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PC World hates the Pepper Pad
September 20, 2005 | 5:30 am
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By David Rothman
The Pepper Pad, which has already drawn mixed reviews, got a big thumbs-down from PC World.
In Wireless Internet Media Player–Too Little, Too Late, writer Michael Lasky complained that the Pad “looks cool but has a short battery life. Pepper Computer bills its unusual-looking, 2.3-pound Pepper Pad as a handheld multimedia device for playing back music and videos, displaying photos, and more for wireless broadband-enabled home users. It sounds promising, and it does some things–like its funky split keyboard–well. But in the end, the Pepper’s numerous weaknesses make it difficult to recommend.” Lasky says:
My dissatisfaction started soon after I powered up the Pepper Pad. From a cold boot, this “instant-on” device takes nearly 2 minutes to get up and running. You can then put the unit in a sleep mode for faster subsequent startups, but the battery continues to drain. And I was surprised by the battery’s short life span: During my informal tests, the unit lasted less than 2 hours on a full charge.
The Pepper Pad’s SVGA (800-by-600 resolution) LCD screen provides a bright but just less-than-crisp display of text, photos, and videos. MP3 music sounded decent from the front-mounted stereo speakers. Video playback was even, and videos saved to the hard drive played smoothly, without any fluttering…
Among regular TeleBlog contributors and commenters, there’s a sharp split between the Nokia 770 faction and the Pepper faction, notably Casey Bisson. Both machines, despite the 770s much smaller screen size, run Linux and will be competing in the home entertainment market. Sure enough, none other than 770 partisan Mike Cane gleefully forwarded the PC World clip. So, Casey, what say you in reply? I’ll also see if Jon Melamut at Pepper wants to comment. From afar, the machine’s specs have looked good despite drawbacks such as lack of USB 2.0, but actual performance counts in the end, so the PC World review does concern me. Later this year I am supposed to get my own review version of the Pepper, and I’ll get out a timer and see if that “nearly 2 minutes” figure still applies, along with the “less than 2 hours” for batteries. Needles to say, I’ll also give the screen a good look. Until then, in the Nokia-Pepper fray, you can call me Mr. Switzerland.
Related: Amazon.com customers’ comments on the Pepper Pad. They run the whole range, from Pepper Love to Pepper Hate–with the concensus being three and a half out of five stars.
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Comments:
David Rothman – why don’t you use all your energy and get a real job and do some real good instead of complaining about a lack of income and using this blog as an excuse? You do write well – use it to get a real job instead of whining and criticizing everyone else who does not believe in the same things you do.
[...] David Rothman pointed me to Michael Lasky’s PC World review of the Pepper Pad. Lasky bangs on Pepper, saying he can’t recommend it. [...]
I don’t dislike the Pepper Pad. At $800, it’s just another neat computer I can’t afford. I think that Pepper fell into the trap that all the Linux predecessors fell into, one that Nokia sidestepped: modifying Linux so that all or almost all apps would end up coming from a single source, Pepper.
With the Nokia 770, it’s great to hear an independent developer say, “I took this open-source software and it compiled immediately with no changes.”
I should add that Casey Bisson suggested a library use for the Pepper Pad that, on reflection, I think it meets better than the Nokia 770. Just as sturdier library bindings are more suited to heavy use than trade editions’ bindings, the Pepper Pad’s physically bigger screen, built-in keyboard and not-so-easily-hidden size suit a library’s mission better than the 4.25-inch, touchpad, coat-pocket size of the Nokia 770.
Penelope, I notice that the word “pepper” is in the email address that accompanied your submission to the TeleBlog. Does this mean you own a Pepper or have a direct or indirect connection to the company? My impressions of the company itself are highly positive, and I doubt that Pepper Computer has the slightest connection to your note. The irony is that I haven’t even reached a final verdict on the Pepper. I’ve requested a review unit for that purpose and meanwhile I’m quoting others, “pro” and “con.” I’m gong to be professional about this and not let your comments prejudice me.
If you indeed own a Pepper, let’s hear about your positive experiences with the machine, as opposed to your doing an ad hominem attack. Whether or not you’re a Pepper owner, do you have an agenda other than defense of the Pepper? Are you directly or indirectly involved in e-books in any way, or in the library world? Your own job and relevant affiliations? Just curious. Your IP address and your off-topic comments made me wonder.
Meanwhile, for what it’s worth, far from merely criticizing things, I’ve joined others in working on a digital library project as well as open standards for e-book formats. What’s more, my Web expertise is helping a small company grow its ISP business. In a previous incarnation my writing skills helped a small financial services company multiply assets from some $30 million to $150+ million.
Enough said. If you truly own a Pepper–I’m curious–let’s hear how you’re using it.
Thanks,
David Rothman
hey penelope, lighten up! :+)
i’m glad david scours cyberspace
for news about electronic-books…
because that means i don’t have to.
i could do without the vaporware hype
– how many times _can_ he mention
a program that doesn’t even exist? –
but hey, it’s a price i’m willing to pay…
-bowerbird
Wow, Penelope, that’s sure a weird message.
