ExoPC Slate Comes On The Heels Of the iPad

A French computer maker has added another combatant in what has become a war between Apple's iPad and the netbooks.  Similar to the HP Slate, the ExoPC is a new tablet form factor netbook, featuring 8.9″ of  multitouch goodness.  It looks similar to the iPad, though most tablets in this field are probably going to have the same characteristic bevel layout.

This is a full-fledged netbook, minus the keyboard. Specs are standard: Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz, 2 GB DDR2 RAM, 32 GB SSD w/ expandable SD slot.  Naturally, the ExoPC will be running Windows 7,  allowing for a much more functional if not visually pleasing  environment than the modified iPhone OS.  This also allows ExoPC to promise "the web without compromise," a reference undoubtedly pointed towards the iPad's lack of flash support.

There is one place where the ExoPC shows some weakness, and that's in the battery life department.  At only 4 hours, it lacks the godly battery life that we have come to expect from netbooks, but it is at least user replaceable.  Still at $599 and release date in March it is placing itself as a direct competitor to its iPad counterpart.

Via Engadget.

Hivision 7″ Android netbook reviewed

Charbax at Arm Devices has posted a video review of the Hivision PWS700CA, an ARM-based min-laptop running Google Android. The device has a 600MHz ARM-based CPU, 128MB of RAM, and a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display. It supports WiFi and Ethernet connections and can handle 720p HD video playback. It also weighs just about 1.4 pounds.

The Hivision netbook is designed to be dirt cheap. But I think Charbax gets a bit carried away when he hears the prices of OEM devices from Chinese manufacturers like Hivision. Just because Hivision is charging distributors about $98 for the equipment doesn't mean we'll ever see the mini-laptop sold for under $100. Still, the PWS700CA could certainly be rebranded and sold for under $200.

The browser seems pretty responsive. But the user interface is clearly designed for a touchscreen device like a phone, not a laptop with a touchpad or mouse. Out of the box there's no support for the Google Android Marketplace for third party applications. But Hivision has created their own app store with access to a handful of programs that can run on the device.

You can check out Charbax's video after the break.

Post from: Liliputing

Hivision 7″ Android netbook reviewed

Samsung X120 unboxing video

Samsung seems to be popular this week for unboxing videos this week. We follow on from the N220 unboxed to the X120. Like the N220, the X120 is currently not shipping in America.

The Samsung X120 falls in the CULV category as it features the Intel CULV processor. The X120 features an 11.6 inch display and a full sized keyboard. The left and right mouse buttons are located either side of the trackpad, which for some may hinder the use of the built in mouse, especially if you're used to the right and left buttons being located under the trackpad. The guys over at Netbook News received the X120 and have posted an unboxing video along with first impressions design wise. Like the other Samsung netbooks, the accessories include a neoprene sleeve to protect the netbook, however it's noted that no manual is included, not even a quick start guide. The X120 also has the trademark chrome border. Looking at the underneath, it appears that the HDD and RAM are easily accessible for those who wish to upgrade either. You can view the full unboxing and first impressions video after the jump.

via

A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.

Samsung X120 unboxing video

Deals of the Day

Netbooks and Notebooks

• Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 Atom 1.66GHz 10″ Netbook for $299 + free shipping – Lenovo (coupon: USPS103BLACK)
• Samsung NC10-13GB 10.1″ netbook w/Atom N270, Win XP, 6 cell battery for $284.99 – Amazon
• Asus Eee PC 1001P-M 10.1″ netbook w/Atom N450, 6 cell battery, Win 7 Starter for $284 - SuperBiiz (coupon: SHINE0215)
• Toshiba Mini NB205-N230 w/Atom N280, Win 7 Starter, 6 cell battery for $314.29 + $10.18 s&h – Amazon
• 20% off refurbished Dell Mini 10″ netbooks: Deals from $175 + free shipping – Dell (coupon: KJC8Z8PGL2T83L)

Accessories

• Kingston 2GB Secure Digital Cards (2 pk) for $14.97 + free shipping - Buy.com
• Kingston 4GB SHDC class 4 card for $11.84 + free shipping – Amazon
• Fantom 2TB G-Force USB/eSATA hard drive for $139.99 + free shipping - Buy.com
• Refurbished Linksys WRT110 RangePlus Wireless-G 4-Port Router for $20 + $7 s&h – UncleVic

You can find more deals on netbooks, gadgets, and accessories in the Liliputing Deals section.

