WHAT!?

NOICE!!

GIMME GIMME

Duuuuuuude....

I'll take 4...

Finally, the modern equivalent of the Tandy Model 100.

7" display? Sounds like a REALLY scaled down laptop or a bloated cellphone with a keyboard. What kind of OS would this thing run?

Wow, we've finally reached the pinnacle of civilization. First it was pens that you didn't need to dip in ink, then single use cameras and camcorders, now it's disposable laptops.

I so want one so I can write my novel on the beach and not worry if it gets water/sandlogged. Solid state rules!

1GB? Talk about low-end.

let's see... 40GB of Flash for $549, throw in all the other goodies for free. Buy 4. Now I've got 160GB of flash for $2200 and 4 useless lappies. Now all I need is an adapter to put the flash modules in a real 'puter and I'll be good to go!

"Those flash based (7 inch *cough cough*) laptops we're all dreaming about may be a lot cheaper than we expected."

Yeah, when I 'dream' about a laptop, it has 1gb of space and a 7 inch display.

That said, two hundred smackers for a laptop sounds like a real opportunity for public schools to put a laptop on every desk.

This is great. Think school kids, folks, the ones whose parents cant afford mainstream computers. Put "Damn Small Linux" on it @ 50 megs.

Very few cool small laptops make it to the US. We'll probably only get the 19 inch wide screen model that won't fit in any bag that normal people carry around. There are a lot of us out there that don't lust for acres of storage space. But will these come with an OS that won't have the read/write problems that people predict will be the shortcomings of solid state drives?

Vista costs more than the laptop!

Honestly, this sounds perfect to me. It would be nice to spend that little and have something to carry into classes to use either word or ppt programs. OS is a bis issue, but I could just do Linux. Wi-fi included and I'm definitely sold. Theft of laptops is a big concern on campus and losing a little guy like this would be way better then losing a powerhouse mac pro or something. I would seriously just want to be able to check emails, create some documents, and maybe have some kind of media playing. Bare-bones though is fine. Also, and I want this patented dammit, we need a wireless optical stylus/pen. Works exactly like a mouse but you hold it like a pen and the left and right clickers are where your fingers hold the pen. Tell me that wouldn't be awesome on a cramped desk/lap. I hate touchpads, the little red thingy and portable mice. I think that would be the best solution. Especially for us artists.

Oh yeah, I've never checked if the pen/stylus mouse existed, so if you know it does, show mercy on my non-googling ass.

I'm an idiot........

I'll pass on the 1GB version (what OS will that be running?) but less than $600 for the 40GB is highly appealing.

at 7 inches, is it a laptop or a umpc?

Someone plz keep tabs on this notebook in the near future. I could use something like for my car diagnostics.

they're also gonna be blister packed and sold in vending machines on streetcorners...

seriously, if these are actually being sold for the aforementioned price I am sure there will be a MAJOR shortage (think of the wii and multiply by a lot)

=\ I think I'd rather have one of the $100 lappies running linux with the sugar file manager. Then I get the added bonus of a funky green laptop with little antenna ears and an e-book mode.

Errr, by file manager, I mean window manager

Come on, guys, 7 inches is fine.
It's not the size that counts but how you use it!

Or you could get the OLPC and help developing countries get one too in the process. Th $200 buys you one, and them one.

What UMPC's should have been.

This and some EVDO or EDGE would be absolutely dope for portable internet. I hate browsing on phones, and i think everyone else does. I would probably only use one of these for web, so linux seems like a very likely possibility. 20GB is all good for a couple of downsampled movies or a season of ATHF... i like this very much. The price is right, too. Too bad skype costs money now... guess my friends are going to have to settle for annoying relay-calls. At 7 inches, its not pocket friendly, but uh, i dont care. YES YES YES

Positioning this as a laptop seems odd, given the likely tiny flash-based memory size, as well as the screen. Form-factor is going to be everything with this thing. If they can create something that is able to handle all of the normal laptop tasks like running an office suite, internet connectivity and moderate graphics capabilities in a package that you wouldn't feel too bulky tucked into your handbag then they might really have something here.

"Lappies"? Really? Can we not call them that please?

The industry is falling right into the hands of players like Google who want you to keep all programs and saved work on web-based applications. "Luke come over to the Googleside"

APPLE ARE YOU LISTENING?!?!?!

DO THIS!

