BBC iPlayer on Linux

Recently I have been playing about with a couple of those little netbooks which are so popular now.

Though I have had an Xandros based Asus EeePC for a while now, I realised that I had never really tried to use it to watch Flash based video. I had used it to watch DivX and MP4 video files which it did fine with, however when using the Asus to try and watch BBC iPlayer, well the results were less than satisfactory.

I also tried BBC iPlayer on a SUSE based HP 2133 netbook and got similar results.

After a bit of Google searching the verdict appears to be that the Flash Player for Linux is not that capable when it comes to playing video, rather than the chips on these low powered netbooks aren’t capable of playing Flash video.

I am now going to try the BBC iPlayer Desktop once I have re-charged the HP 2133 (well the battery doesn’t last very long).

Dell to launch micro-laptop (aka EeePC)

Dell Micro Laptop

From BBC News

Dell is joining the burgeoning ranks of companies offering cut-down laptops, called netbooks, aimed at the developing world and general consumers.

The laptop was shown by Michael Dell to the editor of website Gizmodo at the All Things Digital Conference.

Read more.

Dell is the biggest PC maker in the world and the fact that they have entered the market shows how big and how serious this market is to PC makers.

For a lot of consumers this is their second computer, their main computer is a desktop machine which sits at home. The micro-laptop (umpc) format allows them to have a second computer which is very portable. Though similar or slightly more expensive “proper” sized laptops are available, it is the extreme portability of these laptops that are one of the main attractions. The fact it has a proper keyboard is another feature which other UMPCs and portable devices lack and it would seem people like a proper keyboard – even if it is on the small side.