Post from: Liliputing

Deals of the Day

Netbook Rumble - Pine Trail Edition

LaptopMag has a new showdown up and this time it pits the newly released Pine Trail netbooks against each other. The six competitors are:

• Acer Aspire One 532h
• Asus 1005PE-P
• Dell Inspiron Mini 10
• HP Mini 5102
• MSI U135
• Toshiba Mini NB305-N410

The over-all champion? HP Mini 5102 which bested the other netbooks in its easy to use keyboard, extra long battery life and elegant professional design. Hit the link below for the full rundown on this fight.

source LaptopMag

A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.

Netbook Rumble – Pine Trail Edition

Four sub-$300 Pine Trail netbooks

Brad of Liliputing shared some great netbook deals he found. Most netbooks are slowly inching up in price due to bundling of newer operating systems, faster drives and processors and more 'bling' like graphics cards and 3G modules. It's refreshing to see that this is not the case for all netbooks.

If you're looking for a newer model netbook (those with the new Pine Trail processor), here are a few that you can get for under US$300.

• HP Mini 210 - $279.99 from HP's online store
• Dell Inspiron Mini 10 - $299 from Dell's online store
• Acer Aspire One AO532h - $299 from Amazon.com
• Asus Eee PC 1001P - $299.99 from Amazon.com

If you want to see other models within this price range, check out Netbook Reports post.

Source liliputing

A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.

Four sub-$300 Pine Trail netbooks

Acer To Deliver New eReader, App Store, and Chrome OS Netbook

Acer, already the second largest computer maker in the world, has ambitious plans for the future. According to Bloomberg, Acer is tossing its hat into the already over-saturated yet underdeveloped market of eReaders, facing off with the likes of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, and others. No specifics have been announced other than it will have a 6-inch, monochrome (assume E-Ink) screen and ship in Europe.

More surprisingly, Acer is announcing an online apps store. Jim Wong, president of the Acer IT product division, has stated it would contain hundreds of applications, "otherwise you can't call it an app store." It will likely be a cross-platform marketplace for Android, Windows Mobile, and ChromeOS.

However, Acer's most stunning announcement is the fact it has announced plans to rush forward with a ChromeOS netbook to provide a "a change to the Microsoft-Intel environment," according to Wong. The mention of Intel hints that this new product line might be ARM powered as an alternative to the standard Atom on-board most mainstream netbooks. Acer plans to release the netbook sometime around Q3 2010, on schedule with Google's release date for ChromeOS.

Via Bloomberg, image via Wikipedia.

Deals of the Day

Netbooks and Notebooks

• MSI Wind U135 10.1″ netbook w/Atom N450, Win Starter, 6 cell battery for $316.99 + free shipping – Buy.com (via Amazon)
• Refurbished Acer 250  w/Atom N20, Win XP Home, 3 cell battery for $249.99 + free shipping – Buy.com
• 15% off any Dell Outlet Laptop with Coupon Code N4GPFKF9JL$MBW – Dell
• Sony VAIO Atom 1.66GHz 10″ LED Netbook for $450 + free shipping – Datavis (via Buy.com)
• Asus Eee PC T91MT 8.9″ netbook w/touchscreen display, 1.33GHz Atom Z520 CPU, 32G SSD for $484 – Amazon

Accessories

• DANE-ELEC 80GB 1.8″ SSD with 2.5″ adapter, migration kit for $189.99 + free shipping – Newegg (coupon: EMCYZNT44)
• ASUS RT-N10 IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wireless Router for $21.49 + free shipping – Buy.com
• 15% off all orders, no minimum – Shop4Tech (coupon: EJ15)
• Samsung Wireless Mono Laser Printer for $100 – TigerDirect
• HP Bluetooth Wireless Printer and PC Adapter 2-Pack for $20 + free shipping - Buy.com

You can find more deals on netbooks, gadgets, and accessories in the Liliputing Deals section.

