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Video: Lanyu's $98 LY-EB01 smartbook reviewed, disliked
It wouldn't have taken a gadget guru to see this one coming: the first review of the Lanyu LY-EB01, the $98 smartbook with a 266MHz (yes, one-quarter of one GHz) ARM processor, is not especially positive, scoring 15 points out of a possible 30 at Shanzai.com. Build quality is actually reasonably highly rated, with the machine having a solid feel and, impressively, not a single moving part (unless you count electrons). After that everything goes downhill, with the keyboard said to be cramped, that tiny screen too tiny, and its Windows CE 5.0 operating system described as "Win 98 with a hangover." Having spent a few too many nights up late cleaning up after that animal, we're not particularly inclined to show up for this party. CE is apparently the biggest killer here, with minimal support for multimedia content, productivity apps, and even web surfing. An Android install would have made this thing into something of an interesting commodity, but as-is it seems less functional than your average smartphone. See for yourself in the video review after the break.
ARM CEO hints at possible Windows 7 support for ARM processors
This could just be a case of a CEO letting his wishful thinking out into the open, but ARM's Warren East was apparently all too happy to talk about the possibility of Windows 7 supporting ARM processors during a recent analysts conference call, even if he wasn't quite ready to offer much of anything in the way of specifics. He did lay out the scenario pretty well, however, leading off by saying that "Microsoft will continue to play an important part in this [netbook] space," and that "if there was Windows support for the ARM processor today clearly it would be a very different marketplace." To which he apparently quickly added, "perhaps there will be support in future but that's really for Microsoft to comment on and not for us to comment on, I'm afraid." Of course, all of this is made all the more interesting given ARM's increasing interest in the netbook space, which is certainly a tough nut to crack without Microsoft's assistance -- Android possibilities notwithstanding.[Via Electronista]
