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Technology

ArsTechnica Espresso PC Review 79

Posted by Hemos from the super-sweet dept.
Hannibal from ArsTechnica gave the head's-up of their review of the Espresso PC. We had an article on this super-sweet little machine recently. This little machine weighs .99 pounds, has USB, Celeron, 3D Sound, built in touchpad - and Hannibal covers putting Linux on the puppy as well. /me wants.
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ArsTechnica Espresso PC Review More

ArsTechnica Espresso PC Review

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  • Poor sound quality not a showstopper... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    There are USB -> lineout devices could be used in the car-based MP3 systems.

    Check out recent annoucements on http://www.minidisc.org for links to the Sony one (<$50 I think) and others.

    alex

  • ... you *did* read that the sound was shite, right?

    So much for using it as an MP3 player.

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad

  • As an international reader, I have absolutely no clue how much a "pound" is.

    At current exchange rates, a pound is 1.716 Euros or 1.56 USD (U.S. Dollars). Hope this helps.

    (Gonna get smacked one of these days...)
  • For those who want the precise number. Using a 2-decimal precision number and a 1 decimal conversion factor isn't going to give you a real greate number.
  • Notice that the User has a period in the front. Hal Duston hald@sound.net Boring is good. A conformist in a nonconformist world

  • Lots of people are saying the same things: why buy it? You need an outlet and a monitor (not to mention a keyboard and a mouse and a usb network card), so its not exactly a portable. It has no room for expansion, so its not exactly a desktop. It's too expensive for a thin client, so why would anyone want to buy it?

    When I first saw the espresso, I thought one thing: "LAN Party [gibbed.com]". This would be (almost) the ultimate LAN Party box. Imagine walking into a LAN party with a 15" LCD, a happy hacker keyboard [pfuca.com], and a 4"x6" machine. Quite the envy, methinks. The biggest downside: no hardware 3d. But for the Quaker [planetquake.com] or the Half-Lifer [planethalflife.com], thats not much of an issue.

    I wouldnt mind the extra inch of depth for a PCI/AGP slot. I wouldnt even mind an extra $50 or $100 on the price tag. And I'm sure there are plenty of gamers out there who would agree.

  • i810 (Score:1)

    by Manuka ( 4415 )
    It also mentions that the Display is the intel i810 - Having recently helped set one of theseup with Linux (It was under Mandrake 7.0 on an HP Pavillion 6630) - I can attest to the fact that it is indeed a pain in the ass to do. Intel, to their credit, does document it fairly thoroughly and provide an X server for it (http://support.int el.com/support/graphics/intel810/release_notes_1.h tm [intel.com]).
  • The objection to metric seems to arise soley from a portion of the group of people raised from childhood primarily on imperial or without metric altogether.

    Likewise, the objection to imperial units seems to arise soley from a portion of the group of people raised from childhood primarily on metric units or without imperial units altogether...
  • I'm quite familar with both systems and frankly, there is no real reason to prefer one over the other. Metric fans like to point out the ease of metric unit conversion, but first of all, unit conversion is rarely a significant percentage of the real work involved in any calculation, and secondly, people in metric countries seem to love to create new unit names which defeat the whole metric principle. For example, why have liters? Why have metric tons? Both these units can be expressed in terms of basic units, but people don't do this in practice.
  • "Hard Disk 12 GB, 2.5" x 9.5mm HDD" I read this to say that the unit is 2.5 INCHES by 9.5 MILLIMETRES. In looking at the pictures at Ars, I noticed that the HD seemed to be an almost standard looking. Perhaps the 9.5 mm is supposed to mean the depth. When you take this three dimensionally, it appears that someone forgot to include the length. And besides, if you click here [ibuypower.com] it shows that the 12 gig has mysteriously turned into a 6 gig. Anyone else find this odd?
  • If you want to move your desktop workspace from place to place, it's the file system that you want to carry, not the processor package. Such portable disk solutions already exist.

  • I got my Espresso PC (Score:5)

    by Zoid ( 8837 ) <zoidctf@gmail.com> on Wednesday May 03, 2000 @07:14AM (#1095079) Homepage
    After reading the original story on Slashdot, I purchased one of these puppies and started playing with it.

