| Customized Linux PC for MySpacers |
Apr. 08, 2008
PC vendor Everex and gOS (Good OS), the Linux distribution based around Google applications, is taking the next step in online-based computing by introducing a limited edition MySpace PC.
The companies hope that the white-cased, two-pound MyMiniPC will attract what Everex officials claim is some of the more than 100 million MySpace users. As such, it's the first PC, using any operating system, designed expressly to use with a social network.
"To me, gOS Space can be the face of Linux for the MySpace generation," Jim Zemlin, president of the Linux Foundation, said in a statement.
Unlike Google Apps, where neither gOS nor Everex have a formal relationship with Google, this time the companies have partnered with MySpace. "The MySpace Developer Platform is all about embracing developers and empowering them to create new and exciting ways for friends to connect on MySpace and share their experiences with one another,” Chuck Rosendahl, managing director of MySpace, said in a statement. “The MyMiniPC is the perfect appliance for MySpace users and those whose activities are consistently tied to the Web and less to the desktop. It is an ideal solution for getting access quickly to the MySpace apps that matter most to our users."
This trade paperback-book sized PC runs gOS Space 2.9. This is a customized version of gOS Linux that features a set of new MySpace Apps and a media center dock stacked with MySpace and Web 2.0 folders for news, photos, videos, music, TV and movies.
The MySpace applications available on gOS Space dock include Super Mood, Super Graffiti, Super Quotes, and Current Time. The company's press release described Super Mood as an application that enables users to add large emoticons and personal updates to their MySpace profiles. With Super Graffiti, users can draw pictures on their friends' MySpace profiles, and Super Quotes allows users to select quotes to display on their profiles.
The gOS Space dock also includes expandable icons, such as those gOS uses with Google programs MySpace News, Photos, Videos, Music, TV and Movies, Work, and Fun. The MySpace icon lets users get directly to the MySpace navigation bar. Besides the MySpace applications, the PC also includes the usual Linux application favorites, including Firefox, GIMP and OpenOffice. The system also includes gOS' characteristic easy access to Google applications.
The MyMiniPC is powered by a 1.86GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core Mobile Processor T2130. It comes with 512MB of RAM and for storage it uses a 120GB hard-drive and a DVD+/-RW optical drive.
For graphics the system uses the Intel GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) 950 chipset. The PC can transmit video via both a DVI-I Port, and a S-video port. Audio is supported by Realtek ALC268 high-definition audio.
The tiny system also comes with a good number of ports. These include an IEEE 1394 and four USB 2.0 ports, a four-in-one media card reader for data, and a Gigabit Ethernet port for networking.
The system, which the Everex Web site states is only available in limited quantities, sells for $499 with a one-year limited warranty and toll-free, 24/7 technical support.
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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