Why would anyone spend $700 buy a device that is dependent on the web to function, when a netbook costs half and can access the web and still function when offline?
If you're in Gnome development you'll see Pennington's name all over a dozen forums and readmes and all kinds of crap. He's a powerhouse behind GTKMM, the graphic apis, the list just goes on for ever. Even so, I'm not paying USD700 for a netbook. I just paid $330 for a very decent model with an 11.6" lcd (and Atom proc, of course.) That will do me just fine.
Cute; but I'm really not seeing ~$500 worth of improvement over a mini9 running Moblin. Or buying a netbook for normal use, a chumby for widgets, and booze with the rest.
My sons ipod touch does everything this device does, and more. It has a smaller screen, but it has a smaller footprint as well. We bought it for ~230 AUD.
For $699 I can get two eee 10" netbooks. Forget it!
And then, even if the web goes down, you can have your own little network running.
You'll be offline and online at the same time.
"Hey I just found a website with heaps of free pron on it!...Oh, it's the webserver on my other eee-book.... Well, at least I am getting great bandwidth from it."
This is a classic example of what happens when a bunch of engineers get together and they're all so dead on convinced that they've got the next great idea that they don't stop for 15 minutes to look at the market, learn what their potential customers actually want, or even write up a business plan.
No one is going to pay $700 for one of these. It's just not going to work. How is a salesman at Best Buy supposed to talk me into buying a device that has no hard drive, a tiny screen, stores all of my data out on the Internet, and doesn't run Microsoft Office when there's a cool looking 15" laptop siting right beside it for the same price?
It's just not going to happen.
Mark my words. This will all end in tears.
Even worse, you can get an EEE for far cheaper with better specs. If I'm going to get a netbook the things I'm going to look at are A) Price B) Specs C) Portability and D) Drivers for non-default OSes. Lets see here, 2 gigs of flash, even my $350 almost 2 years old EEE PC 701 had more than that. Intel Atom is generic, the screen size is meh, the keyboard is crap, etc. etc. Would I buy it for $150? In a heartbeat, would I buy it for $200? Possibly. But for $700?!? No way. For $700 I can get a "real" laptop w
If I'm going to get a netbook the things I'm going to look at are A) Price B) Specs C) Portability and D) Drivers for non-default OSes.
agree. Even Dell is having a hard time competing on that, at least with me: I was given some leeway for a business expense purchase, so I decided to get myself a little netbook of my own. Decided on Ubuntu, checked out the Dell Mini 10 (for $350), and then started configuring. Hmm... worth upgrading the hard drive from 160GB to 250GB (you hear that, Litl? 160GB!). Also
In the late 90's, hundreds of companies[1] thought that Network Appliances were going to be the next big thing. Turns out, almost nobody wants a device which is 100% paperweight as soon as the network goes away. Until we have wireless broadband that is ubiquitous, robust, and (most importantly) cheap, network appliances are going nowhere.
1. Sun was the biggest of these, see their "The network is the computer" marketing slogan
Until we have wireless broadband that is ubiquitous, robust, and (most importantly) cheap, network appliances are going nowhere.
We do. Its the cellular network. iPhones and kindles are network appliances. Unfortunately this device doesn't have a cellular modem. And its architecture is too hungry for bandwidth anyway.
The cellular network is not ubiquitous (ubiquitous means it's everywhere), and not cheap (IMO). Robust, maybe. I haven't used data services much so can't comment on that.
The one point they missed then and now is, that the network coverage is carp (not too much change there, crap also meaning expensive, no unlimited tires that relate to offline). For the same reason it will fail now, and for some years in the future, sadly.
ps. Oh, and there were no specs that would competitively make any sense of that price. Just too damn expensive for the mass market.
Now *this* explains the somewhat surprising move of pushing Javascript (that everybody hates) for Gnome shell. I think HP was one of the guys promoting this move.
