its beginning to turn into a movement driven by and for the student.

The government and schools always thought that they had to provide email for pupils. I distinctly remember there were government led initiatives to provide an email address for every school child (they failed). It became apparent it was unnecessary. No school child uses their school email address (even if they have one). They have always sourced their own.

The same has happened to documents and files. Schools thought they had to provide networks and file space and protection and all kinds of administration and support for children to upload homework files etc. Well, they don’t. Not anymore. My children use Google docs to collaborate (IN REAL TIME) with their mates to create work.

They also don’t bother to use the school network anymore. The school network naturally restricts how much space they can use to store work and students moving from the mindset outside school of web hosting services that freely grant upwards of 100GB of space to a school model that perhaps gives them 50MB and you can see why.

I can see that moving forward the only service the school has to provide is high speed access to the internet. Both the Asus Eeepc and the Elonexone devices come with full wireless internet access. Aside from any mindless controversy I think schools will very soon start to provide blanket wireless access points for pupils. In fact, it’s inevitable.

My children have made videos of their friends explaining all about pathogens for their biology homework. They upload the videos on to Youtube or Vimeo and present them in school (the school has not blocked Youtube…yet!).

Before the lesson most of the class has seen the video and rated or commented on it (because the link was shared using social networking sites in a peer to peer fashion). All this happens long before the teacher saw it in class.

What does this imply? That the teacher in this instance has become the slow link in the learning chain. And it will take a fundamental shift in thinking to make them once again an intrinsic part of the learning loop going forward.

From the students perspective a lot is changing very fast and the technology is naturally appearing to facilitate it. Demand and supply. I can see children progressing and branching in their own direction at such a pace I fear schools and the education sector are just getting left behind.

These small incredibly cheap PCs come with Linux, access to open source collaboration tools and wireless access and I think they are going to cause some big changes.

Go and see the video here: Biology video about Pathogens from Pierre Marshall on Vimeo.

La société Elonex s’apprête à commercialiser le “One” un ultraportable annoncé au prix de 99 livres, soit un peu plus de 130 euros. Mais à presque 200 euros moins cher que les bécanes positionnées sur le segment le plus proche, peut on vraiment parler de concurrent pour les ultraportables comme l’Eee PC, le Cloudbook and Co ? Pas sûr…

Je n’ai pas trouvé d’infos concernant la taille de l’écran ou la résolution de celui-ci. Sinon il embarque un processeur cadencé à 300 mhz, 128 mo de Ram, 1 go de disque dur, 2 ports USB, 2 hauts parleurs et une sortie ethernet. Le tout fonctionnant sous Linux.

Si on regarde la photo, on voit que la connectique est au niveau de l’écran. Ce choix n’est pas esthétique mais technique parce qu’on peut séparer l’écran du clavier et ainsi s’en servir comme tablet PC (l’écran n’est pas tactile mais un systeme de touchpad est présent à l’arrière de l’écran).

Elonex espère vendre 1 millions de One… Wait & See comme ils disent.

Pour mes impressions et une vidéo du One d’Elonex, c’est sur More ^^

Après avoir vu le reportage de la BBC je suis un peu sceptique sur ce Elonex…

En effet,  déjà au niveau du hardware ça me semble limité. C’est certes mieux qu’un smartphone mais ce n’est pas folichon non plus. Bon j’avoue que ce genre de machine n’est pas faite pour jouer à Crysis, mais là j’ai quand même très peur du résultat si on commence à faire du web et qu’on ouvre deux fichiers word à côté. Mais bon je me trompe peut être.

De plus, vu le nombre de fois ou l’on peut entendre le mot “children” dans la vidéo. On peut penser que le One est plus destiné à nos cheres têtes blondes plutôt qu’au business man ou blogueur en déplacement. Ce qui peut expliquer aussi le prix si bas.

Après ça regarde que moi, mais je le trouve carrément moche ^^

Sinon c’est clair qu’à 130 euros c’est vraiment abordable comme machine, beaucoup plus qu’un smartphone ou Pocket PC… Après faut le voir tourner pour être sur qu’on prenne pas deux jours pour ouvrir une page web…