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[Wayan Vota]

Its time for those lucky enough to have an XO laptop to tell us what they think of it. 

[bintoudoyle]

First, I am no Computer expert, I hate troubleshooting, I failed my Java Programming class in college, and in general I am lazy when left alone.  But the xo is my chance to become more knowledgeable about technology in general and I am somewhat inspired to learn and use this new machine.

Let me say then that there needs to be some massive education about how to use this device, the browser is simple enough, but it doesn't play any flash such as youtube or flickr slideshows.  I tried once to download the flash player as was explained by a poster but that didn't work.  I will keep trying.

The touchpad is supposed to support writing, I couldn't get that to function in the xo word processor or the paint application.

I hope the teachers in the poor countries are more computer savy than I or at least I hope they will be given lessons on how to use the xo applications.

I don't like that the touchpad doesn't support mouse clicks, that we must press a seperate button to click on something which nearly doubles the amount of work neccessary to do every little task. 


****Warning***** the keyboard is made of extremely soft rubber that I believe bored children will easily be able to peel keys off of.  I spent $400 on this but I tempted my self to test the strength of this soft rubber by ripping out a key with a soft squeeze of the fingernail. Just imagine kids with ungroomed fingers, who get the xo for free and have no experience with the value of such a tool, they will rip the keyboard buttons to shreds.

There is a button second from the top right, that I can't figure out what's that?  And also, there is a button directly in the center on the top row of the keyboard with a series of increasingly larger circles,  what does that button do?

Good luck Wayan,  I am imagining your next cite already  "olpceducation.com"

Now that the xo's are out in the wild, we have to prove that they are vital tools.  I hope this active community can do what it takes to convince the world that it is.  Lets go Nerds, it up to you now!!!

[mczajka]

I like the device, but I think the people that thought it would be this cool Mac-like machine will be a little disappointed. It's not blazing fast for one thing - that's obvious since the goal was to get the cost down. A software update will be coming out in 2008 - the software is still a little rough around the edges in places.

I think the hardware/design is the coolest part. Certainly eye turning.

[Retrofit]

i think the point of the key board is you can pour hot coffee on it and not short out your  xo.  i think its possible for a kid to pull the keyboard out, but the same kid could  open up the xo and ruin it or maybe figure it out.  it is a educational tool after all.

[ChicagoXO]

Received my XO on Saturday! FedEx dropped it off without even ringing the bell!
I have never used anything but Windows up till now, so the XO took some getting used to.

I have been able to do quite a bit with it already, connect to wi-fi, Internet, yahoo email,
check bank balance, pay bills online, download and use new apps, take pics and movies, etc.

Mouse works right away when plugged in, and the journal recognizes my usb drive.

Some issues so far: Browse activity sometimes quits if I hit the back button, or if I try to resize
the browse window. 
Also had some issues with a crazy touch pad, (while I was showing it off at work!) did a hard shut down
(10 sec on power button), this may have fixed the issue, looks like it so far.

Looking forward to a firmware update of Sugar and included apps.  Hope to see video
conferencing in the near future.

Enjoy your XOs!

By the way, I registered and posted this message using my XO.  So far, I absolutely love it!

[Gabey8]

The only thing I wish I had was an in-depth manual. I love the machine, and in fact I used it to take meeting minutes on Monday evening. Yes, touch-typing is possible, even on those wee keys, with some practice.

But it's a good thing I spent time researching how to save files, including to the SD card, in advance. Because it wasn't immediately obvious that I would have to go to the Journal (a different activity) to save a file from Write to the SD card. With no written manual, and no internet connectivity in the place where the meeting was, I'd have been in deep trouble if I hadn't already found the file-saving instructions I needed online.

Sometime next year, when the G1G1 flurry of activity has calmed down, I hope that OLPC will make available for sale some peripherals like spare chargers, the string-pull charger, solar charger, and other off-grid accessories, various spare parts like the green antennae that might suffer from wear-and-tear, and PRINTED MANUALS. I won't mind one bit if we spend a little extra on items like that, if it means that the program gets an infusion of funds from selling the accessories and we get the little extras we may need or want. Win/win situation.

