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Valerie Singleton wants more Facebook friends, promotes Linux for the elderly
We're not really sure whether to consider this patronizing or genuinely useful. Former Blue Peter presenter Valerie Singleton, who is herself at an advanced age now, has partnered with Wessex Computers to create a custom Linux desktop targeted at easing the elderly into the use of a computer. Dubbed SimplicITy (the Brits do love their puns), it features only six chunky buttons that lead to a web or file browser, chat, email and profile apps, and awesomely enough, video tutorials from Valerie herself. Once you get your web-legs under you and feel confident enough to handle more complexity, you can disable the SimplicITy desktop and use a more conventional Linux distro. Hit the read link for a video of one lady's reaction to the software.
Sony VAIO NW unboxing and hands-on
Get used to seeing Sony's new low-priced VAIO NW pop up all over the place: not only is Best Buy heavily promoting the $800 configuration as part of its Next Class campaign, but it's a pretty great value in general -- our $880 tester with Blu-ray basically has every feature you could want in a WIndows machine. We just got it unboxed and toyed around with it a little -- it's not the smallest 15.5-inch machine we've ever seen, but it's not a clunker, either. There's just... more of it to love. Unfortunately, it's harder to love the goofy faux-wood texture that's been baked into the plastic -- it's very much like bad 80s rec room wallpaper. If you do work up the arm strength and fashion courage to lug this thing outside, however, you'll find that quick connectivity is greatly enhanced by Splashtop, which allows you to quickly boot to a Linux-based shell and run a browser. It's a nice little perk, and it should help NW owners transition into the Chrome Age quite nicely -- and speaking of which, Chrome is the default preinstalled browser once you boot back into Vista. Other quick notes: the screen has pretty dismal viewing angles and it's crazy glossy, the trackpad is textured (which we love), and we have no idea why Sony can't bother to at least properly align all the stickers on this thing -- it looks a bit of a mess. That's just sort of how it goes at this price point -- if you can get past the minor flaws, though, the VAIO NW certainly has a lot to offer. Quick Slashtop video demo after the break.
LG X120 netbook review
On paper, LG's X120 netbook is just another entrant in the Atom-filled sea of sameness -- and, in many respects, it is. But it also gets a lot of little things right that too many manufacturers still invariably get wrong and, while it's not entirely without its faults, it certainly merits some serious consideration alongside all the usual suspects already on your shopping list. The fact that it also doesn't look too shabby doesn't exactly hurt things either. Read on for our full review.
LG X120 unboxing and hands-on
We got an early look at LG's X120 netbook at CES back in January, but we've now finally gotten our hands on the final retail version, and will be properly putting it through its paces in the coming days. Right off the bat, however, it's clear that the netbook has quite a bit going for it inside and out, including a nice matte white finish all around the exterior (though it's as glossy as ever once you pop the lid), a generally solid build quality, a usable keyboard (although the trackpad is on the small side) and, of course, LG's Splashtop-powered Smart On interface, which once again manages to impress with its speediness, even if you'll still often find yourself reaching for XP. Hit up the gallery below for some unboxing and hands-on pics, and keep an eye out for some more in-depth impressions.
Linpus Linux Lite OS caught on video
We just came across this video showing the Linpus Linux Lite OS in action. Aimed squarely at netbooks and the Splashtop crowd, the operating system comes to life pretty quickly on the pictured Acer Aspire One. Unlike Splashtop, however, this isn't part of the BIOS, "just a very very minimal customized Linux version, installed on the hard disk," as the guy in the video points out. We would, however, love to know what error message is being generated when he opens the media player. See for yourself after the break.[Via Netbook News]
Splashtop 'Quick Start' comes to the Lenovo IdeaPad S10e
It looks like Splashtop -- the instant-on, quickboot Linux OS that's been cropping up on a smattering of motherboards and PCs lately -- is headed onto a smaller platform. The company announced today that it's going to be loading up Lenovo's IdeaPad S10e netbook with a healthy dose of the software -- dubbed "Quick Start" -- allowing you to get to that all-important YouTube video faster than previously thought possible. This marks the first time Splashtop is making its way to a netbook, and we expect it will be shipping on all new models, though the company hasn't been explicit about that. We'll keep our fingers crossed, and let you know if we hear otherwise.
