Majic

Ok, I must say that my first impression weren't too great about this little thing, but the day after I've found myself sitting in front of my desktop computer, staring at the monitor.

There's no amount of words that can describe the disappointment I feel right now about this device. This device is, simply said, complete crap. After relatively mild comments on the quality of the device, I must admit that now I feel the device is pure crap. It's incredible that a start-up company, which is trying to compete on a market which is playing field for giants now, can afford to create this kind of device for such a big price-tag.

But what worries me the most is the fact that software doesn't feel like beta at all... Or at least I have a bit too high standards for beta. To me, beta is something that works for the most part except with some nasty glitches. But all the functionality and usability should be there. You should at least see the final form the device will have. The software (and I'm talking primarily about the AIOS here, the custom-tailored distro based on Angstrom by the AI themselves) feels completely out of place. For something that's supposed to be primarily a tablet used with fingers, the distro has more of a desktop feeling to it. Sure, you <em>can</em> switch over to the full-screen scroll-like interface, but the result? It simply cannot be used properly. It is choppy, slow, and seems to start applications more often than scrolling (if you intended to scroll). Now, I understand that eye candy consumes CPU cycles. But <em>why</em>, oh <em>why</em> make such an interface in the first place then? Why not start with something <em>simple</em>, but elegant and usable, with the ability to expand it with eye candy later on when it becomes more stable? It's not like this first version will be used by your standard eye-candy iNfested users anyway...

The device itself is populated with three possible distros. One of them, as mentioned earlier, is the AIOS, followed by Ubuntu and Android (which is marked as beta). Android feels pretty much useless, so I'll completely skip reviewing it at all...

To be honest, Ubuntu probably felt the best on this device, and that doesn't mean much. It comes with an Xfce desktop (a decent choice for low-end devices), and it's probably the least tailored for a tablet device. Still, it looks a bit more polished, and the good thing is at least you have a big enough repo to use with it.

In the end, what's the result of this little adventure of mine? The result is that, after fiasco with Neo Freerunner (which, to be honest, is still a much better device than this one) as well, I will <em>never</em>, <em>ever</em> again going to buy something that's made by a start-up company. And I don't give a crap even if the company at hand is making a device that is Free (as in Freedom), or if it endorses freedom. I simply think the pure annoyance caused by a quarter-baked product is not worth it (let's exclude the monetary annoyance due to the price of such devices).