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An Applefied EEE

K

kava.live

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 17, 2008
3
0
If Apple were to make their own version of the Asus EEE, a mini notebook of sorts. How many of you would buy it?
This is assuming it has a nice exterior, SSD drive, 8.9" screen, and mulititouch, as well as a price of under 500$

This thought popped into my head recently, and I wanted the forums opinion. My apologies if this is in the wrong sub-forum.

Thanks
 
I would as well, but lets be honest, that thing would eat up MacBook Air sales, the MBA would still do a lot more, but people looking for an ultra portable would go the Apple's EEE.


Plus, the specs on the EEE aren't ideal for running OS X. We could see something like that running iPhone OS, but then I doubt it would have that keyboard.
 
Fundillo said:
under 500? doubt it would happen
Click to expand...


That's what everyone said and then we got the mini, albeit, it was bring your own screen, mouse and keyboard.

I could see Apple releasing a $500 EEE type machine. The only drawback would be they would probably have us bring our own screen. :eek:
 
The problem is people want a portable computer, without all the drawbacks of a portable computer. A sub- $500 notebook wouldn't have dedicated graphics, large SSD HD, much memory, powerful processor, etc. which people seem to assume can be put in for free.
 
zap2 said:
Plus, the specs on the EEE aren't ideal for running OS X. We could see something like that running iPhone OS, but then I doubt it would have that keyboard.
Click to expand...

The current specs of the Eee aren't ideal, but the forthcoming Atom-based machines should be ( Asus were supposed to ship the new 900 with an Atom, but pushed it out with a Celeron to beat HP's 2133 ). An single-core Atom-based machine would hopefully be more than enough. The dual-core Atom would be preferable, but that would probably impact battery life ( even more ).

Apple coming out with one of these, is one of the main reasons I've held off buying an EeePC 900. That, and the fact they have abysmal battery life ( 2-ish hours ), which is sorta silly on a mobile device. I've since rebuilt my 12" iBook ( 4-ish hours ) with Leopard, and using that as my portable portable.

Will Apple bring one out? Despite my hope, I think not. If anything, I think it will be some variation of the iPhone.
 
You've described the computer I've been waiting for. Unfortunately, it will probably never exist. I'll just keep on using my 12" ibook indefinitely.
 
IscariotJ said:
Apple coming out with one of these, is one of the main reasons I've held off buying an EeePC 900.
Click to expand...

Well, that, presumably, and the fact that it isn't even available yet. :p

The 900s should also have enough disk space for at least a basic installation of OS X.

I'm reasonably happy with Ubuntu on my Eee, although I probably would've hesitated even less if Apple were selling it with OS X instead. Certain things would be easier with OS X -- Filevault, the more sophisticated network manager, the better system preferences and configuration tools, etc -- even if it does lack the space to have a big iTunes library or iPhoto library on it. Since my iPhone is sitting right next to it most of the time, and the two together still weigh substantially less than even a Macbook Air, I'm more than content to not have those things on my Eee....

The battery life is pretty disappointing, though. I'm bummed that it's supposed to get even worse, by reports, on the 900 (although those numbers are for the 900 with the Celeron M, and it might be better when an Atom class processor lands in it).
 
mkrishnan said:
Well, that, presumably, and the fact that it isn't even available yet. :p
Click to expand...

They're available to pre-order in the UK, with delivery in the next week, or two ( assuming Asus can produce enough.... )

Yeah, the battery life reports were a big disappointment. The first review I saw of the 900 quoted 2 hours, with 2 and half being possible with the screen turned down, and wifi off. That's no better than my MacBook, and far worse then my iBook.

For what I would use one for, though, an iPhone would probably suit me better. Now, if only they would officially support more than one carrier.
 
I have an EEE and love it, but I think I am going to upgrade to the 900, as the screen resolution and touchpad improvements will honestly be a bigger deal to me than the OS.

I would love OSX on my EEE, but the main things I like are the small footprint, small weight, and low cost.

I do not think Apple tries to compete on cost, so the race to the bottom for netbooks does not seem to be waiting for an Apple entry. I think what is more likely is another move that would break from Apple tradition: Aggressive price reduction of the same-specced MBA.
 
I would IMMEDIATLY! I have an eeePC and I freaking love that thing. Its all I travel with cause I don't even know its there. (Mine has 2 gb ram, and runs windows xp (I was tired of messing with linux) and it runs awesome.

If Apple came out with something like this I would be on the pre-order list for sure.
 
On the topic of EEE pc's...
What's the compatability like switching between say an imac and one (iWork etc.)?
Can they run itunes (maybe this is a no-brain-er but still)?
something like the iPhone OS X would be spectacular on a device like this
And yes i would buy one in a heartbeat :p
 
I have an EEE PC 7" and like it. I also have it running OS X, which is nice but far from perfect due to timing issues. I WISH Apple would make something similar, I would even pay a little more for it. Definitely buy it in a second.
 
I think you'd have to pay at lot more than an EEE. Forget "a bit more". I mean really, what would they not try to offer you with an EEE-esque laptop. They'd still go with Intel, they'd probably not compromise too much on the keyboard because SJ thinks dinky keyboards are useless (hence the MBA's size), and he'd probably want to give you a processor which doesn't have compromised speed, so you're not going to get some no-name slow-ass processor made for ultra-portables. They may not even want an ULV 1.2 GHz Intel chip (or slower).

With no compromise on specs, I really do think the closest you'd get to an EEE is a 10.X inch laptop with a 1.6 Ghz Core 2 Duo processor, 32 GB SSD harddisk, 2 GB of RAM, 1 USB, bluetooth, and WIFI. It will also cost $2000, because Apple simply is not going to offer you a 4 GB SSD when their iPods and iPhones hold so much more.
 
I put a 12GB sd card in mine, and used the 4gb solid state drive for the windows install (nLited of course) and I use the portableApps.com apps to load from the sd card and I have a small travel harddrive full of movies and things that I can just plug in the side.
 
convertee said:
On the topic of EEE pc's...
What's the compatability like switching between say an imac and one (iWork etc.)?
Can they run itunes (maybe this is a no-brain-er but still)?
Click to expand...

iTunes in Linux is a toughie -- I'm not sure the latest version can run under Wine. In XP or Vista, certainly. I don't keep a lot of media on my Eee... only PDF files. Whenever I have my Eee with me, I also have my iPhone, so I don't need any of that on the Eee. The iPhone gets synced with the iMac anyway, like all my other iPods, so there's also no real reason to need it to talk to the Eee (i.e. I never plugged any of these devices into the iBook I had before the Eee either).

iWork documents would open in OpenOffice in Linux or MS Office (2003, 2007, whatever) in Windows, assuming you saved them in the compatible format; I don't think there's anything in Windows or Linux that can open them in the Apple native formats.
 
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