May 2009

Sunday, May 31, 2009

HP Mini 110 vs. HP Mini 1000 vs. Samsung NC10; Mini 1101 specs

HP moves forward slowly in the market of netbooks but, its move is steady and continual. I can say that HP has released least netbooks compared to Asus and Acer and MSI. Well, So far its netbooks have been bundled up with very good and bad features such as stellar keyboard and sturdy fashionable chassis as well as overly glossy screens, sluggish hard drive and lack of VGA port meanwhile costing more than their counterparts in the market.

HP has unveiled its two upcoming Mini 110 for consumer- oriented (and the Linux- based Mini 110 Mi) and Mini 1101 for corporate- oriented.

The very first feature of Mini 110 and Mini 1101 that takes attention is their starting price. Compared to their predecessors, these two upcoming netbooks offer more aggressive starting price. Starting at $279 for the Linux-based Mini 110 Mi, $330 for the XP-based Mini 110 and Mini 1101 is a big improvement about HP netbooks.

The second feature that takes the attention immediately is design and the chunky way it looks. Mini 110 is not as thin and lightweight as its predecessor. The new netbook is 0.2 pound heavier with the (weight of 2.6 lbs) and 0.3 inches thicker (with the depth of 1.3inches) than its predecessor.

Confidently, HP has made a better revamped version of Mini 1000, He has kept the good side of the Mini 1000 and has tried to turn the bad sides or weak features to the good ones.

Here you will learn about the differences between Mini 1000 and Mini 110, and comparison between their benchmark results.

One of the important contenders of Mini 1000 and of course upcoming Mini 110 is Samsung NC10 netbook. Here you will learn about their differences and the comparison between their benchmark result to get better idea about the improved performance that Mini 110 offers upon its predecessor and its major rival.

I have compiled all the benchmark results and figures from reviews done by Laptop Magazine.

HP Mini 1101 netbook:

This mode meant business users and it is very customizable. It can be available preinstalled with one of Windows XP Home, XP Pro, or Vista and a choice for freeDOS if you are interested in installing it on your netbook by yourself. This netbook offers options for a 32GB SSD or 160GB or 250GB hard disk, and EV-DO/HSPA mobile broadband modem. The HP Mini 1101 will be available from tomorrow- June 1st with starting from $329.

HP Mini 110 vs. Mini 1000:

Cnet and Laptop Magazine have reviewed Mini 110 and compared it with Mini 1000. Here I have compiled the Pros and Cons were mentioned by these two reviews here all together.

(Pros):

Price: the starting price of Mini 110 is more budget- friendly than the starting price of Mini 1000, meanwhile offering better features.

Design: although the black Mini 1000 looks is slightly thinner and ligher than Mini 110, the nice swirl imprint design on lid of Mini 110 looks very attractive and it also hides the finger tips ( unlike the glossy finish of Mini 1000). Mini 110 is more comfortable to use because “it sits a little higher in back when placed on a desk”. Mini 110 is available in pearl white and fashionable pink, as well.

Keyboard: Mini 110 inherits the stellar spacious 92% keyboard of Mini 1000. There is a row of a dedicated function keys placed at the top pf the keyboard. Also the new netbook comes with the same awkward vertical touchpad buttons.

Performance: Mini 110 comes with the typical CPU and RAM available on majority of netbooks (1.6GHz Atom CPU and 1GB of memory). But, it offered faster spinning 160GB HDD with 5400 rpm that causes faster performance compared to Mini 1000.

Features: unlike Mini 1000, an additional USB port and VGA port are available on Mini 110. So, this netbook comes with 3 USB ports, a VGA out and 5-in-1 media card reader and Lan port.

Display:If you suffered from the overly glossy 10.1-inch screen settled on Mini 1000, HP happily has removed this display and has used the traditional LED Matte antiglare 10.1-inch display but with the same 1,024x576 resolution. Promisingly, an option for high definition display with 1366 x 768 resolution will be available from July 8^th. This option will only add $30 to the basic price.

Video Play back: an additional $30 Crystal HD Enhanced Video Accelerator choice, will come soon in July and will allow users to watch 1080p video an external display.

Heat: definitely Mini 110 is much cooler than Mini 1000

Audio: The speakers are impressively laud and apparently better than the one used in Mini 1000.

- Choices or options for 32GB SSD, a mobile broadband for extra $125. The Linux-based Mini 110 Mi starts from cheaper price of $280 and can be configured with up to 1GB of RAM and 160GB HDD.

(Cons):

- Lack of HDMI port for playing HD movies on an external display

Software: the Syncables software is difficult to use. This software is supposed to help out the user to “connect different machines on your local network, allowing you to easily share documents, photos, video, and music, and even sync Outlook and Thunderbird e-mail accounts. The program even claims to work on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.”

Battery: 3-cell battery is used on Mini 110 as default and it only lasts for 2 hours and 45 minutes which is really short for a netbook. In the market the average battery is not less than 3 hours. However, Soon Mini 110 will offer a choice of 6-cell battery adding $40 to the basic price to prolong about 5 hours and half which is yet short compared to Eee PC 1008HA and 1005HA, Samsung NC10 etc.

- “This video accelerator won’t help you transcode video faster or play mainstream 3D games.”

Benchmark results:

-Boot time: Mini 110 boots up for 45 sec while Mini 1000 is more sluggish and its boot time is about 64 sec.

-PCMark05 test: Mini 110 scored 1578 while Mini 1000 scored 1370

- laptop transfer test: Mini 10 recorded a rate of 14.6 MBps ( lasting about 5 minutes) for coping a 4.97GB folder of mixed media and Mini 1000 scored a rate of 9.1 MBps that lasted for 9 minutes and 21 sec.

Mini 110 vs. Samsung NC10:

I am comparing the Samsung NC10 with the price tag of $420 (at Newegg) and feature set of 10.2-inch antiglare Led display, 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 160GB HDD with 5400 rpm, 6-cell battery, 3USB port, VGA out, 3-in-1 media card reader, 2.8 lbs of weight, 1.19-inch thickness, Bluetooth, and 93% keyboard, .

Comparisons:

Price: Samsung NC10 is some more expensive than Mini 110 even by considering adding the two features of 6-cell battery and Bluetooth to Mini 110. If we add the $40 extra for 6-cell battery to Mini 110 the price will jump only to $370. ( however I think NC10 deserves this price).

Design: Mini 110 comes with more attractive finish design than NC10. However, NC10 is a thinner netbook. It is natural that NC10 with 6 cell battery is heavier than Mini 110 coming with 3-cell battery.

Keyboard: both laptops have very spacious and comfortable keyboard that the positioning of keys are almost perfect.

TouchPad: The sizes of their touchpads are almost the same. However the length of touchpad on NC10 is 0.1-inch shorter.but the most important thing is that NC10’s touchpad is multi touch that provides a dedicated scrolling bar too and the buttons are horizontally positioned.

Features: The both netbooks feature the same amount of ports but Mini 110 offers 5-in-1 media card reader slot.

Display: both netbooks offer traditional Matte display with anti-glare. However, the option for HD display offering by Mini 110 is really nice.

Audio: The quality of speakers of NC10 are closed to the Dolby-powered speakers used in Eee PC 1000H. So, it is more preferred to the speakers used in HP Mini, although it is totally loud.

Battery: NC10’s 6-cell battery can last 6 hours and 34 sec when its battery manager is enabled. While Mini 110 with 6-cell battery will prolong about 5 hours and half which is not bad although it is shorter than NC10’s.

Performance:

Both Mini 110 and Samsung NC10 come with the same guts. So naturally they must have similar performance record and benchmark result. Both netbooks boot Win XP in 45 sec. They have similar transferring rate (Laptop magazine tested NC20 with 120GB 5400 rpm and it recorded rate of 12.4 MBps) and stay behind IdeaPad S10 with the rating of 17.4 MBps.

Conclution:

Surely, Mini 110 is a better netbook that its predecessor and with its competitive price, excellent keyboard, nice design (specially it doesn’t get tarnished at all), lovely options and enough ports and slots will be able to attract the market easily.

Samsung NC20 is a known netbook that has already been successful to take some proportion of crowded market of netbooks. It is famous for its keyboard and long battery life. But it is not available in the price range of $320- $370 that Mini 110 offers. This way it will lose some of its consumers logically.

- Samsung's NC10: a 10.2-in WiMAX-Ready Netbook Available In USA for $480.56

- Samsung NC10 - Special Edition Available for Preorder at Amazon for $500

- MSI Wind U120 under Test: Better Design, Better Price, Less Battery life

-MSI Wind U120 under Test (vs. Samsung NC10 and HP Mini 2140): Better Design, Better Price, Less Battery life

- VIA Nano-based Samsung NC20 at Amazon; Comparison with NC10/ Eee 1000HE

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Asus Eee PC 1000HV with ATI Graphics Makes Considerable Benchmark Result

Asus Eee PC 1000HV has just been released only for Italian market. This netbook is identical to 1000HE. The only difference comes to graphics card. 1000HE sports the Intel integrated graphics card while 1000HV is equipped with a discrete ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics card. Logically, Radeon HD 3450 is supposed to improve the graphics performance (3D and video playback) to the higher rate comparing to Eee PC 1000HE.

Eee PC.it had its hands on this netbook and did the CrystalMark 2004R3 test on this netbook. The result is noteworthy:

The result of graphics or OpenGL performance was about 15 times as high and fast as the figure that Intel integrated graphics in 1000HE scored.

The result in other parts like CPU were almost similar to the scores that 1000HE recorded.

The Eee 1000HV is the first Eee PC that uses the High Definition Movie mode in the Super Hybrid Engine. This facility helps out the user to overclock the CPU to its maximum level and achieves the best viewing experience while watching HD 1080p videos.

-Eee PC 1000HV with Discrete ATl Graphics Card Available in Italy

-How to: Install Windows 7 on Any Netbook- Method Round up

-Asus Eee PC 1005HA: You can Download All the Drivers Now!

- Update BIOS for Eee 1000HE to Enhance Video Performance

-Netbook Linux OSes in rivalry: EeeXubuntu IS the Best of All for Netbooks

VAIO P Mini Laptop Offers New Options, 2GHz Atom, XP and More

VAIO P created a lot of buzz when it was launched and it became favorite business mini laptop choice for many corporate users.

But for long time Sony did not add any options to this lovely mobile device. Fortunately, Sony is now updating the line up with adding many new appreciated options to its VAIO P mini laptop series.

