Hasta La Gadget!

ASUS’s newest netbooks may just be hitting the US market, but Digitimes is reporting that both Acer and ASUS are currently in somewhat of a holding pattern in regards to their new mini-laptops. The report says that both companies are holding off on releasing new netbooks until current inventory is depleted, and demand has built up for new models. Though the reasoning is hazy, it does seem this has something to do with holding off until Intel releases its dual core Atom N550 CPU during the third quarter as the price delta between it and the weaker N455 / N475 processors isn’t much. That would actually make a lot of sense considering most — including us — would certainly opt for faster netbooks with the dual-core action over the same old single core Atoms we’ve grown tired of. Either way, this would mark somewhat of a new strategy for the companies, which have, in the past, often added new models so quickly that choosing between them could be difficult. All we can say is, we shall see.

New Acer and ASUS netbooks not coming until the middle of August, says Digitimes report originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For the last few months, Intel has been offering us tantalizing tidbits about its upcoming chips for smartphones. Now we have a sneak peek of the device from Europe.

Steve Paine, who edits the Carrypad and UMPC portal got his hands on a prototype smartphone running Intel’s chips and MeeGo, a Linux-based operating system developed by Intel and Nokia.

Intel’s smartphone chip codenamed “Moorestown,” is based a processor based on the company’s Atom platform. Moorestown for cellphones has been created to be extremely power efficient, yet pack enough computational muscle for multimedia features such as video conferencing and HD video, says Intel.

Intel had hoped to have the first phones featuring its chips in hands of consumers later this year but last week, the company said the devices are expected to launch early next year.

Though Intel’s chips power most desktops and notebooks, Intel chips are absent in smartphones. Almost all smartphones are today use chips based on Intel rival ARM’s architecture.

There’s no word yet on performance and how Intel chips are handling multimedia content.

Meanwhile, Intel has also been working with Nokia to bring the MeeGo OS to market. Last year Intel had been working on Moblin, a Linux-based operating system designed specifically for netbooks. Separately, Nokia had been working on a new Linux-based software platform called Maemo for smartphones and tablets.

At the Mobile World Congress conference in February this year, Intel and Nokia announced they had combined efforts and spawned a new OS called MeeGo. MeeGo is hosted by the Linux Foundation and is designed to live on phones, netbooks and TVs.

Paine says Intel and Nokia have now released version 1.1 of MeeGo that includes the the handset user experience or UX available to developers for review. MeeGo will have its first developers conference in Ireland in November.

The protoype phone running MeeGo has an interesting user interface. MeeGo is still in pretty early stages so we will have to wait and see if other handsets manufacturers will take a shine to it and MeeGo it can become an alternative to Android.

Meanwhile, check out Paine’s photos of the Intel prototype to get an early sense of what MeeGo looks like on the phone.

See Also:

• Intel Introduces Ultra-Low-Power Processor for Smartphones …
• Smartphones With Intel Chips to Debut Next Year
• Why Intel’s Processors Aren’t Big on Cellphones
• Intel Hints at Its Own Smartphone Operating System
• Intel Researchers Turn Counter Tops Into Touchscreens

Photo: Intel prototype phone/Carrypad

If you don’t understand the significance of what you’re looking at then you’re probably not paying attention. First off, that Aava slab of WoW slaying smartphone is underpinned by Intel’s Moorestown processor. Yes, Intel, not ARM, as Chipzilla gets serious about taking its silicon mobile. Second, that’s the freshly minted MeeGo OS for handsets that just made its first alpha appearance last week. And it just happens to be the OS that Nokia, the world’s largest handset manufacturer, will be building its future generation of super smartphones upon. We’ll give you a second to take it all in.

Fortunately for us, the device is in the hands of Steve “Chippy” Paine over at Carrypad / UMPC Portal. As such, this is just the first of many revelations to come. Hit the man up on Twitter if you want to follow his adventure first hand.

Aava Moorestown phone running MeeGo hits the wilds originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jul 2010 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel’s latest Research Day has sprung up a new vision for “smart” vehicles; a vision that frankly chills us to our very geeky core. Cameras and sensors attached to an Intel Connected Car will record data about your speed, steering and braking, and upon the event of an accident, forward those bits and bytes along to the police and your insurance company. Just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, doesn’t it? Don’t get us wrong, the tech foundation here is good — having cars permanently hooked up to the ether can generally be considered a good thing — but what’s being envisioned is as obtrusive as it is irritating. Oh, didn’t we mention that the cars can become self-aware and overrule you if you try to bend the rules of the road? Because they can.

Intel Connected Cars will record your bad driving for posterity, take over if you’re really screwing up originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking for a Mini that has a little more to offer in the processor department? HP has thoughtfully upgraded the Mini 110 and Mini 210 to offer your choice of Intel’s N455 or N475 Atom processors. Those chips bring DDR3 memory compatibility to the table, which both netbooks now offer by default, while the optional N475 brings either one up to 1.88GHz — though you’ll have to pay an extra $25 as proof of your commitment to handle that sort of blazing performance. The default 110 with 1GB of memory starts at $280 right now, while a base 210 will set you back $330.

HP Mini 110 and 210 netbooks get Atom N455 and N475 accoutrement originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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