Slashdot Mirror
You've Got PC
freitasm writes "Geekzone is reporting on the AOL Optimized PC, a 2GHz Intel Celeron PC with 256MB RAM and 50GB ATA-100 HDD. It'll cost US$299.99 from Office Depot stores, with a commitment of 12-month AOL subscription. More information on AOL Optimized website." There's also a Reuters story.
Though I suppose it is actually on target, if someone only has $300 and can afford the $24/month payment, it might be a simple way to get a PC a little "cheaper" up front. Just too bad it has to be AOL.
Full list of features:
As I recall we all got the system, cancelled the contract and hacked the P.C. Sounds like this time we do the same thing, but we don't have to hack it.
Any ideas on how to make their contract unenforcable? I'm thinking pseudonym + PO Box personally.
Why don't they send them in the mail for free like the CDs. Seems like a marketing strategy change to me.
$299 for a PC, heavily subsidised by an AOL subscription.
This is like a cellphone plan being applied to home PCs.
I wonder how much of that $299 is for the Windows license? This is linux's opportunity in my mind...if PCs become throw-away items (e.g. equal to or less value than a console system) at what point do the corporate masters figure 30-40% of your capital costs going to Microsoft doesn't make much sense?
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
I know that their connection software is bloatware- but isn't this a bit on the ridiculous side? Then again- it's been a while since I priced hard drives- perhaps the 10GB models are no longer available?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
$299 gives you an entry level PC. Looks like its enough to surf the web with and do most day to day stuff. Surprised by the lack of DVD drive, but maybe they figure that most people are interested in download and burn? Certainly not something for Doom 3, but then again I'm not surprised. You also need to be subscribed to AOL for one year. This really sounds like a similar approach as that used for mobile phones.
Reading the FAQ, I see mention of 'AOL Office Writer', 'AOL Office Calc' and 'AOL Office Impres'. Searching the net reveals nothing on the programs, though the closest I could find were matching names in the Open Office suite. Other than the names I wonder if they are one and the same?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
From the article: "The AOL Optimized PC also comes bundled with the AOL Office suite, a version supplied by Sun. This suite of productivity applications consists of: AOL Office Writer, AOL Office Calc and AOL Office Impress." This is a nice step for Open Office in terms of exposure to Windows users.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach him to eat and he will fish forever.
Does it come pre-loaded with spam? Because if not, no sale, bucko.
As Confucious Say:
If you pay for month of AOL, you give yourself net access for month.
If you buy neighbor cheap wireless linksys router and offer free setup, putting your MAC on it and retaining usr/pwd, you give yourself net access for life.
Free software. Almost "free" hardware (throw-ins to a deal). Free wireless access. How long before we see ubiqituous computing? I guess the bigger question is how long before we see a PC included in a cereal box instead of those DVDs I've seen advertised on the boxes of Fruit Loops (or whatever it was)? "Hey! Check it out! This box contains a coupon for a free PC! (just send in 20 box tops, plus $39.95 shipping and handling)"
Buy now, pay later.
If its not coming out of your pocket today, its cheaper.
People don't think long-term when making purchases. That's why banks can sell consumer credit at high interest rates with low repayments over rediculously long times.
People joke about "Wogs and Cash", but the concept of never going into debt for a non-incoming generating purchase has a lot going for it.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
"The computers will come configured with a simple desktop with large icons that send users to specific areas of the AOL service or applications loaded on the computer. They can also be preconfigured for Spanish language speakers."
Say it. You know you want to. You know it's coming. The best case mods. Ever.
Regarding the 256MB of RAM...
I still can't figure out why today's PCs are still shipping with 256MB as the standard. Windows XP behaves much worse with 256MB versus something like 512MB.
It's like when I purchased my car a few years ago. With like 1000 miles on it, it handled horribly in snow and bad weather. I thought the car was designed poorly, until I realized it was the tires. I had a very important part of the package slowing everything down.
My point: Who cares if it's a 2gHz CPU? With 256MB you'll be paging to that 5400RPM drive too much to notice the benefit.
The system is not stocked in store but will be shipped to what ever address you give them at the time you sign up for the AOL service. Which is done in the store.
John
AOL Optimized? Oh shit - the peg just broke off on my cognitive dissonance meter.
Not that there is anything new to the whole "Get a serious discount on hardware if you get a subscription to [fill in blank] online service", but for some reason this one is interesting coming from AOL, since back when they we're Quantum Link (The old commodore 64 online service back in the 80's) they did a similar thing.
Back in the Q-link days, not to many folks had modems or could really afford them, so Q-link's hook to get you to sign up with them was that they would offer you a heavily discounted 300 baud modem when you signed up for Q-link. This seems like a no brainier these days, but back then it was really something because most online services like Playnet, GEnie, Compuserve, etc all charged you a setup fee AND charged you like $30 for their software.