OK, back to initial impressions of the actual device -- I keep forgetting to time how long it takes to discharge a fully charged battery. I've gotten at least three hours' life out of it, though I haven't let it run down ALL the way to exhaustion yet. I think the lowest I let it get was about 9%. I'm very pleased, however, with what I've seen of the battery life so far. I'll have to experiment with how long the battery lasts if I turn off the backlight for any length of time.

I had no issues getting the XO to communicate with my router, once I enabled SSID broadcasting. It prompted me for the passphrase, which I typed in, and it connected to my router. Now it connects to the router on its own, without my having to click on anything. It does try to hook up to three circles that are labeled Mesh 1, Mesh 6, and Mesh 11, without success. I don't know what those are, but others have reported seeing those things on their XOs as well. We think it's somehow programmed into the XO to look for school mesh networks.

It's a bit slower than other, more-powerful machines I've used, but it's certainly not so slow as to cause me a huge issue. OK, I fibbed, at one point this afternoon for some reason the XO was moving like molasses. I rebooted. The problem hasn't returned.

A few times, I've seen the Trackpad Gremlin that people have reported. Most times, it goes away with the proverbial "four-finger-salute" described in the wiki. The one time it didn't, I rebooted. Problem solved.

Write seems to have an issue, which I think I saw described in a wiki (I've read so much on the XO lately that I can't always remember where I've seen what information), that no matter what format you select to save the file to, it saves it as a .odf file, which is an AbiWord extension. I did run into that issue when I tried to review the file I'd saved to the SD card with my regular laptop (on which I have OpenOffice, which doesn't handle .odf files properly). I googled AbiWord and found that it's free and open source, I found a version of it that's compatible with Windows, and I downloaded it. Problem solved. Incidentally, even though Write (on the XO, which is based on AbiWord) can't save .doc files, AbiWord can. So I took the meeting-minutes file from the SD card, opened it on my regular (Windows XP) laptop with AbiWord, proofread it, and saved the final copy as a .doc file. All is right with the world, and with my meeting-minutes file.

I installed Adobe flash, using a link that someone posted in one of the help forums here, and it kind of semi-enables me to play Youtube videos. The audio works, but the picture is all choppy like a bunch of snapshots taken every two seconds or so. I'll keep reviewing these forums, because I know that there are people with more knowledge of video, Linux, etc who will track down a solution to this issue before long.

I'm also looking forward to finding out what I need to install on my XO to enable me to play MP3s and stream audio from things like the BBC World Service. Oh, and streaming video... I signed up with ustream.tv in the hopes that I could stream video from the XO to the internet. Or, more specifically, so I could let the XO/DC user's group know that THEY could stream their Holiday Meetup from their XOs. Well, that was only partially successful... the audio transmits, but the video is blank (even though the green LED that indicates camera activity is illuminated). Again, this is a task for people with more understanding of streaming video than I've got. But I trust that those people are either on here already or will find these forums once their XOs arrive.

I successfully used meebo.com to talk with a few people via AIM on Monday evening. It's nice to know that all I need is an internet connection to send instant messages, and I don't have to install anything extra on the XO if I don't want to.


OK, that's about as much as I can think of to report at the moment. I hope this helps.

[Retrofit]

///Some issues so far: Browse activity sometimes quits if I hit the back button, or if I try to resize
the browse window. 
Also had some issues with a crazy touch pad, (while I was showing it off at work!) did a hard shut down
(10 sec on power button), this may have fixed the issue, looks like it so far./////

Yep.  Resizeing down sometimes shuts the browser, no solution yet?  The four finger salute mentioned above has always fixed my touch pad issue (my shoots off up and left occasionally).

chuck

[dmarney]

I brought in my pair of XO laptops to work, and invited everyone in the software development division to come and play with them over lunch.

As developers, our impression was that this machine definitely has a serious side.  This is not a machine directed at entertainment.  This is a machine that makes things, shares things, builds things. 

The small size makes it rather intensely personal.  If we were kids, this would be "our" machine, and we would take it everywhere.

All in all, it definitely lives up to its design goal of being a learning platform.  This is not just another laptop. 

