Low end Multi User game for the eee Market?

Here is a photo gallery of Battlefield Heroes that we obtained directly from EA. I you have missed this last week, the upcoming ad-supported game won’t be available until this summer but the idea is that BFH is more of a casual game that will work on low-end machines with entry-level graphics processors (GPUs), which increases the potential number of players by a lot.

It will be interesting to see what kind of money EA will make from this title, compared to higher profile games like Crysis that sold (only) less than 100k units (because only a few of us have a system that can run the game decently?). Hardware vendors usually support graphics heavy titles – because they sell hardware and they are great demos of things to come. I wonder what would happen if Battlefield Heroes was bringing loads of money all the sudden – would studios turn their focus on this genre?

Related article: Why Are PC Manufacturers so Afraid of the Asus Eee?

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Ubuntu Mobile

while using eee PC and debating its usefulness

the more i think about it, the more that its apparant there is a true market for this middle market.
a free , light weight OS and suite of app is important to make this possible
this is a interesting development..

actually, come to think of it, a Light weight version of XP would work..

http://www.ubuntu.com/products/mobile

Just the right stuff

Ubuntu Mobile just works, and it works just right.

Just the right applications provide an uncompromised Web 2.0 experience: Web browsing, email, media, camera, VoIP, instant messaging, GPS, blogging, digital TV, games, contacts, dates/calendar, simple software updates... and lots more.

All unnecessary complexity in the user experience is eliminated.

Finger friendly, touch driven

Ubuntu Mobile is finger friendly, with no stylus needed. You drive Ubuntu Mobile with touch. Simply tap the screen or drag a finger to make gestures for intuitive navigation and control.

• Tap an application with your finger to launch it, and tap menus and buttons to use them.
• Swipe a web page to pan up, down or sideways.
• Swipe a video, photo, song or thumbnail page to move to the next or the previous one.

Leveraging the MID

MIDs typically have the following features and attributes:

• Small size/form factor
• 4 to 7 inch touch screen
• Physical and/or virtual keyboard
• Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, WiMAX
• 2GB to 8GB Flash or disk storage, 256MB+ memory/512MB+ recommended
• OpenGL 3D
• USB, camera, head phone jack, speakers, microphone

Customizable

Clutter User Interface

Flash User Interface

Ubuntu Mobile is highly flexible and customizable. It is an ideal platform for the kind of product differentiation that reaches target users and penetrates key markets.

• User interface in HTML, Flash, Clutter, Python with GTK, C/C++ with GTK and Java
• Different application sets for different products or configurations
• Integration with popular Web 2.0 sites
• Internationalization and translation support to meet market requirements
• Custom sets of licensed media codecs and third-party proprietary software for commercial partners
• Custom engineering

OEMs, ODMs, operators and developers can customize Ubuntu Mobile to their desired look and feel and offer just the right capabilities to meet their specific requirements. Canonical can assist through its Custom Engineering program.
For information about Canonical custom engineering services, email mobile@canonical.com.

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eee PC and Slingbox (instruction for installing SlingPlayer on eee PC)

has been searching for a way to Run SlingPlayer on the eeePC for sometime


since Sling does not have Linux client (never announced one)
and i still want to keep my eeePC Linux..
havent got much luck before now.

thks to people at SlingCommunity


there is a solution.
I figure i will change it a bit to focus on the eee installation for less techie ppl


Running Wine over Linux

I have to confess I had not been having much luck running Wine (Windows emulator on Linux) on the eee
but this installer script works out fine:

http://www.slingcommunity.com/download/27234/Slingplayer-LINUX-US-1.03b/

with the newest version Wine

these are the steps:

go here: http://www.winehq.org/site/download-deb with Firefox on the eee

Open terminal or console
run this (copy and paste it in)

sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/etch.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

then this

sudo apt-get update

then this

sudo apt-get install wine

it will take 3-5 min to download and install the newest version of Wine



Install the SlingPlayer
1. Download this zip file if not already done so

http://www.slingcommunity.com/download/27234/Slingplayer-LINUX-US-1.03b/

2. extract the *.sh file from the archive

3. ensure the file has executable permission (right click go to properties, select permissions and tick the can execute checkbox)

4. open a terminal ... (shortcut is normally ctrl+t - but you should be able to find it in your applications shortcut menu)

5. drag the extracted *.sh file into the terminal

6.) hit enter and follow the onscreen instructions to install. (it will take 3-5 min to download)

run the SlingPlayer application

works well over wireless



and also full screen,
i'd set the Slingplayer Optimization setting to Low CPU
works fine, Sync voice and lip well

now, the final step is to create a icon to launch the SlingPlayer easily
Voila!!