I figure it's not that bad in the end, javascript is becoming a viable scripting language (whether we like or not). Too bad the development tools (and ecosystem, and culture) for Javascript suck badly. Hopefully this will change soon, as the community is gradually accepting the fact that Javascript just won't die, and we are better of biting the bu
I liked Javascript better when Flash used it and called it Actionscript. Actionscript is compiled to stack machine bytecode which can be decompiled back to AS code. That takes out the lexical interpretation step.
Actually, I think you've got cause and effect backwards. Other GNOME guys have been hearing about big-shell's use of JavaScript informally from Havoc, and decided to adopt it for gnome-shell since it's worked so well for litl. If you look at the commit history of gjs [gnome.org] you'll see it's about evenly divided between litl people and gnome-shell people now.
Apple doesn't try to get away with this: when you spend $700 on an Apple computer, you get a real computer, not just a web device; or, you get a teeny-tiny portable computer that doubles as a phone.
While I like the idea of the litl, the price tag is a little hefty. I'm really not considering getting one, and I buy *everything.* (I have an Openmoko phone, an iPhone, and a Google dev phone. I'm a sucker for new tech.)
Old people don't want a netbook for the exact same reason they don't want a touchscreen phone -- we can't see the f'ing screen! (The prediction that the iPhone will become the new vehicle for reading e-books continues to astound me.)
Finally someone that gets it. Connecting computers to HDTVs and other displays via HDMI is a great experience. The video and sound automatically go through, the plug isn't giant, and it only goes in one way. If you have a 1080P display, your TV instantly becomes a giant screen. This is great for presentations and home media and internet activities. In fact if everyone would bother, it would make connecting to a "workstation area" that much easier. Now if only there were some USB connections bundled into the
If there's one thing GNOME isn't designed for, it's underpowered hardware.
Could still be entirely useful, though. Scrub the existing OS, and put either Damn Small Linux or NetBSD on it, with blackbox/ratpoison, screen, vim, and cplay/xine for multimedia. It'd make a nice upgrade to my current laptop, actually.
Good for email, web browsing, office work, a bit of shell scripting, note taking and the usual laptop stuff, and low end multimedia. Depending on the video card, 1.8 Ghz will also play WoW, if somew
It's not running GNOME. It's running a custom shell based on X11/Clutter, with a few GTK widgets to avoid having to reimplement a textbox for the 1337th time.
The support videos at http://litl.com/support/ [litl.com] give a good idea of how the UI works -- and they also feature Annie, litl's friendly customer care rep!
the folks from Litl started setting up their demo table. I glanced over and saw that they had a small gadget that looked like a laptop (appeared to be the size of of a Macbook Air) with a flip screen. As I was reading an interesting article, I overheard some explanation of what the machine did and I was tempted to get up and check it out as I am always open to new gadgets. However, that temptation quickly went away when I overheard the price being quoted after the explanation of what it did.
For a good fi
Sell what you think you can build, instead of building what you think you can sell. If not you'll get a solution to a non-existing need resulting in zero business.
Apple only makes chicklet keyboards now. They're quite nice. I'm not sure at the moment whether I like my classic MBP keyboard or the chicklet ones better. And I did type my PhD thesis on my MBP keyboard.
The litl uses low-travel scissor-action keys, like the Apple keyboards, not rubber keys like the old 'chiclet' keyboards and the OLPC XO-1. The keyboard is pretty pleasant to type on. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiclet_keyboard#Recent_developments [wikipedia.org]
let me be the first (Score:2, Funny)
Re:let me be the first (Score:5, Insightful)
Really? Why?
It looks like a regular Atom netbook... Why pay $700.00USD when you can get a netbook with similar specs for half that price...
Parent
Re:let me be the first (Score:5, Funny)
Really? Why?
It looks like a regular Atom netbook... Why pay $700.00USD when you can get a netbook with similar specs for half that price...
Dude, it's a joke.
