Today I thought about the Everun's use and how it affects the use of my notebook. It was a real shock to realize that much of the notebook's work is now done by my Everun, sitting on the couch watching TV with half 'n eye.
FIE (full internet experience) and e-mail makes much of my private workload. Work I can do easily with the Everun. So, my notebook is only used to type a lot of text (like this blog), gaming, programming and Office stuff (Word/Excel).
So, do not throw away you notebook when you've got an UMPC, but know that a lot of work can be done with the umpc. Have fun!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Everun on GPRS
Last week I enjoyed a week of vacation. A very good time to test the Everun. All I had (gadget wise) with me was the Everun and a PocketPC phone (HP hw6915). There was no wifi, so I had to use bluetooth to connect the Everun to the PPC and use the latter as a modem. It worked! Since I only have gprs speed, browsing is not as fast as at home. But it works. And is also workable. For light browsing (forget about large images or YouTube vids) and e-mail it's fine.
Monday, August 20, 2007
How I use the Everun
It's now three weeks after I got hold of the Everun. Slowly I'm beginning to get used to the UMPC concept. As a PDA user I really had to work out a way of combining the two. In my previous blog I talked about the pro's and con's of the pda and the umpc. I use the pda/phone less, and the Everun more, but -at this moment- not so intensive as I probably could. So, what am I doing with this new piece of technology?
- internet tablet in the house: everywhere in my appartment I can enjoy my WiFi connection, but I actually use the Everun the most sitting on the couche, while one eye is pointed at the TV, the other is focussed on the FireFox browser on the Everun.
- on the move: reading an ebook. This works great! I use the Mobireader, and combined with the large screen it is very very usefull.
- on the move: listening to music. Multitasking is not a problem for the Everun, though when you are running something that consumes processing power, like Skype, the system will go slow. But browsing/ebook reading and listening to music is a good combination. The GOM player does it's job.
- on the move: watching movies. Haven't done that a lot, but it can be done. Again, the GOM player handles wmv, divx, xvid and DVD files without any problem, so you can leave the dedicated 'personal media players' like the Archos at home. I do have an Archos GMini 500 with 80gig and use it to backup all my media files and software.
- on the move: typing some small documents, working with data in Excel. Writing an email every now and then. The keyboard is great for little typing, like URL's, password, an email or something like that. I have also tried some on-screen keyboards, like IlliumSoft's Inscribe (which is free). These on-screen kb's do not make me happy, but they get the job done. The one thing I don't like about the Inscibe kb is the lack of visible response when pressing a key. Was that so hard to do? Anyway, it's great being able to open a Word document and read it the way it was intended, without being slimmed down by Pocket Word.
That's about it, and I know, there are more ways to use the Everun, like gaming etc, but so far I can entertain myself during the daily commute, which, sometimes, should be longer because you can do only that much in 30 mins.
- internet tablet in the house: everywhere in my appartment I can enjoy my WiFi connection, but I actually use the Everun the most sitting on the couche, while one eye is pointed at the TV, the other is focussed on the FireFox browser on the Everun.
- on the move: reading an ebook. This works great! I use the Mobireader, and combined with the large screen it is very very usefull.
- on the move: listening to music. Multitasking is not a problem for the Everun, though when you are running something that consumes processing power, like Skype, the system will go slow. But browsing/ebook reading and listening to music is a good combination. The GOM player does it's job.
- on the move: watching movies. Haven't done that a lot, but it can be done. Again, the GOM player handles wmv, divx, xvid and DVD files without any problem, so you can leave the dedicated 'personal media players' like the Archos at home. I do have an Archos GMini 500 with 80gig and use it to backup all my media files and software.
- on the move: typing some small documents, working with data in Excel. Writing an email every now and then. The keyboard is great for little typing, like URL's, password, an email or something like that. I have also tried some on-screen keyboards, like IlliumSoft's Inscribe (which is free). These on-screen kb's do not make me happy, but they get the job done. The one thing I don't like about the Inscibe kb is the lack of visible response when pressing a key. Was that so hard to do? Anyway, it's great being able to open a Word document and read it the way it was intended, without being slimmed down by Pocket Word.
That's about it, and I know, there are more ways to use the Everun, like gaming etc, but so far I can entertain myself during the daily commute, which, sometimes, should be longer because you can do only that much in 30 mins.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Where the smartphone ends...
...and the UMPC takes over.
For years now I'm a PDA/PocketPC(with phone) user. Have had two Palms pda's, a Casio PPC, an Acer n10, a HP Jornada HandheldPC, a HP rx3715, a Palm Treo 650 (still using), a T-Mobile Vario (still using) and now my main device is the HP hw6915; with keyboard and nice working GPS. And I'm always connected...so no complaints. I am a one-piece man, I like devices that do it all: phone, PIM, gps, email and internet, entertainment (games, music and multimedia).
