Out of the box, this machine does NOT lok like the picture on the box, which is pretty lucky as the one on the box doesn't have a touchpad...
The theme(icons/background) is also different from what is available on the machine.
There's another reason the manuacturer should change the box, too; they've used the Apple iChat icon rather prominently...
The box itself is sturdy, and the padding is solid, so there's very little danger of anything damaging the machine, unless somenoe drives over the box.
The machine looks nice, with shiny, black plastic on top of the lid, but that won't last as all owners of black MacBooks or iPods can tell. Fingerprints shows up immediately. Will still look nice on a desk, though.
The PSU is the size of an older Nokia cell-phone charger, and might be mistaken for it unless you're careful.(The plug is thicker than on modern Nokias) and is rated at 9V/400mA
It should therefore be possible to run this of a cheap 'cigarette lighter' type adapter as long as it's a 'regulated' model with adjustable voltage settings.
Plugged in power and let it sit for a little while.
Used the wait to remove the screws on a cover underneath to look at the battery. It's 2100mAH/7.4V, and probably Li-ion. Because of screws and a fiddly cable/conector it's not worth the bother to have two batteries for 'extended periods' away from power.
Underneath there's a sticker with his text:
Important Notice! Please read before using!
* Unit uses Linux 2.4 platform, as this isn't an Intel CPU, you
cannot download and install other applications / games from
the internet that re not specifically written for this machine.
* Always reset unit first if you experience any and difficulty.
* To reset unit, press the reset button underneath the unit. Then
power on again.
* Closing he lid does NOT turn unit off or hibernate unit, and
will therefore consume battery power unless you turn unit off.
* Always save your data regularly.
* Supports data files up to 8MB.
* Battery life will be affected by Wi-fi and running applications.
* Battery charging time is about 4.5 - 5H.
* Working time with Wi-fi is 2.5-3h. Working time without Wi-fi is 3-4h.
Nice to know.
What wasn't as nice was the transparent sticker WITH THE SAME TEXT glued to the LCD. And yes, it was glue, not just those clingy foils often used as screen protectors.
Time to switch it on..
It took a few moments before it reacted to the power switch, but booting was reasonably fast.
I would now normally advice everyone to read the manual before progressing, but it's not that much of a manual.
In fact there are TWO included on a CD, one is a BIG MS Word file, which gives some pointers as to how to use the installed programs, and also a few .html files.
The .html files contains the most useful info and also most frustrating...
According to that, you can press F3 during boot, to get into a 'System recovery' menu, but as the image file needed to actually DO the recover was absent from my CD, all I can use it for is to check the status of the FLASH drive, something which is over in the blink of an eye.
Customizing it consists of clicking twice on the arrow pointing to the right(at the bottom of the screen), then setting the clock and owner information.
Then it's time to try out the Wi-fi...
You slot in the Wi-fi dongle in one of the three USB-ports
(One in the rear, two at the righthand side)
A small icon with an antenna should appear at the bottom of the screen, next to the power icon.
Click on the WiFi icon to start the connection program.
It'll take a few second to scan for networks, then you'll be presented with a list.
What you do now depends on your network, but if you're security-conscious and use WPA encryption you're up the creek as it seems this unit only supports WEP.
It is possible to set it up to connect automatically to certain networks, but I haven't tried that, yet. Also, you'll notice that there's not always that much difference between active and inactive buttons.
The browser 'Bon Echo v2.0.0.1 as it's called is in reality FireFox, so runs pretty OK.
Sometimes a bit slow on rendering, but as someone who has tried Opera 4.15 or even Web 2.0 on the old Psion netBook, it's more than good enough for portable browsing.
It will not display YouTube videos, though, but as this is FireFox, it's the work of a moment or two to download an add-on.
That brings us to a little trap...
To download add-ons, use the Tools menu, in the browser.
In the dialog you have a link 'Get Extensions' which you have to click ONLY ONCE to open a new tab(yayyy! tabbed browsing) with the official download page, then minimize the dialog with the '-' button in the upper righthand corner.
The first time I tried to download add-ons I clickd, didn't see anything happening, and after a little while clicked again... and again... When I closed the dialog I had at least 10 tabs open, busy downloading that page...
Media player.
This is he Xine player and while the Alpha-400 manual doesn't list it, it WILL play the .flc files you get when downloading from YouTube.
Calendar...
Every Psioneer like me (and many Palm owners also) will invariably ask 'How god is the Agenda program?'
It's both good and bad...
I can't find any About page, or other hints to the creators, maybe someone can recognise it?
Anyway, it offers Day, Week, Month and Agenda views, of which the last is just a list of the next tasks.
It does NOT have any alarm functions, and it will not let you attach notes to any appointmens, either. (That was very nicely done on the EPOC range of Psions)
What it will do, though, is allow you to define appointments that spans several days, and may be repetitive.
When repeating, you can specify as 'Forever', a number of repeats, or 'until when'.
As for intervals, you have Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Yearly.
Select Weekly and you get to specify how many weeks between occurences, and also which weekdays.
Monthly lets you specify how many months between offucrenses, and day..
In fact you get a drop-down 'Every' with the choice of First, Second, Third, Fourth, Last, and Second to Last. In addition you get a drop-down with weekdays.
It is then very easy to set it to occur 'Every Second Tuesday' in the month. And THAT brings us to the next surprise. As soon as you've selected the day, you GET ANOTHER LINE with the same possibilities. So the same appoinment can also be on 'Every Third Thursday' and then another line... Maybe 'Last Friday' this time...
Not certain how many lins can be added to a single appointment.
Daily and Yearly appointments doesn't seem to have anything special, though.
It also produces(and probably also reads) .ISC iCalendar files which can be imported into other Agenda-type programs.
Entries are sorted into 'Calendars' and it seems you can have more than one. They're all stored in the same file(hidden somewhere on the FLASH disk it seems).
There's no sign of any 'ToDo' functionality, though, which is a real downer.
There's no Contacts or generic database application on the machine. Maybe the spreadsheet can be used?
More about the HW...
The battery seems to last 2.5H when 'powersurfing'(downloading and surfing at the same time, using multiple tabs... )
It doesn't seem to have any automatic hibernation system.
Also, I have been unable to put it to sleep with the 'Sleep' key.
A few other keys also sems to be non-functional, like the one with the picture of the pop-up menu you get when you right-click inside a document, the 'PrtScr / SysRw' key, and a few others.
There is ONE key combination you MUST avoid at all costs, though; the [Fn] + [F5].
The [F5] key has a picture such as those used to switch between internal and external screens on laptops, and will black out the screen and make the unit unresponsive.
The screen seems OK in daylight, but I still don't know how it behaves in direct sunlight...
