Posted by
michael
on from the penguin-in-a-box dept.
red5 writes: "Newsforge has a
report of a new "iMac-like" internet computer from the good people over at OEone. On an interesting note it uses Mozilla as its GUI. Read the article for all the details." Another submitter sent in an interview with the company.
missing features
by
Alien54
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
As seen in the source fourge article
Even though the documentation said it could record TV shows, there is no obvious way to do this yet. One OEone employee told me the documentation writers had been a bit "enthusiastic" about some of what they included in the first version of the user guide. Look for video recording capability in the next software version.
No chat software, even though chat capability is mentioned in the docs. The story here is that they were planning to include a combination ICQ/IRC client in 1.0, but it wasn't quite ready by the scheduled release date, and was held back for the moment.
No NTSC or S-video output on the video card. Sad. I am disappointed that it isn't there. Add this capability, and the Internet Computer could amost replace a TiVo or other time-shifting TV-watching aid, and serve as the heart of a simple home entertainment center, over and above its computer functions.
An optional superdrive (combo DVD/CD reader/writer) and drivers for it would make the Internet Computer a perfect "video archiving" device. This would allow users to save an endless number of favorite TV programs, either for their own future pleasure or to share with friends.
If you're browsing local files while not connected to the Internet, you get constant "cannot connect to server" error messages. This will never be noticed by users with full-time cable or DSL connections, but is going to annoy people who use dialup and can't tie up a phone line every second they're using their computer.
Also, the screen shots seemed to be hosed in the main page on news forge, so here is the link for screen shots of the Calendar app. I think the OEone site is under s heavy load for some reason;-)
-- "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Re:Is it just me?
by
IamTheRealMike
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Do you mean the Compaq iPaq? If so, how is this a failure? They are tremendously popular, at least in Europe.
Ouch....pricey...and bulky
by
CDWert
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Well at 799 its a bit on the pricey side.....
I would love to see a cheap internet terminal @ under 300 , with specs like this one, I know however there is no way to make money At that point, I hate LCD's they drive my eyes bonkers and at lower res they box in, ever try and run doom on a laptop ?
On the other hand thats about all I use my laptop for, Laptops have an air about them, just ask all the posers at Starbucks, How about a LAPTOP sized appliance , No hard drive, network capablity, guts could be based on one of the small PDA units, for card compatibility etc, only with a full sized keyboard and screen, it's be LIGHT, CHEAP, and battery life could be pretty amazing. Do most anything you need whilst mobile. email, documents editing, etc. LINUX based of course:) Hell you could probably save almost all tooling costs and buy up another manufacturers mols of a dead line and make em fly as well as the low cost of a say 11.5 screen.
Offer that a $300-400 and they would get snapped up like nuts, if nothing else from all the posers that are too poor to buy a full unit but want to hang out with their buddies at Starbucks, and act all aloof like thier solving the probblems of the world on their laptop >:)
I cannot however see using Mozilla as the GUI at this point, I use and Like mozilla, but if the performance of their desktop compares to Nautilus , ayyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeekkkkk.
The market is there for these applicances, the right one just hasnt hit in my opinion...
-- Sig went tro...aahemmm.....fishing........
Re:Ouch....pricey...and bulky
by
SoftwareJuggler
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
CDWert Wrote:
"How about a LAPTOP sized appliance , No hard drive, network capablity, guts could be based on one of the small PDA units, for card compatibility etc, only with a full sized keyboard and screen, it's be LIGHT, CHEAP, and battery life could be pretty amazing. Do most anything you need whilst mobile. email, documents editing, etc. LINUX based of course:)"
You are describing the batch of fullsize HPC WinCE device that came out in 1999 at the $1000 price point, the best of which were Vadem Clio or the Sharp Mobilon Tripad. Generally they had a 640x480 screen, full size keyboard, touch screen, and all day battery life. On the down side they had slow processors and only 16 or 32 MB RAM (which you split between memory and storage) and WinCE as the OS but that at least could be changed. While it didn't have a network jack, but it did have a PCMCIA slot.
I haven't seen a refresh of this form factor come it out since, probably since the drop in notebook prices into the sub $1000 range has squeezed these out of profitably. It would be interesting though to see one of these with a lot more memory.
-- Enjoy
-jim
Re:Ouch....pricey...and bulky
by
stripes
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
They sold six million iMacs.
Really? I coulda swore Jobs said 3mil on the 7th. You don't happen to have a reference do you? (I don't have one either, unless you count a ~2 hour QT feed)
Don't shortchange 'em. iMacs appeal to everyone who wants/needs an easy-to-set-up, easy-to-use computer.
For sure I don't. A number of years ago I helped my mom get a Winblows PC because everytime in the past I had recomended the technically better machine (Don't get a PC, Amiga is so much better!) it didn't work out. That thing has ben a royal pain. I had to drill a hole in counter top (with a drmel because I didn't think to bring a drill, and live 30 miles away), it's floppy failed, the software is hard to use, and bloddy things install themselves that she doesn't really want, and she can't get rid of. Plus people seel her cheap poorly working add ons (parallel port scanner -- who had to drill another hole?). And the bloody printer keeps failing (well, I think that is a problem on Macs too since they use the same cheep ink jets).
My in-laws bought a computer recently (once again I was dragged along to help). This time it was an iMac. Other then not fitting in my car as well everything went far far better. I even had to set up a network for this one (no phone line close by) and it was still simpler. Oh, and they seem to have far less problems working it. Also as an added bonus I can use my laptop on their wireless network when I visit:-)
So yeah, I think they are a great thing for people that want an easy to use machine.
Despite the fact that many other computer manufacturers *cough*dell*cough* try to come up with a Wintel supplement to the iMac, they don't do so well.
