Ok. So here are the pics that were promised of the eVilla at PC Expo. I took about 12, but only 6 or so were actually usable, due to the crappy nature of my camera, the extreme lighting of the show, and the distortion of the screen (which turns out to be because the evilla was next to a closed room housing the 20 servers for the booth. The most exciting thing I noticed was that the eVilla seems to take pride in the fact that it uses BeIA, and the fact that BeOS still shows through. Read on to see what I mean.
The first image you see when you load up the evilla is the sony logo in white centered on the large vertically aligned screen. This is followed by an animated Be logo and the BeIA version number (1.0 in this case).
After booting, you are presented with a login screen for the evilla, which presumably allows several different family members to use the same device.
Once you login you are presented with the main screen. It is pretty well known from the shots on the evilla site, but here is a snap I made:
You can also flip over to a pure web screen to browse. I took a pretty bad shot of BeGroovy on the eVilla, but am including it here for the hell of it.
If you go to the setup screen in the eVilla, there is an about box that again shows the Be logo pretty clearly. (not to mention opera)
Finally, and this is really nice, is the suprise feature. The people at sony’s booth didn’t even know the eVilla could do this until they saw people doing it at the show. Apparently, AOL has a pure java/javascript version of AIM. People started using it, and it actually openend up a new application window on the evilla, which floats overtop of the standard BeIA interface. This was a pretty radical feature, and it sure beats the BeOS level of javascript support. The best part is that the application window it opens looks like 100% BeOS, little yellow tab and all.
Thats all the pics I had a chance to get, and that actually came out ok. But it shows that evilla is pretty nice. It is a bit expensive for what it is, but if your family mainly does web and email, you could get one of these and put it in the living room, keeping your pc to yourself. And the required Earthlink access can be added to your pc for no additional charge, so that helps that pill go down. Finally, it includes an ethernet port for possible future broadband announcements, and that too could be shared with your home computer. So if you dont have my level of aversion to the scientology-controlled, custom-browser-tracking-tag-adding, large-building-logging-and-recording-all-communications-through-their-network-but-advertising-privacy-in-a-blatant-lie-campaign policies at the required ISP (aka earthlink), you may want to check these things out.
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June 30th, 2001 at 12:02 am
Earthlink?!
Well, if Earthlink is the required ISP, they have DSL, so that says to me that you should be able to order up a DSL line and run that an your PC on that, right?
June 30th, 2001 at 12:31 am
“You are not logged in. Log in.”
you will NEVER log in! Please, reset my password, please.. pretty please?
June 30th, 2001 at 12:40 am
more screen from PC expo
they are really gorgeous = )
http://www.geocities.com/ycreveco/eVillaPicts.html
June 30th, 2001 at 12:41 am
BeIA/BeOS
hey,
if the yellow tabs still survive does it mean than BeIA 1.0 is a kind of BeOS R6 ? = )
mamack
June 30th, 2001 at 12:46 am
In Response To Anonymous @ 06/30/2001 12:40:13 AM
Re: more screen from PC expo
That’s much better
http://www.geocities.com/ycreveco/eVillaPicts/
mamack
June 30th, 2001 at 12:54 am
Java test
it would have be nice to see a Java test, the Yahoo online games would do the trick..
http://games.yahoo.com/
June 30th, 2001 at 1:37 pm
In Response To Anonymous @ 06/30/2001 12:31:01 AM
Re:
Enter your login name in the box on the left with no password, provided your email address is correct, you will get a new one.
June 30th, 2001 at 1:40 pm
In Response To Anonymous @ 06/30/2001 12:41:57 AM
Re: BeIA/BeOS
BeIA == BeOS. BeIA uses some different libraries, and is much smaller in footprint, but you can think of it as a very scaled down BeOS. There is a desktop in BeIA, looks the same as in BeOS. But, you won’t find much to do there, as there are a great deal less apps, and that’s even if you can get to it, as most implementations of BeIA that I’ve heard of have a default app that opens on start, is full screen, and cannot be closed.
Work on BeIA _can_ easily transfer over to BeOS… just takes a little work - and time, something Be doesn’t have for BeOS.
