Mr. Zonbu has agreed to let EcoGeek syndicate some of his articles. Check out his experiences at mrzonbu.wordpress.com.

It has been over two weeks now since I started playing with the Zonbu. My first foray was under VMWare and then my actual hardware arrived. I thought it might be a good time to get some summary thoughts and observations out, as much has happened during that time.  Consider this my mid-term review of the Zonbu.

Without further adieu, the good and the bad of Real Life with the Zonbu Mini-PC…

It’s all about context

When I originally purchased my Zonbu, I believed I was buying it as a fully baked commercial product. The company has since come forward and clarified that they consider the hardware to be final, but that the software is considered “Beta” at this stage. This is an important distinction, as it tells us the lens through which we much view the current status of the product.

The good

The Zonbu lives up to most of its major promises. It is utterly silent, something I value more than I expected. Now if I could just quiet the fridge, the A/C, the water cooler and my ceiling fans. Why does no one talk about noise pollution?

It uses very little power, consuming only mildly more, when running, than my desktop PC does when in standby. With that kind of savings I can afford to leave the unit fully powered on when I’m home, and only power it down at night. “Instant-on” access to the web. Eco-friendly meets instant gratification?

The performance I experience, in sharp contrast to the WSJ Mossberg review, has actually been very good. Applications start quickly, I can do some basic multi-tasking (provided I’m not playing back video), and the system feels responsive. There has not been any material delay in getting my work done. The software selection is reasonable, although a number of updates are needed (and expected soon) to bring things up to current.

The box seems best suited as a day-to-day Internet access device, with the office applications and other plug-ins supporting all the typical tasks you might experience over the run of a week. I’ve not attempted to do any serious office work with the device yet, although I have been maintaining this blog from the device. If your work is primarily web/Internet based, including opening office attachments, PDFs, etc. then the device is hard to beat for the money.

I’m happy with mine, pending a few updates.

Continue the Review

Toshiba's new Portégé R500 will be on sale soon with an option for the lowest-power laptop I've ever seen from a major manufacturer. The high-end laptop weighs less than two pounds and can operate for a whopping 8 hours on a single battery charge.

But, of course, it's not a special battery that keeps the laptop alive, it's just that the laptop uses so little power. Two innovations make this possible. First, ultra-efficient LED back lighting which also makes the screen more crisp even in full sun. And second, the computer doesn't use a hard drive. Instead of the constant spinning up and down of a normal laptop, the Portégé R500 uses a 64 GB solid state flash drive.

Solid state drives are not only more efficient, they're also faster and lighter, making the entire package more appealing. Of course, it has to be a LOT more appealing, as the flash drive ads $600 to the price of the Portégé R500 with a regular hard drive.

It's quite a premium, but for the truly power-conscious, high-end consumer, there's finally a solid state option. And there's a lot of room for improvement, as flash drives are getting bigger and cheaper every day. Don't be surprised if Mac heads in this direction fairly soon. The increase in speed  and efficiency alone are making this a really hot area for development right now.

Via TreeHugger

See Also:
-Where Will All the Hard Drives Go?-
-Flash Memory Poised to Save Power-
-Solid State Vaio-