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Communication Breakdown

Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.

Thursday 16 October 2008, 12:53 PM

The return of Apricot

Posted by David Meyer

Remember Apricot Computers? Well, they're back... in name, at least. Having been swallowed by Mitsubishi in the '90s, and finally killed off in '99, the brand was bought up a few months ago by a chap called Shahid Sultan.

Now Apricot is returning to the UK market with a netbook called the PicoBook Pro. Launched today, the device sports a 1.2GHz Via processor, a 60GB hard drive and what the company calls "WiMax support", although don't take this to mean it actually has WiMax built into it or anything - it just could, if there was any point to doing so.

It costs £279 for the SUSE Linux version (about £40 more for the XP version, as I recall from the event where I saw the thing last night), which means that, for the same cash, you could pick yourself up an Asus Eee 901. IMHO, you'd be better off with the 901. I wish Apricot luck, but I can't see why they've gone for that price point with that spec.

Anyway, if you do want to scoop up a bit of faux nostalgia, then visit the relaunched-today apricotcomputers.com website - it's the only place you can find the PicoBook Pro. I have asked for a review sample, to see if the thing grows on me, as it were, and will report back accordingly...

Comments on this post

J.A. Watson

Very interesting news... perhaps there we will be seeing Sinclair rise from the dead as well?

jw

Updated by J.A. Watson on Oct 16, 2008 2:41 PM

Charles McLellan

I remember using an Apricot F10 back in the 1980s, complete with the GEM GUI on top of DOS...

Updated by Charles McLellan on Oct 17, 2008 11:38 AM

roger andre

Commodore are out there making some very high spec desk tops.
Come back Atari, that logo would sell laptops by the truckload!
Anyone remember the welsh dragon32 (80s) computer? it had a microsoft OS and all the games were written by microsoft. Oh yes and the covers featured a sweaty Bill running!

This could explain the welsh support on the windows of today.

Posted by roger andre on Oct 16, 2008 6:53 PM

David Meyer

First impressions post is up now. Not looking good, kids...

Updated by David Meyer on Oct 17, 2008 5:03 PM

David Meyer
  • David Meyer
  • London, UK
  • Member since: October 2006
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