ThinkPad X300 Parody of MacBook Air

There is a video making the rounds that is poking fun at the Apple MacBook Air. No word on who created it.

It’s comparing the MacBook Air to the Lenovo ThinkPad X300.

It was uploaded to YouTube earlier today, and you can view it here (YouTube). The original MacBook Air commercial that it parodies can be found here (Apple.com).

According to the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, Steve is not amused.

Asus Eee PC 900 Video Review, in Black (jkk)

Couple of interesting things were posted over at jkkmobile yesterday about the 8.9-inch Asus Eee PC 900. First up, a video review from jkkmobile of the Eee PC 900 was posted (Direct YouTube link).

Next, some photos of a black Asus Eee PC 900 were posted on flickr (including some high resolution ones). This is the first we’ve seen of an actual black Eee PC 900 - up until now we’ve only seen white models (the smaller 7-inch Asus Eee PC comes in several different colors).

Review: jkkmobile
Photos of black Eee PC 900: jkkmobile (originally: flickr)

HP Mini-Note, Asus Eee PC in CNET’s Top 10 Gadgets

A few weeks ago, CNET Reviews put together a list of “Top 10 must-have gadgets”.

I’m not sure if there is a particular order, but guess what two devices are at the top of the list?

The 7-inch Asus Eee PC and the 8.9-inch HP 2133 Mini-Note PC.

A bit of overlap to be sure, although they consider the Eee PC to be a …near-flawless choice for a highly portable second laptop whereas the HP Mini-Note …offers the best balance of small size, comfort, and functionality we’ve seen in a mininotebook…

Not surprising that 2008 is shaping up to be the year of the mini-notebooks

Article: CNET Reviews
(Thanks to Tim for the link)

HP 2133 Mini-Note - Lots of Information

Several articles have come out over the past few days from a couple of websites (jkOnTheRun and LAPTOP Magazine’s Blog) that concern the HP 2133 Mini-Note. I’m just going to go down the list:

jkOnTherun:
- Installing Windows XP
- Video of Windows XP on the Mini-Note

LAPTOP Magazine:
- Video Tutorial - Upgrading the memory
- Skype on the Mini-Note
- Speeding up the boot time

Intel Atom, Display Shortages

Both DigiTimes and The Inquirer are reporting on potential shortages affecting Intel Atom CPU production. The Atom is a low-power CPU favored for some of the smaller sub-notebooks such as the MSI Wind PC as well as upcoming offerings from Acer, Dell, and Gigabyte.

It’s a major issue - they are talking about 40% of the orders for Intel over the next month or so. Intel said that they are ramping up production of 45nm CPUs and they should be able to meet future demand and orders.

This shortage favors the HP 2133 Mini-Note as well as the Asus Eee PC, both of which are currently available and based on VIA CPUs.

In a side-note, DigiTimes is reporting that companies producing netbooks/ultraportable laptops are having to compete with companies making digital photo frames over the 7-inch and 8.9-inch displays used in many of these devices.

New Fujitsu LifeBook Tablet PC Spotted?

There is a new article up along with a couple of photos concerning what could be a new Fujitsu LifeBook Tablet PC over at TabletPCReview.com. It appears to be a new 13.3-inch LifeBook tablet/convertible spotted at a presentation given by Fujitsu in Germany.

The 13.3-inch touchscreen display is a passive digitizer. It’s powered by a low voltage Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 (2.26GHz, 3MB L2 Cache, 25W).

As pointed out, it could be a replacement for the Fujitsu LifeBook T2010, since with the latest displays and the lowered power consumption, it could come very close to the size of the T2010 even with a 13.3″ display.

Article/Photos: TabletPCReview.com

MacBook Air SSDs: 256GB STEC SSDs?

Barron’s Tech Trader Daily is reporting that Apple has awarded a contract to STEC to replace Samsung as the primary supplier of flash memory-based Solid State Drives (SSDs) for the 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Air.

This is very interesting in light of STEC being one of the first SSD makers to be sued by Seagate over patents concerning SSDs.

Apple must have confidence that STEC has a strong case against Seagate or that STEC and Seagate will work something out - Apple is not a company to make a move such as this without looking at potential issues that could impede production of their laptops (based on problems they’ve experienced in the past).

If you take a look at STEC’s SATA page, you’ll see exactly why Apple is choosing to do this:

Stec makes a 1.8-inch SSD (yes, the MacBook Air is using 1.8″ hard drives), the “MACH8 SSD” that has both an ATA and a SATA-II interface and consumes between 0.5W and 2.1W.

More importantly, the MACH8 SSD comes in capacities ranging from 8GB to 256GB. Apple would love to be one of the first to offer that kind of capacity in such a thin and light laptop.

Article: Barron’s Tech Trader Daily
(Thanks to Elliott for the link)

Asus Eee PC 1001, Plus 11-inch Eee PC

DigiTimes is running a report that Asustek is looking at making the Eee line an independent brand of low-cost devices, by the end of the third quarter of 2008 (according to industry sources).

This would include the 9-inch Asus Eee PC 900 as well as the 7-inch Asus Eee PC “netbooks” or ultraportable notebooks.

They would be joined by a low-cost Eee desktop-based system (aka E-DT) as well as a digital TV-based system (E-TV).

On top of that, and more interesting to those of us following ultraportables, they mention that besides the 10-inch Eee PC model (reported on earlier this month, and that DigiTimes is calling the Asus Eee PC 1001), that there will be an 11-inch Eee PC joining the Eee PC lineup. They are talking about this rolling out before the end of the year.

This would be the first 11-inch “netbook” but I would almost hesitate to call it that - you could do quite a bit with that form factor if you went after cheap components (with the opposite end of the spectrum being the 11-inch Lenovo IdeaPad U110) but that’s pushing the concept.

While this is all according to “industry sources”, DT has been accurate with other products in this field.

Article: DigiTimes

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