While the
Eee Top may get a lot of zombie-hand loving, it's not the only game in town when it comes to cheapo all-in-one PCs. Shuttle announced its X50 desktop at CES as well, a system with more than just a few similarities to the competition, namely its CPU, base RAM, display size and resolution, chipset, GPU, and OS. In case you don't know those by heart: 1.6GHz Intel Atom 330, 1GB of RAM, 15.6-inch,1366 x 768 resistive touchscreen display, 945GC mainboard, GMA 950 graphics, and Windows XP. The real difference is the hard drive -- the Eee Top sports a 160GB, the X50 just 80GB -- and the price point, with the Shuttle clocking in at $499 ($100 cheaper). Our take? We're starting to see the emergence of what amounts to the netbook desktop -- a one piece, low power system meant for the kids' room, the kitchen, or grandma's rest home suite. The Shuttle wins in the looks department, but don't make any fast decisions -- come its March launch, you'll be seeing plenty of these.
[Via
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posted January 13th 2009 8:09AM
Wouldn't it be better to start calling these "Nettops"?
I thought they already did?
Sounds something girls wear
I am so happy that in failing, the OLPC program has launched the "netbook warz" which is constantly making desktop and laptop computing more and more affordable to those who can't afford more than $700 be spent on a computer system.
Hopefully, all in one desktops with plenty of computing power for the internet and office suites will be the next step. No they don't run Crysis, but as a technology coordinator/AP, I can really help alot of children with these -WITHOUT BREAKING MY BUDGET.
(and yes, as a reward for excellent grades, I have an extended day program where I let kids lan-play with Crysis, WoW and Fallout 3)
I might get one and put it in my bathroom. I will start a new trend, computing on the crapper. Might as well things with this kind of spec will leave you constipated and angry when trying to play Crysis or whatever it is you Engadget people do.
@ tarnation: As though you by default of posting here are not part of the "engadget people"?
Oh and your late, mr/ms trendsetter. Between my iPhone and my MacBook, I've been pooping whilst on the Internet for months.
BTW, thanks for answering your own question about Crysis; refreshing.
If MS can hit the timing right with w7 as these touchscreen pcs get more powerful/popular, they could have quite a trump card. I say could because I personally don't enjoy touchscreen on anything bigger than a phone or tablet, but if big wireless capacitive touchpads (like a big, OS-less iPhone) became cheap, I'd be down. Touchscreen abilities and no cleanup! Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot.
You are not alone:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/21/nokia-survey-finds-that-many-americans-work-on-the-can-the-defi/
@NoAndThen
I was more referring to the people who like to ask that "question" about that "game". There seem to be a lot of em' on Engadget.
Seroiusly, I understand and like the netbook concept, but applying the same concept to desktops is a bit too much.
I hope the next Atom this year make worthy, at least.
It's actually *great* that they are doing this with desktops. There are MANY reasons a machine like this could be useful. For example, my main PC is a 2.4ghz C2D (E4500, I think, I'd have to look it up. It's been over a year since I built it.) with a 9800GTX graphics card. 85% of the time, it's sitting idle with Yahoo!/MSN Messenger running (it's the primary means by which a good part of my family communicate with eachother). It'd be awesome if I could power that thing down and just leave one of these "Nettops" turned on.
Also, I'm exploring ways to cut my energy bill, which has included adding solar to my house. I've built a 18w solar panel (just to say I can) and I have a 100w panel ordered. I'll be adding as I can afford it. At any rate, for people who are already "off the grid", or are trying to cut their bills down as far as possible (those with solar installations that only cover a portion of their use), this would cut it down even more. Then there are people in remote areas with limited solar/wind/other that, while they may not have internet, they might wish to write (a book, do some paper work, whatever) on something with a screen bigger/keyboard nicer than a laptop.
Also, my nearly 80 year old grandmother wants a computer. There's no way she'll put even a machine like THIS to full use (She's so vein, I have a feeling she just wants to show it off to the other old people like she does with all her silly antique furniture and I doubt she'll really use the computer I'm giving her to use at all).
