Ahhh the great EEEPC shortage.
 

Same thing here in France, they're rare as hen's teeth. SFR (vodaphone) are doing a deal of an EEEPC with a 3G card for €199 plus €24 a month data/voice connection, which is a right old rip-off. Unfortunately for them they also have to sell the EEEPCs alone under French law. So they're €299 for the 4Gb webcammed ones and they've all gone. Hoefully by the time it comes to buy the novelty will have worn off.

And Matt you'll be buying the pink one of course, wont you mate?

of course! Order already in ;-) tart.

I kinda wonder the usefulness of it if you're not a geek. The fact that it runs linux and has a bunch of crappy tools on it by default just doesn't make the thing very useful.

That being said... I got my eeeeeeeee 4G a few days ago and I _love_ it. :clap:

BUT I also have tons of Linux admin experience and write software for a living. I upgraded to 2GB ram, rebuilt the kernel, setup KDE, shrank all the fonts and window dressings, and am now starting to wonder what kind of scripts I should write for photo management.

The only downside with the machine is that the keyboard is tiny. I have a hard time typing at full speed on the thing. I've regressed into 2 or 3 finger typing. I'm sure I'll get better over time.

Yes know what you mean about the keyboard - but as they say practice, practice, RSI.

RE crappy tools though... tbh you require no Linux experience to use the machine and the software you use is identical to it's windows counterpart - Skype, Firefox, Mail, etc....

m

Hi all
Matt,this has been a great thread...cheers.
I have been looking at tough compact travel computers and first came across the Asus eeepc on this thread...i tried getting a good look at one here in Spain but nobody seems to stock them...maybe looking in the wrong place.
Anyway,on a recent motorbike trip to Morocco i finally got to see one in the flesh after bumping into another biker who was traveling with one.It felt great to handle and the screen size was good as was the picture.The owner seemed very hapy with its wifi and toughness...he even dropped it on the floor from waist height to prove its ruggedness.It bounced twice and carried on working.I know nuffink about computers...which could be a blessing,but this little baby could be perfect for my basic needs on the road.
Anybody know when or if the newer 10" screen version is out.....is it worth waiting for? I hear it will have bigger screen,will it have bigger memory etc?
Gonna order a machco black one:)

Eee PC in Tan Tan,Morocco.4,000kms on a motorbike,dropped and kicked and played with and still working.
http://inlinethumb14.webshots.com/42...600x600Q85.jpg

Asus originally said April for the 7'' and 8'' versions of the eee PC but have now pushed that back to 'Q2'. They are having problems getting hold of the processor by all accounts.

My trip isn't until September so I'm going to hang off until nearer the time to see what comes along before I go.

Whilst reading the Register yesterday I canme across the new HTC umpc -

HTC Vista UMPC to hit the UK within weeks | Reg Hardware

http://regmedia.co.uk/2007/03/27/htc_shift_2.jpg

It'll be available from Expansys at around $1720ish from 19th Feb and there's a rumour that Orange may also sell it with a contract for much less.

Specs:

So what other features does the pricey device have? The Shift has a 7in touchsensitive display that tilts up to reveal a Qwerty keyboard. It runs Windows Vista Business edition, and hides 1GB of DDR 2 memory and a 30GB hard drive under its shell.


For data connectivity, the Shift has quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge, 3G HSDPA for connections of up to 3.6Mb/s, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0. There's a fingerprint reader to stop unauthenticated users from easily gaining access.

So some significant improvements over the eee PC - but still a traditional HD rather than flash - and that's the killer for me. Not to mention the price.




m

woot i just bought one, its great

Ooooh, the HTC, I got my hands on one yesterday, I teach people from Orange how to speak English and they show me gadgets. It is lovely, BUT:

It's smaller than the EeePC, and that means a smaller keyboard, it really is back to one or two finger typing - OK so the touch screen obviates this a little bit, but then why not just go the whole hog and get an HTC Touch? The hard-drive as Matt said is a vulnerability although being smaller it should be easier to pack securely. It does run Windows though which means GPS compatibility should be easier.

The big killer for me is the price, why pay thousands for it when you can pay hundreds and have something which is probably better suited for travelling?

Eepc
 

H i Guys
As promised some weeks ago will now give you update on travels with my EEPC.
After 6 weeks,travelling from Malaga to Gambia,(via Morocco,Mauritania & Senegal ) I can say that It,s a lovely piece of kit.
As witnessed by Dean Dean,on earlier pages,I dropped it from waist height onto concrete,&,gave it a kick with me trusty Sidi Courriers.No problem!!!
Got rid of the horrid Linux in Gambia,(impossible to download Camera,mobile phone software,etc.
It survived all the dust,through a thousand miles of desert,( unlike my Panasonic Lumix ),& a few hundred miles of piste.
So far,so good.Am on my way back now.Will give an update next week.
Changed to Windows XP by the way,which takes up just under 2 Gig.
My model 4 Gig hard drive with 512 mb memory.

Cheers Paul

I think that the installed linux is great! Tried a few other things and went back to it. If you get windows then you also have to install office and it will take ages to boot compared to xandros which is tailored to the eee pc. Also some of the software with the eee is really handy, such as PIM which I've found to be heaps better than Outlook, it's almost like MS Outlook and MS Project rolled into one. I would consider installing windows onto a spare SD card for those times you need to install software only released on windows but for general use (i.e. log i and surf the web for a phone number or a google
earth location) Xandros the best bet in my opinion.