At least, I was.
But now I have an Everun UMPC (yes, I'd call it an umpc) and things have changed. I use my smartphone less and less for browsing or reading or entertainment. (And for the record: I use my laptop also less; with the Everun I browse the internet and read my email on the couch).
The Everun has taken over much of the pda's work, at least when I'm commuting. In the train it's hard to do some work, but reading an ebook and listening to music is great. Something I could do on my pda, but with the small screen it's not such a pleasure. Combined with a BT phone or using a wifi hotspot I can have the full internet experience. A PDA can't do that.
Still, there is not so much between how I use my pda and how I use the Everun. Both have there (dis)advantages:
PDA:
+ small, light
+ gprs/gsm connection, always on-line
+ instant-on, stable, no hard-disk
+ BT, wifi, multimedia, internet, email
+ battery last for at least a day
- small screen
- not a full internet experience (browser is limited)
- OS is slimmed down, you need special programs for the Windows Mobile platform
- Wifi doesn't work with all hotspots, like the once with wpa2-psk protection
- not much storage memory, max. 2 gig/4 gig.
Everun:
+ large screen
+ full OS, can run a lot of apps you also have on your laptop or pc
+ large storage room (30 gig or more)
+ set up wifi is easy
+ full internet experience (IE or FireFox, incl. YouTube vids)
- large and clumsy (need a girly bag to carry it)
- hard-disk is always risky on a mobile device
- no cellular capacity (at least on this model)
- not instant-on, you have to wait 5-10 seconds until Windows has started
- battery last only 3 to 4 hours with Wifi on
So, I ask myself, has the Everun an edge? It's large, has no cellphone build in, not instant-on. Why not stick with the pda?
I think the advantage of the Everun lies in its OS, which enables it to be used as a 'normal' computer, with all the productive apps (Office XP, FireFox) as well as all the multimedia capacities. You can do fun and productivity better, much better than a pda. I think that's the power of the Everun, and a lot of other UMPC's.
For years now I'm a PDA/PocketPC(with phone) user. Have had two Palms pda's, a Casio PPC, an Acer n10, a HP Jornada HandheldPC, a HP rx3715, a Palm Treo 650 (still using), a T-Mobile Vario (still using) and now my main device is the HP hw6915; with keyboard and nice working GPS. And I'm always connected...so no complaints. I am a one-piece man, I like devices that do it all: phone, PIM, gps, email and internet, entertainment (games, music and multimedia).
At least, I was.
But now I have an Everun UMPC (yes, I'd call it an umpc) and things have changed. I use my smartphone less and less for browsing or reading or entertainment. (And for the record: I use my laptop also less; with the Everun I browse the internet and read my email on the couch).
The Everun has taken over much of the pda's work, at least when I'm commuting. In the train it's hard to do some work, but reading an ebook and listening to music is great. Something I could do on my pda, but with the small screen it's not such a pleasure. Combined with a BT phone or using a wifi hotspot I can have the full internet experience. A PDA can't do that.
Still, there is not so much between how I use my pda and how I use the Everun. Both have there (dis)advantages:
PDA:
+ small, light
+ gprs/gsm connection, always on-line
+ instant-on, stable, no hard-disk
+ BT, wifi, multimedia, internet, email
+ battery last for at least a day
- small screen
- not a full internet experience (browser is limited)
- OS is slimmed down, you need special programs for the Windows Mobile platform
- Wifi doesn't work with all hotspots, like the once with wpa2-psk protection
- not much storage memory, max. 2 gig/4 gig.
Everun:
+ large screen
+ full OS, can run a lot of apps you also have on your laptop or pc
+ large storage room (30 gig or more)
+ set up wifi is easy
+ full internet experience (IE or FireFox, incl. YouTube vids)
- large and clumsy (need a girly bag to carry it)
- hard-disk is always risky on a mobile device
- no cellular capacity (at least on this model)
- not instant-on, you have to wait 5-10 seconds until Windows has started
- battery last only 3 to 4 hours with Wifi on
So, I ask myself, has the Everun an edge? It's large, has no cellphone build in, not instant-on. Why not stick with the pda?
I think the advantage of the Everun lies in its OS, which enables it to be used as a 'normal' computer, with all the productive apps (Office XP, FireFox) as well as all the multimedia capacities. You can do fun and productivity better, much better than a pda. I think that's the power of the Everun, and a lot of other UMPC's.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Everun as eBook reader
As Steve from UMPCportal.com earlier reported, reading ebooks on the Everun works very good. I installed the Mobireader (for Windows), bought an ebook and started reading. The font is large enough to read for long periods without eye strain, and when keeping the device in portrait mode you can read while holding the device in just one hand. Start the GOM player for some nice background music and you can finally enjoy the journey to work.
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