Everun / OQO Shootout

Hugo Ortega has put up a great 38 minute video on the Everun. During it he compares the Everun with the OQO Model 02 and makes some great points. Coincidentally the OQO Model 02 was actually my second choice after the Everun as my new mobile PC. I decided on the Everun for exactly the reason Hugo brings up for during his video – value. The OQO was about twice the price of the Everun, but I don’t feel it’s anywhere near twice as good as the Everun. Of course, time will tell once I actually have mine and have used it for a few months!

Boy, It’s Small!

Steve at the UMPC Portal Web site has a bunch of pictures comparing the Everun to cell phones, UMPCs, etc. The picture above shows the Everun compared to the N800. Wow, I never realized just how small this unit is until I saw this picture!

In any case, I’ve ordered the Everun S66HS (AMD LX900 600mhz, 6GB SSD, 60GB HDD Hybrid, 512mb RAM, WiFi+BT, Windows XP Home) and the Dynamism site shows a delivery date of late August. It’s going to be tough waiting that long for my new bright shiny gadget!

Everun Review

The UMPC Portal site has a very extensive review of the Everun at http://www.umpcportal.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=757 Oh, by the way, I ordered one yesterday!

More Everun News – 1GB Model Coming to US (NOT!)

I just got off the phone with Dynamism. They now have pricing and availablity on their Web site (http://www.dynamism.com/everun/pricing.shtml) for some of the Everun configurations and a few accessories. However, they are still waiting for information on a 1GB model that Raon will be offering and the person I spoke with strongly recommended that I practice some patience and wait for the 1GB model to become available before ordering. I’m going to do just that! See comment below from Rudy of Dynamism – apparently a 1GB will not be available afterall! Nevertheless, the premlinary reviews I’ve read regarding performance of the 512MB model are leading me to order that model anyway.

My N800 Is Now A Phone!

I’ve been waiting for Skype to become available on my N800 since I’ve owned it. I bought the Skype “unlimited calls to US and Canada plan” when it became available early this year in anticipation of being able to use Skype on my N800. Well, it’s finally here and I’m really impressed with it. I’ve been making calls over the PSTN today and their quality has been excellent, even just using the N800’s built-in microphone and speakers. Skype is simply wonderful on the N800!

New Version of UKTube Now Available

It never fails! Just the day after I created my video on how to use UKTube, a brand new version of UKTube is released with lots of new functions! Nevertheless, the original video is still valuable in demonstrating the mechanics of exactly how to download a You Tube video using UKTube. You can download the new UKTube from https://garage.maemo.org/frs/download.php/1677/UKMP-1.3-uktube0.5.deb

The Heck with the Foleo – I’m Buying an Everun!

I finally decided to give up on the Foleo. In many ways it seems to me very much like the iPhone – a really nifty, fun gadget that simply fails in a whole bunch of ways to meet my actual requirements for that class of device.

Instead, right now I’m planning on buying a Raon Everun-66SH UMPC (http://www.raondigital.com/fnt_english/ev01.asp). I’ve been reading a couple of very interesting early reviews of this unit from Europe and Australia and it seems to me that here is a device that really meets my needs. It’s small, light, speedy, has amazing battery life life and has the potential to replace both my Nokia N800 and my Electrovaya Tablet PC as my sole computer for usage during my travels as an enterprise computer consultant.

I’ve been really noticing the foibles of my Electroya Scribbler Tablet PC in the past few months. In fact it’s become a desktop machine at my client site with monitor, keyboard, and mouse hooked up to it. My Nokia N800 is coming to meetings with me, instead of the Tablet. The Scribbler is relatively large, it runs pretty warm (especially when sitting in my lap during a meeting), and frankly I’m finding the whole inking experience to be slower and less reliable than I’d like. I’ve been missing the very compact Sony U-750P that was my primary traveling computer before the Electrovaya. The primary reason I replaced the little Sony was that its screen was really too small for inking and that it was SLOOOOOW!

The Everun looks like it might be the ideal unit for me. It’s small (about the same size as the U750P) and it’s got a keyboard so inking isn’t required for using it. Early reviews comment on how speedy it is and I’m planning on bumping it’s memory up to 1GB, which should further improve its performance (See comment below). Its battery life is reportedly even better than my U750’s (which has an extended battery) and the Scribbler’s.

I’ve spoken on the phone with Dynanism, the US importer of the Everun, and they say that they’ll have these units ready for sale next week. Unless something untoward happens regarding the final specifications or the price of the unit between now and then, I’ll be ordering one as soon as they are available.