Windows 7 is finally being released today – exciting, isn't it? What better way to celebrate the release of this new OS than with the "Windows 7 Whopper." Yes, this has actually become a menu item at Burger King in Japan. All the techies must be having a field day.
The Windows 7 Whopper comes with 7 slabs of beef and will set you back 777¥ (roughly equivalent to $8.50). Enjoy – well, if you're in Japan!
Via JKOnTheRun.
Here's a netbook from Rui Iridium Star Digital. The style of this netbook is similar to that of the Sony Vaio P but its size is slightly larger.
Star Digital's netbook has a 10″ screen display with 1024×600 resolution, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, an Intel GMA950 graphics card, 1 GB of RAM, and a 160 GB hard drive. Other tech specs of the netbook include Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) and a 0.3 megapixel webcam. The netbook has a 3-cell battery, giving it an overall weight of 1.16kg. Dimensions are 288 x 151 x 31mm.
Pictured below is a prototype of the netbook. There's no information on pricing or availability just yet, but we'll keep you posted.
Via ClonedinChina.
If you haven't taken the brave route to installing the Windows 7 beta release to your netbook, you might be glad to know that Microsoft is releasing an online tool that will help you upgrade your existing netbook's OS to Windows 7.
The trick is when you buy Windows 7 at the Microsoft online store you can have access to this tool that will guide you in creating a USB bootable drive that you can use to upgrade your netbook's OS to Windows 7.
There's just one hitch to this process though, and that is it will require you to tweak your netbook's BIOS to look for a USB driver first before proceeding with the boot up process.
Although Microsoft will not recommend this to all netbook users, I'm inclined to believe that most if not all netbook users are computer savvy enough to be able to tweak their netbook's OS.
A 4GB USB drive is also required if you are following Microsoft's online tool for upgrading to Windows 7.
via Cnet
A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.
Microsoft to Help Netbook Owners Upgrade to Windows 7
Acer has launched an updated version of the 11.6 inch Acer Aspire 1410 with Windows 7 Home Premium. While the model released a few months ago shipped for $450 with Windows Vista and a single core 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 processor, the new version packs a dual core 1.2GHz Intel Celeron SU2300 CPU. Oh yeah, and it costs even less, running just $399.99 at Amazon.
I'm still waiting for my demo unit to arrive, but the folks at Netbooked got their hands on the new Aspire 1410 today and they've got the unboxing video to prove it. You can check out the video after the break, but here are a few of the highlights:
What I really want to know is how the dual core SU2300 processor stacks up against the Core 2 Solo SU3500 CPU and the higher end dual core CULV chips found in the Asus UL30A and Acer Aspire Timeline 1810T series laptops. But while we're waiting to run those benchmarks, you can check out Netbooked's unboxing video below.
Post from: Liliputing
Acer Aspire 1410 with dual core CPU, Windows 7 unboxed – Video
Lenovo has finally gone and made the IdeaPad U150 thin and light computer with a CULV processor official… in Japan anyway. We're still waiting on a US announcement, but here's what Lenovo Japan is telling us about the machine:
There's also a hard drive protection system which shuts down the hard disk if your computer is in freefall to help prevent damage and data loss.
via Netbooked
Post from: Liliputing
Lenovo IdeaPad U150 thin and light gets official… in Japan
Recently we told you about the online manual for the new Lenovo IdeaPad U150 that showed up at the Lenovo website. Well, it is finally out, at least in Japan. Our friends at Netbooked.net were lucky enough to be getting their Lenovo IdeaPad U150 and they now know the price of this Lenovo machine – around $792.
And like we told before, the Lenovo IdeaPad U150 is going to have an Intel CULV processor and 11.6-inch display. Finally, they are done with the Atom CPU.
As a review, here are the specs of the Lenovo IdeaPad U150. Some more photos follow after.
Via Netbooked
A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.
Lenovo IdeaPad U150 Goes Official in Japan
Acer's seems to be prepping up the new Aspire 1420p Tablet netbook for release to the U.S. While it was being displayed on a press event in China, the Acer folks in the U.S. have went ahead and published and official product page for the said machine on the Acer website.
So, were looking at an Aspire tablet PC with the following specs:
Aside from the multitouch screen, what makes the Aspire 1420p stand out is its special convertible design which let you use it as a photo frame, portable cinema or a presentation tool. The tablet PC can also be folded up like a notepad for taking notes, reading ebooks or navigating maps. In addition, it also has a built-in accelerometer and a FineTip full-size keyboard.
via Engadget
A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.
Acer to Bring the Aspire 1420P Tablet to the U.S.
