Asus Eee PC T91 Touch Shows Up at the FCC

There is some good news if you’re in the US and have been waiting to buy one of the first mainstream “convertible” Tablet PC/Touchscreen netbooks. The Asus Eee PC T91 Touch has made it’s appearance at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). That means it might start showing up for pre-orders later this month or next.

The Eee PC T91 is a touchscreen “convertible” - the screen can pivot, allowing it to lay flush against the keyboard and to be used as a Tablet PC, or it can be rotated into a position resembling a traditional laptop/notebook, with a normal keyboard (well normal = 92% or so, given the 8.9-inch display size). It’s possible that it will be the first of its type to be available in the US without the need to go through a 3rd-party importer.

While details about the T91 have been sparse in regards to plans for North America prior to now, it was believed that the T91 would be available sometime in the second quarter of this year. At this time, there’s not much in the FCC database though - just some photos and the FCC ID listing (MSQT91NE785H if you are curious).

About a month ago, Samsun Hu, who manages Asustek’s Asus Eee PC business unit, mentioned that Asustek believes that convertible/Tablet PC Eee PCs will account for up to 10% of the their Eee PC shipments this year.

Read:
- Full FCC Listing
via Netbook 3G (French) (English Translation)

Western Digital Gets Into SSD Game

If you’ve been wondering when Western Digital would jump into the Solid State Drive (SSD) market, wonder no more. Today, Western Digital announced that they would be buying SiliconSystems, Inc. for $65 million (USD). SiliconSystems, Inc., currently supplies SSDs for embedded systems, including in both 1.8″ and 2.5″ IDE/PATA and Serial ATA (SATA) form factors.

SiliconSystems will become the “WD Solid-State Storage Business Unit”, and WD considers this important in regards to the future of their netbook offerings:

“We are delighted to have the SiliconSystems team join WD,” said John Coyne, president and CEO of WD. “The combination will be modestly accretive to revenue and margins as a result of SiliconSystems’ existing position as a trusted supplier to the well-established $400 million market for embedded solid-state drives. SiliconSystems’ intellectual property and technical expertise will significantly accelerate WD’s solid-state drive development programs for the netbook, client and enterprise markets, providing greater choice for our customers to satisfy all their storage requirements.”

WD is a popular choice in the laptop HDD market, especially for their 320GB and 500GB offerings. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes, since 2009 and 2010 are shaping up to be the year(s) for SSDs to really take off when it comes to size and speed.

Read:
- Press Release (Western Digital)
- Western Digital - Questions and Answers for Investors
- CNET
- Orange County Business Journal

Dell Latitude 2100 Netbook Leaked?

Gizmodo has been sent a slide and some information about a possible new netbook from Dell that would be geared towards the education market. It’s being called the Dell Latitude 2100 or the Latitude 2100 ‘Welch’. The 10-inch Intel Atom-powered netbook/ultraportable does look different, both in styling and in battery, from the existing 10-inch Dell Inspiron Mini 10.

It could be a similar situation to HP’s, where they have a consumer-oriented netbook, the HP Mini 1000, along with the HP Mini 2140 which is geared towards professional/business buyers, as well as the education market. This would mirror Dell’s existing lineups, where they have Inspirons for consumers and Latitudes for business users.

From the slide Gizmodo has posted, the colors are School Bus Orange, Blue Ribbon, Red Apple, and ? Black (Classroom Black or Chalkboard Black?) which certainly lends credence to these being designed for the education market.

Specifications:
- Intel Atom 1.6GHz
- Under $600
- Up to 2GB RAM
- Optional Solid State Drive (SSD)
- Under 3 pounds
- 3 USB 2.0 ports
- Secure Digital (SD) or MultiMedia Card (MMC) slot
- 802.11a/g/n + Gigabit Ethernet
- Bluetooth 2.0
- 3-cell or 6-cell battery option

The most interesting aspect, besides the fact that it looks like Dell would be launching a new netbook line, is the mention of a touchscreen option. That would shake up the market, since Gigabyte and Asustech seem to be the only ones currently interested in a touchscreen netbook outside of Asia.

A launch date of around May 2009 with a price of under $600 USD is being claimed by Gizmodo’s source.

Read: Gizmodo

Sony VAIO P Refresh - This Summer?

Sony Insider is reporting that the 8″ Intel Atom-based Sony VAIO P series could be undergoing a refresh in coming months.

Keep in mind that not all models currently available elsewhere, are available in the US - US VAIO P models are currently limited to 1.33GHz Atoms. While the built-in GPS, high resolution display (1600×768) and other features for the not-quite-a-netbook have impressed some, others in the US have wondered about the CPU speeds.

SonyInsider dug up some potential new model numbers - currently in the US, all of the models start with 5, aka as part of a 500 series ( VGN-P598E/Q, etc.), but they’ve produced model numbers that look to be part of a 700 series (which as they point out, keeps in line with Sony naming schemes).

Model numbers found:
- VGN-P710T/B
- VGN-P710T/R
- VGN-P710T/G
- VGN-P710T/W
- VGN-P730A/Q
- VGN-P730T/Q

The Q designations are interesting, because of the P730 instead of P710. I agree that they’ll probably be a different CPU, SSD option, or possibly Windows 7 variants, since companies are starting to make plans for Windows 7. Windows 7 is a natural fit, and it’s already been demonstrated on the VAIO P (albeit unofficially).

