We’re taking our time with the new MacBook Airs, trying to find out if you can really count on these wonder wedges to serve as your main machine. But some early benchmarks are already out, and here’s how they look: More »
What do you do if you’re the maker of a popular netbook operating system? Create your own netbook, of course! Okay, it does seem like a rather odd step, but Jolicloud CEO Tariq Krim tweeted a few teaser images this morning and then confirmed with the exclusive shot above that the software company is in fact working with a hardware partner to create its own 10.1-inch netbook. The details are fairly slim at the moment, but Krim did share that the mini-laptop will boot Jolicloud 1.1 and be primarily aimed at those in the 12 to 25 age range. As for specs, your guess is as good as ours at this point, although he boasted that it will be able to rock 720p video. We can’t tell much from the picture above, but it sure does have a funky lid, VGA port and a few USB sockets. Pricing and availability are being firmed up now, but it will apparently hit for under $500 and before those long-awaited Chrome OS netbooks. That’s not really saying much at this point since we’ve been wondering about the whereabouts of those Chrome-books for almost a half a year now, but hit the gallery below for a few more mysterious shots and we’ll promise to fill you in on the details when we hear more.
Gallery: Jolicloud netbook
Jolicloud prepping a netbook of its own originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
HP has at last revealed its long-awaited Slate, an 8.9-inch tablet with capacitive multi-touch and running Windows 7. The Slate, you will remember, was proudly touted by Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer as an iPad killer, back before the iPad even existed. So is this an iPad competitor? No freakin’ way.
The HP Slate 500 Tablet PC is just that, a PC. It runs on a 1.86GHz Intel Atom Z540 processor, has 2GB RAM and a 64GB SSD, along with a Broadcom accelerator for 1080p video, a USB port, HDMI-out, a hardware Ctrl-Alt-Delete switch, a button to activate the on-screen keyboard and a pair of cameras, one on the back for photos and one on the front for Skyping. It also has, somewhat unbelievably, a slide-out Windows license. That’s right. Apparently any machine with Windows pre-installed needs to show the license info and HP, in order to keep the rear design clean, opted to add a slide-out plastic bar to display it. Oh, it is also Wi-Fi only: There’s no 3G radio.
There is one nice touch: the screen includes a Wacom digitizer so you can use a stylus to take notes on screen. There is nowhere to store the stylus, though, so you’ll lose it soon enough.
Clearly, the Slate is to full-featured tablet PCs as a netbook is to a proper notebook: a scaled back, underpowered portable with a too-small screen, running an OS designed for the desktop, not a touch-operated device. HP has tried to justify the ridiculous price with a disclaimer in its press release, which says it is “designed specifically for business.” The problem is, businesses are already buying the iPad, which is designed just to be good.
We’re certainly looking forward to seeing some proper rivals to the iPad, with ten-inch screens running an OS designed for touch. The HP Slate, a netbook with the keyboard missing, ain’t it.
HP Slate placeholder page [HP]
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We haven’t seen any reason to love anything that’s attempted to combine the comfort of Windows 7 with the sheer unpreparedness of Android in a dual-boot netbook form factor, Acer’s Aspire One D255 included. Still, word is that Acer is planning to make dual-booting standard on its dual-core netbooks going forward. Right now the D255 only does Android overseas, but we’re going to perceive this as a threat until we hear otherwise. Sure, adding Android to a netbook doesn’t hurt anything (which is the majority of Acer’s excellent argument for its inclusion), but we can only hope that this fascination with Android quickly switches to Chrome OS when it’s ready.
Acer planning to dual-boot all of its dual-core netbooks, we’re dual-unimpressed originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Continue reading Acer Aspire One D255 with dual-core Atom hits at $330
Acer Aspire One D255 with dual-core Atom hits at $330 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’ll freely admit how smitten we are with Dell‘s concept, the Inspiron Duo. While it’s supposedly coming to retail by the end of the year, it’s so special that every time we spy new photos or video footage of it, we watch joyfully. Of course, Intel doesn’t need to watch from afar, as demonstrated in a new video — they simply asked Dell’s Inspiron Product Marketer, Dave Zavelson to show it off on film. The Duo, in case you’ve been hiding under a rock since before IDF, is a 10-inch netbook with a swivel screen which enables you to use it as a sort of tablet… you know, those things that everybody’s cranking out these days. It also boasts a dual-core Atom N550 CPU and Windows 7 Home Premium. Regardless, we still haven’t heard any pricing or definite availability info yet, but the video is below.