The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 is a thin and light laptop with an Intel CULV dual core SU2300 processor. It's already available in Japan, but Lenovo hasn't given it a proper global launch yet. Now according to the Lenovo Twitter feed, the company will introduce the 11.6 inch laptop during a webcast event on Monday.
The laptop will join an already-crowded field of 11.6 inch laptops with low power, moderate performance processors, extended battery life and Windows 7 Home Premium, including laptops from Acer, Asus, Dell, and Toshiba.
via Netbooked
Post from: Liliputing
Lenovo announces plans to announce the Lenovo IdeaPad U150
The Lite-On eTAU208 DVD/CD Writer is a portable disc drive that's pretty handy for folks who like to travel light. Not only is the DVD burner barely any wider than an optical disc, it also weighs just 0.77 pounds. And it draws power from you're computer's USB port, which means there's no extra power cable to lug around.
The folks at Lite-On sent me a demo unit to review, and so far it seems to perform exactly as described. One thing I really like is that the disc burner comes with a short USB cable that can be tucked into a slot on the bottom of the disc drive for easy storage. It took a little bit of effort to cram the USB cable into place, but it sure beats misplacing the cable or having yet another separate item to throw in your bag.
When you plug the disc drive into a PC, it should be recognized almost immediately. If you want to shut down the drive while it's still plugged in, just hit the Stop button and it will power down. You can power it up again by opening and closing the lid.
I was also pleased to note that when I plugged the disc drive with an HP Mini 5101 and powered up the netbook I was able to hit F9 and choose the eTAU208 from the boot options menu, which means that you don't need to wait for your operating system to load before your PC will recognize the drive.
Lite-On ships the disc drive with Nero 8 Essentials disc burning software for Windows and Linux.
On the down side, the disc drive has a cheap plastic feel to it, but that's probably because it is made of cheap plastic. But that's also one of the reasons it's so light weight.
The Lite-On eTAU208 has a list price of $64.99, but you can pick it up from Newegg for $49.99 + free shipping. You can check out some unboxing photos after the break.
Post from: Liliputing
First look at the Lite-On eTAU0208 USB DVD burner
US retailer Best Buy is now taking pre-orders for the Nokia Booklet 3G. You can reserve an unlocked version of the netbook with a black lid from BestBuy.com for $599.99. Interestingly, Best Buy promises that white and blue options will be available soon. There doesn't seem to be any option to pre-order the netbook with an AT&T data plan. Once that option is available, the price is expected to drop to $299.
Meanwhile a tipster sent Engadget a few unboxing photos of one of the first demo units to appear at a Best Buy. There's nothing we haven't seen before, but it's another indication that the laptop should be available in the US soon.
In case you've forgotten, the Nokia Booklet 3G is the cellphone maker's first entry into the netbook market. It features a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z50 CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive, and a 10.1 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel display. It supports 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, 3G wireless, aGPS, and has an HDMI output. It runs Windows 7 Starter Edition, and the battery is also reportedly good for up to 12 hours.
via netbooked
Post from: Liliputing
Nokia Booklet 3G now available for pre-order from Best Buy
When I reviewed the Acer Aspire 1410 with a Core 2 Solo SU3500 processor and Windows Vista a last month, I found that it was much faster than your average netbook when it came CPU-intensive tasks like transcoding audio and video files. But there was one thing it still couldn't do: play HD and high quality Flash videos on its high resolution 1366 x 768 pixel display.
But this week Acer released an updated version of the Aspire 1410. The new model has a 1.2GHz Intel Celeron SU2300 dual core processor and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. And according to Peter at Netbooked, it can handle HD YouTube videos reasonably well. But you don't have to take his word for it. You can check it out for yourself by watching the… HD YouTube video below.
Playback isn't 100% flawless, but the videos look very watchable. When you try watching similar videos with the older version of the Aspire 1410, it feels like you're looking at a picture slideshow instead of a video. That's no longer the case.
And that makes the new Acer Aspire 1410 the cheapest laptop I'm aware of with an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, 4+ hour battery life, and HD Flash video capabilities. You can order one today from Amazon for just under $400
You can check out Peter's video after the break:
Post from: Liliputing
Acer Aspire 1410 update: New $400 model can handle HD YouTube videos
If the Acer Aspire Timeline 1820PT is a touchscreen tablet version of the Acer Aspire 1810T, then what do you think the Acer Aspire 1420P is? That's right, it's a convertible touchscreen version of the company's cheapest laptop with an Intel CULV processor: the Acer Aspire 1410.