    I put up small review with some pictures [threewave.com]

    I really like the unit. I wanted something small that I could cart around data such as games, mp3s and others. I loaded Homeworld on to it last night and it ran surprising well in both OpenGL and Direct3D. As a little game machine, this sucker really shines.

    I originally purchased it as machine to play MAME games on and so far this is working pretty well. My only complaint is I can't seem to get sound working with DOS MAME. The Sound Blaster DOS emulation on the SoundMax drivers seems to just crash. MAME32 (the win32 version) runs fine howerver.

    In all, I really like the unit. It's a small size, but it's not small in its capability. It's a good powered machine and can play most of the latest games (Half-Life, Homeworld, etc). Quake3 does run, but the 4MB of texture memory really slows it down.

    The TV SVideo and composite out is very handy for portability as well--you can take it to people who don't have a monitor handy and use any TV. I've been watching DVD movies on it hooked to my TV and it works very well.

    I also like the fact its easily upgradable. It's a Socket 370, so as new Intel Coppermines come out, you can upgrade the processor easily. IBM is also producing newer small drives with larger capacity so it would not be unreasonable to throw a 24GB drive in there in the next year when one ships.

    I'd recommend it for someone looking for an additional PC to their current one that doesn't take a lot of space and is easy to pack up and move.
  • Why does the US still use such a non-portable, strange measuring system? I
    mean come on, its the 21st century (almost)...

    In the US we have 12 fingers, se feet/inches makes sense.

  • What really sucks is that all school work is done in metric, but real world stuff is imperial. So I can't do calculations in imperial, but I couldn't judge how far a km was if you paid me.

  • My Espresso came in on Friday. I've spent the last 5 days getting Redhat 6.2 installed on it. Then upgraded the kernel to 2.3.99pre6. I managed to get a Linksys USB network adapter working, and downloaded the ALSA drivers. I finally got the sound to work this morning, but when I tried to transfer my MP3 collection, the adapter "went away." I reloaded the network and it started working again.

    I think that there is a problem with EMI inside the case that is causing problems with both USB and Sound. That would explain the problem when using the docked configuration. I'll have to check and see if it actually shows a second hub, or it is just extending the existing ports out the doc. I have to wonder if adding an external USB sound card would work or not. I'm still working on it. Look for a review in about a week.
  • Here's a 10.4" TFT Color LCD VGA Monitor that runs on 12 volts [rock2000.com] for those in-car applications.

    Another thought ... If someone could somehow put an SPDIF input/output on this machine, or replace the soundblaster ADC with a high grade chip, it would make an absolutely kick ass digital audio recorder.

    12 gigs = 20 hours uncompressed stereo at 44.1KHz. Who needs portable DAT anymore with that sort of capacity?
  • Yeah everyone's happy.
    Like NASA.
    Well sometimes it's time to move on.
    Really.
  • ...as I already pointed out previously, the Espresso will be distributed in Germany by AWE [awe-gmbh.de]. I recently got their price list, prices were reasonable, starting from 2500,- DM for a well-equipped beginner system.

    You can also buy just the box without a CPU, without RAM and without harddisk from AWE, but their prices for these components were within German standards and so their price for a complete kit was the same or better than buying their box and the rest somewhere else.

    ------------------

  • If you are into gaming, the Espresso PC is probably not for you. (I will get mine as a freelancer software developer, so it suits my needs as a travelling computer user just fine.)

    However, both Intel and AMD have recently shown their concepts for miniature mainboards that should be interesting for lan party folks.

    Last CeBIT, you could see lots and lots of ultra-mini mainboards and computer cases, usually 1/3 the size of today's "mini tower" cases. The Asian trade halls had all kinds of weird design

    These mainboards run the latest CPUs and come with a similar all-in-one chipset as the Espresso, but if I remember correctly, had at least one slot for an additional graphics card so that one can replace the poor mainboard graphics with something more suited for 3d.

    I'd expect a number of these sub-mini computers on the shelves quite soon, usually targeted for the mom-and-pop market.

    (I am not a hardware expert, this is what I remember from my last CeBIT visit.)