Post from: Liliputing

Deals of the Day

AMD Expands Processor Share, Bright Future in General for Chips

AMD has begun to make comeback in the CPU market, according to a study today by market research firm IDC.  AMD recorded major gains beginning in the first quarter of '09 and has aggressively made inroads into the notebook market.

It expanded from a 10.2% share to 12.7% from Q4 '08 to Q4 '09, gnawing down Intel from 89.1% to 87.3%.  This is likely the result of the Turion II X2 and Athlon line, but Intel still seems to sit on top of the mobile market.  Only time will tell as both companies scramble for dominance over CPU and integrated GPU chips in laptops and netbooks.

Overall, 2009 has been a largely successful year for chipmakers, who shipped 31.3% more processors in Q4 '09 compared to Q4 '08.  Processing lightweight VIA was the exception, shrinking from 0.4% to 0.1% over the past year.  A major area of growth was mobile PCs (including of course netbooks), rising  by 11.7% over the same period.  The IDC remains optimistic for the coming year, forecasting a 15.1% growth in CPUs sold.

Via PC World.

4 Pine Trail netbooks for under $300

The first consumer oriented netbook launched in late 2007 with a $400 price tag. The Eee PC 701 had a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display, a cramped keyboard, 4GB of flash storage, 512MB of RAM, and a 900MHz Intel Celeron processor. While some folks have been complaining that Intel's latest Atom processor doesn't offer significantly better performance than the low power Atom chips that have been available since mid-2008, there is one area where things have changed quite a bit: price.

I regularly highlight netbooks that are selling for under $300 and sometimes even under $200 in my daily deals posts. But what you might be surprised to notice is that these aren't all simply refurbished netbooks or older models that are taking up space on store shelves. In fact, some of the newest netbooks announced just this month have starting prices of less than $300. These are modern machines with the new energy-efficient Intel Atom N450 Pine Trail processor.

Netbook Reports has put together a good roundup of some of these models, with detailed specs for each. Unfortunately,  some of the notebooks they mention don't actually seem to be available in the US at the moment. For instance, I've only seen listings for the MSI Wind U135 for $317 and up, with a 6 cell battery, while Netbook Reports suggests the 3 cell version will sell for a lower price. And I'm reluctant to list the Acer Aspire 532h and Gateway LT2106U as separate models, since they're basically the same machine with different brand names.

But here are 4 deals that I found on Pine Trail netbooks that you can pick up today for under $300:

1. HP Mini 210 w/1GB RAM. 160GB HDD< Win XP, 3 cell battery for $279.99 – HP
2. Dell Inspiron Mini 10 w/1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Win XP, 3 cell battery for $299 - Dell
3. Acer Aspire One AO532h w/1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Win 7 Starter, 6 cell battery for $299 – Amazon
4. Asus Eee PC 1001P-MU17 w/1GB RAM, 160G HDD, Win 7 Starter, 6 cell battery for $299.99 – Amazon

See any that I missed? Let us know in the comments.

Post from: Liliputing

4 Pine Trail netbooks for under $300

How Windows sees netbook CPUs

Credit: YugaTech

Windows Vista and Windows 7 have a built-in tool for rating your computer's hardware. The Windows Experience Index looks at your CPU, RAM, hard drive, and graphics performance and gives a score for each area that's designed to give you a halfway decent guesstimate on how well the operating system will run on your hardware. A lower score doesn't necessarily mean that the OS won't run, just that it may not perform quite as well as on hardware with higher scores.

The folks at YugaTech took a look at the Windows Experience scores for 14 different processors commonly found in netbooks and thin and light notebooks. The results aren't all that surprising if you've been following the ultraportable space for the past year or two. But if you're trying to decide between a system with an Atom N280, Atom N450, AMD Neo MV-40, or Intel Pentium Dual Core SU4100 CPU, this chart might come in handy.

