Comments on: Pocketables reviews the Aigo P8860 MID.

By: ArchiMark

ArchiMark — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:33:23 +0000

It seems like people are criticizing the Aigo for several things that it wasn’t meant or designed for…..

1) AFAIK, this was meant for consumers in the Asian market, not Europe or USA…I bought one knowing this (so, gray-market…) and realized going into purchase that it was designed for non-Asians and thus would likely need some hacking on it to make it OK for me….kind of like what happened in the Zaurus community…

2) Also, knew that given the market it was designed for and the price-point, it would probably not have as high a build quality as an OQO or Sony….

3) Knew when buying it that it did not have built-in 3G….so, don’t complain that it doesn’t have it…

4) My only real criticism of the Aigo has to do with the fact that even though it has linux OS, Midinux, Aigo released it in a ‘locked-down’ fashion, that seems very contrary to the open nature of linux. Therefore, in order to circumvent that you need to hack it a bit or as others want to do, put XP on it….

Anyway, just my 2¢…..

By: Vakeros

Vakeros — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:04:54 +0000

No, Not like a netbook. A netbook is basically a smaller, generally under-powered laptop. But is way bigger than a Psion or a MID like the Aigo. The difference is pocketability and portability.

By: turn.self.off

turn.self.off — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:21:50 +0000

in other words, it could not be a worse supplier of software for this hardware…

By: admin

admin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:47:56 +0000

Some info about Ubuntu-MID and Ubuntu-UMPC now available.
http://www.umpcportal.com/2008/10/ubuntu-umpc-ubuntu-mid-810-launch-time-to-join-the-party

By: Sarig

Sarig — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:31:36 +0000

So…like a netbook then?

By: tjs

tjs — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:55:52 +0000

To my knowledge RedFlag has never worked with community nor do they show any interest in doing so. Even getting the software development kit for Midinux requires NDA so it’s unavailable for majority of developers.

Intel says Moblin compatibility specification fixes this problem but there’s no Moblin compatible SDK yet either and a spec can’t never substitute a real distro.

One can just wish that device vendors would select components from linux-friendly companies. That would allow people to use Ubuntu which is rich, flexible and reliable out of the box

By: Al

Al — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:21:13 +0000

To me what they and the entire MID market needs to do is just increase the memory so you can sell them with full Windows built in and more importantly modify the form factor so that they have a good touch type input keyboard. Something like a modern Psion would be what would sell like hot cakes but only if it ran full Windows; most people are not going to for a Linux computer, at least not mainstream users.

By: turn.self.off

turn.self.off — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:17:09 +0000

well, if someone would slap ubuntu on these things rather then some attempt at a linux based feature-firmware, then it would be just as rich, flexible and reliable out of the box.

By: Chippy

Chippy — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:09:03 +0000

Actually, yes.
MIDs running windows was described to be by the INtel as niche, productivity devices also known as UMPCs.

At least a working XP build would be rich, flexible and reliable out of the box.

By: Chippy

Chippy — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:07:11 +0000

The Gigabyte M528 was the one due to be shipping with 3G. Not the Aigo although you will probably see versions of the Aigo in 2009 wih 3G.

I agree that this device is too expansive without 3G and a decent OS unless you 1) Can justify buying it for its browsing strengths alone 2) Want to develop or hack with it. 3) Have faith that either XP or a better Midinux build is coming.

Steve.

By: turn.self.off

turn.self.off — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:29:35 +0000

are mid’s (in the intel definition) even supposed to run windows?

or will this be another netbook “disaster” where people start putting windows on them because they can, microsoft doing a bit of licence modification, and the hardware companies starting to ship high end mids with windows, leading to the linux ones joining the do-do?

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:21:04 +0000

Greetings:

I want to get this straight, in Europe the Aigo Mid is available with 3G yes.
But the review at Pocketables the Mid did not have 3G, and sells for $699.00US.
I really can not see the reasoning in paying that much for a Linux based Mid.
Although paying $699.00 for a MID with 3G and Windows XP sounds more reasonable.
If Aigo has started a hype for MID’s with Windows XP, I’m sure we will see more MID’s with this OS and the price will surely be lower.
Regards Robert

By: turn.self.off

turn.self.off — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:42:38 +0000

well, not entirely true. one can run openoffice via this:
http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24272

By: John in Norway

John in Norway — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:33:13 +0000

I totally agree. I had the chance of a Nokia N810 for a quarter of the price of the Aigo but I turned it down. Why? Because there wasn’t any Office compatible programs on it and, from what I’ve read in various forums, it doesn’t look like there will be. What a ridiculous state of affairs.

By: turn.self.off

turn.self.off — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:25:29 +0000

ugh, i keep hitting submit to soon.

this is something that irked me about jkk’s stance the other night, he was blaming linux for something that is completely in the hands of the companies making these devices.

if they had been open from day one, maybe releasing test firmwares for use in virtual machines before the actual product, then one would see easy to use packages more or less from day one.

but now the people have to work around attempts at locking from the companies as well as adapting existing software to new ui environments.