    ------------------
  • To go from pounds to kg, divide by 2.2. So, .99lbs is, what, around .4kg.
  • Uh, where do you get that a CuMine needs an adapter to work in an S370 socket? The only problem using a CuMine in an LX chipset is getting the multiplier to agree with the CuMine but Celerons don't use the old LX chipset anymore, they haven't since they went to PPGA.
  • The monitor is external, so you'd still have to have that bulky thing on your desk, although you could get a flat panel display. It seems like it it would be a space saver if you had multiple computers on your desk, you could easily have 3 or 4 without them taking up to much space. I'd much rather have a pocket pc and install Linux on it or have a yopy instead. If I am going to have a computer that is that small I might as well just have the computer that I can take with me and use on the road. I currently have a palmV and find that it is very usefull, but lacks certain functionality. I guess I ned to find out how to get my favorite web sites in my palm without using AvantGo. I am not sure if this is just trying to be a tiny computer or if it is trying to be a mobile computer. It is interesting though. Personally I'd like to have a wireless color palm with *meg of memory. With an integrated web browser.

    send flames > /dev/null

  • Re:What is the point? (Score:3)

    by foxtrot ( 14140 ) on Wednesday May 03, 2000 @06:04AM (#1095090)
    I can see the point of small, portable computers, but if this has to be plugged into a power socket somewhere, what makes this better to own or use than a laptop, palmtop or even a desktop PC?

    The fact that it's physically small makes it ideal for embedded PC use by those of us who are looking for embedded PCs to do things that generic PC/104 units don't do well or do well too expensively. This wasn't necessarily cheap, but it was small, all-in-one, and takes DC power in.

    When I'd heard about it, I thought that it'd make an excellent MP3 player for my truck-- I don't
    have much interior space, being a pickup truck, and anything I build in takes interior cargo space from things like ratchet straps and the flashlight and the squeegie.

    Unfortunately, if they went cheap on the sound output, it doesn't do that well, and if they went cheap there, who knows what else they did cheaply? It won't solve the problem I hoped it would solve, and now I wonder about its suitability for other problems.
  • Does anyone know (or can anyone speculate) whether or not this thing will run BeOS without too much pain?
  • At 2.2lbs/kg, .99lb is 450g

    Hope that helps,

    Tim
  • My thoughts exactly. It would have been a lot better if they put it next to a *ruler* rather than a pencil.
  • Filling a normal PC case? No, no, no. Get skater pants, you know, the ones with tons of pockets in every place imaginable? And throw these things into every pocket, and that would be an insane Beowolf cluster! Not to mention the added benefit of being able to pour tons of hot grits down those wide leg pants!

    ~jawad, not your normal hot grits troll...

  • Re:What really upset me... (Score:3)

    by Moeses ( 19324 ) on Wednesday May 03, 2000 @06:07AM (#1095095)
    My friend brought one over and we were listening to MP3's using winamp and everything sounded fine, no distortion. We ran line outs to the stereo and video to the TV for some acid television (aw yeah).

    Maybe Hannibal didn't investigate the situation enough. (Outputs too high causeing clipping?)

    Jon
  • I think of more importance is the line:

    "Hard Disk 12 GB, 2.5" x 9.5mm HDD"

    I read this to say that the unit is 2.5 INCHES by 9.5 MILLIMETRES.

    Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time these units were mixed together like this, didn't something really expensive crash into Mars?

    So I ask 2 questions:

    1) What are the actual measurements (in metric, please, I'm Canadian and don't understand the old Imperial System)?

    2) Why does the US still use such a non-portable, strange measuring system? I mean come on, its the 21st century (almost)...

  • Easy Tex!

    No-one uses Hectares, centilitres or torr. Also no one uses league, furlong or stone any more either. Even in those countries who deviate from the SI naming convention norm, a metre is still a metre (100 centimetres, 1000 milimetres) etc.

    How many feet in a mile? How many inches in a yard? Convert yards to feet? Miles to yards? Gallons to Quarts? (trick question...is that US gallons or Imperial gallons (one is bigger you know)?).

    Now try the same with metric. Why how easy, all multiples of ten! No memorizing bizarre conversion factors or numbers, just basic mutliples of 10 (that means adding 0's or moving the decimal point, in case you don't know what a multiple of ten is).