While the Aspire 1410 goes for as little as $400, there's no official word on the price for the 1420P yet. But Acer has posted a product page for the new laptop. Here's a rundown of the specs:
In related news, Acer has posted a new Touch page to describe multitouch gestures that can be used with Acer computers with touchscreens and touchpads. There's also a section on Acer's software applications designed for touch. And it looks like Acer will add a section with information about touch enabled PC models soon.
via Engadget and Netbook Choice
Post from: Liliputing
Acer goes all out on touchscreen tablets, introduces the Aspire 1420P
Here are some specs for yet another ASUS Eee PC netbook, the 1201N. This netbook has a 12.1″ screen display wiht 1366×768 resolution, a 1.6 GHz dual-core Intel Atom 330 processor, a Nvidia ION chipset, 2 GB of RAM, and a 250 GB hard drive.
The 1201N netbook will also have Wi-Fi ( 802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth, three USB ports, HDMI-out, and a 0.3 megapixel webcam. The operating system will be Windows 7 Home Premium. Including a 6-cell battery, the weight of this netbook will be 1.40 kg and the dimensions will be 296mm x 208mm x 33.3mm.
The launch date for the 1201N is set for sometime in December, before Christmas. No doubt it'll be a great gift for a loved one.
Via NetbookChoice.
The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 ultraportable went on sale in Japan on the same day as Windows 7. The U150 has an 11.6″ screen display with 1366×768 resolution, a 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU2300 processor, 2 GB of DDR3 RAM (it can have up to 8 GB), and a 250 GB hard drive. Other tech specs of the ultraportable include Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, b/g/n Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, two USB 2.0 ports, a USB/eSATA connector, HDMI, VGA, and a 1.3 megapixel webcam.
This Lenovo ultraportable is unique in that it has a trackpad that recognizes multitouch gestures. The U150 also has a multiformat card reader and "Dolby Sound Room" speaker technology.
The Lenovo IdeaPad U150 has a 6-cell battery, which is supposedly able to run for seven hours when running Windows 7 Home Premium. The weight of the ultraportable is 1.5 kg. Pricing and availability is not yet available in the United States but we'll keep you posted.
Via Slashgear.
Dell claims that their Adamo XPS laptop will be the world's thinnest laptop – and seeing how thin it is, this is probably true. The laptop opens by swiping a finger across a touch sensor that's located on the lid.
Even though the laptop's slim, this by no means indicates that it's flimsy. In fact, it's reported to feel quite sturdy. The Adamo XPS is covered in brushed aluminum.
One thing that's questionable about the laptop is the angle at which its keyboard currently sits when it's open. It may or may not be comfortable when typing for an extended period of time. No other details about the specs of this notebook are currently available, but when they're out, we'll be sure to let you know.
Via Slashgear.
The 22nd has come and gone and the Nokia Booklet 3G still isn't available to purchase from Best Buy despite the demo model arriving. The netbook is however available to pre-order now from Best Buy. The price remains at the previously reported price of $599.99. Only the black model is available to pre-order at the moment but, the blue and white models will also be available soon.
The Nokia Booklet will also be available with an AT&T data plan. Once this becomes available the netbook price will drop to $299.
via
A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.
Best Buy put Nokia Booklet 3G up for pre-order
While it isn't available to purchase yet from Best Buy, over at Engadget they've got photos of the netbook being unboxed and shown with Windows 7. The netbook comes with the starter edition of Windows 7, which as Engadget note, only includes one wallpaper, the one shown but, I'm sure many will use their own photos anyway, or find other Windows 7 wallpapers from other sources. This is the first demo unit to arrive at Best Buy. You can view the photos of the unboxing after the jump.
A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.
Nokia Booklet 3G with Windows 7 unboxed
If you're looking for a convertible tablet that is not too big and yet can still function as a netbook with a real keyboard, you might want to consider the Kojinsha PA Series. This UMPC/MID sports a 4.8-inch WSVGA touchscreen and runs Windows XP Home.
The Kojinsha PA Series MID/UMPC also features a 1.33GHz Intel Atom CPU, 512MB of RAM, 32GB of SSD, 7.5 hours battery life, SD slot and 1.3MP webcam.
The Kojinsha PA Series is slated for a November release in Japan. It will set you back for around $758. You may pre-order one now over at Geeks4U.
via Pocketables
A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.
Kojinsha PA Series is a Half-Tablet, Half-Netbook Device
The Samsung N140 netbook is a new machine with a bunch of specs we've been looking for in a new netbook, including the all new Microsoft Windows 7 OS.
The new netbook has been released in India as the Samsung N140 Ultra-Portable Netbook. It runs for up to 11 hours with its 6-cell battery, thanks to some touch-ups like an energy efficient LED display.
It weighs 1.27 kg and features a 10.1-inch display and spillproof keyboards. Furthermore, its hard drive is a massive 250 GB.
Other features include 3 USB 2.0 ports, including one that charges portable devices even when the netbook is off, and a 3-in-1 card reader. It has Ethernet LAN, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, VGA, and an integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam.
