Re: [SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks

[CaT]

On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 10:41:10AM +1000, Terry Dawson wrote:
> I've had the Pro(s) now for a few weeks and we routinely get about 3.5  
> hours of solid use out of them.

This, despite the crampted keyboard, is why I'm happy with the Asus
EEE 901. I get 6-7 hours under debian, with wifi. =) It means I can go
into the back yard in the morning and not exit until the sun goes down. :)

Joyous. :)

The shame is, they're not longer making them. 8(

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Re: [SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks

[Dean Hamstead]

sounds like slug should arrange some kick backs

Dean

Marghanita da Cruz wrote:

Thanks Terry,

Your initial response prompted a whole lot of discussion,
and a few purchases.

Marghanita
Terry Dawson wrote:


(sorry, this one got lost too!)

Marghanita da Cruz wrote:

However,  I would like to know what ports are available and
whether Wifi is built in (as is the case with eeePC). Though,
I don't expect firewire - which my current laptop meets.


Wifi is built in. Bluetooth is not.
There are two (three?) USB 2.0 ports.
One 100Mbps ethernet port.


I have also heard reports about issues with the fan.


We've not experienced any fan issues.


Have you used an external DVD/CD burner or other external
storage?


Yes, I've used both external USB hard disk and I installed the Ubuntu 
Netbook respin on mine from an external USB DVD drive without issue.



I assume it has no problems with USB drives/cameras/phones?


I've not tried any of those with it, other than my HTC G1 phone, which 
works as expected.


Terry


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Re: [SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Thanks Terry,

Your initial response prompted a whole lot of discussion,
and a few purchases.

Marghanita
Terry Dawson wrote:


(sorry, this one got lost too!)

Marghanita da Cruz wrote:

However,  I would like to know what ports are available and
whether Wifi is built in (as is the case with eeePC). Though,
I don't expect firewire - which my current laptop meets.


Wifi is built in. Bluetooth is not.
There are two (three?) USB 2.0 ports.
One 100Mbps ethernet port.


I have also heard reports about issues with the fan.


We've not experienced any fan issues.


Have you used an external DVD/CD burner or other external
storage?


Yes, I've used both external USB hard disk and I installed the Ubuntu 
Netbook respin on mine from an external USB DVD drive without issue.



I assume it has no problems with USB drives/cameras/phones?


I've not tried any of those with it, other than my HTC G1 phone, which 
works as expected.


Terry

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Re: [SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks

[Terry Dawson]

(sorry, this one got lost too!)

Marghanita da Cruz wrote:

However,  I would like to know what ports are available and
whether Wifi is built in (as is the case with eeePC). Though,
I don't expect firewire - which my current laptop meets.


Wifi is built in. Bluetooth is not.
There are two (three?) USB 2.0 ports.
One 100Mbps ethernet port.


I have also heard reports about issues with the fan.


We've not experienced any fan issues.


Have you used an external DVD/CD burner or other external
storage?


Yes, I've used both external USB hard disk and I installed the Ubuntu 
Netbook respin on mine from an external USB DVD drive without issue.



I assume it has no problems with USB drives/cameras/phones?


I've not tried any of those with it, other than my HTC G1 phone, which 
works as expected.


Terry
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Re: [SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks

[Terry Dawson]

Dean Hamstead wrote:

How does battery life fare?


damn. For some reason my procmail has filed this whole thread into a new 
folder which my IMAP client was not subscribed to read, so I've missed it!


grr.

I've had the Pro(s) now for a few weeks and we routinely get about 3.5 
hours of solid use out of them.


These things are good enough that my Sony Vaio, which cost more than 
five times as much, has been relegated to replacing a desktop machine.


Terry

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Re: Motorolla U9 was Re: [SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks, getting OT . .

[Kevin Shackleton]

On Tue, 2009-07-28 at 10:13 +1000, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
> I'm pretty happy with the correa reflexa here:
> 

That would be 'Correa reflexa' - binomial names are capitalised on the
genus and lowercase on the species, regardless of if the species is
derived from a person's name etc.  In this case the species name refers
to a curved-back form, perhaps the leaves.  'Correa' is named after Jose
Francisco Correa da Sera (1791-1823) who was Permanent Secretary to the
Royal Academy of Sciences in Lisbon [1].

On the web site both parts of the binomial names are capitalised.

There should be plenty of botanic resources to help you along with your
names, including those centred around major herbaria eg:
http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/
http://www.anbg.gov.au/databases/database-table.html

You'll find all sorts of useful information such as the meaning of
botanic names and correct spelling eg Indigifera: Latin indigo + fero,
to bear (two species are sources of the dye) [1].