Litl is going to be huge. Get it? Little? Huge! Ha. Haha.
Heh....
...Okay, you're right. I totally get why you missed that.
That wasn't so much 'whoosh' as 'wha-atever'.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Why pay $700.00USD when you can get a netbook with significantly better specs for half that price...
Sorry for the FTFY. Had to be done.
Price tag: $700 (Score:2)
... ok, ok, so it's $699.
Or $1398 for two. Not sure how that's a saving, except that you get two free remote controls ($19ea if bought separately).
Couldn't readily find hardware details though...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Did I miss something or does the thing lack both a touchscreen and a tablet/ebook mode?
$700? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:$700? (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I'd rather spend $400 for similar functionality.
http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/ [alwaysinnovating.com]
I say similar, because it fits the same usage scenarios, but with a different approach. (Not so much a web based one)
Why this won't fail (Score:3, Funny)
This product will be awesome for one simple reason:
The founder is named Havoc Pennington [wikipedia.org]
Seriously! That's a Bad-assed name. That's like halfway from what you might expect Duke Nukem to name his dog or child.
I'll buy one, just so I can claim I have a Havoc machine.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
If you're in Gnome development you'll see Pennington's name all over a dozen forums and readmes and all kinds of crap. He's a powerhouse behind GTKMM, the graphic apis, the list just goes on for ever. Even so, I'm not paying USD700 for a netbook. I just paid $330 for a very decent model with an 11.6" lcd (and Atom proc, of course.) That will do me just fine.
Specs: (Score:2)
1.6Ghz Atom. 1Gig of ram 2Gig of flash.
Oh look! Facebook!
Hmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
My sons ipod touch does everything this device does, and more. It has a smaller screen, but it has a smaller footprint as well. We bought it for ~230 AUD.
$699 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
For $699 I can get two eee 10" netbooks. Forget it!
And then, even if the web goes down, you can have your own little network running.
You'll be offline and online at the same time.
"Hey I just found a website with heaps of free pron on it! ...Oh, it's the webserver on my other eee-book. ... Well, at least I am getting great bandwidth from it."
Nice (Score:2)
I can see a place for this.
Handy for people who want their computer to "just work"... like my parents.
Seriously, somebody's been drinking the kool aid (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Seriously, somebody's been drinking the kool ai (Score:2)
Actually, the screen isn't really tiny - 12.1". Problem is, it's a bit heavy for an ultraportable, especially considering the lack of storage.
That said, laptops with small screens DO have their place in the marketplace, just as 15"-ones.
Re: (Score:2)
Agree! Cost needs to come down (Score:2)
agree. Even Dell is having a hard time competing on that, at least with me: I was given some leeway for a business expense purchase, so I decided to get myself a little netbook of my own. Decided on Ubuntu, checked out the Dell Mini 10 (for $350), and then started configuring. Hmm... worth upgrading the hard drive from 160GB to 250GB (you hear that, Litl? 160GB!). Also
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
In the late 90's, hundreds of companies[1] thought that Network Appliances were going to be the next big thing. Turns out, almost nobody wants a device which is 100% paperweight as soon as the network goes away. Until we have wireless broadband that is ubiquitous, robust, and (most importantly) cheap, network appliances are going nowhere.
1. Sun was the biggest of these, see their "The network is the computer" marketing slogan
Re: (Score:2)
Until we have wireless broadband that is ubiquitous, robust, and (most importantly) cheap, network appliances are going nowhere.
We do. Its the cellular network. iPhones and kindles are network appliances. Unfortunately this device doesn't have a cellular modem. And its architecture is too hungry for bandwidth anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
The cellular network is not ubiquitous (ubiquitous means it's everywhere), and not cheap (IMO). Robust, maybe. I haven't used data services much so can't comment on that.
