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ASUS EeeTop PC ET20 and ET22 now official, ready for a touch of Windows 7
We've been anticipating these ION-infused EeeTops since CeBIT and, after a few leaks along the way, ASUS has finally made things official. The 20-inch ET2002 and ET2002T (guess which one comes with the touchscreen) get an Atom 330 riding that ION chipset with integrated graphics, 2GB of DDR2, 320GB storage, WiFi, a DVD rewriter and stereo speakers. The 22-inch ET2203T matches the connectivity options, but doubles the memory, adds Blu-ray and larger HDD options, ATI Radeon HD4570 graphics, and a choice between T4300 and T6500 Core 2 Duos. All can be used as standalone displays for consoles and the like via a handy HDMI-in. Most importantly though, with Windows 7 upgradability, these should be among the first machines to receive the coveted Windows Touch sticker. Wear it proudly, ASUS.
Samsung N510 unboxed, looking rather large sitting next to the NC10
We know the specs, the release window, even the price -- it feels like we're already intimately acquainted with Samsung's ION-powered N510 netbook, but honestly, we've never really seen it outside of a touched-up press photo. Netbooknews.de has gone ahead and fixed all that, giving us a good idea what we'll be taking home to mom and dad, from retail packaging all the way to the exposed underbelly. There's even a number of side-by-side shots with its older brother NC10, which looks downright tiny sitting next to its more powerful, but also pretty small kin. Want a good glimpse of what's likely to be the first ION netbook to US market? All relevant materials lie beyond the read links below. Update: Turns out the ION-equipped N510 has been pushed back until after the Windows 7 launch, at least for the US. Unboxing is from Germany, where the netbook's now on sale. [Thanks, buttons] Read - Samsung N510 unboxing (translated) Read - Flickr gallery
Lenovo's IdeaPad S12 with NVIDIA ION on hold pending Windows 7 debut
We were all excited for Lenovo's NVIDIA ION-powered IdeaPad S12, which was gonna be the first netbook to market with the HD-capable chipset -- but alas, it was not yet meant to be. Gizmodo reports the company has decided to delay the portable until the end of October, just after Windows 7's launch on the 22nd. By then it'll have to face competition from Samsung, whose $599 N510 will launch first in September, and possibly a rumored HP device coming in the next few weeks. We can take solace in the fact that the ION upgrade will only add $50 to the current $499 tag, but having to wait
ASUS' Ion-based Eee Top ET2002T makes itself known in France
ASUS sort of got official with its Eee Top ET2002T back at Computex in June, but it's looks like things are now a whole lot more real in France, where Blogee.net has gotten the pics and the complete specs of the all-in-one desktop. In addition to that all-important (and already known) Ion chipset, this one comes packing a 20-inch 1,600 x 900 display, an Atom 330 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, a DVD burner, and even an HDMI input in case you want to simply use it as a display, among some other fairly standard specs (detailed at the link below). Still no word on an official price or release over here, unfortunately, but it'll apparently be available in Europe in "several weeks" and run a not so low €598, or about $845.
Lenovo debuts IdeaCentre D400 home server, 'world's thinnest' Q100 and Q110 nettops
Remember those digital home products we saw Lenovo tease yesterday? Yeah, they're real, and they're now more official than ever. Kicking things off is the company's first-ever home server, the IdeaCentre D400, which sort of resembles a certain Acer product and supports up to 8TB of storage via multiple types / sizes of HDDs; there's also five USB sockets along with an eSATA port for adding even more storage externally. Next up is the IdeaCentre Q100 and NVIDIA Ion-powered Q110 nettops, both of which measure in at just 6- x 6.3- x 0.7-inches and offer plenty of basic power for the size. The WinXP-equipped Q100 hums along on 14 watts when idle (40 watts at full load) and sports a single VGA port, while the Vista-laden Q110 dishes out 1080p content over HDMI; further specs include an Atom 230 CPU, 1GB / 2GB of RAM, 160GB / 250GB hard drives, gigabit Ethernet and WiFi. As for pricing? The D400 should start around $499, the Q100 approximately $249 and the Q110 at $349 when they all ship next month. Feel free to peruse the full press release and specifications after the break.