Also not sure about mobile phone software but when I plug my ipod into usb it loads amarok 10 times faster than iTunes loads on my dual core at work :o

Music/photo/video manager are also quite good I've found, easy to resize lots of photos quickly for upload and everything is so easy to click because its laid out really well. Apparently the touch screen addon is really good with Xandros too, it's like $60 on ebay.

Eepc
 

Hi pockethead
Windows loads almost as quick as Linux.Did,nt have to load Office,I have Outlook Express.Also you get the option when loading to delete all the crap you do,nt need.I have no need for Word Or Excel.
It,s not possible to load most software for cameras etc,at least not for me.I tried,all the software I needed (Panasonic Lumix,Motorola phone ) only works with Windows or Mac.
Perhaps someone else Knows better.

Cheers Paul

Hey Paul thanks for the feedback on the eee PC - I've held off and held off to see how this market develops and as I hear more and more reports it's becoming more and more certain which machine I'll be buying! :clap:

Interesting that you killed the linux install for windows though, obviously I'm not a windows fan at the best of times ;-) but everyone who's done it so far (that's I've talked to - so not that many people!) has done so because they wanted to run a windows only piece of software.

In some cases there are only Windows or Mac versions, but a little digging will generally find the Linux version too - but not necessarily from the manufacturer.

What I've found is that whilst most of the phones I buy only have windows or mac software they all support basic open standards like Bluetooth browsing - which means I don't need the specific drivers because I can 'see' the device from the computer over BT and get what I need that way.

It's getting easier and easier but there are still issues like MapSource - which thankfully is now available for the mac! but not yet for Linux.

m

I want to plug a USB mobile broadband modem into my Eee-PC but I don't think they'll run on Linux. Has anyone got any experience otherwise?

It should just work :-) Look here

EeeUser ASUS Eee PC EeePC Forum / EEEPC Xandros and mobile broadband card (for AU users)

for help.

m

A British company has just announced a new £99 laptop - complete with wi-fi and flash based hard drive - it'll be powered by linux once again and at £99 it'll be the cheapest of this band of devices on the market....

Elonex to launch £99 laptop, News at CNET.co.uk

they've not released any hardware specs at all, and full details will be announced at the Education show in Birmingham next week.

UK's Elonex releases £99 OLPC rival - ZDNet UK

There's a little more information over at The Register

Elonex punts £99 Linux laptop | Reg Hardware

including this pic

http://regmedia.co.uk/2008/02/19/elonex_one_1.jpg

A comment on El Reg has suggested that this new laptop is actually just a badged version of this

Simple PC Supplier / Manufacturer / Exporter - Fontastic Telecom Inc.

http://scm.asianproducts.com/images/...213084909b.jpg


m

Elonex mini pc
 

Hi All, Just a little info..the real Elonex went into liquidation about three years ago:(, the name was purchased by another:confused1: the parts dept was bought up by Ever Changing Worlds/Elonex parts, where and who is producing these mini pc's i don't know, but i'll keep me nose to the ground to find out:cool4: if i can..
TDMalcolm

What to buy!
 

Hi all
I was set on getting an eee pc after reading the good reviews of it here then Mattcbf600 mentions there are issues with Mapsource.Thats one thing that i would really want the eeepc to support but its seems its not able to.(correct me if i am wrong please).
I have come across this Notebooks > EasyNote XS > Easynote XS20-006 from Packard Bell at 350 pounds which has windows xp home.It cost over 100 pounds more than the eee pc but has abit more memory etc although the same 400 MHz as the Asus so it would not be any faster:confused1:No SSD means possible vibration damage but that appears to be the only negative in comparison with the cheaper....hard to find eee pc.Does anybody have any experience of these?:helpsmilie:

Thanks
Dean

Hi Dean - sorry I should be more clear. The eee PC does not support MapSource out of the box, but you can quite easily install Windows XP onto the machine which quite happily supports it.

m

WOW! That was quick.Thanks m.My problem is "i know nothing".I will go with the eee pc and get it upgraded.

I have tried all week to locate an eepc but to no avail.Only able to get one on Ebay which i won't be using as PayPal are a big problem for me.:nono:
Looks like i will be going for this one by Packard Bell .Notebooks > EasyNote XS > Easynote XS20-006 I'll post a review here on it soon.It should suit my needs for bike touring.

Hi Dean - try this page

ASUS EEE PC Stock

it tells you exactly where it's in stock...

m

Well now everyone seems to be getting in on the market - the new HP - HPS UMPC 2133

HP's UMPC 2133 revealed - Engadget

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.en...9feb08-440.jpg

Expected to be around $633 for the basic config, so a little more expensive than the eee - but it is aluminium, it has all the same toys, snd has a larger keyboard (95% real size). You'll be able to order it with XP or Linux, it also has a larger screen (8.9'').

All in all a lot more for about twice the money - it seems that we have options from £99 all the way up to the price of a fully featured laptop... so may options, so little cash!

