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Acer reveals Timeline Ultra at CES: eight hours of life, shipping Q1 2012
Wondering just how hot the Ultrabook token is here at CES? Wonder no more. Acer just tacked "Ultra" onto its revised Timeline series, pushing the actual boundaries of the definition. The new range -- which includes a 14-inch and 15-inch model -- touts up to eight hours of battery life, a "two-spindle" design, Instant On functionality, a chassis that measures 20mm thick, Intel's latest Core i processors, dedicated graphics and a slim DVD Super Multi optical drive. Those who buy in will get their choice of HDD or SSD and an HDMI port, with shipments starting this quarter. Shame there's no price to pore over, though.
Lineo's Warp 2 boots to Fedora on Atom in 4 seconds, MPC Data's SwiftBoot warms up embedded Linux in an instant
Alright, you caught us. We're suckers for speedy, unrealistically optimized boot times. The fine folks at Linux for Devices just highlighted two major players on the horizon: Lineo's Warp 2, which is about to launch; and MPC Data's SwiftBoot, which is now available. Both of them are less of a "boot" and more of a "wake from hibernation" sort of thing, but most of the issues are the same -- you still have to boot a kernel, whether or not you're gonna populate the system with a saved state when it's ready. Lineo is booting up Fedora Linux 12 on an Atom Z530 machine, and has just hit the 4.06 second mark -- compared to a 54.72 second "normal" boot time on the system. Meanwhile, MPC Data is going after much more of a niche, but doing it well: its SwiftBoot tech can get Linux up and running an actual application on an embedded device-ready Renesas SuperH SH7724 processor in under a second (0.982 seconds, to be precise). This one has to be seen to be believed, so check out the video after the break. Sure, it won't help you love your pokey PC or Mac any more (though Apple's doing its own work on this problem with its misnomered "instant on" feature on the MacBook Air, which wakes the computer from hibernation in a few seconds), but it's a nice glimpse of what's to come.
Dell adds cheaper Latitude On Flash module to some laptops
Dell's Latitude On quick-boot OS has been available on some of the company's laptops for a little while now, but it looks like Dell has now found a new way to make those laptops boot fast but be more affordable. That comes in the form of Latitude On Flash, which an actual flash module that snaps into a mini-card slot in the laptop and makes use of the laptop's own x86 processor to speed up the boot process instead of a separate ARM chip like current Latitude On systems. While that switch will still give you a boot time of eight to ten seconds, it apparently comes at some expense to battery life -- although we're guessing the lower cost (a $50 upgrade, as opposed to a $199 one) will make that trade-off more than acceptable to most users. Look for the upgrade right now on Dell's Latitude E4200, E4300 and Z laptops -- which, incidentally, also come with an updated Gen 2 interface for the Latitude On OS.
Lenovo and RIM's Constant Connect now available
We know you've been literally hanging on the edge of your seat waiting for this day to come, so it's our honor and privilege to announce that Lenovo and RIM's Constant Connect solution is now available. For those who managed to sleep right through February, the technology enables select ThinkPads to automatically pull down BlackBerry emails whenever it's within range, even if the laptop is completely off. There's no word on what it'll cost to have this added into your next corporate machine, but you can head past the break for a quick demonstration vid if you think you're interested.Update: It's a $149 option from select business partners and through Lenovo.com.
New silicon film ferroelectric may pave the way for instant-on computers (or maybe not)
While the gang at Toshiba are still trying to bring FeRAM to the masses, a team of researchers at Cornell University have devised a new ferroelectric material composed of silicon and strontium titanate that they say can be used (someday!) to build "instant on" transistors. And you know what that means -- instant on computers for students, and instant on death rays for future robot armies. To coax the generally mild-mannered strontium titanate into acting "ferro-electrified" (not an actual scientific term), researchers grew it onto a silicon substrate using a process known as epitaxy. The material literally squeezed itself within the spaces of the silicon molecules, which gave it ferroelectric properties. As you may have guessed, this research was partially funded by the Office of Naval Research -- so the "death ray" remark may not be so off base, after all. We'll keep an eye out.[Via Daily Tech]
Linpus Linux Lite OS caught on video
We just came across this video showing the Linpus Linux Lite OS in action. Aimed squarely at netbooks and the Splashtop crowd, the operating system comes to life pretty quickly on the pictured Acer Aspire One. Unlike Splashtop, however, this isn't part of the BIOS, "just a very very minimal customized Linux version, installed on the hard disk," as the guy in the video points out. We would, however, love to know what error message is being generated when he opens the media player. See for yourself after the break.[Via Netbook News]
MSI Winki eyes-on: it's an instant-on OS, but for desktops