The VAIO P50 sports bigger storage of 80GB and shorter 1GB of RAM memory and runs on Windows XP rather than Vista.

The other options available for VAIO P mini laptop series consist of choices for 2.0GHz Atom processor, a huge 256GB solid-state drive, lid with new color of champagne gold and, choice of dark brown hue on the palm rest and keyboard for black models.

Via: Electronista, impress

-Sony VAIO P Laptop Series Available for Pre-Order Starting at $900

-Sony VAIO P Unveiled Officially: Lightest 8-inch Laptop Available for Pre-Order
-Sony VAIO P Is Not a Netbook! But a Slow Budget Ultra Slim Laptop for $974

Eee PC 1005HA vs. Eee PC 1008HA; 1005HA in a Video Hands-on

Asus Eee PC netbooks especially, Eee PC 1000 line up are identical to each other and one is differentiated from the other one only with few changes either in design and size, weight or some components like graphics card, processor, and battery.

Eee PC 1005HA targeting European market and Eee PC 1008HA are identical and differ from each other when it comes to design, size, VGA port and battery.

Eee 1008HA or Eee PC seashell has a nice stylish design. It is slender and at front side has a razor-sharp edge. For keeping it totally thin Asus has used a non- replaceable battery opposite the Eee PC 1005HA.

It has the replaceable battery so; it is fatter and heavier and as a result looks less stylish than Eee PC 1008HA.

Fortunately, the screens and keyboard are the same. But VGA out put on 1008HA is a full port and it is needed to use a special VGA adaptor. In the following you can see a video hands-on about 1005HA.

If you are interested in seeing some cool pictures about this netbook you can go to see this link.

Via: liliputing

-How to: Install Windows 7 on Any Netbook- Method Round up

-Asus Eee PC 1005HA: You can Download All the Drivers Now!

- Update BIOS for Eee 1000HE to Enhance Video Performance

-Netbook Linux OSes in rivalry: EeeXubuntu IS the Best of All for Netbooks

-Eee 1000HE:Much Better Revamped of Eee1000H

Fit PC Nettop: The smallest Desktop in the size of a Hard Drive!

Fit PC latest model is a great portable desktop PC! Yeah, a very portable desktop that you can carry it on every where, you will just need to have a monitor, keyboard mouse in that place.

Fit PC nettop is slightly bigger than a 2.5” hard drive (measuring 4″ x 4.5″ x 1.05″) and is totally a fanless and quiet computer.

It comes with every component: motherboard, CPU, RAM, and a 2.5 inch hard drive and ample 6 USB ports, a DVI output, Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

This nettop is powered by an Intel Atom Z520 or Atom Z530 CPU and a 15watts power system controller.

The system features hardware decoding for 1080p H.264 video.

This budget friendly desktop PC come with price tags between $245 and $400.

You can watch a brief video about this nettop in the following.

Via: Liliputing

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Windows Vista SP2 Available for Download Now

Windows Vista SP2 is available for download now at Microsoft’s website (348MB). However, the Vista users will get the SP2 automatically via Windows Update after a few days.

Vista SP2 adds new supports and some updates and bug fixes available on the current Vista OS including:

- updated support for Bluetooth V2.1

- updated support for directly record Blu-ray discs through Vista

- Fixxing the slow shutdowns

- Fixing the Wi-Fi issues happening after Vista awakes from sleep mode.

- boosting the performance of Vista desktop sidebar gadget and RSS feeds

- fixing 700 bugs and security updates effected vista’s overall performance

- To improve power management efficiency by 10%

- support for VIA Technologies' new 64-bit CPU

-Giving support for exFAT, “which can handle larger files and can also use UTC timestamps so you can synchronize files across different time zones.”

Source: PC World

-Five Techniques that Mac X OS Should Learn from Windows 7

-How to: Install Windows 7 on Any Netbook- Method Round up

- Pineveiw on Way;Moblin 2.0 Launched; Win 7 Price Higher than Vista?

-Windows 7 RC1 Available for Everybody to Download Now!

-Windows 7 RC1 Available for Download; The First Look (review) at Win 7 RC1

-Blur Future of Vista and Bright Future of Windows 7!

- Windows XP Will Stay with Netbooks after Release of Windows 7

Microsoft Abets Intel to Grip Netbook Market Against VIA

Majority of netbooks are based on Intel’s Atom platform. The Atom platform as well as the other standard key hardware features including 1GB of memory and 160GB HDD, all together have made these netbooks almost sibling of each other. Although, Intel has dominated the netbook market, VIA was able to obtain some shares of this market after achievement of successful move into the 12-inch netbooks such as Samsung NC20 thanks to its better benchmark result than Atom’s.

Naturally, Intel is concerned about it and feels intimidation from this rival- VIA.

Well, consumers love better products with budget-friendly prices, but the giant vendors like Intel and Microsoft have to think of their own benefits. Unfortunately, Microsoft and Intel have planned to impose some restrictions to netbook market after release of Windows 7.

Microsoft is going to disqualify netbooks coming with screens bigger than 10-inchs to run on Windows 7.

Intel was fined for its antitrust strategy in market against its tough rivals like AMD and also, Microsoft had the similar cases for anti-competitive practices. This cooperation between Intel and Microsoft reminds me the practice of anti-competitive actions but this time in netbook market.

What is your opinion? Do you agree with me? Please share us your ideas in comment section.

Source:

TGdaily

-Conflict between Google and Authors/ Publishers over Google Book Search Service

-Intel’s Survey: 60% of Companies Don’t Upgrade Their PCs!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Pay Just Extra $50 for ION, Play World of Warcraft with your Netbook

ION platform is only adding $50 extra to anetbook based on Tom platform but it will boost the graphics performance 10 times more while delivering decent battery runtime.

ION platform will experience its first launch by Lenovo IdeaPad S12 netbook in August onwards. Lenovo has claimed this upcoming netbook will promise 6 hours battery runtime and playing mainstream games like Spore, Sims, Call of Duty 4, and World of Warcraft (however, you will only sometimes suffer delay or small pause or missing one frame).

Senior product manager Matt Wuebbling explains the major advantages of ION platform in a conversation that he had with Laptop Magazine:

- ION platform sports HDMI because of its ability of outputting HD 1080p video. Even it is able to play back HD and Blu-ray movies through external Blu-ray drive, transcode video flawlessly and let the user surf the web simultaneously.

“However, ION won’t help when it comes to streaming HD video online.”

- “ION will allow users to benefit from graphics-accelerated video editing programs like vReveal.”

- IdeaPad S12 is able to play mainstream games like Spore, and World of Warcraft on its display with 1280 x 800 native resolution by the means of ION. However, “You might see hitching or a missed frame once in a while.”

Matt Wuebbling thinks that ION “turns netbooks to notebooks”.

DO you agree with him?

If he is right what will happen to AMD Neo and Intel’s CULV processors and what will happen to the future of the newly made ultra low-cost laptop category? I think AMD and Intel will insert these two CPUs into ION Platforms if it achieves the success of 10 times performance over Atom platform.

Do you agree with me?

S10 Netbook

-Lenovo Idea Pad S10 First Two Reviews; IdeaPad S10 Ripped Apart

-Lenovo to Apply Ion Platform & VIA Nano CPU to New IdeaPad S Netbooks?

-Lenovo to Prepare a Budget-Friendly ThinkPad X200s Using CULV

- Intel Charges More for Atom Used in ION Platform!

-Toshiba NB200 Hands-on; Many Nvidia Ion Netbooks at Computex!

-Nvidia Ion Platform to Come Out in June 2009

-Nvidia to Dive in the Netbook Market with Its up Coming Ion Platform

Dell Studio XPS13 with Pre-installed Ubuntu Available for $1099

Dell Studio XPS 13 is a 13.3-in known budget-friendly portable laptop.

Happily, Dell is offering this laptop with Ubuntu OS for the users who are fan of Linux-based OSes rather than Windows especially, Vista.

Although the Ubuntu-based XPS 13 and Vista-based Studio 13 have similar key specifications, they offer different options in terms of CPU, memory upgrade, and option for higher capacity battery.

Studio 13 running Ubuntu is powered by 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and 4GB of RAM. However there is only option for faster 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor. Simultaneously, the Vista-based counterpart laptop (powering by the same 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and 4GB of RAM) offers options for faster 2.53GHz and a 2.66GHz Core 2 Due procesors and upgrading for 6GB and 8GB of RAM memory and high capacity 9-cell battery.

Dell Studio XPS 13 either with Ubuntu or Vista starts at $1099.

Electronista states that “The basic operating system is Ubuntu Desktop Edition version 8.10, though buyers can check off version 7.04 with 1 year of basic tech support or 7.04 with one year of standars tech support.”

-How to: Install Windows 7 on Any Netbook- Method Round up

-Dell Mini 10v Hands-on: Cheaper than Mini 10 but Not so Much!

-Dell Mini 10 Available for Purchase Only Sub-$400; & First Mini 10 hands-on

- Dell Studio 16 and Studio XPS 17 Laptops with WiMax

- Closer Steps towards Android from Dell

-Dell Studio 15 and Studio 17 under Tests: Review Round up

-Dell Premium Studio XPS 1340 and Studio XPS 1640 Available for Purchase

Microsoft Launches $80 Million Campaign to Battle Google

Mircrosft has started launching a series of Campaigns for a while to challenge its tough rivals such as Apple, and now this time Yahoo and mainly Google.

Microsoft outraged Apple with bunch of ad series few months ago and now is planning to repeat the same strategy about Google.

The reason is Microsoft is launching its latest revamped version of its Live search engine with the new codenamed of "Bing" instead of the previous name of Kumo that was used for a while.

PC World reports:

To get the word out, Microsoft is planning a massive advertising campaign to launch its new search brand. Bing's debut will feature a $80 to $100 million online, TV, print, and radio advertising campaign, according to AdvertisingAge.

Google is the top leading in search market and Microsoft has stayed far behind it in this field. Microsoft desperately tried to buy total Yahoo thanks to its search engine to challenge Google but it was an unsuccessful attempt.

So, it looks reasonable spending $80 up to $100 million while launching Kumo to raise the position of its search engine in the higher level (and maybe get closer to Google).

Electronista reports:

AdAge hears that Microsoft plans to spend between $80 million to $100 million advertising Bing, the final version of a radically revised search engine codenamed Kumo and meant to compete with Google, Yahoo and other top-tier search engines. At least initially, the ads created by marketing firm JWT won't target Google directly but will instead suggest something wrong with today's search engines and push Bing as the alternative.

