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Acer to join the Moblin Linux bandwagon
Moblin -- the Intel lovin' Linux flavor we've heard so much about recently -- just got some major support from Acer, who plans on slapping it on laptops, desktop PCs, and its Aspire One nettops. According to PC World, a press conference held today saw a wide range of Moblin versions (including Suse, Xandros, Linpus, Red Flag, and Ubuntu Moblin) installed on netbooks from companies that included HP, Asustek, MSI, and Hasee Computer; MIDs by the likes of BenQ and Compal; and even an Eee Keyboard. Not too bad for an OS that wasn't even an OS when we first laid eyes on it, eh? We'll keep our eyes peeled for those machines from Acer. In the mean time, how about that Tony Hawk Ride? Man, that looks sweet.
NEC's VersaPro UltraLite Type VS is thicker but lighter than Air
Another challenger enters the ultrathin notebook arena. This time it's NEC, prepping its lightest and daintiest edition of the UltraLite line, the Type VS. Its thickness ranges from 15.8mm to 29.9mm, comparing unfavorably to the 19.4mm MacBook Air or the 16.51mm Adamo. But, its 725g weight (about a pound and a half) definitely undercuts the competition, and its three USB slots, Ethernet port, and SD card reader give reasonable connectivity without external adapters. Its 10.6-inch screen has a resolution of 1208 x 768, the CPU is Intel's 1.86GHz Atom Z540 (the same as found in the higher-spec version of the Vaio P), 1GB of RAM is on tap, and a 64GB SSD keeps things persistent. Solid specs for sure, and with an asking price of around ¥99,750 (a little over $1,000) it should be reasonably solid value when it hits Japanese retailers in July. Just don't go wasting your summer waiting for these to appear domestically.Update: That ¥99,750 is actually a special promotional price for those who pre-order directly through NEC. The device's MSRP after that will be nearly double, ¥176,000 ($1,850), and while we're guessing it'll sell for something less than that, it still won't be nearly the bargain early-adopters will receive.[Via PC Watch]
Lenovo's IdeaPad S12: first netbook with NVIDIA's Ion chipset
We've seen NVIDIA's Ion placed within a nettop, a motherboard, and now (at long last), a laptop. Yep, the machine you're inevitably peering at above (Lenovo's S12) is both the company's first 12.1-inch netbook and the planet's first netbook with Ion baked in, and it's likely just a snippet of the kind of material we can expect to see at Computex. Frankly, this is one of the first netbooks in ages that has managed to get our blood moving, with a 100-percent full-size keyboard, the promise of 1080p video playback (for an extra $50), a sub-3 pound weight and a starting tag of just $449. Other specs include a WXGA (1,280 x 800) resolution LED-backlit panel, Intel's 1.6GHz Atom CPU (the one big "ugh"), 1GB of DDR2 memory, 160/250/320GB HDD options, an optional 6-cell battery, Ethernet jack, WiFi, Bluetooth, three USB 2.0 sockets, an ExpressCard slot, a 4-in-1 card reader and VGA / HDMI outputs. Thankfully you'll find Windows XP running the show, and you'll be able to grab your own starting next month. Full release is after the break.
Lenovo gets budget-friendly with IdeaPad U350, G550 and IdeaCentre C300
The IdeaPad S12 isn't the only new kit flowing from RTP today, as Lenovo is also choosing to celebrate Memorial Day with two new lappies and an all-in-one desktop. Starting things off is the IdeaPad U350 (shown above), a thin-and-light machine that packs a 13.3-inch LED-backlit display (1,366 x 768), an HDMI output, an ambient light sensor and your choice of Intel's 1.4GHz Core 2 Solo SU3500, the 1.3GHz SU2700 or 1.2GHz Celeron 723. There's also room for a 500GB hard drive, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a GMA 4500M / 4500 MHD graphics set, 1.3 megapixel camera, multi-touch trackpad, twin 1.5-watt speakers, Vista Home Basic / Premium and an optional 8-cell battery good for up to 10 hours of use. Next up is the business-like G550, which sports a 15.6-inch display, a non-nonsense enclosure, WiFi, Bluetooth, DVD burner and a numeric keypad for crunching those end of quarter numbers. You'll also get upwards of 4GB of DDR3 RAM, up to 320GB of hard drive space, a Core 2 Duo processor, GMA X4500 or GeForce G105M graphics, HDMI output and up to five hours of battery life with the included 6-cell Li-ion. Wrapping things up is the IdeaCentre C300 all-in-one, which aims squarely at the low-end with a lackluster Atom 230 processor, integrated Intel graphics and a preposterously low price tag. The machine features a 20-inch LCD, up to 2GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB to 640GB HDD, Ethernet, WiFi, 1.3 megapixel camera, FireWire, six USB 2.0 sockets, a 6-in-1 multicard reader and a starting price tag of just $449. Not a terrible choice for the devout web surfer in your family, we must say. The full release and specifications list awaits you just past the break.
