May 13 - 4:15pm EDT   Motherboard and computer manufacturer Gigabyte Technology has introduced an Intel-designed notebook that runs on the Montevina platform, according to DigiTimes. The first device in the series, codenamed Peggy's Cove, offers a 13.3-inch display, along with 3G, Wi-Fi and WiMAX connectivity. The notebooks are part of Intel's Blanca program which provides design support for second-tier OEMs that build the systems for a variety of brand vendors. [full story]

April 22 - 4:25pm EDT   DigiTimes reported on Wednesday that Compal Electronics reduced the budget and other resources for mobile Internet devices (MIDs) as the company believes the future of the market segment is uncertain. The report cites unnamed industry sources for the information, and Compal itself has confirmed that some of its MID focus was shifted into netbook development. It will continue to ship MIDs in smaller volumes. [full story]

April 22 - 3:20pm EDT   While Intel's new GN40 graphics chipset for the Atom N280 CPU is, in theory, capable of playing back 1080p HD video, in practice it does not, thanks to the limitations placed upon it by Windows XP. As confirmed by Chinese website HKEPC, which reviewed a GN40-equipped ASUS EeePC 1004DN netbook with Windows XP, the configuration was not working properly in decoding 1080p video. This is due to XP only having DirectX Video Acceleration 1.0 (DXVA 1.0) available, whereas the GN40 requires DXVA 2.0 and DirectX 10. As virtually all netbooks ship with XP, the GN40's HD video playback ability goes largely wasted on the new system. [full story]

March 3 - 5:05pm EST   As promised, Taiwan-based Gigabyte came fully prepared to CeBIT in Germany, unveiling no less than one notebook, three new netbooks and a dock for one of them. The Gigabyte Touch Note M1028 has a 10.1-inch touchscreen that swivels, and all four variations are powered by Intel’s newer 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor. The 160GB hard drive is pre-loaded with Windows XP home, and 1GB of RAM is standard, though upgradable to 2GB. [full story]

March 2 - 11:45am EST   Just ahead of the opening of the CeBIT show in Germany on Tuesday, Gigabyte has announced four new peripherals, with the leather-covered and Swarovski crystal-laden wireless GM-M7800S mouse, more conventional-looking GM-M8000 gaming mouse as well as the GK-K6800 multimedia and ultrathin GK-K7100 keyboards. The opulent GM-M7800S shares its maximum 1,600dpi resolution and other specs with the with the GM-M7800 2.4GHz wireless mouse, which is currently available but in a more traditional plastic dress. [full story]

February 23 - 4:20pm EST   At the CeBit show in Germany at the start of March, Taiwan's Gigabyte said it would show off three new 10-inch netbooks, including the M1028, M1024 and M1022. Little is known about the netbooks, other than that all have a 10-inch screen and that the M1028 is the only one that is sure to sport a rotating touchscreen display, allowing it to be used as a tablet PC, not unlike the company's M912 convertible netbook introduced last year. [full story]

February 12 - 3:55pm EST   GigaByte is getting ready to announce its new GSmart line of smartphones at next week's Mobile World Congress in Spain, which will be some of the first products to ship with the latest version of Microsoft's mobile operating system, Windows Mobile 6.5. At the show, the company will launch what it claims is the first smartphone with a DVB-T tuner that allows for the wireless transmission of digital audio, video and other data with the t600 handset. At the same time, the MS808 handset will be the first to bring together a DVB-T tuner, GPS functionality and 3G data network access into a smartphone. [full story]

January 19 - 12:00am EST   AMD has begun the week early by launching a new mainboard chipset it hopes will bring gaming even to the lowest-cost systems. The 760G platform is designed to be mated with the Athlon X2 7000 and is pitched as one of the least expensive chipsets to be capable of DirectX 10 and full OpenGL 2 graphics. It comes with a Radeon HD 3000-era core that the chipmaker claims is much faster than Intel's own GMA 4500 architecture: an AMD run through of World of Warcraft has it running at 31 frames per second even at 1280x1024 with high detail, or about 63 percent faster than Intel's 19 frames per second. [full story]

January 14 - 7:55am EST   Intel is prepping a new Atom processor whose platform will be significantly faster than any existing model, a new roadmap shows. The Atom N280 chip will only be slightly faster at 1.66GHz versus the N270's 1.6GHz but will jump the system bus from 533MHz to 667MHz, giving the chip more headroom for data. It should also introduce a much more modern integrated graphics chipset, the GN40, that brings the 3D and video features of modern Centrino 2-based notebooks to very small portables. [full story]

January 8 - 12:00am EST   AMD marked the start of CES with the formal debut of the Phenom II, its first mainstream 45 nanometer processor. The upgrade is based on the same core "Shanghai" architecture as recent Opterons and gives a roughly 20 percent speed boost over the previous-best 2.6GHz chip through changes that involve an optimized design with more instructions handled per clock, 4MB of total extra cache, and support for up to the same 1,333MHz DDR3 memory as rival systems from Intel. The design is also now much more tolerant of high clock speeds and will run up to 3GHz in stock trim. [full story]

December 9 - 7:50am EST   NVIDIA is in the process of porting the technology behind the GeForce 9400M to mainboards meant for Intel's Atom processors, alleged sources from PC builders claim. The MCP79 chipset, which sits at the heart of both the 9400M in newer MacBooks and the lower-powered 9300M, is said to be in conversion for the mini PC platform with the aim of improving graphics over Intel's existing but relatively limited GMA video. NVIDIA would first focus on hardware for nettops but would potentially expand to netbooks later on. [full story]

December 1 - 5:05pm EST   Good OS, makers of the gOS Linux operating system that debuted in computers sold at Wal-Mart, on Monday announced it will soon introduce its Cloud operating system that can give users near-instant access to Google, Yahoo and Windows Live services, as well as rich client applications and multimedia content. Good OS introduced the Cloud on a GigaByte touch-screen netbook at the Netbook World Summit kicking off today in Paris, and will begin including Cloud alongside Windows XP on the PC builder's tablets early next year. When users need to do access more hardware-intensive programs, they can go from Cloud to Windows XP. [full story]

October 20 - 7:50am EDT   Intel today at the start of its fall Developer Forum showed off a working example of a Moorestown-based device, putting the chipset on track for its 2009-2010 launch window. The chipmaker has yet to describe the device but reiterates that the technology should be much more effective for mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and ultra-mobile PCs. Through a 45 nanometer process as well as a redesign of the processor itself, the idle power alone will represent just a tenth that of an Atom system today, Intel claims. [full story]

October 17 - 2:30pm EDT   Intel's Classmate tablet convertible will make the transition to an individually available model through CTL, the third-party PC builder tells Engadget today. Much like its earlier effort with the non-touch Classmate, CTL will create a 2go PC version tailored more to the average home users than the students which make up the normal audience; the company is likely to use Windows XP or (if necessary) Vista in stores rather than the Linux used on some models and in direct online sales. [full story]

October 9 - 9:00am EDT   ASUS plans at least a pair of hardware upgrades to its Eee PC line that will point to the future of netbooks, the company's division manager Samson Hu said today. The executive now says the PC builder plans to unveil touchscreen Eee PC models at the Consumer Electronics Show in January; no details are available, but the company expects them to be catalysts for sales. It's unclear whether they would be tablet models or traditional folding designs, though Fujitsu and GigaByte both already have early models of their own. [full story]