Viako's Ion-equipped HTPC is more like an HD-capable nettop
You can tussle over semantics all day long (particularly machine translated semantics), but there's little doubt that Viako's Ion-equipped machine is more than eager to handle whatever high-def material you throw its way. The Mini E series of HTPCs (or nettops, if you will) looks to be available in a variety of configurations, with the higher-end model snagging an Atom N330 processor, NVIDIA's GeForce 9400M GPU, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, integrated WiFi, VGA / DVI / HDMI outputs, Ethernet, plenty of USB sockets and audio / in ports. There's no mention of price nor a stateside release date, but those in Seoul ought to find it in their local shops pretty soon.[Via AVING]
Ion-equipped Samsung N510 netbook shipping stateside next month
Momma always said you had to pay to play, and it looks like those Europeans won't be the only ones coughing up dearly for the pleasure of having NVIDIA's Ion platform shoved within Samsung's forthcoming N510 netbook. According to the fine folks over at Liliputing, a Samsung rep has confirmed to them that said machine will begin shipping to US soil starting in September (far later than the "July" date we heard earlier in the year), bringing with it a sizable 11.6-inch display, HDMI output, GeForce 9400M GPU, Atom processor and the ability to handle high-def and Blu-ray content. Trouble is, all that multimedia prowess will demand a stiff premium, and by "stiff," we mean "$599." So, is anyone actually planning on laying down six bills for a netbook, or did you just convince yourself that a thin-and-light is the way to go?
Samsung's Ion-infused N510 netbook steeply priced across the pond
€499. $717. Or three easy payments of €171 ($246). That's the price folks in Europe are being asked to pony up for Samsung's admittedly svelte 11.6-inch N510 netbook. As one of the largest netbooks in its class, this machine -- which can purportedly last for around 6.5 hours under ideal circumstances -- also packs NVIDIA's Ion technology, but a sluggish Atom N280 is still manning the ship. If you'll recall, we actually heard that this here rig would surface sometime this summer, but it looks as if those orders may end up pushed to September. Anyone care to place a pre-order? Or are you more interested in those "real laptops" for just north of seven Benjamins?[Via Blogeee]
NVIDIA clings desperately to XP with the DirectX10-hating ION LE chipset
Anything that makes our netbooks, nettops, and smartphones into slightly less mediocre video performers is okay in our book, so we're fond of NVIDIA's ION platform and are looking forward to finding out exactly what the company has up its sleeve for ION 2. We weren't, however, expecting an even cheaper revision of the chipset, but that's exactly what's been announced this morning. NVIDIA is creating ION LE, a sibling of the existing ION that does everything its big sister can do except support DirectX 10. The idea, of course, is to lower costs while providing all the functionality XP-packing netbooks and nettops need, but as Windows 7 sits at home getting made up for its débutante party we have to wonder just how much longer Microsoft's old faithful will be on the market -- and how much longer DX9 will be relevant.[Via SlashGear]
Viewsonic VOT130 and ION-based VOT132 nettops handled in the open
Not long after we first heard about Viewsonic's latest VOT130 and VOT132 nettops, the gang at Netbook News have gotten some hands-on time with the hardware. On the surface, it looks pretty sleek, and the abundance of USB ports is a definite plus, as is the HDMI port on the NVIDIA ION-based VOT132, but unfortunately we're lacking any performance demonstrations or impressions. As we saw previously, the slot-loading optical drive attachment is essentially the same form factor and attaches flush with the unit thanks to some aptly placed magnets, and the bundled stand is designed for the computer with or without the peripheral. So what's not to love? Well, the price for one -- the ION-packed VOT132 costs a hefty $514 US in Taiwan, with the VOT130 priced at a more reasonable $331 -- but perhaps that'll be brought down if / when it ever makes an official stateside debut. Video hands-on after the break.
