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[Mike Lee]

I've only done the same brief check as you and I forgot which tip I used at the time. I've connected the Tekkeon with the Eee 701 twice with mixed results. The laptop seemed to have trouble recognizing the external battery on my second try.  I'll play around with the setup some more too.

[kozuch82]

What about Adobe Flash on this device? It is MIPS, so it lacks Flash, am I right?

[Gabey8]

Right. There's no way to install flash on the device.

On the other hand, having seen how Youtube looks like a rapid-fire slide-show on the XO, which has twice the RAM of the Alpha 400, I'm not too worried about the inability to do Youtube on this particular device. If it COULD do Youtube, it probably would only just barely be able to handle it anyway.

I've been surfing with it for the better part of the past few days, just to get a feel for the device, and for the sites I visit, the lack of flash isn't an issue. Some kids' sites like clubpenguin.com, on the other hand, might be rendered unusable. So I wouldn't spring for an Alpha 400 (nor its clones) for a child, thinking that it will work exactly like a full-sized desktop/laptop computer.

For note-taking, basic surfing and emailing, though, I would most definitely recommend that someone who's looking for a bare-bones portable device should do some research on this machine. They can check out http://littlelinuxlaptop.com to find out more about the machine and all its various incarnations, some of which have some variations in the specs.

And if someone IS thinking about getting this device for a child, they  might do well to track down some of the message boards that are linked to on littlelinuxlaptop.com. There, they can ask some actual owners of the netbook how it handles particular kid-oriented sites or specific tasks that the child might want to perform on the machine.

[Gabey8]

I think I might be in over my head with this power experiment...

I decided to run a fully charged Alpha 400 off a fully charged Tekkeon MyPowerALL 3450 battery, just to see how long the combination lasted.

That was six hours ago. The Tekkeon is down to its fifth green LED light, which means it's at 60-70% according to the chart on here: http://tekkeon.com/products-mypall-specs.html

I might be up all night at this rate. Not to mention, I'm headed for a killer case of eyestrain from all this surfing, reading, and surfing some more.

I have been running the Alpha 400 with wifi on throughout the time I've used it.

[teapot]

What about Adobe Flash on this device? It is MIPS, so it lacks Flash, am I right?

Apparently they have Flash -- no idea which version, and if it can play Youtube videos. Flash on x86 has atrocious video handling because it's made with assumption that it will run on fast desktops, there is nothing that prevents it from having optimized video on less forgiving platforms.

[Gabey8]

Update: ten hours after I started the experiment, I noticed that the Tekkeon was depleted.

Unfortunately, the Alpha 400's battery status is limited to 100, 75, 50, and 25 percent, plus I'm not sure what percentage of battery power remains when it offers the low battery warning. So it's not particularly easy to judge just how much time has elapsed since the netbook started relying on its own battery.

[GregYohn]

Was that test made using full power?

I noticed at the Philly XO group meeting on Sunday that the Alpha 400 had a bright screen while in use.

[Gabey8]

Was that test made using full power?

I noticed at the Philly XO group meeting on Sunday that the Alpha 400 had a bright screen while in use.

Yes -- I left the screen on bright and the wifi was on the entire time.

End result: 12 hours and 40 minutes from "both batteries fully charged" to "Your battery is very low -- save your files and prepare for system shutdown." Without wifi, it would definitely have lasted longer. With less screen brightness, I'm sure it would've lasted longer, as well.

[Gabey8]

Dang it. I was hoping to just talk to geeks.com and see if I could swap out the power supply.

But it looks like I will need to swap out the netbook as well -- the Alpha's mouse keys and touch pad abruptly stopped working this evening. Grumble mumble grumble...

Beans. I hate to be without the New Toy, but it looks like there's no alernative if the mouse pad/keys are inoperable.

[GregYohn]

How long of warranty do you have with the product?

Longer than 30 days? LOL!

[Mike Lee]

As you can see, mine arrived today! I put it on the XO for size comparison.

The laptop's battery was empty on arrival, so I needed the AC adapter to charge and boot up. The OS came up fine, and I was able to get wifi going through a control panel.

Not surprisingly, everything about the product has a cheap, corners-cut feel to it. But it is still remarkable that this thing can wholesale for $100!

More after I play with it for a day.

Donna, thanks so much for the original tip on the deal and other info.

~

[Gabey8]

How long of warranty do you have with the product?

Longer than 30 days? LOL!

I think it was 60 days. Also, I don't usually get extended warranties with items, but just after this one acted up early on, I got an email reminding me that I still had a few days left to purchase an extended warranty, so I did. The extended warranty would kick in after 60 days, but I'm nowhere near even 30 days right now.

I just got my RMA number this evening. So with luck, it won't be long before the NEW New Toy is here.

[Mike Lee]

This game over...

[eden]

grrrrrrrrrrrrr

[gruuk]

Ouch. That was a painful sight to behold.