    All that internal consistancy you are so proud of didn't stop that Mars mission from crashing now did it.

    BTW the metric house is in order and has been for 200 years. Only the US still uses the old imperial system..kinda ironic for the country that separated from England at about the time metric was invented.

  • even tho this would the perfect consultant's rig ... just have the clients supply me with a monitor and some keys and we's in biddness ... the wave out and lack of descent ethernet connectivity ( USB we dont need steeeeenkin USB) has this kid awaiting version two, which will certainly suck down a paycheck or two of mine :)

    thanks to the ars bunch for the review and /. as always
  • So this thing weighs around .5 kg.
    --
    Have Exchange users? Want to run Linux? Can't afford OpenMail?
  • The review says "wearable" every 3rd sentence, but then cautions that it has no battery. So what am I supposed to do? Have an operation to install 120 V outlet in my chest?
    --
    Have Exchange users? Want to run Linux? Can't afford OpenMail?
  • After the first slashdot article, I bought one.
    The unit blew up (literally, blue sparks and smoke and scorch marks on the unit). I suspect a cheap power supply. The replacement unit works so far, but the power supply does run hot.

    I plan on a battery pack to make it really portable.

    It is lacking ethernet (usb/ethernet is not nearly the same) and irda.

    Will review more complete shortly on www.advogato.org
  • Hemos,

    would you mind also displaying metric units in your future articles?

    As an international reader, I have absolutely no clue how much a "pound" is. Telling, for example, that it "weighs 0.99 pounds (x.xx kg)" or so in articles would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

  • Hannibal's review pointed out two shortcomings of the machine -- a sometimes not so high qulity sound output (MP3's are affected) and the lack of an ethernet port.

    when they release a new model that addressed these issues... it will be perfect.
    adrien cater
    boring.ch [boring.ch]
  • the poweful idea here is to break a laptop computer down into its component parts -- make it modular, think <b>object oriented hardware</b>.

    <i>component 1:</i>
    cpu
    (done)

    <i>component 2:</i>
    CD and floppy
    (done)

    <i>component 3:</i>
    small, high res lcd monitor

    <i>component 4:</i>
    power supply (strap on battery)

    <i>component 5:</i>
    a really really nice AD/DA sound input and output box, turn this thing into a super minidisk/MP3/sampler/whatever thing

    <i>component 6:</i>
    [insert bright idea here]

    This makes for a standard sort of desktop system, just made out of small parts. With today's technology, <b>why make it big?</b> Most PCs today are 90% air! The original iMac was a PowerbookG3 with a CRT attached...

    Now if it all could just run Bluetooth so i don't have to drag cables to connect all this stuff, i will be really really happy.

    I think we are going to see a lot of stuff like this come out in the following years, and none too late!

    If anyone is interested in brainstorming ideas like this and finding interesting ways of looking at intelligent applications of off the shelf technology, don't hesitate to talk to me...


    adrien cater
    boring.ch [boring.ch]
  • You need to carry a portable generator. Two choices:

    Get the luggable kind, carry in right arm, carry monitor in left hand. After a few weeks, your arms should be stretched out to the point where they drag on the ground.

    Get the kind with wheels. Put the monitor on top of it. Of course, I don't think this will fit in the overhead bin.
  • Many of us prefer not to use metric units. You do your thing, we do ours. It would have been useful to have both scales. It's not like we're using Uzebki kumquats for a unit; our system has been around for a long time.

    Personally, I intensely dislike the metric system. Many many people harbour as great a dislike of standard units. The proper way to settle this sort of thing is to use both systems. That way everyone is happy.

  • There are two projects that make me VERY interested in this product, but the lack of ethernet really kills it. I do a bit of mobile live video production for clubs and parties ("vj" if you will). This would be a GREAT size unit for taking on the road. 2 for music matched vis, maybe one for DVD and another for VJAMM/Composite Station/Motion Dive video work. Throw in a KVM, dump the s-video to the mix board, and this would be one truely portable digital video station. Neat! I also find my self on the road a lot demoing and installing server software (typically Novell products.) This would be a great way to pack up 8 servers in a small bag with a decent KVM and small hub. Walk into the customer, plug into a keyboard, monitor, mouse, and power, and you have an instant network.