The latest Live Search Engine from Microsoft; Kumo, is more improved in the media search section compared to the previous version- the result of search is closer and more matched to result of Google’s search counterpart. However, the text search in Kumo is not so much different than the previous one.

Campaigns and advertisements are always useful way to gain more share of market for a while, but in the end it is the outcome of the product will appoint its future success or failure.

-Google Challenging Microsoft & Intel with Android-based Netbooks?

-Nvidia and Google Jointly to Bring Open-source Android to Tegra

- Pineveiw on Way;Moblin 2.0 Launched; Win 7 Price Higher than Vista?

- Windows 7 Will Be Out in December, Difficult be Pirated?

-Five Techniques that Mac X OS Should Learn from Windows 7

Sunday, May 24, 2009

HP Pavilion dv2 Low Cost Laptop Gets $50 Price Cut

HP Pavilion dv2 ultra thin laptop is the first one in the category of low cost laptops which are new category that the laptops there are powered by AMD Neo or Intel CULV processors (like MSI X340 ultra slim laptop).

AMD Athlon Neo processor is more powerful and pricier than the Atom CPU used in netbooks and less powerful and cheaper than the Intel ULV Core 2 Duo and SU processors used in expensive Ultra portable laptops made for corporate users like ThinkPad X200s.

HP Pavilion dv2 is available in American markets with the starting price of sub-$700. Fortunately this low cost laptop is getting $50 price cut in some online retailers such as Staples and Amazon.

At Amazone the laptop was priced at $750 that now after $50 rebate is pricing at $700.

The Pavilition dv2-1030us entertainment laptop available at Amazon features:

Display: 12.1-inch WXGA high-definition LED BrightView display (1280 x 800)

Processor: 1.6 GHz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 processor

Hard drive: 320 GB hard drive (5400 RPM)

Meomry: 4 GB RAM (maximum)

Optical drive: Dual-layer DVD±R drive

Network: Quad-mode Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)

Graphics card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3410 graphics (512 MB discrete)

Operating system: Windows Vista Premium (64-bit)

Weight: 3.95 pounds

Battery: 6-cell battery up to 3.5 hours

Ports/ slots: 3USB ports, HDMI port; 1 VGA; a 5-in-1 memory card reader, 1 ExpressCard/54 slot (also supports ExpressCard/34)

Others: 92 percent full-sized keyboard and a touchpad with a scroll zone

-HP dv3t Laptop to Push Performance Starting at $800 to come in May

-HP Pavilion dv2 to Feature AMD Athlon Neo Processor

-AMD’s Yukon Opens New Category between Netbooks & Ultra-portable Laptops

-15.6-in HP ProBook 4510s (FM848UT) Laptop in First Two Reviews

MSI Wind U115 in UK; Wind 123 with Better Configuration in USA

MSI starts selling its new netbook Wind 115 in UK with the price tag of £499.95 inc vat. The MSI Wind U115 Hybrid is a nice netbook with striking feature to differentiate it from other current netbooks in the market:

- It is the first netbook in the market to be able to use Hybrid Storage Technology to combine HDD and SSD to enhance the performance and save the power

- The HDD can go off or be disabled by the user to same more energy and prolong the battery runtime

- The netbook is powered by a low-power 1.6GHz Z530 Atom CPU unlimke most netbooks in the market that are equipped with Atom N270

- This netbook can easily deliver 13 hours battery life with 6-cell battery and 25 hours with 9-cell battery.

The Wind U115 netbook features:

Processor: Intel Atom Z530 1.6GHz Processor

Chipset: Intel Poulsbo US15W

Memory: 1GB DDR2 533MHz (2GB max.)

Hard Drive: 160GB 2.5" SATA HDD pl us8GB SSD (Hybrid storage)

Display: 10" 1024 x 6 - LCD Panel

Integrated UMA GMA 500 Graphics

Others: 1.3M Webcam; keyboard with US Layout

Network: 802.11 b/g/n WLAN; Bluetooth

Ports/Slot: VGA (15-pin, D-Sub), USB 2.0 x 3, Mic-in, Headphone Output, LAN Port; 4-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro)

Battery: 6 Cells

Dimensions: 260 x 180 x 19-31.5 mm

Weight: 1.2kg approx

Operating System: Windows XP Home

MeanWhile, MSI has updated its Wind U123 in USA with slightly better configuration.

MSI Wind U123 is now powered by 1.66GHz Atom CPU, and sports 6-cell battery and 9-cell battery for option to deliver 8 hours battery runtime.

The basic configuration starts at $380 and features:

CPU: Intel Atom N280 Processor

Operating System: Genuine Windows XP Home Edition

Display: 10.2” Wide Screen Display

Others: Exclusive MSI EasyFace( Face Identification software) Inside; Big-Size Keyboard and Touch Pad; Built-in 1.3 Mega Pixels Webcam; Comprehensive Multi-Media Application Interface

Hard Drive with Massive Capacity

Audio: Built-in High-Performance 2 Channel Stereo Speakers, and Microphone

Network: Built-in 802.11b/g Wireless Lan

Via: Electronista

-Now You Can Pre-order Red or Blue MSI Wind U123 at Amazon

-MSI Wind U120 under Test (vs. Samsung NC10 and HP Mini 2140): Better Design, Better Price, Less Battery life

-Wind U100 PLUS Netbook and MSI X340 Slim Laptop Released Soon

-MSI to Expose Wind U110, U115, U120 & Affordable 13.3-in U300 at CES 09

-The Best Laptops of 2008 (list Round up)

- 10 Cool Pink Laptops and 5 Laptop Bags for Valentine’s Day

Eee PC 1000HV with Discrete ATl Graphics Card Available in Italy

Eee PC 1000HE is one of the most successful netbooks that Asus made after designing many other similar netbooks before it.

Asus has got very good welcome to its Eee PC 1000HE netbooks from market and has made a new variant of this netbook for Italian market.

Eee PC 1000HV is the new model laptop in Eee 1000H line up that offers discrete Radeon HD 3450 graphics with new Atom N280 under its hook.

Radeon HD 3450 boosts the graphics performance (3D and video playback) and overall performance both to the higher rate. Although this graphics card curtails the battery runtime, there stays yet 5 hours juice which is more than the battery runtime that many budget standard laptops offer.

The laptop features same 10-inch display a 160GB hard drive, 802.11n Wi-Fi,3USB ports, VGA out, media card reader, webcam, the comfortable chiclet or island-like keyboard and multi-touch trackpad.

Via: Electronista

-How to: Install Windows 7 on Any Netbook- Method Round up

-Asus Eee PC 1005HA: You can Download All the Drivers Now!

- Update BIOS for Eee 1000HE to Enhance Video Performance

-Netbook Linux OSes in rivalry: EeeXubuntu IS the Best of All for Netbooks

-Eee 1000HE:Much Better Revamped of Eee1000H

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Dell Latitude 2100 Highlights, Spec, and First Impressions

Dell has launched a new netbook that is totally different than other netbooks in the market in terms of purpose and function. Dell Latitude 2100 that has totally made for student- oriented users and corporate users comes with some feature that are unique and you can not find them on other netbooks. Regarding comparison, you can liken this netbook with Intel Convertible Classmate PC from some aspects like being enough rugged to be used by pupils in classrooms, having touchscreen displays and a strap or handle to carry, and targeting student users.

In this entry, I am just mentioning the highlight features, full specs, and the first indepth-look on Dell Latitude 2100 and some benchmark results.

Dell Latitude 2100 that is now available for purchase at Dell website with starting price of $369 is the first ruggedized netbook meant education market and come in different attractive colors to please any of its customers in the range of kindergarten up to 12^th grade.

Here are the highlight features of Latittude 2100:

- Sturdy rugged chassis with rubberized surface that easily to catch and grasp

- A resistive touch-screen for option with a 1024 by 576 resolution. The screen can be cleaned easily with regular stuff

- The keyboard is 89 percent of a full size desktop keyboard meaning it is suitable for kids not adults. The keyboard used on Eee PC 1000HE is about 92% of a full size one.

- Optional antimicrobial keyboard to prevent spreading germs

- A strip light at the top center of the lid is for teachers to monitor pupils’ network activities.

- It supports carrying the netbook by a built-in strap that can be used as handle or a shoulder strap

- It is very customizable: there are three Operating systems for options including Vista Home Basic, Windows XP Home and Ubuntu Linux and there are four choices for hard drive including: 16GB SSD, and 80GB/ 160GB/ 250GB HDD (5400rpm) and options for battery: 3-cell and 6-cell battery choices

- Multi color choices: halkboard Black, School Bus Gold, Schoolhouse Red, Blue Ribbon, and Ballfield Green

- The standard memory is 512MG that can be upgrade up to 2GB

Specs:

The netbook comes with conventional guts: A 1.6 GHz Atom N270 processor, a single memory slot (512MBup to 2GB of RAM), SSD, and 80GB/ 160GB/ 250GB HDD (5400rpm), integrated graphics and 10.1-inch WSVGA (1024 x 576) LED display and comes standard with a microphone. Additional options include a built-in 1.3MP VGA camera and/or a touchscreen.

The netbook features three USB ports; VGA-Out, a 3-in-1 card reader, and Ethernet and Wireless 802.11b/g. there are options for Wireless-N and Bluetooth.

First Reviews:

PCWorld Australia had its hands on 2100 and has done some test on the laptop that I mention the benchmark result briefly. PC magazine has also noted its first impression about this netbook.

In the following you can see the rundown of these two first reviews:

(Pros):

- the netbook is Shock resistant, scratch and indent resistant, drop resistant, and dust resistant and the keyboard is spill resistant.

- Each USB 2.0 port is powered; an external 2.5in hard drive can be plugged to the netbook through a single USB port

- The white strip light at the top of the lid to top off the teachers when students use internet when are not allowed to

- Very customizable

- Comfortable keyboard

- The touchscreen is precise and responsive

- there is a sliding plastic window placed on battery for students to put in their names and classroom numbers

(Cons):

- One of the heaviest netbooks in the market (3.5 lbs with 6-cell battery and 3 lbs with 3-cell battery)

- Thick and Unattractive

- “It can be a dangerous unit to use if you opt to install the 6-cell battery!”

