Hasta La Gadget!

First International Computer — which is a majority owner in Everex and the manufacturer of the first OpenMoko handset — has delivered an intriguing little machine to us courtesy of the oh-so-revealing FCC. The FIC CW001 Mini-note will arrive on US soil packing a 10.4-inch 1,024 x 600 resolution display, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, 2.5-inch SATA II hard drive, dual USB 2.0 ports, a single ExpressCard slot, Intel’s 945 GSE graphics, a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, an optical drive and a Windows-based (XP, presumably) OS. You’ll also find an inbuilt microphone, headphone jack, VGA output, Ethernet socket, a 4-in-1 multicard reader and a 4-cell Li-ion good for around 4.5 hours of battery life. No telling if this will surface as yet another Cloudbook, but everything here hinges on the price. Then again, doesn’t it always?

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

FIC’s 10.4-inch CW001 Mini-note splashes down in FCC database originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While EMTEC clearly knows how to have a good time, it’s getting back to business with the Gdium. If you’ll recall, we heard about this here netbook eons ago, but since then, we’ve been too overwhelmed by countless Eee models and various changes in Wind direction to even give this fellow a second thought. Now, however, we’re told that the firm will be debuting the 10-inch netbook at CES in preparation for a US release. The Linux-based machine will come loaded with loads of open source software as well as a G-Key, which is described as “a bootable USB key on which the Linux operating system, applications, and personal data are stored.” Expect it to ship in white, black and pink sometime between January and the end of time for $400.

Filed under: Laptops

EMTEC bringing 10-inch Gdium netbook to America for $400 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MSI announced its U115 “hybrid” netbook on Tuesday. What’s a hybrid netbook? One with the ability to use both a solid-state disc drive as well as a spinning hard drive, apparently.

MSI didn’t release a price or a ship date for the U115 netbook, which includes a 10-inch display and is designed around Intel’s 1.6-GHz Z530 Atom processor and its “Menlow” chipset platform. Other specs include the usual 1 Gbyte of RAM, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth EDR, a few USB ports, either a 1.3-Mpixel or 2.0-Mpixel Webcam, and 4-in-1 card reader. MSI didn’t draw any overt comparisons to the MSI Wind, the company’s more famous netbook offering.

The real innovation, at least according to MSI, is the 8- or optional 16-Gbyte SSD working in conjunction with the 120-Gbyte or optional 160-Gbyte rotating hard drive.

Remember those comparatively cheap RunCore SSDs we caught wind of last month? Yeah, well those puppies are shipping out. The unashamedly named 1.8-inch Low Cost Zif PATA SSDs can be sealed in a corrugated box and shipped off to your place of residence for $69.99, $119.99, $199.99 or $389.99 depending on size (16/32/64/128GB, respectively). If you’re looking for a bit more room and have the space to install it, the February-bound 256GB Pro III Hyper Speed 2.5-inch SATA SSD is right down your alley. The drive boasts a maximum read rate of 230MB/sec and a top write speed of 150MB/sec; unfortunately, that whole “low cost” mantra fades a bit on this one, with the $699.99 list price causing the eyes to open just a wee bit wider.

Filed under: Storage

RunCore’s 1.8-inch netbook SSDs now shipping, 2.5-inch 256GB edition coming soon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Psion, Psion. We hadn’t really heard from the British portable maker since the halcyon days of the Series5, but it’s back and making waves with a series of nastygrams asserting its trademark of the word “netbook.” Psion’s legal team followed up with jkOnTheRun, and according to them, it’s only going after those sites and companies “making a direct, financial profit from use of the ‘Netbook’ trademark.” (As opposed to profit in kind, we suppose — did you know our advertisers pay us in toaster waffles and aviator sunglasses? True story.) Psion says it’s mostly focused on retailers and manufacturers using the term netbook to sell machines, not “straight blogs” and other sites. Of course, that means next to nothing, since Psion says it’ll still go after those sites that have sponsored ads or for-profit links containing the word “netbook” — including automatically-placed ads and links like AdSense and Amazon affiliate ads that site owners typically have no control over. +10 weasel, dudes. Anyway, considering the widespread adoption of “netbook” in the past year with nary a peep from Psion, we’d say the term is pretty well generic and no longer a valid trademark at this point — we’ll see how it goes when it drags the first heavy-hitter using the term (like Intel) into court.

Disclaimer: Nilay’s a lawyer and secret Asian netbook ODM, but he’s not your lawyer and this isn’t legal advice or analysis.

Filed under: Laptops

Psion says it’s only going after those “profiting” from the term netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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