July 2 - 3:40pm EDT   Chinese electronics maker Inkia has recently launched a pair of nameless Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) powered by 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPUs, with both 7-inch and 5-inch versions. Each is equipped with an 800x480 resolution touchscreen, 1GB of RAM and solid state drive storage up to 32GB. The preloaded operating system is either Linux or Windows XP. Other features common to either system include 3G support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. [full story]

May 25 - 10:35am EDT   Shuttle has recently announced it will show two new additions to its PC lineup at the Computex show in Taiwan at the start of June. The Embedded Slim-series systems, the XS92 and XS92F, will be powered by VIA's Nano CPUs, with the former getting the faster but more power-hungry L-series processors while the latter will be powered by the highly energy-efficient U-series of Nano chips. All come in very small enclosures that fit into spaces tighter than Shuttle's usual small form factor cases would allow. [full story]

April 18 - 12:35am EDT   The One Laptop Per Child project tonight said it would overhaul the XO-1 with a major internal upgrade. The Gen 1.5 update will drop the AMD Geode processor that has been used since launch and instead use a VIA C7-M with a clock speed that varies between 400MHz and 1GHz depending on the amount of heat. By making the swap, OLPC also gets a new chipset that adds 3D acceleration, HD video decoding and surround sound. The combined design is meant to consume no more energy than the current XO-1 while active but to use less power while idle, run faster, and (through component cost drops) ultimately reduce the price. [full story]

April 10 - 9:40am EDT   An unintentional leak late Thursday has shown a major revision to TechCrunch's CrunchPad touchscreen tablet. Aside from being much thinner than older prototypes, the new version has switched from a VIA Nano processor to an Intel Atom and now has a wider, capacitive 12-inch touchscreen that should be easier to use. It also has a much more efficient software base that uses a custom Linux variant and WebKit-based browser that use just 100MB of space. [full story]

April 3 - 10:15am EDT   The 12.1-inch Samsung NC20 netbook PC first revealed late in February is now available for purchase, priced at nearly $550. The computer features an unusually large 1280x800 display resolution and otherwise class-standard 160GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM. It most sharply breaks from the class average is via its use of a 1.3GHz VIA Nano processor instead of a much more common Intel Atom CPU. [full story]

March 27 - 12:15pm EDT   NVIDIA is today claimed to be in talks with Taiwanese chipmaker VIA Technologies to buy a significant amount of shares from the company in hopes of getting a significant stake in its business. VIA is said planning on selling 300 million new shares by way of a private placement, each priced at between the equivalent of about $0.27 to $0.35. Nothing is official and is likely to remain so until all possible candidates for shares are named after a June 19th shareholder meeting. NVIDIA is maintaining complete silence on the subject. [full story]

March 5 - 1:20pm EST   Samsung has recently introduced the newest UMPC for sale in the US, the Q1EX-71G, which sports a 7-inch touchscreen with 1024x600 resolution. Its unique feature is a switch in its core CPU: instead of earlier Intel A100 parts or an Atom, processing power comes from a 1.2GHz VIA Nano U2500 ultra-low voltage processor as well as 2GB of RAM. The 1.8-inch 60GB hard drive ships with Windows' XP Tablet edition operating system. [full story]

February 27 - 7:30am EST   Samsung has finished out its week by launching the NC20. Like its Inspiron Mini 12 rival at dell, the Samsung system is a crossover between netbooks and fuller-size systems and centers on a 12-inch, 1280x800 display that also affords a full-size keyboard and trackpad. Samsung, however, opts out of Intel chips for a 1.3GHz VIA Nano processor and its matching integrated graphics chipset; the move gives the system a claimed 6.5 hours of battery on a stock 6-cell battery pack. [full story]

February 25 - 2:55pm EST   If accurate, a new leak has NVIDIA releasing an updated version of its Ion platform with support for more than just netbook processors. As part of a presentation obtained by Fudzilla that responds to Intel criticism of Ion, NVIDIA has acknowledged that it will launch a second-generation version that supports not only the Atom and VIA Nano but also regular Celeron, Pentium and Core 2 chips. The update would allow full-speed notebooks to use the smaller footprint. [full story]

February 20 - 7:35am EST   NVIDIA chief Jen-Sun Huang has said that NVIDIA is well into development of a version of its Ion platform for VIA's Nano processors. Speaking to Digitimes, Huang says the companies had already demonstrated an early example of it in 2008 but are now committed to releasing a production version sometime this year. Details of any differences between this and the Intel Atom reference version haven't been mentioned, though VIA regularly produces reference netbook platforms like OpenBook based on its most recent hardware. [full story]

February 18 - 8:20am EST   Lenovo may be one of the first PC makers to adopt NVIDIA's Ion platform in a netbook, the Taiwan-area Commercial Times paper claims. The PC maker is reportedly asking local contractor Wistron to build 11.6- and 12.1-inch IdeaPads for the spring that would combine the much faster, GeForce 9400M-level graphics of Ion with an Intel Atom processor. The company is also said mulling a 13-inch model using the same technology. [full story]

February 6 - 3:35pm EST   NVIDIA may be stepping into the production of its own x86 processors if a rumor circulated by the Inquirer proves authentic. The video chipset producer has reportedly been hiring large numbers of engineers familiar with how to design for the foundations used in most Intel chips and has a virtually complete team. The company allegedly lacks a license for x86, however, and would likely face legal action from Intel as a result. [full story]

January 28 - 5:20pm EST   Computer chipmaker AMD said on Monday it will not be replacing its low-power Geode CPU currently used in devices such as the XO laptop made by the One Laptop Per Child project, UMPCs and set-top boxes, according to a Tuesday report. An AMD spokesperson did reassure those who depend on the current CPU that the company will continue to offer the product as long as there is demand for it. [full story]

January 19 - 8:45am EST   News site TechCrunch today revealed that it's much closer to launching a promised low-cost, touchscreen Internet tablet. Referred to now as the CrunchPad, the device has a 12-inch, 1024x768 touch display but includes netbook-grade components to keep the price and size down: the nearly button-free device will use a VIA Nano processor, 1GB of memory and a 4GB flash drive that are just enough to hold an interface that boots directly to a custom WebKit-based browser in Ubuntu Linux. [full story]

January 16 - 1:20pm EST   According to a Friday report, HP will soon launch more model to add to its Mini family of netbooks. Most recently, the computer maker launched the Mini 2140 at CES, which replaces the Mini 2100 and brings with it an Intel Atom chip instead of a VIA C7-M as well as bumps up the screen size to 10.1 inches from 8.9. The report claims a Mini-note 2150 is the next model due for release, adding integrated 3G data network access to the specs. [full story]