Thanks Matt
Had a look and seems most available are the 2gb and they are in pink....hmmm!pretty but not what a macho dusty bike rider would be happy to pull out to impress others with.I really don't want to get one sent through the post either as i have had plenty of problems in the past with overseas postal companies.
Well then....mums coming to visit next week and she is bringing the Packard Bell xs notebook she has hopefully picked up from PCworld.Its more expensive but on the bright side it comes with Genuine Windows XP Home Edition already installed,30GB hard drive and 1 GB memory.That should be ok for my meagre needs.

Thanks again Matt
Dean

You'll need to let us know how you get on with the PB... looks very interesting :-)

m

Will do.I really know next to nothing about pc's so don't expect anything in-depth.My main concern is portability,toughness,battery life and the ability to run Mapsource.......I have heard some people are surprised that Packard Bell are still in business...Well they are and i will be using one of their products on a mini tour next week.I really don't expect too much from the XS but who knows...i might be pleasantly surprised.

I got my Eee today!!!
 

Walked into the SFR shop and asked if I could order an EeePC, to which, to my surprise they said "We've got one in stock".
"I'll take it." I said, and the nice customer relations assistant went off to get it.
"Here it is," he said, pulling out the 12 month 3G contracts to sign. "Now, you'll need to fill these in, and would you like to keep your original telephone number or not?"
"Oh!" I said, "I don't want your truly expensive and completely useless, to me, 3G Data contract."
"Ah, well in that case you can't have this today." He retorted firmly.
"But, consumer law states that you have to sell this to me, and that you cannot only bundle it with the 3G package. If you have it in stock you have to take my money." I fimly replied.
"Does it?" said the now nervous shopkeeper.
"Yes, look here's the relevant sections." said I, pulling out my printed out sections.
"Well, in that case, here's your EeePC." he answered, with a certain Gallic coldness.

So, I'm now testing it extensively, sat on my sofa with a glass of wine, and a homecooked pizza, and it's great, the best toy I've ever had. It's the 4Gb with webcam, €299.95, and it's in white (not pink, sorry Matt).

Nice work!:clap:

Very nice work - nice one :-) and at £225 a bargain into the deal.

m

Thats a classic! congratulations, those damn telco's are always out to put you on a contract at every opportunity. I'm buying a new mobile phone tomorrow and I'm getting it from overseas because they jack the outright prices here right up to make their plans look better.

I know very little about pooters so am seeking advice

Would a Thinkpad x31 be ok for the road they are quite diddy little things and I can get a tidy second user one for about 200 squids.

Seems like a lot more machine for the same money.

I think a lot depends on the type of roads you're going to ride. If you're on tarmac when transporting the laptop. Maybe doing some off-road/gravel without the laptop then I think you'd be ok with an ordinary one. I've moved my Vaio around without a problem in the UK. I've got an Eee-PC for this year as I know I'll be on some rough roads carrying all my gear.

FlyingDoctor is quite right it comes down to how you're going to be using it - the 31 is a solid little machine, and you do on the face of it get more for your money. But it's not necessarily all about the fastest processor and the largest hard drive.

For example the eee has a smaller hard drive, but it's flash based so wont die on bad roads.

The 31 has a faster processor, but it runs windows so that advantages goes away when you run Linux (of course you can run both on both machines).

The eee has a built in webcam - which is quite handy, but the 31 has a much better keyboard.

It all swings in round-abouts and you have to go for what suites you best. Just don't get swayed but big numbers and sexy sounding processors :cool4:

9 inches of fun....
 

.... yes it's finally here - will cost around £300, comes with the option of 1gb RAM and Flash based HD up to 12gb

Ladies and Gentleman I give you the Asus Eee PC 900

http://www.cnet.co.uk/i/c/blg/cat/laptops/eeepc901.jpg

Asus Eee PC 900: Nearly 9 inches of joy - Crave at CNET.co.uk

Very Nice...

You gonna buy one, install windows and mapsource on it and give us a full and in depth review ???

Ill be picking one up pretty soon and your review would be helpful :thumbup1:

Only 9" ?
 

Sorry I had to be the first on here to make the 9" joke. The thing is though for 300 squids I could go get a proper laptop with a huge HD, a DVD burner, and Windows Vista at Carrefour. So while the EeePC 900 has the plus point of being more compact and not having an HD to bugger up, I'm not certain that for me would be enough to push myself towards it instead of the competition WHEN they're the same price. The great thing about the EeePC 7" that I've got is that it's so rinky-dinky small AND it was so cheap.

Definately going to get one - it was the final thing I was waiting for.

Review - oh yeah!

Installing windows... perhaps not...

m

Oi tart - I think you'll find I did the 9 inch joke first... 9 inches of fun! :innocent:

Anyway.. yes at £300 you can certainly buy a standard laptop with a massive HD and a DVD burner. But it'll be a cheap HD and DVD burner and I certainly wouldn't want to trust it on the road - it's only £70/80 more and it's just as small as the 7'' - in fact it's exactly the same size as the 7''.

So for me.... it has to be the fact it's tiny tiny tiny, has a flash HD and is cheap.

m

Possibly yes, but I can nip in to Carrefour tomorrow and get you a nice Acer with DVD, 120Gb HD, Vista, Bluetooth, Wifi and 14 inches (ooer) for €349, which at todays rate works out at £267.50 (and postage to the UK would be about £30) now that's actually cheaper than the EeePC 900, and you have to admit you get a lot more for your money.