It's worth pointing out that the Windows Experience Index doesn't take all factors into account. For instance, these scores won't tell you that the AMD chips generally use far more energy than the Intel chips, which takes a toll on battery life. And the scores don't actually calculate raw processing power. Instead it looks at how well the processor can handle specific Windows applications such as Windows Media Center, Aero desktop effects, and so forth.

OK, keeping that in mind, I found it interesting that the Intel Atom N270, N280, and N450 all got the same sub-score of 2.3. The Atom Z540 and Z550, on the other hand, received higher scores of 2.6 and 2.9 respectively, while the AMD and Intel CULV processors found in 11.6 inch and larger thin and lights generally outperformed most of the Atom processors.

You can find more details at YugaTech.

via Netbook Reports

Post from: Liliputing

How Windows sees netbook CPUs

Acer working on Chrome OS notebooks, App Store, eBook reader

Acer appears to be branching out into pretty much every new area that's getting even a slight bit of buzz. Bloomberg reports that the company has a notebook running Google Chrome OS coming in Q3, 2010. After the initial launch, Acer plans to offer Chrome on as many as 10 percent of the company's netbooks. Acer hopes to sell as many as a million Chrome-based netbooks by the end of te year. There's no information about the hardware that will power these netbooks.

The report also says Acer has an eBook reader on its way and that the company plans to offer an app store for downloading software as well as eBooks.

Of course, Acer isn't entering these markets just to make us happy. There's a pretty significant profit motive behind each move. Chrome OS will likely be free to license, which makes it an appealing alternative to Windows 7 for netbooks. And while Acer surely hopes to make some money off of eBook reader hardware, the real money is in digital downloads of software and eBooks. It's a heck of a lot cheaper to host a digital file online and charge for each download than to crank out and deliver new hardware.

For more details on the Acer eBook reader and a few details about an Acer tablet which may or may not ever see the light of day, hit up Bloomberg.

Post from: Liliputing

Acer working on Chrome OS notebooks, App Store, eBook reader

The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 with an Atom N450 processor is just the latest Dell laptop to bear the Mini 10 name. It follows the Dell Mini 10 and Mini 10v, which had Atom Z520 and N270 processors, respectively.

Performance-wise, the new Dell Inspiron Mini 10 is a lot like the recently retired Mini 10v. But thanks to the new energy-sipping CPU, it gets significantly better battery life. And Dell has given the 10 inch mini-laptop a major design overhaul as well.

That includes a battery that no longer sticks out of the bottom of the laptop, and a new keyboard layout. Unfortunately one thing that hasn't received a major update is the touchpad, which features difficult-to-use integrated click areas instead of dedicated left and right buttons.

The unit featured in this review has a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, an HSPA modem, 1GB of RAM, and a 250GB hard drive. It runs Windows 7 Home Premium.

Design

Dell pretty much broke the mold with the new Inspiron Mini 10. The company's previous netbooks looked great with a low capacity 3 cell battery. But when you added a high capacity 6 cell battery, your netbook looked like it had a cancerous growth near its rear. The new Mini 10 does away with that. Both the 3 and 6 cell batteries sit flush with the base of the computer.

But the way Dell accomplished this is by redesigning the shape of the laptop to give it a bit more junk in the trunk. Basically, the base of the laptop is now bigger than the lid. This means that when the lid is closed, you can see a bit of the base. And when you open the lid to use the laptop, the screen no longer rests behind the notebook. Instead the hinge rests on top of the netbook base.

I've heard a lot of people complain that this design is just as unattractive as the enormous battery found on earlier netbook models, but it sort of grew on me. While the laptop might not look quite as slim as some netbooks on the market, I appreciate the effort that Dell put into making the new Mini 10 look better.

And there's an unexpected benefit to the extra space behind the lid: I found it provided a perfect place to put my thumb when picking up the laptop with one hand. That makes it much easier to move the Mini 10 from room to room without closing the lid and putting the computer to sleep first.

The demo unit Dell sent me has a shiny white plastic case and a black interior finish with a textured pattern printed on the palm rest and other areas surrounding the keyboard. The cover is surprisingly adept at not showing fingerprints. I'm not sure if this is due to the color or the finish. The laptop is also available with red, blue, pink, green, purple, or black lids.

