[geeks] Speaking of the ASUS Eee

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com>
>Date: 2007/11/29 Thu PM 08:00:15 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Speaking of the ASUS Eee

>On Nov 29, 2007, at 8:34 PM, Eric Railine wrote:
>
>> "For nearly a year, Fresno Unified school officials searched for a
>> laptop that wouldn't clutter a student's desk.
>>
>> Thursday, school officials said they purchased 1,000 wireless laptops
>> that fit on a desk alongside textbooks and notebooks, as well as give
>> students the opportunity to build a digital portfolio of essays,
>> drawings and other creations.
>>
>> "This is cool," said Chris Mitchell, a student at Bullard High School,
>> where school officials unveiled the 7-inch wireless laptops."
>
>I've seen one of those things now.
>
>I don't see how anyone could get work done with one.  The keyboard is  
>just way too small for any serious input.

Yea, and verily so!

>Not bad for limited input apps, but it seems to me students might need  
>to do a lot of typing.

Beats texting on a 3x4 keypad or a cellphone "full keyboard"

>What was the idea behind making them so small?

So, you know, they'd be small! To lower the barriers to carrying it everywhere - to capture the folks priced out of the Toshiba Libretto market - this is similar to the L50/L70/L100 IIRC.

>It seems to me that making them with a full size keyboard but  
>otherwise making them cheap wouldn't add much cost.

The 10" screen model will go along way to addressing more "mainstream" needs I suspect, but it will likely be priced higher than a "craptacular" Dell notebook...

>If they were like that, I'd get one just for remote entering of notes,  
>since I probably pound keys more than anything else.

You want a Tandy Model 100[0] or 200[1]

Lionel

[0] http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=233

[1] http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=234