Onkyo's new Sotec DC204A3 netbook has 32GB SSD, no love for VGA or wired Ethernet
We like a good netbook that's so small it doesn't have room for any pesky, legacy inputs keeping you tethered to the wall (and thus The Man) -- but we're not sure we'd consign VGA and Ethernet to the Closet of Obsoletion just yet. Onkyo seems to be opening the door, moving the two ports to a USB break-out box on its latest Sotec, the DC204A3. That wouldn't really be a problem if the adapter didn't look to be about a third as big as the netbook itself (see for yourself after the break). Otherwise we have a slender but standard Atom N270 netbook, with 945GSE graphics, 1GB of ram, and a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 display. Notable is the 32GB SSD, which sounds quite nice, but with a ¥49,800 ($529) asking price, you're certainly paying for it. Available to forward-looking Japanese starting at the end of the month.[Via Akihabara News]
Intel reveals notebook and netbook plans for the rest of the year
The netbook formula hasn't evolved much since its inception, still offering largely the same configuration and performance as it ever has. That likely won't change until the end of the summer, with Intel announcing that it's even thinking about retiring the newer Atom N280 processor and GN40 chipset entirely, leaving the older and more common N270 with its 945GSE as the main choice until September, when the new Pineview Atom chips might finally hit production. The company is also creating a whitebox N270-based 8.9-inch netbook that it's shopping around to resellers, again not doing any favors to fans of variety. Moving up to skinny 12- to 13-inch notebooks, Intel is still pushing its CULV architecture, and has its dual-core Calpella platform poised for inclusion in anything with a targeted MSRP of $1,200 and above -- and a release date sometime after the third quarter. That's a few months too late to catch the needy college freshman crowd, Intel.
ASUS releases new Eee PC 1008HA Seashell down by Swansea
ASUS is finally ready to start selling the latest installment in the Eee PC family, the 1008HA Seashell that we've seen popping up here and there at various prices. The official, tax-inclusive UK price of £379 is now confirmed, which is perhaps a little steep for this svelte but otherwise identical revision to the franchise, still offering that good 'ol 1.6GHz processor, 160GB hard disk, 10-inch screen, and GMA graphics. Look for these to start shipping in about two weeks to stylish Brits, while we elsewhere in the world will just have to keep waiting.
Velocity Micro's Atom N270-packing NoteMagix M10 coming this month for $380
Largely under the radar since its CES debut -- and even then there wasn't much to say, frankly -- Velocity Micro's 10.2-inch NoteMagix M10 is on sale with an April 30 estimated ship date. Base price is $380, and color notwithstanding (it comes in red, blue, and black), the only customization option really is a DVD writer for $70. What you do get, however, is the usual spec list that comes along with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, along with the pleasant surprise of a 6-cell battery. The big question now is if there's really enough here to divert attention from any of the other, more dominant brands in this hyper-saturated netbook market.[Via PC Launches]
When netbook processors compete, everyone wins
You know the drill: the Atom is the king of all netbooks, with a domain stretching as far as the eye can see. But, upstarts like the Via Nano and AMD's Athlon Neo are encroaching on Intel's domain, and Crave took the time to pit examples of the three against each other in a series of benchmarks to see which should rule the land. Rather sadly for us, each of the three tests had a different winner, with the Atom N280 excelling in multi-tasking, the Nano U2250 best for iTunes encoding, and the Neo MV-40 quickest under a Jalbum-based benchmark. So you know what that means: everyone gets a prize, nobody has to go home crying, and you should just go ahead and buy whichever netbook you like best already.Update: It's actually unclear which proc won which test, as the table at the source shows one thing, but the text swaps the Neo and Nano around. But, again, there's not much between these three.