The students on campus (where I work) are expressing concern at the 3000+ desktops we have on campus, the majority of which stay on 24/7 (except during the summer and some of the longer breaks) and want ITS to explore lower power alternatives. MOST of what is done on the campus lab computers is Word/Excel/PowerPoint and a few other VERY low CPU use software. These machines would be perfectly acceptable for such use, and would cut our energy bills down significantly (if we swapped enough of our machiens for these). With us facing a possible 15% reduction (minimum) to our budget this coming year, this could help a good deal.
etc, etc, etc. ;)
Well, granted. Just that power saving issue it something distant from the reality were I live - of course, it's not like eletricity is free here, but computer consumption is not an issue.
But what I said still holds true: the new atom is supposed to close the gap to Dual Cores, keeping the low energy factor ;)
I don't see the point in touch screens on a desktop beyond the gimmick factor. You can even see the finger marks in the photo.
Why is the UI always this ugly with these touch screen computers?
I am intrigued whenever I see somebody say a UI is ugly.
What does that mean? Not enough pixels? It's looks fine to me.
Use it. Don't f### it.
I thought the shuttle version was going to sport the dual core Atom...
@Scott
Atom 330 = dual core
Ooooh, it's form THAT Shuttle.
That's why I thought the format looked familiar.
@Dougal
Ah yeah, I missed that model number as the Engadget staff said it was the same specs as the Eee Top - which sports the SINGLE core (N270)...
@Engadget
You were wrong & right!
I don't know why...but I hate the guy in the video now.
Pure gimmick and 1.0 of a technology. The real evolution of touch will be when the touch interface is a 1-to-1 response not *on* the actual display but a secondary surface. Asus is coming close with that keyboard that has the touch screen built in that interfaces with the actual display but it is in the wrong orientation and format. The prototype OLPC had with a laptop with two screens of equal size and resolution was the closest so far but not produced. The other biggie is some sort of haptic response, again you see the beginnings in the Blackberry Storm but very basic and unrefined. I'm not saying it has to be Minority Report or it's junk but it certainly has one more evolutionary step before being adopted and useful.
Is it wall-mountable? I like these for several reasons, but it only works if I can mount it on the wall. Replace the family calendar with this and you have a new central location for the family calendar, recipes, quick video calls, radio/music streaming from other computers, messaging, etc...
Put it in the kitchen. What, you don't have any flat surfaces in your kitchen? How do you chop onions?
If I put this where I chop onions, where would I chop onions?
Apple patents the color "white"!
Watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TiQCJXpbKg
I am loving this new form factor. I am getting one for the kids, one for the kitchen, and perhaps one for the entry way.
I think this form factor is cool. The only problem with the Shuttle is it probably won't be ground-breaking as far as the touchscreen support beyond this front-end GUI. Obviously you need multi-touch interfaces for web browsing, contacts, calendar, video playback, music playback, note taking, etc. Some of this will come with Windows 7 presumably, and some of it will just evolve over time. Probably HP will push this forward more than people like ASUS and Shuttle, but eventually it'll show up everywhere.
Will be an interesting category to watch this year. Hopefully everybody remembers that these are going to be like Netbooks--not my first computer, but an additional one. Meaning if you price it to high, forget it.
This is the future.
Add a battery good for a few hours, a wireless keyboard and mouse along with place to stow them, a handle, and a wall mountable dock and you have the future.
It will be on every kitchen wall in 10 years.
Grab it down off the wall dock and use it on the battery at the kitchen table or coffee table or on the patio...
Use it with keyboard and mouse or as multi-touch slate.
Use it to follow a recipe or skype with friends, relatives, or stream TV around the house...
The netbook is neat enough for people that travel alot or roam about and need to be connected or do some writing during the day.
That's really a niche market when you think about it.
But how many of us roam around our homes doing these kinds of thing?
Or... more importantly, would if we could?
This is the future.
-savagemike
The Shuttle X50 claims to have a VGA out jack and the dual-core processor. If those allow me to use the unit primarily as a touchscreen jukebox for my mp3's and secondarily as a 'tuner' for my television for internet sites like Hulu, abc.com, etc....then I'm in. It would definitely become a central component in my stereo/video setup. The single-core Atom and graphic chips in my Asus Aspire One doesn't seem to quite cut it for those TV sites. This would have to perform better than that for me to pick one up.