    All of this is of course mostly useless without the ethernet support. It'd work for the video stuff, but it would be pretty kludgy. And I'm pretty certain that USB support for NetWare isn't coming any time soon :)
  • Would something like the Elsa 3D Revelator specs work with this? If so, then the only real problem is the power. Grab a USB version of those numpad add-ons they use for laptops (c'mon, how many keys do you really use for quake or most games), and you should be good to go.

    Even better if you can do some decent keybinding on the numpad for menu operation or the like. Use the mouse buttons as alt keys, and you could liekly get the majority of your keyboard functionality with a little retraining. Not bad at all.

  • The best use is let people realize produces like Libretto 1100 [silverace.com] is a much better design when we thought.


    /_____\
    vvvvvvv../|__/|
    ...I../O,O....|
    ...I./. .......|
    ..J|/^.^.^ \..|.._//|
    ...|^.^.^.^.|W|./oo.|

  • Re:Pounds? (Score:3)

    by Pike ( 52876 ) on Wednesday May 03, 2000 @06:56AM (#1095110) Journal
    Actually those were metric pounds. A metric pound = 1.32 firkins of rasberry jam at 283 degrees kelvin. Hope that helps.

    I'm in international reader too, I come from america.

    -JD
  • What would be the best use for one of these things? What uses can we come up with, other than the usual MP3 server, etc. (Thise are good too, but I'm interested in what the ultra-imaginative Slashdot readers think.)

    I for one, would love to see these on the desktops of secretaries and other non-power-users in a company. Coupled with a nice LCD monitor and a sutably cool, matching decor, these puppies could make a technology office look uber cool.

    Any other suggestions?

  • A little lacking on the "usability" side.

    I'm not exactly the strongest guy in the world, but any weight difference under 5 pounds for a laptop or other similar-sized portable PC makes little difference to me. At this weight range, bulk is a much more inconvenient factor than weight. And unless I'm mistaken, you'll have to carry around a monitor with you unless you can bum one off of wherever you're headed...

    For something that small, I'd rather use a Palm. For something that powerful, I'd rather get a ultrathin laptop with nicer features, such as an PCMCIA slot. No, USB-only doesn't really cut it.

    And a dedicated server over a shared USB bus??? LOL. That's an idea just waiting to take off. Give me a dedicated Fast Ethernet port any day of the week...I'll spend the extra $20 it cost on the mobo.

    Overall, it's a nice indication of the latest miniaturization, but I just don't see the need or the market for something like this.

    telnet://bbs.ufies.org
    Trade Wars Lives
  • I got my Espresso last week. Works great. In Win98, once I added my netgear USB/Ethernet adaptor, it started locking up, but since I installed Win2000, everything works great. Maybe my ears suck(they do) but I didn't notice the Wav out problem. Winamp sounded fine to me, at least as good as my shitty computer at work does though headphones. It's built in speaker DOES really, really suck, but who cares? Lots of people seem to be missing the point of the Espresso. With an espresso, you kind of have to "live off the land". Just about everywhere you go today has a keyboard/moniter. Why carry one, when you can just "jack in" to one that is aready there? I don't keed a laptop, but is is nice to just happen to have my computer in my suitcase when I need it give someone an important file. Laptops are just to heavy to carry with you just because you can. Not to mention that It will work great in my car :)
  • To make your own Espresso.

    1) Buy a Laptop PC.
    2) Remove Keyboard
    3) Remove LCD screen.
    4) Remove CDROM/DVD
    5) Remove Battery

    Finally put this all in a small cool looking case.

    Now you have a PC which is a poor desktop machine, a poor laptop and a poor PDA.

    However it does start to make your think. All these items not on the Espresso now, still have plently of room for size reduction. Not too long now before my handheld is nearly as powerful as my desktop.
  • A decade or less ago, there was a computer out there called "Brick", which was a slightly larger version of this. No monitor, no batteries, but easy to carry around between places where you've got a monitor and keyboard, so you can do demos, read email, etc.


    I commute by train, so I want something I can read my email with, and this doesn't quite cut it for me, but it's still intriguing. (And of course, if it were $300 instead of $900, I might very well buy it in spite of its limitations :-)

  • And since it was modded up to 2 I have no idea how you managed to miss it :).

