Posted 11/03/09 at 04:37:19 PM by Bart Salisbury

It appears AMD is channeling former Supreme Court Justice, Potter Stewart. Back in 1964, in the case of Jacobellis v. Ohio, the Supreme Court was asked to define hard-core pornography. Stewart conceded it was hard to define, but “I know it when I see it.” I’ll just bet he did.

It’s not pornography this time. It’s netbooks. Just what are those little thingies? AMD tells us they aren’t ultra thin notebooks, except that sometimes they are. The only thing definitive AMD can offer that netbooks make up the web browsing/emailing segment of the market.

Rather than worry about labels, perhaps because Intel has a lock on the netbook market at present, AMD recommends worrying less about “cute” and more about what you want your portable to do.

Read More

Posted 11/02/09 at 08:11:00 PM by Ryan Whitwam

MSI is preparing to launch a 12-inch Windows 7 netbook that will sit atop its U200 series. The U230 will be very much like the previously released U210, which ran Vista. The only notable differences are the new operating system, and slightly faster AMD Radeon GPU.

The netbook will come with the AMD Neo X2 MV40 CPU at 1.6GHz, up to 4 GB of RAM, an AMD Radeon HD3200, and VGA/HDMI out. There’s none of that Windows 7 Starter here - the PC will come with Windows 7 Home Premium.  Pricing is still a mystery, though. The old U210 is going for $429.99, so one would hope that MSI can get the price in under $500.

Read More

Posted 11/02/09 at 01:37:36 PM by Paul Lilly

The rumors missed the mark by a day, but still turned out to be true in that Sprint has teamed with Dell to offer a subsidized netbook with a data plan subscription. That netbook is the Dell Mini 10 and is available at select Sprint stores throughout the Bay Area for $200 (after mail-in-rebate) with a two-year Sprint Mobile Broadband agreement.

The 10.1-inch Dell weighs 2.6 pounds and sports an Intel Atom Z520 processor. Other specs include a 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, 1.3MP webcam, integrated Intel 500 graphics, a 5-in-1 media card reader, Bluetooh, WiFi, and Windows XP Home. In other words, nothing sexy like a dual-booting Android platform or anything else to separate the Mini 10 from the standard netbook fare.

While not particularly exciting, it's hard to argue with the price. Just be sure to factor in the cost of the service agreement, which includes 5GB of data for $60 per month. That comes out to an extra $1,440 over the next two years.

Read More

Posted 10/30/09 at 08:15:42 PM by Ryan Whitwam

The upcoming xpPhone from ITG is, as the name suggests, running the Windows XP operating system. You may be thinking, “Why would anyone want a phone based on Windows XP?” Well, it’s probably going to be fast thanks to some sort of “AMD Super Mobile CPU”, and it has a massive 4.8-inch touchscreen. Most people probably don’t want to carry a phone that weighs almost a pound no matter how fast it is, but some will.

The xpPhone promises netbook-like specs including the aforementioned AMD CPU, 512 MB RAM, a USB port, full QWERTY keyboard, and up to 120 GB of hard drive storage. The phone will be available with GSM frequencies for three carriers: AT&T, Vodaphone, and Orange. A custom unified phone interface will be built into the device that allows the user to make calls and access applications.

No one has actually used the unit, so it is possible that the phone isn’t all that fast by computer standards. Would anything that makes a computer easy to use even transfer to this form factor? MIDs worked out so well, right? We’ll have to wait and see. No pricing or availability has been announced..

Read More

Posted 10/28/09 at 09:30:00 PM by Nathan Edwards

The guts of the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 are virtually identical to the IdeaPad S10 that we reviewed back in 2008—1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 160GB HDD, and integrated Intel GMA950 graphics. The difference is the body. At 11.4 inches wide, this is one of the largest “netbooks” we’ve ever tested. The S12 has a 12.1-inch WXGA screen with a 1280x800 native resolution—far superior to the netbook-standard 1024x600, and much more usable. The glossy screen is impressively bright even at low LED-backlight levels.

The S12’s keyboard features large, comfortable keys and is a joy to type on, although as usual, Lenovo has mixed up where the Ctrl and Fn keys should be. The glossy black patterned lid and matte-black ABS frame make the S12 one of the best-looking and best-constructed netbooks we’ve ever tested, although the battery is a little wobbly and the lid is a fingerprint magnet. Both RAM and hard drive are easily accessible and upgradeable.

