11/05, 3:40pm
MOTO ships Android 2.0 MID for developers
The MOTO Development Group is now making its 5-inch Android Media Platform (AMP) mobile Internet device (MID) available to developers. The device can run Google's Android 2.0 mobile OS and lets developers prototype interfaces, develop apps and extend hardware features. The MID is powered by a Texas Instruments OMAP3430 CPU and uses a 5-inch OLED capacitive touchscreen, though an LCD of the same size is optional.
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11/05, 1:40pm
Myka ION a home theater PC for the living room
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.
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10/30, 4:35pm
Soyea Z5 combines 3G and Wi-Fi communications
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.
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10/30, 8:40am
ASUS chief confirms sub-$200 Android PC
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.
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10/28, 7:50am
litl Easel netbook due soon
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.
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10/23, 4:40pm
Nokia confirms delay of N900 handset
Nokia will delay the release of its flagship N900 smartphone to November, Peter Schneider, the head of Maemo marketing at Nokia indicated on Friday. This represents a near one month delay and is apparently due to a wait for the feedback of software developers who received 300 pre-production units. The device will be the first from the world's top phone maker to use an open-source Linux operating system.
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10/23, 10:15am
Access unveils ELSE and ELSE INTUITION
Best known for having bought the rights to Palm OS, Access late on Tuesday entered phones itself by previewing the ELSE and a matching Linux phone operating system, the ELSE INTUITION. The 3.5-touchscren phone is co-designed by Emblaze and has a heavily upgraded version of Access' Linux Platform with a custom interface: it centers on a unique rotary-like home screen and menus that are easier to use with one hand as well a more intuitive multi-tasking interface that shows running all running apps at once. A side strip of buttons simplifies navigating through lists or back to higher levels.
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10/15, 11:45am
Aspire One D250 runs Android, Windows
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.
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10/08, 4:55pm
Motorola leaves LiMo Foundation board
Motorola has quit the LiMo Foundation, the mobile Linux group of which it was a founding member, according to a Thursday report. Christy Wyatt, the VP of software applications and ecosystems at Motorola, said on Tuesday she has given up the board of the foundation. The company will instead remain as an associate member and retain an active role as a contributing member.
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10/07, 10:30am
Android 2nd place in share in 3 years
Google's Android will be the second-largest smartphone platform in as little as three years, according to Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney estimated on Wednesday. While it trails today, the mobile OS is predicted to climb to 14.5 percent of the market, or about 76 million phones sold per year, by the end of 2012. As a consequence, it would whittle Symbian's market share down to 39 percent (203 million phones) and just slightly overtake the iPhone, which in this view would have 13.7 percent of the market or 71.5 million devices.
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10/05, 5:25pm
QNAP rolls out TS-410 home NAS
QNAP furthered its push into mainstream network-attached storage on Monday with the TS-410. While resembling its work-oriented drives, the NAS is meant for the home and has built-in DLNA and UPnP servers to share media over a local network, including to the PS3, Xbox 360 or to iPhones and iPod touch devices through an iPhone app. It also brings BitTorrent, FTP and HTTP downloaders to grab files no matter which computers are online.
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10/05, 10:05am
Netgear bows Linux-based RangeMax router
Netgear this morning challenged Cisco in customizable routers with a new Linux-based RangeMax model. The WNR3500L has the same 802.11n Wi-Fi, gigabit Ethernet and USB device sharing as the regular WNR3500 but runs on an open-source Linux platform and will take common unofficial router firmware like DD-WRT, OpenWRT and Tomato. These give it much more customization than the proprietary OS and can bring features that Netgear wouldn't introduce itself.
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10/02, 1:25pm
Juniper sees Symbian doubling in 5 years
The number of Symbian phones on the market should more than double in the next five years but won't have much of an impact on important rivals like the iPhone, a new study from Juniper Research said. Shipments should swell from 87 million phones from Nokia, Samsung and other Symbian supporters in 2009 to about 180 million by 2014. The expected increase is credited to a larger push towards partly or completely open-source code on phones. Combined with Android and LiMo (Linux Mobile) devices, about 223 million open-source devices should ship in 2014 as a result.
