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[Sheepster]

Ouch! Especially that it happened to both the Mininote and Kindle.

Sturdiness is certainly an advangage of the XO over the Kindle (and Mininote)

[Gabey8]

YIKES!!! What happened to the screen?

Edit: NVM, I realized that the text under the image was a hyperlink.

Oh, I'd be ready to kill those stupid kids if I had this kind of mishap. Heck, I want to squash them anyway, and it wasn't even my gear they damaged!

 

[Mike Lee]

Those kids were gone in about 5 seconds in the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of people. This just makes me rethink how I carry electronics around now. Maybe a hard case, or hard insert in my bag.

[Mike Lee]

Feeling cooled off tonight about the smashed netbook, I realized that the 7" screen is very similar to those in portable DVD players. I would have to match a ribbon cable and two wires/voltage for the backlight. Gives me hope I'll find a replacement screen one day soon.

[Gabey8]

Feeling cooled off tonight about the smashed netbook, I realized that the 7" screen is very similar to those in portable DVD players. I would have to match a ribbon cable and two wires/voltage for the backlight. Gives me hope I'll find a replacement screen one day soon.

Haven't we got some threads in these forums that describe a 7" touch screen mod for Eee PCs? What if THAT screen fits the Minibook?

[Sheepster]

Here's someone who transplanted a screen from an older sony e-book reader: 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Amazon_Kindle_e_ink_Screen_Transplant_from_a_Sony_/

[Mike Lee]

I did think about those 7" touchscreens, but the touch part wouldn't be usable as it's highly unlikely there is a MIPS compatible driver.

Sheepster, great find on that tip. My wife did add her first generation SONY E-book to our junk pile, but the other problem is that the left and right navigations were smashed in. Of course, if I didn't care about appearance or bulk, I could rig the old screen, some new buttons and the reaminer of the Kindle into a project case. Hmmm, that might get me on the MAKE blog if I do a steampunk version.

M

[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.

So much for the New Toy. I got an email from geeks.com this afternoon. I'd RMAed my non-working device to them a couple weeks ago. (The mouse keys and mouse pad abruptly stopped functioning.)

They can neither repair nor replace the device for me, and are crediting my account for the purchase price. Drat. I'd rather have been able to get the device back.

I guess I'll have to keep an eye open and see if the Mininote makes an appearance for sale somewhere else, under one of its many names, at a reasonable price.

[Mike Lee]

Sorry to hear we're both without an Alpha 400 to experiment with! I'm going to sit tight a while too as I'm sure the price on that laptop will continue to drop in the coming weeks. I also see on Geeks.com that refurbished ASUS EeePc 4G 701 in white are only $208.99.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=EEEPC4G-701-WHT-R&cat=NBB

That's a great price for a significantly more capable netbook than the Alpha 400 and for not a whole lot more money. But I already have an EeePC...

Amazon agreed to sell me a replacement Kindle for $180, so I'm back in business reading on my train commutes.

My wife made a surprise purchase of an Intel Classmate 3 (2goPC), so I'll be able to play with that a bit. I've made a quick attempt at running Sugar in Qemu on the new Classmate. The emulation is slow and the screen resolution needs adjustment to fit.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/3258967139/

More on this soon I hope.

Mike

[kozuch82]

Hey there,

the manufacrurers website now says: "PC701-LX now fully supports YouTube and most Flash enabled sites."

(link: http://www.exon-technology.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage_noname&product_id=116&category_id=55&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=55&vmcchk=1&Itemid=55)

Seems like they made a breakthrough with Adobe.

[Gabey8]

Nice find!

I set up an email notification at geeks.com for when the Alpha 400 would become available again. It's back, so I used the in-house credit I got on another one. While I wait for it to arrive, it'll be well worth looking around to find out how Exon's version of the Little Linux Laptop is YouTube-compatible. Maybe there's a way to install the same upgrade on other companies' versions of the device.

[Gabey8]

Let's try this again, shall we?

The new Alpha 400 arrived today. Time to resume experimenting. Here's to seeing this one live long and prosper.

[Gabey8]

Buy.com has this device for $10 less than geeks.com is selling it for ($159.99 as opposed to $169.99), plus buy.com is offering free shippng.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=210486063&listingid=35208026&dcaid=17902