Wifi, DVD-ROM, EVDO or EDGE support, 40GB Flash, 3 USB ports, 1 Firewire port, Ethernet, Headphone Jack, and maybe an iPod dock. Do it do it do it before sony does it and fucks up everyone's perception of small laptops/UMPCs

Having developed a healthy hatred of current cell phone tech/rateplans/service, i love the idea of just doing a data plan. Portable widgets on a 7 incher for CHEAPER THAN THE iPhone would be the uber-dopeness that would convince me to spread the labia of my wallet, and await your violation.

"EMoShunz says:

Or you could get the OLPC and help developing countries get one too in the process. Th $200 buys you one, and them one."
------
you know it shocks me how many geeks believe that is true. FYI ... its not true.
You CANNOT get one.
Look up the FAQ sheet on the olpc site. no buy one get one free. Just a myth.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ask_OLPC_a_Question_about_Distri...

yeah the OLPC thing is completely whack. They've gone up in price twice now i believe... and im all for helping children in developing countries, but um... well, couldn't we give them food, and give our kids laptops? It would work towards solving the literacy and obesity problems in this country, (take the food away and ship it) and at the same time it would help solve the whole starvation problem, uh, everywhere. Honestly. again, im all about helping kids in developing countries, but lets look out for #1 first.

i am thinking... 100$ laptop, for children... made by asus, and made more expensive.

And exactly what developing country where the kids need laptops but can't aofford them, do they have electricity everywhere? To me the OLPC project is like giving iPods to deaf people to enhance their knowledge of music. And a laptop is pretty useless without the internet and a printer. So the kids get the laptops, with an OS preloaded and then they... write their own software??? WTF? ok, presumabley the OLPCs would come loaded with educational SW, but couldn't we just send them books? Remember books? Those word-things that dont require batteries, and are pretty much indestructable, and cost less than a dollar to produce in many cases?

whitenerdy, look at this...
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070329-olpc-xo-manu...

nutbastard, developing countries does not mean 3rd world, it's countries on the verge of an economic breakthrough, not starving countries.

Now, if you want to be an extremist, shut up and sell everything you own, live off $2 a day like half the world's population, and donate the rest to people who have nothing.

This is just awesome, this is exactly what I was waiting for! A small ass laptop that I can easily carry with me to school mostly to use for typing and going online if I am bored in class. I guess I wont be buying the $1000 toshiba laptop and just wait for ASUS once to be released :). I am just so happy :)

I don't want to be extremist. Im lucky enough to have been born where i was, but after that, frankly i deserve everything i have, because i worked for it. It's tragic that the same sort of deal isn't available to everyone, but to imply that anything im doing is shameful simply because others can't is completely obtuse. In fact, i don't think theres anything more depressing to someone in the third world than an american who is throwing away his oppertunities.

People live off of $2 a day because thats what it costs to live wherever they are. $2 here =/= $2 in vietnam. Is the standard of living as high as here? Hell no. Is it better than it's ever been? Absolutely. 99% of human history was people living in huts, caves, fallahs, whatever. No medicine. No tech. To say that the standard of living anywhere in the world is unlivable is to ignore that 99% of human history. It's not great, but it's still better than it was.

People in america are lucky because we have the choice between the two. It's easy for us to go off into some poor country and live just like our ancestors did. It's virtually impossible for people already living like that to come up to where we are, but it's not a problem of supply or technology. As usual, its fucking politics.

Back on subject, why should we give laptops to semi-industialized countries? The consequences of a handout-society are counterintuitive, so its no suprise that people dont get it. People only value things they've earned. If you start handing out material goods that are not essential to survival, the people will come to expect them while disregarding their value. If they are semi-industrialized, let them progress, and they can BUY the laptops. If they aren't, the only thing you can do is give them food and move em somewhere less hostile.

If you carry a man long enough, he will forget how to walk.

BTW in defense of my proposal to give laptops to OUR children, i would argue that, in American society, a computer IS essential to survival.

nutbastard,
the first half of your post is exactly correct, i agree 100%, that why i made my sarcastic comment.

the second half...to keep it short, these laptops are for school children, and are not free, they are subsidized, just like the computers in our schools here are subsidized.

fair enough emo, just felt that some doom-saying was the only way to convey the potential for socioeconomic disastar fueled by a handout society (socialism)

The republicans want to kill people with my money... the democrats want to kill foreign culture with my money... sigh.... guess ill vote democrat in leiu (sp?) of libertarian in '08.

