Lenovo's rumored ThinkPad netbook will launch at the start of the next year, a leak today says. It's now purportedly named the ThinkPad X100e and may ship on January 5th, just ahead of CES. System specs are only guessed at but may not necessarily cling to the Atoms found in the IdeaPads; instead, it's speculated that Lenovo may use either Intel's CULV processors or an AMD Athlon Neo.
Windows 7 isn't having as large an impact on PC sales as initially thought, sources from manufacturers said on Friday. Although US retail sales were up 49 percent, those speaking to DigiTimes say they didn't see a major spike in late October and don't expect one for the rest of 2009. The turnout has been soft enough that some notebook producers are actually facing overstock as they ordered more portables than demand required.
Myka has moved on from producing media hubs by releasing its Myka ION nettop as a full-fledged home theater PC. As the name implies, the PC packs a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor and 2GB of RAM, along with an NVIDIA Ion graphics platform to supply HD (non-Flash) video. It runs on Ubuntu Linux and includes Boxee and XBMC media center software as well as support for standard-definition Adobe Flash and Hulu's online streaming service.
Sony tonight upgraded its extra-small VAIO P netbook in the US to keep in sync with Windows 7. The new models now all run Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional and with this change alone should run much faster than the older models bogged down by Vista's steep requirements. They likewise have been brought into step with Japanese updates and have the option of up to a 2GHz Atom, a 256GB solid-state drive and a champagne-colored shell.
Word that Apple had disabled Atom support in a Mac OS X 10.6.2 beta seed may have been premature, an update from the same discoverer says. A newer build, 10C535, now appears to have brought the feature back and hints that the lack of Atom support may have been a bug or an otherwise temporary action. Apple's code doesn't have any immediate clues as to whether or not the move was intentional.
Litl has quickly acted on rumors by launching its first computer, the Webbook. The PC breaks away from the usual netbook market through a unique 12-inch LCD that bends almost completely backwards and turns the system into an easel-like display; the mode is considered ideal for video watching or for sharing content with someone else. To match, the screen uses a high-quality LCD with a 178-degree viewing angle and better colors, and unlike most netbooks carries a dedicated (but unnamed) GPU that can decode H.264 video at up to 720p.
Sprint today confirmed a late rumor by launching a subsidized version of the Dell Mini 10. Its version has an internal EVDO Revision A modem for 3G access and should usually pull between 600Kbps and 1.4Mbps downloads in real-world conditions. It also appears to be the original Mini 10 reviewed here with a 1.33GHz Atom, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive and Windows XP Home.
Apple may have taken out support for Atom processors in its latest beta seed of Mac OS X 10.6.2, one user says. Those testing it claim Apple has changed support in a way that breaks compatibility with the small Intel chips, including their ability to enter sleep mode through an unofficial extension. If it reaches the final build, the move leaves those making "Hackintosh" systems with little choice either to stay with 10.6.1 or else to wait for an unofficial fix.
China's Soyea has recently released a new Mobile Internet Device (MID), the Z5, which sports a 5-inch touchscreen with 800x480 resolution. Processing power comes courtesy of a 1.2GHz Intel Atom processor, and there is 1GB of RAM onboard. Internet access comes from either a Wi-Fi connection or 3G module with access from China Telecom. Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR is also present.
ASUS chief Jerry Shen at an investor conference late yesterday said his company should have an Android-based smartbook on shelves by early 2010. Reversing earlier doubts about a market for such a system, Shen says a portable based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon chip and the Google mobile OS should be the first "secret weapon" for the company and will likely cost just $185. The price is roughly half what most builders charge for an Atom-running netbook.
Apple has flatly rejected Intel's Moorestown Atom platform for being too power-hungry, a rumor claims today. Unnamed industry contacts say Intel reportedly approached Apple on its own to suggest the ultra-mobile platform but that the Mac creator rejected it outright due to power concerns. According to the Fudzilla source, Apple needed idle power consumption about ten times lower than what Moorestown can manage.
After a significant delay past its original summer goal, Lenovo on Wednesday began selling a version of its IdeaPad S12 netbook with NVIDIA's Ion graphics onboard. The upgrade comes in tandem with Windows 7 Home Premium and gives it enough visual power to support the full Aero Glass interface as well as to decode 1080p video and handle some more recent 3D. Lenovo also adds Bluetooth 2.1 for wireless peripherals.
A new PC startup, litl, is known today to be readying an unusual netbook design with a rare customized operating system. An FCC filing for the Easel reveals a 12-inch system whose display can bend past 180 degrees and with a deliberately rounded, child-friendly look. However, it should also run a custom version of Linux with a "card" interface that lets users pick from blue cards for core apps and settings, black channel cards for news, weather and other widgets, and white cards for Firefox pages.
