Mark Stosberg
eee PC, Nokia N800 and a ThinkPad T23
Jacques was traveling with an eee PC (left) and an Nokia N800 (bottom) on his bike trip.
The eee PC came with Linux pre-installed. I showed him how to get more out his small screen by using the Firefox "F11" command for full-screen, as well as the Google Maps Full Screen "user style", which allows for larger visible maps. These two tips in combination made a big difference.
I also tried to upgrade his Firefox to version 3 which provides an even fuller screen mode, but the download from getfirefox.com required a newer version of GTK than was available.
Overall, my impression was in line with the reviews that I read: It's extremely quiet, light and portable, and easily runs applications like Firefox. The small screen size and cramped keyboard are the significant drawbacks.
However, given the portability and the $350 price tag, it's no surprise that they are becoming popular with bike tourists.
The N800 was also impressive. The screen is bright and dense with pixels, and applications are designed to make full use of the small screen. Jacques demonstrated Gmail on the small screen, and it looked fairly usable. At least, for read-only usage. The stylus-based input looked slow to type with. He carried it in addition to the laptop because he uses it as Skype/wifi phone to make extremely cheap or free calls back home to Canada.
eee PC, Nokia N800 and a ThinkPad T23
Jacques was traveling with an eee PC (left) and an Nokia N800 (bottom) on his bike trip.
The eee PC came with Linux pre-installed. I showed him how to get more out his small screen by using the Firefox "F11" command for full-screen, as well as the Google Maps Full Screen "user style", which allows for larger visible maps. These two tips in combination made a big difference.
I also tried to upgrade his Firefox to version 3 which provides an even fuller screen mode, but the download from getfirefox.com required a newer version of GTK than was available.
Overall, my impression was in line with the reviews that I read: It's extremely quiet, light and portable, and easily runs applications like Firefox. The small screen size and cramped keyboard are the significant drawbacks.
However, given the portability and the $350 price tag, it's no surprise that they are becoming popular with bike tourists.
The N800 was also impressive. The screen is bright and dense with pixels, and applications are designed to make full use of the small screen. Jacques demonstrated Gmail on the small screen, and it looked fairly usable. At least, for read-only usage. The stylus-based input looked slow to type with. He carried it in addition to the laptop because he uses it as Skype/wifi phone to make extremely cheap or free calls back home to Canada.