Netbook

Viewsonic releases its own Netbook.

Well we all know how much I like Netbooks for the portability and usability, and the computer industry always welcomes competition, well here you have it.

Viewsonic will be releasing two Netbooks in the US before the end of the year.

-  VNB100 is based on Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom N270 chip with 1GB memory, a 160GB hard drive and an ExpressCard slot. It weighs about three pounds and has an estimated battery life of three hours.

- VNB101 is lighter, around 2.4 pounds, comes with the 1.66GHz N280 Atom processor, 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive and a slightly smaller battery with about five hours of use time. Both models have a 10-inch displays.

The Near Future of Laptops

An interesting story discussing the future of Intel, laptops, and netbooks. They mention Intel’s new Pine Trail Atom silicon which will shrink the amount of space required by the silicon while boosting power efficiency and performance. Also mentioned is HUGI(Hurry up and get Idle) which will allow the Processor to instantly go from 100% complete a task then back down to full idle… very interesting.

Here is an insert from the page and a link below to read the full story.

“At the Intel Technology Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday, an executive described the imminent mobile future, including a major refresh of Netbook silicon, better-designed “ultrathins,” and turbo-powered high-end laptops.”

Read the full story here.

NS

Samsung’s new NetBook, or is it a Notebook?

It has been reported that Samsung will be the first NetBook (Samsung N510) to use the new Nvidia Ion chipset, the N280 chipset boasts a 1.66Ghz processor, front-side bus of 667, WiFi Draft-N, a 160GB HDD, 1GB of memory, ability to play mainstream games, and you guessed it HD playback! Makes me think that i should have waited until now to purchase a netbook. Check out more details here.

Acer chooses Google Andriod over Windows 7

Over the weekend it has become known that Acer has chosen Goolge Android over Windows 7.

Now I don’t know what Google Android looks like on a Netbook, but I know that Windows 7 didn’t run too well on mine. On the defense of Windows 7, my lil Acer One isn’t exactly a power house. I guess that is why Acer choose Google Android instead, it is able to run on much lower resources, and apparently its wireless access speeds are much better then Windows 7. Along with its open source backings, this could make for a good opportunity for Google Android to shine!

Check out the full story here.

Dell Inspiron Mini 10 - New Option Available

Dell isn’t shipping the Inspiron Mini 10 yet, but they say it will be shipping on the 15th of April. For a paltry 35$ USD you can update the display to 1366×768. This is currently the highest resolution offered on any netbook seen to date. This isn’t offered on Dell.ca, I guess us Canadians will have to wait. Either way, I would wait for the next generation of Netbooks, as these still aren’t using the N280 1.66Ghz processor. As more of these products get released, the more prices will drop on the older models. Patience is always a virtue, when dealing with technology at least.

NS

Western Digital bought SiliconSystems

SiliconSystems will become a business unit of Western Digital manufacturing drives along side the caviar line. Western DIgital bought SiliconSystems for 65 million dollars. An insert below describes why the company was a good buy for Western Digital.

“SiliconSystems has developed LifeEST and SiSMART to measure and calculate how long an SSD will last. LifeEST is the industry’s first endurance calculation methodology that’s independent of how an SSD is used. SiSMART is patented technology that actively monitors SSD performance and measures usage in real time. They work together to determine an SSD’s useable life.”

This purchase instantly put Western Digital into the SSD Race, and possibly ahead.

Read the full story here.

NS

Windows 7 and Netbooks

Seems that Microsoft wants to gear “Windows 7 Starter Edition” for the netbook.

Here is an inserpt from a Engaget

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Microsoft also says that’s it’s going out of its way to make Windows 7 as accommodating for netbook manufacturers as possible, adding that it has cleaned up the system tray and “made some other concessions for the OEMs to help with branding.”

–

They want to replace all the Linux based netbooks with “Windows 7 Starter Edition”, they also said that we should be seeing some 200$ netbooks by the holidays! I say bring it on.

NS

Asus Eee PC 1008HA (Netbook) and 1000HE(N280 Netbook)

Asus just launched this cool new Netbook.

Some specs are as follows *

• A 92%-scaled keyboard
• 1″ Thick
• 2.4 lbs
•  multi-touch touchpad,
• Instant key (for quick access to Wi-Fi and the touchpad lock)
• Digital Array Mic
• 1.3 megapixel camera
• Wireless connectivity options (802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, 3.75G** and WiMAX**).
• Equipped with SRS Premium Sound technology for pristine audio playback quality.
• and rumor has it that it will probably carry Intel’s Atom processor (N280) and the new GN40 chipset.

Endgaget has some photos of it here.

