Intel AppUp app store finally put to rest

After almost four years of existence spent mostly on ignominy, Intel is shuttering its customized AppUp app marketplace that probably very few know about. The official statement is that the … Continue reading

Lenovo’s Flex 10 offers a flip-mode display on a $550 netbook-style body

Aging Busta Rhymes witticisms aside, this new Lenovo might just be a contender for anyone on the lookout for a versatile Windows 8.1 machine. The Flex 10 is a 10-inch version of the Flex 14 and 15 models we’ve already seen, with the same 1,366 x 768 resolution and 10-point touch panel, but with a Bay Trail Pentium or Celeron processor instead of Haswell. It’s a sort of half-way house between a fanless hybrid and a full-wattage laptop, and in some ways it offers the worst of both worlds — for example, the base model provides a battery life of just four hours but has a relatively stocky weight of 2.6 pounds (1.2kg). On the other hand, the Flex 10 should run Microsoft Office and other productivity software at a faster clip than mobile-class machines like the Miix 10 or Miix2. Plus, it allows the screen to be flipped back 300 degrees into a “stand” mode, likely without costing as much as a Core i3-powered Yoga 11S — assuming the unconfirmed starting price of $550 proves to be accurate. Lenovo has a habit of adding products to its website before releasing full pricing and availability, so we’ll update this post when we learn more. (Woo Hah!)

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Source: Lenovo

AT&T data plans take over with Mobile Share as traditional non-data edges out

This afternoon the folks at AT&T have made clear – sort of – their plans to move forward with their Mobile Share plans through the future, suggesting as they do that users currently on non-data phone plans will be able to stick to the old ways (for now). Until a time when traditional plans are […]

SOL Laptop Runs on Solar Power & Ubuntu: Double Open Source

Canadian telecommunications company WeWi will soon be launching a solar-powered notebook called the SOL Laptop. While it’s not the first of its kind, it has at least one impressive feature that makes it one to watch: WeWi claims that the built-in solar panels can charge the laptop in just 2 hours.

sol solar laptop by wewi

I got in touch with WeWi Founder & CEO David Snir to find out more about the SOL Laptop. David said that they were motivated to make their own solar-powered laptop partly because of their projects in Ghana, where weekly outages frequently left them with no access to electricity.

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David is still keeping his cards close to his chest with regards to the laptop’s solar panels, but he did say that they’re currently getting about 16.08% efficiency. Pair that with the laptop’s entry level guts – an Intel Atom D2500 1.86GHz dual-core CPU and Intel GMA 3600 integrated graphics – and you get a 2-hour charge time. The laptop’s battery can store enough energy to power the laptop for up to 10 hours, but David said that the laptop can run “directly by sunlight”: as long as its solar panels are exposed to sunlight, you can use the laptop even if the battery is nearly empty. It’s like plugging into the sun.

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The SOL Laptop’s solar panels will also be detachable; you’ll be able to work in the shade while the panels soak up the sun. WeWi is also working on an accessory that will let you charge other devices using the laptop’s solar panels.

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Like its power-sipping CPU and integrated graphics, the rest of the SOL Laptop will only excite people stuck in 2010. It has a 13.3″ 1366 x 768 LCD screen, a 320GB HDD, 2-4GB DDR3 RAM, a 3MP webcam, 3 USB ports and a card reader. But it does have Ethernet and HDMI ports, as well as support for modern wireless standards: GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0. It even has a cellular modem that supports 3G & LTE.

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David also said that the laptop’s case is made of a “special polymer with unique treatment for strength.” Finally, the laptop will come with an unspecified version of Ubuntu installed. I guess by now you can see what all of those bullet points are describing: an affordable netbook that’s at home outdoors.

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The SOL Laptop will be released at the end of 2013 in African and Middle Eastern countries, with U.S. and Canada soon to follow. It will have two variants, a $350 (USD) standard model and a $400 Marine model that’s water-resistant.

Assuming that the 2-hour charge time claim holds up in real world usage, what’s most disappointing about the SOL Laptop is that it’s actually a SOL Netbook. But David also said they’re working on other solar-powered devices; perhaps a high-end version of the laptop is in the works as well.

[via SOL & DVICE]

 

Casetop Smartphone Dock: Return of the Lapdock

Remember Motorola’s Atrix and Photon 4G? They were phones that could be plugged into a proprietary dock that turned them into Linux netbooks. If you ever wished you had something like that for your phone, check out the Casetop.

casetop smartphone dock

The Casetop doesn’t give you a desktop OS but it does add three useful things to your phone: a full-sized keyboard, an 11.1″ 720p LEd-backlit screen (not a touchscreen) and a battery. That’s right – the Casetop has its own battery, and if you plug your phone in via a USB cable the Casetop will charge your phone. The Casetop works with any smartphone that has Bluetooth connectivity (to connect to the keyboard) and a video output via HDMI, MHL or micro-USB (to connect to the screen). It also has a couple of 1W speakers, but you’d probably be better off plugging in a pair of headphones via the 3.5mm connector. Here’s a brief demo of the prototype Casetop:

And here’s the full Kickstarter pitch video:

It’s kinda weird having to navigate via your phone’s touchscreen, but aside from that I think this device could find its niche. Pledge at least $250 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Casetop as a reward.

