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Get Your Mind in the Clouds |
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Here at Laptopical we love a value-priced, green, independent-minded laptop as much as we love those desktop replacers, corporate-crowd pleasers, and gaming masterpieces. After all, who was one of the first to bring you news on the One Laptop Per Child XO program in 2005? Laptopical. In this tradition of bringing to you the alternatives to high-priced mobile computing, we next spotlight the Everex CloudBook. For about the same price as the Asus Eee-$399 retail-the CloudBook raises the bar for value-based laptops, well, sky-high. |
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Weighing in at 2 pounds and fitting into a slender 9-inch frame,
the rather plain-looking black notebook provides features that
are all but plain for the price. You get a plethora of ports and
connectivity-USB, DVI, 4-in-1 media card reader, Ethernet,
802.11b/g, headphone, microphone-combined with additional
components you'd not expect from something that's supposed to be
barebones-such as stereo speakers and a Webcam. The hardware is of course a bit barebones, like the 1.2 GHz VIA processor and the 512MB of RAM. The 30GB of hard drive, though, dwarfs the 4GB flash drive in the Eee. But this is not a competition, right? You almost have to buy these laptops to prove a point-that you want to live the alternative computing lifestyle, free from the mainstream operating systems and their processor intensive apps. The CloudBook fits perfectly into this mindset. It is based on the Linux-based gOS Rocket operating system, which comes loaded with Google apps and other Web-based freeware built in, such as Mozilla, Skype, and OpenOffice. And in keeping with the whole alt hipster image, the CloudBook is also green. Its 4-cell Lithium-Ion battery can last 5 hours, while the computer purrs along during operations like it isn't even awake. One potential downside to this high-flying ultraportable notebook is where it will be sold. I personally have no problem with Wal-Mart.com. But some crunchy-feely folks might. But if you're one of them, Everex claims that the CloudBook will be available at "fine retailers throughout North America" starting this month. Everex must be hoping their Cloudbook will prove as popular as the EEE PC, but they will have to shift a lot of units to catch up with Asus's flagship ultraportable. Keep tabs on Everex's site for the latest. By Matthew Brodsky - Laptopical Sunday, March 02, 2008 |
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