The Eeepc – Mobile Computing at a New Level

I love gadgets. I am addicted to them and if I see something I like then I feel a massive urge to immediately go and buy it.

Looking in a recent PC magazine I came across the EeePC by Asus – looking at the pictures I saw something that I had longed for, for some time. A small portable PC, a cheap price tag, seemingly specifically geared up for Internet on the move.

The EeePC is pronounced e-pc – it is meant to stand for three easy points – easy to learn, easy to work and easy to play. I think the original idea was to make something affordable to the many including students and families.

What attracted me to the device was it’s apparent portability. Measuring 225 x 165 x 21 mm this is tiny in comparison to any other laptop. It has a solid state hard drive so pretty rugged in the fact you can knock it and bang it about without damage occurring. With three hours of battery life and a mobile phone sized charger makes it all pretty portable.

Of course as with any relatively new gadget the demand is great and getting hold of one was pretty tough. They come in different colours. My preference was the black one and I guess this was the same for most people as it was completely out of stock. In the end I settled for the blue.

After pressing the power button the wait is minimal. I would say about 20 – 30 seconds. It’s strange as the machine is silent when booting. You kind of expect to hear the hard disks spin and the fan going. Peering into the 7 inch screen is surprisingly easy although I guess it could get annoying depending on what you are trying to achieve. However, so far, for just MSN, email and web browsing it is absolutely fine.

More surprisingly is the keyboard. It is obviously relatively small but it is quite easy to type on. I think after a small amount of adjusting typing should be relatively easy. Ok you would not want to type a full novel on it but for emails, blogging short articles etc – absolutely fine.

Even though it is hard to think of this little gadget like this, this machine is a fully functional PC. This means you can pretty much do anything on it that you could a normal PC. It comes with a Linux based system on it. This is open source and subsequently, with a couple of minor modification, there are literally thousands of free applications that can be run on it. The main screen is easy to navigate round giving you obvious icons such as ‘Internet’ or ‘email’ or ‘messenger’ so you really do not have to be a techie to work your way around. Having said that, if you wanted to, the machine is powerful enough to run XP on it should you require.

With wi-fi built in, connecting to the Internet is easy. A webcam, microphone and speakers allow for easy communication. You also have USB ports as well as a flash memory slot allowing for an addition 32gb of storage on top of the 4gb included within the machine. For me, this means I can take this machine and take it anywhere and where there is not a wireless network to connect to, I can connect via 3G from my data card. This means that I can be in the Internet anywhere without taking, what I now consider, a bulky item such as a laptop. This will even fit in the glove box of your car or in a handbag!

Whilst opening the EeePC will void your warranty – this system is upgradable. There are countless modifications or upgrades that can be done to make your Eeepc unique and super quick. As the software is open source, it can be modified to do pretty much anything you require.

I think this machine is going to be a huge success and pave the way for truly mobile computing. I have just paid £250 ($500 approx) for the 4GB model. There was a 2GB model for £200 and I have heard rumours that Asus have managed to relocate the speakers allowing for a greater screen size on a soon to be released model.

Mobile Computers and Entertainment Inside it

Mobile, mobile, and mobile. Everything goes mobile nowadays. Demand for hand phones is higher than demand for traditional phones. There is no difference with laptop. Demand for mobile computer (laptop) is now higher than demand for desktop computer. Who have predicted earlier about this trend? If now is still year 1999, maybe no one ever predicted this trend.

Like it or not, we must follow this trend. Everyone needs to follow the latest trend of technology. If not, your life will be “doomed”. Through the last few months, even big computer companies have released many thin laptops. This is happening because many people need lighter laptops. With busier lifestyles for everyone, we need instant products. This is crazy but even some people order meals online or by phone and these foods delivered to their home (or office)!

Mobile entertainment is also following this trend. Mobile entertainment can be categorized into several parts. First, online gaming. You can see many gaming laptops with unlimited internet usage from everywhere. Now many people play online games from their laptops even if they are not in their home. You can say this is mobile entertainment, of course.

Other benefits of mobile technology are VOIP and better webcam quality. These days it is very easy to find cheap and good webcam then use this webcam when we chat with our friends everywhere. Of course this is another mobile entertainment because it’s enjoyable to chat directly with our friends through webcam (rather than if we are just typing in MSN or Yahoo Messenger). Mobile entertainment will continue to grow just like mobile laptop computer which now is a very popular thing.

Mobile computers and their uses

Along with the fast pace of the world, technology has flourished with the invention of thousands of new devices and there have also been considerable updates and upgrades to the devices that are currently in use. Mobile Computers are nothing but remote computing devices which help the users to perform computational activities through a small display screen available in the device. The invention of these devices can be said to be the starting point of a new era which has enabled the computer users to handle their day to day chores effectively, which they were otherwise doing using their desktop computers. The new invention helps the users to be in touch with their business or organizational activities throughout 24/7 which has proved to be highly effective and profitable.

The advent of these luxury devices have not only made everyone’s life easy but has also shrunk the world and made them quite compact. The specialties of these devices are that they are easily portable, do not require any cable to be connected with a network and are handy too. The wireless connection between the remotely located Internet service provider and the mobile computer is established through the wireless computing devices and battery powered communication devices. The different types of mobile computer devices include laptops or notebooks, smart mobile phones and PDA.

A laptop or notebook is a type of mobile computer which is a smaller version of a desktop computer. Laptops are usually connected with wireless LAN or wireless WAN technology. A laptop can be used to perform all the activities that are performed by using a traditional desktop computer. As a laptop runs with a charge contained in one single battery, it is a great device in limiting power consumption. There are various types of laptops which vary in their look and utility based on the brand, configuration and their cost.

Personal digital assistants, or PDA in short, are handheld or mobile computers which are pocket-sized computing devices with a small display screen and miniaturized keyboard. They can also be operated through the touch screen user interface. PDAs are gaining in popularity because of their incredible size and their potential to perform almost all the tasks that can be performed by the traditional desktop computer. Smart phones are no less functional. They are nothing but mobile phones which also include all the features of a desktop computer. The system enables the user to access the internet and to be readily reachable by email. The invention of the mobile computers has not only made it easy for the users to readily access their personal and official documents, but has also helped to save a huge amount of time which, when used productively has helped to increase the growth of a business tremendously.