A quiet revolution ... but some will shout about it
Web 2.0 is coming!! Web 2.0 is coming !! ... and what will we run it on?
In his book 'The Tipping Point', Malcolm Gladwell explains quite clearly the mechanics of change that need to happen before something is adopted or goes 'viral'. I sense that there is a rise in the tide of accessible hardware and it is being pushed by a north wind. When will the surge happen? I suspect at BETT 2008 !
At the 'Handheld' Conference recently RM featured their new Asus Mini Book. Tim Pearson, RM's MD led with: My presentation was called 'Towards the perfect device' and in it I announced the introduction of our new small computer - the RM Asus miniBook. and I read today in PC Pro Magazine an upbeat review of the beast. Commercially called an 'Asus Eee PC 701', PC Pro have it down as A genuine step forward for the laptop, with unbelievable capabilities for the price, plus an ultra-low weight
It deals with the three '95s' ... 95% of the people, 95% of the things, 95% of the time!
A base selling price from RM of £169 (I am told it has been available for 10 days already)or on the open market for (currently) £180, this might find its way into many Christmas Stockings.
It certainly will set the cat amongst the pigeons as its 900MHz Intel Celeron M and 512MB DDR2Ram with 4G solid-state flash disk and integrated graphics might be more than enough for most jobs. The OS is a custom version of a Xandros version of Linux and it cleverly comes with Internet, Work, Play, Settings and Favorite tabs ... each with its own set of apps. Open Office and Firefox 2 are preinstalled.
There are more goodies in the shape of an integrated webcam, SD card reader, 802.11bg wireless.
I think it might just catch on ... or it might provoke a move by competitors to begin to deliver ubiquitous, portable machines that pull everything from the web and don't cost the earth.
I also note from Andrew Brown's blog that they will be in lots of lovely colours!!
Read Ewan's take on the whole thing.
Also listen/watch the video from John Connell's site.
A machine/child could be just around the corner.
Labels: web2.0
posted by Doug @ 16:57
3 Comments
3 Comments:
To answer your first question posed in the post Doug, we need to have networks (and perhaps more importantly, network managers) prepared to permit Linux machines running on their networks. It is to them that we now need to take this argument.
Christmas will also see many kids getting an iPod Touch in their over-full stockings. How many school networks will allow them to use the browser capabilities of this device? Few I would argue. And that is a collosal shame - kids having an internet ready device in their pocket, and not being permitted to use it for educational purposes?
Maybe the revolution needs to be a bit louder.
And Honeycomb runs beautifully on it, we tried this in Dudley on Friday!
I actually can't wait to see Honeycomb - It's going to bring a whole new light to blogging...
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