The Back Burner

I wouldn’t say I was a gadget freak, but some gadgets do appeal to me. Nor am I a fan of listening to music on the move; I originally got an MP3 player to listen to audio books and podcasts while out walking. My first was a cigarette-lighter sized Creative Zen, which worked so well it was pinched by my husband to use as a dictaphone when he was out walking

I replaced it with a pretty red iRiver the same size as the Creative. The sound quality on this one was superb, even better than the Creative (which was pretty good), but it had two flaws which meant I eventually stopped using it:

1) because of the size and shape of the player, the display was tiny. I found that even with my glasses on, I simply couldn’t read it (to be fair, this was a problem with the Zen too, for the same reason). So the only way to find what I wanted to listen to was to scroll through listening to the beginning of each item. Couple that with tiny, invisibly labelled buttons, and it became problematic.

2) It was designed to work with Windows Media Player. Problem: I don’t use Windows. A firmware upgrade meant I could use it like a standard removable drive in Windows, instead of having to go through the painful, clunky WMP to transfer files, but it wouldn’t play with my Linux PC at all.

Of course if you are a Windows user with very good eyesight, these problems won’t apply to you, and the iRiver is a very good player for its size.

Anyway, I allowed myself to be tempted by a special offer from Amazon, and snapped up a 2Gb Meizu. This has a completely different form factor: the size and shape of a credit card, only thicker (just thick enough to fit a headphone jack on one side, along with the mini USB connector). The aesthetics are beautifully thought out: mine is glossy black, with a mirror-finished back that can be used as … a mirror! Of course it picks up fingerprints very easily, but a little cloth is thoughtfully provided for polishing it up to a beautiful lustre and it has a little case to protect it from scratches.

The big plus is the bright, high-resolution 2.4 inch screen, intended for watching videos. I’ve never understood why people want to watch video on a screen that size, but I’m obviously just too old. In any case, for me it means that menus and track information are easy to read, even in sunlight. Alongside the screen is a touchpad which you use for navigation, scrolling, and volume control. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but after a skim of the manual I found it easy and intuitive; for example when listening to something you can increase the volume by simply sliding your finger up the touchpad. The same technique is used for navigating menus; tapping “Enter” at the bottom of the pad selects an option. Again, the sensitive areas are big and well-labelled enough for it not to be fiddly to use.

There are lots of possibilities for customization, including pre-set EQs for jazz, classical, pop etc. — or you can choose your own custom settings. The sound quality seems pretty good to me, from what I’ve listened to so far.

The other excellent feature is that it is OS-agnostic. To transfer files you simply plug it into you computer with the supplied USB cable and drag and drop files (videos have to be converted using Windows-only software, but I haven’t bothered with that). This works just as smoothly in Linux as it does in Windows, and you can organize the files in a way that suits you. It even supports the open-source OGG format, which neither of my other players did. Note that you should make sure MP3s and other audio files are tagged appropriately, then they will automatically be organized by artist, album etc. You can create your own directories in addition to the default ones for videos, music, and pictures — for example I created one called Podcasts — and use the built-in browser to access them. And of course you can create playlists, though I haven’t tried that yet.

Like both the iRiver and the Zen, it has a dictaphone feature, so I will have to keep it hidden from my husband Unlike them, it doesn’t use standard AAA batteries (which didn’t seem to last long and were always running out at inconvenient times). Instead it has a non-user-serviceable internal battery and charges via the USB port. We’ll see whether this proves to be a problem in the long term. Battery life is said to be excellent, but I haven’t used it enough to know yet. Some people complain about lack of an option to charge directly from the mains, but as I am rarely far from a computer, I don’t see that as a problem. If it were, I believe there are USB-to-mains adapters available.

On a trip to the UK just after Christmas I succumbed to temptation and paid a visit to Toys R Us. Minutes later I walked out with this:

Then I headed straight for my hotel, and once in my room I could barely wait to unpack it. I’d heard it was small, but I was still staggered at just how small and light it is. I switched it on, and it booted in 15 seconds, as advertised. I ran the “First run wizard” and once that was done I clicked on “Wireless networks” and without further ado it picked up the hotel’s WiFi hotspot. Unbelievably simple; I hot-footed it to reception for a card, and within minutes was checking my email.

This is a tiny, cheap sub-notebook that runs Linux and does everything I’m likely to want to do on the move: web, email, word-processing, seamless networking. The interface is a bit Playschool, but that is clearly a deliberate choice; the machine is aimed at the educational market as a cheap, easy-to-use laptop that children can carry around with them. In any case, a browse around one of the burgeoning eee fansites quickly revealed a simple fix to enable “Advanced desktop” mode, which turns out to be exactly the same as my Xandros desktop, so no complaints there. Having said that, 90% of the time I use it in “Easy” mode.

In practice of course, many buyers seem to be geeks delighted to find a cool device that runs Linux and can be hacked to do all sorts of useful things. The result is an increasing number of sites dedicated to the eee and detailing various hacks and improvements. Always a good sign when a community builds up round something like this.

Edit: interestingly, the Xandros website states:

The Eee PC is an ASUS product and is solely supported by them, including Operating system issues. The Operating System on the Eee PC is not a Xandros Product. While Xandros may have aided in the development of the Eee PC OS, it is owned and supported by ASUS.

… but the Advanced Destop mode looks indistinguishable from Xandros.

This device really suggests that the operating system is becoming an irrelevance as long as you have network connectivity. Many users of the eee PC will not know or care what the operating system is; they’ll just use it to accomplish tasks. Microsoft must be a wee bit worried, because the eee has just launched in Japan with Windows XP pre-installed (the original model comes with instructions for installing XP, but you need a valid installation disk and another PC with a CD drive to do so). I don’t really understand why anyone would want to; as delivered the machine only has 512Mb of RAM, and runs very nicely with Linux, whereas if you want anything like acceptable performance with XP you are going to have to void the warranty by installing more memory.

But some people seem to think they should be able to do everything they could do on a heavy, bulky, 15″ notebook PC on this. It’s only got a 7″ screen for heaven’s sake; what on earth is the point of trying to run Photoshop on it? For me its role is definitely that of a supplementary PC, not a desktop replacement. It’s a huge improvement on the slow, clunky Dell laptop we lug around whenever we travel. The 15-second boot time is particularly appreciated; it means you can quickly switch it on to check something, then switch it off again to conserve the battery (battery life without wifi switched on is about three hours; slightly disappointing but over twice as long as the Dell manages). Resuming from sleep mode is even faster. Plenty of thought has been put into keeping the weight down; it also has a relatively small power adapter, similar to a mobile phone one, not the “brick” you usually get with laptops. And it’s surprisingly robust; you’d expect something as cheap as this to feel flimsy, but it doesn’t.

The one thing I don’t like about it is the small trackpad and very stiff mouse button. I don’t like trackpads much anyway, and even increasing the sensitivity doesn’t seem to help. It feels as if it’s going to be the first thing to break. Using a mouse or trackball that weighs half as much as the PC doesn’t seem to make sense, so I’ve ordered a dinky little Targus mouse for it.