Lenovo gazes into its netbook crystal ball, predicts Windows 7, 3G, blue skies with a chance of rain

Lenovo gazes into its netbook crystal ball, predicts Windows 7, touchscreens, blue skies with a chance of rain

Wonder what the future of the netbook is — or at least what’s coming after Intel’s roadmap runs out of paper? Lenovo’s in-house analyst Matt Kohut may have the answer, chatting with TECH.BLORGE to make some entirely sensible predictions about the next netbooks. He indicates that touchscreens and the like will become increasingly popular, helping to drive the popularity of Windows 7 and its top-notch touch support, and continuing the move away from Linux that Lenovo identified back in 2007. He also thinks netbooks will start to get bigger, pushing the 12- to 14-inch range, a trend we’re already seeing the beginnings of with rumors of ASUS and its supposed 11.6-inch Eee PC. Finally, he figures machines will get even cheaper than they already are, and that 3G will be more or less standard soon. It’s challenging stuff, this prediction business, but feel free to try your hand at it below.

[Via Slashdot]

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Lenovo gazes into its netbook crystal ball, predicts Windows 7, 3G, blue skies with a chance of rain originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 May 2009 09:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel reveals notebook and netbook plans for the rest of the year

Intel reveals notebook and netbook plans for the rest of the year

The netbook formula hasn’t evolved much since its inception, still offering largely the same configuration and performance as it ever has. That likely won’t change until the end of the summer, with Intel announcing that it’s even thinking about retiring the newer Atom N280 processor and GN40 chipset entirely, leaving the older and more common N270 with its 945GSE as the main choice until September, when the new Pineview Atom chips might finally hit production. The company is also creating a whitebox N270-based 8.9-inch netbook that it’s shopping around to resellers, again not doing any favors to fans of variety. Moving up to skinny 12- to 13-inch notebooks, Intel is still pushing its CULV architecture, and has its dual-core Calpella platform poised for inclusion in anything with a targeted MSRP of $1,200 and above — and a release date sometime after the third quarter. That’s a few months too late to catch the needy college freshman crowd, Intel.

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Intel reveals notebook and netbook plans for the rest of the year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 May 2009 07:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 gets hands-on treatment, favors S10

You’ve seen Lenovo’s IdeaPad S10, right? If so, you’ll surely recognize the recently revised S10-2 — a mildly tweaked version of the netbook that sports the most minuscule of changes. That said, the new top cover and larger, more mature keyboard are certainly worth a gander, so head on down to the read link to give your eyes a treat.

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Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 gets hands-on treatment, favors S10 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 May 2009 03:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell’s $299 Mini 10v now officially on sale

Looks like Dell’s Stateside online store has put the new $299 Atom N270-powered Mini 10v (née Inspiron 1101) up for order after it went on sale in Denmark late last night. Preliminary ship date is listed as June 1, but we’re guessing it’ll arrive a little sooner, as the original date was “mid-May.” Anyone taking the plunge?

[Thanks, MethodicJon]

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Dell’s $299 Mini 10v now officially on sale originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 May 2009 22:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lenovo gets official with mildly refreshed IdeaPad S10-2 netbook

Lenovo’s S10 has walked a long, rough road. First it battled months of delays, then hordes of anxious owners began weeping rivers due to incessant fan noise. Lenovo already made a few attempts to better its cute-as-a-button netbook, but now it’s ditching the little-by-little approach entirely and introducing a ‘Part II’ version. The understandably titled S10-2, which we spotted via a handy user manual just last week, is officially official, and while it’s still rocking the same basic specs (1.6GHz Atom N270, 1GB of RAM, 160GB HDD, WiFi, 1.3 megapixel camera, etc.), there have been a few appreciated tweaks made. There’s a new cover design, a larger keyboard, a bigger trackpad and a model with integrated 3G that’ll run just $50 more than the standard $349.99 flavors; too bad Lenovo didn’t take this opportunity to dish out an entirely new IdeaPad with a CPU that’s marginally robust.