Continue reading this review after the jump.

Read More

Posted 10/27/09 at 04:15:55 PM by Bart Salisbury

With Annie-like optimism, Micro-Star International (MSI) and Gigabyte Technology are reporting their notebook shipments are up in the second half of the year, and both are looking to tomorrow, when “there’ll be sun.”

MSI chairman Joseph Hsu wasn’t entirely positive in his future outlook, however. Windows 7, according to Hsu, will help pick up lagging notebook sales. But a shortage on optical drives and DRAM, which is expected to continue into 2010, will put a crimp on MSI’s ability to meet expected demand.

Gigabyte, on the other hand, is a behind on its projections to ship 200,000 notebooks in 2009 because of a lousy first half. But, the trend in the third quarter is upward, and Gigabyte expects it will get at least 120,000 notebooks out the door by year’s end. For 2010 Gigabyte vice president Richard Ma expects to ship 300,000 notebooks, with half made in-house, and the other half made by Quanta Computer.

On the netbook side of things, MSI reports that the proportion of netbooks shipped dropped from 50% of all notebooks to 30%. Market demand, according the HSU, for ultra-thin notebooks was also weak. Ultra-thin shipments should pick-up in 2010, however, once Intel starts shipping a dual-core CPU for this market segment.

Read More

Posted 10/26/09 at 01:45:41 PM by Paul Lilly

Already a major force in the mobile PC market, Asus said it expects to ship 16 million notebooks and netbooks combined in 2010. That would be four million more than it shipped in 2009, but there's plenty of room for growth, suggests company president and CEO Jerry Shen, who predicts that global notebook shipments will balloon from 140 million units in 2009 to 180-190 million units in 2010.

The lofty goal is part of Asus' bigger objective, which is to position itself firmly as one of the world's top-three notebook vendors by 2011. Towards that end, Asus has already shifted roughly 30 percent of its popular Eee PC netbooks to Windows 7, which Shen says will be the primary driving force for notebook growth.

While the Eee PC line is Asus' bread and butter, the company also expects its ultra-thin lineup to grow in popularity and account for 20 to 30 percent of all its notebook shipments in the first half of 2010.

Shen also talked about his company's plans for the fast-growing e-reader market. According to Shen, Asus will soon launch its 9-inch grayscale e-book reader, although at first the focus will be on cooperating with a Taiwan-based charity organization. A consumer version is expected to follow suit perhaps as early as the first quarter of  2010 and be built around the same 9-inch grayscale panel.

And what about 3D notebooks and dual-booting Android netbooks? These are both areas Shen said Asus is taking a conservative approach.

Read More

Posted 10/21/09 at 02:17:00 PM by Paul Lilly

Surprise, surprise - Acer, the same company who not too long ago bemoaned Google's open-source Android platform as not being suitable to run netbooks, has gone ahead with just such a device anyway, even though most other vendors are content to wait for Pine Trail before releasing more netbook models.

Acer did, however, play it safe by pairing Android with Windows in a sort of dual-boot environment (Android has to be booted first and acts like a sort of instant-on SplashTop replacement), but that's more than the other top tier OEMs have done. According to news and rumor site DigiTimes, that's because other OEMs are taking a more conservative wait-and-see approach and will re-evaluate things once the final quarter of 2009 shakes out.

After seeing sequential growth to the of tune of 20 percent in the last two quarters, DigiTimes notes that netbook shipments from Taiwan notebook vendors is on target to backslide 8 percent in Q4. Part of the reason, analysts surmise, is waning demand as customers eagerly await the arrival of Windows 7, but vendors are also trying to keep inventory levels down on the verge of Intel's upcoming Pine Trail platform, due to arrive in early 2010.

It still remains to be seen how many OEMs will embrace Android on netbooks, whether as a standalone OS or in conjunction with Windows. So far, Acer's dual-booting Aspire One AOD250, which was only recently announced in the U.S., is the only one consumers have to choose from here in the States. Other markets will also see the AOD250, but not until after the launch of Windows 7, DigiTimes reports.

Read More