- the light on the cover can not work with the wired connection and only can work with wireless connection

- The netbook with touchscreen doesn’t come with a stylus

Benchmark result:

Rendering 3D image test: 7min 11sec

iTune test: 7min 51sec to convert a 53min WAV files to 192Kbps MP3s, ( faster than Wind U120)

Verdict:

The netbook with starting price ($370) has a good configuration of 1GB DDR2 SDRAM, an 80GB hard drive and the standard LCD screen (without webcam), 3-cell battery and Ubuntu Linux OS. But if you add options of touchscreen with webcam, Dell Wireless 1510 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card, Bluetooth, and keyboard with Anti-microbial protection, the price jump on $500.

Well if we look at the price of the ruggedized convertible Classmate PC- (the laptop is priced at $500 at ShopMandA.com for American market) and its specs you will find Dell Latitude 2100 more affordable and budget-friendly and more convenient with its bigger display and unique feature it provides for teachers.

- How to: Install Windows 7 on Any Netbook- Method Round up

- Netbooks’ performance vs. Laptops’: You Get What You Pay!

-Dell Mini 10v Hands-on: Cheaper than Mini 10 but Not so Much!

-Dell Mini 10 Available for Purchase Only Sub-$400; & First Mini 10 hands-on

-New Dell Mini 10v for $300 and Mini 10 with Ubuntu Available Now

-Dell Adamo Comes with Irreplaceable Battery

-Can Dell Adamo Become the Thinnest Laptop in the World?

- Dell Studio 16 and Studio XPS 17 Laptops with WiMax

Closer Steps towards Android from Dell

We have heard different news items about testing Android by some laptop makers like Dell, HP, Asus and MSI if they can apply it on their netbooks. It turns out that these rumors are not far from the truth. Dell has taken closer steps and released a Video to compare Android Cupcake with Dell’s custom version of Ubuntu Linux and Ubuntu Netbook Remix while each of these OSes was running on Dell Mini 10v netbook.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix is one of the best open-source OSes run on netbooks. In this video Company technology strategist Doug Anson tries to explain that Android is comparable with those other standout OSes and renders Android as a “snappy” OS that works “very nicely”.

You can see the video after the break.

This video turns out that Dell has lots of internets in Android and will try to customize it in the way to be suited to its netbooks. However, Dell refuses to show this openly and in the video Anson mentions that Dell has no plan to release any product with pre-installed Android.

It doesn’t sound reasonable for me that Dell has no plan but releases a video specifically to run Android on it’s the most budget-friendly netbook. Because Dell is not a software company!

What do you think? Do you agree with me?

Via electronista

-AT&T to be First Wireless Company to Sell Upcoming ARM Netbooks

-Google Challenging Microsoft & Intel with Android-based Netbooks?

-Freescale Adds Support for Android OS & 3G to its netbook ecosystem

-Nvidia and Google Jointly to Bring Open-source Android to Tegra

-ARM-based Netbook from Pegatron has 8hr Battery life & Decent Performance!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Pineveiw on Way;Moblin 2.0 Launched; Win 7 Price Higher than Vista?

It has been quite long time that different netbooks from different vendors come to the market just to use the same Atom processor inside. I am happy that at last Intel unveils some details of next-gen Atom Platform called Pine Trail.

Pine Trail will contain only two chips unlike Atom platform that consists of three chips to achieve power saving, lower TDP to have a fanless netbook, better overall performance and graphics performance, and reducing package area and having easier design.

Intel is using a new processor called Pineview and moving the graphics and memory controller inside the chip of processor. Intel is going to launch the new platform in second half of 2009. As Computex 2009 is starting at the beginning of next month, I think Intel will showcase this new platform in this fair.

To enhance performance, Intel is assisting with the nonprofit Linux Foundation to develop a suitable OS for netbooks. Moblin 2.0 was made and launched for this goal yesterday. It is free of charge to download and you can get it from here.

Moblin 2.0 is a basic distribution of Linux OS design for small screens and low graphics capabilities used in netbooks (which are mainly based on Atom CPU) and MIDs. It comes with a new user interface which more looks like Opera’s speed dial feature. There is M-Zune that has been replaced with desktop. Moblin is customizable for OEMs and service providers. Hunderds of applications have been optimized for Moblin and also PC Linux applications and middleware are just run by Moblin.

It takes only 5 seconds to boot up and gets benefit from Atom's sleep state to prolong the battery life.

You can get better idea about Moblin by watching the video after break.

Moblin has been released ahead Windows 7 and it is free of charge, but Windows 7 will be a pricey OS when it is released (on holiday season 2009).

Regardless of economic downturn, Microsoft is attempting to sell Windows 7 more expensive than Vista, especially Windows 7 professional will surely cost more than Vista business.

Dell is the first laptop vendor that has shown its concern about this raise.

Director of product management for Dell's business client product group, Darrel Ward contemplates that the price of Windows 7 is expensive especially at this time and it will make the adoption of Win 7 slow and even pause for some time, although Win 7 comes with many good features like better drive support:

"If there's one thing that may influence adoption, make things slower or cause customers to pause, it's that generally the ASPs (average selling price) of the operating systems are higher than they were for Vista and XP".

As we know that Microsoft is preparing a slim version of Windows 7 optimized for netbooks. If MS keeps the average selling price of Win 7 higher than Vista, the least adaption will happen in the netbook sector and different Linux OSes optimized for netbooks like Moblin, gOS3, Netbook Remix etc have more chance to be accepted by netbook users.

Sources: PC World, Laptop Magazine, electronista, Cnet, moblin, Intel

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

How to: Install Windows 7 on Any Netbook- Method Round up

Some bloggers and netbook enthusiasts have tried installation of Windows 7 on different netbooks such as Acer Aspire One, Dell Mini 9, and Eee PC and Samsing NC10 netbooks. Different methods have been tested and suggested. Some of them work on particular netbooks and some of them are more possible on any netbook. I have checked several websites and blogs and tried to find the answer of any question came to my mind while checking out these methods and surely I will try to add those answers here, maybe those questions happen to you too.

Here, I have collected 6 different methods together to help you to have smooth installation of Windows 7 RC1 on your netbook either running windows XP, Vista or Ubuntu OS.

You can download Windows 7 Release Candidate free of charge from here.

Method Round up:

1- Using a USB optical drive. This one is the easiest but expensive one.

2- Using an external hard disk. It is fast. you will just need to copy the Windows 7 ISO on it and do the installation from this hard disk. for this, either you can use one of the methods i have mentioned in the following for flash drive or you can plug the external hard disk to your desktop computer and copy the Windows 7 ISO on it. in this way if your desktop PC runs on windows XP, you will need to enter to Disk Management ( control panel--> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management--> Disk Management) and find the external hard drive in the list on the right and choose Mark Partition as Active. after copying the Win 7 you will just need to plug the external hard disk to your netbook and do the installation.

3- Using a flash drive with capacity of 4GB or bigger. There are different ways to make the flash drive bootable and then mount the Win 7 iso file to it. This part is tedious and some tricky that is why I have tried to put together the different methods here to help you to get the right method for your netbook. After finishing these two steps you will be able to boot from the flash drive by choosing it in the BIOS and start installing as the way you always did when you used the DVD drive.

Method 1:

If your netbook (any netbook) runs on Windows, especially Vista you have to follow the following steps:

- plug the flash drive through USB port

- Open a command prompt as administrator and type first diskpart and then list disk to get the number of your flash drive (suppose it’s disk 1)

Tip: most probabely the diskpart will not work properly if you run on windows XP on your netbook so I recommend you to check out the method 3.

- format the drive by typing the following:

select disk 1

clean

create partition primary

select partition 1

active

format fs=NTFS

assign

exit

- Now your drive is ready to be bootable. For this you have to use the bootsect utility available in Windows 7 or Vista. To get this utility you have to mount the Win 7 iso by using Daemon Tools or any Virtual CD emulator. It will give a letter to your Win 7 ISO for example D:\ (and G:\ is assumed the letter been chosen for the flash drive).

Now you need to type the following:

cd d:\boot\bootsect /nt60 G:

- Close the command prompt window now

- Copy the contents of the Windows 7 ISO was mounted before into your USB or flash drive

-Set your BIOS to boot from USB now. This part from netbook to netbook is different.

Method 2: (It can be used for any netbook)

To make bootable your flash drive use “the open-source Live USB Helper utility, then use the free Daemon Tools Lite to "mount" the ISO file to the drive. With that done, you'd boot the netbook with the drive plugged in and select it as your boot device.”

Tip1: Daemon tools Lite won't mount every image type. It supports “those formats in plain old, completely compatible .ISO if you look hard enough. Daemon Tools also supports .b5t, .b6t, and .bwt (BlindWrite), .ccd (CloneCD), .cdi (DiscJuggler), .cue (bin), .mds (Media Descriptor),. nrg (Nero), .pdi (Instant CD/DVD), and .isz (Compressed ISO) images as well as many types of copy-protection.”

Tip2: Live USB Helper “can help you deploy the clonezilla's image file to the flash drive. Furthermore, it can make the flash drive bootable and it's multilanguage support.”

To run this Live USB helper program on MS windows, you need a dll file "vb6stkit.dll". If Live USB helper complains about no vb6stkit.dll was found, you can download it on http://www.dll-files.com/.

You can also check out Clonezilla Live on USB flash drive or USB hard drive

Method 3: (it was used on HP Mini 1000 but comparing it with the first method shoes it must be workable on any netbook)

If the diskpart from method 1 could not work on your netbook this method 3 can be useful for you.

In this method you will need to download and install HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, and Daemon Tools Lite or other similar Virtual CD emulator. You will also need to download and extract MBRWizard.

-By the means of HP USB Storage Format Tool format your USB drive. Select NTFS for File system and check the quick format.

- Mount the Windows 7 Beta ISO with Daemon Tools

- To find out the number that your USB drive gets, you must inter to run and type cmd to open a command prompt as administrator. Naviget to the directory you have extracted the MBRWizard (suppose it is in C:\) . Then type the following command (obviously after C:\):

mbrwiz /list

Now you are able to see your flash drive in the list. I assume that it gets the name of disk 1.

Now, you must type the following command to set your flash drive to active:

mbrwiz /disk=1 /active=1

Now, type Y as the answer of the question has just been asked.

- To set your flash drive to be bootable, type the following:

e:\boot\bootsect /nt60 D:

(E: is the drive letter of the mounted Windows 7 ISO got after running Daemon Tools and D: is the drive letter has been chosen for your USB drive)

- Copy the contents of the Windows 7 ISO (including hidden files) to your USB Drive

- Set your BIOS to boot from USB now. For HP Mini 1000, you will just need to hit F9 on the boot screen.

Method 4: Installing Windows 7 on a netbook running Ubuntu

Method 5: Installing Windows 7 on Acer Aspire One:

For this you will need to download BootSect, USB_prep8, and PeToUSB. All these three are packed for download here.

