UBISurfer Netbook with GPRS Mobile

[Whiskers]

Had a good look round the internet and this forum think we will be visiting Maplin at the weekend.

[...]

Think I have talked myself into it, here is Datawinds press release http://www.ubisurfer.com/html/Press_release.htm

Unless it looks bad not seen one in the flesh yet and the pictures are not to good think as soon as they are in stock I will be having one  8)

There is a possibility you won't actually use the '30 hours a month' internet access - and it looks as though it will not 'roll over' to the next month or the next year if you don't.  Although if web browsing is as slow as it is with the CnMbook (even after tweaking the 'Bon Echo' browser), that 30 hours won't get you as much data as you'd get with a 'normal' computer.  But I see that the Ubisurfer comes with some sort of 'accelerator' service, presumably a proxy web server that compresses images etc, which sounds interesting.  It seems to use a seperate 'Ubisurfer browser' for that, instead of Firefox (which is also installed). 

If you decide to get a 'mobile internet' contract with someone other than Datawind, how easy is it to change the sim?

Based on my experience with the mirror-finish 'piano black' case on my CnMbook, I recommend looking at the "rubberised matt finish that resists fingerprints and scratches" mentioned on the Ubisurfer site.

As the Ubisurfer isn't based on the same CPU as the other machines here, the software may not be interchangeable.

If I hadn't already bought a CnMbook, I'd be tempted  :))

[sweetfa]

Key thing with the Ubisurfer is that like the Pocketsurfer devices made by the company the browser app gets the page rendered on external servers and then is sent to the device compressed, that's how it can show a page in 7 secs despite the low speed of GPRS.
Similar to what Opera Mini does on mobile phones.

Now a knock-on of that is you'll not be streaming music or video with this device but if that's not a problem then i'd say it's ideal, you won't need to worry about needing a 3g or wifi signal, pretty much anywhere will work with this unit.

The deal is that you can get unlimited usage for the lifetime of the device for a flat rate fee of £60, assuming the device doesn't break after 13 months of use i'd say that's a pretty good deal.

[Freddie43]

you can get unlimited usage for the lifetime of the device for a flat rate fee of £60

Can you expand on that? I thought it was 30 hours a month in the first year. Where does your 'unlimited' figure come from? - and is that £60 pa or for ever???

[sweetfa]

you can get unlimited usage for the lifetime of the device for a flat rate fee of £60

Can you expand on that? I thought it was 30 hours a month in the first year. Where does your 'unlimited' figure come from? - and is that £60 pa or for ever???

Sorry, looks like they aren't doing the £60 unlimited forever with this now, it's something they offered on one of the PocketSurfer models - they must have decided it was too good value!

[LK]

Hello, I'm a newbie here...not my usual sort of forum/message board, I found you because I was looking for some help re the Ubisurfer.

My O/H bought this for my birthday, ( I could retire or claim my bus pass,) but I'm not exactly a numptie, what I wanted was  mobile internet & email , mainly for things like FaceAche & bbc message boards, and my own (1) email and one work email account..I was thrilled with this little baby that looked too little to leave its mummy.

However, it is not what it seems..we have WiFi in the house and Ubi could not find it, from the manufacturers website I found out there was a patch that could be downloaded, but only via Firefox, Ubi  'IceWeasle' didn't work, so I down loaded the patch onto a usb Memory stick, so far so good until the battery went suddenly flat..recharged it and the dang thing has lost its memory, no patch, no 'bookmarks', no emails.... nada... silch...

We went back to Maplins, the 'boys' did not really have a clue, and gave me a new one in exchange... the patch will not download, the 21/08/09 patch is not working, & the 07/08/09 patch seems to have disappeared.


 There seems to be a real problem, that I do not understand, I worked my way through the instruction book today, and the examples of certain pages do not correlate with  this thing, the date & time cannot be set, it defaults to 03/04/03 , and if I go into FaceAche etc the ruddy thing will not let me use the text boxes, so I cannot post messages....the WHOLE POINT of it,

 The vodaphone thing works but is slow, so one hours use per day is a bit unrealistic IMHO.

I'm now at work until Wednesday, then I will ring the help line, and see what they can do, so if any of you wish to buy this, wait &/or read the Maplin* review.

In the meantime can any of you recommend a small Surfer gizmo that works.

Sorry to be so long winded on my first post.

*I'm Linda