Thursday, December 20, 2007

Posting from my XO

Random thoughts... I love the balanced feel of the laptop when you're carrying it, especially from the two small holes that flank the handle. It lets you hook a few fingers in there and get a really solid grip, even with the laptop open. Having kids carry around conventional laptops, particularly cheap ones, even with high school students, can be a real headache. Also, carrying a regular laptop and a baby down a twisty Victorian staircase can be hairy. I appreciate the industrial design here... I'm really looking forward to someone hacking the gamepads to control the mouse when the XO is in tablet/ebook configuration. Basically, what I want is an activity that opens Google Reader in full screen mode with the Reader sidebar collapsed and the screen in portrait layout... I'm really happy with the quality of the reflective, black and white mode. You just need strong enough light to read a book comfortably to use this mode. It is really sharp, and easy on the eyes if you've got the right lighting... The lack of tabbed browsing is a serious problem... The size of the keyboard is probably the biggest problem for adults using the laptop... The chat client that shipswith the g1g1 machines is badly broken. It jumps down every time someone makes a comment and then you have to scroll way up to see what was said. It will drive you insane but is apparently fixed in later developer builds... The XO doesn't seem to handle running out of memory very well, but then again, who does? ... Jennifer is unhappy about the lack of a spreadsheet... Overall, this is a great start, better than I feared for version 1.0.

4 comments:

Anne Davis said...

I love the feel of the laptop when carrying it also. I know I will love it even more when my grandkids get a hold of it because I won't have to be following them around as back up for a fall!

I can't figure out how to connect it to the wireless in my house - seems others are having this problem too. I do so wish I were more techie! I won't have much time to troubleshoot until after a Saturday dinner for 14 at my house.I was hoping to put it in the hands of my 8 year old grandson after the dinner but if you have any quick troubleshooting thoughts or pointers they would be most appreciated! I will make the time to try them. I am really excited about the possibilities. Thanks Tom.

Best,
Anne Davis

Tom Hoffman said...

Hi Anne,
Wireless "just worked" for me. In fact, since my access point has WEP encryption running (as installed by Verizon and I haven't turned it off) my XO connected happily to a neighbor's, and I didn't even realize it for a few minutes. I do know that the XO's don't currently support WPA encryption, so if you've got that running it would be a problem. Otherwise, if you want to describe how far you've gotten in more detail I can try to help.

Bill Fitzgerald said...

This page on the OLPC site has a good overview of connecting via wireless --
http://laptop.org/en/laptop/start/connecting.shtml

I have connected to an encrypted connection in my house, and to free connections in local coffeeshops. If you are attempting to connect via an encrypted connection, it will prompt you for login info.

Cheers,

Bill

Carrie said...

I am currently in need of some assistance with in home wireless networking. My two children received an xo for christmas and they love the size and comfort of the unit but we have a slight issue with use of internet on the system. We are trying to setup a in home wireless network in order for my children to use the system at home. Unfortunatley I currently have a dialup network through my desktop but I am willing to get whatever service network i.e broadband or dsl. If anyone out there could help us in our quest for at home network please send information.
thanks
carrie stallings