How would you change Everex's Cloudbook?
By Darren Murph 
posted March 7th 2008 6:30PM
posted March 7th 2008 6:30PM
posted March 7th 2008 6:30PM
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Remember the "I-Opener" and the "WebSurfer Pro"?
I had one of each, sure they were a but under-powered but they too had a large support/hacking community.
Thinking along that line, I'd say alot of TP's (Test Points) to tack onto would be nice. Maybe some "empty spaces" in the case like the eee so that other mods can be installed inside the case.
Ehh...i can i haz a core 2 quad, 4 gigs of ram, SLI 8800 gtx, with a 24 inch screen, and i dun care if it has like a 5s battery life
Is that english. Also, you obviously don't get the point of portability. Try chucking your megatron laptop in your college back and using it to take some quick notes.
*Notices the irony in the above post. Damn you tiny touchscreen keyboard*
From someone who actually owns one ...
1. Install a stripped down version XP (I did using nLite). The XP video drivers allow rendering the 800x480 screen to upwards of 1000x600 to view applications that need the resolution.
2. More RAM. It would help with give a little performance boost, although it would slow the hibernation boot time.
3. A rotating/flip screen with some dedicated media buttons.
4. A way to sync/view/dump the contents of the card reader to the hard drive without booting the computer.
5. A rotating camera.
6. Composite Video out.
7. Change the DVI output to VGA.
8. Better microphone performance.
resolution resolution resolution, Everything else is fine but screen resolution. It would be great to have at least xga, most web pages look like crap on anything lower
OK, I'm going to join the chorus for an Intel proc and an IBM/Lenovo-style pointing stick. The trackpad on one side and the buttons on the other is really sucky. A pointing stick in the middle of the keyboard, with buttons on the right and left hand sides replacing the trackpad and the buttons would be just right.
I would also suggest underclocking the proc to help cool the thing. The one very striking thing about the Cloudbook is how quickly it gets hot. Another idea would be to put a 4-pin mini FireWire port on it, because even though FireWire is somewhat going through a decline it's still much better than USB2.
The HD is actually a very, very good thing. It means you can install a *real* Linux distro on a Cloudbook.
Intel Atom. "Prettier". No everex branding. Better Linux os. Like, a simpler and more user friendly version of Fedora or Ubunutu (yes, Ubuntu could still be more user friendly). And DOOM!
I'd make the fan a bit less noisy. Oh, and replace or vastly improve gOS. Otherwise, it's a great little machine.
The trackpad is actually cool.
For the love of motherfathering christ. Why doesn't this god forsaken craptop have 3G!!! 3G for the love of god. Just give it 3G and all will be right.
Oh, and by the way the fan noise make me really angry!!! So angry I want to slap a toddler till he cries blood!
remove the keyboard and make the screen multitouch
I actually kinda like that idea. The only problem is that steaming pile of an OS they're using.
How about move the freakin' mouse pad (to where it should be!), Have overall better design/quality 2 piece board like eeepc. HDD size is right, processor is okay, maybe a diff chipset option (keep open please unlike eeepc) freagin soldered cpu. And yeah get rid of G-OS and go with Ubuntu or even XP. Yeah Good luck, and what the heck is Hot chocolate mean? color?
That's not angry, that's evil. But fan noise would upset me too I think. Is it really that loud? Moreso than a regular sized laptop?
Sorry, this was a reply to Tom Dewitt, but IE8 is messing me up a bit.
God for saken fan noise. Son of a whore it makes me want to poop on a 3rd grader!!!
Well I haven't seen it yet, so I guess here goes...
Paint it white, add an "i" to the beginning of the name, and jack the price up about $1000.
running xp on my cloudbook, plus added 1 gig ram, wifi works great, 30 gig hard drive, no complaints
Make the build at least half as good as the EEE. The hnges feel quite fragile, and the plastic is nasty.
Needs more cowbell.
Trackpoint
Faster proc (Via 1.6 would be fine)
Memory access door for memory upgrade. Duh!
Higher rez webcam. .3 megapixels?
An OS that works. I bought one for kicks and changed to XP two days after purchase. Gave it to my kid two days later.
Faster HD.
Smaller, more attractive logo on lid.
Better case color
The CloudBook would be more intresting if...
...aw what am I saying. The CloudBook's efforts are pitiful at best. The only good thing is the 30 gig HD, but the lack of expandability make this effort a fail.
Well first they need to make it as good as the Eee:
- Remove windows, add Linux [I'm thinking of the variants that I can buy here in the UK; you can get Linux in the US already, right?]
- Remove the HD, add an SSD.
- Increase the battery life and reduce the fan noise [this is based on the comparative review that Reg Hardware posted].
- Improve the size and postion of the touchpad [have they already done that?].
- Make it as cheap as the Eee.
Then they need to make it as good as the new Eee 900:
- Increase the screen size and resolution.
Then they need to make it _better_:
- Err.. not sure. Personally I'd quite like Bluetooth and a CF reader, but it's not vital. Battery life is probably the most important thing.
And they need to keep the VIA processor - or maybe even upgrade to the new 64-bit version when it's available. I say that just because I think it would be good for consumers if Intel's market dominance were a bit lower.
It's a tall order, and I fear they may have trouble meeting it. Especially if the new HP thing delivers.
Not many changes to make it a winner.
First and possibly the only thing. Change it back to the Nanobook design with the modular face. Making it possible to mix it up sounds like fun for an average user up to the hardcore modder.
Next, deliver an os that is if not complete, stable, and novice friendly. I hear the UI is troublesome to get started.
If we are going to stick to the modern design.
The gap actually looks cool to me. I'm not sure what the gripe is on that. It actually seems to make it more comfortable in hands.
Add the modular design. I was actually looking forward to the modular voip and gps add-ons until I realized It was not to be included in the new design.
And finally, again, the os. Same reasons as stated above.
P.S. First post. Been watching Engadget for a while. Now, I get to join in the fun. ;)
Needs a Linux Friendly GPU
There are actually around a dozen "Cloudbook but different" machines in the works, with trackpads in different places, removable handsets etc. etc. The Cloudbook itself is just one of many variations on the VIA NanoBook reference design, after all. If you don't like it, there will surely be an alternative variation to check out.
I honestly thing most of the comments are not relavent to the real Cloudbook issues. Think about what the Cloudbood is supposed to be - an ultra portable, travelling communications device. It allows us to do all the basics on the road, and does it well. But ...
It does no good to compare it with the MacAir, or a Dell. If you want to carry your 14 to 17 inch laptop when you travel, feel free! Cloudbook is not supposed to be your main PC!
The only real problems seem to be the hacked OS and thus far lack of any real support from Everex. The wifi has some issues, but these are likely software related as well. The hardware is fine. How speedy does this have to be anyway to type email or a memo, or listen to a few tunes and play solitaire? Let's get real here, folks.
I think that if we could get Ubuntu 7.10 (soon to be upgraded itself) onto this thing, it would be near perfect.
I also like NOT having Windoze on this thing. On the 8 computers in my house, we've got XP Home and Professional, Vista Business, Mac 9.0, OSX and Ubuntu, so I think I can speak from experience. Why would you even think about putting XP on this thing? To run what? XP is fine, for your "regular" PC, but why ooverload the Cloudbook's resources? Totally unecessary!
As for needing more buttons, losing the gap and all the other "suggestions", I ask if you've actually tried a Cloudbook? Please stick to relavent comments.