Everybody and their mother's got a super-budget laptop these days (see:
OLPC,
Eee PC,
Cloudbook,
Pixel Qi, etc.), and next at the table will apparently be Elonex, which intends to introduce the £100 (~$200) One on February 28th at The Education Show in Birmingham, England. Obviously the intention here is to sell to education markets, but the One is also going to be up for grabs for "adult learners, business users, people who are constantly mobile, elderly people and first time internet users." We don't have any better shots of the thing, but apparently this One (not that
One, or the other
One) will weigh "less than a kilo" (2.2 pounds), has a 7-inch screen, three hour battery, 1GB of flash memory, and runs on Linux. Apparently there's also a more expensive £120 model that has double the memory (2GB) and Bluetooth, to boot. Both will also have access to a service called ONEunion, which will "feature artwork and music for download, opportunities to get your own content added to the club as well as a range of competitions," presumably for the kids. More on this thing later this month, aye guv'na?
[Via
Times Online]
Update: jkkmobile's got some
additional info. Looks like the One could be a rebadge of a
Fontastic A-View ultra-cheap Chinese "simple PC". Not that we're really surprised -- we mean, who the hell are Elonex to pop out of nowhere with this thing?
posted February 17th 2008 3:03PM
I concur, Fugly.
this is reallllyyy fugly. It looks like something from 1993. ick Even for that cheap not worth it
That thing makes the Cloudbook look like a work of art.
1gb of memory oh dear, i bet my phone more powerful than this,
my 2 pda's are far better than that pieace of junk
Why are people so excited over these cheap PC's with shitty battery life, shitty build quality, and a shitty OS (be it Windows or some slapped together Linux distro like the Eee. Tivo managed to give Linux usability and an approachable interface, why can't these guys?) Never mind that most people who need or want a laptop already have one that is a hell of a lot more useful than these, and in some cases, not that much more expensive. The industry knows it has saturated the market, so now they are trying to convince us we need to buy these useless and unneeded computers to keep their profits rolling in. The only people who seem to be interested in them are nerd who are willing to put up with the flaws and fight with them when they want to use them.
At least with the XO they took the time to TRY and make it simple, elegant, and usable, even if they didn't quite deliver.
nothing wrong with xandros, and xp! sorry to pop you bubble but those OS work like a charm.
but I agree to a certain point to your comment. cheap built is not good.
300 MHz ?
I think my running shoe has more processing power than that!...
1gb of memory oh dear, i bet my phone more powerful than this,
my 2 pda's are far better than that pieace of junk
"who the hell are Elonex to pop out of nowhere with this thing?"
2 seconds on Google would have found http://www.elonex.com/ pfft......
It may be a big ugly brick, but it may also be exactly what I'm looking for on some other levels.
1) put a USB card reader on it with some high capacity storage (large SDHC cards, for example)
2) put its Wifi into access point mode
3) activate bluetooth FTP on it
4) put a linux compatible EVDO modem on the other USB port
5) shove it into the bottom of my backpack
I've now got a portable file server and EVDO gateway for my Nokia N810.
Unless they're bizarrely restricting sales to England, it'll be *Britain's* first 100 quid laptop.
Pah. Useless Yanks!
a hundred quid?
isnt that like 4 thousand dollars?!
Blech... second picture of it... not so pretty. I liked it better when I couldn't see it up close. :D
It's horrible but at least it has more USB ports than the Air.
im sick of this craptop trend.
at least it makes a nice paperweight.
1997 called.......... i dont know what it said. i think it was a prank call actualy.
it is cheap and all but I have to say this: THIS IS FUGLY and not ergonomic at ALL>
I'd throw my benjamins at eeePC or everex instead....
HAS NO-ONE NOTICED THAT THIS COMPANY HAS BEEN GONE INTO RECEIVERSHIP ON A NUMBER OF OCCASIONS, WE COULD ALL SELL A £100 LAPTOP IF WE DIDN'T PAY THE SUPPLIERS!!!!
Reminds me of the old Monorail PCs that were around in the mid-90's.