Laptop Magazine does the CloudBook- it blows

Our buds over at Laptop Magazine have their hands on one of the most frequently delayed UMPCs around, the Everex CloudBook and they are blogging the experience.  Unfortunately that experience has not been very positive so far as they have run into some significant setup problems that will likely hit newbies where it hurts.  First up they couldn't complete the initial setup procedure as the OK/ CANCEL buttons were off the screen.  This is a frequent problem on Windows-based UMPCs as the 800x480 resolution of those devices often puts those buttons off the bottom of the screen.  Apparently the same issue is there in Gnome Linux as that turned out to be their problem with the CloudBook.  Once they got past that problem and got the CloudBook setup up for running they ran into a lot of WiFi configuration problems.  Check out their continuing coverage of the Everex CloudBook and see how the rest of the process goes for them.  These problems don't bode well for this initial version of the Everex as the folks at Laptop Magazine know what they're doing and are still getting stymied getting this baby online.

Comments

[Aaron]

Looks like they just slapped the stock versions of software on there without and tweaking to fit the resolution and size limitations.

Sounds like shoddy work to me, and a bad sign of things to come.

[Scotty]

You find out what a company's Quality Circle is really made of when "Show Stopper" meets "The Show Must Go On"...

[Jose R. Ortiz]

I would just like to contend that title of "most frequently delayed UMPC." I think those honors have been earned by the HTC Shift...

[Mark]

Yeah, it's kind of hard to believe that an OS sorta-kinda specifically taylored for this kind of hardware would be so miserable on it. I couldn't get the network to work at all in a VM. It said that the card was there and so on, but nothing that requires a network could actually connect to it. That's not good when almost everything about the OS is based on the ability to access a network. For the umpteenth time, it looks like I won't be giving up the Q1.

[gork]

Wait until some of the real Linux guys get a hold of these. These are just software buggies. Not like Windows doesn't have those. Don't judge the hardware by an oops in the software.

[nomo]

These issues are precisely why I would rather pay more (up to $1200) for a 7"-10" ultra-portable that doesn't need as much tinkering. P1610's are pretty cheap on eBay these days.

[follick]

I think the Dual-core deserves mention in the "most frequently delayed UMPC" contest.