iPhones and Netbooks
August 18, 2008
James Kendrick has a great article about the rise of the netbooks and how they are changing the laptop landscape these days, and why peoples’ views (mainstream users) are changing. He points to the iPhone as changing how people are viewing netbooks. They are basically looking for cheap devices where they can, as JK points out, “jump on the Internet”, do email and get their photos off their camera”. The iPhone was the major turning point - it showed people that they didn’t need a huge setup to access the internet, check email, etc. With the Acer Aspire One hitting $400 (and with Dell and Lenovo possibly hitting that area) with a decent sized screen and keyboard, all of the sudden many people who wouldn’t normally consider a second computer in the house, or a laptop (or even a second laptop) are seeing how easy it is to hop on the internet, check email, etc., and they want that and it’s now in their price range.
He thinks, and I agree, that the major turning point will be when they are available in the big-box retailers. We are already seeing this with some - Circuit City is a good example with the Acer Aspire One (albeit many Circuit Citys have them on hand, but they aren’t always displayed because they don’t have a good way of securing them, according to one CC employee I talked to over the weekend). Best Buy seems wishy-washy at times but will probably start offering a lot more Asus Eee PCs as we get closer to the holidays at the end of the year. Wal-Mart will probably accelerate things as well. By the end of this year, they will probably have three (if not more) different offerings from three different brands.
I have two major concerns though:
Read more
Lenovo IdeaPad Lite S9 and S10 at FCC
August 18, 2008
In a positve sign that they are nearing availability, both the 8.9-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Lite S9 and the 10.2-inch Lenovo IdeaPad S10 have shown up at the FCC.
Some interesting notes:
- Manufactured by Quanta Computer, Inc.
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (probably optional)
- Models listed: 4067, 4068, 4187, 4231, 20013, 20014, 20015
- Hard Drive and Memory are in a user-accessible compartment on the bottom
- Wireless module is Broadcom BCM94312MCG
The good news for us - we get to see a lot of details, including the internal bits and pieces that make up these upcoming netbooks.
Keep in mind the photos shown are not of the final product that will be shipping (hence the weird coloring on some parts of the IdeaPads). The S9 and S10 also share many common parts and chassis, so many of the photos apply to both.
- Lenovo IdeaPad Lite S9 / S10 FCC Gallery
Read: FCC.gov Filing (via Engadget)
Lenovo IdeaPad Lite S9 - More Details
August 17, 2008
Looks like Lenovo has an upcoming promotional event going on for the 8.9″ Lenovo IdeaPad Lite S9, at least in Hong Kong (and yes, it looks like they have adapted the “Lite” moniker to differentiate from the 10.2″ Lenovo IdeaPad S10).
They are even going to have a special promotional price of around $260 USD (HK$ 1933) if you meet certain conditions (normal price listed is HK$ 2899 ($370 USD)
The flash promo mentions “Multi-Touch” prominently.
Some of the specifications mentioned about this ultraportable sub-laptop / netbook:
- 4GB Solid State Drive (SSD) (8GB mentioned elsewhere)
- Linux OS
- 3-cell battery
I’m guessing there will be more expensive models that have 8GB SSD (and bigger) along with Windows and 6-cell batteries, and that this is a special promotional model.
Read:
- Lenovo Club HK
via UMPCFever
MSI Wind U100 - Change in Touchpads
August 17, 2008
Over on the MSIWind.net forums, some users are reporting that MSI has changed the touchpad that is currently (or was) shipping with the 10.2″ MSI Wind U100.
This is in reference to batches with the 6-cell battery (and possibly earlier) switching from Synaptic touchpads to Sentelic touchpads.
The differences are major:
- No finger scrolling (instead you tap the corners)
- You can’t disable the touch-to-click
- Possibly problems finding support with non-Windows OSes.
The drivers/device can be seen on the German MSI Wind U100 device driver page.
Read:
- MSIWind.net forum
- MSIWind.net
Acer Aspire One - Replacing SSD with 1.8″ HDD
August 16, 2008
A few days ago we mentioned that tnkgirl Mobile had been modding their SSD-based 1.8″ Acer Aspire One to handle bluetooth. Now they’ve since published a how-to guide (complete with lots of pictures).
The SSD is slightly smaller in the area where storage is located, compared to the HDD version (which takes a 2.5″ Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive). As such, the space is limited and you are basically having to work with 1.8″ size devices.
tnkgrl Mobile replaced their SSD with a 1.8″ 60GB Samsung HDD. The Samsung drive has 8MB of buffer and spins at 4200rpm.
Read: tnkgrl Mobile
Sharp Willcom D4 - Gallery, Walk-Through (Akihabara)
August 15, 2008
Akihabara News has put together a large gallery and a video walk-through of the Willcom D4 running Microsoft Windows Vista (in English).
The Willcom D4 has a 5″ high-resolution LED-backlit touchscreen display (1024×600 is high-resolution for something that small) and is powered by an Intel Atom CPU. This means that technically it is the smallest Intel Atom-powered device running Windows Vista (or XP if it was loaded) that you can find. They’ve managed to pack a 40GB HDD into it as well, and yet it still weighs around one pound (0.45kg).
They’ve included a 720p HDTV-formatted HD video (WMV) of the Willcom D4 as well.
A few days ago, pocketables published a review of the ultraportable device. They’ve included benchmarks (including Windows Vista’s internal Experience benchmarks) as well as photos of the D4 in its various configurations (pseudo-laptop, tablet, etc.). They’ve also included photos of the extended battery.
Read
- Akihabara News
- Pocketables
