Maybe it is too early to tell, but it sure seems like the low end PC market is taking over, and maybe that is a good thing.
I´m typing this on my new and impressive eee PC, which for $399 offers me everything I need except a robust keyboard, but I am even getting used to this one. At 2 pounds this is the ticket for a good traveling device.
Here is another cheap miniPC, though this is more computer but no screen or keyboard:
Here´s my first blog post using the new Eee PC from ASUS. My first impressions:
Excellent, easy setup with little configuration. Navigation UI for the Linux is excellent.
Smaller than I had expected and seems like a feather compared to my 8 pound Dell.
Keyboard is very tiny. Hard to type and easy to hit wr0ng keys.
Connectivity excellent
Phew…back on a real keyboard now. The Eee PC really shines as a good surfing tool with a bright 7″ screen that should be fine for most tasks including mail, but the tiny keyboard concerns me. Still, much better than having to lug a big laptop all over the place in China and small enough that I can carry it with me everywhere. After too much time looking at the similarly named options I chose the ASUS Eee PC 4G at $399. The basic model is $299 with 2G of the flash memory, but mine has 4G memory (there is no hard drive or disk drive on these!). Also a camera and what appears to be longer battery life – 3.5 vs 2.8 hours for the “surf” models.
Before you buy review the chart at ASUS which covers the different models. This is the current chart but I’m sure this will change, especially because the larger model should be out soon. Unless the keyboard is larger – in which case that is probably the one to get – I’d think that the larger model would not necessarily be a better idea since it will be heavier.
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TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington is on my favorite show tonight talking about the future of technology along with Chris Anderson of Wired. (not to be confused with TED conference coordinator Chris Anderson).
Ha – just got a Tweet from Mike that he hasn’t even seen himself yet since it’s not on in CA yet.
Chris Anderson:
On sharing his next book before it is even out: “Open Source” the idea, leading to a flood of more ideas, which in turn enrich everybody. “Google doesn’t show up on your credit card bill”.
Anderson’s provocative points are about how “free” is becoming a key concept in the digital economy, and may trump
Where does the some $360,000,000 that Craigslist saves the economy go? Back to us, says Chris. Hey thanks for the fish Craig Newmark!
Commodity information “needs to be free” vs unique information which may need to be expensive.
Radiohead as using digital economics for what it’s good at, and stimulate demand for the scarce thing – seeing the band in person, endorsements, and T shirts.
You cannot erase yourself from the web. Shifting from privacy to self-promotion.
Anderson: Yes, MS will get Yahoo.
Google as algorithms, Yahoo as a people business. Google and the “machines first” culture are winning. Microsoft, a pre-web culture, believes in software. Their success kept them from being hungry, but now they are.
Tech Bubble of 2000 was different. Softer landing this time?
Facebook: We’ll see narrowing of social networks (a GREAT point!). NING model may prevail. e.g. Chris’ own www.DIYdrones.com What is the right level of granularity?
Chris: “Everything I believe is written on the back of an iPhone”:
Designed in California, Made in China
Mike Arrington
Big issues:
* Net neutrality.
* China. Sites are filtered and slowed rather than outright deleted from the network. Companies are not happy with the policies, but reluctant to leave 187,000,000 internet users to the competition.
* Mobile space. Fundamentals are changing such that USA can compete now with other countries in the mobile space.
* Identity theft. US has done too little to fight this. Even Sen John McCain had his ID stolen a few years back.
* Education, computers, and internet access for schools. Government weak in this area, but also true that computers are often an educational distraction rather than enhancement.
* Economic implications: TV ads suck (great point Mike!), so internet ad share will increase. However also we’ll see TV and internet increasingly converge.
Mike’s online “about 100% of the time I’m awake”. TechCrunch startup database is one key focus. “We’re not worth 100MM”. (for more on TC valuation issues see the excellent Yahoo Tech TV interview with Mike).
Microsoft won’t back down and be embarrassed by the Yahoo deal. MS failed in search and fell off the online map. All the major search engines are roughly equivalent (great point Mike!). But Google has lots of publishers and lots of action at their own pages.
Amazon – transitioning to a services model. Renting services in the cloud is eliminating yet another high cost business barrier by providing high level infrastructure at low cost.
Startups and entrepreneurs: Modern day pirates. Gamblers. They value risk cf risk averse folks. YouTube’s 1.65 Billion sale as a surprise.
Can Facebook have their “Google Moment”, which for Google was figuring out pay per click advertising. Facebook as more innovative than Myspace. Can they invent something to generate a LOT of revenue? If yes, another Google is born.
Facebook’s friend based advertising model may be illegal because it’s implying an endorsement without the consent of the person.
BBC as a great site to review the condition of the world. Blogs as taking page views from the ‘big guys’. Comments as important. Blogs following Silicon Valley as a “trainwreck”, but blogs in general on the rise.