I was seriously tempted by it when I bought my EeePC as it was only €50 more (EeePC works out more expensive than the UK), but that €50 saving PLUS the small size sold it to me.

The question is would your insurance cover the Acer being shaken apart?

EDIT: Question for others with an EeePC, does yours have a Windows button on the Keypad? Mine does.

My insurance certainly wouldn't - well they didn't last time when I told them how it was broken - next time I'll just say I dropped it.

But the Acer is too big! It may be cheaper, it may have more (the Asus has wi-fi too!) but it's just so much smaller and easier to lug around.... also... Vista.... isn't selling it to me... really... :cool4:

If I was buying a laptop for at home, for light use around the house, then there's no doubt - it would be the Acer everytime - but this is for the bike - it's not my primary machine - I don't want a fully featured laptop with DVD burner and 120gb HD... what I want is a laptop that's small, but big enough to comfortably use, a HD that wont get shaken apart, something I can upload my images to the net on, and something with a whole OS smaller than Microsoft Word is on Vista!

You're still a tart too. :D

ThinkPad Worth A Look
 

I'll iterate my point from a prior post...

The ASUS is interesting, the Acer is cheap...but the data(pics, journals, etc.) is priceless. When you're on the road, no matter what you paid for the laptop...you DON'T want it to have issues.
Invest in something that has been thouroughly tested!

IBM Archives: IBM ThinkPads in space

Its worth a consideration and for the price(even used)...compelling.

You're quite right they're definitely worth a look, I've only ever seen a thinkpad destroyed by direct impact rather than vibration etc.... and to be frank... Space travel is somewhat different to the rigours of motorcycle travel, once you're over the initial take off, what's the vibration? That is after all what destroys the HD.

m

You have re-entry virbations...and there are other hazards...

My point in a prior post is that the HD is the most suceptible piece of the laptop. BUT over the years, 2.5" HDs have gotten MUCH more durable. The Travelstar(originally made by IBM before IBM sold their HD division to Hitachi) has been the most durable of that form factor and is standard equipment in the ThinkPads.

Its is the preferred laptop by corporate users in sales, IT, etc.; who don't care how much things cost as long as they don't break down...when you don't own it, you don't care as long as it doesn't let you down.

Same is true for MC travellers except they have to pay for it...in this situation, the weight, durability and simplicity are probably the three biggest factors in laptop choice. In this regard, the ThinkPad is about the easiest to take apart if something were to go wrong...but in the weight department it might be 2-4lbs more than other options...

I have been using the Asus EEE for 3 months on the road now. I have lots of off roading and it still works perfectly.

I would never choose anything else. The PRICE combined with and SIZE and WEIGHT make at one of a kind, and simply the best IMHO.

That's the thing isn't it - I've just looked at when I started this thread - it was July last year!

Things have really moved on, but we're all still weighing up those things.

Price
Size
Weight
Build (quality)
Software

is there anything else?

Perhaps I should knock up a comparison table for all the laptops we've looked at on this thread? May be helpful - as everyone looks for something different.

Edde - not having a go at the thinkpad at all - personally it's not for me because I am deliberately taking the decision to not take a fully featured laptop on the road with me, but to take a second dedicated machine that will be 'good enough' for what I do on the road.

If I were to take a full on laptop on the road though, my choice would be the current Apple Macbook - totally indestructible - and tested in the worlds roughest places. Junior schools!

But I do appreciate Mac OS isn't for everyone (even though you can now run MapSource on it) and in that case the IBM would be the first machine I'd consider with a HD in it.

m

True that laptops' HDs are more durable nowadays. During last summer, '07: (1) I dropped my up-and-running Acer Travelmate 3012 from saddle height .. with no consequences; and (2) I hit a road-wide cattle grid while riding too fast .. probably. The result: well, my top box just bounced right off its mounting rack and tumbled-on down the asphalt road behind me at around 70 mph [113 km/h]. Top box was written off .. see pics below. Fortunately all of its contents - including my laptop - survived completely undamaged. The Acer is truly a robust piece of kit.

http://keithooper.smugmug.com/photos/193533295-M.jpg


http://keithooper.smugmug.com/photos/193533468-M.jpg

http://keithooper.smugmug.com/photos/193533579-M.jpg

Well my only reason for mentioning the Acer was the price comparison, and what you get for it. As far as I'm concerned a £200 7" EeePC is perfect, and of course being that bit cheaper makes it all the more interesting.

Nine inches? Who needs them, it's not the size after all....

CNet have done a nice little comparison of all the cheapo lappys around at the moment.

WannabEees: Eee PC vs Elonex One vs OLPC vs EasyNote XS vs MSI Wind and more - Crave at CNET.co.uk

m

Just wanted to say that this has been a fantastic thread to read! So useful. A friend recommended the EEE to me as a cheap alternative to getting a laptop for home use but i didnt do anything about it but now I am planning a RTW im seriously considering getting one! I have been wondering about taking a laptop or some storage device for photos and was a bit lost with what would be the best course of action.