If this tutorial was not very clear you can get help from this website too.

Method 6: installation of Windows 7 on an IdeaPad S10:

Youwill need to download and install GParted Live (to partition your hard drive), WinRAR (to extract the Windows 7 ISO), HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool (to format your USB drive as NTFS) and MBRwizard (to set your USB drive partition to Active in order to boot from it).

If you like you can see a video of installing Windows 7 using USB drive here.

Additionally, in the following forums you can find a lot of discussion of installing Windows 7 on some netbooks like HP mini-note, Eee PC and so on:

-Acer Aspire One forum

- Running Windows 7 RC1 on a MacBook Air Inside the Mac X OS

-Nice Experience of Running Win 7 on a Gigabyte T1028M Touch Note

-Even the Slow Asus Eee PC 900 with Intel Celeron Can Run Winows 7!

-Windows 7 on Eee PC 1000H vs. Vista: “Things are easier in Windows 7”!

-3.5G-equipped Eee PC 1003HA and T91 with Win 7; 1000HG WiMAX Ready

-Windows 7 RC1 Available for Everybody to Download Now!

-Windows 7 RC1 Available for Download; The First Look (review) at Win 7 RC1

- Windows 7 Will Be Out in December, Difficult be Pirated?

Monday, May 18, 2009

Lenovo IdeaPad S10 BIOS update: A Killer or a Healer

Lenovo released a BIOS update for its IdeaPad S9 and S10 netbooks this month due to some issues causing problems for Fan (turning on/off frequently issue), power, speed, the battery indicator ( displaying wrong value), recovery button, auto shut-down in low temperature issue, LCD backlight ( staying in while LCD cover is closed) etc.

However, many members of Lenovo forums have reported disappointedly that after installing the new BIOS their netbooks have turn to a White paper or a black screen:

“I need help... I just flashed my BIOS to 90 and following all instructions made by the Lenovo Official site. Yet, all I got is an empty black screen and three blue lights (the power indicators and the wireless indicator are on) once restarted. the readme said that it would restart on it's own and I waited all night until this morning but nothing happend, I haven't Pulled out the batteries and press the start button to reset the whole netbook for one reason…”

Some users could solve their problems with creative solutions like “pulling out the battery and restarting it afterward” but it didn’t work out for others and some of them had return back their netbooks to Lenovo to repair.

Well, these kinds of odd problems happening for such simple portable computers will only destroy the credit of company and decrease the trust of consumers to these devices. Netbooks are cheap laptops not because of low quality features, because simply they lack many things that standard laptops come by default like DVD player or standard powered processor etc.

I just hope that Lenovo fix this issue and release a right BIOS update for its netbook users.

: Liliputing

-Lenovo Idea Pad S10 First Two Reviews; IdeaPad S10 Ripped Apart

-Lenovo to Apply Ion Platform & VIA Nano CPU to New IdeaPad S Netbooks?

-Lenovo to Prepare a Budget-Friendly ThinkPad X200s Using CULV

Wind U200- Wind U100’s next gen: Not a Netbook But a Low Cost Laptop!

MSI is preparing to showcase Wind U200 that is the next generation of its successful Wind netbook line up at Computex 2009 in June.

Well the first big change is that Wind U200 will be a lot cost laptop rather than a simple netbook (unlike its predecessor Wind U100)!

Wind U200 laptop is powered by Intel’s latest budget low-powered CPU, CULV processor and comes with 12-inch high-definition display with 1366 x 768 resolution.

MSI has already released another laptop with CULV processor called MSI X340 ultra slim laptop. This laptop is a Mac-like laptop but very budget-friendly laptop with 13.4-inch display and almost the same measurement and size of MacBook Air.

I don’t think that MSI is making Wind U200 something similar to X340 but surely it will be more powerful and handy than netbooks.

Here you are seeing one of the dozen pictures newgadgets.de has taken from the prototype model of this laptop.

- Please, Apple Release a Mac X OS for Netbooks!

- Netbooks’ performance vs. Laptops’: You Get What You Pay!

-Asus U20A, UX30 & UX50V Mac Air- like Laptops with CULV CPUs

-Netbooks’ Battery runtime Comparison: MSI Wind U123 the Winner!

-MSI X340 Slim Laptop Released Soon

-Dell Adamo Comes with Irreplaceable Battery

-Can Dell Adamo Become the Thinnest Laptop in the World?

Asus Eee PC 1005HA: You can Download All the Drivers Now!

Asus Eee PC 1005HA released along side and 1005HA-M for European market three days ago.

Good thing is that Asus actively has created a support page for Eee PC 1005HA and all the frivers necessary for this netbook are available in this website for download.

The drivers consist of BIOS tools, power utilities, and drivers for the chipset, audio, video, touchpad, and other hardware.

For further information you can visit this website.

In the following you can see a comparison chart showing the differences and similarities between Eee PC 1005HA and Eee PC 1005HA-Mthat were released in France first.

-Please, Apple Release a Mac X OS for Netbooks!

-Netbook Linux OSes in rivalry: EeeXubuntu IS the Best of All for Netbooks

-Windows 7 on Eee PC 1000H vs. Vista: “Things are easier in Windows 7”!

-ASUS Launches Eee PC 1008HA SeaShell Netbook Officially

-Eee 1000HE:Much Better Revamped of Eee1000H

Dell Mini 10v Hands-on: Cheaper than Mini 10 but Not so Much!

Dell Mini 10v is a new version but cheaper one that has just launched for American market.

Dell has made Mini 10v a cheaper laptop than Mini 10 with replacing some of features used in Mini 10 with lower quality ones.

Mini 10v starts from $300 which is only $50 less than the basic price of Mini 10 starting from $350.

Now the important point is that by saving $50 how much we are sacrificing and is it worthy or profitable or is it a loss?

Laptop Magazine had its hands on Mini 10v and has stated its point of view here.

According to this review, Mini 10v has got an unfashionable plastic case rather than a chic magnesium alloy frame that Mini 10 uses. Also Dell has replaced the high-definition display with 1366x768 resolution, HDMI port and 160GB HDD hard drive used in Mini 10 with a display with lower resolution of 1024x576 ( and there is no higher option), VGA out and smaller 120GB HDD and used in Mini 10v.

The only good this is that the $300 Mini 10v is powered by a faster 1.6Ghz Atom CPU rather that Z520 (1.33GHz) used in $350 Mini 10.

(Mini 10 with basic configuration sports the same display that Mini 10v does, as well).

As you see you may save $50 if you choose Mini 10v for purchase but, you will not surely get a netbook to make you satisfied well. And really $50 is not a big deal for a person who can afford buying a netbook, is it?

-IdeaPad S10-2 First two Reviews: More Pro. than IdeaPad S10 Netbook

-Dell Mini 10 Available for Purchase Only Sub-$400; & First Mini 10 hands-on

-New Dell Mini 10v for $300 and Mini 10 with Ubuntu Available Now

Friday, May 15, 2009

Please, Apple Release a Mac X OS for Netbooks!

Apple high officials have repeated many times that they consider netbooks as junked laptops and Apple never tries to make one of these low-powered mobile devices. However, it is estimated that netbook sales will reach 22 million units in 2009. Alhough most of these netbooks run on Windows XP and rest of them various versions of Linux OS, need of an appropriate OS for these low quality devices to boost battery life, performance and help the graphics quality is thought yet.

Some MSI Wind users have tried to run on the hacked versions of Apple Mac X OS their Wind netbooks. The result was noteworthy.

They first upgraded the OS to the latest OS X 10.5.7 and amazingly they went through better battery runtime on their netbooks. Really outcome of up to 5 hours battery life from 6-cell battery and the 3 hours and 45 minutes from 3-cell battery is significant!

The Wind PC with 3-cell battery normally delivers up to 2 hours battery runtime, according to the members of MSI Forum.

Although Apple is trying to reduce the price of its cheapest MacBook to more budget friendly range of prices, but it can think of releasing a modified version of Mac X OS fit to netbooks. I am sure many users and laptop vendors will welcome it.

DO you agree with me?

Sources: Gizmodo, liliputing

-Asus U20A, UX30 & UX50V Mac Air- like Laptops with CULV CPUs

-Netbooks’ Battery runtime Comparison: MSI Wind U123 the Winner!

- Update BIOS for Eee 1000HE to Enhance Video Performance

-Netbook Linux OSes in rivalry: EeeXubuntu IS the Best of All for Netbooks

- Atom N270 vs. Atom N280/ Apt Buying Netbook Powered with N280?

-Wind U100 PLUS Netbook and MSI X340 Slim Laptop Released Soon

MacBook Air vs. MSI X340? Which One Do You Prefer?

MacBook Air has become pattern for laptop vendors that want to make their own ultra slim laptops for corporate users. However, not are they following Mac-style for their ultra slim laptops, they are also try to make their own ultra laptops more popular than Mac Air by experimenting different solutions such as utilizing artistic sense to design their laptops Like Adamo from Dell or Voodoo Envy 133 from HP or offering cheaper price with more feature set like MSI X-340 ultra laptop. Although Apple Mac laptops like Mac Air have their own fanatic fans, these new Mac-like laptops have achieved a significant portion of market to themselves and they were even able to make their own groups of aficionados.

If you are not enthusiast for any brand and you just want to purchase a handy ultra slim laptop to respond to your demands well, the entries comparing Mac Air with one of these current ultra slim laptops in the market can be very helpful for you. In this entry you can find the comparison between Macbook Air and recently-arrived MSI X340 ultra slim laptop.

Laptop Magazine has compared these two laptops in details and from different aspects such as price, feature set, battery life, performance, display, keyboard and design.

Here, I just mention highlighted points of the review. But I recommend you to read the review in details.

According to this review, in terms of price, design, amount of ports and slots, display and battery life, MSI X340 overtakes Mac Air and can satisfy the users more. However, in terms of performance, frame design and Keyboard and Touchpad MSI X340 can not reach Mac Air and it is not comparable.

In this test the MSI 340 laptop featured 1.4-GHz Intel Penryn Core 2 Solo SU3500 ULV processor, 2GB of RAM, 350GB HDD (5400 rpm), 13.4-in LED display with 1366 x 768 resolution, integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Vista home premium OS. The laptop sports Ethernet; HDMI; Headphone; Microphone; Modem; VGA ports and 2-1 card reader. It weighed 2.9 lbs with 3-cell battery and priced at $900. It measures 13 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches.

