2.5-inch Hard Drive Shortage in 3Q 2008?

Could the rise in popularity of netbooks / sub-notebooks such as the HP 2133 Mini-Note cause an overal shortage in the global supply of 2.5-inch hard drives later this year?

That’s what DigiTimes is reporting - with the increase in manufacturing of these devices, plus the time of year, it could lead to a shortage if HDD manufacturers don’t increase capacity:

There are only a few global suppliers of 2.5-inch HDDs, including Seagate Technology, Western Digital (WD), Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Fujitsu and Toshiba, and makers of HDD components have not expanded their production capacities, the sources noted. Consequently, global supply of 2.5-inch HDDs may not be able to meet fast growing global demand in the third quarter, a traditional strong sales period for PCs, the sources pointed out.

Makes sense in a way - many of these 8.9-inch devices such as the HP 2133 and the MSI Wind are being purchased as additional laptops/ notebooks which means that for every one of these sold, there is still going to be a 13-inch or larger laptop sold, so there’s two hard drives for one person right there (not to mention the increasing popularity in portable USB-based drives).

Read: DigiTimes

Netflix Player by Roku

Quite a few of us have Netflix accounts (Netflix is a online DVD rental company - they mail DVDs out to you, you watch them, send them back in the pre-paid mailer and then get a new one).

Netflix and Roku have announced theNetflix Player. It can be purchased for $100 (a one-time fee and separate from your Netflix account fees) and it streams up to 10,000 different movies and TV shows directly to your TV through a variety of connections (HDMI, Component, Composite, S-Video) and it accesses the internet / content through either a wired or wireless ethernet connection.

Before you say “what does this have to do with ultraportables”, bear with us. A lot of us travel. A lot of hotels are now offering high-speed internet, but the movie/channel selection on the TV is limited (unless you are willing to pay additional charges). If you happen to have a Netflix account, once you’ve set this up online (you plug in a number from the box into your Netflix account and from there it’s tied to your account), you could conceivably take it around with you as you travel (at least in the US) and it’s small enough to pack with your other gear.

Picture quality is limited by your network speeds. Netflix will be offering HD content in the future, and the player can be easily upgraded to handle HD content (no additional charges).

You can find out more here:
Roku.com/NetflixPlayer

VIA and Nvidia: Ultramobile VN Platform

NVidia and VIA Technologies are working on a new platform, the VN Platform, targeted towards smaller laptops and UMPCs, and competing against Intel’s nettop, netbook and Mobile Internet Device (MID) initiatives. It will use VIA’s existing C7 CPUs, as well as VIA C8 CPUs, and combine it with NVidia chipsets.

Products using the VN platform are expected to show up in the first few months of 2009, at the earliest.

Currently, VIA’s C7 CPUs are used in such devices as the 8.9″ HP 2133 Mini-Note PC and the 7″ Everex CloudBook, and so they have a proven track record of the CPU appealing to some manufacturers.

Source: DigiTimes

Laptop Batteries: Safer, 30% More Energy?

Within the near future, a new development in Lithium-Ion batteries could improve battery life for laptops, or it could create a situation where batteries are smaller. The researchers are talking about a 30% increase in energy, not to mention safer, and longer-lasting.

When you look at Intel’s efforts to reduce power consumption (and to be fair, AMD and VIA), as well as the increase in backlit-LED displays, in theory, laptop/notebook and UMPC manufacturers could go one of two ways: Devices similar to some of the designs we now see, but with a 30% (or more depending on CPU/chipset) increase in battery life. Alternatively, they could design devices quite a bit smaller or thinner, but with the same battery life we see these days (say reduce the battery size by 30%.
Read more

Fujitsu Q2010 - Better Microphone For Better Calls

Interesting article over at CNET News - Fujitsu is one of the first to put a “high performance digital microphone” in their new ultraportable notebook, the LifeBook Q2010.

Quote: The membrane in Akustica’s AKU2000 is a chip made on standard silicon processes. Ultimately, the chip could lead to better voice quality on Skype phones embedded in laptops or more distinct sound on video captured by digital cameras.

Obviously it’s not a make or break feature at this point, but as Voice-Over-IP/Digital Telephony starts to become more and more accepted, it will be. Some companies are experimenting with getting rid of what I would call “traditional” phones altogether and going to a digital system, that could even be tied to their notebooks. If your business line was tied to your notebook, and you were traveling and had access to some kind of highspeed internet connection, you could accept and make calls just as if you were back in your office, without having to worry about long distance, and without people having to try and track you down, etc.

Top 10 Ultraportable/Small Laptops of April 2006

Once again it’s time for the Top 10 Ultraportable/Small Notebooks of the month, for April 2006. This list is based on reader interest (which is in turn based on page views, links, etc.). Not the most scientific, but surprisingly it’s been fairly consistent. The only major changes occur when a new notebook is released, but unless it’s an outstanding notebook, the list goes back to what it was before.

Note: It’s really a top 11 list, when you seperate out the ThinkPad X60 and X60s as we’ve done.

1)ASUS W5F - #1 Since January - wow.
2)Fujitsu Q2010 - Newcomer
3)Fujitsu P1510D - #2 in March
4)MSI S262 - #7 in March
5)ThinkPad X60S - #5 in March
6)Fujitsu Pro V3205 - Newcomer
7)ThinkPad X60 - #3 in March
Dell Inspiron 700M - #4 in March
9)Toshiba M400 Tablet PC - #6 in March
10)Flybook V3 - #9 in March
11)Averatec 1050 - #10 in March

March 2006 - List

Stats of the list:
* Two newcomers, both from Fujitsu (Q2010 and V3205)
* Seven based on Intel Core Duo or Core Solor CPUs (or derivatives)
* Just as in March, three were convertibles - they have both a Touchscreen/Tablet PC interface as well as a physical keyboard (Fujitsu P1510D, Toshiba M400, Flybook V3).
* Three had displays smaller than 11 inches (Flybook, Fujitsu P1510D, Averatec).
* Two are “budget” ultraportables - the Dell 700M and the Averatec 1050.

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