Everex may have been disappointed when Wal-Mart announced it was pulling its Linux based ultra-portables from store shelves last week, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped them from going forward. They’ve just announced the Everex Cloudbook CE12200J for Japan and it contains a touchscreen and it will be running Windows XP not the gOS. Of course the price has jumped up as well to $600.

via UltraMobileLife.com

That was quick. Wal-Mart has decided to discontinue sales of the Linux based Everex Cloudbooks and the Green gPC. Wal-Mart will continue to sell the gPC in its online channels as they are saying they’ve seen more success there. Intriguingly Wal-Mart had sold out of their in store stock and won’t be restocking those shelves.

via jkOnTheRun

Wish your Cloudbook at a touch screen? Well, you knew someone would pull a jkkmobile and mod the device to include one. Cloudbooker has done just that, along with a USB hub and GPS.

Via Gizmodo

More and more news is trickling out about the Everex Cloudbook, after a brief flurry of negative reviews last week and word of shipping delays. DigiTimes is reporting that the reason for the delay might have something to do with the weather, (sort of ironic if you think about it.) Large snowfalls in China apparently disruputed local transportation which slowed things down. But it seems that the channel is starting to move. Several sites are linking to Meridith Farkas’ review of her newly arrived CloudBook. Meredith seems impressed by the size of the device but not with the gOS operating system. jkkmobile is also linking to JamFish who is blogging her first hours with the Cloudbook. Like Meredith, JamFish points again to OS issues and says she is enjoying the device even though it is “rough around the edges.” Both ladies seem impressed with the mobility and size of the device, which leaves me anxious to see how uses who will eventually pick up CloudBooks at Wal-Mart, and aren’t as prepared to deal with some of the issues respond. I imagine we’ll hear about that in a few weeks. If the weather clears.

Avram Piltch at Laptop Magazine got his hands on the Everex CloudBook and is blogging his unboxing. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like this is a pleasant OOBE (out of the box experience), especially for newbies, which after all is the target market for this devices that you can supposedly pick up in Wal-Mart. In addition to some WiFi connectivity issues, the biggest (and silliest) stumbling block seems to be with getting past the opening screens where you set user information (time zone, name, etc..). UMPC users will be familiar with this one. Small screens with unfortunately limited screen resolutions often leave ok buttons and the like below the edge of the screen.

Fortunately, a user suggested they use an ALT-Click to move the window above the edge of the screen and they were able to proceed. But, I’m like Avram here. I know a think or two about these kind of things, but I was unaware, until today, that an ALT-Click would allow you to do that. And of course lacking any instructions, I’m sure a newbie would be completely baffled.

Not a good way to begin things if you ask me.

Quite a few folks were disappointed when the Cloudbook from Everex was recently delayed from hitting the shelves. Remember the Cloudbook is going to be available at Wal-Mart and there is a lot of attention on that marketing strategy as well as the device. The delay was chalked up to some tweaking of the gOS software. Looks like they are calling the software Rocket and from what Bjorn Stromberg is saying at Ultramobilelife.com it is going to be using GoogleGears to keep your life in the cloud synced with your life off-line. New target date for release? February 15.

In the most recent GBM Podcast Sierra and I covered a range of topics. Two of those topics seem to be continually popping up in the news these days and worth pointing to.

First, there seems to be a real race going on in the ultra-portable space kicked off recently by the Asus EeePC. It seems that one day we’ll hear about an update to the Eee PC, and then we’ll hear similar news coming from the VIA based ultra-portables as well. This space sounds like it is really heating up. As an example, The Eee PC is coming out with larger screens soon. Now we hear from Ultramobilelife.com that the Everex Cloudbook, which is just about to debut with its 7 inch screen model is aiming for a summer release of a 9 inch model and adding more colors.

Secondly, Sierra remarked on the podcast about her thoughts on the HTC Advantage. Jenneth at Gear Diary has a very extensive, Day in the Life of post about how she uses the HTC Advantage.

With most of the attention on small portable devices centering on MIDs and the recent MacAir announcment, neither of which is in users hands right now, these very different devices seem to be having quite an impact at the moment, and my hunch is they will continue to for some time to come. Interesting times.

I hope the ASUS Eee is getting prepared, because the new Everex Cloudbook is coming to town. The specs are not all out yet, but the Everex Cloudbook is said to have a 7" screen and run the gOS Linux variant, optimized to work with Google Apps. You may remember Everex as the company that has been selling all of the inexpensive systems at Walmart recently, also running gOS.

Rumored specs include:

• gOS Linux, optimized for Google Apps
• 7" screen, 800x480 resolution
• 1.2GHz Via C7 ULV processor
• 512MB of RAM
• 30GB hard drive (not SSD)
• Wired and wireless Ethernet 
• 4-in-1 card reader
• Two USB 2.0 ports
• DVI-out

The Cloudbook is supposed to cost $399 and be available January 15. If these specs are real, this could be an interesting competitor to the Eee. Many people will prefer the specs of the Cloudbook, with the faster processor and hard drive. Supposedly the Cloudbook will launch at CES the week of Jan 7. I'll certainly be on the look out!

There are also rumors of a Developer version which would add a touchscreen, Skype phone, and alarm clock. I can really get into the touch screen and Skype phone, but alarm clock?? That's um, unusual.  This Developer version is supposed to be similar to the NanoBook, which has some pretty nice specs in it's rumors. With a touch screen, this could be a very interesting platform for an ultra portable.

via jkkmobile, UMPCBlog, LinuxDevices