Hasta La Gadget!

Now that Moblin is out in all of its alpha release glory, we’ve been preparing ourselves mentally and physically for the flood of videos we’re sure to receive as folks start installing the OS all over the place. For our inaugural Moblin Movie, the kids over at Laptop Magazine have got it happily running on a Samsung NC10 and — despite booting off a USB thumb drive — the speed of the thing is pretty impressive. WiFi and ethernet did their thing with minimal effort, the mouse and trackpad worked like a charm, and all in all things look swingin’. But don’t take our word for it — catch the video after the break.

Continue reading Video: Moblin finds a home with the Samsung NC10

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

Video: Moblin finds a home with the Samsung NC10 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been nearly a year since we were first confused about what this whole Moblin thing was going to be, but now here it is released to the wild, roaming about in alpha form and looking to find a home for itself in your netbook. If you haven’t been following along, Moblin is a custom flavor of Linux that Intel has been whipping up for installation on devices using its chips, particularly the Atom but Core 2 processors as well. It’s based on Fedora and, as of this release, is confirmed to work on Acer’s Aspire One and Dell’s Mini, though Eee peeps can check it out too — so long as they don’t mind living without WiFi. Mind you, this is still a very early version and there’s a ways to go before a final release, so feel free to sit this round out if you’re not into the whole bleeding edge thing.

[Via Ars Technica]

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

Alpha version of Intel’s Moblin OS released for brave netbookers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to a remarkably lengthy review penned in Russian, the NC20 is a real stunner. Somehow, Samsung managed to stuff six hours of battery life into a machine with a 12.1-inch display, which ought to please anyone truly looking for ideal netbook functionality. Of course, it didn’t fare so well under intense gaming pressure, and even the art of multitasking with three or more applications seemed to bog it down. That said, we are talking about a netbook (and not an ultraportable), and its ability to handle HD video was rather impressive in its own right. So far as we can tell, reviewers were pretty pleased with the overall package given the relatively low anticipated price (we’re hearing $500 or so for the US market), but you can draw your own conclusions by giving the read link a visit.

[Via Slashgear, thanks Brian]

Filed under: Laptops

Samsung NC20 sees foreign review, universal appreciation originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tech geeks don’t always get the love they deserve. I mean, when was the last time People picked a programmer for the cover of its annual Sexiest Man Alive issue?

Thanks to Daily Candy, things are about to change. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the site has launched a Get With the Programmer contest. The objective? To find the “hottest tech dude in all the land.”

Ahem:

We’re accepting nominations for the Don Juan of the Database. Do you know a worthy Gigabyte Gigolo? To nominate your resident RAMcake, just fill out our quick, easy form telling us why he should win. On February 4, we’ll announce the finalists on our website and invite you readers to vote.

The prize? Eternal glory and an HP Mini 1000 XP edition series netbook with an upgraded 60 GB hard drive for both the winner and the person who nominates him. Programmers, IT guys, and, er, RAMcakes, get ready for your close-up.

Before you get all riled up, remember, this is just a man in a suit speaking his mind. Got it? Good. On AMD’s most recent earnings call, CEO Dirk Meyer casually confessed that “the distinction between what is a netbook and what is a laptop is going to go away,” and he continued by saying that there would be “a continuum of price points and form factors.” Now, we’re not about to believe that the whole netbook category will simply dry up and vanish in the near future — much to the chagrin of Psion Teklogix, we assume — but it’s not like we haven’t heard equally odd remarks from the CEOs of Intel and RIM. On second thought, shove a Core 2 Quad CPU, twin GPUs and 4GB of RAM into a Mini 10 chassis while nixing any and all heat issues, and you can call it whatever you damn well please.

Filed under: Laptops

AMD sees distinction between netbooks and laptops vanishing originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Jan 2009 08:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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