oneal's posts with tag: asus
i haven't been posting reviews here lately, been busy with work but now i'm back!
since Rej was out of the country last month we had to find ways to communicate without resorting to expensive international calls by phone. of course my primary thought was to use Skype on the triple E. i recently upgraded to the latest version of skype for linux via the terminal, but that was originally made for standard debian linux distro, on which the triple E's Xandros is based, it worked quite well, shortly after, Asus released an update designed for the xandros OS that was pretty much the same. this activated the webcam functionality on the voice chat of Skype.
so as soon as Rej got to Perth in Western Australia, we tried out Skype, she was using Windows XP on her laptop and i had to go to lug my triple E to Fandom Cafe since the internet access at Rej's house was down. while text chatting doesn't normally need high bandwidth to function, voice chat is a different animal altogether. especially when coupled with video conferencing. the problem with simultaneous voice and video chat is that it uses up a lot of your available bandwidth and CPU processing power, if you are talking while surfing then your transmission usually starts to get choppy, i'd advise you to just stick to the voice communication, close other programs and leave the rest for later especially if you're surfing memory intensive sites like youtube or other Flash heavy pages.
At that time we were using skype, i was at an internet cafe where the bandwidth would be shared with other users, sometimes the audio would cut out on my end or there would be a significant lag on her end. otherwise, its still possible to carry a decent conversation as long as you don't get annoyed at the intermittent audio. patience is a virtue. you end up saying “Are you there?” or “i can hear you now” quite often.
we also tried voice chat using a USB headset, unfortunately the Xandros OS didn't recognize the peripheral so it didn't work. the built in mic and speakers of the triple E are mostly sufficient for voice chat, however, you have to keep the speaker volume down or else the one you are talking to will get feedback or an echo on their end. i hope they eventually supply drivers for the USB headset, it will be great for recording voice emails and podcasting on the triple E.
eventually we ended up going back to windows XP and using Yahoo Messenger for voice chat, its more convenient and can handle more processes running while you're having a voice conversation. its also nicer to use a USB headset since the analog voice to digital signal processing is done by the headset instead of the internal processor of the soundcard or the CPU, this makes it less memory intensive thus there is less lag in the conversation.
I'm still waiting for an upgrade to the Pidgin application so it would support voice chat as well as text. webcam capability is secondary.
 we have a new LCD tv at home, so the old LCD in the dining room was idle, so i checked to see if it would fit in the tv alcove in my room, much to our surprise, it fit perfectly! it didn't interfere with the drawers on the right or the shelves on the left, like it was meant to be. behind the LCD, i put the Creative 2.1 speakers for a fuller sound. as expected, i tried out all the standard video sources: DVD, cable tv and, of course, the PC-VGA input. what did i plug into the 26" tv you might ask, why i plugged in my Triple E PC, and it works beautifully! the triple E comes standard with an 800 x 480 resolution screen, fortunately, it comes with a desktop mode setting for external hardware connections. i tried it at different resolutions and found that 1024 x 768 fits just right on the screen without cropping. the higher resolution of 1280 x 800 cuts off the bottom of the screen, particularly the taskbars. the aspect ratio is just right for movies and tv episodes, the only drawback is that the resolution on the 7" screen of the sub-notebook is also affected and windows tend to extend beyond the edges of the screen. i watched the pilot episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles and viewed a few photos, it looks great, and i also disabled the screen on the Triple E so that I'm not tempted to look at it and can focus on the big picture. this shows that the hardware of such a tiny computer is perfectly capable of performing as a media viewer both on the small 7" stock screen, or externally on a projector, a computer LCD or a much larger TV with VGA input. chalk up one more plus for the Triple E.
my mom borrowed my Triple E for the day to show it off at their office, they have been in discussions as to what kind to computers to assign to different departments and staff. some of their considerations are portability, convenience and price, of course since its a government agency.
since they have over 10 regional offices and sometimes are required to send staff to remote provinces and sometimes even out of the country to conduct examinations, laptops have been indispensable for them. while a standard laptop is usually issued to department heads and officers, a triple E might be convenient especially when in the field.