 

[ChicagoXO]

The only fix to handle the browse shutting down, is instead of starting a new browse activity, go to your journal, and restart your last Browse activity, and it should get you back to exactly where you left off.

[robin850]

I ordered a pair of these but have not fired up the second one yet.

The design decisions are plainly evident once you get the unit unboxed.  This says "made for kids" all over it!

1)  tiny
2)  rugged
3)  tiny keyboard
4)  small fonts (need to take off my glasses to read it close up)
5)  did i mention tiny?


Construction:  The unit appears well-constructed.  Although very light, the case, keyboard, etc. all have a good "feel" to them.  The "ears" move well and do not appear to be prone to snapping off.

Screen:  The screen is clear and bright, even in situations where my normal Dell laptop would be near impossible to read.

Battery life.  I plan to give it a thorough testing, but with no moving media this thing may outlast that annoying "pink rabbit" from Energizer.  I had no issues with 2 hours of battery use.  My Inspiron 6400 would be looking "hungry" for some volts about then.

Keyboard:  My hands are too damn big.  That aside, the keypress feels good for a membrane keyboard.

Interface:  I had to read the "getting started" webpage from my Inspiron until I found out how to connect to my wireless.  After that, the Dell went back in the laptop bag.  The Sugar interface takes a bit getting used to, but every OS does.  I dont think kids will have any problems jumping between Windows, Mac, and Sugar.

Activities (aka Applications):  I can see a great deal of thought went into which apps to include.  A good mix of documentation tools, games, etc.  The emphasis on learning is prevalent throughout the included titles.

I am not sure that "Sugar" will catch on outside of the educational genre, but I believe that is intentional.

I personally hope that someone will build a slightly larger version of this little beast and offer it up to the masses.  Puppy Linux would be my preference of OS, as it is quick and efficient on small or large boxes, along with OpenOffice.  Throw in some Gcompris stuff for the kids and we have a perfect machine (almost).

now to read how to print to my Dell laser printer wirelessly........

Cheers,

robin850

[Retrofit]

chicagoxo, it looks like we may be trying to put together an chicagoland xo group.  I'm in Aurora, near IMSA.  I know at least two kids at IMSA received Xo's from the school.  So there are at least 3 in Aurora.  I have mine at my store and one customer has said he wants to get two.  That would bring Aurora to 5!  It appears there may be that many in Chicago as well.   2nd City my foot!  Aurora can run with the big dogs!     Perhaps we'll meet at the Chicagoland Xo Group??


chuck

[garylapointe]

It's Awesome. 

I ordered min on Nov. 21 and it whowed up today (Dec. 19).  No info on the T-mobile or on my tax deduction.

I'm having a hard time figuring out some of the icons and keys.   I don't like the on-line help poages since you can't print them.  They require mouseovers to give you the info.

The web browser is great!  But I noticed a few odd things (amazon multiple redirects choking)
I couldn't get the feedreader reader to read (restarted, reran it, etc.) but then it just started working!

I wish the chicklet keys were a tad bigger (they're perfect for kids though). 
The display is great!  Can't figure out how to get the high contrast on.

Video recording quality seems low but maybe I can adjust it.

I love it, I want more!!!

Gary
http://XOexperiment.com/
(technical diffuclties on the site today 12/19)

[Chris J]

It arrived on schedule, was not an empty box, and works fine. Unfortunately, it is an Xmas surprise for my daughter, so I probably won't have time to play with it much until she unwraps it on the 25th.

But so far it looks good. It is very sturdy and a nice clean design. I'll have to see what she thinks of it, then I'll post more "first impressions."

If nothing else, it's a great relief that it made it here before we leave for vacation in a few days.

[ipeverywhere]

My first impression that most will not notice...
This laptop was not designed with the forethought of being used by people (like myself) who only have the use of one hand.

I'm going to give it a few days and test some of the one handed keyboards I have to see if it recognizes them and then I'll write up a real report over the holidays. In a way I'm a tad disappointed but honestly this is the norm with most everything I use in the world.

[eden]

Here is my learned opinion: I love the soft, smooth, quiet keyboard and the way I can scroll web pages with the two game pad thingys.  And I am on it now, typing this.     Kids are gonna love this laptop!