[svlug] First impressions of the Ben Nanonote

[Greg Holmberg]

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 09:10:20AM -0800, Richard Sharpe wrote:
> 
> I got my Ben Nanonote last week. ...  I am going to have some fun
> rebuilding OpenWRT and adding packages etc. ...
>

Cool! Thanks for mentioning this machine, Richard!

The picture on the Qi-Hardware website shows it next to something small -- the
battery? I thought the laptop-looking thing was a standard ThinkPad, and that
the NanoNote was a little tiny box, like a Sheeva, or some microscopic 0.01U
server.

Actually, the NanoNote looks like a tiny, tiny laptop.

  http://sharism.cc/gallery/

It looks like the little rectangle I imagined to be the computer
is a removable cell-phone style lithium battery.


There is probably still a lot of room to shape the system, for those
inclined.

  http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ben_NanoNote#Software


Sharism has the specs, which I couldn't quickly find on the Qi web site.
  
  http://sharism.cc/specs/
  
  * 336 MHz XBurst Jz4720 MIPS-compatible CPU
  * display: 3.0” color TFT
  * resolution: 320 x 240, 16.7M color
  * dimension (mm): 99 x 75 x 17.5 (lid closed)
  * weight: 126 g (incl. battery)
  * DRAM: 32MB Synchronous DRAM
  * headphone jack (3.5 mm)
  * SDHC microSD
  * 850mAh Li-ion battery
  * 2GB NAND flash memory
  * mini-USB: USB 2.0 High-Speed Device
  * speaker and microphone
  * full qwerty keyboard

A headphone jack! It's like an iPod with a keyboard.

  
  本: běn. The Chinese character 本 signifies an origin or the beginning place; It signifies exactly what the first version of the NanoNote is: a beginning.
  
  The 本 version of NanoNote is an ultra small form factor computing device.

  The device sports a 336 MHz processor, 2GB of flash memory,
  microSD slot, head phone jack, USB device and 850mAh Li-ion
  battery. It boots Linux out of the box and also boots over USB.

  It’s targeted squarely at developers who see the
  promise of open hardware and want to roll their own end user
  experience. It’s the perfect companion for open
  content; we envision developers turning the device into a
  music or video player for Ogg or an offline Wikipedia or MIT
  OpenCourseWare appliance. Or you can simply amaze your friends
  by creating an ultra small handheld notebook computer. You
  choose the distribution.

  The 本 Nanonote is the first in a line of products
  that will see the addition of other hardware capabilities. Get
  your NanoNote and start a Nanoproject today. Or join one of
  the existing projects in our developer community.


I think I want one. :)

Best regards,

Greg