The EEE really does seem to be the best thing for a big trip that will involve off road stuff. This site is a most excellent resource.

Just letting you know that the 512mb version of the Eee is widley available in Brazil for 340 quid. Pre loaded with XP !!

Epc 900
 

Guys..im sure its somewhere here on the forum....can this gizmo charge up off a cigerette lighter socket?

Cheers

Steve

Nice one Alexlebrit. Just what I'm looking for.

For info..and those passing through..8g black version with linux available in Singapore for fat end of 250 quid..jsut bought one...

steve

gatec E100
 

Hi Guy's, just to add to the mix....http://www.getac.com/English/product...aspx:innocent:

TDMalcolm

looks, sounds great but any idea of the cost? I had a bit of a search around but couldn't find anything.

ahh I've given in and got one... stunning piece of kit - full review soon

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2380/...aea98abe80.jpg

Looks great, Matt! If it wasnt for the "Intel" sticker, it would look very much like the white macbooks.

How you finding the OS? Did you go for Win or Linux?

the 'easy' version of the xandros OS it ships with is very useable - I'm on the road right now so haven't changed it - it works really really well most impressed - haven't needed to grab anything extra for the moment... when I get home I'm going to install Ububtu and get an install of windows on a SD card going too.

I managed to get hold of an 8GB SD card for mine, so now with a total of 12 GB I should have more than enough capacity for my travels. And only paid $50 Aussie for the card!!

As a Linux newbie, I reckon Xandros is perfect for me- so easy to use.

I wouldn't recommend installing Ubuntu, the difference in load time is huge and you don't really benefit much from it. If you really want more control over the eeePC then switched to advanced mode. Personally I leave it in easy mode and run any extra software I require from the command line (press ctrl+alt+t) and compile it from source if it's not supported.

Oh by the way a great little program for the eee is 'Synergy' I have it installed at work, home and my girlfriends so I can basically turn up, put the eee next to my workstation and use the same keyboard and mouse for both computers. Very handy.

Could that be because Asus were contracted by Apple to make Macbooks? Or so I'm told anyway.

Good to see you succombed Matt, it is a fine wee beastie is it not?

Hey Kenny.
Where did you get that card for 50bux?
I love my Eee PC and am gonna take it on the road. Just about to get a ccharger for it.

Nathan

Seems the coming 9" EeePC uses 12V input power, so it makes it easy to power it directly from battery without adapters (when engine is not running).

OS's and practical use
 

Okay so a quick update before the full review gets going - I'm using the 'wee beastie' as my primary machine whilst I'm away with work at the moment - so it's getting heavily used each day.

I've been scared about messing with the OS too much as I'm away from another machine that will help me fix it - but I have updated all the software and run the advanced mode - had a little explore of Xandros as a distro and played with it's more esoteric features.

OS - Xandros is a bitch if you're used to more power and flexibility in your OS, it's perfect for the Eee, but it's going as soon as I get a chance to flash to Ubuntu - YMMV depending on your computer know-how and it's not something I'd recommend for the feint of heart. The boot time on Ubuntu if done properly is only 5 seconds longer than Xandros - worth the wait IMHO.

Build quality - fantastic, very sturdy little machine, been thrown in and out of my bag all week with no visible abuse - comes with a handy little neoprene bag to keep it's beautiful baby blue cover nice and pristine - no use on the motorbike yet.

Keyboard - takes some getting used to, and even after a week (I'm a touch typist) there's no illusion that I'll be putting out 20 page documents - but I can type at about 80% of my usual speed and for blog posts, forums and email that's sufficient.

Wi-Fi - works like a charm - in easy mode and advanced mode alike it finds and connects exactly like a windows machine, but perhaps not as simply as a Mac - easy to see what's going wrong if it can't connect and direct comparison between an IBM thinkpad and MacBook Pro show it sees the same number of connections, it is a little over-optimistic about signal strength though.

Web cam - what do you expect? It's not as wonderfully clear as an iSight on the Mac, but then again it's perfectly useable in everything except very strong back light - perfectly sufficient for Skype (once you've installed the Skype update).

Storage - I have the 4gb version and was left with a little over a gig after the OS instal - that's a little tight but after using if for a week I've not had any problems - docs are quite small when saved in Open Office format (it ships with open office, but you can save the docs as MS Office should you wish), the video I download I'm dumping to my cameras 2gb SD card and I'm leaving my photos on the camera SD card, uploading directly to flickr.

The built in SD card reader is well placed, it takes a while to soften up a little - I was slightly worried about how stiff if was when first using it - but no damage to the cameras SD card as it's been in and out all week. If you're going to run Windows I'd suggest you install it to a sep SD card or a USB memory stick.

I'm going to be buying an 8gb SD card from Amazon - £14.53 - to leave in there to store videos / photos etc if I really need them - but frankly I don't think that's going to be an issue.

Sound - the in-built speakers it ships with are not going to power your house party, but they're perfectly useable if it's quiet and you're on your own - you'll probably want to plug in some headphones though, and the volume from those if perfectly sufficient.

These are my initial thoughts and I'm sure they'll shift as I play a little more - I'll post here as I discover new stuff that may help others - my next step is too see if I can mess around with short AVIs I've shot on the stills camera to do video podcasting whilst on the road.....

any of you guys tried these mods:
Eee PC Internal Upgrades - ivc wiki

talking about amazing...