VOTE Obama!!!!

we're a bit different up here in canada, the liberals spend and tax like crazy, the conservatives tend to be tight-wads that tax whats needed and put some away. of course with politics, your never voting for the best, your voting for the least worst.

Speaking as a OLPC XO machine tester.

> And exactly what developing country where the
> kids need laptops but can't aofford them, do
> they have electricity everywhere? To me the OLPC > project is like giving iPods to deaf people to
> enhance their knowledge of music.

The OLPC XO machine is designed to be power-efficient because it only consumes 5 Watts max. meaning that any power supply used in developed countries like bicycles can recharge it quickly. IPods is a gagdet compared to XO machine which is aiming to kids as tool or education.

> And a laptop is pretty useless without the > internet and a printer. So the kids get the > laptops, with an OS preloaded and then they...

XO machine has a mesh network feature where it can detect and use any wireless connection. Mesh networking allow network between XO machines without requiring Internet connection depending the distance which is very suitable for schools.

> write their own software??? WTF? ok,
> presumabley the OLPCs would come loaded with
> educational SW, but couldn't we just send them
> books? Remember books? Those word-things that
> dont require batteries, and are pretty much
> indestructable, and cost less than a dollar to
> produce in many cases?

It is very clear you have no knowledge about the OLPC project. Do you know it is very expensive to buy a book in developed countries because they quickly become outdated and waste material i.e. papers. OLPC XO is designed to be like an e-book where kids can read directly on sunlight. It has been tested for resistance, is much ticker than normal laptop, has the most screen efficient design ever (only consumes a watt in full screen color mode). I strongly suggest to visit wiki.laptop.org and read http://www.j5live.com/?p=357 in order to understand about OLPC project. In this case, your opinion is based on ignorance.

I can't believe how many commenters are angerly (bull-headedly?) throwing this concept in the trash -- not just that they don't think that it can be done; but that they don't think it SHOULD be done.

What's wrong with you people? Are you all so stuck on yourselves that you honestly believe that if something's not the perfect device FOR YOU that it's not marketable? That there's no audience for it? That it isn't the type of catalyst that the industry might need after a decade of stagnation?

Yes, I said STAGNATION... with apologies to Mr. Jobs and the fine folks at Google, there are very few bright, iconic moments in the history of technology.

This is looking very much like the device that I'd love to have in my kids' hands (they are 6 and 8). And I really believe that it would have been a great alternative to the laptop I bought 6 years ago that took me four years to pay off.

The only people who should be whining at the end of this column is Dell, Gateway, Apple, Lenovo, et al.

Not you whiney-butt wanna-be pundits.

You all ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

i would love to buy at least two of them. hopefully asus wont delay mass production for longer than next couple of months.

as for you, vista-guys and other kind of crappy-OS geeks, dig bloody internet time to time and you will be surprised how many nice things around. There are plenty other OSes exists to run within one gig of your disk space, all that you need is just to have some brains. There are so many people who using computers and other IT devices not for gaming. I have old PDA on 200Mhz ARM with 512Mb disk space, fully loaded with different things, and device does the job. Especially with RIA and Web 2.0, where most of my applications are online and i work with data and people connected around the world 20h/day, even while i'm on the street moving somewhere... So, i don't need 160Gb space, i don't need Vista, i don't need all this crap you yelling here about. And having this Asus laptop would be just good for me, right now it is right time for this kind of device.

A $200 laptop with 1GB of storage space and a 7" screen? Well heck, that's fine for me. My home computer is a modern machine with 2GB of RAM and around 800GB (two hard drives) of storage space and a 21" screen. Well, what if I just want to take some text files or documents with me to the mall or the library or to Starbucks and work on them there? I'm OK with the machine being most likely unsuitable for playing games or video or music. As long as the thing has USB so that I can transfer files back and forth, and as long as the battery life is reasonable (and I'm guessing it would be if the "hard drives" are flash memory instead of actual spinning-disk drives), then I'm practically sold already.

nutbastard,

You've got most of it right!

But Osama Obama????....yipes!

Regarding the Dems & Repubs....I heard it this way a long time ago:

You either vote for the Democrats who do all the wrong things for all the right reasons or the Republicans who do all the right things for all the wrong reasons....

But now the older I get, the more I think Winston Churchill had it right on when he said:

"If you're not a liberal at twenty, you have no heart....

But if you're not a conservative by forty, you have no brain."

;-)

I take it back. Obama is no good. But perhaps the lesser of many evils? I dunno... I KNOW Clinton is evil, but i don't know that obama is... Given 2 choices,