[via Ausdroid]

Sega-themed notebooks beckon Japanese Mega Drive and Dreamcast lovers

Sega themed netbooks beckon MegaDrive and Dreamcast lovers in Japan

“I don’t care about the specs, I want one.” That Neogaf user’s comment likely sums up how other retro-gaming aficionados will feel about a new notebook PC from Japanese PC retailer Enterbrain, built in conjunction with Sega. The model sports covers themed in three of the classic consoles, namely Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast, along with a generic Sega-branded model. We do care a little about the specs ourselves, so you’ll get a 64-bit version of Windows 8, 15.6-inch 1,920 x 1,080 screen, Intel Pentium 2020M processor, 4GB of RAM and 500GB of HDD storage, as a minimum configuration. That’ll start at a whopping ¥99,750 ($1,100) when it arrives in June, provided you live in Japan — but if so, all you’d need to go with it for a full ’90s game blast would be a cartridge adapter like this one.

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Via: Eurogamer

Source: Ebten (translated)

ASUS And Acer Bow Out Of Netbook Market

YsIrC ASUS And Acer Bow Out Of Netbook MarketAt one point it would seem that netbooks could be the next big thing. After all they were pretty tiny in size meaning that portability and mobility were not an issue. However over the years, especially with the introduction of smartphones and tablets, not to mention Ultrabooks, it would seem that the relevancy of netbooks was slowly dying and come 2013, it looks like some of the netbooks bigger manufacturers such as ASUS and Acer have announced that starting from the 1st of January 2013, they would be ceasing the production of their netbook lineup. This means that if you still want a netbook for whatever reason, you’ll probably have to move quick since remaining stock at retailers will not be replenished once they are gone. Personally the netbook did not have that big an impact on me as Ultrabooks and tablets did, but what do you guys think?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung Chromebox Gets A New Look, Asus Zenbook Touch U500VZ Spotted On Asus Site,

Netbooks to go extinct in 2013

I always thought it was a combination of people wanting or needing new computer and an economy that meant they couldn’t afford normal notebooks that led those who would normally purchase notebooks to the netbook world for a few years. There were a few people out there who purchased the little machines simply because they were tiny and they wanted portability. The netbook also made a nice first computer for younger users.

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You could still find few netbooks in 2012, especially earlier in the year but they were nowhere near as popular as they had been in years past. If you’re a fan of the netbook, the little machines are going extinct in 2013. The Guardian reports that Asus announced yesterday that it would not make any more of its Eee netbooks in 2013. During 2012, only Asus and Acer were making netbooks.

Acer also won’t make any more netbooks for 2013. Undoubtedly, there will be a few netbook sales this year as retailers both online and in the real world cut prices to clear remaining inventories. Once the machines Asus and Acer have are constructed are sold, there will be no more. The demise of netbooks is blamed on several factors.

Those factors included an uptick in the economy leading people back to more expensive and more powerful machines such as ultrabooks and traditional laptops. The incredible popularity of tablets such as the iPad and Android offerings are probably the biggest nail in the coffin of the netbook. In 2010 and 2011 netbook sales steadily declined from a high of over 2 million units in Q1 of 2010 to only about 750,000 units sold in Q4 2011.

[via Guardian]


Netbooks to go extinct in 2013 is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Self-declared hipster builds Macintosh Portable case mod, reckons it goes well with skinny jeans (video)

Self-declared hipster builds Macintosh Portable case mod, reckons it goes well with skinny jeans (video)

If size and weight aren’t nearly as important as turning heads at your local coffee shop, then why bother with today’s banal hardware if you’ve got a perfectly good Macintosh Portable lying around? One nostalgic modder with a disregard for luggability has updated Apple’s very first laptop to run OS X, creating what he calls “a great café computer.” Obviously, the software isn’t all that’s changed, as behind the white plastic hides the internals of a Toshiba NB100 netbook sacrificed for the project. The keyboard has been painstakingly rewired through a USB controller, and the ball mouse now houses an optical cousin which connects via the original cable. A cordless drill battery powers the thing, which has also been gifted with all the mod cons — WiFi and USB connectivity — to make it pretty usable. If you’re interested in build pics, the tech-savvy hipster promises to post them soon at the source link below, and for a tour of the finished article, a video awaits you beyond the fold.

Continue reading Self-declared hipster builds Macintosh Portable case mod, reckons it goes well with skinny jeans (video)

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Self-declared hipster builds Macintosh Portable case mod, reckons it goes well with skinny jeans (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Nov 2012 10:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Launches Chromebook Rentals

We talked a bit about Google considering offering rental Chromebook computers in the past. Little over a year ago, the topic came up with prices expected to start at about $20 per month. Google has now announced the launch of rentals for Chromebooks and bulk purchases for its Apps customers.

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The catch is that renting a Chromebook is going to cost you more than we thought last year with prices starting at $30 monthly. After renting the machine for the first 12 months, the rental fleet will go down to $25 per month and then for the third year the rental fee will be $20 per month. The rentals are actually being provided by a 3rd-party, CIT, so you’re not dealing directly with Google for the deal. Granted Chromebooks are relatively inexpensive to begin with so an outright purchase makes a lot more sense, in my opinion.

Google also allow people to rent Chromeboxes, the desktop equivalent to the Chromebook. The rental price for the desktop version of the machine is $25 per month with that rate declining to $18 over time. The best news is that these are month-to-month services, so if you’re not sure a Chromebook is for you at least you can try out for a couple months with no commitment. The bulk purchase of Chromebooks is also available at $599 per unit – with support, which seems very expensive for what you’re getting, but maybe it makes sense to corporate clients.

[via TheNextWeb]