Around the sides of the laptop you'll find 3 USB ports, a VGA port, Ethernet, and mic and headphone jacks. There's also card reader for SD and MS flash media.

The display is glossy, but easily readable under most indoor lighting conditions. The shiny black bezel around the lid, on the other hand, is quite reflective.

Hidden in the battery compartment is a SIM card slot, at least on the demo unit I received. The 3G HSPA modem is an optional component that won't ship with all models.

On the bottom of the laptop you'll find some vents, but no access panel. That means you're going to have to perform some minor surgery on this laptop if you want to upgrade the RAM or other components.

One nice touch that Dell adds is single-piece power adapter. While most laptops come with a power brick and a separate cable, the Dell Mini 10 comes with just a singl

Acer Netbook Running Chrome OS in Q3

Bloomberg is reporting several strategic plans to be made by Acer in 2010. One of them is the release of a new netbook that will be running Google's much awaited Chrome OS.  It was already reported before that Google has named Acer as one of its partner in delivering their Chrome OS, so this sort of confirms earlier report.

If the plan push through, Acer will be delivering the said Chrome OS netbook by the third quarter of 2010. Acer is aiming to be the first netbook manufacturer to release a Google Chrome netbook.  What is not clear however is if the said netbook will have Intel chips  or something from ARM.

A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.

Acer Netbook Running Chrome OS in Q3

Deals of the Day

Netbooks and Notebooks

• Refurbished HP Mini 110 10.1″ netbook w/Atom N270, 6cell battery, Win XP for $258.41 + free shipping – Amazon
• Gateway LT2106u 10.1″ netbook w/Atom N450, 6 cell battery, Win 7 Starter for $299.99 + free shipping – Amazon
• Asus UL20A 12.1″ notebook w/1.3GHz Core 2 Duo SU7300, 6 cell battery, Win 7 Home Premium for $568.95 – B&H

Accessories

• Kingston 40GB SSDNow V Series Drive + upgrade kit for $96 + free shiping – Buy.com
• Hitachi SimpleDrive II 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive for $80 + free shipping – Dell
• 2.5″ USB 2.0 External SATA Laptop Hard Drive Enclosure for $6 + free shipping – Shop4Tech
• HP 4.7GB 16X DVD+R Inkjet Printable 100 Packs Disc for $14.99 + free shipping – Newegg

You can find more deals on netbooks, gadgets, and accessories in the Liliputing Deals section.

Post from: Liliputing

Deals of the Day

Asus eBook Reader poses for photos, likes to have coffee with iPhone

While we normally don't cover eBook readers here, this one's a bit different because it's from the netbook godfather Asus. Maybe they can spark another revolution when they launch their own device?

The reader will have a 1024 x 768, supports a variety of text formats and has audio and text to speech functions. There's 4GB built-in and you can get more storage using the SD card slot.

Asus needs to partner with content providers though to make this work. Unlike netbooks which just borrowed the software ecosystem of notebooks and laptops, readers still have no established source for content other than the traditional media outlets. We'll see how Asus will play its cards for this device. More shots below.

source engadget

A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.

Asus eBook Reader poses for photos, likes to have coffee with iPhone

Add an extra PCIe slot to a Samsung NC10

Many netbooks only come with one mini PCIe card, which is taken up with the wireless card. While a few others have an extra one. The Samsung NC10 on the other hand, the motherboard has a second PCIe option printed on it but, there's no socket for it. SammyNetbook user, graemem figured this out when trying to add the Broadcom HD decoder. His solution, to add the second PCIe card, was to buy a socket and solder it onto the motherboard. You can view graemem's instructions on how to do this yourself here with photos but, it is advised to be very careful.

via and via

A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.

Add an extra PCIe slot to a Samsung NC10

Samsung NC10 hack: Adding an extra PCIe slot

Want to add a Broadcom CrystalHD Video accelerator or another module that comes on a mini PCIe card to your netbook? While a handful of netbooks have unused PCIe slots hanging out on the motherboards, many use the only available space for the wireless card. And then there's the Samsung NC10.