    Plus, with that many 12 GB drives, just think about the crazy "two years without repeats" playlist you could have....only you would need to rent an office building to keep the CDs in if you were gonna keep it legal.
  • Fill the whole pantleg with these things baby. Mind you, if you do that *and* pour hot grits down your pants, then you will probably void the warranty on your BeoWolf, and then where would you be?

  • What really upset me... (Score:3)

    by DebtAngel ( 83256 ) on Wednesday May 03, 2000 @05:45AM (#1095118) Homepage
    ...is that the little thing sucked at playing MP3s. Hannibal tracked it down to a WaveOut problem. Once that gets fixed up, then this baby will be a sweet little PC.

    Plus, filling a normal PC case with a Beowolf Cluster&reg; full of these things still seems like a good way to blow all that lottery money I want to win :) (sorry - somebody had to say it).

  • Okay, maybe I'm not getting it, but the following quote interests me:

    Now, lest anyone get confused, this thing has to be plugged into a wall. It's not a laptop, so there's no battery.

    I can see the point of small, portable computers, but if this has to be plugged into a power socket somewhere, what makes this better to own or use than a laptop, palmtop or even a desktop PC?

  • And the REAL question is (Score:4)

    by dragonfly_blue ( 101697 ) on Wednesday May 03, 2000 @06:25AM (#1095120) Homepage
    So, how do I roll my own?

    Seriously, anybody know where I can get the parts to build one of these bad boys?

    Actually, maybe I can convince my wife; "awww, honey, it's just so key-yoooot! Lookit the dainty li'l rubber feet!"

    Er, maybe somebody should just point me to the parts before my head blows up.

  • Re:I don't understand (Score:3)

    by Wellspring ( 111524 ) on Wednesday May 03, 2000 @07:46AM (#1095121)

    The review says "wearable" every 3rd sentence, but then cautions that it has no battery. So what am I supposed to do? Have an operation to install 120 V outlet in my chest?

    No, it can be a little more convenient than that. My company sells a gel-cushion-over-pvc gadget that you strap on your back. Then you run a subdermal line up your notochord (from the small of your back to the base of your neck). The BioPower unit on your back acts as lower lumbar support when you are sitting in your car or office, and through inductance draws power from the line, which in turn gets its power directly from your life force.

    You'll feel a little hungrier, maybe sleep more often, but unless your life energies are being sucked away by something else already (eg you haven't eaten well, are watching the Fox Network, or work for MS) there should be plenty of power for all the personal electronics you use. And with the lower lumbar support, many users experience less back and neck pain.

    Our company targets these for field service techs and sales reps. We surgically implant a GPS receiver and two way radio. This allows an employer to monitor where his people are, what they are saying, and to contact them whenever and whereever necessary.

  • Socket coppermines are flipchip designs, and require an adapter for use in a regular celeron s370. This wouldn't be much of a problem except for the space limitations in this device.

    Also, there is the concern of voltage, the motherboard may not support the lower voltage requirements of the cu chips, requiring an even more extensive adapter setup to use a cu p3.

    It's a shame it doesn't have built in ethernet, it would be a great solution for a portable linux LAN q3 server.

    NightHawk
    Tyranny = Government choosing how much power to give the people.
  • Does anyone know about vertical space for the hard drive? The 12G is probably 9.5mm. Will it take 12.5mm? How about IBM's 25G 18mm?
  • USB ethernet adapters give you 5 megabits. T1 is 1.5 megabits. It's not ideal, but it would be usable where space is a major consideration.

