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Photo by Ulrike Hahnel, Rock Formations on the Lagune Route, Bolivia

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Ulrike Hahnel,
Rock Formations on the
Lagune Route, Bolivia



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  #1  
Old 23 Jul 2007
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Laptop virtually perfect for the road

Just came across this

ASUS Eee PC - official site
Asus Eee PC: £199 Linux laptop - Crave at CNET.co.uk - more details
ASUS Eee PC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - even more details

It's virtually ideal for travelling - solid state hard drive - so no moving parts to get trashed - and it's dirt cheap £199.

It has wi-fi, 4,8 or 16gb solid state hard drive, 4 usb ports, ships with a nice little linux variant (very easy to use) that boots in 15 seconds and comes pre-loaded with open office, skype and firefox.

It's exactly what I've been looking for - they come out next month... time to put some cash aside I think!

m
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Last edited by mattcbf600; 23 Jul 2007 at 15:49. Reason: added wikipedia link
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  #2  
Old 24 Jul 2007
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The first site .. looks to be all flash photos and stuff .. the wilpeadia is more useful .. looks like it will run windows XP .. so could be used for Garmin GPS Mapsource stuff .. nice find.

Note some criticism on the wilpeadia site ..

"Video resolution of the Eee PC-701's 7 inch screen is only 800x480 pixels, the same as Nokia's N800 4.1 inch screen. This will prevent usage with some software and will likely make navigating many web sites much more difficult."
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  #3  
Old 24 Jul 2007
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Difficult but not impossible. Have you ever tried browsing on a 320x240 PDA?
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  #4  
Old 24 Jul 2007
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Yes it's certainly not a fully featured laptop with stunning resolution - but that's what makes is perfect for travelling I think...

It would be good to have a larger screen resolution and it looks as if the 10'' version will - but what people have been saying is that on a 7'' screen anything larger than 800x600 is almost impossible to read - which makes a certain amount of sense I suppose.
Big ticks for me have to be..

* Solid state hard drive - it aint gonna break
* Small form factor - I can tuck it away anywhere
* So cheap if it dies, it's not the end of the world
* Built in wi-fi
* USB ports so I can connect my phone, camera etc

I guess it's that in-between step from a PDA (less than 800!) and a laptop - I'm sure I'm not going to be surfing the apple trailers site whilst I'm out on the road - but I'll certainly be ploughing through my various RSS feeds, maybe booking ferries etc, and updating my blog and sending emails.

I don't have a Garmin so I don't have to worry about MapSource I guess - I'd also be very hesitant about running XP on it - it's got very good specs for an OS that takes up less than 500mb of disk space - but it's going to struggle with one that takes up 4gb!
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Last edited by mattcbf600; 24 Jul 2007 at 11:03. Reason: Formating was all to pot
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  #5  
Old 26 Jul 2007
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Me likey a lot.

Shame the 10" isnt out until 2008.
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  #6  
Old 26 Jul 2007
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Yes I know what you mean - I've got a pre-order in on the 7'' - I'll report back when I've had a play.

m
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  #7  
Old 26 Jul 2007
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Just spotted this... now... it's a 'normal' laptop - standard moving parts hard drive and other bits - it runs linux and its..... £73.. yes... £73

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/07...son_celebrity/

now - I'm not sure it'll last very long on the road - BUT at that price - with a 14'' screen and 1280x768 resolution.... seems reasonable.

m
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  #8  
Old 27 Jul 2007
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I hate to p*ss on your bonfire, but have a read of this Medison Celebrity - the "genuine" £75 notebook? - Pocket-lint.co.uk
the old chestnut, if it sounds to good to be true...........................


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  #9  
Old 27 Jul 2007
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Well as ever you should only buy from a trusted source - I wont buy on in Europe yet as there's no supplier - but BBC America has placed an order for 10 of them as cheap machines to use in the field - let's see if they turn up!
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  #10  
Old 29 Jul 2007
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great find, hope its released before I leave.

video of Asus

YouTube - Asus Eee PC 701 News Video
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  #11  
Old 29 Jul 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DarrenM View Post
great find, hope its released before I leave.

video of Asus

YouTube - Asus Eee PC 701 News Video
Cool - thanks for the link - most informative - yes I'm crossing fingers it comes out before my Sept 4th departure.

m
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  #12  
Old 29 Jul 2007
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anyone manage to spot if the Eee PC had a DVD/CD drive in it??
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  #13  
Old 29 Jul 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ashmax View Post
anyone manage to spot if the Eee PC had a DVD/CD drive in it??
Nope. Everything would have to be installed via USB using package files or by using an inexpensive USB CD/DVD RW.

LITE-ON Dvd Dual Drive Dvd+/-rw 20x8x16x Dl 8x Dvd-ram 12x Usb 2.0 External LH-20A1PX-500C

Once things are installed on linux, they dont go wrong (usually).

You can put a DVD image onto a flash drive and install off that or just make sure you have everything that you need pre-installed on the trip.

The only downfall is not being able to burn dvd's on the road but I dont think thats an issue these days seeing as USB flash memory is so cheap now and the Eee's 16mg memory wont allow much storing of video/pictures/music etc.

Think of it like a camera where you need to buy Memory cards.
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  #14  
Old 29 Jul 2007
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Yes I couldn't agree more... and the thing is of course that linux software is generally downloaded rather than installed from CD - unless of course you want to play that very latest CD Single!

anyhow... as you say flash memory is so cheap - in fact it's free when you've been to as many tech conferences as me and have as many USB memory sticks as I do!

m
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  #15  
Old 30 Jul 2007
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If this thing can handle my mapsource for Garmin, I'm definately buying.
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