Some of Intel's Pine Trail Atoms will finally escape Intel's 1GB RAM cap for netbooks even as they drop prices, a series of leaks have indicated in the past day. While the chip maker will still officially limit certain Atoms to 1GB of memory, the 1.83GHz Atom N470 will reportedly allow running 2GB of RAM. The limit should provide a large jump in performance for small systems, particularly those with more demanding operating systems like Windows 7.
Demand has been high enough for Nokia's Booklet 3G netbook that the company is moving ahead with a second model next year, a leak to Taiwan's Economic Daily News newspaper claims. Nokia's contractor in the area, Compal, is reportedly working "overtime" to meet demand for the Atom-based portable and that it's likely to receive orders for a 2010 model as well. Details of the system are unknown, including whether or not it's an upgrade to the existing system or an entirely new configuration.
To coincide with the release of Windows 7 on Thursday, Verizon has officially released the earlier rumored HP netbooks with a connection to its wireless data network. Only the 11.6-inch HP Mini 311-1037NR sports Windows 7 Home Premium, however, as the 10.1-inch HP Mini 110-1046NR includes Windows XP Home. Full specs of the devices are available, with the HP Mini 311 getting the NVIDIA Ion graphics platform along with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU and 2GB of RAM.
Dell's rumored media tablet has been confirmed today by a leak from Vietnamese source Tinhte. To be called the Streak, the device will be almost exclusively controlled by a 5-inch, 800x480 capacitive touchscreen and should not only use Android 2.0 but support multi-touch gestures, including pinch to zoom. It should have 3G onboard and will even support calls, though the size means this will be a secondary role.
The Hong Kong-based computer maker ii-View has introduced its latest device, the A2 netbook. Like many similar devices, the A2 is based on Intel's 945 chipset and 1.6GHz Atom CPU. The basic configuration integrates a 320GB hard drive and 2GB of RAM, along with components for 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi.
Verizon is poised to kick off the launch of Windows 7 this week with two netbooks as a leaked document has shown its plans. Both the HP Mini 311 and the Mini 110 are due to reach the provider along with Windows 7 on Thursday and will be partly subsidized, with Engadget showing the higher-end Mini 311 dropping to $250 after agreeing to a contract and a $100 mail-in rebate while the Mini 110 will cost $200 on similar terms.
In spite of claims of an on time release, Intel's Atom processors using its Pine Trail architecture now won't show until the very start of 2010, a string of leaks have shown Thursday. The 1.66GHz N450 and 1.86GHz N470 are said by Fudzilla to ship on January 3rd and won't necessarily save battery life. Instead, the primary gain will come from moving graphics to the main processor core, reducing the number of chips from three to two and creating more space.
Acer on Friday announced it will soon offer the small form factor AspireRevo R3610-U9012 nettop PC in the US. First introduced in the summer, the PC is one of the first nettops to feature NVIDIA's Ion platform, which supports NVIDIA's CUDA general purpose computing and can also play back 1080p movies even on an Atom-based system.
Acer made a partial return to Linux for netbooks on Thursday by confirming a version of the Aspire One D250 with Android. The 10-inch netbook can use Google's OS to start up almost immediately and browse the web, check e-mail or perform other common tasks much faster than would be possible with Windows XP. It also gives access to many apps on Android Market that would be off-limits to PCs.
Intel today says it recorded one of the best fiscal quarters in its history and owed it almost exclusively to notebooks. The chip maker generated $9.4 billion in revenue during the summer, an eight percent drop from a year earlier but a sharp 17.5 percent jump from this spring. The surge is the best the company has seen in the past 30 years, Intel says.
AT&T today said it would bring the Nokia Booklet 3G to the US as its most advanced netbook. The US version of the portable will ship preloaded with Windows 7 and arrive on the same day as the OS, October 22nd, as a Best Buy exclusive. It will sell for $299 when attached to a two-year, $60 monthly data contract but should still be less expensive at full price than the European version and will cost just $599 by itself.
Detailed specs of not one but two 12-inch Eee PC notebooks have been revealed recently. One of the new Eee PCs, the 1201N, was first spotted in Asia last month. Now, the unofficial specs for the 1201N and 1201HA are known and they include a 12.1-inch, 1366x768 resolution display. The specs reportedly come from leaked ASUS documents.
ASUS' Eee Keyboard is nearing production status, as it has been spotted in an FCC filing recently. The Eee PC is a fully functional PC into the form factor of a large wireless keyboard and integrates a 5-inch, 800x480 resolution touchscreen. The PC has already been slated for an October release date as of this summer.
