Smartbook G138 is here!!!

I for one sure appreciate the info Takwu...I was -->this<-- close to ordering one...now I'm glad I didn't.

Rich

oh. they're crazy. why isn't the battery user-replaceable?!?!
and 200 minutes... VERY POOR. even my subnote can do that. and it has two batteries (of course replaceable). so it easily beats the G138. typical laptops can last for 3 hours anyway. PPCs for more (ok don't count the asus 730 - 2 hours with wifi).

but this sandisk has me intrigued... does it have ppc2000/2002 drivers too? i want one!!

again i ask how fast is surfing with this machine compared to say an average XP PC.

Altho the battery life is short in comparison, it is mostly adequate for a day's use. Remember that instant-on devices make better use of the battery, because they tend to be suspended a lot, instead of being left on for long periods of time (laptop owners would know).

The SanDisk has drivers for PPC2002, but not 2000.

The SmartBook browsing speed is fast enough that you won't notice any slow down compared to a PC. In some cases it's faster because it doesn't need to access the harddrive for page caching, or run a virus scan, etc. Even with a lot of images, the RAM is large enough to accommodate a whole page or two.

The only slow down happens if you have many windows up at the same time. I have had at most 3 windows up at a time. As I mentioned before, switching to a different window usually causes a pause. In comparison, on an average PC this is more instantaneous.

But please keep in mind that the SmartBook lacks both Flash and Java VM, which means it cannot show some contents.

is it running ce.net 4.1? then flash won't work but it can have some java vms. netfront java and maybe jeode too.

maybe 200 mins is ok for a day, but still it's quite discouraging for me.

well if sandisk is ppc2002 only, then it won't work on my 728, will it? can you try it for me please (if you haven't done it so far)? i hope you didn't sell your 728
thanks!

it's CE 4.2
I don't know why the official Flash works on WM2003 but not plain CE .net. The OS is the same. Like I said before, there's a rather complicated hack to make Flash work on the Jornada, but I don't know about CE .net. I'll do more investigation, some day...

The 200 min is with WiFi on (not continuously active tho, just web browsing usage). And also the SanDisk does not have a power saving mode. I don't know if zero config also affects the power consumption, as it seems to keep searching no matter what. So another WiFi card may take a smaller drain. And offline usage should last significantly longer.

I don't think the SanDisk works on the Jornada. PPC WiFi drivers usually come with a GUI that requires PPC dlls, so it might need some hacking, or won't work at all. I still have the Jornada at home, so I can try it when I get back... but I don't even have a date for that yet

ok, as i said earlier, the flashplayer that works for hpc2000, won't work on 4.1 or above. maybe the wm2003 version will...

about the sandisk: i can give you the necessary dll's and if you give me a link to the driver, i can hexedit it for you so you really don't need to do any hacking, just install, etc...
but i see it'll take a long time before you have a chance to test it

What flash player are you guys talking about? Macromedia Flash Player? I know that Conduits Pocket Spark work great on my 900C....

Rich

yes, macromedia (6.0). have you hacked it successfully? oh i see now what conduits pocket spark is. it's only macromedia flash 3.0 compliant, isn't it? or i'm mistaken

You are not mistaken Cmonex...3.0 and below, still better than nothing I guess. I don't really know the differences between the various versions of flash...never use them that I know of...

oh well i have no idea of the differences either, just suspecting that it's quite an old version i'm not a flash expert and never liked this stuff (can't see the use of flash...)

If it's any consolation, I just logged onto the Macromedia site with both my desktop and my 900C.

I watched the flash screen on my desktop, but on my 900C, which has the very latest verson of IE, that area where the flash movie played just stayed blank. Nothing, no errors or anything. If I hadn't been watching it on my desktop I would have never known it was there.

Checking the downloads I see a 7.0 verson of the Flash program for pocketpc...but nothing else. So for the HPC community...once again we are orphaned.

Rich

well, for the community.. we can hack macromedia flashplayer 6.0 onto hpc2000. not sure about ce.net though... the process for hpc2000 doesn't work for ce.net 4.1 afaik. that's all i know.
oh and i don't know about 7.0 yet, but there's a chance

Hi,

What software have you tried on the smartbook? Do you think that the sigmarion 3 software would work on it?

Thanks,

Xavi

Hi xavi,
To be honest I haven't tried a lot of software yet. Had been looking for a contacts program, but most of them are for PPCs, so do not work. For scheduler I use CE Agenda.

Otherwise I really didn't need to try many programs. The important things (other than PIM) are already built-in; IE6, Media9, Adobe, picture viewer etc. If there's anything particular, just ask, I'll see if I can try them out for you. Sigmarion 3 software might work, because the OS is the same generation (4.1 vs 4.2) and the CPUs are mostly compatible. However it isn't a guarantee, plus you cannot read Japanese on it (reminds me to try 3rd party language add-on). So it depends

Where can you buy one of these Smartbook G138's?

How much do they cost?

Thanks!