How come every post has become negative?

[Guest]

[Picasso]

fixup,

you also thought the nokia n810 ran windows........


Sorry had to jump in since this topic has gone to the shitter anyways

[fixup]

When and where did I ever say that? The N810 has always been a crap to me. I said that the M528 run Windows. Some members here thought the M528 was the same class of N810; I defended and told them the N810 was crap and the M528 do run Windows XP.

[Picasso]

May 15, 2008 ... Quote from: fixup on Today at 10:55:04 AM. No, the N810 is garbage, its hardware is only Windows Mobile compatible.

[fixup]

You meant that one? "Windows Mobile" and "Windows" are totally different classes. When people say "Windows", they don't mean Windows Mobile but usually just Windows (XP) PC. When people say "Windows Mobile", they never include Windows (XP) PC. It is very clear, nobody cofuses with that except you.

[Picasso]

Ha well I should not have said anything. But just fyi i lump all "windows" be it mobile or xp or what not as "windows" sorry i didnt bust it out for. But again the point of my first comment was you think the n810 runs windows mobile. Hows that?

[fixup]

In that specific post, I was defending to those who said the M528 is the same class of N810. The M528 does have an Intel Atom CPU with the hardware that can run a full Windows XP. The N810 only has a TI CPU that cannot run XP but Windows Mobile type OS (including embedded Linux). N810 should be able to run Windows Mobile OS but never XP.

[JCC]

In that specific post, I was defending to those who said the M528 is the same class of N810. The M528 does have an Intel Atom CPU with the hardware that can run a full Windows XP. The N810 only has a TI CPU that cannot run XP but Windows Mobile type OS (including embedded Linux). N810 should be able to run Windows Mobile OS but never XP.

You're right, but I don't see how it matters. They can also both run Linux. In fact, the OS they both come with pre-installed is Linux. That Windows Mobile isn't available for x86 and XP isn't available for ARM makes the comparison of what OS those two devices can run not meaningful. Also, no one has explained why devices based different microprocessor families can't be targeted at the same market. It seems to me that they can. Intel's strategy with Atom seems predicated on the notion that they can. Gigabyte would love to sell the M528 to people who'd otherwise buy an N810.

In any case, in the context of that discussion, people were saying that the M528 had features more akin to the N810 than to a conventional laptop.

[Jethro]

I have read every commentary in this thread.
I previously owned an OQO 01.
At that time, this same blog had many rma issues.
I took the risk and purchased one despite that fact.
I was pleased but not very pleased.
It REALLY needed a docking station and DVD, and some of my peripherals would not work with USB 1.0.
So, I sold it waiting for the 02.
I was thinking of finally purchasing the 02.
To help in my decision, I decided to come back to my "old haunt" Handtops and found this OQO talk blog with familiar names like Picasso.
I came to see what luck the current owners have.
What I have read is scary. I really love the OQO format.
I enjoyed being able to run my "real" software and not that condensed stuff on a pocket pc.
I have a notebook at home and a company issued notebook at work.
With file sync software and 2 docking stations...my data can always be up to date on the OQO and the battery ready for "grab, stuff in pocket, and go".
So...should I take the jump or wait longer?

[jptherrien]

For me OQO is pretty much a US-centric boutique shop like Alienware is, so if you are in the US, you should be fine. Otherwise it's up to you to see whether or not you can live with the risk of having your unit break down (perhaps many times) with a 30 or 40 days turnaround.

Aside from the reliability issue, the current unit is overall good as far as I'm concerned, but it's a bit noisy and CPU-limited, as a crappy integrated GPU (for video decoding), is plagued by the CPU spiking of oqomanager.exe (perhaps this will be fixed on day) and the lack of a C6 power state; as battery drain is significant in standby mode.

To be honest if a big name like Sony, Toshiba or whatever comes up with a MID close to the 02/E2 in format/size/weight with a usable keyboard and integrated HSDPA, I'm jumping ship. They will most probably be much more reliable than the OQO and these companies will offer the level (and quality) of support that European customers expect. I mean it's only the largest economy on Earth after all, so they can't really expect to f*uck this up and get away with it.

Quality of support is what separates the professionals from the amateurs.

[JCC]

Jethro, I believe the appropriate cliché to trot out here is "the plural of anecdote is not data." It's not as if all OQO owners post to OQOTalk about the state of their machines. The vast majority of OQO users probably don't even know about OQOTalk. (Don't forget, the bread and butter of OQO sales is likely to be corporations with vertically integrated applications. And, according to the forum's key stats box there are only 1112 OQOTalk members. Not all members are owners.) Also, human nature is such that we are only ever really motivated to talk about outliers, and such that we tend to replay conversations.

So, all we know is that there are people who've had to endure multiple RMAs to get a working machine, that service within the US sometimes is swift enough to merit praise, and that service outside the US sometimes is slow enough to merit complaint. What we can't know based on anecdote is how often any of these things happen. I note that the poll for the amount of time to turn around international repairs has a grand total of 16 votes. This can not possibly be statistically significant. If there were so few OQOs sold that that this was a statistically significant sample, the company would have been out of business by now. If there's even a conclusion to draw here it might be that there aren't enough non-American owners who needed to send their OQOs back to the company to assess meaningfully their international repair service. (This, oddly, may speak well for their reliability.) More likely, there just aren't enough non-American owners on OQOTalk, period.

(Having said that, I do expect that OQO's service outside the US to be worse than their service inside the US. Large companies have sites all over the world. I doubt that's the case with OQO.)

