Norhtec's $199 Gecko EduBook, and its AA batteries, now available
By Tim Stevens 
posted June 12th 2009 8:47AM
posted June 12th 2009 8:47AM
[Via Digital Home Thoughts]
posted June 12th 2009 8:47AM
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How many
AA batteries?
how much do recharhable batteries + charger cost?
8. thats alright.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper than anything Assus/Dell/Toshiba/etc will charge for a smaller capacity battery I can tell you that.
Go to Wal mart and you can get some dirt cheap Duracell 2750 Mah batteries in a 4 pack for $14. These things refuse to die and I run them in a high powered Bicycle light...
Granted it would be nice if you could charge them in the netbook, but this is nice start.
You can charge the batteries internally if they are NiMHs. See comments left by mbarnes in the previous article on this device:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/07/next-gecko-netbook-to-have-bigger-screen-aa-power-200-price/#comments
Your standard laptop battery is just cylindrical cells, so I don't see the problem with using AA's.
How long is the battery life?
Do you realize you are asking people on the Internet to read for you? Read the effing article. It tells you what the battery life is.
Do you realize it's no where to be found both from that Engadget link PLUS the link from that website gave nothing either.
So yes, please read it for me.
8 NiMH rechargeable batteries (runtime of up to 4 hours)
http://www.norhtec.com/products/gecko/index.html
also shows two more standard battery packs are options
@Haha
Copied below from the read link, genius. When you read an article on the computer internet sometimes you have to scroll down to read the whole thing.
CPU 1GHz Xcore86 Device on Chip™
Graphics Integrated Graphics Chip
Memory 256MB / 512MB / 1GB DDR2
Display 8.9" WSVGA 1024 x 600 resolution TFT LCD screen with LED
backlight
HDD SD Card or IDE Flash Disk
Audio Line-out, Mic-in, Internal Mic, Internal stereo speakers
Ethernet Built in 10/100 Base-T
USB 2.0 ports External : 3 ports, Inernal : 1 port (reserved for WIFI, GPRS,
CDMA, 3G or 3.5G USB dongles)
I/O D-sub 15 pin VGA out, integrated SD card reader, touch pad
Power / Battery Rechargeable AA Battery - NiMH 8 pcs (4 hours max) or
Li+3S (4 hours max) or Li+3S2P (6 hours max)
AC 100V-240V (no external adapter)
From the "read link":
"It can use NiMH 8 pcs (4 hours), Li+ 3S (4 hours) or Li+ 3S2P (6 hours).
Gecko Edubook showing with 8 NiMH rechargeable batteries (runtime of up to 4 hours)."
u blind ?
it's "nickel" not "nickle".... Smart people here..
Nickle is a valid spelling for both the coin and the element. So yes, indeed they are smart for knowing alternative spellings.
A more fleshed-out commentary on the Edubook can be found at:
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS6735072389.html
"With its 8.9-inch, 1024 x 600 keyboard, ..."
lol wut.
No webcam and only 256MB of RAM and an 8.9" screen? Apples to apples, this is NOT cheaper than an eeePC or Aspire One.
It might not be powerful, but it is an idea which is clever enough in it's execution of a simple idea that it's one of those, "why hasn't this been done before?" things.
$200 with WIFI, 512MB RAM, 8GB SD and power cord.
$240 with WIFI, 1GB RAM, 8GB SD and power cord.
why are they using Nickel?? thats crap. Some person is going to charge it when it doesnt need to be charged and then lose battery life. At least use lithium AA batteries.
They're not using nickel, The batteries are Nickel-Metal Hydride.
Stop spreading mis-information. That is a common misconception of Ni-Mh. Battery life is not impaired by "charging at the wrong time."
I have done extensive research on rechargeable battery technology. "Some person" cannot recharge these when its not required and ruin them. Thats an advantage of these type of batteries, and it carries over from their predecessor tech, Nickel-Cadmium batteries. Do some research and you'll find the batteries need to be entirely depleted before reverse polarization charge can take effect...which is what you are refering to. The other way to ruin them when charging is to leave them in a charger too long, and the heat created will cause damage- but it is very hard to do that- as "dumb chargers" charge at such a slow rate, it would be very difficult to create that much heat, and "smart chargers " have built in thermal protection, or voltage sensing circuits. There are other details to these batteris also, but the basic fact is, you are incorrect about "SOME PERSON" ruining the batteries.
BTW, Lithium Polymer, and Lithium Ion batteries need even more sophisticated monitoring circuits and logic in their chargers because they are much more sensitive to heat and explosion. The old exploding laptop and iPod... The energy density between the Ni and Li type batteries isn't that big, but there are pros and cons to each. look it up.
From the pic, it looks 99% like an EEE PC. It's just missing the cam.
If they would include a Webcam and Windows XP for $199.00, I would buy it.
That CPU is going to be weaker than even an Intel Atom. It's based on the old Rise MP6 processor (circa 1998), which was slower than an AMD-K6. They've grafted on DDR memory support and moved the chipset onboard. This is nothing but a slightly better version of the Cyrix MediaGX/AMD Geode GX. I wouldn't want to run anything newer than Windows 2000 on this thing.
Considering the specs compared to that $200 Asus EEE, this is far from a bargain. Make it $100 and we might have something here....
So what would be the performance when compared to an Atom or a Nano processor or something modern? That's what's important, right? If this processor is based on an old cpu, then the performance might be just as bad or even worse than the C7-M. In that case, I don't know if it's worth $200. Probably can't run XP that well.
I would rather have a full spec 14" HP laptop for $500. Don't waste your money on a "netbook".
There is a similar item selling for only US$188 at qbitonline.com.
Seems these netbooks are going the way of disposable cameras...