• 29Apr

    MSI to launch Android, Windows 7 tablets ARM-based processor with NVIDIA graphics to deliver HD video playback and 3D graphics acceleration

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    While Apple has been pretty successful by throwing a smartphone operating system on its flagship tablet, and it’s starting to look like HP could dump its Windows 7 plans for a slate running Palm’s WebOS, other companies appear to be hedging their bets — by preparing tablets running both Google Android and Windows 7. That’s the approach Asus is taking, and it looks like MSI is following a similar path.

    Engadget reports that MSI will show off at least two different tablet computers at the Computex trade show in June. It looks like we’ll see Windows 7 tablets and Google Android tablets, with 8.9 inch and 10 inch displays. They’re expected to ship to the public during the third quarter of 2010.

    The Android model will use NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 platform which combines a low power ARM-based processor with NVIDIA graphics to deliver HD video playback and 3D graphics acceleration. The Windows 7 tablet will be powered by an Intel Atom processor.

    Meanwhile, that nifty dual-screen tablet-style netbook that MSI showed off at CES in January still needs some work and won’t be available before the 4th quarter of the year. The biggest problem right now is that the extra display is a bit of an energy hog, which means that you’ll e lucky to get 3 hours of battery life.

  • 27Apr

    More computers with Intel Atom processor

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    Yesterday we spotted an upcoming version of the Toshiba NB305 netbook with a new Intel Atom N455 processor. The CPU is virtually identical to the Atom N450 powering most netbooks released so far this year, with one exception: It supports DDR3 1066MHz memory. But it looks like the Toshiba NB305 isn’t alone. Lenovo, HP, and Shuttle all have  computers in the works with the new Atom chips.

    The folks at nDevil spotted an HP Mini 210 with an Atom N455 processor in Germany.

    Netbook Italia says the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 will be available in Britain with an Atom N455 processor and a 3G modem.

    And Shuttle released specs for a series of new nettops and all-in-one PCs, including the Shuttle X50 V2 Plus which has an Intel Atom D525 dual core processor with support for DDR3 800MHz memory.

    As far as I’m aware, Intel hasn’t officially announced the new DDR3-capable chips yet, so there’s no word on when these new machines will hit the streets. But it’s starting to look like it will happen very soon

  • 22Apr

    Asus Eee Keyboard unboxed

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    The Asus Eee Keyboard hasn’t actually started shipping yet. But now that it’s available for pre-order, the folks at Netbook News caught up with some folks at Asus to check out the retail packaging — and then to rip it open and see what comes in the box.

    Basically, along with the keyboard you can a carging cable, HDMI cable, and an ultrawideband receiver for streaming HDMI video signals from your keyboard to a TV or monitor.

    Netbook News reports that the Eee Keyboard with 16GB of storage should cost $549 while the 32GB model will run $599.

    You can check out the unboxing video after the break

  • 21Apr

    BMorn 9 inch Android tablet from China

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    BMorn is a consumer electronics company based in China. According to the folks at Shanzai.com, the company is best known for making GPS systems and protable media players, but the company is starting to show off an 8.9 inch touchscreen tablet running Google Android 1.6. It has a RockChip ARM-based CPU.

    A prototype was on display at the China Sources show in Hong Kong recently, and it looks like a reasonably compact machine with a rather funky design. Can anyone tell what those red panels along the side are for?

    You can check out a short video of the BMorn tablet after the break

  • 20Apr

    HP Mini 210 Vivienne Tam Edition netbook gets Atom N470 upgrade in german

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    There are a few ways to get people to spend unusually large amounts of money on netbooks. You can soup it up with premium features such as touchscreen displays, spill-resistant keyboards, or 7200rpm hard drives. Or you can give the netbook a fashion makeover and slap a designer label on it.

    HP appears to be taking both approaches with the HP Mini 210 Vivienne Tam Edition netbook — at least in Germany. While the US version of this laptop sells for $591, based largely on the designer lid, 2GB of RAM, and Windows 7 Home Premium operating system (instead of Windows 7 Starter), the German model ups the game slightly with a 1.83GHz Intel Atom N470 processor.

    The German model also has a 320GB hard drive, while the US model has a 250GB hard drive, but oddly the German edition ships with Windows 7 Starter. Ther German model costs about 450 Euros ($605 US).

    The rest of the specs are pretty much the same on both sides of the Atlantic: 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display. 3 cell battery, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, 3 USB ports, Ethernet, and VGA jacks.

    Update: Whoops, I totally missed this at first, but you can configure the US model with the Atom N470 processor too. The upgrade will set you back an extra $75 at HP.com though, bringing the total price to $674.99

  • 17Apr

    The ECS TL101-PC showed up at the WiMAX Forum in Taipei

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    The ECS TL101-PC showed up at the WiMAX Forum in Taipei. It’s an attractive netbook with a battery that sits flush with the base and a rather slim design. Oh yeah, and it has built in WiMAX mobile broadband capabilities.

    The netbook has a chiclet-style keyboard and a few unusual features including a silent mode that automatically shuts off the fan when you unplug the laptop. There are also a series of status LEDs to show you hard drive activity, power status, and other information. Nothing new there, but the status lights are actually built into the touchpad buttons — which looks kind of neat at first until you realize how annoying it would be to have them constantly flashing at you while you type.

    You can check out a hands-on video of the EC TL101-PC courtesy of Netbook News after the break.

  • 14Apr

    Dell Inspiron Mini 10v discontinued

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    This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, but apparently Dell has pulled the plug on the Inspiron Mini 10v netbook. The company has been selling a new Inspiron Mini 10 with a 10 inch display and 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor since January — so it was just a matter of time before Dell phased out the older Atom N270-based Mini 10v.