Point of View Mobii netbook has Ion inside, psychedelia outside
Just by looking at the Mobii ION 230, you can tell it's a netbook keen on standing out from the crowd. This desire extends through its internals, which rely on NVIDIA's Ion platform to power an Atom N230 CPU, usually a nettop part, alongside an upgradeable 1GB of RAM and 160GB HDD. Hence, while battery life might take a comparative beating, graphical and processing ability should be appreciably superior to your run-of-the-mill netbook. Point of View promises flawless 1080p playback and DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0 support, with an HDMI-out if you don't feel the 10.2-inch display at 1024x 600 resolution does those features justice. You'd be wrong to expect anything more than a slideshow in graphically intensive games, but it's good to know the netbook market is getting a juiced-up option, and fret not, there's a conservative black paintjob available too. European prices are expected around the €349 ($495) mark and availability should hit within the next few weeks.[Via Netbook News]
myTouch 3G hands-on (with video!)
We just got a look at the myTouch 3G, and while it's great to see T-Mobile's next Android phone all official and everything, there are certainly few surprises for those of us already familiar with the HTC Magic / Google Ion. We found ourselves, despite the best knowledge otherwise, still looking fruitlessly for a 3.5mm headphone jack -- it was silly that the G1 didn't ship with it, but this year it's downright shameful. At least the included adapter is nice. Please, HTC Hero, come and save us from this madness. Fresh off our play time with the Hero, we found the stock Android 1.5 keyboard to be quite a bit of a step back. It's certainly usable, but we found ourselves missing the spacebar quite a lot, and the responsiveness just wasn't at HTC's level, though prediction was pretty good. The included zippered case is nice, though we don't know what we'd use it for, and the unboxing experience is generally pleasant and uneventful.In a lot of ways, the phone seems like a last generation product, but it's obviously the only one of its kind available in the States at the moment, so we suppose T-Mobile would beg to differ. Every single cover we've seen so far looks completely horrible, and while it's nice to have "options" (T-Mobile's big marketing play with this phone) we'd think twice before putting a pic of our dog on the back of one of these. Perhaps the best news making the rounds is that T-Mobile is thinking about putting a visual voicemail app in the forthcoming app pack, though it wasn't pre-loaded on any of the handset we checked out, and apparently the app pack is more of a curated Market than a single app combo download. Peep an enthralling video of the hardware after the break.
EMTEC dips toes into nettop market with Ion-based G Box
We're used to seeing nettops from the likes of Asus and Acer, but EMTEC's the newcomer in this field and let's see what we're working with. At about one inch thick by TechDigest's estimates, the G Box (working title) certainly compact, and we definitely give points to it running NVIDIA's Ion platform, Windows XP, at least six USB ports, and a 160GB hard drive. Unfortunately, there's no HDMI port -- that's coming in a later model -- and at £179 ($293 US), we'd be hard pressed to pick this over the HDMI-equipped AspireRevo, but we'll await judgment until we can try this thing out for ourselves. In the meantime, hit up the read link for a brief video hands-on.