As for when you should buy, obviously, no one can really answer that except for you. I guess a question you could ask yourself is, "What advantage will I receive from waiting?" We all assume there will be a model 03, but it's not like there's a release date. A bunch of Intel Atom based device will hit the market this quarter or next quarter. They may or may not be what you want. However, that most of them will come with Linux preinstalled makes me think that they're not primarily targeted at the niche that OQO targets itself at. (Of course, there's nothing to stop you from installing XP/Vista on them. Using the device in an unsupported configuration is probably not a big deal. Don't forget to account for the cost of XP/Vista though.) However, if the OQO does what you want it to do, and you think the price is right (and it's currently on sale until the end of June), buying it is not a bad idea. When something better comes along (and something better always comes along), you'll at least have the satisfaction of buying something which does what you want it to do at a price you're happy with.

As for me, I rented an OQO from buildyourumpc for a week. The experience was just fine. Recharging it every night was no big deal. It has a very fluid and satisfying user experience. Performance was just good enough for anything I'd reasonably do with a pocketable PC. For those applications, I used the OQO with no compromise. (I also tried a few unreasonable applications like Propellerhead's Reason and Ableton Live just for grins. The latter actually runs surprisingly well. I suspect one could actually dummy up a scratch track with the OQO. You'd probably want to use something more powerful to do the final version.) I honestly don't think the fan is that big a deal. It was no louder than any of my co-workers' laptops. For what I'd actually do with an OQO during meetings, the fan doesn't even come on at all. (Basically, this means you shouldn't watch a YouTube video during a meeting.)

However, the model I tried out costs about $2000. For that price, I was hoping for a little more than simple competence, especially since I wouldn't be able to replace it any time soon. (I need to do inking, not to mention Chinese handwriting recognition, so the $999 model isn't a good fit for me.) However, if I actually had an urgent need for a pocketable PC, I'd have bought it in a heartbeat. For now, my Moleskine notebook will have to do.

jptherrien, Sony already has a device near the 02/E2 format/size/weight, the VIAO UX. However, if the OQO is just on one side of pocketability, the UX may be just on the other. There is at least one website though which claims that although it's larger that due to its rounded features, it's actually more pocketable than a 01+ (which is slightly smaller than the 02). However, Sony already has the UX, and with ample opportunities to play with its form factor, it hasn't. It seems unlikely that Sony will either suddenly do that or come out with another somewhat smaller product. But the VIAO UX might fit your needs.

Toshiba demonstrated at CES and CeBIT an 02/E2 sized prototype which runs Vista. The CES initial reports were that it ran Vista slowly. It also doesn't have a keyboard.

As for oqomanager, fixup has a set of scripts to manage wireless connections which works for him. Perhaps they might work for you.

A better GPU and a C6 state will obviously have to wait for some yet to be released product. (I believe fixup uses hibernate to compensate for the lack of C6. This obviously makes waking up take longer. Then again, so does C6, but hopefully not as long as hibernate.)

[yashin]

Thanks JCC and Jethro for your comments on this.  I am still dithering about whether to buy now or wait.....  I can spend now-but the OQO is at the high end of a device and i want to be sure its worth it. I have played around with it in the shop and love it.....i just don't want to get my fingers burnt.  I am living outside the US-in Asia and so i have been worried about the repair posts.


I enjoyed reading all these comments and i am learning lots about computers.  Its great site.

[fixup]

After all the tweaks (see my that thread), I'm very happy with my oqo 02. Now I'm going to hack the DC connector and make my own external power, then I'll be done with it. Or just get another standard battery and an external charger as now I always use hibernation that's easy for battery swap.

[bristolview]

JCC is correct, there are many users who are quite happy with their OQO's, and many like myself that the machine has let down repeatedly.  It is hard to tell actual numbers, but i am fairly confident that reliability is much lower than other notebooks, certainly not on par with business class machines.  on a positive note, I have been consistently favorable to the form factor and usefulness of the machine.  That aspect is great, when it works.  I was under the impression it had an active digitizer, and that I would be able to use the Tablet features like I do on my LS800 and X61, but that is not the case.  Between the wacom driver stopping, the tablet driver stopping working, I more often than not... have no tablet functionality; which was the major reason for me to choose the OQO.

For many, they are having fine luck wit their machines.  Since getting mine, I have met two others who have them too, we run into each other at a local coffee shop from time to time.  BOTH of them have the same wacom and tablet driver issues that I do.  This points to me that at least some of the issues are inherent in the design, and not just luck of the draw.  BOTH have also had the keyboard stop working just like me.  BOTH have issues with WiFi just dropping connections frequently, just like me.  (Someone else here posted about that issue, and up until recently, I did not have that one... but now I do).  One has a keyboard that has no backlight, and the other has audio comingfrom the OQO regardless of plugging in his headphones.  The last couple of issues are inconsistent between our machines, but the beinning list is very consistent between them; a design issue. 

...and right now, I again have no tablet functionality.  My OQO is in this state more often than it is available.  I have NEVER seen the wacom or tablet drivers stopp working on my LS800 or X61, why is it so difficult on the OQO.  And yes, it did this right out of the box as shipped from OQO; tablet driver stopped on my first boot.  Now come on.

If the reliability issues could be addressed, the unit would be fantastic.  As it is though, one must be prepared for dealing with a substandard experience. 

[fixup]

If you have keyboard, mouse, tablet issues, you may try to remove oqomanager.exe, oqo services and oqo ps/2 mouse driver. I'm not using any oqo stuff and have no any trouble so far (I run XP though).

[Jethro]

I want to thank JCC, jptherrien, yashin, fixup, and bristolview for your words of encouragement, insight, and caution.