    What about as a dedicated Quake server for parties. You bring it with you along with your main PC and let the little guy serve the games.
  • 2.5" is a standard notebook size hard drive. most desktop hard drives are 3.5" and desktop cd-roms are 5.25" for comparison. notebook hardrives come in 9.5mm and 12.5mm thicknesses as i recall. you'll need to look elsewhere to find someone to blame for component form factor pseudo-standards.
  • Go over to Thinkgeek.com [thinkgeek.com] and go into the Gadgets section, there's a headset there that
    would work nicely with this .99 pound wonder! The Power supply would be the only problem,
    it would be kind of a drag to only be able to look like Lobot on Star Wars within 10 feet or so
    of a power outlet
    Lots of fun
    when I get money I must purchase one
    KillerPenguin

  • Wow. (Score:1)

    by kwsNI ( 133721 )
    It's small, it has all the latest technologies and it run's Linux. Now my girlfriend has some real competition for my affection.

    kwsNI
  • I'm getting one of these so I can take my computer anywhere I go. Let's face it you can find a monitor at almost every house. So just because you can't use it when you're on an airplane doesn't mean it doesn't hold as a viable computer.

    It's not meant to be a labtop or to be mistaken as one ... it's a computer that is tiny ... that's about it ...

    I want one so I can show people "What linux is" just plug my computer into their monitor and keyboard and there we go ... I have a working example.

  • everyone knows notebook drives as '2.5" drives'. the only issue is the thickness of the drive, since most notebooks only accept drives of a certain thickness (thinness?). the size increments are so tiny that they use mm instead of inches. if they used inches, the units would look funnier than they do in mm. today, 8.5 and 9.5mm drives are as thin as you can get. compare that to 17mm of just 2 yrs ago.

    --
  • If you were a big business (and these thing were a little more beefy overall) you could assign one of these to each employee and then have docking stations w/ monitor and keyboards at each desk. It would be the ultimate in the portable/configurable office. Not to mention that your employees could work from home with a similar setup there.

    You could have a similar setup in a university setting. Computing labs which provide docking stations. Just plug your Espresso in and go, and then work at home or in your dorm on the same machine.

    The logistics of setting this up might be a nightmare, but DHCP is fairly reliable. The only problem would be the proliferation of viruses and the non-standard configuations of the machines. Each user would be responsible for their own configuration management and trouble shooting as well. Some would like that idea and some wouldn't.

    I'm sure there is a market somewhere -- mainly a cheaper alternative to a laptop for IT professionals who want to use the same machine at work and at home -- but the "bang-for-your-buck" factor is not too high.


    ------------------------------------------------ ----------------

  • Can I play Commander Keen on it? I'm really not interested if I can't play Commander Keen. That's all that matter. Keen rocks! What a spunky little fart, that kid!



    Bruce
  • 2 docking stations, 2 keyboards, and 2 monitors
    You'll never have to worry about how to bring work home with you again...

    -Earthman

  • I just love it when websites have "actual size" pics. Sometimes -- like today -- when my eyes get tired or I feel like sitting far away from my screen, I run 800x600 on my 21" monitor. I sure hope that pic isn't the actual size of this thing.
  • Obviously, lots of people have already suggested its use as an MP3 player, but due to the poor sound quality it probably wont happen. But, just think of the possibilities opening up from computers such as this. The hardware configuration already beats my desktop configuration, and Im sure theres more to come. For one example, hotels could also offer included monitors and keyboards (in addition to "data ports") in their suites, allowing you to merely hook up your mini-PC and go. You wouldnt have to worry about lugging around a screen, keyboard and battery like a laptop. And it wouldnt just be hotels; Many other places could be coerrced into setting up monitors and keyboards to plug into. Ever went to a lot of trouble to haul your computer to a LAN party or some other such event? With added network support, these mini-PCs would eliminate much of that task. All you might need would be some of your accessories, the monitor(possibly) and your mini-pc. The possibilities are endless. Hope the future holds success for these mini-pcs.


    --------------------------------------------
  • >My thoughts exactly. It would have been a lot better if they put it next to a *ruler* rather than a pencil.

    From memory, they did. I'm guessing you might have missed it because you were looking for an inch scale - but when you're dealing with technology, you use modern measurements, like metric millimetres.
  • >>Actually those were metric pounds. A metric pound = 1.32 firkins of rasberry jam at 283 degrees kelvin. Hope that helps.

    >You post a troll at +2? How innovative.

    Hell, I'd give a [+1 Funny], but then, that's probably why I'm not a moderator :-)
  • >Many of us prefer not to use metric units.

    The objection to metric seems to arise soley from a portion of the group of people raised from childhood primarily on imperial or without metric altogether. It looks very strongly like just a case of "this is the way I've always done it", which IMHO really doesn't cut it in cases like this when the methods of operation of metric make it considerably better suited to the subject in question.