June 30th, 2001 at 1:42 pm
In Response To Anonymous @ 06/30/2001 12:54:06 AM
Re: Java test
We did some testing on earlier versions of BeIA, and Java worked quite well, actually. I can’t remember if Joe tested Yahoo!’s games though.
June 30th, 2001 at 2:17 pm
Wow
I’m amazed the Java version ran and it had the little BeOS tab! That’s awesome!
How was speed and responsiveness? Did it render web pages correctly?
June 30th, 2001 at 3:29 pm
In Response To Anonymous @ 06/30/2001 12:40:13 AM
Re: more screen from PC expo
whoa… in those pics it has connect options to connect via ethernet and even more interesting, pppoe. Whats up with that? Can you connect via the fun stuff to, but still have to pay the BS earthlink fees?
June 30th, 2001 at 3:42 pm
Sony Style
Just checked Sony Style site and surprinsingly E-Villa is the main product in the front page. Well, it seems at least that Sony is involved in marketing it…btw, great pics.
June 30th, 2001 at 3:44 pm
In Response To Deej @ 06/30/2001 1:42:21 PM
Re: Java test
RaptureInV ? Hmmm.. wonder what he’s up to these days.. dont hear much from him. though i’m probably not handing in the right places :-> (never in BeShare and only every now and then in Jabber..)
June 30th, 2001 at 3:56 pm
In Response To oberon @ 06/30/2001 3:42:14 PM
Re: Sony Style
well no no no..
ok, after I recently realized the trolls are a necessary evil, let’s be easy on them for once :b Let’s make their job easier. here goes:
it’s just an illusion, blah blah, tomorrow this web page will be gone, blah blah, Sony’s just trying to get rid of old 15′’ trinitron tubes in excess that no one wants, blah, this idea of orienting it vertically sucks anyway, my 21′’ screen has a much better definition anyway (and costs only marginally more). Sony’s not really behind Be ( it’s just in your dreams), “what is sony thinking?”, and (top one “argument”): Sony will get out of business with Be anyway in two months.
On a more serious note, what kind of comments could you guys make about the price, considering this is a “at the beginning of marketing life cycle” product? what I guess I mean is, all generations of new products in the past started hieously expensive, to end up dirt cheap a few years later.. CD players were darn expensive in K7 days, the first VHS setups cost an arm, the first walkman’s price was not in the same league as currently ..etc ..etc. Could it be the same for the e Villa and friend in a reasonable timeframe? Hard to picture that, since the price is moderate already, especially compared to the MiniDisc and recordable DVDs out there which are in the same phase.. Anyway, reasons to be optimistic yet.
June 30th, 2001 at 7:55 pm
In Response To Deej @ 06/30/2001 1:40:58 PM
Re: BeIA/BeOS
IF there is a full-screen app, has anyone tried to “Switch” workspaces on it? I’d guess that both Screens and Workspaces have been removed/hardcoded, but you never know…
June 30th, 2001 at 8:09 pm
In Response To Anonymous @ 06/30/2001 12:40:13 AM
Re: more screen from PC expo _ SOME GOOD NEWS !!
Some good news for once !!!
Like the pics and e-villa’s front end looks even better than on the flash demo. The working java AIM client is cool… lets hope Sony can pull this off - they need to drop that price tag a little and I just wish they had an integrated DVD drive - that way it could have been just a little more than an IA.
Re SONY Look at mini discs a couple of years ago nobody had them or wanted them and now nearly everyone here in the UK has one..well except for me !! Plus all of the big players Panasonic, AIWA, Pioneer, Sharp are making and selling the things.
HarjTT
: o )>
PS>.. nice pics
June 30th, 2001 at 10:42 pm
BeIA’s Opera
Looking at these pictures makes me long for Opera again, even though Opera 4 for BeOS looks extremely unlikely.
Just tried the latest build of BeZilla - it’s come a long way, but far from what BeOS deserves for a browser - it’s just too slow and memory hungry. I had to quit it and use Opera.
A lot of people say that Opera 3.62 for BeOS is buggy and can freeze BeOS itself, but I’ve never experienced that, very rarely does it crash. Opera 3.62 may be lacking a lot of things, but I can’t believe how much better it is to use than BeZilla!
