Hasta La Gadget!

LAS VEGAS — MSI, a company best known for its critically-acclaimed line of netbooks, is showing a thin-and-light notebook here at CES 2009 that goes head to head with Apple’s MacBook Air.

The MSI X-Slim Series X320 borrows unabashedly from the Air’s design. It’s extremely thin, with a maximum thickness of just 3/4 of an inch (1.98cm) and winglike profile that tapers down to a knifelike edge along the front. It weighs just 2.9 pounds (1.3kg) and has a 13-inch widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio) display, plus an extra-large touchpad. In short, it’s an Air clone.

But the X320 will cost far less than the Air’s $1,800 starting price: It will cost between $700 and $1,000, depending on options, when it goes on sale this spring, an MSI representative told Wired.com.

Naturally, such cost cutting doesn’t come without compromises. The X320
has an attractive but chintzy-looking plastic housing. It was
decidedly difficult to open (long fingernails might help in prying the
clamlike halves of the shell apart). And instead of OS X, the X320 is
running Windows Vista.

But beggars can’t be choosers. If you want an ultralight computer and
don’t want to go with the dinky keyboards and tiny screens of the
netbooks, the X320 looks like it will be an inexpensive alternative to
the Air.

Photos: Jonathan Snyder / Wired.com

Ahead of the gadget extravaganza in Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronics show, Lenovo debuted a slew of new PCs including a dual-screen notebook, an updated netbook and a slim desktop.

The company’s launched four new laptops including the IdeaPad Y650, a 5.6 pounds lightweight notebook, the IdeaCentre A600 desktop and the IdeaPad S10 netbook that comes with features such as "instant-on" capability and facial recognition.

The three Y Series laptops -the 16-inch Y650, the 15.6-inch Y550, and the 14-inch Y450– are black with a copper-colored trim around the perimeter. The laptops are configurable with up to 500 GB of hard drive storage space and up to 4GB of memory.

The notebooks are expected to be available in March and priced starting at $1,199 for the
Y650, $829 for the Y550 and Y450.

Lenovo’s dual-screen notebook, the ThinkPad w700ds, will also be shown at CES. It’s the first dual-screen mobile workstation, says Craig Merrigan, vice-president of branding and strategy for Lenovo. The ThinkPad w700ds will have a 17-inch primary screen and a 10.6 inch secondary screen that slides out to the right.

The dual-screen notebook, however, comes at a hefty weight and price. It will weigh about 11 pounds and retail for $3,600.

The company also updated its $350 S10 netbook with new multimedia and networking features. The netbook will include Quick Start, a functionality that allows users to access frequently used applications such as browser, music player, Skype and instant messengers with just a few easy clicks.

It will sport a 10.2-inch display, weigh about 2.4 pounds and come in color choices including black, white, red, blue and pink.

Also included in the company’s lineup is a new desktop computer that it bills as its slimmest so far. The IdeaPad A600 comes with a Intel Core 2 Duo processors, optional ATI graphics card technology with DirectX10 support, up to 4GB of memory and up to 1TB (1000GB) of hard drive space Connectivity options include WiFi, a 6-in-1 media card reader, side-mounted USB and FireWire ports with additional USB ports on the rear of the panel.

The desktop will be available in April with
models starting at $1000.

Photo: Lenovo dual-screen laptop

Best Buy is marketing netbooks as companions to your primary computer — which just goes to show how poorly understood these miniature devices really are.

In a long-winded Flash presentation, Best Buy stresses that netbooks are low-powered computers meant to be purchased "as a companion for your laptop."

That’s a pretty outdated generalization. Maybe before our economy got thrown into a bag of hurt, Best Buy would be reasonable for trying to sell netbooks as complementary devices. But with consumers tightening their spending in a recession, we can expect them to turn to netbooks as their next primary computers.

Likewise, we can expect manufacturers to market netbooks as serious devices for business users. (Think bigger screens, longer battery life, better keyboards.) MSI is already getting a head start with its next version of the popular Wind netbook, which sports a sharper, more professional design than its predecessor.

I myself am a Wind owner, and though it took me a little bit of time to get used to the smaller keyboard, I find I’m using the netbook more than my MacBook Pro. When I’m doing work at home, I simply attach my Wind to an external display. And when I’m on the go, I bring along a wireless mouse.

Liliputing’s Brad Linder spotted the Best Buy ad and quibbled a bit about why he doesn’t like the word "netbook." I definitely agree with him: Netbook is not only kind of a weird word; it just doesn’t do these devices justice. I prefer the term "mini notebook," but I use netbook more often now that it’s become a mainstream word.

See Also:

• Tiny Notes Net Big Gains: The Netbook Revolution
• Using the Word ‘Netbook’ Could Get You Sued
• Cheap, Easy-to-Mod NetBooks Are a Hacker’s Paradise

Photo: Brian X. Chen/Wired.com

A netbook by any other name would be…a miniature, low-powered notebook that isn’t worth starting a fuss over.

But
some blog sites devoted to covering netbooks claim they received a
cease-and-desist letter for using the word "netbook," reports mobile
device blog JkOnTheRun.

JkOnTheRun published an image purporting to be the letter, sent by a company
called Psion, who claims it trademarked the term netbook several years
ago.

"We note that you have recently started using the word netbook without Psion’s consent," the letter says.
"Psion places significant value on the trade mark registrations and
your use of the term ‘netbook’ could damage those registrations."

Hardware company Psion was indeed the first to use the word netbook in 2000 for a device
that was a cross between a personal digital assistant and a notebook.
It wasn’t until 2008 that Intel started branding subnotebooks as netbooks — to market them as portable computers
streamlined for internet surfing.

Brad Linder, owner of the netbook enthusiast blog Liliputing, told
Wired.com he has not received a cease-and-desist letter from Psion.

"I can maybe understand them going after web sites that have the word netbook
in the site title," Linder said. "But if they’re going after people for using netbook
improperly — I’m not a lawyer, but that seems weird, and I’m not sure how they
can enforce that."

Netbook enthusiast web sites getting C&D using term "netbook" [jKOnTheRun]

See Also:

• Tiny Notes Net Big Gains: The Netbook Revolution
• The Next Netbook Trend: Cellphone-Like Contract Deals
• Cheap, Easy-to-Mod NetBooks Are a Hacker’s Paradise

Photo: steve-chippy/Flickr