9 Inches, 2 pounds, 5 hours of battery life. Surf, email, blog, IM, Skype, compute. Cloud computing makes it simple and easy for everyone.

Based on the latest gOS Rocket operating system, the ultra-mobile Everex PC comes with popular applications from Google, Mozilla, Skype, OpenOffice.org and more.

Additional Preinstalled and Linked Software
Mozilla Firefox, gMail, Meebo, Skype, Wikipedia, GIMP, Blogger, YouTube, Xing Movie Player, RythemBox, Faqly, Facebook and OpenOffice.org 2.3 (includes WRITER, IMPRESS, DRAW, CALC, BASE)

Hardware Specifications
1.2GHz, VIA C7®-M Processor ULV, 512MB DDR2 533MHz, SDRAM, 30GB Hard Disk Drive, 7" WVGA TFT Display (800 x 480), VIA UniChrome Pro IGP Graphics, VIA High-Definition Audio, 802.11b/g, (1) 10/100 Ethernet Port, (1) DVI-I Port, (2) USB 2.0 Ports, (1) 4-in1 Media Card Reader, (1) .3MP Webcam, (1) Headphone/Line-Out Port, (1) Microphone/Line-In Port, (1) Set of Stereo Speaker, (1) Touchpad, (1) 4-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery

"Most people are already there. Young people in particular spend way more time using so-called cloud apps — MySpace, Flickr, Gmail — than running old-fashioned programs on their hard drives. What's amazing is that this shift from private to public software has happened without us even noticing it...Yeah. Welcome to Google Earth. A bunch of bright computer scientists and AI experts in Silicon Valley are not only rewiring our computers — they're dictating the future terms of our culture. It's terrifying...The scariest thing about Stanley Kubrick's vision wasn't that computers started to act like people but that people had started to act like computers. We're beginning to process information as if we're nodes; it's all about the speed of locating and reading data. We're transferring our intelligence into the machine, and the machine is transferring its way of thinking into us. .."

This isn't exactly news (Able already blogged about it here and it's been covered by CNet, Wikipedia, their own news page, the New York Times, etc. ), but I wanted to point out that this is one of many new pieces of hardware that are not only motivated by keeping the technology inexpensive and simple, but also experimenting with user interface design.

I think if I am honest, I might use maybe 5% of what Windows has to offer on a regular basis, so I'm definitely interested in what my computing "non-negotiables" would be and asking questions like: Just how much processing power and memory do I need? At what point will I need more than a browser? Do I really just need a wireless-enabled terminal?

I like that the XO Sugar interface (pictured right) has simplified most options down to basic and easily interpreted images, rather than using text and multi-tiered menu systems. This covers what could be a really tough problem of languages and dispersing the technology to many countries. I also like the focus on connectivity and gathering groups of users/laptops based upon operations. From what I can tell, the OLPC browser is adequate- it defaults to Google's search page and cuts out the address bar from the interface. One thing I noticed in the demo (see below) was that the XO interface allows a user to see only one process at a time, which might seem like a step back to those of us used to multitasking with many windows open at once, but is probably a good idea since the computer was created for educational purposes and limiting this might cut down on distractions.



Here's another demo video (below)

1. Small Size. My previous computer was a 17" Dell Latitude 9200. I carried that to and from work every day for 2 and a half years. I did get used to the bulk of it, but I always knew that when the time came to buy a new one, it would be much smaller. Now, 12" is where it's at!
2. Price. When I bought my last laptop, I spent something like $2200. While the value was really good (it's still a great machine and I have had no problems with it), I wanted to spend a bit less this time around. My method for establishing my budget was simple: whatever I received as an income tax refund would be my limit. This year I got around $1475, so that was the cap. I ended up getting this machine for $1280- even better!
3. Vista. Believe it or not, I was ready to move to Vista. Here's my thinking on this- in a couple of years, Vista is going to be the standard, so I should just get on board now. I didn't want to buy an XP machine and then have to buy Vista separately later on. So, I needed a computer that had the hardware to run Vista well, which was remarkably hard to find! (Shame on you, Dell, Lenovo, etc. for selling machines with Vista and lame graphics cards that everyone knows won't handle the Aero interface!) I might have to write up another small review of Vista itself, but for now, I would definitely say that is is a good improvement to XP in many ways.
   

Everything else to me was a bonus- the tablet functionality, Windows Media Center and remote, built in webcam and microphone, two headphone jacks- it's all great! My only complaint is that the smaller model machines should have DVI output standard. I am amazed that only the larger models have it. It's the small guys that you want to attach to an external monitor! For now, VGA will have to do.

So far, I am really enjoying this machine and would recommend it to anyone looking for a small, powerful, Vista-running, gleam-machine!