Matt, where do you see the OS lacking? What kind of stuff are you doing on the machine?

Once I got KDE up and running (which runs so well, btw! I was shocked) I was very happy.

I still haven't spent alot of time on my EEE (4gb), so I can't provide a very extensive review. I did loan the machine to a couple who did a 3 week trip to california with it and they were super happy with the machine. From my perspective, it doesn't look more used or abused even though it was bouncing around in a topbox on dirt roads around the grand canyon. I don't think I would have loaned them a Macbook Air if I had one for their trip :smile2:

Matt, are you running with a larger virtual display? That was the one thing they complained about was that they had to tab around off-screen because some dialog boxes were too large for the 800x600 display.

So I've been using the eee PC as my main machine for about two weeks now - first week on the road in Cannes and the second week at a lab in Yorkshire.

I've spent some more time with the OS and got the KDE running pretty much as I want it - but as you say the 800 px screen is limiting in some cases - but frankly the only issues were with software setting dialogue boxes - hooked it up to an external display at 1024, put the settings in and from there on everything has been fine.

I am finding the repositories a bit limiting on Xandros though - I've still not found a decent RSS reader, a decent Podcast agrigator and the flickr plugins are very limited. The problem is since Xandros have officially said that the debian repositories will break the distro...

I'll give it another week - I'm managing to do 99% of what I need a laptop on the road to do - in fact I'm managing to use it as my main work machine - so on the road with the bike shouldn't cause a problem.

m

Quoi?, Sorry, Parlay Vouse, Anglaisee???

Lol - I'll try agian.

I am finding the {online databases containing software for linix operating systems} a bit limiting on {the particular version of linux the eee ships with} though - I've still not found a decent {news feed} reader, a decent Podcast {downloading software} and the flickr {uploading tools}. {another more widly used version of linux} {online databases containing software for linux operating systems} will break the {operating system the eee pc ships with}

That makes even less sense. Next time I'll write it in binary.

m

No no !
I prefer the second version , at last I am beginning to understand .

Heheh, I forgot about the broad audience here :clap:. That is what makes this forum good.

To nerd out a bit more..sorry folks:
I'm a longtime work linux user (I write software for linux clusters) and haven't had it at home for many years, so I don't have any ideas on what people use to do .. homely things. I have apples at home :innocent:

What portable media player are you sycing to? What do ipod users use?
What podcast agrigators have you tried? Do you want?
People still use the GIMP for photo retouching?
How about video editing?
Any other tips for blog/youtube/writing/photo-travel workflow?

I plan to write scripts / light apps to fill in the gaps if necessary. But I'm pretty lazy, so I'd like to find things close enough :) Everything I do will be free/open for others to use, of course. That'll be the nice thing about not working, I own my own ideas again!

Welcome on board we need a linux nerd here. I have trouble running video on mine straight out of the box. I use unix at work but just a few commands no programming. So I think I can follow instructions but I've tried a few lines from other forums without success. Any ideas? I can bring up the terminal window but I need a guide in there! I only have the 2GB version so it may be limited. My current video settings are XV + OSS.

If you give me one of the videos, I'll try to figure out how to play it on the eeeeee. Oh yeah, I'll tell you how I did it afterwards.

panasonic tough book
 

what do you guys think of the panasonic tough book?

Daveg, PM me your e-mail address and I'll send you a vid.

I've got three toughbooks that I've purchased used over the years. They are great, but quite bulky, and they run Windows, so by the time you put on anti-virus, etc. (mandatory for a travel computer, I think) the old ones I have run quite slowly--my last one literally took 20 minutes to boot up (again, this is an old one overtaxed by anti-virus software). I have recently picked up an EEE and am very impressed with its price, features, and quick boot up.

What does the group think??
 

I really like the idea of to EEE, but one of the main reason for carrying a laptop is to run Mapsource and the GPS. So I need Windows. And Mapsource must be installed from CD, (though I have seen cracks to bypass this), but my US Topo map wants the CD in the drive to upload maps to the GPS, and to view on the computer. And my 100gig harddrive is almost full as it is on this machine.

So sadly the EEE is not for me.

What is the next best laptop for the road then?? One running Windows, with a 100+gig harddrive and a CD/DVD drive, and most importantly, one that will survive life in the top box on the back of a KLR.

Cheers for your thoughts

The EEE will run Windows and you can buy many many external CD drives (quite small too) - Buy an Amacom 24x Slimline CD-Rom Drive with USB 2.0, #AMA-BYCD2-U - eXpansys UK - but your drive space is still a problem - you'd have to invest in an external drive or perhaps one of the larger iPods. At which point you start to lose the point of having a very small, light portable machine!

This really depends on how much you want to spend - if money isn't an issue without doubt the best machines to stand up to hard knocks (have a good read back through this thread quite a few have been suggested and I'm just sumarising here) would be a ToughBook - they're doing quite a wide range now, and the semi tough jobs are really quite good.

Middle of the road would be something like the IBM ThinkPad (now owned b Lenovo) - really rugged machines - with almost decent sized HDs and good performance.