So, like I said, not that this is new, it's REALLY not new for AOL.
Man do I ever still pine for the days of Q-link and Club Carribe.
"The Wright brothers were the first to fly with a heavier-than-air machine, but boy did they have a lousy plane"
The fallout from this offer may very well be the annoyance of techies everywhere. If the target audience are the people who have yet to buy a home computer then a lot of those people will be pretty much clueless with it. So it will follow in a lot of cases, these people will download or otherwise get viruses galore and/or adware. Since these new people only spent what was it 299 on a new computer, they aren't going to want to pay some tech 60 bucks an hour to fix their computer. Their tech friends will be used and abused. We will be called in to fix their problems. If the problem is software and we fix it for free than all is right with the world. The fallback on fixing a computer once is that forever more that person can say that, I think what you did 6 years ago is screwing up my computer now. Also, there is a hardware issue. These computers have the cheapest possible hardware, parts are going to die in them a lot. Well, back to the poor techie that got stuck fixing there computer. If you find out that lets say their harddrive is pooched, then they will ask how much it will cost. You will tell them and they will give you the look, like I told them that they have to hand over a years salary to fix it, then they will say well, could it be this or is there a way I can get by not using this right now...I can go on
So my assertion is cheap PCs are only a headache for techies. Any techie who finds out that someone has one of these type of computers, run run away, very fast even
Nuttles
Christian and proud of it
Is it just me or does this seem equivalent to signing away your soul to Satan?
I do tech support for HP. AOL uses their own drivers to connect to their network, and also block off the Properties page of their connection. Thus, we cannot enable the Windows XP firewall, so God help someone who hasn't patched their machine (luckily I can get around this by installing Norton Personal Firewall, which is usually included with our machines). I've also heard that if you want, AOL will sell you a firewall for $3 extra a month or something. So to sum up: Block free included product, sell own (probably inferior) product.
Not to mention that AFAIK their entire technical support division is stationed in India, and I think they have a 3 minute call length limit or something. Whenever people call me and say they were referred to us by AOL, I roll my eyes and ask what AOL actually did before referring them to us. 90% of the time, they did NOTHING. They didn't have them click on anything, they didn't check any settings, and they most certainly did not reinstall their own software. "It's a problem with the modem." "It's a problem with the computer." I've actually heard from customers where they had to hand up on the AOL tech because they didn't take the referral to us and he actually started yelling at the customer! And this service is worth $20+ a month?! God help the person who buys this PC and is RELEGATED to these people...
Please, if you use AOL, consider switching to another provider. You're worth more than what they give you.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
I wonder if the keyboard will default to Caps Lock turned on
Sure, AOL sucks. But the target range here isn't the Linux geek with the 3MB/Sec connection. Like it was stated in the article, the target consists of A) retirees, but B) mostly minority and minimum-wage groups. In this case, they'll be happy just to have a connection - since they'll be paying for it anyway (if it didn't ship with AOL for a year, they'd still have to get a connection somehow), this really is a good deal for them.
This has been discussed. It's not some conspiracy theory or sneaky DNS redirect.
If you type in a non-valid URL, Firefox automagically does a "I'm feeling lucky" search on what you typed. The first result comes back microsoft.com, for whatever reason.
Verify this yourself by typing the same thing into google and hitting search/lucky.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Also, on the bottom left the 'ANY KEY' key,
and 'EJECT CUP HOLDER' key.
It's been done. Not only that it's been patented.
US Patent 6,629,793 The Emoticon Keyboard
Half the posts are saying "Who cares? It's an entry-level $299 computer." Someone please tell me why a normal computer user (the type who uses AOL) needs anything faster than a 2GHz Celeron with 256MB of RAM?
Word Processing? check.
Web surfing? check.
Email? check.
Office applications? check.
Solitaire? check.
All of the above simultaneously? check.
Doom 3? Oops!
Other than video games, a typical "entry-level" PC like this does fine. This is the same thing as Microsoft having trouble getting people off of Windows '9x.
The Mah & Pah with a 500Mhz PII doesn't need anything faster. Their broadband is still slower than the speed that their PC can render a web page. It still plays chess better than they do. And they don't notice the few seconds of paging when the switch apps.
Practically no modern game will play on this "machine". You get a web browser, mp3 player and a text editor with printer, that's pretty much it. Garbage from my point of view.
a te gory=51109&item=5115338678&rd=1
If you need something as close to ground as this, consider Ebay. Recently I purchased a very decent a nice-looking HP's IPAQ PC for $35:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&c
like this one.
The config like the one this AOL ad has will cost you around $100-$150 on Ebay.
Andrew