Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Via Nano or Intel Atom for the new HP Mini Note?

According to DigiTimes, HP placed an order (new Mini Note) for the Via Nano CPUs, the main alternative to the Intel Atom. What I know so far:
  • Via Nano vs Intel Atom Performance: Via Nano wins, it should be more powerful
  • Via Nano vs Intel Atom Power Consumption: Intel Atom wins, it should be less power hungry
See also early post about MiniNote and the new CPU

See other posts about technology and performance

Medion Akoya E1210 for Sale in UK

The Medion Akoya Mini E1210 is currently sold in UK (distributed by Aldi, Sainsury's and Argos) for prices between £280 and £300.
Remember that the Akoya Mini E1210 is basically an MSI Wind U100.

Before buying the E1210 remember that in about a month the Akoya Mini E1211 will be available with a huge 160GBytes hard disk! See post compare E1210 vs E1211 vs MSI Wind U100.

Other posts about Medion Akoya and MSI Wind

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

EEE PC Competition: Samsung Netbook in Korea

According to some rumors, the first Samsung Netbooks are going to be shipped in Korea. The Samsung ultra portable laptops will be equipped with the Intel Atom CPU and a 10-inch display. More details are unknown.

More on EEE PC Competition

Latest EEE PC BIOS and utility

From now on you can find on EEE Journal the link to the latest EEE PC BIOS and utility! Just look at the right column.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Apple / Leopard Netbook availability?

I'm wondering about Apple strategy about netbooks/ultra portable laptops: is Apple going to plays in such a low cost market?
I think so if I look at the latest netbook from Asus (N10), that is going to be priced in the segment 450 to 950 Euros. This price level may be interesting for Apple as well.
We already saw a porting of Apple Leopard on a netbook, I don't think that Apple can miss this market: we won't wait much (I guess less than a year) to see the first Apple netbook.

Seel all news about Apple Netbooks and other netbook news

Asus N10, Gamer Netbook with Hybrid Graphics

Very last news about a luxus netbook announced by Asus, the N10 will include hybrid graphics (chipset + Nvidia GeForce 9300 GS). In order to save power, the Asus N10 will include a switch to activate/deactivate the powerful graphics.
The "entry level" Asus N10 will be priced at about 450 Euros, top featured to be sold at 950 Euros: are we still talking about netbooks? Yes, if you look at CPU and display: Atom N270, 10.2-inch display.
No if you look at "premium" features like HDMI video interface, fingerprint reader and expecially at the prive: 3 times as much the first EEE PC.

Availability September 13th.

More Netbook News

Dell Netbook for Sale for 99 USD?

I've already announced the first Dell netbook now the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is on sale, starting from $349 (USD) for the Linux variant with 4GByte storage (SDD) and 512MB RAM a bit too little to be honest.
The Windows XP version starts at $399 (USD) with the same 4GByte SDD hard disk and 512MByte RAM. For $449 (USD) you can buy the Dell netbook with Windows XP and more reasonable 16GB SDD hard disk and 1GByte RAM.
All include a 4 cells battery. Not much to be honest.

Bluetooth is not included (add $20 USD), you can also get a decent webcam (1.3 megapixel) for $10 USD more.

If you buy a Dell notebook you can currently get the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 for $99 USD

Other posts about EEE PC Competition

Friday, September 5, 2008

Dual Core Atom (Pineview) Netbooks in 2009


Update: see post
Dual Core Atom - Pineview

The first netbooks equipped with a dual core Atom will appear Q3/Q4 2009 (see chart), the new dual core CPU from Intel will also integrate the GPU and memory controller.

AMD apparently is working at a Atom competitor, codename Bobcat. However the availability is still unknown.

Other articles on dual core CPU for netbooks following the performance tag

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Dual Core Atom 330 not yet for netbooks/ laptos

Related posts about dual core Atom processor and Intel Atom processor

I want to stress the fact that the dual core Atom 330 CPU announced a couple of weeks ago targets only desktop pcs.
The facts: the dual core Atom 330 will be available starting September 21st for the nettops markets (low budget desktops). The news appearing in several blogs stating that the first dual core Atom netbooks will appear in September is IMHO false (see also here). There are some rumors that the newest EEE PC and/or the Gigabyte M912 will host the Atom 330, however these are just rumors. I wouln't be a cent on it.
It is no question that first or late EEE PC, MSI Wind and competition will get a dual core CPU, however I think that now it is too early especially with current prices of 400 Euro and above for a decent 10-inch netbook.

Related posts about dual core Atom processor and Intel Atom processor
See other posts about Netbook technology news

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Google browser Chrome vs Firefox and IE?

Today Google announced Chrome, a new open source browser: see comincs announcing Chrome
"Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast...we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers."

Stay tuned on EEE Journal