Dell's E4300 and E4200 Latitude laptops available this Tuesday
Hey, remember those totally slick Latitude E4300 and E4200 13.3- or 12.1-inch laptops we told you about last month? Well if you've been itching to get your hands on one, they're going to be available very, very soon (September 16th, that is). If you'll recall, these little dudes boast Dell's new Latitude ON feature, the SplashTop-esque, instant-on desktop that gives you quick access to Firefox and a handful of other Linux-based apps. They also happen to tread that fine line between geek-lust design and hard-nose business machine guts. The systems will be available with Core 2 Duo CPUs, DDR3 RAM up to 8GB, hard drives up to 250GB (or a 64GB SSD), WiFi, and sport 1280 x 800 widescreen displays. Hit the read link for more details, and make sure to double check your account balances.[Thanks, Filip]
Dell's Latitude-On instant OS detailed, screenshooted
Seems the act of waking a sleeping laptop to a full-blown OS is no longer in vogue. We're not sure when this happened though we're pretty sure that ASUS' decision to embed SplashTop into its P5E3 mobo had something to do with it. The benefit, of course, is an extension of battery life to days instead of hours assuming that you're not regularly booting into Vista or XP (which you probably are). Anyway, these new instant-on OSes are all the rage these days in products from netbooks, to ultra-portable fashion statements, and now business laptops thanks to Dell. Dell's solution, as applied to its newly announced Latitude E4200 and E4300, features a fully-dedicated, Linux-based system-on-a-chip subsystem consisting of a low-power ARM processor and flash memory that runs independent of your laptop's CPU and storage. The OS is based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 and includes a Firefox-based browser with custom email, calendar, and contacts applications, MS Office and PDF viewers, and all the drivers required to make use of the laptop's hardware and HSDPA radios -- an Instant Messaging client and browser support for Flash and Java are in the works. Data is pulled (you set the refresh rate) from an Exchange server via wireless connection, only. IT types should be aware that the first batch of Latitudes will ship in a "reader" mode which boots the OS and apps off the laptop's hard drive and likewise reads the laptop's cached data. In November, Dell will rollout the fully embedded Latitude ON system and offer a mini-PCI upgrade to those first-release models. Check the video after the break to hear Dell explain it in their own words.[Via Electronista, thanks Khoa K.]
SplashTop instant-on OS hacked to run other programs, boot off flash drives
DeviceVM's SplashTop "instant-on" OS is based on Linux, even though it's locked down to only run IM, Skype, media software, and Firefox, and you know what that means -- it's already been hacked wide open. Yep, the clever kids at the Phoronix forums have managed to open up the BIOS-based OS and make it do all kinds of tricks, including run other programs and boot other machines off a flash drive. The hacks are still a little complex, but with ASUS shipping tons of ExpressGate-enabled mobos and laptops and HP's support in the Voodoo Envy 133, we'd there's a one-click unlocker in the wild fairly soon. Anyone brave enough to install it on their machines?[Thanks, george85]
ExpressGate "instant-on" OS tested on ASUS Eee Box
With a name like instant-on, it just has to be quick, right? Well, sort of. The cool cats over at Laptop paradoxically got to play with ASUS latest ExpressGate-equipped desktop, the Eee Box. Upon mashing the power button and clicking the stopwatch, it took 11 seconds to get to the main ExpressGate page, where users could select the browser, photo viewer, Pidgin chat or Skype button. Upon clicking browser, they found that it took 25 more seconds to push through and get Firefox up and running, putting the grand total for quick clickers at 35 seconds from startup to being on the web. Hit the read link for more coverage of the ExpressGate Olympics, complete with a video that takes 1 to 10 seconds to load depending on connection speed.
First look at the Envy 133's instant 5-second OS
For those of you still able to focus, able to avoid a gobsmacked trance evoked by the unabashed sex of the Voodoo Envy 133, listen up. LAPTOP went hands-on with a pre-production Voodoo Envy 133 running the instant-on, Linux-based IOS (aka, DeviceVM's Splashtop) and came away "really impressed" by the "game changing" technology. Instead of waiting for Vista to steal another boot-minute from your day, IOS boots in just seconds letting you surf the web in just 15 seconds from a cold start -- 4-5 seconds for IOS boot, another 10 or so to launch the Mozilla-based "Splashtop browser." The IOS also presents users with a Pidgin chat (AIM, Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo, and more) client, voice-only Skype, and multi-media playback of photos and music. Let's face it, often, very often, this is all the functionality we need from our laptops, right Eee PC owners? Of course, you can boot to Vista from IOS or shut the laptop down if that spreadsheet can wait another day. Now hit up that read link to check the video hands-on.
