Unlike
Mobinnova's slightly "edgier" take on the "smartbook," Inventec's new Rainbow device is decidedly more netbook-ey in the looks department. Specs are nothing new, of course, with an NVIDIA Tegra 600 chip, 256MB of RAM, 256MB of flash memory, 10-inch 1024 x 576 screen and Windows CE 6.0 (which has
been outfitted with Firefox for the occasion, along with other NVIDIA-prepped apps). We're happy to see an edge to edge keyboard here, and despite the low-end specs, it's still nice to know this little number will be capable of nabbing 3G data (HSPA or EV-DO), GPS and DTV. Rainbow can purportedly handle 6 hours of continuous 720p playback, stream video over 3G for 4 hours, and is rated at a rather silly 240 hours of "standby." We're not exactly sure when the Rainbow is supposed to start shipping, but if none of this is striking your fancy, there's always Rainbow 2, which is supposed to hit in the first half of next year.
[Via
Engadget Spanish]
posted August 7th 2009 11:30AM
Honestly, I don't get the hype around these non x86/x64 based netbooks.
"6 hours of continuous 720p playback"
"rated at a rather silly 240 hours of "standby.""
There's your reason.
You can get a netbook and a spare battery and have 20x the functionality. 240 hours of standby? Who even cares?
My thoughts exactly Grammar Police
x86 is such a crap architecture, and PowerPC has basically departed from general computing (seems to be enjoying itself in the set-top box market, such as game consoles). ARM is basically the new frontier for general computing hardware.
Because most people buy netbooks for the basic stuff, so email, internet browsing, video/music playback. And I think most users would be willing to sacrifice x86/x64 to get much better battery life, because most of the stuff they want to do doesn't require/isn't helped along by them.
i agree with solarix, there is no point in having a netbook-like machine if you can't run proper windows on it and all the software that you can use with windows.
ok, you can browse the web, check your mails, listen to music and watch movies just like on a proper PC, but this lacks the flexibility to do just about anything else.
I see horizon only, where's the rainbow?
@hmmwv
Rainbow is the model name, not the name of the desktop wallpaper.
"Heart of Gold"? Sweet, I'm ready for my Infinite Improbability Drive!
It is infinitely improbable I will buy one... If that helps.
*Internet high five*
How come I'm not the only awesome person who thinks of that every time?
windows ce? really?
YA RLY
YA RLY?! I 'ardly even KNOW 'er!
It's ARM, so yeah. WinCE.. you could stick something open source on there I expect.
Isn't Inventec that outfit that lets people who watch too much late night cable TV submit their inventions to industry?
Tegra, 256 megs of ram and Windows CE? Pass....
I thought Tegra was supposed to be some big deal?
Maybe that's only in phones?
I'm waiting for Rainbow 6
Vegas!
I don't get it? Where does Rainbow 6 come in?
I'll damn myself for saying this (because many said the same thing about netbooks), but I think these devices will only cater to a very niche group.
Nobody could be bothered to get the surge protector and all the wires out of the shot?
anybody else think "256MB of RAM, 256MB of flash memory" is a typo? especially when it goes on to say it can handle 6 hours of 720p playback. last time i checked, you couldnt fit 6 hours of 720p video in 256MB of flash memory....
also, how can that screen display 720p? its only 1024 x 576.
ideas?
As to the former: There appears to be an SD card hanging out of it. Even my quirky as heck Razorbook 400 (a similar device in principle also running Win CE) handles a 16GB SDHC card just fine. I'm pretty sure you can put several hours of 720p video on that...
As to the latter: I would posit, VIDEO OUT to a display that can handle 720p ?
I was wondering about that, too. 256MB with OS on it, I'm sure that doesn't leave much for a 720p video file. 256GB maybe, but that could be expensive...
720p downscaled to the monitor resolution is still somewhat better than 480p. Plus you could always use the VGA port on the side to output to a bigger monitor.
There's a VGA port, plug it into what ever you want for HD. There's an Ethernet jack clearly plugged in there in the shot, Wifi, 3G, external USB drive... the media doesn't have to be on the ROM!
Apart from all that, it's a benchmark. When a car spec she says 35 miles to a gallon. It doesn't mean you put a gallon in and drive it 35 miles, does it. Same as you wouldn't charge it and then leave the thing to standby for the full 240 hours! It's trying to give you an idea of batter potential and the performance of the hardware.
The ARM based netbook looks like a good idea on paper, but sales of netbooks show that people want to run X86 Windows so that they can run any application they feel like.
There are 3 big barriers to the success of the ARM netbook:
1) Porting Windows 7 to ARM will take a lot of effort
2) Getting application developers to rebuild all of their x86 apps for ARM will be an uphill battle.
3) Intel's Atom CPU is getting closer to the power efficiency of the ARM, so the whole reason to do items #1 and #2 may go away any time.
I suspect most of people buy netbooks has nothing to do with running their own apps, but rather simply because they feel more comfortable using Windows. They might even be oblivious to the point that you can do all the same basic computing stuff in any Operating System.
1) Porting of Windows7 to ARM will take Zero because it will never happen. Microsoft already have multiple OSes targeting ARM and their all much better suited to ARM than NT based Windows will ever be.
2) This is part of why Microsoft push .Net. It's for the most part very similar across ARM and x86.
3) Intel's Atom CPU still no where near typical ARM units in terms of power usage or flexibility. For example, the ARM CPU in my handset when idle scales back to 4Mhz, and when called on can clock upto >=500Mhz. This enables it to last for DAYS on a 950mAh battery. This is not something Atom can, or will ever be able to do.
A little off-topic:
Anyone know where I can score that wallpaper?
i want it too
I think this is it:
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:EYToQnbnHeqTyM:http://www.free-widescreen-wallpaper.com/d/74659/-/sunrise-from-space_2560_x_1600.jpga
Also:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=earth%20sun%20rise%20space&sa=N&tab=wi&um=1
I had the same wallpapper