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10/01, 5:50pm
NetApplications shows Mac, Firefox gains
More than a sixth of all Macs are already running Mac OS X Snow Leopard in just over a month of use, new findings from NetApplications show. On September 29th, the one month anniversary of the release, about 18 percent of all Macs tracked by the stats firm were using some version of Snow Leopard, or 0.91 percent of all computers.
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09/29, 9:35am
Garmin nuvifone G60 at AT&T
More than a year and a half after it was originally announced, Garmin's nüvifone G60 has received an official launch in the US through AT&T. The GPS-centric phone originally meant to compete with the pre-GPS iPhone centers on a deep navigation app based directly on Garmin's dedicated nüvi in-car units with some accommodations for mobile users: it not only works as a pedestrian device but will remember when it was last attached to its car mount, helping owners remember where they parked. It shares the same-strength GPS receiver and should provide a quicker lock than most smartphones.
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09/24, 4:30pm
Tegra-based netbook with Google Chrome OS coming
An NVIDIA executive on Thursday confirmed the company is working with Google to introduce a netbook containing Chrome OS and NVIDIA's Tegra mobile device platform. This is in addition to systems based on Windows Mobile, Windows CE and Google Android, all of which have been appearing. Quoted in a Wednesday JkOnTheRun report, NVIDIA GM of Mobile Business Mike Rayfield said his company is working closely with Google in developing such a product.
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09/24, 10:40am
Vodafone intros 360 platform, new handsets
UK provider Vodafone on Thursday announced it has launched Vodafone 360, a series of Internet services for cell phones and computers that brings together all contacts, favorite multimedia and photo files as well as social networks. This will allow messages or chats sent through IM programs or social networks such as Facebook, Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk, to be synced between computer and phone, via both wired and wireless methods.
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09/23, 3:45pm
Dell Mini 10v gets Intel's Linux OS
Dell at IDF revealed that it's about to ship a version of the Inspiron Mini 10v with Moblin Linux. The system is initially aimed at developers but will give everyone a simpler-to-use alternative to Ubuntu for web browsing and media playback. It specifically uses Canonical's Moblin Netbook Remix, a variant tailored for the screens and interfaces common to the mini notebooks.
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09/22, 4:25pm
Moblin Linux 2.1 for smartphones
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.
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09/21, 1:15pm
Second Windows 7 OS for netbooks due?
A version of the upcoming Windows 7 operating system for netbooks, or "low cost small notebook PCs" as Microsoft calls them, will not have a very limited feature-set after all. According to a Sunday TGDaily report, there will be a version of the netbook-oriented OS with most of the "regular" functions of the OS retained, though what these would be isn't known.
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09/16, 12:15pm
VIA NetNotes can playback 1080p videos
VIA has recently released its NetNote Turnkey Systems, which are netbook PCs ranging in size from 10.2 to 12.1 inches. Unlike mostnetbooks, however, the NetNotes are said to be capable of flawless 1080p HD video playback thanks to hardware video decoding in the VX855 graphics chipset. The actual CPUs can come from VIA's C7-M ULV or Nano families. The C7-Ms are the simpler processors and can be had with clock speeds that range from 1GHz to 1.6GHz. They consume between 3.5W and 8W of power.
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09/15, 12:00am
HP Compaq 6000 Pro business desktop series
HP on Tuesday announced the release of its new family of desktop PCs aimed at businesses, in the form of the Compaq 6000 Pro and HP Compaq 6005 Pro. The main difference involves the choice of CPUs, with the Compaq 6000 Pro available with a number of Intel chips, including various Core 2 quads, Core 2 Duos, dual core Pentiums and Celerons, while the Compaq 9005 Pro can be had with chips from AMD's Sempron, Athlon II, and dual-core, triple-core or quad-core Phenom II processors.
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09/10, 11:10pm
Linux Mobile device gets 8MP camera, OLED display
Images have surfaced of an unannounced Samsung handset running on the LiMo platform and headed for Vodafone. The images, posted on the Boy Genius Report, show a brushed steel housing and an OLED screen with haptic feedback. The device is said to get an 8-megapixel camera, although further hardware specs remain unknown.
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09/09, 6:45pm
QNAP NAS servers get 8TB capacity, hot swap bays
QNAP recently announced it has added two new Turbo NAS servers to its extensive lineup, including the TS-419P for desktops and the rack-mounted TS-419U. Their specs are nearly identical, including the same Marvell 1.2GHz processor, 512MB of DDR2 RAM and support for up to 8TB. Either can hold both 2.5- and 3.5-inch hard drives in four hot-swappable bays. Storage expansion is made possible thanks to four USB ports and two eSATA ports.