Intel's mobile Internet device (MID) platform is unlikely to get any significant traction versus smartphones even years into its life, a study from the Information Network says on Monday. Although Intel has very frequently pushed the category, which usually has a screen between five and eight inches and focuses on basic Internet access, it's only expected to sell a fraction of what smartphones will manage. MID numbers should swell from just over 3.1 million shipped to 37.5 million in 2012 but will be easily eclipsed by their phone rivals, which will jump from 185.3 million units to 365 million over the same period, or nearly ten times more units than MIDs.
NVIDIA's Ion 2 chipset is still due to ship before the end of year and could provide a significant boost not just to netbooks but to notebooks using Intel's CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) processors as well, an update from the company has shown. In addition to supporting the timeframe, an executive heading chipset development has reportedly confirmed rumors that the next-generation Ion will support processors other than the Atom, including the Celeron, Core 2 and Pentium processors that make up CULV as well as VIA's competing Nano design.
The rise of netbooks is having a corrosive effect on the financial health of the rest of the notebook business, a DisplaySearch study asserted on Thursday. The mini PCs represent 22.2 percent of all notebooks shipped but only account for 11.7 percent of revenue and are thought to ultimately be dragging revenue downwards for other categories as buyers skip more expensive systems they would have bought otherwise. Where netbook revenue has shot up from $845 million in spring 2008 to $3.07 billion in spring 2009, the rest of the notebook industry actually lost $3.74 billion of revenue in the same period, revealing that netbooks have actually cost the industry money.
Sony's unveilings tonight were highlighted by the VAIO X. The 11-inch netbook crossover is billed as the lightest ever notebook and uses a carbon fiber shell to reach a weight of just 1.6 pounds. As it's based on a smaller and cooler running Intel Atom chip, the system can also afford to be extremely thin and measures 0.55 inches thick across its whole length.
Sony provided a glimpse of updates to come to the US on Wednesday with a British update to the VAIO P. The 8-inch netbook has primarily updated to add Windows 7 and should run faster on similar hardware as a result thanks to better performance on low-end hardware. At the same time, Sony has upgraded the processors themselves. Two P31 variants have the 1.86GHz Atom Z540 (versus 1.33GHz or 1.6GHz most older models) while the P39 runs on a 2GHz Atom Z550.
Sony's VAIO X will ultimately be a larger but lighter version of the VAIO P if a pair of leaks (one, two) prove accurate. Although undecided on the choice of processor when it first teased the system, Sony is reported by Engadged as using a 2GHz Atom processor to help achieve its 1.5-pound claimed weight and slim profile in spite of the 11-inch frame. It would also have a solid-state drive of an unknown capacity.
Back-to-school notebook sales were as strong as ever this year but skewed in favor of cheaper systems, the NPD Group said today in a new study. About $1.6 billion of the $7.6 billion spent between late July and mid-September went directly to notebooks, or about as much as was spent last year despite ongoing economic problems and rendering them "recession-proof." However, the revenue came at the expense of system prices: while more systems were sold, the average price of a school notebook fell from $804 last year to $624 this year.
Some specs and details of the upcoming Dell Zino HD series of nettops were revealed, thanks to a recent DellZinoHD search. Two models in the Zino HD series will be offered, including the Inspiron 300 and Inspiron 400. Both have potentially been readied for Windows XP, Windows Vista or the upcoming Windows 7, with the support page also including a manual for Ubuntu.
ASUS has quietly launched a major redesign of the Eee Box. The EB1501 has a much sleeker, rounded look but also gives it numerous features that improve its usefulness as a full-time PC: it uses NVIDIA's Ion chipset and can smoothly decode 1080p video in hardware as well as drive most visually intensive tasks. To help, ASUS gives it Windows 7 Home Premium and improves the performance of the system on its dual-core 1.6GHz Atom processor.
Verizon this morning topped off its device launches with its second netbook to have built-in 3G. A special version of the Gateway LT2016u will support Verizon's EVDO network out of the box and will be subsidized to a lower $150 price in return for a two-year data plan and a $100 rebate. The same broadband plans apply and will give either a modest 250MB for $40 per month or 5GB for $60 per month.
Intel will more aggressively update the Atom processor than it has in the past, executive VP Sean Maloney said in an interview published today. The company waited roughly a year between the original Atom launch and its Z500 upgrade but now plans to put it more closely on the faster "tick tock" pattern it uses for regular processors, where it first shrinks the manufacturing process for an existing design and later ships a new architecture built on that process. Such upgrades will start in earnest with Pine Trail this fall, which technically achieves both by moving to a smaller 45 nanometer design and moving the graphics core to within the processor.