Also the MacBook Air in this test was priced at $2499 and featured the 1.86-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, 128GB SSD, 13.3-in LED display with 1280x800 resolution, integrated Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Mac X 10.5 Leopard OS. The laptop only sports one USB port, Headphone; and one Mini DisplayPort. It weighs 3.0 lbs and measures 12.8 x 8.9 x 0.7 inches.

As you see the x340 is totally a budget friendly ultra slim laptop (almost with the equivalent size of Mac Air) offers ample ports and a slot and less glossy display –which is better for business use, and long battery life of 3 hours and 38 minutes (one hour and half more than Mac Air).

However, the laptop delivers very low performance compared to Mac Air. At PCMark Vantage test the laptop scored only 1,658 while Mac Air easily scored the higher rate of 3,684. The 3D or graphics result of X340 is very low too. It scored only 643 at 3DMark06 test which is almost half of the Air’s graphics performance.

Therefore, if you want to have a stylish sturdy speedy laptop with some special features, you have to pay the price of $2500 for Mac Air (or $1700 for the cheaper version of Mac Air) which is about 2.7 times as expensive as MSI X340. Or you are ready to sacrifice those privileges and get a more wallet-friendly laptop with low-end performance.

Well even if you feel that these two laptops are not your favorite ones you can check other ultra slim laptops available in the market. I have compared them with Mac Air. I have mentioned the entries in the following and you can check them out. Also, Asus is trying to release some Mac Air- like laptops including U20A, UX30, UX50V in near future. So keep in touch for further information.

I had compared MSI X340 and Mac Air in my earlier entry too that you can read about it here.

Related Content:

-MSI X340 Slim Laptop Released Soon

-Dell Adamo Comes with Irreplaceable Battery

-Can Dell Adamo Become the Thinnest Laptop in the World?

-Samsung X360 First Impression: Challenging Air; Thinner and Lighter than Envy 133 and ThinkPad X300

-ThinkPad X300 Gets Review, Benchmark and Comparison with MacBook Air

-HP Starts Shipping the Voodoo Envy 133- Serious Rival for Apple MacBook Air

- Running Windows 7 RC1 on a MacBook Air Inside the Mac X OS

-Asus U20A, UX30 & UX50V Mac Air- like Laptops with CULV CPUs

-45 Things I Like and Dislike about MacBook Air (Reviews Round up)

-The Revamped MacBook Air with Nvidia Hands-on; Available For Purchase Now

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Intel Charges More for Atom Used in ION Platform!

Netbooks are useful mobile devices but everybody feels that if they could have more graphics capacity (and hence, delivering better 3D and overall performances), netbooks would be more practical for consumer-oriented. This fact is not unknown to anybody, so, Nvidia tried for the ION platform project to combine its Nividia 9400M graphics and Intel’s Atom Processor. This idea sounds awesome especially; when Nvidia stated in its early interview that the platform would only add extra $50 to the current price of netbooks.

Apparently, Intel doesn’t like this idea so much unlike the netbook users! Intel is forcing the netbook vendors to pay more for Atom when they use it in ION platform than when it comes by itself plus Intel chipset!

Well, it is clear that Nividia’s Graphics card will be able to boost the overall performance and graphical capacity of netbooks significantly.

Laptop Magazine thinks that Intel is repeating anti-competitive practice over Nvidia to keep out of netbook market.

Well, It doesn’t look illogical, because if ION platform launches Intel will have to accept a partner in the market! Intel is also going to launch the next generation of Atom “PineView” (coming with an integrated graphics core) in the second Half of this year and Intel may concern not to have good sales because of ION or later it will have to offer its new CPU for ION platform again.

What do you think? Do you agree with the practice of anti-competitive by Intel? We would like to hear your opinions.

Tip: According to Wiki, “the Intel Atom’s benchmark significantly lower than processors designed for laptop and desktop use. The rough benchmark used by Intel is that the Atoms have about "half the performance" of a Celeron 430 1.8 GHz processor.”

-Toshiba NB200 Hands-on; Many Nvidia Ion Netbooks at Computex!

-Nvidia Ion Platform to Come Out in June 2009

-Nvidia to Dive in the Netbook Market with Its up Coming Ion Platform

-VIA Trinity Platform-Rival of Nvidia’s Ion, Delivers DirectX 10.1 and Blu-ray

IdeaPad S10-2 First two Reviews: More Pro. than IdeaPad S10 Netbook

Lenovo has recently launched a new version of IdeaPad S10 netbook called IdeaPad S10-2 netbook which doesn’t follow the predecessor in some ways. Lenovo has tried to remove the disadvantage features existed on S10 what were the main complaints against this netbook and upgrade them with better stuff to bring the praises of critics for its new S10-2. For instance, it has used a spacious and more comfortable keyboard or bigger standard battery in its latest netbook.

The third important thing Lenovo has for this time is while advancing the level of its netbook it has kept the price of the updated model in the comparative range of price in the market.

IdeaPad S10-2 is now more stylish and handier netbook compared to IdeaPad S10 and comes with ample ports and new option for 3G modem.

Reviews rundown:

1- Laptop Magazine could have its hands on this stylish netbook and reviewed it. Here, I am only covering the highlighted points but I recommend you to read the review in details and see a video of this netbook there.

The impressive features that you can find on IdeaPad S10-2 but not available on IdeaPad S10 consist of:

- With a new look; curvaceous design with glossy finish and one of the grey, pink, black and white colors, 0.4 lighter and 0.1 thinner

- The 10.1-inch display is glossy now. Right now, it comes with low resolution of 1024X600 but later the option for higher resolution will be available

- featuring 3 US ports; one more than the predecessor netbook

- Replacing a 4-in-1 media card reader slot with the Express card slot in the new IdeaPad S10-2

- Optional 3G connectivity that only adds $50 extra

- Sporting Bigger and more comfortable Keyboard compared to the first model IdeaPad S10

- The expanded multi-touch pad with its dedicated two left and right mouse button is handy

- Built-in 6-cell battery to deliver longer batter life (up to 4 hours) compared to the predecessor coming with 3-cell battery

Updated: LaptopMagazine in its full review of S10-2 has mentioned also:

- It looks ugly and cheap compared to Eee PC 1005HA, Acer AOD250, MSI U120 and Samsung N120 etc. the Folks prefer the look of the original IdeaPad (S10) more.

-Bright, colorful screen
- hot but it stays comfortable yet

-sounds are accurate but low

-Overall Performance: a very strong score of 1,598 on PCMark05 ( category average of netbooks is 1383 on PCMark05)

-Graphics performance: a score of 651 on 3DMark03 which is above the netbook category average of 641

- video transcoding test:a few seconds faster than the netbook average of 29:09

- boot time: 46sec after removing Norton security trial which is about 9 sec faster than the average boot time in netbooks

- File transfer test: 20% faster than the average

2- Notebooks.com could have its hands on this netbook too. the assessor could play with this netbook and compared it with the first model S10. Here is the rundown of the review:

- The design looks much sleeker than the predecessor

- the 6-cell battery will have up to 6 hours battery runtime on a single charge what is much longer that the battery life the S10 delivers

- If it could have a matte display like S10 rather that the glossy one would be better!

- Optional 3G modem only adds little $50 extra to the basic price of $350

In short, if I want to describe the position of the new IdeaPad S10-2 netbook from Lenovo in market, I must say:

A netbook with more demanded features and aggressive price!

-Netbooks’ performance vs. Laptops’: You Get What You Pay!

-Netbook Linux OSes in rivalry: EeeXubuntu IS the Best of All for Netbooks

-HP Pavilion dv2 Low Cost Laptop under Test: The First Review

-Lenovo to Prepare a Budget-Friendly ThinkPad X200s Using CULV

-Toshiba NB200 Hands-on; Many Nvidia Ion Netbooks at Computex!

-Dell Mini 10 Available for Purchase Only Sub-$400; & First Mini 10 hands-on

-VIA Nano-based Samsung NC20 at Amazon; Comparison with NC10/ Eee 1000HE

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Windows 7 Will Be Out in December, Difficult be Pirated?

After releasing the Beta version of Windows 7 some rumors spread in net that the release date of Final version must have been some time late in 2009. Well, those predictions were not so far from the real time. In the end Microsoft announced yesterday that the final version of Windows 7 would be launch any time in December for sure for holiday season shopping.

The interesting point is that although Microsoft always tried to hide the failure of Vista with some reports about the number of sales frequently, MS itself confirmed the in time launch of Windows 7 which is almost one year earlier than the company’s timeframe. According to MS’s timeframe, the new OS must be launch three years after the release of the previous OS. If MS had followed its own rule, it must have launch Windows 7 in 2010, what first MS emphasized on it but gradually changed its word.

Gizmodo reports:

LOS ANGELES - May 11, 2009 - Microsoft Tech•Ed North America 2009 kicked off today with announcements of new technologies that enable IT professionals and developers to help their organizations save money and improve efficiencies during difficult economic times.

As part of today's news, Microsoft Corp. announced that the company is anticipating that the next version of its client operating system, Windows 7, will be available to customers in time for the holiday shopping season. In addition, Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate (RC) is available today with the final product releasing to market in the same timeframe as Windows 7.

One of the big issues that Microsoft faces everyday and could not stop it till now is the issue of piracy. As said by Microsoft, “more than thirty percent of corporate users in the world using a pirated windows operating system.” And this leads to loss of 45 billion dollars per year for USA.

To solve this issue, Microsoft has embedded its Windows 7 with anti-piracy technology which can recognize the pirated copies of Windows 7 very well.

When a unauthorized Win 7 is used this technology shows a warning box to the user.

Is it useful for consumers to use pirated copies of Windows 7? Well maybe in past it was useful; I can’t guarantee it now due to malware placed in these copies to infect the consumers’ computers.

- Running Windows 7 RC1 on a MacBook Air Inside the Mac X OS

-Nice Experience of Running Win 7 on a Gigabyte T1028M Touch Note

-Even the Slow Asus Eee PC 900 with Intel Celeron Can Run Winows 7!

-Windows 7 on Eee PC 1000H vs. Vista: “Things are easier in Windows 7”!

-3.5G-equipped Eee PC 1003HA and T91 with Win 7; 1000HG WiMAX Ready

-Windows 7 RC1 Available for Everybody to Download Now!