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Lenovo gets official with mildly refreshed IdeaPad S10-2 netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 May 2009 15:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell’s $299 Mini 10v (Inspiron 1011) goes on sale, kind of

You won’t find it on-line yet, but Dell is already taking orders for its new Mini 10v netbook. At least in Denmark where Willy got his order in this morning. The biggest difference between the Mini 10v (aka, Inspiron 1011) and Mini 10 is the processor: the Mini 10v uses a netbook-standard N270 Diamondville-class Atom processor instead of the Z5xx Silverthorne-class processor found in the 10-inch original. What you give up in video processing performance (and perhaps battery life) you more than make for in price as the Mini 10v starts at $299, not $399 like the original.

[Thanks, Willy N.]

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Dell’s $299 Mini 10v (Inspiron 1011) goes on sale, kind of originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 May 2009 08:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba Dynabook UX reviewed, deemed a cut above other netbooks

Toshiba’s 10.1-inch netbook — the Dynabook UX — hasn’t been on our radar terribly long, but already it’s beginning to make the review rounds. Portable Monkey‘s just gotten their hands on one and while they are fans of the design, think the over all build quality is a bit better than many netbooks, and also found the battery life to be pretty good (they got about 3.5 hours per charge), there are also a few drawbacks. The keyboard is cramped, the built-in scrolling is none too responsive, and the volume of the speakers is extremely quiet. The NB200 is set to be released in the coming months in the UK, and it’s expected to run about $600 when it makes its way to the US.

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Toshiba Dynabook UX reviewed, deemed a cut above other netbooks originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 May 2009 00:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon’s HP Mini 1000 due to launch May 17th?

Sure, the hot buzz right now is centered on Verizon and Apple teaming up to release a unicorn-built iPhone tablet that runs on marshmallows and cuddles, but Boy Genius Report says that Big Red’s actually-real partnership with HP is about to bear fruit — the long-rumored subsidized Mini 1000 is apparently due to launch on May 17th. The specific model will be the Mini 1151NR, and if that leaked product-comparison sheet we saw earlier holds water, we’re looking at a pretty standard Atom / XP configuration with a 3G modem built in. Pricing hasn’t been locked down, but according to BGR, it’ll be just as ridiculous as every other subsidized netbook: $299 after rebate with a mandatory two-year data contract. That’s more or less $200 off standard MSRP, a discount we’re sure you’ll pay back twice over the course of the contract. Seriously, we’d much rather fiddle with a USB stick that we can use on multiple machines than spend around a grand on data fees just for a netbook — what about you?

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Verizon’s HP Mini 1000 due to launch May 17th? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 May 2009 21:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile to release “multiple” Android devices this year

It’s no secret that T-Mobile has some grand Android-based plans after the million-selling success of the G1, and although we’ve heard sketchy reports of future devices to come, it sounds like things are starting to firm up: CTO Cole Brodman told GigaOm yesterday that the carrier is planning to launch “multiple” Android devices from “three partners” later this year. One of those is pretty obviously the HTC Magic / Sapphire / myTouch, but that’s just the tip of the potential iceberg here — we’ve got a feeling that the Samsung I7500 “Houdini” will be involved, the G1 v2 is certainly interesting, there’s that mysterious Huawei set we saw at MWC, and hell, we’ve even got reports of netbooks, tablets, and home phones in the mix. That’s a lot of directions Timmy-O can go, any predictions?

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T-Mobile to release “multiple” Android devices this year originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 May 2009 19:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget Podcast 145 – 05.08.2009

Sure, you love the Engadget Podcast… but how much do you love it? Allow the power of your undying devotion to the sounds of Engadget chatter be tested this week as Josh, Paul, and Nilay take a journey through space and time. This week, you’ll hear the guys dissect Amazon’s Kindle DX launch, wax excited about Android v1.5 (that’s Cupcake for us pros), talk openly about Google’s netbook designs, and generally rap about a whole bunch of really cool junk. Don’t miss it. Seriously.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: Take On Me

00:01:04 – Amazon Kindle DX announced: $489, ships this summer
00:37:44 – Android 1.5 coming to T-Mobile UK now, USA next week
00:52:00 – Is Dell cooking up an Android-powered netbook?
01:00:20 – HTC working on an Android netbook for T-Mobile?
01:02:50 – Xbox 360 to get motion-sensing add-on with full body game control?
01:13:37 – DJ Hero announced at last, along with Band Hero for the family and Guitar Hero 5 for the face melters

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Engadget Podcast 145 – 05.08.2009 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 May 2009 14:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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