According to a leaked document, wireless provider Verizon will soon begin offering its second subsidized netbook with the upcoming addition of the Gateway LT2016u, Engadget reported on Monday. The computer will be sold on a two-year data contract, and like the first Verizon-subsidized netbook, the HP Mini 1151NR, will use Qualcomm's Gobi data modem to access Verizon's 3G data network. Otherwise, the netbook packs a 10.1-inch display with a 1024x600-pixel resolution, a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive.
NVIDIA at a recent presentation showed its Ion chipset accelerating HD video on a netbook. While the hardware can already process HD already on the system, the new demo shows YouTube's HD video smoothly with Ion's full decoding enabled where the same footage stutters when it has to rely mostly on the Atom processor. The technique works by adapting Ion to recognize and process the H.264 encoded video inside the Flash environment.
Intel at its third-day IDF keynote unveiled a new media system-on-a-chip (SoC) that should bring advanced media features to networked media hubs and TVs. The CE4100 is Intel's first all-in-one processor based on its Atom architecture and is made on a much smaller, more efficient 45 nanometer process than the Pentium M- and 65nm-based CE3100. These and a new hardware decoder give it enough power to render two simultaneous 1080p video streams, even in the more demanding H.264 format, and to render 3D graphics for the menu system or games.
HP today began taking orders for the Mini 311 a week after its unveiling. The netbook is HP's first to use NVIDIA's Ion chipset and uses it to smoothly drive the system's 11.6-inch, 1366x768 screen and to decode up to 1080p without straining the Atom processor inside.
Archos has recently officially announced a US ship date and price for its Archos 9 tablet PC. First introduced in July, the Windows 7 Starter Edition-powered tablet will be available on October 22nd for $499, in either black or white exterior colors. Official specs of the device include a 1.1GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and its namesake 9-inch, 1024x900 resolution resistive touchscreen.
Intel at its Developer Forum keynote entered the smartphone field in earnest with the first edition of Moblin Linux for handsets. Version 2.1 is reworked to optimize the interface for touchscreen phone input and adds a panel-based interface for app switching, somewhat like the metaphor used in Palm's webOS. The software still centers on features from Moblin 2.0 like dedicated media playback and a full web browser.
Korea's UMID will soon release the successor to its mBook M1 UMPC simply known as the mBook M2. Changes include a new exterior with a wider opening angle, a conventional USB port instead of needing a dongle, and a new VGA video output. There is also a new optical mouse integrated into the screen frame, while RAM has been doubled to 1GB. Processors are also different, with the standard 1.2GHz Intel Atom slightly slower than the outgoing model's 1.33GHz Atom, while the optional CPU is faster, at 1.6GHz.
ASUS' upcoming NVIDIA Ion-based Eee PC notebook, the 1201N, has appeared on Asian retailer PCpop's webstore recently. The PC is due for an October release, according to a recent roadmap leak and the listing confirms some of the device's specs, including its 1.6GHz Atom CPU.
MSI this afternoon grew its American roster of Wind netbooks by importing the U110 Eco. The new model is the only one based on Intel's newer Z500-series Atom chips and uses a 1.6GHz example that gives it a much longer claimed runtime of up to about 15 hours with its standard nine-cell battery pack. Unlike the version announced earlier in the year, though, the US version uses the GMA 500 graphics inherent to the Z500 line than a much faster dedicated chipset.
Lenovo recently released its latest all-in-one nettop, the IdeaCentre C100. It sports an 18.5-inch, 16:9 aspect ratio screen with a 1600x900 resolution but measures just 2 inches thick. The system can be equipped with either a single- or dual-core 1.6GHz Atom.
Filling out some of HP's multiple portable launches today are two important updates to its Mini netbooks. At the head of the updates, the Mini 311 is HP's first crossover and centers on NVIDIA's Ion chipset. The graphics and system core gives the netbook 1080p video decoding (outside of Flash) and much faster 3D than Intel's solution but also helps smoothly drive the significantly larger 11.6-inch, 1366x768 display.
CTL has introduced its next generation 2Go Classmate PC, and the first to sport a 10-inch display. The 2go Classmate PC E10 is another rebranded Intel Classmate PC, which itself was developed to compete with the OLPC XO Laptop. All are made to serve as educational tools in developing and developed nations alike. The 10.1-inch form factor allows for the use of a keyboard that is 90 percent the size of that of a conventional notebook, which is better than the 77 percent of the older, smaller models.
The Eee Keyboard from ASUS will be out in the European and North American markets this October, a company executive a href="http://macnn.com/rd/140719==http://www.pcworld.com/article/171905/asustek_eee_keyboard_coming_in_october.html" rel='nofollow'>said on Monday. The October date given to PCWorld corroborates with an earlier report for the release of the device, which incorporates a 5-inch touchscreen and full PC functionality into a standard-size keyboard.