-Windows 7 RC1 Available for Download; The First Look (review) at Win 7 RC1

Monday, May 11, 2009

Five techniques That Mac X OS Should Learn from Windows 7

So far, he have heard quite a lot of times that Microsoft steals many features that first were used by Apple’s Mac X OS. However, this time Microsoft is apparently able to prove opposite of it by its latest OS Windows 7. MS has just released Win 7 RC1 and the folks in PC World could find five techniques used in RC1 that compared to the similar features used in Mac X OS, Microsoft have applied them much better than Apple.

Here are those four tricks that I am only stating them briefly:

1- The Taskbar in Win 7 RC1 does much better than Dock in Mac X OS as a task switcher. Taskbar does the duty of program launchers like Dock as well.

2- The new jump list related to the new Taskbar shows the recently used files in its list what Mac X OS is unable to do it.

3- The choice of Windows 7 Desktop backgrounds are more artistic and beautiful that the ones on Mac X OS.

4- The Windows Network Center that was first used in Vista and now it is available in Windows 7 as one of the strong features MS offers, collect all the network setting and option in one place and works better than the Internet & Network section of Mac OS X.

5- Windows 7’s Network Map lets you see a live graphical map of the network which Mac X OS lacks this nice feature.

What do you think? DO you agree with criticism? Would you like to add some more nice tricks that Apple should learn from Microsoft or Vise Versa? Please share them with us in the comment section.

-Nice Experience of Running Win 7 on a Gigabyte T1028M Touch Note

-Even the Slow Asus Eee PC 900 with Intel Celeron Can Run Winows 7!

-Windows 7 on Eee PC 1000H vs. Vista: “Things are easier in Windows 7”!

-3.5G-equipped Eee PC 1003HA and T91 with Win 7; 1000HG WiMAX Ready

-Windows 7 RC1 Available for Everybody to Download Now!

-Windows 7 RC1 Available for Download; The First Look (review) at Win 7 RC1

-Blur Future of Vista and Bright Future of Windows 7!

- Windows XP Will Stay with Netbooks after Release of Windows 7

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Running Windows 7 RC1 on a MacBook Air Inside the Mac X OS

Windows 7 RC1 was released for public only few days ago, and the computer enthusiasts have been eagerly downloading and installing this pre-final version on different computers. One of these interesting tests is installing on MacBook Air while it is a Mac X OS too.

One of the folks of PC World has tried this on his own MacBook Air what is newest 1.86 GHz version. As you know Mac Air is among the slow laptops. He installed Windows 7 on Air while keeping Mac X OS on the laptop too.

You can do it easily on your PC while keeping your current OS too if you would like to check out the newly-released Windows RC1 on your primary computer.

First of all you need to have a computer with at least 1B of RAM for this way because you will have to allocate at least 512MB of RAM to Win 7. If CPU is faster, it will be better for this test. If you have a Mac laptop you can easily use the application of Boot Cam that is part of Mac X OS and allows you to have a dual-boot machine to boot either into Windows or Mac X OS.

The assessor chose open-source Sun's VirtualBox 2.1.2 for his test to run Win 7 RC inside the Mac X OS as a virtual machine.

It is nice to know that the free VistualBox is able to run various versions of Windows and Linux OSes including openSUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), SLE (SUSE Linux Enterprise) and Xandros.

The assessor set up a new virtual machine for Windows 7. He chose 768MB of RAM for Windows memory (Mac X OS can’t not access to this RAM), 12 MB of video (for having better performance and better graphics quality you can allocate even 128MB of video memory) and had to make a virtual hard drive for Windows (the default is 20GB but he chose less amount of 15.5GB space). He installed the Windows by using the DVD (you can load the Windows 7 ISO image file too).

Windows was installed and worked as well as it could do although Windows VM has more limitations than when it runs natively such as not having access to all the capacity of graphics, audio or network cards. There was access to internet, and optical discs, USB devices and so on.

You can read about installation and using VirtualBox application on Mac Air here and here.

-Even the Slow Asus Eee PC 900 with Intel Celeron Can Run Winows 7!

-Windows 7 on Eee PC 1000H vs. Vista: “Things are easier in Windows 7”!

-3.5G-equipped Eee PC 1003HA and T91 with Win 7; 1000HG WiMAX Ready

-Windows 7 RC1 Available for Everybody to Download Now!

-Windows 7 RC1 Available for Download; The First Look (review) at Win 7 RC1

- Blur Future of Vista and Bright Future of Windows 7!

- Windows XP Will Stay with Netbooks after Release of Windows 7

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Dell Studio 16 and Studio XPS 17 Laptops with WiMax

WiMax is a new and exciting technology that can revolutionize the Broadband Internet industry. It is still growing and in my country, we are expected to have this facility from June 01, 2009. In many American cities, you can already find WiMax in action. So, many users are searching for laptops with WiMax a facility and good news for them is that Dell is going to give this technology end to all of its laptop models- Dell Studio 16 and Studio XPS 17. It will be an optional facility and the consumers who want to have it on the laptop will have to be some money for it.

HP officials are still not eager to give this technology to their consumers as they perhaps feel that it will a not bring good revenue for them.

Dell Blog

Friday, May 08, 2009

New Dell Mini 10v for $300 and Mini 10 with Ubuntu Available Now

Dell is offering new Dell Mini netbook in its line that t comes with very bargain price!

Dell Mini 10v is a new model of Mini 10 that comes with cheaper 1.6 GHz Atom N270 rather than 1.6GHz Z530 processor and as a result starts from cheaper price tag of $300 (while Mini 10 starts from $399)!

Dell Mini 10v also sports smaller storage of $120GB HDD.

Mini 10v features 1GB of RAM, and 1.3MP webcam.

Dell also has another good offer in its pocket of “ 25^th Anniversary of Sale” and it is Dell Mini 10 pre-installed Ubuntu 8.04 OS with the price tag of $369.

The netbook features:

-OS: UBUNTU 8.0.4 (Standard Edition)

-Color: Obsidian Black

-CPU: Intel Atom Processor Z530 (1.6GHz/533MHz FSB/512K Cache)

-Display: 10.1" HD Widescreen Display (1366x768)

-Storage: 160GB, 2.5inch, 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

-Battery: 24WHr Lithium-Ion Battery (3-cell)

-Network: Wireless 802.11g (1397) Mini Card

-Others: Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam; Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 500; 1GB DDR2 SDRAM; No WWAN Option, No Internal Digital TV Receiver

-Samsung N110/ N120 Netbooks in USA/ Dell Mini 10 with New Options

-Dell Mini 10 Available for Purchase Only Sub-$400; & First Mini 10 hands-on:

-Dell Unveils Mini 10 Officially: A netbook with HDMI port! Pre-order at QVC

Netbooks’ performance vs. Laptops’: You Get What You Pay!

We all know that netbooks are made to operate basic functionality and light tasks. They also offer the lowest price range in the laptop market. But how much do their low performances stand behind standard laptops, especially the budget standard laptops that only cost $300 or $400 more than netbooks.

The folks in PC Magazine have tried to answer this question with running different tests and a benchmark test on two netbooks and five standard laptops in different price range to get accurate realistic idea about the overall performance of netbooks that how much low it is comparing to budget-friendly standard laptops.

The netbooks and laptops include:

10-inch Acer Aspire One pricing at $350 and 12-inch Dell Inspiron Mini 12 pricing at $500, Gateway TC7804u pricing at $700, HP Pavilion dv3z pricing at $980, ASUS F6Ve-B1 pricing at $1250, Dell Studio 15 pricing at $1,279 and Lenovo IdeaPad Y650 pricing at $1,300.

The folks operated three heavy tasks consist of “ripping an audio CD into Apple iTunes, transcoding a video into another format, and resizing photos using Adobe's Photoshop Elements 7 and a APCo's SYSmark 2007 Preview benckmark test.”

Well, I recommend you to read the whole review but in the nutshell I should say that” You Get What You Pay”.

It is interesting that a direct ratio is seen between price and performance this test. Especially if you look at the benchmark result, the overall performance is directly related to price. If the price of laptop was two or three times as expensive as Acer Aspire One, the overall performance was almost two or three times as fast, as well.

-Blur Future of Vista and Bright Future of Windows 7!

-Netbook Linux OSes in rivalry: EeeXubuntu IS the Best of All for Netbooks

-HP Pavilion dv2 Low Cost Laptop under Test: The First Review

-Lenovo to Prepare a Budget-Friendly ThinkPad X200s Using CULV

-Asus U20A, UX30 & UX50V Mac Air- like Laptops with CULV CPUs

-Netbooks’ Battery runtime Comparison: MSI Wind U123 the Winner!

-ASUS Launches Eee PC 1008HA SeaShell Netbook Officially

Lenovo Develops a New IdeaPad S10-2 Netbook with 3G modem

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Nice Experience of Running Win 7 on a Gigabyte T1028M Touch Note

You have already seen the successful efforts of running Windows 7 beta version on Eee PC 900 powered by Intel Celeron CPU at 900MHz and Atom-based Eee PC 1000H in the following entries:

-Even the Slow Asus Eee PC 900 with Intel Celeron Can Run Winows 7!

-Windows 7 on Eee PC 1000H vs. Vista: “Things are easier in Windows 7”!

Both netbooks could run Win 7 beta version smoothly and without any interruption. However, Eee PC 900 could handle Win 7 smoothly when the Aero was off.

Now it is nice to see the result of running Windows 7 RC1 on a atom-based netbook with touch screen display.

UMPCportal has done this test on its modified Gigabyte T1028M Touch Note netbook (featuring 3G, 2GB and SSD). The result was impressive. The installation was fast and smooth. The OS recognized the touch screen and multitouch pad, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LAN, SD reader, USB, audio, and Divx videos worked well. There was only problem that occurred over 3G modem. Happily, he could easily fix it with the standard driver. Also he could not fix the problem occurred over battery indicator and screen brightness.

He also tried RC1 on Kohjinsha SC3 which is based on the Intel Menlow platform and comes with a VIA wifi module and he faced more problems to run Win 7.

Conclution:

“Windows 7 is a nicer working environment”. However, in the terms of performance, the netbook running on Win 7 RC1 was some slower than the same netbook running on XP and faster than Vista.

In the end, He considers Win XP as the most ideal OS for netbooks compared to Win 7 and Vista. And he is concerned what will happen after 2010 when XP has gone. I think ether MS will release a lighter version of Win 7 for netbooks or extending the availability of XP.

What do you think?

-Windows 7 RC1 Available for Download; The First Look (review) at Win 7 RC1

-Blur Future of Vista and Bright Future of Windows 7!

- Windows XP Will Stay with Netbooks after Release of Windows 7

- Windows 7 in Netbooks: How is It?