Cheers,

Kevin

[1] F.A. Sharr "WA plant names and their meanings" UWAP 1978

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Motorolla U9 was Re: [SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Voytek Eymont wrote:

On Mon, July 27, 2009 9:56 am, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:


By the way, I have just bought a new motorolla U9 and was
pleasantly surprised at the plug and charge/play USB power/data
functionality. 


Marghanita,

fwiw, AFAIK, Motorola has been using USB power & data for a while, if not
longer, my last Motorola phone had miniUSB power/data, my 'new' Motorola
has microUSB. USB port on phone body is one my pre-reqs for a phone

can the camera on U9 focus?



It isn't just USB data - it pops up on the desktop as a USB disk drive!

Whereas, my 4 year old Canon Camcorder/still camera required the use of PTP Cam
software to access the photos. What is curious is the U9 comes with a windows
software disk! But it was just plug and play on my old Targa Laptop still
running Knoppix 5.1.

The Motorola U9 has a microUSB socket.which was slightly different to the
one on the MVP player (also discussed at above link). It is worth noting that
the chinese government has mandated USB power...and the europeans have also done
so, with a slight variation see


In bright light the photos are good, though it can be hard to see the screen.
The photo, of paddy's market, at the page above was the first one I ever took
with the camera. It also has upto 8x zoom and a few other camera functions which
I haven't checked out yet. It is a 2Megapixel camera.

If you would like to compare quality  (assuming all photographers are equal) see
the photos here ( bear in mind these were all done with hand held cameras (no
tripod) so, some of the fuzzyness comes from the photographer and for the close
ups the breeze also makes the subject move):

* Viki Alonso photos were taken with a SLR
*My July 2009 Photos were taken with my U9 (no zoom)
*Other photos on the page, were taken with my 5 year old Cannon camcorder/camera

I'm pretty happy with the correa reflexa here:


Marghanita
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Phone: (+61)0414 869202


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Re: [SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks

[Voytek Eymont]

On Mon, July 27, 2009 9:56 am, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:

> By the way, I have just bought a new motorolla U9 and was
> pleasantly surprised at the plug and charge/play USB power/data
> functionality. 

Marghanita,

fwiw, AFAIK, Motorola has been using USB power & data for a while, if not
longer, my last Motorola phone had miniUSB power/data, my 'new' Motorola
has microUSB. USB port on phone body is one my pre-reqs for a phone

can the camera on U9 focus?

-- 
Voytek

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Re: [SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Thanks Terry,

The research was prompted by a friend, who has since
decided to check out the offerings on the streets of Beijing,
before deciding.

However,  I would like to know what ports are available and
whether Wifi is built in (as is the case with eeePC). Though,
I don't expect firewire - which my current laptop meets.

I have also heard reports about issues with the fan.

Have you used an external DVD/CD burner or other external
storage?

I assume it has no problems with USB drives/cameras/phones?

By the way, I have just bought a new motorolla U9 and was
pleasantly surprised at the plug and charge/play USB power/data
functionality.


Marghanita


Terry Dawson wrote:

Marghanita da Cruz wrote:

Any thoughts on these?
Powering the Kogan Agora Netbook is gOS, a very aesthetically 
pleasing, powerful, intuitive, and fast operating system. Combined 
with the power and great value of our hardware, it brings you one 
step closer to cloud computing. gOS facilitates easy access to a 
number of Google? services as well as a host of easy to use, powerful 
open source programs.





Marghanita,

I realise you posted this message quite a while ago now, but I've 
recently purchased four of the Agora Pro Netbooks and if you're still 
considering purchase I thought you might be interested in my comments. 
In summary I'm really very happy with them.


They're surprisingly solidly built for a machine of their class. They 
feel well-built with no flimsiness and I suspect you'd have to try 
pretty hard to do any real physical damage to them.


The operating system has been well localised for Australia and is Ubuntu 
8.04 based. The 8.04 is a little out of date, but the update process is 
obvious and works as expected. It was almost disappointing to discover 
that I didn't need/want to do much after creating my login account to 
customise it; the setup is quite sensible. All I ended up doing was 
disabling the Google gadgets on the desktop because they're not to my 
taste and installing a few application package that I like to use.


I find the keyboard quite comfortable to use, with the possible 
exception of the '/' key being a little awkward to get to from some 
angles. The touchpad works well, but again, from some angles I find that 
my thumbs sometime accidentally stray onto it while I'm typing. I'm sure 
both of these problems will dissipate with time as I become more 
familiar with it.