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09/09, 12:50pm
Nokia Maemo phones won't carry custom apps
Nokia will mirror Apple's approach to carrier software with all of its Maemo Linux-based smartphones, the company said on Wednesday. Rather than agree to include carrier-specific apps and modify the look of the OS to appease carriers, as it does with most of its Symbian phones, Nokia told Reuters it will insist that devices like the N900 come only with their default apps and interface. The choice is characterized as an attempt to focus on an ideal experience for the user and less an attempt to placate carriers.
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09/07, 9:20am
Best Buy told to misrepresent Linux
Microsoft has been sending Best Buy retail staff "training" material that deliberately attacks and in some cases distorts Linux, according to a leak from an anonymous Best Buy employee. The materials present obvious and at times true assertions about the lack of software support and users preferring a "comfortable" experience but also makes controversial statements about security and other features. Among these are contradictory claims that Linux doesn't get regular updates and yet is a problem to maintain precisely because it gets "hundreds of updates" per month.
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09/01, 5:50pm
Chrome browser only in OS
A dug up line of code indicates Google's upcoming Chrome OS may have what is being called a Chrome OS login manager. While its significance can only be guessed at, it indicates that the Chrome web browser will be very closely integrated with the operating system. There is also speculation of the OS not allowing users to operate other web browsers on their machines. The login manager will be a single sign-on (SSO) cookie, eliminating the need for users to sign into their Google services, such as Gmail, Calendars, Docs, etc separately.
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08/28, 5:15pm
Nokia World spoilers
Ahead of next week's Nokia World show, German site NokiaPort is claiming to have some news about the future of the world's largest handset-maker's future products. This includes a debut of two new series of devices, including the Cseries and Xseries, both of which the company trademarked earlier this summer. The first Xseries model will apparently be an updated version of the 5530 XpressMusic handset, with the addition of 3G network support. This indicates the XpressMusic line will be replaced by the Xseries-branded devices.
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08/27, 4:25pm
Sharp intros NetWalker
Sharp Japan today launched a new entry into ultra mobile PCs with the PC-Z1, otherwise known as the NetWalker. Unlike most UMPCs that are based on either Windows or custom Linux versions, the PC-Z1 uses Ubuntu Linux 9.04 as its platform. Processing is handled by Freescale's i.MX515 800MHz CPU, there is 512MB of RAM and just 4GB of internal memory, though a microSDHC memory card slot lets users expand it by another 16GB. Users interact through a 5-inch, 1024x600 resolution touchscreen and the device is also light at under 1lb. The very small form factor makes the device ultra-portable, while a built-in Wi-Fi connection lets them access the Internet from these remote locations.
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08/27, 2:40pm
Iomega outs four-bay NAS
Iomega on Thursday announced the release of its quad-drive desktop Network Attached Storage device, StorCenter ix4-200d. It allows quick and easy setup, which is key in the target market, as it requires no supervision by decoted IT staff. The ix4-200d is available in 2TB, 4TB and 8TB capacities and comes with EMC's LifeLine software, which is fully compatible with Windows and Linux PCs as well as Macs.
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08/27, 8:00am
Nokia N900 Official
Nokia this morning launched a new class of smartphone as its flagship. The promised N900 is a crossover between smartphones and Nokia's Internet tablets, and makes its biggest break in its change of operating system: although still a phone, the handset runs Nokia's latest Linux variant, not Symbian. Maemo 5 renders it one of the first smartphones to have true PC-like multitasking and not only lets it run "dozens" of app windows at once but gives it a simple, large dashboard for switching and closing apps.
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08/26, 5:30pm
IBM previews Power7 chip
IBM has just yesterday introduced its next generation RISC CPU, the Power7. The new chip will continue to be used in IBM's AIX Unix operating systems for servers, supports the IBM i operating system and can run Linux natively or in an x86 binary translation code. Noteworthy benefits of the new chip include an increase in the number of cores and the performance per core. There is now eight cores, with each capable of four simultaneous multithreading threads. SMT will reduce wait periods of software for resources to free up.
