Hasta La Gadget!

Tough luck, Fujitsu — seems your entry into the entirely oversaturated netbook market is just “too little, too late.” That’s the conclusion drawn by critics over at Laptop, who found the M2010 to be a solid performer, but one with a cramped keyboard and a battery life of under two hours. No doubt, a longevity mark such as that has no place in a netbook, and the surprisingly high $449 price tag certainly didn’t do it any favors. Reviewers pointed out that for $10 less, you could snap up the Samsung N110, which offers up four times the battery life and a more comfortable keyboard. Heck, the $379 Eee PC 1000HE goes for six hours strong and seems to be just as potent. Of course, this one’s definitely doused in red, so if that’s your shade, good luck thinking logically about this.

Filed under: Laptops

Fujitsu’s vibrant M2010 netbook gets reviewed: “too little, too late” originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Moblin — the Intel lovin’ Linux flavor we’ve heard so much about recently — just got some major support from Acer, who plans on slapping it on laptops, desktop PCs, and its Aspire One nettops. According to PC World, a press conference held today saw a wide range of Moblin versions (including Suse, Xandros, Linpus, Red Flag, and Ubuntu Moblin) installed on netbooks from companies that included HP, Asustek, MSI, and Hasee Computer; MIDs by the likes of BenQ and Compal; and even an Eee Keyboard. Not too bad for an OS that wasn’t even an OS when we first laid eyes on it, eh? We’ll keep our eyes peeled for those machines from Acer. In the mean time, how about that Tony Hawk Ride? Man, that looks sweet.

Filed under: Desktops, Handhelds, Laptops

Acer to join the Moblin Linux bandwagon originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Having just wrestled the word “netbook” free from the legal grasp of Psion, Microsoft now wants to change the name of these low-cost slabs of white plastic riding Intel’s Atom processor. Oh joy. Apparently unhappy with the choices of netbook, smartbook, MID (NVIDIA’s definition, not Intel’s), thin-and-light, and ultra-portable, Microsoft’s preference is, are you ready, “low cost small notebook PC.” Man, that flows like a sonnet. The new name proposed by Steven Guggenheimer, general manager of Microsoft’s Application Platform & Development Marketing Division, is meant to reflect netbooks that do more than Internet browsing. What Steve-o doesn’t say is that by creating a new product division above netbooks, Microsoft can require beefier versions of its Windows OS installed for higher profits on higher margins — especially now that they’ve dropped the three application limit from its entry-level Windows 7 Starter Edition. Hey Microsoft, if it’s all the same to you, we’re just fine with the term netbook thankyouverymuch. Given the near-universal positive press heaped on Windows 7 thus far, you’ll be raking in the cash starting October 22nd, no need to shake us down, ok?

Filed under: Laptops

Microsoft wants new term for ‘netbooks,’ unhappy with other 5 choices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, it’s odd to see Mio churning out a couple of netbooks, but what’s even more surprising is that they’re at least somewhat interesting. The 8.9-inch Atom N270-powered Mio N890 includes 3G, GPS, Mio navigation software, an accelerometer, and a MagSafe-style breakaway power connector. It all weighs in under 2 pounds, and measures less than an inch thick. Meanwhile, the Mio N1210 (pictured) is one of the few computers we’ve seen so far running AMD’s new Neo MV-40 processor. There’s no mention of GPS, but the 12-inch laptop is preloaded with Windows 7 and 3G data, measures under an inch thick, and weighs under three pounds. No word on price for either, but both should be headed to Europe this fall.

Read – Mio N890
Read – Mio N1210

Filed under: Laptops

Mio’s new Intel Atom and AMD Neo netbooks might help you navigate through a sea of me-too computers at Computex originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oracle sure has come a long way since its cardboard laptop days, but is it really ready to take on the likes of Acer, ASUS, HP and Dell in the netbook area? During a brief appearance at Sun’s JavaOne conference today, Oracle’s main man Larry Ellison proclaimed that his firm “might build a variety of devices as a result of its planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems, including netbooks.” Sadly, there was absolutely no elaboration beyond that, but it’s certainly interesting to think of what a netbook would look / feel like with a Sun flair to it. Who knows, maybe we won’t even have to wonder in a few months.

Filed under: Laptops

Oracle just might produce a netbook after acquiring Sun originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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