This is interesting: an 85 USD smartbook running Windows CE. “Inside the little guy packs a 624MHz Marvell PXA303 processor, 2GB of flash storage and runs Windows CE which all should be good enough for some light Web browsing and e-mail writing. There was actually a YouTube shortcut on the desktop, but the NBPC722 wasn’t connected to try it out. Apparently this inexpensive laptop should be making its way stateside this spring.”
H/PCs are back! Apparently they forgot about them and decided to come up with a stupid new name, but whatever. I love me some H/PCs
*edit*
dear god that is farking hideous just looked at it. There is 15 miles (24.14km) of bezel.
oh well…
Edited 2010-03-03 20:28 UTC
look at the desktop icons in the video. Foxit pdf software. WinCE makes a nice desktop os for things like this. It’s fun to turn it into a desktop tyle os. it has just enough for your average facebook and email checking person, as well as multimedia and other stuff. not a ton of 3rd party apps work off the bat (though on ARM there are a lot more to choose from compared to x86).
I’d take 3.
I would buy one of these in a heart beat if I could load Ubuntu on it.
Same. With IceWM, PCManFM, a nice WebKit-based browser, and some other lightweight apps, you can run a fairly full-featured yet zippy desktop with very little hardware.
My old 2Ghz Celeron running that combo actually feels more comfortable than my current KDE 4.3 Athlon64 X2 5000+ for many of my common tasks. (Switchover under consideration)
looking at the Smartbook’s product page..
* 7^aEUR Net Book
* 7″ TFT LCD (800×480)
* CPU with Marvell PXA303 624GHz
* Support SD, MMC, MS / MS Pro
* 1GB to 16GB Storage
* LAN 10/100M
* Wireless LAN(802.11 b/g)
* Support Linux/Windows CE
* Rechargeable Li-ion battery (3 Cells/7.4V/2200mAH)
* 215mm X 146mm X 28mm
http://www.cobysz.com/newEbiz1/EbizPortalFG/portal/html/ProductInfo…
Edited 2010-03-04 05:12 UTC
Any ideas on what distro would be ideal?
Did a little bit of research and looked at the TalkBack on ZDNet’s story. One suggested Android (based on a smartphone running the same processor). Nothing more specific than that.
The price and the features are PERFECT for my indigent budget and needs but yes, I’d rather replace WinCE with Linux. If I understand the specs right it’d have to be installed on an SD card.
Coby’s smartbook is quite similar to this unnamed 7″ Laptop by Joyplus:
http://joyplus.en.made-in-china.com/product/vqDmerbMrlcC/China-7-La…
I’m not sure who ripped off who but notice the similarity both in looks and specs.
Edited 2010-03-04 09:21 UTC
Meanwhile, the original “Hundred Dollar Laptop” costs $400. Maybe those television ads cost more than the computers?
If a thing like that is 85 $, why smartphones featuring similar hardware have to be 500 $ ?
Form factor and because they sell at that price