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Written by Stew
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Wednesday, 05 September 2007 |
 The Easy Note XS PC from Packard Bell was revealed in all its glory this week. For me this is Mobility 2.0 come of age. It feels like mobile computing just grew up and started being sexy. But then again, perhaps we should have expected this.
It was years before I finally got a mobile phone. I was dead set against carrying a big chunk of hardware around with me in my pocket. Then, in around 2002, they started getting smaller and cheaper and so I just couldn't find an excuse not to have one. But that was phones. I'm not a huge fan of phones. Never was, never will be. But a computer small enough to put in your satchel or book bag? Where do I sign up? I want in.
This is the way it always happens. Electronic devices start off as being cumbersome and unreliable with poor battery life, or other such draw backs, and a big price tag to boot. Then, as time progresses and the technology gets more refined, manufacturers and designers improve the specs and the fabrication process to the point were we all have one. Almost every kind of electronic device that has emerged in the last 20 years is a testament to this.
Today, ultra small computers or UMDs have the potential to become ubiquitous. We have improved battery life (from more power-efficient silicon) and we have wireless networks at work, at home, in the street and in restaurants and cafes. The idea of a full notebook PC will soon start to have the same ring to it as the early cell phones that felt like a brick with an aerial. In short there's a real need now for PCs that are small enough to carry around. And by small I don't mean laptop size. I mean small. And not a simple tablet PC either. A full PC. A small full PC.
UMD means Ultra Mobile Device. Device? Well it's not a laptop, PDA or a phone. It's a device that can do all that a PC can do but with better mobility and battery life than a laptop and infinitely more functionality than either a PDA or phone. In short it is a new breed of computer. One that can be taken with you wherever you go and has the full functionality of a PC within a smaller, more portable form.
The Packard Bell Easy Note XS is based on the VIA 'NanoBook' reference design and has just about everything you'd need from a PC. It's Ultra Mobile, only 23 cm x 17 cm, and weighs just over 900 grams. It's the first device of its kind that also has a full keyboard and supports all the connectivity bits and bobs that we need. It has bluetooth, wireless, a DVI port, VGA webcam, 2 USB ports and a card reader.
The reason that this baby can compete like a regular PC, despite its super small frame, is that it uses a x86 processor. This is a technical way of saying it uses a regular kind of CPU. The kind you'd find in any regular PC. The advantage of this is that you can use a regular version of Windows and install all your regular Windows-based applications.
Although there has been no official news of pricing and availability, the word on the street is that the Easy Note XS will be in stores by the end of the year at a competitive price.
I believe that almost all of us will have a UMD by the year 2011. And if you think I'm mad, consider this: by 2005 almost all of us had a mobile phone. If you'd have predicted that back in the late 90's most people would have laughed in your face. The future is already here. Soon we'll all have a piece of it.
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Visitor
Thursday, 20 September 2007
Please, send me ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ), the price of the equipment "Easy Note XS", therefore I have interest in buying.
Tanks
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Saturday, 01 December 2007
I'd like to know how i can install windows in this wonderfull laptop. In the store they told me it boots from USB, now some place i read that it boots through ethernet(???)
Do you know how it works and if so, could you give me instructions?
thanks!
bye.