It's hard to do when you are stuck with Windows as a starting point:-)
Apple is obviously doing something well, and, with the introduction of the new iMac, they're gonna do very well in the future.
I'm not wild about the new one. Not just the styling (seeing it in person it's a lot nicer), but that it starts at $1299 which is not only $100 more then the iBook, but right at the old top-of-the-line price. Granted it is effectavly a larger display and faster CPU, but it is still above the magic $1000 price point, and well above the old $799 starting price, which was a hard sell vs. $500 crap-PC prices...
It's a good thing Apple is keeping the CRT iMac in their line up, hopefully they will continue to do so until the LCD iMac can drop below $1000, and hopefully a lot closer to $500.
But can you blame them?
by
JPRelph
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I just wonder whether these guys were hoping or expecting that Apple wouldn't be selling the original iMac design by this point in time. While there are some differences the styling is close enough that I can't see why this one would get away with it considering the other similarly styled machines that were stopped in the past. When it comes down to it, with the amount of they spend on their designs, I suppose Apple feel justified in stopping people hitching a ride on their hard work.
The right market is the poor!
by
bigdreamer
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
The market is there for these applicances, the right one just hasnt hit in my opinion...
Hypothetically, maybe the price could drop to say, $500-$600, and then more of the have-nots in this society would be interested in getting a computer. The disadvantaged people I've met would like a computer, but $800-$1200 is way out of their price range. Then just pre-install a copy of OpenOffice and you've got a winner.
Compare to iMac
by
brunes69
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
After reading the article, I saw alot of comments on the price of the item, along the lines of "Too expensive, I can get Internet PC X for $300/$400/$500". You are making the wrong comparison.
This thing isn't an "internet device", it is a full fledged PC. Most of those internet devices you speak of have 16MB-32MB flash instead of a hard drive, and definatly do not have a TV tuner. You should be comparing the $800 pricetag to that of an iMac (which can range from $900 - $1100), and if you do you will see it is quite reasonable.
Slashdot Mirror
- Even though the documentation said it could record TV shows, there is no obvious way to do this yet. One OEone employee told me the documentation writers had been a bit "enthusiastic" about some of what they included in the first version of the user guide. Look for video recording capability in the next software version.
- No chat software, even though chat capability is mentioned in the docs. The story here is that they were planning to include a combination ICQ/IRC client in 1.0, but it wasn't quite ready by the scheduled release date, and was held back for the moment.
- No NTSC or S-video output on the video card. Sad. I am disappointed that it isn't there. Add this capability, and the Internet Computer could amost replace a TiVo or other time-shifting TV-watching aid, and serve as the heart of a simple home entertainment center, over and above its computer functions.
- An optional superdrive (combo DVD/CD reader/writer) and drivers for it would make the Internet Computer a perfect "video archiving" device. This would allow users to save an endless number of favorite TV programs, either for their own future pleasure or to share with friends.
- If you're browsing local files while not connected to the Internet, you get constant "cannot connect to server" error messages. This will never be noticed by users with full-time cable or DSL connections, but is going to annoy people who use dialup and can't tie up a phone line every second they're using their computer.
Also, the screen shots seemed to be hosed in the main page on news forge, so here is the link for screen shots of the Calendar app. I think the OEone site is under s heavy load for some reason"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Do you mean the Compaq iPaq? If so, how is this a failure? They are tremendously popular, at least in Europe.
Well at 799 its a bit on the pricey side.....
:) Hell you could probably save almost all tooling costs and buy up another manufacturers mols of a dead line and make em fly as well as the low cost of a say 11.5 screen.
I would love to see a cheap internet terminal @ under 300 , with specs like this one, I know however there is no way to make money At that point, I hate LCD's they drive my eyes bonkers and at lower res they box in, ever try and run doom on a laptop ?
On the other hand thats about all I use my laptop for, Laptops have an air about them, just ask all the posers at Starbucks, How about a LAPTOP sized appliance , No hard drive, network capablity, guts could be based on one of the small PDA units, for card compatibility etc, only with a full sized keyboard and screen, it's be LIGHT, CHEAP, and battery life could be pretty amazing. Do most anything you need whilst mobile. email, documents editing, etc. LINUX based of course
Offer that a $300-400 and they would get snapped up like nuts, if nothing else from all the posers that are too poor to buy a full unit but want to hang out with their buddies at Starbucks, and act all aloof like thier solving the probblems of the world on their laptop >:)
I cannot however see using Mozilla as the GUI at this point, I use and Like mozilla, but if the performance of their desktop compares to Nautilus , ayyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeekkkkk.
The market is there for these applicances, the right one just hasnt hit in my opinion...
Sig went tro...aahemmm.....fishing........
I just wonder whether these guys were hoping or expecting that Apple wouldn't be selling the original iMac design by this point in time. While there are some differences the styling is close enough that I can't see why this one would get away with it considering the other similarly styled machines that were stopped in the past. When it comes down to it, with the amount of they spend on their designs, I suppose Apple feel justified in stopping people hitching a ride on their hard work.
The market is there for these applicances, the right one just hasnt hit in my opinion...
Hypothetically, maybe the price could drop to say, $500-$600, and then more of the have-nots in this society would be interested in getting a computer. The disadvantaged people I've met would like a computer, but $800-$1200 is way out of their price range. Then just pre-install a copy of OpenOffice and you've got a winner.
After reading the article, I saw alot of comments on the price of the item, along the lines of "Too expensive, I can get Internet PC X for $300/$400/$500". You are making the wrong comparison.
This thing isn't an "internet device", it is a full fledged PC. Most of those internet devices you speak of have 16MB-32MB flash instead of a hard drive, and definatly do not have a TV tuner. You should be comparing the $800 pricetag to that of an iMac (which can range from $900 - $1100), and if you do you will see it is quite reasonable.