Re: (Score:2)
The one point they missed then and now is, that the network coverage is carp (not too much change there, crap also meaning expensive, no unlimited tires that relate to offline). For the same reason it will fail now, and for some years in the future, sadly.
ps. Oh, and there were no specs that would competitively make any sense of that price. Just too damn expensive for the mass market.
Reminds me of the Mattel Aquarius (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mattelaquarius.jpg [wikipedia.org]
The design, IMHO, is nice.
But an underpowered CPU combined with only 2 GB of SSD storage and a single USB port make this a slightly unattractive proposition.
Javascript (Score:2)
Now *this* explains the somewhat surprising move of pushing Javascript (that everybody hates) for Gnome shell. I think HP was one of the guys promoting this move.
I figure it's not that bad in the end, javascript is becoming a viable scripting language (whether we like or not). Too bad the development tools (and ecosystem, and culture) for Javascript suck badly. Hopefully this will change soon, as the community is gradually accepting the fact that Javascript just won't die, and we are better of biting the bu
Re: (Score:2)
I liked Javascript better when Flash used it and called it Actionscript. Actionscript is compiled to stack machine bytecode which can be decompiled back to AS code. That takes out the lexical interpretation step.
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LOL (Score:3)
$700?! And it doesn't even come with the stupid remote? I don't think so.
Apple gets away with this because they have an established brand and reputation.
I can't believe they don't even have a video of the UI they are hyping. Show, don't tell.
Wow. This is just ridiculous. Is the Internet being punked?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Apple doesn't try to get away with this: when you spend $700 on an Apple computer, you get a real computer, not just a web device; or, you get a teeny-tiny portable computer that doubles as a phone.
While I like the idea of the litl, the price tag is a little hefty. I'm really not considering getting one, and I buy *everything.* (I have an Openmoko phone, an iPhone, and a Google dev phone. I'm a sucker for new tech.)
finally a computer for grandma (Score:4, Insightful)
I foresee a not so Litl flop on the horizon.
Re: (Score:2)
WSJ article (Score:3, Informative)
HDMI (Score:2)
Shouldn't be running GNOME (Score:2, Troll)
If there's one thing GNOME isn't designed for, it's underpowered hardware.
Could still be entirely useful, though. Scrub the existing OS, and put either Damn Small Linux or NetBSD on it, with blackbox/ratpoison, screen, vim, and cplay/xine for multimedia. It'd make a nice upgrade to my current laptop, actually.
Good for email, web browsing, office work, a bit of shell scripting, note taking and the usual laptop stuff, and low end multimedia. Depending on the video card, 1.8 Ghz will also play WoW, if somew
Re: (Score:2)
Netbook? (Score:3, Funny)
With that weight, it's more of a netbrick than a netbook.
Annie @ litl support (Score:2)
Not sure about the device itself (Score:3, Interesting)
especially the "stores data in the cloud" bit - hasn't the Danger fiasco told us that's a bad idea jeans? But gjs [gnome.org] looks cool.
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Gmail is in the cloud. Its pretty popular. And not particularly reliable.
As I sat a Starbucks in Boston today (Score:2, Insightful)
my 5 cents (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Come again on that one?
You should build what you can sell, otherwise you won't sell anything.
I get it (Score:2)
Can I build my OWN Back-End "Cloud"? (Score:2)
I'm not keeen on storing my stuff in a Google/Amazon cloud service - but I love the device.
I may get these and "hack away" to be my own provider. BTW: These do not yet appear on Amazon.
The article inclueds everything but a ship date. I'd order now, but I don't want to charge a card - then wait 10 weeks.
Re:Can I build my OWN Back-End "Cloud"? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, you can.
Check on the new Ubuntu Server 9.10. It does have all the tools you need to create a private cloud.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Apple only makes chicklet keyboards now. They're quite nice. I'm not sure at the moment whether I like my classic MBP keyboard or the chicklet ones better. And I did type my PhD thesis on my MBP keyboard.
Re: (Score:2)