Mobinnova's
élan, or the Beam as it's reportedly known as now, is a curious beast. It runs Windows CE, yet it's packing NVIDIA's
Tegra graphics technology. Thus, it's not really a netbook, but calling it a
smartbook might be short-changing it. Whatever the case, a recent interview with Mobinnova's CTO Mark Anderson has unearthed plans to launch the machine at CES 2010 with an undisclosed mobile carrier (or more, maybe) in America. We're also told that it should last between five and ten hours when playing back HD video, or up to 24 hours if it's just sitting around looping an iTunes playlist. Needless to say, our interest is definitely piqued -- hit the read link for a gallery of shots, and keep an eye right here for the rest of the story direct from Vegas.
[Via
Slashgear]
posted Oct 14th 2009 11:03AM
where's my Tegra phone?
...but it runs on fun.
Isn't this the definition of a smartbook?
Also, how can you loop 24 hours on an iTunes playlist with Windows CE? Did Apple recently come out with a port for Windows CE I'm not aware of?
Hmmm... interesting.
smartbooks are too ugly, if anything they should be considerably thinner than netbooks
Nothing says "runs on fun" like black text on grey.
Maybe it's running out of fun.
WinCE is right.
Took me a second, but I got it.
The designation "netbook" would make complete sense on these machines, but instead it was given to those laptop with low power consumption.
*sigh*
I'll be waiting for more details about this little machine, it sounds like a nice media center if it has HDMI, to stream content from a LAN.
I almost thought it said moblin for a sec there
Someone really needs to bring back the Vadem Clio and put some decent hardware in it. Would make a great Atom based Netbook. It was a truly great form factor.
Too bad. I had planned on picking up one of these. Not anymore.
Interesting to see if it uses CE as its visible OS or just behind the scenes. Some users will doubtless try to install regular Windows programs, since it looks like XP.
The best aspect of Windows CE is the ability for instant on/off, like Windows Mobile (if implemented). If it can run with low consumption for 24 hours, it can run in soft-off for a week or more, just turned on for actual use.
Concerning the iTunes playlist, maybe the manufacturer created some custom app that handles iTunes sideloads.
"You could think of it as a smart phone with a bigger screen and keyboard (without voice)"... Uh, excuse me? What's left in this comparison? A "Pocket PC" would be a better comparison, "with a bigger screen and keyboard."
Sounds like the "Handheld PC" is making a return, but described for people who have already forgotten them. Though a Google Voice app could overcome the lack mentioned above, since carrier pairing implies WWAN onboard.
"It steals your fun away to operate, leaving you a shelled and lifeless husk after seeing how little it can really do for $200 + 70/month while your friends are laughing at you behind their ION netbooks and plastc-macs."
Seriously, if all I wanted to do was output HD or music I'd get one of the new pocket PMPs like the Zune HD or an Archos. We've already got low-cost machines that are small and run for 8-12 hours for browsing. Heck, those are on sale because they're nearly obsolete now (the Acer 1005 comes to mind). Why release something with even less? This is just a bizarre amalgam of compromises.
What is the difference between this and Mobinnova's N910?
/G
Does this mean If I'm not having fun with my underpowered net-ma-jigger, It will run out of juice? How am I supposed to watch porn then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????
"shortchange " it by calling it a smartbook because it has Nvidia's tegra chip? hardly... Why all this "Tegra" hype nonsense? Tegra still uses old 600mhz ARM11 cores --- not ARM Cortex-A8 or snapdragon cores --- and the embedded graphics are no better than the newest PowerVR SGX variants.
Even a run-of-the-mill Intel Atom netbook would blow this thing away. ARM is not competitive with Atom until we start seeing dual-core Cortex-A9s running over 1.0Ghz...
the "runs ain't fun"