NVIDIA said to be prepping Ion 2 for late 2009
NVIDIA obviously isn't doing much talking about it itself just yet, but Fudzilla apparently has it on good authority that the company is indeed already hard at work on Ion 2, which promises to bring with it plenty of improvements over the already impressive Ion chipset. Chief among those is a decreased die size, "much faster graphics," and more than twice the shaders of the original Geforce 9400M /MCP79 chipset that the current Ion is based on (which uses 16 shaders). Not many more details than that, unfortunately, but NVIDIA is supposedly looking to launch Ion 2 by the end of this year -- although not before it sells plenty more Ion 1s, of course.[Via SlashGear]
Samsung to introduce NVIDIA Ion-powered netbook
According to a mag called Netbook Italia (which might have something to do with computers) Samsung is developing a new NVIDIA Ion-powered netbook platform, with the first such device making the scene in Europe as early as July. The N510 boasts a 1.66 GHz N280 processor, 11.6-inch WXGA display, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3-in-1 card reader, and a 6-cell battery. The addition of a GPU should help out quite a bit when viewing HD video, although we're guessing this could take its toll on battery life. Either way, we'll find out soon enough.Update: According to CNET, Samsung has confirmed the N510 (with the above specs) for a July release. [Via Engadget Spanish]
T-Mobile myTouch 3G gets unboxed, user guide outed
Can't wait until July to check out every nook and cranny of T-Mobile's version of the Ion / Magic? A couple of tipsters, including one anonymously, have lent us a hand in that department with pictures of an apparent myTouch 3G unboxing, as well as an entire user guide dating back to May 19th. We're still rummaging through it ourselves, but so far we're not seeing anything we didn't already know or see for ourselves with the phone's many other releases. Completionists can hit up the 113-page manual in the gallery below.[Thanks, Derek]
ASRock Multibook G22 packs Ion, Atom 330 and a multitouch trackpad into 12-inch laptop
ASRock isn't exactly the very first company we think of when it comes to innovation, but the ASUS spinoff actually has a pretty good track record of going out on a limb. The new Multibook G22, for instance, combines the dual core Atom 330 processor, NVIDIA Ion, 2GB of RAM, a feature-rich multitouch trackpad, and a widescreen 12.1-inch 1366 x 768 display. It still feels "netbook-ey" for our money, but in a good way. Other perks include a 10-in-1 card reader, big people hard drive capacities (320GB instead of the 160GB netbook max), VGA and HDMI, 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and a DVD burner. It all weighs in at over 3.3 pounds without battery, and measures more than an inch thick. Yeah, those last few bullet points might throw this out of the realm of netbook contention, but at least there's an Atom processor in here keeping things slow enough for the most basic of tasks. No word on price or availability.Update: According to Liliputing, ASRock has made contact and states that the G22 is actually running an Intel CULV processor and chipset, instead of Atom and Ion -- bad news for Ion junkies, good news for CULV lovers. A bit of a mixed bag, if you ask us.[Thanks, Shawn]
WSJ: T-Mobile's myTouch 3G coming this summer
Looks like our hopeless optimism might win again. Android lovers who didn't get their hands on the Google Ion (a.k.a. HTC Magic) already can look forward to a summer launch of T-Mobile's version, myTouch 3G. According to the Wall Street Journal citing, the ever-resourceful "people familiar with the matter" group, all the details will be announced next week. Of course, the definition of "summer" can be stretched pretty far, we dare say even into September, but regardless of that technically, it seems promising the G1 successor is just over the horizon. Excited? We are.
OCZ's Ion-based Neutrino and Colossus SSD hands-on at Computex
OCZ Technology's Ion-infused Neutrino may not look all that different than the existing model, but we all know it's the secret sauce within that makes it so magical. Our BFFs over at Engadget Chinese managed to spend a few quality seconds (some might say they "had a moment") with this very machine as well as the all new desktop-bound Colossus SSD. Sadly, the booth workers couldn't provide a definitive ship date or price for either, but the read link's still the place to go for a few hands-on shots as well as a video of the Ion Neutrino showing 3DMark 06 who's boss.
Maingear introduces eco-friendly, Ion-powered Pulse SFF PC
Stating that NVIDIA's Ion platform has already snagged wide industry support would be a gross understatement, but for whatever reason, Maingear decided to skip out on all the Computex revelry and blaze a trail of its own. Hailed as the planet's greenest gaming PC (which is certainly up for debate), the Pulse is an energy efficient small form factor PC that offers up Ion graphics. Said configuration is available with Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs and an 80+ certified 300-watt power supply; those who care more about frame rates than Ma Earth can opt for a GeForce 9800 GT ECO, which -- despite being a discrete, power-hungry GPU -- still swallows some 40 percent less power than a standard 9800 GT. You'll also find WiFi support, room for an optional Blu-ray drive and TV tuner, upwards of 8GB of RAM and room for a single 2.5-inch HDD or SSD. The whole box checks in at just 7.6- x 8.3- x 11.4-inches, and it's available for order right now starting at $799. Full release is after the break.