Recently in Netbooks Category

I stumbled across Liliputing, a blog on computing with netbooks, tablets and other smaller-than-usual devices. It's well worth repeated visits.

Above: The Gecko Edubook, if it ever actually comes to market (and I do hope it will), should cost $200, run Ubuntu and stay powered up for 4 hours on a set of rechargeable AA batteries.

It's nice to see genuine innovation in the netbook market, and that's what embedded/super-small-computer-maker NorhTec is aiming to do with with the Gecko Edubook, a netbook the company hopes to sell for $200 and which can be powered by rechargeable (or the other kind of) AA batteries.

Right now the Gecko is causing more than a bit of a stir on the Internet:

OS News: Netbook runs on AA batteries
Linux Devices: Netbook runs on AA batteries

According to LinuxDevices.com, the Gecko is using a version of the Vortex86M as its processor. The chip is said to be ultra-low-power and X86-compatible with onboard graphics and sound.

In addition to three external USB ports, the Gecko Edubook is supposed to have an additional internal USB port into which the user can plug a WiFi or Bluetooth adapter. (The Gecko does have an Ethernet port, so it doesn't come entirely without networking.

The challenge for NorhTec (and whoever they contract with to actually sell this thing to consumers) is to keep the price down, offer adequate performance (the 1 GB of RAM that the netbook will accommodate goes a long way toward that goal) and keep the price down. Did I say "keep the price down" twice, and now mention it a third time? Yes I did.

They need to keep the price down. $200 or less.

Below: The Gecko Edubook's 8-cell battery compartment.

Below: The Gecko Edubook's CPU/RAM module is removable.

Thanks to NorhTec for the images.