SammyNetbook forum member graemem was trying to figure out how to install the Broadcom HD decoder on his NC10, and he noticed that the netbook's motherboard actually has a second PCIe option printed on it. There's just no socket. The solution? Pick up a cheap socket and solder it to the motherboard. And that's exactly what he did.

Of course, your results may vary, and there's clearly plenty of room for things to go wrong with this type of hack, so please be careful. But you can find graemem's step by step instructions and a handful of photos at SammyNetbook.

via Netbooked

Post from: Liliputing

Samsung NC10 hack: Adding an extra PCIe slot

MS Office 2010 system requirements spell out compatibility with netbooks

The latest version of Microsoft's Office suite of applications, set to come out in June of this year, comes with a fairly updated set of system requirements that, fortunately, still doesn't rule out netbooks from the non-official list of compatible devices. The biggest changes to the system requirements of Microsoft Office 2010 include needing a slightly larger amount of disk space for installation (due to some new features) and a GPU requirement that says a DirectX 9.0c compliant graphics processors with 64 MB video memory is needed for speedier graphics rendering of charts in Excel or transitions in PowerPoint. Users of most of the recently announced Intel Atom N450 processor-equipped netbooks need not to worry, for the new low-power CPU has an onboard DX9 compatible graphics processor. Of course, performance of a netbook might be slightly sluggish compared to an average desktop computer running MS Office, but it's good to know that there's a provision for an office application suite as robust as MS Office with netbooks.

Via All About Microsoft

A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.

MS Office 2010 system requirements spell out compatibility with netbooks

Sony Vaio W Eco Series netbook reviewed

At first glance, the new Sony Vaio W Eco looks almost exactly like the Sony Vaio W 10 inch mini-laptops the company has been selling since mid-2009. But the Eco series which Sony introduced in early January is different from earlier models in one major way: The case is partially made from recycled materials. In fact, 20% of the plastic case is made from recycled compact discs.

Sony also ships the Sony Vaio W Eco Series netbook with a carrying case made of recycled PET bottles. On the inside, Sony has replaced the Atom N270 CPU with a new, more energy efficient Intel Atom N450 processor. The netbook has a 10.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive and ships with Windows 7 Starter Edition.

The folks at CNET managed to get their hands on one of the new Eco series netbooks and report that the new model looks and feels a lot like the original Vaio W. And in most ways, that' s a good thing. it has a sturdy chassis and a crisp, high resolution display. CNET doesn't love the keyboard, saying it feels cramped. Having used the original Vaio W keyboard briefly, I have to agree on that front.

The Sony Vaio W Eco Series is available for pre-order from Amazon for $479.99.

Post from: Liliputing

Sony Vaio W Eco Series netbook reviewed

Rambus wins over NVIDIA in patent dispute, could result in HP and Asus netbook ban

A company called Rambus which designs high-speed memory chips, claims that NVIDIA has violated five of their patents relating to dynamic-random access memory or DRAM. This also relates to memory controllers, which can be found on either graphics cards or motherboards, and NVIDIA has a business of selling both.

A U.S. International Trade Commission judge in Washington has just ruled that NVIDIA is violating three of the patents being claimed by Rambus, and mentioned that the other two are invalid. This brings us a rather interesting situation, because after the full commission has finished reviewing the case put forth by Rambus against NVIDIA and it is found that there has indeed been a patent violation, products using NVIDIA graphics cards or chipsets may be banned from import for a period of time.

This directly affects netbooks using NVIDIA's Ion graphics (like the HP Mini 311 netbook, for example) and even forthcoming products with Tegra running inside (such as those planned by Asus). NVIDIA's GeForce, Quadro, nForce, and Tesla lines are also being targeted by the complaint.

NVIDIA has commented through their general counsel that they are "going to fight this," and take things "as far as we have to take it," but if they lose, it's looks like it's going to have a huge effect on their business and definitely won't help their cause to catch up with AMD in the mainstream/high-end graphics department.

Via Business Week

A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.

Rambus wins over NVIDIA in patent dispute, could result in HP and Asus netbook ban