Continue reading Dell Inspiron Duo hybrid netbook / tablet stars in another film
Dell Inspiron Duo hybrid netbook / tablet stars in another film originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Sep 2010 19:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’ll have to assume NEC managed to free Willy and that its first 3D venture was a success, as the company’s just revealed a brand new set of stereoscopic screens, one of which is actually not part and parcel of an all-in-one PC. NVIDIA’s 3D Vision kit (with active shutter glasses) and a 23-inch, 1920 x 1080 120Hz monitor accompany this Valuestar L, with a 2.93GHz Core i7-870 processor, GeForce GT 330 GPU, 8GB of memory, 1TB of storage and Blu-ray 3D drive in an attractive white case. There’s also a similarly-sized Valuestar W 3D all-in-one with a 2.53GHz Core i5-460M and GeForce GT 330M graphics, a digital TV tuner, half the memory, a 1.5TB drive and a passive, polarized display. If you’re not interested in wearing glasses while chained to a desk, of course, you could always consider the new LaVie Light netbook, newly refreshed with a dual-core Intel Atom N550. And yes, we know we made a horrible pun. Sometimes we just can’t help ourselves.
NEC expands Valuestar 3D lineup with two new desktop PCs; laptops say LaVie originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 19:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
We knew AMD planned to upstage Intel in San Francisco this week, but we didn’t realize just how far Chipzilla’s rival would go — the company’s demonstrating the power of its new Zacate APU by having it trounce an Intel Core i5-520M in a graphical superhero showdown. Though we’ve never really thought much of Intel’s integrated graphics anyhow (though we’re giving Sandy Bridge’s technique the benefit of the doubt), watching a netbook part beat a 2.4GHz Core i5 at anything is truly something else. While AMD won’t speak to the clockspeed or price of its new dual-core chips, it says the 18W Zacate and 9W Ontario should appear in devices with over 8 and 10 hours of battery life respectively when they likely ship to consumers early next year. Video after the break.
Gallery: AMD Zacate and Ontario, eyes-on
AMD throws down gauntlet, pits Zacate netbook chip against Intel’s Core i5 in City of Heroes duel (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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ASUS has just introduced the Eee PC 1015PEM, its first 10-inch netbook with a 1.5GHz dual-core Intel Atom N550 CPU. Specwise, it boasts an up to 350GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, USB 3.0, Bluetooth 3.0, and 802.11b/g/n WiFi. It comes pre-loaded with Windows 7 Starter Edition, with prices starting at $349. The ASUS Eee PC 1015PEM is available today, in red, blue, pink, black, or white.
ASUS busts out dual-core Eee PC 1015PEM netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 09:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
MSI Wind U160; image via MSI.
Three years ago, Bill Gates looked like a dummy for carrying around a tablet. Steve Jobs was ragging on netbooks and tablets when he was rolling out the MacBook Air. Now, eight months post-iPad, everybody’s pushing out tablets, and netbooks are looking very 2007. But any death notices anyone puts out for the netbook are premature.
Let’s check the numbers. One of the big research reports thrown around is from Forrester Research, which predicts that tablets will outsell netbooks by 2012, pass netbooks in total usage by 2014, and have a 23% share of all PCs (a category that for Forrester includes everything from a tablet on up) by 2015. By 2015, Forrester predicts, netbooks will only have 17 percent of the PC market, just behind desktops with 18 percent.
Wait a minute — 17 percent of all computers in 2015 will be netbooks? About as many netbooks as desktops? And the whole personal computing pie is going to continue to grow? Maybe this is silly, but — isn’t that still really, really good?
The tablet has mindshare, but not yet market share. Netbooks are already starting to strap on the powerful new dual-core mobile processors that will give them full computing parity with notebooks. And the two innovations of netbooks, small screens and small hard drives, have already come uncoupled — you have lightweight, large-screen/low-storage devices like the MacBook Air or Samsung N150 and compact, high-powered netbooks like the 250GB MSI Wind U160. They’re all getting better at managing battery life, too, which remains the real bane of all portable computers, netbook and tablet alike.
Part of the problem has been the unrealistic expectations manufactuers and analysts had for netbooks three years ago. It was foolish to think that everybody and their cousin would buy a netbook and that other lightweight form factors like the tablet (which, people forget, had already been kicking around for a while) wasn’t going to jump up and take a chunk. If you look at projected numbers five years out and assume that all of the form factors are going to look and function the same way they do now, that’s foolish too.
At CNET, Erica Ogg asks “So, Who’s Still Buying Netbooks?” Tech/culture blogger Joanne McNeil had already written a terrific post answering the question, “Why I Got a Netbook Instead of an iPad.” JoAnne bought a $300 off-the-shelf Asus, took it to Asia for the summer, and loved it.
First, there’s a cost difference: “the price difference wasn’t simply $200. The iPad required accessories — the case, the bluetooth keyboard, the SD adapter — the total price would hoover just under what I spent the year before on my new laptop.” Finally, there’s that keyboard, which some people hate and others need:
As a non-dude with narrow fingers, the keyboard feels right to me [Maybe the Macbook’s wide keyboard, like the name iPad and their translucent staircases (Skirts! Steve Jobs! Women wear skirts!) is another example of Apple’s failed outreach to women in market research.]
The computer industry — and maybe even more so, the marketers who work for it and the media who cover it — is always looking for products that scale: something that can be put as-is into everyone’s hands. Netbooks don’t have to be that thing any more. They can be quirky, eccentric — just right for one user and for her alone.
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