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[BeckyJ]

"Cherrypal surprised most of the technology industry on Tuesday by announcing the CherryPal Africa, a $99 computer based on a relatively unknown Chinese microprocessor.

Cherrypal has begun taking orders for the device on its Web site, where the small computer is described as "small, slow, sufficient".

"At Cherrypal, we're extremely conscious of the so-called 'digital divide'," said Max Seybold, the company's founder, in a statement. "We're constantly looking for ways to bridge that gap, and the Cherrypal Africa is a huge step in the right direction. Plus, everyone who has tried it has absolutely loved it!"

The Africa uses either Windows CE or Linux. It's also small, with just a 7-inch, 800-by-600 display; in total, the Africa measures 213.5 mm by 141.8 mm by 30.8 mm, and weighs 1.2 kilograms or 2.64 pounds. . . ."

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2357185,00.asp

How will it do? Would you buy it?

[GregYohn]

No, would not buy it!

They have for sale a similar one in the US that had Windows CE available on Black Thursday!

No Flash! No Deal!

My desktop is an ASUS Ebox like its laptop, but the laptops were just $200 on black Friday!

BTW, I brought my TV/monitor with my desktop attached in my TV box with me on a road trip! It was great to have digital TV and my home computer all in the TV box!  

Bringing my Krups Expresso machine was another smart idea, since I had Colombian organic sugar and coffee from there with me! 

[sracer]

Correct.  I picked up one of those Win CE netbooks on Black Friday.  I returned it within the hour.  It had a nice variety of pre-installed apps (including SoftMaker's MS Office-compatible office suite).  But the build quality was terrible, and the wifi connectivity was not very reliable.

[GregYohn]

I said no to the low cost laptop, since my XO does not have flash capability! I read the spec's and made my decision!

For $200 I could have waited in line at 1am for an Atom Processor ACER laptop.

REALLY, Win CE would be a clue that it was not able to act as a regular laptop. I tried to get assistance from a stranger while at Madison Sq. Garden in NYC with an Apple Iphone, but even it was not good enough to see the website I needed.

[Robotech_Master]

REALLY, Win CE would be a clue that it was not able to act as a regular laptop. I tried to get assistance from a stranger while at Madison Sq. Garden in NYC with an Apple Iphone, but even it was not good enough to see the website I needed.

It's a little more complex than that, actually. The article at the head of this thread doesn't quite have the whole story. A blog post from CherryPal's chairman on the 19th explained things further.

Basically, these netbooks are put together out of "odd lots" of whatever netbook parts CherryPal can obtain most inexpensively. The specs on the website are not what you will get, they're what you will at least get, depending on what parts they have on hand. It's not even set in stone what CPU you'll get: it will be one that is at least 400 MHz, but it may be of ARM, MIPS, or X86 architecture. (It's no wonder they have their own custom Linux distro for it.) And from reading between the lines in the blog post, it's not even set in stone that you'll get CE. It's possible you might get XP if the netbook is able to run it and they have it in stock.

It's kind of a "mystery grab bag" approach to a netbook. For more details, see my article about it or the Slashdot post linking to it.

I'm going to be receiving review copies of both the Africa and their more expensive model the Bing, and will be reviewing them on TeleRead.

[GregYohn]

A local grocery store was selling a low cost Win CE laptop for $150.

No Flash! No Deal!

That ends the discussion for me!

[Robotech_Master]

What do you mean by "no flash"?

The Africa accepts up to 32-gig MMC cards.

[Wayan Vota]

What is the difference between OLPC and Cherry PC?  That's what we're trying to figure on on Twitter using the #CherryOLPC hashtag.  

Add your opinion now!

[Charbax]

I was the first to film what became the Cherry PC, with my videos:

http://armdevices.net/2009/11/12/80-android-laptop-menq-easypc-e790/

http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/12/menq-international-lowers-the-bar-with-89-easypc-e760-laptop/

http://gizmodo.com/5047705/hivision-shows-off-sub+100-linux-mini-laptop

Those $80 ARM Powered laptops are great, but OLPC is most likely going to be using more powerful ARM Cortex A8 and will probably run better software and be of better hardware build. OLPC said the XO 1.75 is not before 2011, but I am sure there will be ARM based OLPC laptops ready before then.

Look for my full video coverage of ARM Powered laptops that will be shown at CES at my new site http://armdevices.net

[GregYohn]

The YouTube video was good to see, but better call someone who is awake next time you test your Skype!

I use 12Voip and VoipRaider with my XO using Twinkle as the client software using my 12Voip name with password.

[Robotech_Master]

I was the first to film what became the Cherry PC, with my videos:

Just to note, going by the interview I conducted with Max Seybold of Cherrypal and just got finished writing up for TeleRead, some Africas may be the Menq, or some variation thereof, but others will not be. They're obtaining or constructing whatever they can that fits their minimum specs and they can sell for $99.

[Cherrypal]

http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/competition/cherrypal_beats_olpc_to_a_99_a.html

Must read!