The new Samsung N140 goes for Rs 24,990, or around $535, on Indian markets.
Via UB-News.
Are you a netbook user? Are you currently lacking a portable USB drive? Do you want a convenient USB drive?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, here's something to consider: the Kingston DataTraveler 200. This 64 GB USB 2.0 hard drive is compact and light, i.e., the perfect traveling companion. 64 GB is more than enough to take care of everyday computing needs, even if you're creating and saving documents left and right.
If you're interested in checking out the Kingston DataTraveler, click here. You can get your own for less than $150.
Via Gigaom.
Acer has been pretty experimental lately, announcing a dual-booting Android netbook, a new nettop, and an 11.6-inch tablet netbook running Windows 7. However, it's latest innovation is a bit on the gimmicky side – a TriDef application allowing 2D-3D conversion in games and apps, packaged with the $780 Acer 5758DG laptop along with a set of 3D glasses.
The application works for software supporting DirectX 9 and above. It works in conjunction with a special coating applied to the 15-inch screen on the Acer machine.
Via NYTimes.
ASUS has been busy at work throwing new netbooks at an ever-growing market – in the last few weeks we've seen a ton of new entrants including the Eee PC T91MT, 1201N and 1201A, Eee PC 1000HT, and the M60J laptop. This week is no different, with the company announcing an update to the Eee PC 1005HA featuring a hardcore hi-resolution screen: the ASUS Eee PC 1005HR.
The machine will only be available in Japan, for now. However, we're still excited – along with the traditional Eee PC combo of a 1.66 GHz Atom CPU, 1 GB of RAM, 250 GB HDD, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Webcam, the netbook's screen has been ramped up to 1366 x 768 pixels. The machine runs Windows 7 Starter edition for up to 8.5 hours with the 6-cell battery.
Japanese consumers can expect the Eee PC 1005HR in Japan by November for 49,800 yen – around $547.
Via Netbooked.
I'm not a big fan of benchmarking tests like PCMark and 3DMark because I don't feel like they give the average user a good idea of how a PC will perform in real-life scenarios. Over the past two years, this hasn't been much of an issue because most of the laptops I've reviewed have been netbooks with Intel Atom N270, N280, or Z520 processors. In other words, they all performed pretty much the same.
Sure, there was the occasional Intel Celeron or VIA Nano chip thrown in for good measure. But for the most part, if you picked up a laptop with a 12 inch or smaller display for under $500 between 2007 and mid-2008, odds are it had an Intel Atom CPU. So I didn't have to work that hard on the performance section of my laptop reviews.
Well, the times, they are a-changing. Soon Intel will launch its updated Intel Atom platform and it's likely that we'll start to see machines with Intel Atom N450, D510, and other chips hit the market. But more importantly, Intel is promoting its Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) platform for 11 to 12 inch thin and light laptops. AMD has its NEO line of processors. And we're well past the days when a processor's clock speed could tell you all there was to know about its performance.
So in order to help keep track of the new systems with processors like the Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300, Intel Pentium SU4100, Intel Pentium SU2700, Intel Celeron 743, and AMD Neo MV-40, I've put together a list of common CPU-intensive tasks that you might expect to do on a portable laptop. This includes transcoding audio and video files, copying a large number of files from one directory to another, and creating a zip file.
I've already used this method to test the performance of the Acer Aspire 1410 laptop (with Windows Vista Home Premium and a single core Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 CPU), and HP Mini 5101 netbook.
But since I probably won't be able to test every single netbook and ultraportable laptop released over the next few years, I wanted to make my benchmarking tools available to the public. And it occurred to me that some of the files I was using in my tests were copyrighted and shouldn't be distributed. So I've put together a new set of benchmarking tools which are available for download here.
Today I have results for the Asus UL30A, a 13.3 inch laptop with an Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor.
The test consists of 4 parts:
The Liliputing Benchmarking tools are available as a 453MB ZIP file. When you uncompress it to a folder you should have 2186 files that take up about 478MB, including the XViD codec, VirtualDub, and WinLame.
Here are the results for the Asus UL30A:
Just for comparison's reference sake, here are the results of the first batch of tests I ran on the UL30A, using the same set of files as I used when testing the Acer Aspire 1410 and HP Mini 5101:
The results should be fairly similar for the Asus UL20A, which has virtually identical hardware, but a smaller 12.1 inch display. But I'll be curious to see how other laptops with the SU7300 processor stack up against the Asus UL30A… not to mention all those other machines with different processors.
Thanks to psydeways for the idea of making my benchmarking tools public!
Post from: Liliputing
Benchmarking the Asus UL30A (and other PCs)