    >The proper way to settle this sort of thing is to use both systems. That way everyone is happy.

    No - that way everybody suffers. Half the USA's industry has to waste _huge_ amounts of money on the redundancy of two ranges of equipment, tools, and parts that do exactly the same thing. The auto-shop passes the cost straight back to the consumer, who meanwhile has to do jump through mental hoops because the article he is reading on the ExpressoPC alternates between the standards when describing dimensions.
    The only people that are happy are those who manufacture measuring instruments, because the market is twice what is desirable.
  • >What really sucks is that all school work is done in metric, but real world stuff is imperial.

    That does sound bad, but it also sounds like a problem of location - for the majority of the planet, all the real-world stuff is done in metric. It sounds like you're caught in a pocket where the transition is still happening.

    (I'm guessing you're from Canada, where I get the impression that they're trying to adopt metric, but the proximity and magnitude of trade with the oddball USA is makes it extremely difficult. (I say "oddball" because the USA doesn't use imperial, but rather it's own proprietary version derived from imperial :-) ))

    But since USA exporters discovered that the rest of the world is not impressed with technologically backwards products requiring old-fashioned tools, metric is apparently already on par or preferred to imperial in the US manufacturing arena, so it looks like the USA is imperial largely just to humour its population (who, of all the stupidist reasons, sometimes even seem to dislike metric for largely patriotic reasons...) Anyway, this probably means it's just a matter of time (probably at least a generation though).

    IOW, by the time you're dead, your woes will probably be over :-)
    Either that, or just move to another country. (But you should consider putting a better reason than that on your immigration application... :)

  • >Likewise, the objection to imperial units seems to arise soley from a portion of the group of people raised from childhood primarily on
    >metric units or without imperial units altogether...

    Not so. Many people raised on imperial willingly desert it for metric, and those raised on imperial number among imperial's great critics. But the reverse flow is practically non-existent - nobody raised on metric abandons it in favour of imperial, (the closest you get to that are people forced to adopt imperial like in a post above)

    Imperial has lots of critics in _all_ corners, whereas metric's only critics seem to be a minority from the groups raised on imperial.

    Copying the words and swapping "metric" with "imperial" only results in making the statement false.
  • It's a shame such a nice little toy has been marred by small things that should have been obvious. Positioning of the USB ports and the poor wave out quality are two things that should have been spotted by the manufacturer and never been an issue but they are. Considering that many would be using this as an mp3 player or using it to hook up to networks/the internet these are two damaging flaws. Then again, all things considered even without a fix it's a nice solution for those who would like to move their desktop PC around with them and I'm sure the next revision will fix the problems. It will be interesting to see if this drives any more innovation or if it will just disappear after its 15 minutes of fame.
  • I know that the review mentioned the price was 899$, bu what about the beefier models? I searched the saintsong webpage with no luck, anyone know the price for the PIII-700?

    Atticka

  • Espresso is probably the first non-desktop PC I've seen that interests me. However, that weak graphics solution would have to go! I might buy one if it had some sort of mini-Matrox G400 setup, say with 16 megs of video RAM? Smaller is better, but not if it's in reference to size and performance.

  • I can see the marketing pubes on this one sitting in a room thinking "Hmm OK, who the hell is going to want this?" and somenoone pipes up saying, "Hey lets sell it to the grossly overpaid geek community. They'll buy one at our outrageous price, play with it for a week or two then put it with their Newton, BeBox, and other such useless crap they tend to collect."
  • Doesnt this remind you of the netwinder !!

    Well this little device might be our salvation.
    With such a fully featured small computer with a low price like that. How can other companies continue selling their MP3 only systems for 500 + bucks ?

    I think price will start falling quick if this gets popular. (admitedly they need to get that wav out problem fixed)

    Nonetheless, its impressive.

  • How well does the Espresso work under Linux?

    How would you rate your experience [linhardware.com] (Linux Hardware Database [linhardware.com]), any workarounds [linhardware.com], special drivers [linhardware.com], etc.?
  • it had a built in 10/100BaseT port. I hate using USB to Ethernet adapters!

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