Is privacy an illusion? Harder to get email address than SSN (hmmm – I don’t think so…).
Obama fan. Tech potentially will make our lives much better. 3rd world education as exciting. Worrying about Virtual Reality. What happens when people want to spend all their time in VR?
A prevailing assumption of the past several years holds that young internet users are very computer and search savvy, but recent study of children and internet in the UK suggests otherwise. ARS Technica Reports
The study of young searchers found they preferred visual over text information, liked to cut and paste, and tended to do simple searches.
My own observations of how kids use computers lead me to think this study is correctly characterizing use and also offers some profound insights into the future of computing – a future that is *less*, not more intellectually sophisticated in terms of how people interact with the internet and with each other.
Several forces are conspiring to make the average internet user “dumber” than in the past:
* Entertainment usually trumps education, and as entertainment value of online environments becomes increasingly compelling kids (and adults) will increasingly spend time “playing” rather than “learning”.
* Short attention spans now rule everywhere, and this trend is unlikely to see any reversal. We are replacing contemplation and reflection about experiences with … more experiences.
* Human nature. We are not designed for personal enlightenment and long term planning – rather for short term gain and satisfaction which until very recently was a better survival strategy.
So, strap in and watch out, because things are going to get a lot …. dumber!
Brian at Gizmodo has a thoughtful, pointed piece today about why he thinks people were way too hard on Gizmodo for pranking Motorola at CES, turning off screens during a presentation.
He hasn’t changed my mind yet because next year I think every booth staff person is going to be more skeptical than they were this year of the legitimacy of those with “blogger” badges (Gizmodo folks probably had press badges – but this was all reported as a blogging stunt).
More importantly CES’s great treatment of bloggers has been rewarded with stunts.
Brian’s case would be stronger if Gizmodo’s buzz machine had focused on negatives at CES – such as some of the press payoffs he mentions in his article, rather than simply sabotaging a presentation for cheap YouTube thrills and views.
But, ultimately I suppose the community and those affected more directly than me must define the appropriateness of this kind of activity and if there is little outrage by Motorola or CES than maybe I was the one who overreacted.
SONY Pirates of the Burning Sea Party
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
Thanks to SONY Online and Flying Lab software for a very nice party showcasing the Pirates of the Burning Sea, a new Massively Multiplayer online game or “MMO”. I’ve been researching the MMORPG topic for the past few weeks and it was great to get a chance to talk to one of the game developers and Flying Lab PR about MMOs in general as well as their experiences with this game.
Also really fun was playing some poker with professional dealers who were very helpful to the many Texas Holdem novices. One of my dealers has dealt in the world series of Poker, which was cool. Very nice guy who could track the fast action in remarkable form. Interestingly, when asked a different dealer said that he makes about $100,000 per year dealing at one of the top casinos here. I think most of this is from tips.
One Laptop Per Child Project
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
For a project of this scope it was very disappointing to see Intel’s departure, only a few days before CES. I agree with CNET that this was handled poorly on both sides, and I’m especially concerned that Negroponte’s brilliant vision may ultimately get undermined by his in ability to compromise with the market forces that drive consumer electronics much more than altruism or societal need.
That said it appeared that AMD remains solidly behind the project and many countries are buying in, so hopefully this will bring to pass the grand vision of technology to those who have the least chance of getting it otherwise – poor children in developing countries.
My favorite project of CES remains the Meraki mesh networking concept. It’s a great example of leveraging existing technologies in new and clever ways while keeping common sense, profitability, and global citizenship in mind.
OK, so I’m not getting to meet Donny Deutsch here at CES (because he’s not here). But glad to report that Scoble and the Bloghaus Bus o’ Bloggers will be on “The Big Idea” the show tonight on MSNBC.
Blogging is a pretty big story here at CES and I’m hoping to get some comments next week from CES CEO Shapiro about his decisions to bring bloggers in as a “separate but equal” press category. In fact the second hand stories I’ve heard indicate that the press actually was complaining they couldn’t get in the blogging lounges which were generally less crowded and more comfortable than the press rooms (they are allowed them in now).
I just talked to Plantronics who is sponsoring the lounges. She said last year they did have a blogger lounge but it was out in a tent and not as comfortable as this year’s lounges. Thank you Plantronics.
Another blogger upgrade are all the “blogger only” parties here. Intel sponsored the one yesterday at the Atomic Testing Museum, and Monster the night before at a Paris Hotel Suite. Hey Silicon Valley – YOU could learn a lesson on how to treat bloggers from the CES sponsors, though CES has the advantage of filtering folks via the cost to get to Las Vegas. This effectively reduces the number of folks who, for example, might just start writing the day before they got here. I’m hoping to ask CES if they did any screening for eligible tech bloggers. I understand there are about 200 registered here as “bloggers”, but most of the blog folks are here as Press because they are with other media outlets.
Joe Duck 