Wireless/sound work as expected. Bluetooth, as you will know, manifests 
as a small USB dongle which I haven't yet tried, but suspect will work 
just fine.


The screen is quite pretty, with default fonts small but readable even 
for someone rapidly turning middle-aged and both short and far-sighted :)


Happy to field any particular questions you (or others) might have.

regards
Terry





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Phone: (+61)0414 869202


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Re: [SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks

[Ben]

Just got my Agora Pro today.

Putting on Ubuntu NBR as per:
http://agoranetbook.kayno.net/2009/04/25/installing-ubuntu-over-netboot/
be sure to read comments on blog / click next at top to get touchpad
and wifi working.

2009/7/23 Dean Hamstead :
> How does battery life fare?

>From reports I've read the battery life on the pro (6 cell) is really,
really good. The stats I saw were 3:17 under heavy load (HD movie
playing full screen max brightness).
I would assume using 3G or other wireless would have a significant impact.

Ben

> Dean
>
> Terry Dawson wrote:
>>
>> Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
>>>
>>> Any thoughts on these?

 Powering the Kogan Agora Netbook is gOS, a very aesthetically pleasing,
 powerful, intuitive, and fast operating system. Combined with the power and
 great value of our hardware, it brings you one step closer to cloud
 computing. gOS facilitates easy access to a number of Google™ services as
 well as a host of easy to use, powerful open source programs.
>>>
>>> 
>>> 
>>
>> Marghanita,
>>
>> I realise you posted this message quite a while ago now, but I've recently
>> purchased four of the Agora Pro Netbooks and if you're still considering
>> purchase I thought you might be interested in my comments. In summary I'm
>> really very happy with them.
>>
>> They're surprisingly solidly built for a machine of their class. They feel
>> well-built with no flimsiness and I suspect you'd have to try pretty hard to
>> do any real physical damage to them.
>>
>> The operating system has been well localised for Australia and is Ubuntu
>> 8.04 based. The 8.04 is a little out of date, but the update process is
>> obvious and works as expected. It was almost disappointing to discover that
>> I didn't need/want to do much after creating my login account to customise
>> it; the setup is quite sensible. All I ended up doing was disabling the
>> Google gadgets on the desktop because they're not to my taste and installing
>> a few application package that I like to use.
>>
>> I find the keyboard quite comfortable to use, with the possible exception
>> of the '/' key being a little awkward to get to from some angles. The
>> touchpad works well, but again, from some angles I find that my thumbs
>> sometime accidentally stray onto it while I'm typing. I'm sure both of these
>> problems will dissipate with time as I become more familiar with it.
>>
>> Wireless/sound work as expected. Bluetooth, as you will know, manifests as
>> a small USB dongle which I haven't yet tried, but suspect will work just
>> fine.
>>
>> The screen is quite pretty, with default fonts small but readable even for
>> someone rapidly turning middle-aged and both short and far-sighted :)
>>
>> Happy to field any particular questions you (or others) might have.
>>
>> regards
>> Terry
>>
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Re: [SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

2009/7/23 Amos Shapira :
> 2009/7/23 Terry Dawson :
>> I find the keyboard quite comfortable to use, with the possible exception of
>> the '/' key being a little awkward to get to from some angles. The touchpad
>> works well, but again, from some angles I find that my thumbs sometime
>> accidentally stray onto it while I'm typing. I'm sure both of these problems
>> will dissipate with time as I become more familiar with it.
>
> There are a few ways to auto-disable touchpad while you type. I don't
> remember the one installed on my laptop (it's in the office) but found
> "touchfreeze" on Ubunutu 9.04 which seems to achieve the same - on my
> laptop this was a life saver:

I'm going from memory here as I'm not on my laptop right now, but I'm
pretty sure there's an option for this built into the mouse settings
in GNOME (System > Preferences > Mouse).


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Re: [SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks

[Dean Hamstead]

How does battery life fare?

Dean

Terry Dawson wrote:

Marghanita da Cruz wrote:

Any thoughts on these?
Powering the Kogan Agora Netbook is gOS, a very aesthetically 
pleasing, powerful, intuitive, and fast operating system. Combined 
with the power and great value of our hardware, it brings you one 
step closer to cloud computing. gOS facilitates easy access to a 
number of Google™ services as well as a host of easy to use, powerful 
open source programs.