the best thing about the triple E is how many people are instantly enamoured when they see it and how small it is, usually they are turned off when they find out it runs linux but once they use it for a short while, its evident that Asus has done well to customize the Xandros distribution to look and function a lot like a standard Windows OS, it makes the general learning curve a lot easier to manage. its only when you need to add new programs or make modifications to the system that makes it harder for the average user but in general, i'd recommend it to anyone willing to shell out 17k. like my thoughts on driving, i believe everyone should know how to use a computer so that they understand how convenient it is and how easy it will be to understand its limitations and proper use.
as for the Rockstar comment, a number of people from my mom's office are in love with the Triple E, now they all want one, unfortunately the one they want is mine.
P.S.: this blog post was composed on Ziggy, my 4 year old 17" HP laptop since Holocron, my triple E is still out on tour
today is the first time i've actually used the Asus triple E PC at work, usually i still lug my trusty 17" HP laptop to the office but i decided to give this one a try. so far, its pretty good, most people are worried about adapting to the smaller, cramped keyboard of the triple e, but for me, its not a big problem, my HP notebook has a full sized keyboard with a keypad on the right, which is the most common configuration for desktops, most laptops do away with the keypad and compress the key layout to make use of the maximum amount of laptop real estate. with the triple E, you have a much smaller keyboard and the number keys have been moved one notch to the left, thus forcing users to adjust once more.
the biggest problem i've been having with this keyboard is that i tend to press the "enter" key when I'm supposed to press the "apostrophe", its more inconvenient than a problem.
another advantage to using the triple e at work is that its easy to drag to meetings in the conference room or at someone else's desk. i also have a desktop monitor i can plug into but i don't really see the need unless i'm showing off a presentation.
as of today, i've used the triple e to write two word documents, checked a spreadsheet and written this blog post, at the same time, i've been chatting with at least 8 people while surfing 10 different tabs on firefox. the only problem using this is that my main email is downloaded into my HP notebook which i cant seem to access remotely just yet, but once i get that working, then i can just leave it at home and VPN when needed from the triple e. an advantage with using this at work is that it doesn't have too many bells and whistles, which means i don't get distracted with other programs like uTorrent or Audacity. its increased my productivity in some ways and restricted some others.
the important thing is, i love using this sub-notebook
from Gizmodo
That WiMax Eee PC we heard about last week was confirmed at the Asus/Sprint/Intel press conference today, coming in 7, 8 and 8.9-inch models and a variety of colors.
other reports say the following:
"The larger screen size - rumoured for some time - will provide a resolution of 1024 x 600, Asus said." "They'll appear in Q2, Asus said." in light of this news, i'm not disappointed that i purchased the triple E on a whim last December, when some people would say that i should have waited for the new model to come out. actually, this purchase goes against my standards in some ways, but justifies it in others. usually, i wait until a gadget or technology is in its 2nd or more often, 3rd generation before i buy it, for example, the iPod, i actually waited for the 5th Gen with video before buying when i could have bought the earlier model. with cellphones, i've never actually purchased one since i get them free but i never request for the latest and so-called "greatest" new model, i wait months for reviews and hands on user testimonials of the device. with the triple E, its a totally different situation, while some might consider it as a "brand new" laptop design and configuration due to its small size and different components, Asus has actually done a smart thing by utilizing existing components and putting them together in an attractive package not much bigger than a medium sized hard bound book. the processor they used is not new, its actually rumored that the 900Mhz processor was originally slated to be discontinued, the solid state drive has been in use in MP3 players and portable memory devices, the 7" screen is used in portable DVD players and interactive picture frames. put all these old, reliable but well established components together and you have a very attractive sub-notebook at a very low price. my purchase of the triple e was to maximize my productivity by allowing me to work anywhere, anytime with minimum of fuss. and the triple e does that perfectly. it also helps that its a pretty notebook
December 31, 2007
5pm
Professor Hex posted the instructions on how to upgrade Skype on the Triple E so that it would work with the webcam for video conferencing, as soon as i got online, i gave it a try and it was relatively painless to download and make the upgrade. i tested it here at home and with professor hex while he's at Gateway mall using the free wifi.