Lifestyle App
Bringing Sling to the eeePC will greatly enhance the eeePC usage on the road
the 7" screen is obviously much better than my Nokia N95
and the CPU/RAM of the eeePC handles it well.
its a perfect fit!
 
hope u find this useful,
the credit of the install script goes to andyBBB at slingcommunity,
way to go!




Technorati Tags: eeePC,, Sling,, Mobile,, Lifestyle,, Slingmedia,, SlingPlayer,, Linux,, Wine

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Sony Vaio vs Asus eeePC

from Engadget

So at Sony's Open House we were having lunch with Mike Abary, Sony's US SVP of Information Technology Products Division, who oversees Vaio computers (among numerous other things). Of course, the inevitable question came up about the Eee PC's success thus far, and what that means to computer companies on the higher end of the spectrum, like Sony. Mike's response was a little surprising, but certainly sensible enough: if consumer expectations begins to weigh too heavily toward the $300 end of PCs, he believes that kind of consumer adoption would have a profoundly negative impact on the industry, referring to its effect as "a race to the bottom."

We know there are a lot of Eee fans in the house, but the man makes sense. Sony isn't trashing ultra-cheap machines so much as recognizing that it's hard to push things forward when your primary objective becomes making the very cheapest possible machine you can (and not very best). Innovation is hard enough to subsidize, but when your already thin margins flatten even further in trying to sell ultra-cheap machines, it's easy to see the economics working against tech companies. (Asus has less to worry about here because its primary business is making PCs for other companies.) Of course, the reality is that ultra-cheap machines probably won't soon envelop the lion's share of computer sales and threaten what most think of as "real" PCs, so we probably don't have to worry about the industry bottoming out because of the Eee. False advertising and abusive trialware, however, are different stories entirely.

 

Permalink | from Engadget

ER: my take is that while its understandable for Sony to say such things about eeePC,

its the change of Consumer PC market

1. Its our 2nd PC: we all have at least one Primary PC already, likely 2, one in Office and one at home
2. We all had Too much power.  Let's face it, we all had more CPU power than we need.  I don't see any reasoning for anyone to invest in Quad-CPU for ordinary Word type app
3. Wireless world: the need for something between office and home, or short travels.
• Most people are getting a Smartphone or Blackberry for when you are not in the office
• I use a iPhone and the IMAP mail works fine for me
• however, there are times when i need to sit down to do a bit more than a iphone can handle
4. Some Simple task like below that fits a eeePC use well:
1. to change a PPT before a presentation,
   
2. do some simple if-then on a Spreadsheet model,
   
3. Review a contract
   
4. watch a movie on a plane,
   
5. Sling at Starbucks, (yes, Sling on eeePC Linux is ready, more on it in another blog)
   
6. Write a Blog Flocking around
7. do a decent Search on Solving a Problem

Now, my eeePC is in the Car all the time.
in between meetings, i can do some of the above easily at a Shopping Center.
Wifi at McDonald or using USB Smartone-Vofafone's HSDPA

at Home, i had a Vaio or Macbook with enough power to handle my HD editing..
which i had no intention to do at Starbucks..

I don't think any Sony Vaio that's on the market fits this category well.

• the UX screen is not a lot larger than my iPhone
• the thin TZ is not small itself, and cost 4 times the eeePC
  

The advantage of eeePC:

• Cost + Size, the price feels cheap and Size is small = i feel comfortable throwing it around
  
• All-in-one, Linux+OpenOffice+some simple free software
• Power works ok for a few hours work
• Powerful enough for all the task i need on the road
• Small enough to carry but large enough for PPT, Excel editing
  

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Technorati Tags: eee,, eeePC,, eee, PC., Sony,, Vaio,, ASUS,, UMPC

Journey w eee

i'd been having fun with my eeePC since last nov, a few weeks after its been out.

and it fits in my lifestyle well as a 2nd PC.



right above my iPhone and below the Macbook.



its also my first Linux desktop device.



I'd decided to keep it linux (in advanced mode)

and it works fine on most of my works.