The huge popularity of netbooks caught most manufacturers by surprise, and some of those who joined the party late definitely missed out on the most bacony of hors d'œuvres. Now many are eager to sink their teeth into the next two "big things," e-readers and tablets, and according to
Actualitte Packard Bell has one of each coming next year. First up will be an 11.6-inch convertible netbook arriving in February, probably a slightly re-styled version of the
Acer 1820PT, which will apparently launch with a netbook-specific content distribution system to push music and movies to its tiny little hard drive. More interesting is word of a color e-reader said to come sometime later in the year. No other details are known, leaving us to wonder who will provide the screen.
Samsung,
Bridgestone,
Plastic Logic, and
PVI are all planning to launch color products next year, meaning PB will have plenty of options -- assuming it doesn't just slap a traditional LCD in there and call it a day. That'd be a shame.
posted December 11th 2009 6:58AM
A color e-reader, with WIFI capability. Now that would be something I'd be interested in.
Maybe some minor browsing ability, not a big deal if it isn't uber fast. WIFI download to the reader.
But color, Yeaaaaaaaa.
@(Unverified)
I'm also making a color e-book and convertible tablet that beams rainbows to starving children. lol
Everyone is making an e-book next year. Is it such a big deal that now we need a press release for each? At least 2 of the ebooks next year will have what you want though.
Whoa, and I thought I would never see that monitor again. Thanks Geritol.
awwww, i miss my $2000 166 mhz beast of a packard bell
oh maan... I totally had that monitor 15 years ago...
@(Unverified) I had the one with the manual controls and the speakers that attached to the sides. Happy days lol
@wizk1 Wooo! Happy Days xD!
@(Unverified)
That is the first thing I thought of too. I spent many hours in front of that screen.
I probably still have it down in the basement too.
I seem to remember that it only did 1024x768 in *interlaced* mode :)
@(Unverified)
lol me also. I remeber when buying the computer, we "upgraded" to the 15-inch model lol
Packard WHO?!?!
Tell me this is not really their attempt at a comeback. How many e-readers do we really need anyway?
@SuperHaole Dude, their pricing in Europe is killer right know.. I own a PB 12 inch laptop, a P7350, 3 gigs of ram and a x4500 HD gpu.. For this lovely beauty I've payed 500€ and called it a day.
When I look at that photo, the first thing that comes to mind is....
"I AM A PC!"
"IT'S ALIVE!!!" I mean, for God's sake, die already.
Where are the speakers? That monitor is nothing without those honking things on the sides.
Man, that brings back memories....of crappy computers.
I had that same exact monitor back in '95. No lie.
I had a very similar monitor in 1997. Memories!
My God, I can't believe Packard Bell is still alive.
But I'm sure these products will be, um, just great.
Crapard Bell to the rescue!!!!!!
Woah - that was an unexpected flood of nostalgic feeling
Yeah, Packard Bell are still going.. I'm using one at the moment, can't say I have any complaints with it.
I've also got an ancient 10-year old PB that still runs just fine.. it was damn good back in it's day with the new pentium 3 processor and DVD-reader drive. Ran red alert 2 at super-fast speeds.
Finally replaced it last year but it served me well, lasted through full 8 years of use and abuse and several house moves with no grumbles.
People have way too short replacement cycles on their PC hardware... anything less than 5-years is too short IMO.
packard bell? really? I would have bet any amount of money that this company didnt exist anymore. I guess i got lucky^^
Don't be fooled by the brand name alone, Acer acquired Packard-Bell in 2008. Nice to see more manufacturers competing in the reader space, ideally this leads to more interesting feature sets and more competitive pricing as time goes on.
-------flatline----------------------------------^bleep^----------------------------------
Maybe there is a hope afterall...
Acer bought Packard Hell, but I'm willing to bet they never bring that brand back across the pond again. My Packard Hell lasted 14 months before one part after another failed. I don't care who owns them now its a name I will never want to see in my house again.
Acer, I'm fine with but that name just makes me go into a fit of spasms lol.
How about a combo modem/sound card? For which off-the-shelf replacements won't work?
Or an ORANGE keyboard plug? And green mouse plug?
I had a client have his modem go out, but the PB slimline wouldn't work with a standard ISA winmodem. Had to use a 48.8k DIP-switched modem. And he lost his sound with it, since that part was working but you can't disable the modem and it conflicted with anything else I tried.
Fun days.
According to the comments, Packard Bell should rebrand.
Phlavor'
There is a lot of hate for PB in the US. You will find way more people that hate that brand for good reason then had success with it.
Michael Pollard
Now those were the days!
Hey thats my first computer monitor/computer Pentium 233mhz, 4gb hdd, 64mb Ram those were the days lol
My god. Make one with a freaking built-in light!!!!
Man that brings back some memories of long nights with Guybrush Threepwood.