Want to borrow some tinfoil?
> modifying Linux so that all or almost all apps would end up coming from a single source, Pepper.
Actually, the only things we’ve modified in Linux are kernel and drivers for hardware compatibility. Other than that it’s a vanilla MontaVista Linux distribution. We don’t install all the MontaVista RPMs in userland but all MontaVista RPMs (including compilers) are included under /opt/montavista so inquisitive users can install anything they see fit. An xterm is available by hitting Ctrl-Shift-1 to get at the core of the OS, enable SSH, and go to town. We even include a standalone Mozilla if users want to bypass (or supplement) the Pepper Keeper.
We’re still working on a cross compiler SDK including Kernel and X11 headers and includes for cross compiling arm_xscale_le on i386 but just about any textmode app will happily natively compile in an xterm on the Pad. Plus, if someone wants to cross compile before our SDK is available, they can download the same cross compiler we’re using (gcc-3.4.2-glibc-2.3.3) from http://www.kegel.com/crosstool and build RPMs using –target=arm_xscale_le.
Now, in response to the PC World article, some interesting points are brought up. First, the author mentions a spare rechargeable battery; I’m not sure where he got a spare battery because we don’t include one with the Pepper Pad (the dual internal batteries are not easily user-replaceable and require opening the case with tools). Along those same lines however battery life is something that we’re working on and is a valid point.
Like most laptops, running the screen at 100% brightness puts considerable drain on the battery. Dimming to 80% which is barely a noticeable difference and our default setting drastically increases battery life and can easily add another 20 to 30 minutes to the average 2.5 hour constant usage runtime I’ve experienced with my Pad. I’ve been able to squeeze 3.5 hours of constant Web usage out of my Pad when running a dimmed screen in a dark room while watching TV or movies. If customers are getting runtimes of under 2 hours then it would help us out a lot of we could hear a use case.
The initial ~2 minute startup time is another issue that we’re addressing. I’m not sure of the exact time but it does take a while. The way I use my Pad, however, I rarely see a full reboot under daily usage since I’ll only use the Pad unplugged for an hour or two at a time and then plug it back in. I usually use it unplugged at home, let it charge overnight, let it sleep on the way in to work, plug it back in at work, use it occasionally unplugged making sure to plug it back in when not in use, let it sleep on the way home, lather, rinse, repeat.
Also, the author’s comment about being unable to run other Linux apps is technically incorrect; as I stated in my above comment just about any app that will compile under arm_xscale_le will run but we just don’t publicly advertise it yet (although our FAQ hints at it). That’s pretty much why I started up http://www.pepperhacks.com to fill the void until Pepper releases an official SDK. I just wish I had more time to update the site.
Sean, what’s the perceived use of the Pepper Pad? If it is, as the product shot and the blurb on the Pepper home page suggest, to take with you to the couch, the PC World reviewer has got more than a point.
I don’t mind plugging in a notebook to the wall socket, because you use those as you would desktop-PCs, but a web pad?
Sean: Thanks for those two posts. They were very informative. Even if I don’t favor the device myself, I do expect reviewers not to go out of their way to bash products (ie, the spare battery mention!).
I guess the difference then is that Nokia has taken the reverse order and built the SDK before releasing the product and smoothed out that application path.
Thanks for straightening me out on this, Sean. Not being a Linux guy, let me ask this about apps — do users have to do the compile themselves? Or is there an install process like apt-get with debian?
Branko: You are absolutely correct. Battery life is a major issue because the Pepper Pad is designed to be a take-it-with-you or sit-on-the-couch device where an AC outlet isn’t available, convenient, or desired. I’m just really curious to hear use cases from users because some reviewers have reported battery lives a lot shorter than anything we’ve seen with any of our in-house Pads even under heavy use.
Mike: Ditto; although when I think about it maybe either the author or the editor misinterpreted “dual batteries” as “a spare battery”.
Roger: Exactly…we designed the Pad as a consumer device with geek potential as opposed to a geek device with consumer potential. If it were up to me and if I had the spare time the SDK would already be out in the wild.
Regarding apps there are two types of apps that are released for the Pad. Pepper Keeper apps that run within the Pepper Keeper (Journal, Photo Library, etc.) are installed via the GUI and will be available for download from http://www.pepper.com. External apps (MAME, VNC, Emacs, etc.) are packaged as RPMs and will either be automatically delivered via rsync when the user clicks Get Updates or can be installed via RPM from the command line if the user opts to download a third-party RPM via the Web or wget.
Users can compile their own if they want but pre-packaged apps will be made available via RPM. Yum and apt functionality are in the works to drastically simplify things but there are some issues with the versions of RPM and Python supplied by MontaVista that are preventing us from using Yum and apt; simply upgrading the Pad to the latest version of RPM and Python isn’t a possibility due to an NPTL incompatibility with arm_xscale_le.