DeviceVM's Splashtop comes to ASUS laptops as Express Gate
DeviceVM's Splashtop -- the (almost) instant-on Linux system -- has made its way onto an ASUS laptop before, but the company has announced today that said application is coming to even more of ASUS' rigs. If you'll recall, ASUS decided to bring Splashtop to all of its motherboards earlier this month, and now consumers who snap up a M70T, M50V, M51Vr, F8Va or F8Vr series machine can also look forward to having near-instant access to multimedia playback, chat capabilities, etc. as soon as they hit the power button. On these lappies, the system will be dubbed Express Gate, but you can rest assured it's absolutely the same thing. We'd hold off a few days on picking up one of the aforesaid units, however, as the pre-loaded models aren't slated to ship until next month.
ASUS bringing Splashtop instant-on OS to all its motherboards
We've seen the Splashtop instant-on OS demoed on ASUS gear in the past, and now it looks like the company is making the love official: it's going to start shipping it on all its motherboards. ASUS is calling the platform "Express Gate," but it's the same instant-on, ready-to-browse environment we've known about since October: an embedded Linux distro that runs Firefox and Skype off a memory chip linked directly to the BIOS. You might want to hit that link and check out the screenshots, actually -- with ASUS set to ship over a million mobos a month with the feature, chances are it'll be on a machine near you relatively soon.
Asus EeePC spotted running SplashTop instant-on OS
You probably remember the SplashTop instant-on, Linux-based OS from past posts or perhaps developer DeviceVM's demo at last October's reader meetup in San Francisco. It's well known that this embedded feature will ship standard on select ASUS motherboards, but as we were cruising around the PC manufacturer's booth today, we happened to catch a rather unexpected application for SplashTop: running on the EeePC. Neither ASUS nor DeviceVM has made any announcements with regard to porting the software onto the popular ultra-portable laptop, but unless our eyes were deceiving us, this Eee was all ready to run Pidgin, Skype, or a browser without booting into the main OS. We'll keep our eye on this one, as the merger of these two technologies would certainly create quite the compelling user experience.
DeviceVM's SplashTop: more info about the five second Linux system
In Asus's new P5E3 Deluxe we saw the first hardware launch of embedded Linux developer DeviceVM's new SplashTop platform, but we didn't exactly get a lot of hard info about what the system is or how it's supposed to work. While specifics of the hardware might change from implementation to implementation, SplashTop refers to the software platform -- kind of an embedded Linux-based internet appliance-like environment running off a flash memory chip, which is linked directly to the BIOS (read: not on the IDE / SATA bus). This, of course, allows quick and painless pre-boot access to the included sandboxed browser (FireFox) and VoIP (Skype) environment. As of this time users can't yet add their own apps (though that might change later), but hey, they can get online pretty fast, and that's a start, right? Of course, it's arguable that if you need to get online there's always suspend mode for your Vista or XP machine, and that internet appliances didn't work then, so why should they work now? Then again, suspend mode still draws more power than "off", and internet appliances were never built into your day to day computer either -- so we'll be tracking where this one heads.%Gallery-8274%
ASUS P5E3 Deluxe mobo boots in five seconds with embedded Linux
If you're an impatient individual, you're probably going to like what you hear about ASUS's newest motherboard, the P5E3 Deluxe. Sound fancy? Well, it is -- featuring Intel's X38 chipset (with an FSB running at 1600MHz), Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme CPU support, plus the company's Energy Processing Unit, 8-phase power, and WiFi-AP. Of course, that won't help with your MTV-generation attention span and lack of patience, but the embedded micro-Linux variant, Express Gate, just might. You see, when you boot the system, you're given an option to immediately enter into a small Linux OS -- within five seconds, they say -- called SplashTop (developed by DeviceVM). The OS is coupled with a stripped-down version of Firefox and Skype, allowing you to update your Facebook profile almost instantly. The whole shebang is available right now for three-hundred and sixty of your precious dollars.[Via Phoronix]