Michael Arrington drops science on CrunchPad, still won't sell us one
In case you missed it (we all have our off days, it's fine) we got our hands on a mess of leaked CrunchPad photos yesterday, and we have to say -- the device looks pretty damn good. Now that the cat's out of the bag, a certain Michael Arrington has shed a little light into what's going on over there at CrunchGear HQ. He says that the "significant step forward" for the device has been in regards to the software stack -- it's now entirely customized, including the (Linux) OS and browser. It also sports an Intel Atom chip; previously, the device has been running Ubuntu on a VIA chipset. "The total software footprint is around 100 MB," he writes, "which is a solid achievement." And last but not least, the industrial design and hardware for this bad boy is being done by an outfit in Singapore called Fusion Garage. It looks like the project is in good hands. But anything beyond that -- including, sadly, a timeframe -- is still anyone's guess.
Intel debuts 2GHz Atom Z550 processor, demos Moorestown platform
In celebration of the Atom's one-year anniversary, Intel's unveiled Z550, the latest processor in the family and as the rumors suggested, it clocks in at a pretty impressive 2GHz along with support for Hyperthreading, all in under three watts of power usage. Additionally, it took the veil off of the Z515 with Intel Burst Performance Technology, which can bump the speed up to 1.2GHz. In more forward-thinking news, senior VP and general manager Anand Chandrasekher demoed its Moorestown MID platform on stage at a presentation, which we last heard was supposed to show itself in a more tangible form sometime this month via an Archos netbook. We've contacted Intel for video of that demonstration, so you're just gonna have to wait a bit for that.Update: The Moorestown demo was (how should we put this)... lame -- from a consumer's standpoint anyway. Instead of demonstrating it in a hand-held MID, Intel was again showing off silicon in a desktop rig strapped to enough life support to keep AMD afloat. The demo did show the 10x less idle power consumption promised but we've got a ways to go (2010 or before) before we see Moorestown product.
ASUS announces Eee PC E1004DN with optical drive, 1008HA gets a release date
In a bombshell of moderate proportions, the gang at DigiTimes have reported that ASUS will be following Mouse Computer's lead (when was the last time you heard that?), and have announced the first Eee PC equipped with an optical drive, the E1004DN. This bad boy sports an Intel Atom N280 CPU, a 120GB HDD, and will be in the ballpark of NT $18,000 - 20,000 (roughly $531 - $590). It should see the light of day sometime in mid-April. The same source reports that the Eee PC 1008HA will be getting its release in May. Out of curiosity, we asked @billyjoel for a comment and have yet to receive a response.
Intel's Z5xx series of Atom processors hits 2GHz
Intel just got finished telling us how great its Atom Z5xx series of chips were, in flavors ranging from 1.1 to 1.86GHz, and how they only needed a miserly 2.2 watts or less of power. They weren't good enough, apparently, as there are two new members now joining the ranks. First is the Z550, featuring a clock speed of 2GHz while still using less than 2.4 watts. Also new is the more frugal Z515, with a dynamic clock speed ranging between 800MHz and 1.33GHz to suit you whether you're playing Solitaire or watching Survivor re-runs. These chips too seem destined for mobile phones and MIDs, but we wouldn't be surprised if Sony releases a (slightly) speedier VAIO P packing a Z550 -- and then refuses to import it to the States.[Via Pocketables]
Sony's Vaio P benchmarked in all its magnificent and diverse forms
Thanks to the work of the gang making time over at their Vaio P forum, the folks at Pocketables have been able to compile benchmarks of all the various configurations of the ultraportable. Including the three models available domestically (which all sport a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520) and the various 1.6GHz Z530 and 1.86GHz Z540-based machines available elsewhere, this ragtag group of benchmarksters have come to the conclusion that the main factor when it comes to the machine's performance is the disk drive type. "Yes," writes Jenn Lee, "the faster CPUs give the ALU/FLU numbers a noticeable bump up, but it's not as significant as the increase seen between a HDD and SSD." Hopefully this is some small comfort to those of you who are miffed that the 1.86GHz model isn't available in the States. Of course, now that we've seen the Vaino we're so over Sony's sassy'n'classy non-netbook, but if you're morbidly curious the read link tells the whole sordid tale.