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08/26, 10:10am
Archos Android at FCC
The FCC today gave away some of Archos' plans for Android tablets today by publishing a test report for the hardware. Known as the A5S, the device is much like the existing Archos 5 but adds a microSD slot for removable storage and notably shows a much different interface (seen below) than the custom Linux that Archos uses today: it appears to have a reference Android build but with icons at the bottom that may represent quick access to common tasks like music or the web.
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08/26, 8:25am
Nokia Maemo to Beat iPhone
Nokia is planning to dump Symbian for Linux as part of a concerted strategy to beat the iPhone, multiple sources said Wednesday. While the tips echo reports of the N900 using Maemo Linux for its interface instead of Symbian S60, Reuters now hears the shift is part of a larger strategy that will replace Symbian on many if not all high-end Nokia smartphones in the near future. The first fruits of the move are anticipated at next week's Nokia World show.
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08/24, 7:45am
Nokia Booklet 3G
Nokia on Monday entered the computer business in earnest with the Booklet 3G, its first PC of any kind and its first netbook. The system has some typical netbook specs, such as an unidentified Intel Atom chip and a 10-inch display, but aims to exploit Nokia's experiences with batteries and cellular technology. The Booklet is one of the longest-lasting netbooks and should last up to 12 hours on a charge, according to Nokia; it also has its namesake built-in 3G and GPS to give it an Internet connection and navigation when away from Wi-Fi, including the use of Ovi Maps.
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08/19, 5:05pm
Nokia N900 reviewed
Leaked images of a pre-production version of the Nokia N900 Internet tablet, known internally as RX-51, have prompted a review of a prototype unit to surface, confirming many of its specs and revealing a few new ones. For one, the tablet will run on an as yet unreleased version of the Linux-based Maemo operating system instead of its own Symbian S60. The photos also confirm that the device will have an 800x480 resolution resistive touchscreen, 32GB of storage onboard, be powered by an ARM Cortex A8 processor of unknown speed and sport a 5-megapixel camera. The N900 will also double as a cellphone, and is strong enough that it's suggested it could replace the N97 in Nokia's lineup.
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08/19, 10:55am
Win Mobile Dual Strategy
Microsoft's plans to offer two versions of Windows Mobile at once are part of a strategy deliberately targeted at different competitors, Taiwan phone makers claimed this morning. Windows Mobile 7 is already known to be aimed at iPhones with an emphasis on high-end devices and multi-touch. The just launching Windows Mobile 6.5, however, is now being targeted at Android and will reportedly get both a revamped touchscreen interface as well as a lower price to lure phone designers that would otherwise pick an often free or low-cost Android license instead.
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08/10, 2:15pm
Sony Ericsson Smartbook
Sony Ericsson may be entering the smartbook field with a model of its own, based on a rumor today. A purported Taiwan-area source says the company is developing one of the mini notebooks. Most details aren't available to NetbookNews, including the choices of processor or operating system; The smartbook concept usually centers around a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor fast enough to rival a netbook and either Android or another Linux variant, but any ARM processor and a suitable operating system are candidates.
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08/10, 1:35pm
QNAP Turbo NAS servers
QNAP Systems on Monday said it will soon release two new Turbo NAS servers meant for use in corporate or entry-level enterprise environments. The TS-439U-RP and TS-439U-SPK share the same four-drive design that fits into 1U racks and has hot-swappable bays. Total capacity in either is 8TB when using 2TB drives. Either can be configured to accommodate 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch hard drives, with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU and 1GB of RAM overseeing the actual workload of the system. The models can transfer data at 87.3MBps when reading from FTP sites and in RAID 5 mode.
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08/07, 5:55pm
Nokia T-Mobile Tablet FCC
Rumors of a Nokia 3G tablet for T-Mobile gained credibility today through an FCC entry for what may be that device. The posting shows a product likely too large to be a phone that uses the 1,700MHz AWS (Advanced Wireless Spectrum) band for its 3G, leaving only T-Mobile USA as the candidate for the hardware. Little else is shown about the device other than that its working RX-51 codename differs from the usual RM prefix given to Nokia handsets.
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08/07, 5:15pm
ASUS Eee PC with Moblin
ASUS will release an Eee PC netbook later this year with Intel's Moblin Linux operating system, according to a Friday report from German website NetbookNews. The news is not official, but the site says it has a reliable source for the netbook, which is expected to come out in October. Moblin will not be preloaded on a new Eee PC, but an existing one, with many expecting it to appear on the slim Seashell line of Eee PCs.
