My new EeePC

I had been following the progress of the Nokia N770 (and N800) would probably have bought one, except they dont sell them in Australia. Also, after careful evaluation of my needs, I had come to the conclusion that the Nokia devices weren't quite what I needed.

Then I heard about the ASUS EeePC that was still being developed. At the time there was only a small bit of information released about it, and a whole lot of conjecture, and I expressed to my wife that when they finally make it to the market, I'd like one of them.

When I noticed them being sold, I mentioned it to my wife, and she went and got one for me. The last one actually.

I love it. But first a warning. This kind of device is not for everyone, however, it could be.

It has some incredible advantages:

• Low cost ($496 in australian bills)
• Small and quite durable.
• Truly mobile.
  
• Fully functional.

There are of course plenty of other specifications, but if you want those, do a bit of googling. I have had a number of laptops in the past, and although I enjoyed them, I did long for a smaller and lighter version. Apple has a really nice small laptop, however, I didn't want to spend that much money.

With the EeePC, I can literally take it anywhere. I throw it into my bacpack and take a train ride into the city. No need for a special bag. No need to carry a heavy bag. The EeePC weighs about the same as a small hardback book.

I use linux for everything, and this device comes with linux. Everything that I can do on my big desktop, I can actually do on this small device, with no limitations (well, mostly).

The keyboard is very small. But after using it for a little while, I discovered that I quickly got used to it. I'm actually typing this blog post on it, at about the same speed I would normally do on a bigger keyboard.

The only critisisms that I have are:

• Need more battery life. Currently getting about 3 hours usage. If we could double battery life, it would allow me to use it in more places without worrying about carrying the (usefully small) AC adapter with me.
  
• Ability to automatically use low-power mode when not using AC.
• A hardware dial for volume. Due to the way the keys are spaced, you need two hands to change the volume of the device. A bit inconvenient. An actual physical dial would be awesome.
• Bluetooth. I dont currently use bluetooth, but when first looking at the EeePC I was looking forward to getting a bluetooth mouse and keyboard, without having to use USB devices. When I discovered it didnt have bluetooth built in, I was a little dissapointed. I got a new wireless mouse instead and quite happy with that, and probably would never use a wireless keyboard to be honest. Still...

People who are used to WindowsXP might have a different experience, but I love using linux, and this device is perfect for me.

Getting back to work

With the birth of our new baby, Christmas season, and school holidays, development at rhokz.com has been effectively put on hold.

New development will start in February though, and I've got some interesting features to work on.

First off I have some minor interface improvements to make. Mostly to fix some minor irritations I've noticed during my break.

But the next cool big feature will be the ability to add related links to an article. For example, an article about a lost kid is posted to rhokz, a follow-up article about the kid being found can be linked to the first.

I know thats not a very good definitive functionality description, you'll just have to wait and see it in action once I've developed it and made it live.