MSI did a laudatory job this morning baffling us with its Winki release, but we managed to find an exceptionally kind, English-speaking representative at its CeBIT booth today who broke it down for us. In short, Winki is MSI's new instant-on operating system. It's Linux-based, and looks a heck of a lot more elaborate than the HyperSpace instant-on OS that we toyed with in January. The kicker is that at least for now, this thing is only for desktops, as it's actually built into a small module (shown above) that plugs directly into an MSI motherboard. At first, only select mainboards will come bundled with Winki, but it just might roll out across MSI's entire mobo line. The dame we spoke with wouldn't divulge any details on whether this OS would ever come to its wide-ranging laptop line, but we suspect it will in due time. Winki provides easy access to IM services, Skype and the internet, which is a shortcut to Doom away from being all the true gamer needs in life, anyway.%Gallery-46705%
Corel brings InstantON technology to Sony's VAIO P
Man, that first edition VAIO P was not the one to buy. Just a month after we saw the thing unveiled at CES, we've already learned that a Gobi-equipped version is on the way. Furthermore, Corel has just proclaimed that all future VAIO Ps will ship with its own InstantON technology to alleviate slow boot times associated with running Windows Vista on an Atom CPU. As with most alternatives, Corel's version of the software enables users to surf the web, check email, chat online and play back photos, videos and music in seconds after turning on their machine, and it sounds like Corel has crafted a customized interface specifically for this pocket-friendly(ish) PC. If this just made your decision to run out and snag a VAIO P, you can find the Corel-equipped version now in Japan and elsewhere later this month.[Via GadgetMix] Update: In order to address some understandable confusion with this release, Sony has provided the following response: "All of the P Series shipped to date come equipped with Gobi mobile broadband technology and the instant-mode option, but certain feature deployment varies region by region. As such, the mobile broadband feature is exclusively supported by the Verizon Wireless network for all US customers."
Lenovo Constant Connect brings BlackBerry email to ThinkPads automatically
After two years in development, Lenovo Constant Connect is finally here. A groundbreaking new tie-up between Lenovo and RIM has led to the creation of a $150 54mm ExpressCard -- which slots into any ThinkPad from around Summer '08 onward -- and automatically pulls down any email sent to your BlackBerry via Bluetooth, even if the laptop is completely powered down. The idea here is to always have your most recent inbox available within eight seconds of opening your machine, and thanks to the card's dedicated Bluetooth radio and 500MB of inbuilt storage, it can pull down and send out emails so long as the card and your 'Berry are within 30 feet or so from one another. Aside from needing an ExpressCard slot, you'll also need a handset with OS 4.2 or higher. It's designed to work with Exchange, Outlook, POP and Gmail, with Lotus Notes support coming in 2H 2009; as for availability, the card will be available through Lenovo and its partners in early Q2 here in America, while those elsewhere in the world will have to wait until the latter half of the year. Full release and demo video is after the break.
gOS "Cloud" instant-on OS comes to Gigabyte touchscreen netbooks
Not that we were too impressed with gOS when we first saw Rocket almost a year ago, but Cloud -- the small footprint, quick boot Linux variant that Good OS introduced today at the Netbook World Summit in Paris -- looks like an altogether different beast. Arriving pre-installed alongside Windows on the new Gigabyte touchscreen netbooks (perhaps some variant of the M912V), the new SplashTop-esque OS uses a web browser as its main interface, with an integrated dock providing such Web 2.0 mainstays as Skype, YouTube and the Google family of apps -- and if this smattering of tools doesn't meet all of your computing needs, you can always boot into your main OS from there. Cloud can be installed as a dual-boot partition on your hard drive or SSD as well as onto a flash chip hardwired onto a motherboard. That's all we have for now, but you can bet we'll be on hand to check it out at CES in January.
ASRock's Instant Boot: 0 to Vista in 4 seconds
ASRock has a ploy to sell more of its motherboards: Instant Boot. The BIOS update for select MoBos promises to boot XP or Vista systems 10 times faster than standard PCs -- in other words, about 3 to 4 seconds from a full shutdown. ASRock achieves this minor of miracles through manipulation of the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface that Microsoft manipulates for its sleep and hibernate modes. At the risk of oversimplification, ASRock appears to add the processing baggage to the backend of the shutdown process, essentially rebooting the OS and then dropping it into a suspended state ready to instantly pop on the next time you hit the power button. Pretty smart actually. Here's the catch: the system you're using must be limited to a single user account without any password protection -- a definite no-no for corporate environments. See what happens when Hugo and George steal Dad's camcorder after the break.[Thanks, Daniel]
Splashtop 'Quick Start' comes to the Lenovo IdeaPad S10e
It looks like Splashtop -- the instant-on, quickboot Linux OS that's been cropping up on a smattering of motherboards and PCs lately -- is headed onto a smaller platform. The company announced today that it's going to be loading up Lenovo's IdeaPad S10e netbook with a healthy dose of the software -- dubbed "Quick Start" -- allowing you to get to that all-important YouTube video faster than previously thought possible. This marks the first time Splashtop is making its way to a netbook, and we expect it will be shipping on all new models, though the company hasn't been explicit about that. We'll keep our fingers crossed, and let you know if we hear otherwise.