Intel intros specialized Atom for cars and other devices, outsources some Atom manufacturing
We've already seen the Atom used in a few somewhat surprising places, but Intel now looks to really be making an earnest push to expand its base, with it introducing four new specialized Atom processors (and two new system controllers to go along with 'em) that it hopes will find their way into in-car devices, internet phones, and a whole host of industrial-strength applications. Relying on the same 45nm manufacturing process, the new Atom Z5xx series processors expectedly aren't too radically different from the average Atom, with them clocking in between 1.1GHz and 1.6GHz, and boasting a TDP rating of 2.0 or 2.2 watts, although they do have some "embedded lifecycle support" thrown in for good measure. In related news, Intel has also announced that it'll be outsourcing "some" Atom manufacturing to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (or TSMC), which apparently marks the first time that Intel has licensed its CPU core to a foundry.Read - Press Release, "New Specialized Intel Atom Processor Targets Cars, Internet Phones"Read - Physorg / AP, "Intel outsourcing some Atom manufacturing to TSMC"
Toradex's Robin stuffs Atom-based computer on credit card-sized module
You may scoff at netbooks for their perceived lack of horsepower, but what if that not-quite phenomenal cosmic power was itty-bitty enough to fit in your (necessarily oversized) wallet? Toradex has unveiled the credit card-sized Robin Z510 and Z530 computer modules, which manages to fit quite a bit in fairly small space. The two mainboards feature a 1.1GHz Intel Atom Z510 and 1.6GHz Atom Z530 (the same processor found in the Vaio P), respectively, as well as integrated GMA500 graphics card with HD capabilities, support for up to seven USB 2.0 ports, and on board microSD slot (pictured, bottom left), 512MB DDR2 RAM, and 2GB solid state flash disk. Enthusiasts can order it now for 129 € / 179€ ($164 / $227), but there's about a $20 discount if you're willing to buy in bulks of 10,000 or more.[Via Slash Gear]
Archos announces new Moorestown-based netbook, 9-inch tablet
We saw the rough'n'ready Archos 10 get reviewed mere days ago, and now the company's back with the Atom-powered Archos 10s, a new 20mm thin netbook with 3.5G functionality, 1GB memory, Windows XP Home and up to 160GB storage. Additionally, the company has designs on a 17mm-thin, 9-inch tablet based on Intel's Moorestown MID platform, to see the light of day sometime this year. This guy will include the Intel System Controller Hub chipset, up to 160GB storage, VOD and hi-def video playback, and digital TV reception. The Archos 10s should be available sometime in April, at a price to be announced. [Via UMPC Portal]Read - "ARCHOS announces new generation innovative MiniPCs based on Intel Atom Processor" (Warning: PDF)
QNAP's new 4-bay Atom-based TS-439 Pro Turbo NAS
It's already been an exciting year for QNAP fanboys... not only has the company graced the world (and our pages) with a new 6-bay NAS, but it's already back for more. Billed as "the world's first 4-bay Intel Atom-based NAS," the TS-439 Pro Turbo NAS sports an Intel 1.6GHz CPU, 1GB memory, support for RAID 0/1/5/6/5+spare configurations, up to 6TB capacity (that's before you start adding external drives) and a whole host of server functions, including all the FTPing, DDNS, MySQL and XDove mail servin' your little heart desires. And if that weren't enough, the Surveillance Station feature supports video monitoring and recording from up to four IP-based cameras. No price listed, but we do have plenty of glamor shots for you in the gallery below.%Gallery-43822%
Viliv's S5 MID goes haptic, will move you in March
Viliv has been showing some potential lately with its touchable upcoming products, the clean looking S7 netbook tablet and S5 MID. We received some further information on the latter of those two this morning, most notable being the inclusion of haptic feedback that should make its 4.8-inch, 800 x 480 1024 x 600 screen feel a little more tactile. We also got confirmation that the device will be running Windows XP hidden behind a custom UI overlay that, we presume, will be similar to the one we saw running at CES on the S7. Still no price, but the company is aiming for a March release domestically. Our fingers are tingling with anticipation.%Gallery-43717%
Gateway's LT1004U netbook lands domestically, at Office Depot of all places
We can't get up for a nice cuppa these days without tripping over some new netbook, but still every now and again one offers styling that catches our eye. Such was the case with Packard Bell's "dot," an Aspire One rebadge with a striking red metallic hinge but otherwise familiar internals. It later appeared as a Gateway in Singapore, and reader APowe emailed to say he'd seen one prowling the aisles at a local Office Depot. We were incredulous, but he drove back to get proof and was kind enough to pass the resulting pics along. Gateway is calling this the LT1004U domestically; it has the standard netbook specs you've come to love (9-inch screen, Atom 270, 160GB drive, 1GB RAM, Win XP) and is selling for a quite competitive $379. This particular one was spotted in Redmond, WA, but maybe you'll be lucky enough to find one near you.[Thanks, APowe]