I don’t understand how Opera can be appearing for seemingly every OS BUT BeOS. Is BeOS’s userbase really that insignificant? Opera software seems to have decided BeOS is dead too, so I guess that the modification of Opera for BeIA was all Be, inc.’s doing. Opera has said “no new version without a new BeOS version”: and I guess they don’t want any longterm partnerships with a company whose future is this uncertain.
It just plain sucks that the closest thing we’ll see to Opera 4 for BeOS is on the eVilla.
The evilla looks great though, hope I can get to see one soon!
July 1st, 2001 at 12:13 am
In Response To Deej @ 06/30/2001 1:37:07 PM
Re:
That never worked!
July 1st, 2001 at 6:25 am
Awesome
Great pics Nutcase, this is really good news!
I just hope that when the Evilla is launched and the last minute bugs are crushed, Be will have some time to port over a few things to BeOS and release something
Btw, I think someone needs a new camera
It does however make Evilla look very stylish, with those stripes across.
Pieter
July 1st, 2001 at 7:57 am
Nice!
Nice pics Nutcase:)
keep up the good work!
/drwho
July 1st, 2001 at 11:21 am
Evilla.com
It’s July 1 and the website still says to check back in June for a list of store in the store locator. No stores listed. Where is this fucking thing going to BE?
July 1st, 2001 at 1:25 pm
In Response To Anonymous @ 07/01/2001 12:13:26 AM
Re:
email your username that you registered with to support@begroovy.com
-N
July 1st, 2001 at 3:37 pm
Evilla Slow
I also tried the Sony eVilla at PC Expo and it was a disappointment. The refresh between screens was slow. I tried running BeosRadio and it locked up. And oddly, the Sony evilla Flash demo ran much better on the evilla than on my home beos machine. After I finished playing with the unit, I noticed the guy next to me put up a porno page and left. That was real nice of him… but I quickly nixed the page. The unit is heavy do to it great looking page length monitor; however, the sound volume could not compete with the noise of the show.
Hopefully Sony can open up the device to more ISP’s.
July 1st, 2001 at 8:38 pm
Evill could be good
I’m tempted to buy an evilla for each set of grandparents, provided they release it in Australia and the ISP they go with doesn’t suck. However, I’d only get it for myself if I could (1) ethernet it (2) run a decent command prompt through it and (3 - although not so important) run a X-client. Those first two are crucial. It’s a shame they haven’t yet releasing a geek-enabled version of the system. One with neat tools and a bit of flexibility. Does the BeIA development kit deploy on the evilla, and is it freely available?
Very positive to see that java demonstration: this means we will also be able to run java telnet clients, unless it only supports applets (in which case you’ll get sandboxed). You’d probably be able to save such applets on the memory stick too. Does anybody know of any such clients for java, particularly with ssh?
Nice work everyone!
July 2nd, 2001 at 6:06 am
In Response To Nutcase @ 07/01/2001 1:25:29 PM
Re:
Can’t you fix your mailing system? I have tried to get my password since about a week ago. That’s why I said “you’ll never log in!”.
July 2nd, 2001 at 10:26 am
Hmm….
Does anybody think shift-dragging the little yellow tab works? I wanna know how much BeOS this is!
July 2nd, 2001 at 1:24 pm
In Response To Deej @ 06/30/2001 12:02:33 AM
Re: Earthlink?!
Earthlink is the spawn of satan.
Constant disconnects, poor modem speeds led me to upgrade to a DSL at first. Which solved the constant disconnect problem by not allowing me to connect at all. After i finally connected i was plagued with worse speeds than my 56k modem was moving along at.
So i got a cable modem and all my problems were solved instantly.
I used earthlink in WV and it sucked ass. My aunt/uncle used it in florida and they hated it with a passion and found another DSL provider they love. My mom, in NJ, is looking into other options because of the frequent disconnects.
Oh well .. thats just my 2 cents, i’ve had very bad dealings with earthlink and would rather trek down toa computer lab than use earthlink again.
Very poor choice if they are forcing you to use an ISP.
Altp.
July 2nd, 2001 at 4:18 pm
More PC Xpo Pictures of eVilla
Check them out at:
http://www.geocities.com/ycreveco/eVillaPicts.html
ciao
yc
July 10th, 2001 at 12:34 am
BeIA Build date
The build date for BeIA is 6/23/2001!!! Be is definitely still doing something!