Microsoft survey hints at Instant On OS concept
Hmm, what have we here? A recent Microsoft survey sent out to select users has us wondering what on Earth the mega-corp is planning to do next, and judging by the looks of things, it has everything to do with Instant On. We've seen a number of these lightning-fast boot applications, with the most recent being ASUS' Splashtop OS and the iteration loaded onto Dell's freshest Latitudes. The survey makes mention that the "Instant On experience is different from 'Full Windows' because it limits what activities you can do and what applications you have access to." The survey also asks about which applications would be most important to have quick access to, and it very plainly states that in this "scenario," your PC would "be usable in eight seconds." So, is Instant On coming to Windows? Who knows -- but it's clear someone at Redmond is giving it some thought.[Thanks, Anonymous]%Gallery-34564%
Dell's E4300 and E4200 Latitude laptops available this Tuesday
Hey, remember those totally slick Latitude E4300 and E4200 13.3- or 12.1-inch laptops we told you about last month? Well if you've been itching to get your hands on one, they're going to be available very, very soon (September 16th, that is). If you'll recall, these little dudes boast Dell's new Latitude ON feature, the SplashTop-esque, instant-on desktop that gives you quick access to Firefox and a handful of other Linux-based apps. They also happen to tread that fine line between geek-lust design and hard-nose business machine guts. The systems will be available with Core 2 Duo CPUs, DDR3 RAM up to 8GB, hard drives up to 250GB (or a 64GB SSD), WiFi, and sport 1280 x 800 widescreen displays. Hit the read link for more details, and make sure to double check your account balances.[Thanks, Filip]
Phoenix Technologies launches HyperSpace "instant on" embedded OS
It appears that DeviceVM won't be able to sit around and gloat over its "instant on" SplashTop Linux OS that's being integrated into ASUS motherboards, as they've got some competition on the horizon. A company called Phoenix Technologies is introducing a new mini-OS called HyperSpace (what's with all these compound names?) that features a four second boot time. Using a form of virtualization which sets aside memory and disk space for the small boot, the ROM-based environment lets you access Firefox, launch a DVD movie, or fire up other apps while your system loads Vista or XP in the background. Apparently, the BIOS-embedded platform will also allow manufacturers and developers to embed their own, customized applications, thus extending the range of uses for the system. Soon, you won't have to wait even a tenth of a minute to check your Facebook inbox.[Via Good Morning Silicon Valley]
ASUS P5E3 Deluxe mobo boots in five seconds with embedded Linux
If you're an impatient individual, you're probably going to like what you hear about ASUS's newest motherboard, the P5E3 Deluxe. Sound fancy? Well, it is -- featuring Intel's X38 chipset (with an FSB running at 1600MHz), Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme CPU support, plus the company's Energy Processing Unit, 8-phase power, and WiFi-AP. Of course, that won't help with your MTV-generation attention span and lack of patience, but the embedded micro-Linux variant, Express Gate, just might. You see, when you boot the system, you're given an option to immediately enter into a small Linux OS -- within five seconds, they say -- called SplashTop (developed by DeviceVM). The OS is coupled with a stripped-down version of Firefox and Skype, allowing you to update your Facebook profile almost instantly. The whole shebang is available right now for three-hundred and sixty of your precious dollars.[Via Phoronix]
ASUS' A8Jm Core Duo laptop reviewed
According to Notebook Review, ASUS' 14.1-inch A8Jm Core Duo-powered laptop is a powerful, feature-filled machine that provides good value for its $1,550 pricetag -- but you also have to factor the cost of potential Geek Squad service calls into that price, because ASUS' tech support options, both online and over-the-phone, are judged to be pretty mediocre. Still, even after having no luck -- and getting no help -- figuring out why the InstantON button on his unit was causing the notebook to boot directly into Windows, the reviewer doesn't hesitate to recommend the A8Jm almost without reservation, citing its video capabilities (a nVidia GeForce Go 7600 card pushing 1,280 x 800 pixels), connectivity options (WiFi, ExpressCard, card reader, and FireWire, DVI, S/PDIF, and five USB 2.0 ports), quiet operation, and most importantly, the speed of its 1.83GHz T2400 processor and 667MHz DDR2 RAM. Besides that buggy InstantON button, the lack of built-in Bluetooth seems to be the only real knock against this model (especially since European versions have it while North American ones don't), but that's an issue you can easily remedy on your own.