Finally, and if this were me this would be my option, I'd go to the local supermarket (as pointed out by Alex) and buy the cheapest laptop I could lay my hands on. Any machine if thrown around in your top box / on the road for any time that isn't something along the lines of a toughbook will die - why waste a lot of money? Factor the cost (around £300) into your travel costs - if you get home and it's still working - bonus!

I've just realised that the first option is pretty much what I'll be taking with me (the eee with external CD and HD) - and apart from running Windows - it works just fine for me :-)

Dave - :clap: yay geeks! Answers to your questions....

What portable media player are you sycing to? What do ipod users use?

I'm using a standard iPod - I make a habit of encoding everything to MP3 - so my whole library plays just fine through the bundled music player.

What podcast agrigators have you tried? Do you want?

I've actually not found one at all - I'm also struggling to even find a decent RSS reader - at the moment I'm using the stuff inside firefox and am hunting for a podcast firefox plugin - ideally i just want something that will grab them when I'm online for later use - I enjoy my podcasts - especially Rally Radio
- my only option at the moment appears to get out of the Xandros repositories and head back into Debian - but I'm really concerned I'll brick it.

People still use the GIMP for photo retouching?

Gotta love the GIMP!

How about video editing?

Nothing for the moment - with the exception of extremely basic editing I'm not sure the Eee could deal with it very well - I've got the bundled video recorder working well enough to upload decent diary pieces to YouTube and given it's recording in 3GP I'm quite impressed with the results. I don't think I'll be dropping any of my Z1 HDV stuff to it!

Any other tips for blog/youtube/writing/photo-travel workflow?


This is where I'm putting my time right now... so blog writing - still searching for an off-line blog writer - many available for Mac and PC (in fact the Windows Live one is actually very good - may God strike me down) - some available in the Ubuntu repositories but I can't find anything for Xandros at the moment - so I'm writing in a text editor then copying and pasting when I'm online then dropping in the images - not the most time efficient method of writing but it does work - it also means that if I can't find a wi-fi connection I can grab the SD card out of my Eee and dump the file to the internet cafe computer with ease - and given the Eee is linux I'm not overly concerned about the viruses etc that may get transmitted to me via the card - I run a virus scan on the card when I get it back but that's more to stop me spreading stuff the next time I use a PC.

YouTube - works well - uploading simple 3GP videos from the internal camera works just fine through the browser - file sizes are so small doesn't seem necessary to run a dedicated app for the upload. Might be nice to have a very basic video editing tool that would allow me to top and tail the diary piece with some credits. Am going to try some AVI from my handheld photo camera - but I suspect the file sizes may be an issue on public wi-fi.

Photos - the inbuilt photo manager is actually quite good. I've changed it's home directory to the 8gb SD card that now lives in the machines slot and I dump the images from my camera straight there - I'm carrying a second SD card for when that gets full - at £14.99 storage is cheap!

Workflow wise - it's okay - you can upload albums or selected files to flickr with an upload tool - but it requires authorisation EVERY time it connects which is a bit of a pain - but as you're online when you're doing it, it only takes a couple of seconds and then you're away. Decent tagging options available and album control.

Videos - playing them - not really had an issue - I'm playing stuff encoded in MPEG2 and 4 without issues and most WMV files - I've got some issues with newer WMV files but that's such a small part of what I download I'm not really concerned. Online video streaming (iPlayer etc) works just fine.

I'll stop typing now.

Matt what are your video settings. Daveg has offered to help me get my vids to play so I'll send him one to try. I should find time tomorrow.

justabum:

I run windows on my eee (been using it and punishing it for 4 months on the road now) and map source also.

Buy an external dvd drive and install windows from it, and mapsource as well.

Use an usb stick if you need to transfer files and so on.

fantastic laptop

PM me the details - I've not encoded any video specifically for the Eee yet - just downloaded them - send me one of yours and I'll have a look.

m

Excellent
 

Posting this reply on my new EEE 4g, purchased yesterday at Gatwick Dixons tax free. Initial impressions are ; amazingly easy to use, quick to boot up, fast on the net, good instructions for a techno imbecile like me.
I am sitting by the pool in florida happily surfing the net, I wouldn't be doing that on my Toshiba for fear of damaging it, this is about 200 quid.
I have to use a laptop for work on site and am beginning to think that it may be easier to just use this (powerpoint presentations etc.) And take the bike with this in the tankbag Or my big jacket pocket!

Thanks for the advice Matt.

Was thinking similar things. The EEE and external drives. I have an 80gig Ipod half empty, and a spare hardrive

Do you think that an external harddrive is better able to survive than one in a laptop though?? I suppose it's easier to pad, and stuff.

Thanks Pete.

Did the EEE not come with Windows installed?? Did you have to but the licence as an extra??

I think the EEE and external drives is the way to go.

My theory goes that the iPod and external drives are designed to be thrown around a little - but drives inside laptops - not so much.... but really what it boils down to is that my iPod sits in my tank bag normally away from the laptop and only gets connected when it's being used - therefore it's not being fired up every single time I use the laptop regardless of if I'm using it or not.

m

Thanks for the link, it arrived an hour ago. I'm one step closer to my full set up. :clap:

Can you boot Windows from an iPod though?

