First public use

Hi Folks,
using my AAOne for the first time in public today, on a train journey.

Loads of sideways & over the shoulder looks.

Can't really give a true appraisal of the battery life as I didn't fully charge it before leaving. Had to plug it in after an hour & a bits use.

No one has asked about it yet, maybe because i haven't had my head up yet :lol:

Cheers
Dave

 

I travel a lot by airline, and also teach computer science and project management courses. I've probably sold a dozen AAOs...my students have gone crazy over it and every time I'm in a plane I'm asked about it and give a little demo. This usually happens after my seatmate hauls a giant Lenovo Thinkpad or Dell onto the tray and attempts to get into a position comfortable enough to actually use it...while I slip the AAO out of it's little case and 30 seconds later am working.

Perry
www.kidpub.com

 

Just wait till they ask you, and you tell them how much it costs.

Just wait, and be prepared to offer information on where to buy one.

You´ll see...

 

Sometimes I wish I had the 3-cell battery just whenever I'm showing it off, so it would weigh a little less and look a little more 'sleek'; but I love it nonetheless. I haven't shown it to many people yet, mostly just a couple friends. So far I've had 3 people love it, one neutral, and one of them hates it so much he didn't even bother to ask about it when I finally bought it and brought it over. I think it's mostly jealousy because he paid more for his used laptop that weighs twice as much, gets maybe 2 hours on a charge, and generally... isn't any more powerful :lol: Other than work, I've yet to take it into public; but let me tell you, I'd be a whole lot less likely to take a full sized laptop in public than the AAO...

 

i think that using the default Linpus will give the maximum battery life. For the first time I use this computer in a coffee shop, the couple setting next to me ask me about the price and if i feel good about it. When I use the computer in the classroom, all my classmate were gone crazy, seems that they have never saw a notebook computer in the past. Then I understand why every company wants to have a part in the netbook market!

 

Well the AAO was my second ultraportable. I say ultraportable because that's what it is! I have no idea who thought up the whole "Netbook" name, probably some crazy marketing person. But that's just dumb. Now if my AAO was a linpus, I could understand the name convention more. But mine is XP with the HDD, so therefore it's identical to my old rig, a Fujitsu P1120 (although I no longer have touchscreen.) The performance of this unit is so much better than the p1120 that it's plain ridiculous. Of course that machine had 256MB ram, a 800MHz cpu, and only 30 GB storage with a wifi "B" card. I used that machine in public all the time, and got TONS of looks and questions. The only REAL difference is the price of that machine vs. the AAO: The p1120 was $1100 ON SALE and was already way out of date at the time of purchase!! I sold that machine on ebay a year ago for $500!
Compare that to the $313 I paid with an employee discount for the AAO... :shock:
Now the AAO is also with me often, and I bring it to work to play and do productive things on breaks. EVERYONE who sees the machine (even though we carry it in store) does a double take and exclaims how small and "cool" it is. I tend to agree! The fujitsu was SLIGHTLY smaller, but that's not a big deal. Both have a 8.9" LCD.
I plan to add touchscreen to it some day, along with BT and maybe some other stuff. For now I'm just happy I got rid of my "boat anchor" 15 1/2" laptop to buy this one. And many people who have seen it and find out what I paid are now saving, or buying one for themselves. :!:

 

I've had about 3 to 3.5 hours battery life while surfing. I often get comments like, "AWWWWW How adorable!" or "OH MY IT'S SO CUTE CAN I HOLD IT?!"

 

Yes but what about the computer?

Perry
www.kidpub.com

 

Haha I said in my first sentence that it has lasted me about 3-3.5 hours while surfing. I haven't tried much else. It is pretty awesome to use at a cafe table because it's tiny and takes up hardly any space. I recently went to a KFC and a lady asked me what 'that' was. "Is that a dvd player? OMG look Sharon it's a computer! IS that a computer? OMGOSH it's a computer! How much did it cost?"

 

I have only had one person say they do not like it, but they had been loaned an EEE while their laptop was getting fixed, so were against it as they thought the EEE was too sluggish, well it was running XP.

Had another EEE owner take one look and go and buy an AAO that afternoon. The best bit about using one in public is when you can upstage other people with laptops showing off the effects in Vista. I use ubuntu and am still amazed that compiz will run exceptionally well on this thing. I also bought a nine cell battery, and when they ask how long it lasts they choke when you say about 9 hours (I do not mention the original battery )

 

I had my AAO about a month before it's first public use. Got the Best Buy sapphire blue, WinXP, 1GB RAM, 120GB HD model. Had my fingers crossed that I wasn't going to lose my wifi card, as that had become a problem after the first week of use. Got to a newly opened Starbucks, reserved a tiny amount of space on my table for it, had my coffee all set, cranked it up... guess what??? No WiFi yet at this Starbucks! So I had my coffee, used my cellphone, AAO went into Standby... and guess what??? It never turned on again after that. That was the end of September. I was so disappointed with it that I chucked it in a corner until this week that I called Acer. They ran me through some power cycle 'magical' routines that did nothing. They told me to take it back to Best Buy as they are an authorized service center. Did that. They don't service them. They send them back to Acer. And quoted 5 weeks turnaround time. Acer quoted me 5-10 days. So I sent it back to Acer myself. Hoping to have it back for Christmas vacation. Lookin at the HP Mini 1000.