    Dell does have a habit of bringing back its old netbooks for limited runs. So if you had your heart set on the Mini 10v for some reason, all hope isn’t lost. Just keep an eye on the Dell Outlet for refurbished or open box deals. And if Dell still has enough supply in stock, the netbook could make a reappearance in Dell’s main store. I can’t count the number of times the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 showed up after Dell had officially discontinued the 9 inch netbook.

    In the meantime, you can still pick one up for under $300 from Amazon.

    As the folks at TUAW point out, one reason to consider a Dell Mini 10v over other netbook models is that it makes an ideal hackintosh if you want to install Apple’s OS X operating system on the netbook. Hackers have managed to get most of the netbook’s hardware to work with OS X, including the wireless, audio, sleep, and storage card.

    If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can check out my review of the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v from last Fall.

  • 13Apr

    MeeGo Linux coming to netbooks, smartbooks soon

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    The folks behind the MeeGo Linux project launched the first public beta version of the operating system recently. But that’s just the first step. MeeGo is backed by Intel and Nokia, and they have big plans to get the paltform on all sorts of devices including netbooks and smartphones soon.

    The netbook version of MeeGo doesn’t look like anything all that new if you’ve been following Moblin Linux for a while. MeeGo was born out of the merger of the Moblin and Maemo projects. And it looks like the UI is mostly Moblin-based, with a heavy dose of home screen widgets for checking your email, seeing status updates from your contacts, and launching apps. There are tabs along the top of the user interface for launching different zones, including a people zone (for your contacts) or a media zone for playing music and movies.

    One major change is that MeeGo will drop Firefox as the default web browser, instead using Google Chrome. The developers are also adding support for multitouch gestures which could make MeeGo a useful platform for tablet PCs.

    But MeeGo ain’t just about netbooks and tablets. There’s also a version optimized for smartphones. The user interface for this version will be a bit more tightly packed to fit on smaller displays. But it shares some of the key elements of the netbook UI. For instance, you have those same tabs across the top of the screen for switching from one zone to another.

    The smartphone version of MeeGo will apparently come with the Fennec web browser (Firefox Mobile) instead of Google Chrome. This is an interesting choice, since the default browser for Google Android smartphones is essentially a modified version of Google Chrome — so it’s clearly a viable option for Mobile devices based on a Linux kernel.

    MeeGo isn’t simply an operating system. It’s also a framework that other operating system developers can incorporate into their own products. In other words, you could run Ubuntu, Xandros, Linpus, or Mandriva Linux while using the MeeGo user interface and MeeGo acceleration for Intel Atom chips. Under the hood the OS would still be Ubuntu, Xandros, Linpus or Mandriva and you should be able to install third party apps built for those platforms. And that’s why each of those groups, plus a number of other Linux developers as well as hardware companies such as Asus and Acer are on the list of groups supporting the MeeGo project.

  • 11Apr

    Would you buy a BlackBerry tablet?

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    There’s a rumor going around that the company behind the BlackBerry smartphone might be getting into the tablet game.

    The evidence is a bit weak at this point. All we know is that a few sources are claiming Research in Motion placed orders for 8.9 inch displays from a Taiwanese component maker.

    That could mean that BlackBerry is working on a tablet to compete head to head with Apple’s iPad. But it could also mean the company is working on a Redfly-like device that will sync with your phone and offer you a bigger screen for browsing the web and writing documents.

    Or it could just mean that BlackBerry is doing some research into possible product categories and that this will lead to absolutely nothing at all. As with any rumor, it’s also possible that no orders were placed at all. It wasn’t that long ago that RIM’s CEO suggested the company wasn’t interested in netbooks or other larger-than-smartphone devices. So take this with a grain of salt and all that… but it does lead to the question: is anybody looking for a BlackBerry tablet?

    Sure, Apple’s iPad is selling quite well, thus proving that the world is cool with a large tablet running an OS that was designed for smartphones. And there are plenty of companies working to bring Google Android-based tablets to market. But with Research in Motion’s focus on enterprise customers, I have to wonder whether the BlackBerry OS really makes sense on an iPad-like tablet. The form factor really seems to make more sense for entertainment-focused devices for surfing the web and watching movies, not enterprise activities like managing email and documents — although Apple has demonstrated that you can run office software like iWorks on a tablet if you rethink the user interface.

  • 09Apr

    Lenovo Skylight smartbook launch date pushed back to July

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    When Lenovo introduced the Skylight smartbook in January, the company said it would come to market in April. But Laptop Magazine is reporting today that it won’t be available in the US market until July.

    At first glance, the Skylight looks like an oddly shaped netbook with a large keyboard, enormous touchpad, and super-slim design. Instead of a traditional hard drive or solid state disk, it uses a removable USB flash drive for storage and runs a custom Linux operating system called Skylight that’s designed to make the smartbook feel more like a smartphone and less like a PC.

    Under the hood, the Skylight has a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with integrated GPS, WiFi, and 3G connectivity. It’s basically the same chip found in the Google Nexus One Smartphone.

    AT&T will offer the Lenovo Skylight in the US and the wireless provider will offer customers a 3G data plan to go with the smartbook.

    Although the US launch is being pushed back 2-3 months, Laptop Magazine says the Skylight will be available in China in May and in “other markets” in June.Hopefully the delay means that Lenovo will have time to work out some of the kinks before launch. For instance, when I first got a chance to play with the Skylight, Flash video playback was pretty awful.

    You can check out my hands-on video with the Lenovo Skylight from CES after the break.

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