If the iPod was set up as a drive yes - if it's set up as an iPod then no - but then all you'd do is boot from a USB drive and use the iPod as the actual storage base - as I'm doing with Xandros right now.

m

I spoke too soon. The 12v charger isn't working so They're sending me another. Lets hope that one works. I'd rather the first one failed from the off and not somewhere on the road. It's a lottery with the post, I hope this package has a more gentle journey.

When it does arrive I'll do what I was trying to do today which is see how much current it draws when in use. When I use my 12v-240v inverter it draws 3 amps so I'm expecting it to draw a lot less than that. A nice touch is the 12v charger has an integral 3amp fuse. Mini blade type as used on modern bikes.

The replacement charger arrived today and it works! I set it up in the car and put my ammeter in line to check the current. It draws 1.9 amps, call it 2 amps which I think is ok for a bike to handle as long as you're on the move.

As it was a nice sunny day I also connected it to my solar panel but I don't think it's output is anywhere near 2 amps more like 500mA, but worth a shot. Needless to say the Eee-PC charge light didn't come on. This panel will charge my AAA/AA batteries, I-Pod and my phone though and can be strapped onto my tankbag.
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/b...h/DSC00216.jpg

Sure looks neat :Beach:. Wish it worked.

The Silva solar II charger is a nice bit of kit as it folds up neatly and is protected. There are a lot of good solar panels now for the campervan/caravan boys at reasonable money. Maplins do some I think. Maybe I should check out whats on the market. I always thought that if the top of my Givi topbox was a solar panel charging my stuff inside it would be great. With some of the flexible roll out panels now that may be possible. Like everyone else I charge my stuff from the bikes 12v when the engine is running but it would be nice to have solar power when you're camping.

Saw my first EEE in a shop the other day. Very nice. Just the thing to travel with. 4 gig with XP installed. Only had 600mb left after XP, so all software would have to be installed on external drive.

Will windows let you install programs to an extarnal drive?? Am iPod, with an internal battery would be better than one draining power though the USB cable.

I believe it will, although to be honest I'd ditch Windows and go back Linux on the EeePC, unless you really must have Windows for satnav. The Linux OS is brilliantly easy to use and of course give you loads more memory. You can even install Windows on some form of flash memory and boot from there if you must.

Asus have just released the EeePC 900, bigger screen, bigger flash drive, choice of Windows or Linux.

HP have also just released a similar animal, don't have the model number, sorry.

Too late for me, I have shelled out for an NEC to replace my neat little Vaio Picturebook that didn't like going for a dive in a Thai river.

Re: Lasptop virtually pefrect for the road
 

"Asus have just released the EeePC 900, bigger screen, bigger flash drive, choice of Windows or Linux."

I am posting this from my new eee 900 that I got just over a week ago from a UK supplier. I deliberatly waited for thye 900 because of the screen size more than the other changes to spec over the 7 inch machine. The RRP is £329 for either a 16 GB XP box or a 20GB Xandros box. As a windoze user who has gone for the Linux box I am both enjoying and hating the learning experience of both getting to grips with Linix and working out what apps I want to run. It is a bit time consuming for a Linux newbee but hopefully it will be worth it in the end because SWMBO has a Vista machine and I hate it, so Linux might be a good thing to get to grips with ready for when XP is obsolete.

Tonight I am going to try to sort out an e-mail client, possibly Evolution.

As a general comment, most peeps who have seen it thing it is a really cool bit of kit. As far as I am concerned i will be happy if it turns out to be better than the Acer Aspire that decided to expire (mobo) just out of warranty.

I (so far) give it a thumbs up for both functionality and portability so far. I know I will never be able to use it as, say, an AutoCAD box but it is horses for courses and if you want to take a laptop travelling, be it on two, four or no wheels, then this machine will be hard to beat as long as it turns out to be fairly robust.

Nice one dude :-)

I said I was going to wait for the 900 but when I saw it at the airport just couldn't hang on!

From what I've seen the extra dosh is well worth it for the extra HD size and more importantly the better screen.

I can't praise my little 4gb one enough - absolutely perfect for what I need.

BTW - a little trick for when you break it (because if you play and you don't know very much about linux...) when you hit the power on button keep hitting F9 - this brings up the 'reinstall factory defaults' option - which is essentially a wipe of the HD and a re-install of xandros.

I'd highly recommend keeping all your files on an external SD card rather than the internal memory - that way you don't lose anything..

Software wise - the only extra thing I'd say to install is VLC player as the bundled movie / music players are not up to much.

hello,

i'm pretty enthousiastic about the eee 900 too. in two weeks i leave on a pan americana trip and i think i will buy a eee 900 in the us. has anyone tried to connect an ipod to it for external storage/backup? and what capacity SD cards can be used? Also 8 Gb?

cheers,
Sander

8gb AND 16gb Here
 

8 and 16gb cards (especially for Asus, gotta have matching white) :=) available here!
A-Data 16GB Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) Flash Card Eee PC Edition - Retail [Turbo SDHC 16GB With Eee PC] | EXcaliberPC.com

HOW MUCH!!!!

Dear me... sorry they can match as much as they like but I'll be paying 14.99 at play.com

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Elec...d/Product.html

running this in the eee at the moment - works like a charm.

m