Read:
- SonyInsider
via SlashGear

Lenovo Pocket Yoga (Pocket Notebook) Discussed

There has been a lot of talk about Lenovo’s “Pocket Yoga”, which closely resembles the form factor of the Sony VAIO P series (or rather, the VAIO P resembles it). In the words of Lenovo, it’s the smallest pocket notebook. The photo(s) were from two years ago.

Over at Design Matters, one of Lenovo’s official blogs, Johnson Li, who is the Director of Lenovo’s Beijing Inovation Center, has spoken about the concept product from Lenovo that was leaked out.

Note: If you are curious to see several images from the Pocket Yoga concept design, Lenovo has posted photos on the Lenovo Photo Library at flickr. Yes, there is a photo of it in somebody’s back pocket.

Li mentions what created the hoopla:

Last week some buzz was created by a photograph that someone snuck out of our Beijing design studio. The picture was of a pocket-sized PC we developed about two years ago, well before the current netbook craze and the introduction of a similar form factor by one of our competitors. Since the design has been shown in public in the past and received some attention, I thought it might be of some interest to discuss the design inspiration and share some photos and drawings of the device.

We in Lenovo’s Beijing design center refer to this concept as the “Pocket Yoga,” an extension of an award winning design we’ve shown in public based on a folding concept inspired by the practice of yoga by one of our New Zealand-based designers. The full Yoga concept was a folding notebook with a detachable keyboard. The system unit was covered in leather.

The use of leather is interesting - Li says that it can “transform a cold, plastic or metal machine into something warm and considerate, transforming it into something friendlier and more like a trusted and valued possession. Always there, always waiting.”

He also considered the “soft hinge” design that has three different modes, to be one of the major innovations. It allows the touchscreen display to rotate all the way over to lay flat, and turns the device into a Tablet PC.

Read: Design Matters (LenovoBlogs.com)

Dell Inspiron Mini 9n for $199 (1-day only)

Dell is running another one of their one-day only specials for the Inspiron Mini 9 (Mini 9n in this case). It’s $50 off the base model, with a starting price of $199.

$199 gets you a Dell Inspiron Mini 9n with:
- Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz)
- 512MB DDR2 RAM
- 8GB Solid State Drive (SSD)
- 4-Cell Battery
- Ubuntu Linux 8.04.1
- 8.9″ 1024×600 Display
- Alpine White or Obsidian Black

It started this morning at 6am CDT (US) and ends tomorrow morning at 5:59am CDT or while supplies are available.

Full Details/Purchase:
Dell Home and Home Office - Inspiron Mini 9 only $199 after $50 off.

Dell Adamo Available Online

Update - Official Site: Adamo by Dell

The new Dell Adamo is now available online through Dell. It’s in direct competition with the 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Air, and features a 13.4-inch 16:9 HD Display with “edge-to-edge” glass.

Color choices are either silver aluminum with etching and a pearl finish, or onyx aluminum with brushed finished. It is an aluminum chassis, and it’s been “torsion-tested” according to Dell. With the aluminum build, it’s only 0.65 inches thick.

With the lithium polymer battery, Dell claims up to 5 hours of battery life.

Specifications:
- 1.4GHz or 1.2GHz Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) Core 2 Duo/Centrino Platform
- 128GB Solid State Drive (SSD)
- 2GB - 4GB 800MHz DDR3 RAM
- 802.11n Wireless, plus Ethernet
- Bluetooth 2.1 EDR+
- Mobile Broadband options
- 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium
- 1.3MP Webcam

There are two models/options to start with:
- ADMIRE - $1,999: This is the baseline model, with a 1.2GHz CPU and 2GB of RAM.
- DESIRE - $2,699: This is the high-end model, with a 1.4GHz CPU and 4GB of RAM. It has optional mobile broadband connectivity.

From there, you can select two additional packages (as well as customizing):
- ENTREPRENEUR PACKAGE $2,447 (discounted to $2,348): Adds a 250GB external/USB drive.
- JET-SETTER PACKAGE $2,512 (discounted to $2,398): Adds a Tumi laptop sleeve, and external DVD-RW.

Additional options:
- Various Tumi sleeves
- External USB optical drive (DVD or Blu-Ray)
- External HDD (250GB or 500GB)

Available: http://www.adamobydell.com/commit

MSI Wind U110 ECO Announced

MSI has announced a refresh or addition to the MSI Wind U110 line, calling it the MSI Wind U110 ECO.

It’s based on the Intel Menlow Platform, powered by an Intel Atom CPU. MSI is claiming up to 9 hours of battery life, saying that the “U110 ECO is the world’s power saving No.1 Netbook!” (as jkOnTheRun mentions, that’s probably under the most ideal situation. The chipset is the Intel Poulsbo US15W. The original U110 featured an Intel N270, and the new U110 ECO is using a Z530 Atom CPU. The change in chipset and CPU can boost the battery life quite a bit, but 9 hours is pushing it.

It features a redesigned keyboard, with a pitch of 17.5mm between the keys, along with a redesigned spacebar and touchpad. There’s also the option for a 2.0MP Webcam, a rarity among netbooks (even 1.3MP can be a rarity among current netbooks).

Specifications:
- Intel Menlow Platform/Atom CPU
- 802.11b/g/n
- Bluetooth
- 3-cell or 6-cell battery
- 1.3MP or 2.0MP webcam
- Up to 2.5″ Serial ATA (SATA) HDD - 80GB, 120GB, or 160GB.

Note: The U110 ECO does not feature an ATI graphics chipset.

Read:
- MSI Press Release
via jkOnTheRun

Next Page »