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07/30, 3:35pm
Ballmer on Win Competitors
Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer today told those gathered at his company's financial analyst meeting that he fully anticipates stiffer competition, particularly from incumbent rivals like Apple, Linux and evetually Chrome OS. He contended that it was only natural for an OS as dominant as Windows to face a threat and maintained that Microsoft "deserves competition" to remain healthy. In spite of particular inroads by Apple, Microsoft's devotion to improving its OS for Windows 7 would keep it afloat.
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07/28, 7:50am
AMD ATI FirePro V8750
AMD on Tuesday revealed a new flagship professional workstation card. The ATI FirePro V8750 has the same 800 shader (visual effect) units as the company's fastest Radeon HD cards but excels in sheer memory performance: the card comes with 2GB of GDDR5 graphics memory that handles a peak 115.2GB per second. The bandwidth is about 30 percent more than an NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 but is estimated to be between 56 and 118 percent faster for high-end 3D modeling and other tasks that often need large amounts of fast memory.
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07/24, 8:10am
Garmin nuvifone G60 Ships
Garmin today offically threw itself into competition in the touchscreen phone arena by shipping the nüvifone G60 to its first market. The handset is now due to reach Taiwan on July 27th and should reach both Malaysia and Singapore by the end of August. The GPS-centered device is also now deemed "on schedule" for both European and North American launches before the end of the year, though carrier options (if any) and prices have yet to be detailed.
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07/20, 11:40am
Nokia C X and Booklet
Nokia is registering a number of trademarks that suggest a major effort to expand and relabel its phone lineup, as well as to introduce new types of devices. The company has filed for trademarks on the names Cseries and Xseries that imply two new phone lines. At present, its phones are divided into the Nseries media and Eseries work smartphones as well as its four-digit numerical devices like the 5800 XpressMusic.
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07/16, 11:25am
Dell mulls Chrome, Moblin
Dell via its blog on Wednesday announced it will evaluate the cloud-based Chrome OS for use in its products, possibly tying it in with the Android OS, also from Google. At the same time, the company said it is also likely to integrate the Linux-based Moblin operating system into its ultra portable computing devices, or netbooks. Either OS has its advantages, Dell claims, with the former not only offering what Dell calls an experience-targeted platform, but is also cost effective compared to the traditional Windows operating systems.
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07/15, 4:10pm
Everex shuts US operations
PC maker Everex has ceased business operations in North America, and is now in the process of liquidating its assets, according to a Tuesday report. The company's US website simply states "Everex US now closed" and doesn't provide an immediate reason for the closure. Japanese and Taiwanese domains appear to be fully operational, however. Company officials haven't commented on the shutdown to, which came with no advance warning to Laptop and others that noticed the change.
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07/14, 4:05pm
Ballmer Shrugs at ChromeOS
Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer at the Windows Partners Conference today downplayed a possible threat to Windows from Google's Chrome OS. The executive admitted that the web app-focused platform was "highly interesting" to him but questioned its true role and said it could invoke unnecessary confusion given possible overlap with Android, which in a few cases may target the same ultra mobile notebook space.
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07/10, 3:35pm
DataWind intros 3 devices
DataWind has announced details of three upcoming new portable devices capable of accessing the Internet, with its PocketSurfer3 and PocketSurfer3 Lite, which are follow-ups to the company's PocketSurfer2 device, and the UbiSurfer. All three include one year of Internet access, although it's limited to 30 hours per month. The new PocketSurfers sport a 5-inch, 640x240 resolution screen and are powered by Linux. Apart from Wi-Fi and GPRS network access, there is a GPS sensor built-in.
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07/10, 2:20pm
BenQ MID S6 with Win XP
BenQ on Friday revealed that it was launching a version of its MID S6 with Windows XP in its native Taiwan. The Mobile Internet Device is being launched in tandem with Far EasTone and not only replaces BenQ's custom Linux interface with the Microsoft OS but takes advantage of the built-in 3G as well: besides mobile data beyond the built-in Wi-Fi, it also lands built-in VoIP. Hardware is slightly modernized with an 800MHz Atom Z500 and an 8GB SSD giving it better performance and storage for the more resource-heavy OS.
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