This just in Asus says they have the worlds first N280(confirmed) Netbook the Eee 1000HE… here and their promo page here, I might just have to wait for this one to come to Canada… or ill order it from the US…

NS

*subject to change

Boston-Power Sonata Green Super-Battery

I wanted to post a follow up on Boston Power from a previous post I made, you can check that out here.

I stated that HP would be the first to utilize this new technology, and guess what, they have been named one of the Top 50 companies on “Going Green East” Boston-Power fell under the category of “Energy Storage Systems” Full story here.

The “Going Green East” Top 50 will be honored on March 10th, 2009 in Boston, MA.

I would also like to mention the fact that HP will charging a premium of 20-30 USD on the new batteries, well worth the cost considering these new batteries will be able to handle 1000 cycles before starting to loose life(current Li-on batteries are about 300 cycles).

I know im a bit late with this last bit of info, but Boston-Power has since tripled production of its laptop battery, and on February 24th Boston-Power expanded mass production of its Sonata rechargeable batteries through a 5 year partnership with GP Batteries from China. GP Batteries is the top consumer battery manufacturer in Greater China. Full Story here.

It would be interesting once Net-books start to ship with these new green batteries. Ill keep my eyes on it and report back here.

NS

NetBooks What are they good for?

I’ve been following Netbooks closely, not too close, but close enough

Jenny, yes our Jenny, asked me a couple notable questions. Answering that question will inform people that there are options out there to make the Netbook experience a joyful one.

“I enjoyed your coverage on Netbooks earlier in the month; did you end up getting one? I’ve been considering one myself, but I’m concerned about the memory and whether it will run smoothly enough. Where do you think netbooks perform the best (under what types of work situations)?”

First off, Netbooks i think are a great idea for a travel bug. They are small enough and just as powerful as some notebooks people are using out in the world. I like to travel quite a bit, and the Netbook bug has bit me, although I am very stubborn when it comes to purchasing “toys” Now your average Netbook will come with a 1.6 or 1.66Ghz Processor, remember the N280 chips are coming out full force, make sure you get a Netbook with at least the 1.66Ghz N280 chipset. Its not really the clock speed that makes a difference its the 134Mhz jump in the FSB. 1GB DDR2 SDRAM and 8GB are the norm for the baseline models. These will work well if you just check your hotmail, webmail, or gmail. But are also powerful enough to play streaming movies, music, iTunes, winamp, internet, and even have a webcam built in. If your the kind of person who does those kind of things then the base model is a great starter Netbook. Only caveat is the SSD HDD is only 8GB once the OS is in there, you loose 30-40% depending if you got Windows XP or Vista.

If you’re like me, well then we cant go with the base model… we need to amp it up a bit…

The HP Mini 1000 XP Edition Netbooks comes with the Intel Atom N70 Processor, but has a 60GB HDD… lots of storage for the avid traveller, but its limited to 1GB Memory, not so good…. The HP Mini Mi Edition lets you install up to 2GB memory, although it runs “HP Mobile Internet” built in Linux(not exactly mainstream)

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is about the same specs although you can only go up to a 16GB SSD Drive, and the camera isn’t standard. There is an option to add bluetooth, I personally have no need for bluetooth. The Dell Mini 12 comes with either the Z520 or Z530 Processor. The hyperlink will take you to Intel’s page, which shows you all the Atom Processors and their differences. The Mini 12 also has the option for either a 40GB or 60GB HDD (4200rpm) for 30$ more then the 60GB HDD you can get an extra 20GB to bump you up to 80GB of space.

Acer has a model that comes with 160GB HDD and up to 1.5GB of memory.

And last but not least, my pic of the crop, ASUS, their N10J model, comes with the N270 Processor, 1GB DDR2 memory, up to 2GB max, a 160GB 5200RPM SATA Drive(up to 320GB), a built-in 1.3Mega Pixel Camera, integrated 802.11a/b/g/n(the only one in this blog to come with draft-n wireless technology), 6-in-1 card reader, VGA/DHDMI, HD Audio and microphone, all this jammed into a 10.2” screen Netbook. And yes you are correct, i know what your thinking, “Wow this isn’t going to be cheap…” its not, its about 1,000CDN

My honest opinion is that if you haven’t bought a Netbook wait for the N280 Atom chip, with its accompanying GN40 chipset, that’s when you’ll see a real multimedia boost. ASUS, Acer and Gigabyte are all expected to announce new Netbooks using the Atom N280 in the first half of 2009, HP and Dell to follow closely behind.

Remember that you could always go out and buy yourself a 2.5” SSD Drive. Just make sure you get a high performance one. The fact that SSD has 0 seek time, would greatly improve the usability of Netbooks. As always they come with a  price… and I would LOVE to get my hands on one of these for my future Netbook… a 256GB SSD Drive with an amazing 200MB/s data read rate, click here

Well i think I have blogged just about enough for tonight… Let me know how your Netbook experience goes!

NS