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.
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