Marghanita,

I realise you posted this message quite a while ago now, but I've 
recently purchased four of the Agora Pro Netbooks and if you're still 
considering purchase I thought you might be interested in my comments. 
In summary I'm really very happy with them.


They're surprisingly solidly built for a machine of their class. They 
feel well-built with no flimsiness and I suspect you'd have to try 
pretty hard to do any real physical damage to them.


The operating system has been well localised for Australia and is Ubuntu 
8.04 based. The 8.04 is a little out of date, but the update process is 
obvious and works as expected. It was almost disappointing to discover 
that I didn't need/want to do much after creating my login account to 
customise it; the setup is quite sensible. All I ended up doing was 
disabling the Google gadgets on the desktop because they're not to my 
taste and installing a few application package that I like to use.


I find the keyboard quite comfortable to use, with the possible 
exception of the '/' key being a little awkward to get to from some 
angles. The touchpad works well, but again, from some angles I find that 
my thumbs sometime accidentally stray onto it while I'm typing. I'm sure 
both of these problems will dissipate with time as I become more 
familiar with it.


Wireless/sound work as expected. Bluetooth, as you will know, manifests 
as a small USB dongle which I haven't yet tried, but suspect will work 
just fine.


The screen is quite pretty, with default fonts small but readable even 
for someone rapidly turning middle-aged and both short and far-sighted :)


Happy to field any particular questions you (or others) might have.

regards
Terry


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Re: [SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks

[Amos Shapira]

2009/7/23 Terry Dawson :
> I find the keyboard quite comfortable to use, with the possible exception of
> the '/' key being a little awkward to get to from some angles. The touchpad
> works well, but again, from some angles I find that my thumbs sometime
> accidentally stray onto it while I'm typing. I'm sure both of these problems
> will dissipate with time as I become more familiar with it.

There are a few ways to auto-disable touchpad while you type. I don't
remember the one installed on my laptop (it's in the office) but found
"touchfreeze" on Ubunutu 9.04 which seems to achieve the same - on my
laptop this was a life saver:

Description: tray icon that disables your touchpad while typing
 Touchfreeze docks in your system tray and disables your touchpad
 while typing. It re-enables your touchpad when typing stops, using a
 configurable delay time.

Thanks for the review. It was a very interesting and useful read.

Cheers,

--Amos
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Re: [SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks

[Terry Dawson]

Marghanita da Cruz wrote:

Any thoughts on these?
Powering the Kogan Agora Netbook is gOS, a very aesthetically 
pleasing, powerful, intuitive, and fast operating system. Combined 
with the power and great value of our hardware, it brings you one step 
closer to cloud computing. gOS facilitates easy access to a number of 
Google™ services as well as a host of easy to use, powerful open 
source programs.





Marghanita,

I realise you posted this message quite a while ago now, but I've 
recently purchased four of the Agora Pro Netbooks and if you're still 
considering purchase I thought you might be interested in my comments. 
In summary I'm really very happy with them.


They're surprisingly solidly built for a machine of their class. They 
feel well-built with no flimsiness and I suspect you'd have to try 
pretty hard to do any real physical damage to them.


The operating system has been well localised for Australia and is Ubuntu 
8.04 based. The 8.04 is a little out of date, but the update process is 
obvious and works as expected. It was almost disappointing to discover 
that I didn't need/want to do much after creating my login account to 
customise it; the setup is quite sensible. All I ended up doing was 
disabling the Google gadgets on the desktop because they're not to my 
taste and installing a few application package that I like to use.


I find the keyboard quite comfortable to use, with the possible 
exception of the '/' key being a little awkward to get to from some 
angles. The touchpad works well, but again, from some angles I find that 
my thumbs sometime accidentally stray onto it while I'm typing. I'm sure 
both of these problems will dissipate with time as I become more 
familiar with it.


Wireless/sound work as expected. Bluetooth, as you will know, manifests 
as a small USB dongle which I haven't yet tried, but suspect will work 
just fine.


The screen is quite pretty, with default fonts small but readable even 
for someone rapidly turning middle-aged and both short and far-sighted :)


Happy to field any particular questions you (or others) might have.

regards
Terry

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[SLUG] Kogan Agora Netbooks

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Any thoughts on these?

Powering the Kogan Agora Netbook is gOS, a very aesthetically pleasing, 
powerful, intuitive, and fast operating system. Combined with the power and 
great value of our hardware, it brings you one step closer to cloud computing. 
gOS facilitates easy access to a number of Google™ services as well as a host 
of easy to use, powerful open source programs.




Marghanita
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Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: (+61)0414 869202

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