i still haven't installed the script to automate the webcam but i'll probably do that at a later time. hopefully before the party on saturday, it would be nice to have multiple webcams running in different rooms of the house so people can watch the festivities from elsewhere.
december 30, 2007 3pm the aftermath of the NWA Christmas party, the remnants of the guests just left, jovan and Rej are watching Supernatural: the Kuya Winchester show. I'm going to upload this to my multiply blog in a few moments using the triple e.
7pm at the house for the party with three triple e PC's running, a black macbook, two 17” HP laptops, a Viper laptop PC, a wifi gameboy, a desktop server, a vaio notebook and a Lenovo notebook running, all connected to our home wifi network. originally we had problems connecting to the wifi with the triple e's but once it found the SSID we all got online quickly. dante is writing for work, hector was surfing and others were just online as usual. mom wants to borrow my triple e to show the people at work what it looks like.
330pm at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in gateway, sitting outside, apparently there is free open wifi here at araneta center, i was able to connect rather quickly and painlessly. speed is decent.
2pm I'm getting used to typing on the tiny keyboard, even though ive been using a laptop almost exclusively, except when playing games on ron's computer, for the past 5 or so years, my HP laptop is a 17” model with a full sized keyboard and a number pad too, so switching to the small triple e is quite a difference. the main thing that bothers me is the location of the right “shift” key, its located at the far end of the keyboard, right beside the up arrow key, sometimes i press the arrow instead of the shift and end up with the cursor at the start of the current line. its not too much of a bother, just an occasional inconvenience.
11am i tried getting www.logmein.com to work with the triple e so i can remotely control my giant 17” laptop, it seems the firefox browser of the triple e has issues with java applications, which is why it didn't want to work with ustream.tv and now logmein, i might have to update the java runtime environment and add the appropriate plugins.
December 29, 2007 330am
we got home from wack wack where we surprised raffy's friend aliexi by wearing our stormtrooper armor. the look on his face was priceless. as soon as we got home, dante and i started charging our triple E's and proceeded to connect them to the yale wifi network, while i had no problem connecting, his triple e took a while to accept the wifi access, apparently, the ethernet connection was still active and pending so it didn't want to accept the dhcp from the wifi router. we had to disable the ethernet connection first and the wifi connected almost instantly. then we started chatting on Pidgin, soon, beej and hector were congratulating us on our new purchase while they were both at fandom cafe. we tried the webcam but couldn't activate it to work with YM on pidgin, then we tried to use www.ustream.tv but the webpage kept crashing Firefox, apparently, even hector hasn't been able to get it to work. must find another way to use the webcam
820pm we were walking around shang while waiting for the trooping event, my hands were sweaty while carrying the triple e pc so i asked Rej to put it in her bag, it made the bag a bit heavy yet not outrageously so. now we are in Hobbes/Lands getting something to eat and i noticed the touchpad wasnt responding, i had to use the arrow keys to get into the touchpad settings and found that it was set on the lowest setting, i changed it and it worked perfectly.
 december 28, 2007
430pm i broke down and finally decided to purchase the Asus EEE PC. i've been so fascinated with it ever since i read about it online, i've been reading a lot of blogs and forums about this laptop that its about time i acted on it. i checked my bank account and saw that i had more than enough money to justify a large purchase, ive been saving for an Xbox 360 elite but since there are no available stock till about february, its about time i got something i really wanted. another reason to justify the purchase is that dante and i were able to find a shop that sells it at a reasonable price, 17,999 for the 512mb version and 20,999 for the 1gig memory version. they even gave us a discount since we both got one, i paid only 19,500 for the white unit. i also noticed that ive been surfing the net about this particular laptop so often that i usually have at least 7 tabs open to sites related to the EEE PC, i wouldn't be satisfied if i didn't get one soon enough. did i mention that i got the white triple E since it matches my stormtrooper armor.
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