- Windows 7 against Support for SLI and CorssFire! a Big Headache for Hard-Core Gamers?

Update BIOS for Eee 1000HE to Enhance Video Performance

You know that one big complaint against netbooks is the low performance of their graphics card. Asus has tried to bring some video improvement for its popular Eee PC 1000HE by updating its BIOS.

Apperantly Asus was successful to bring more satisfaction by this update.

The several tests run by a EeeUser Forums member and comparing the result of the two BIOSes shows that the new BIOS ( 802) helps the user to watch standard definition and 480p videos on Hulu and Standard def. videos on YouTube very smoothly. However, the HD video on YouTube s only playable and it is shown some choppy.

Compared to the older version, users could not watch even the standard video on YouTube easily because it was choppy.

Although the new BIOS improves the video performance and run video and game smoother the previous one, apparently, it creates problem for sound! The 802 BIOS lacks support for Dolby sound! So, either video or Dolby sound; the choice is with you!

Via: liliputing

-Netbook Linux OSes in rivalry: EeeXubuntu IS the Best of All for Netbooks

-Netbooks’ Battery runtime Comparison: MSI Wind U123 the Winner!

-VIA Nano-based Samsung NC20 at Amazon; Comparison with NC10/ Eee 1000HE

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

A New 2.0 GHz Z550 CPU Option for Fujitsu Lifebook U2010 UMPC

Fujitsu LifeBook U2010 Tablet-Convertible UMPC is the successor of LifeBook U1010 was launched last year.

Contrary to other UMPC devices that only offer business use, Life-Book U2010 is a multimedia centric device with 5 color options. However, it can easily make satisfied the business users with its up to 9Hours battery life, optional 64 SSD storage, security tools, lightweight and small size and touch screen convertible display.

Now this UMPC is offering a new option for the consumers who expect better performance from this UMPC. This UMPC that was launched with 1.6GHz Z530 CPU last year, it is now available with new 2.0GHz Z550 CPU. This CPU only adds $383 to the total price. S

This model keeps other specs of other configurations with lower CPUs like 5.6-inch convertible touchscreen display, 1GB of RAM and up to 120GB HDD.

You can read more details about this UMPC here.

Source: eeepc.net

- Fujitsu Solves the Issue of Data theft with a self-destructing USB Drive

-5.6-in Fujitsu LifeBook U820 Mini Tablet Hands on

-Fujitsu LifeBook N7010 First Impression: Two Displays, Blu-Ray and a lot more
-Fujitsu LifeBook N7010 Laptop with two Display in Video

Asus U20A, UX30 & UX50V Mac Air- like Laptops with CULV CPUs

Asus unwraps more details about its upcoming U series notebooks including U20A, UX30, UX50V, U81A, U80V, U50G and U51Vg notebooks.

Asus is designing the portable laptops of this U series in the following of MacBook Air style; with tapered shape and light weight but much cheaper than Mac Air.

The 12-inch U20A, 13.3-inch UX30 and 15.6-inch UX50V are powered with one of Intel’s CULV processors up to 4GB of RAM memory, and up to 500GB HDD.

These laptops are thick up to 1.2-inch and sport LED-backlit screens, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

The 12-inch U20A laptop is powered by 1.2GHz Celeron M or 1.3GHz Pentium CPU, and features integrated Intel GMA 4500 graphics and a built- in DVD burner.

The 13.3-inch UX30 laptop is thinnest laptop at 0.9 inches thick. It features 1.4GHz Core 2 Solo or 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo CPU and built-in Intel's GMA 4500 graphics. It lacks a built-in DVD burner and is the lightest laptop in its line up. It weighs 3.5 pounds.

The 15.6-inch UX50V laptop comes with 1.4GHz Core 2 Solo or 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, DVD burner and a dedicated GeForce G 105M graphics with 512MB of video memory.

The U81A, U80V, U50G and U51Vg laptops are thicker and heavier that the three models earlier I talked about. They sport full notebook-class processors (start from the 2GHz Pentium dual-core up to a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo), up to 4GB of memory and up to 500GB HDD and LED backlight displays.

The 14-inch U81A laptop features integrated Intel GMA 4500 graphics, while 14-inch U80V sports a 512MB Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics.

U50G and U51Vg laptops both feature larger 15.6-inch displays and GeForce G 105M graphics card.

Pricing and shipment of none of these laptops is clear yet.

-ASUS Launches Eee PC 1008HA SeaShell Netbook Officially

-Asus 1004DN Eee PC: Will it be Successful?

- Asus Eee PC 1000HE in India

- Eee PC 1008HA 10 Inches from Asus

HP Pavilion dv2 Low Cost Laptop under Test: The First Review

HP Pavilion dv2 ultra thin laptop is the first one in the category of low cost laptops powered by AMD Neo or Intel CULV processors.

HP Pavilion dv2 starts from Sub-$700.

Geek.com could have its hands on a HP dv2 with the price tag of $749 and feature set of “AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB 5400RPM disk, Bluetooth, and a/b/g/n WiFi, discrete ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3410 with up to 2302MB total graphics memory and 512MB dedicated, 12.1-inch display with 1280×800, a USB DVD burner (with LightScribe), a SIM card slot and mobile broadband, but the feature currently does not work and Vista Home Premium.”

The folks there like the laptop as a full standard ultra portable notebook not a low-end powered secondary mobile device like netbooks. They think that dv2 has shown performance and built-in better than was written on the paper! The biggest competitor of DV2 is the 12-inch Samsung NC20 netbook powered by VIA Nano processor with the price tag of $550. (However, I think the other rivals could be MSI X-Slim 340 laptop too).

Here I am mentioning a runtime of the review. But you can read the whole review here. Unfortunately there is no accurate test done on this laptop to get more images about its overall performance and graphics capacity.

(Pros):

- A very well built laptop

- Cool design and the exterior is scratch resistant

- It is a full versatile notebook not a secondary mobile device

- It can play Blu-ray video through its external DVD burner and is plugged to the notebook via a USB DVD burner

- “a thin, reasonably light system with”; highly portable

-“enough power to handle almost all mobile tasks”

- The discrete graphics is able to play casual games and some intensive games at small resolutions

- It sports a HDMI port and three USB ports, a card reader

- It comes with a standard keyboard with plastic keys with good feedback.

(Cons):

- It picks up the fingerprints and dust easily

- lacks an ExpressCard slot and optical drive

- It is warm while doing the general tasks

- The 6-cell battery lasts for 4 hours not 7 hours mentioned on paper! (Surely the battery life will be more if the graphics card was integrated)

-Intel’ to Bring CULV to Heap up the market of Low-cost Laptops!

-15.6-in HP ProBook 4510s (FM848UT) Laptop in First Two Reviews

-HP Pavilion dv2 to Feature AMD Athlon Neo Processor

-AMD’s Yukon Opens New Category between Netbooks & Ultra-portable Laptops

-HP dv3t Laptop to Push Performance Starting at $800 to come in May

MSI Wind U123 Netbook Available for Purchase in USA

Wind U123 is a new netbook from MSI that is now available for order in American market. You can find this netbook in the following online stores:

Newegg.com - Red Unit for $349.99

BuyDig.com – Blue Unit for $349 + Free Shipping

ExcaliberPC.com - $369 + $7.48 Shipping

Frosty Computers - from $379.99 (customizable)

In all these four stores the netbook features Intel Atom N280(1.66GHz) 10.2" WSVGA 1GB Memory 160GB HDD, 3USB ports, VGA, 4-in-1 media card reader slot, 802.11b/g Wireless LAN, LAN, Webcam and a 6-cell battery up to up to 5.5 hours and Windows XP Home edition.

This netbook in blue color is available for pre order at J&R for $360 and the netbook comes with different Wireless connectivity of 802.11GN. Also Amazon offers the blue unit for pre-order for $350 featuring 1GB DDR2 533 Mhz (1 Slot) upgradable to 2 GB MAX.

MSI Wind U123 weighs 2.6 pounds. It has an ergonomically designed keyboard that is only 20% smaller than a full sized notebook keyboard.

Via Portable monkey

-Now You Can Pre-order Red or Blue MSI Wind U123 at Amazon

- Atom N270 vs. Atom N280/ Apt Buying Netbook Powered with N280?

-Aspire D150 vs. D250: The Identical Netbooks with Different Names?

-MSI Wind U120 under Test (vs. Samsung NC10 and HP Mini 2140): Better Design, Better Price, Less Battery life

-Wind U100 PLUS Netbook and MSI X340 Slim Laptop Released Soon

Windows 7 RC1 Available for Everybody to Download Now!

Windows 7 RC1 is the pre-release version of the ultimate Win 7 and now everybody is able to download it and test it and compare it with the previous OSes. This pre-release version will be available at least through July 2009.

You need to know that RC1 will be expired on June 1, 2010 and from March 1 2010 the OS will shut down after every two hours. So you will have to reinstall a non-expired version of Windows before that.Also, you should try to keep the automatic updates on after installing RC1 because MS will update it regularly.

Your PC must have at least the following specs:

-1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

-1 GB RAM (32-bit) / 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

-16 GB available disk space (32-bit) / 20 GB (64-bit)

- DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

if you download 32-bit version it will have the size of 2.47GB and the 64-bit version will weigh at 3.2GB. likewise, if you like to download "XP Mode" virtualization you will have to have a computer with at least 2GB of memory and 15GB space storage.

-Blur Future of Vista and Bright Future of Windows 7!

- Windows XP Will Stay with Netbooks after Release of Windows 7

- Windows 7 in Netbooks: How is It?

- Windows 7 against Support for SLI and CorssFire! a Big Headache for Hard-Core Gamers?

- Microsoft Windows 7 to be Released in 2009?

- Even the Slow Asus Eee PC 900 with Intel Celeron Can Run Winows 7!

Monday, May 04, 2009

Lenovo Develops a New IdeaPad S10-2 Netbook with 3G modem

Lenovo is developing a new model laptop in its netbook line up, Ideapad S10-2 which comes with the feature set demanded more by business users.

First of all the netbook will be equipped with built-in 3G modem. Lenovo will have placed the SIM slot in the back side behind the battery.

Lenovo has added some changes to features of IdeaPad S10. The changes include:

- No ExpressCard/34 slot on the new model

- add of an extra USB port to make it 3

- New design with rounded edges and different hinge, different shape for battery and different keyboard arrangement, and change in location of Ports and LED indicator

- Larger touchpad

- Availability of a Wireless switch

- “Double access bays to access HDD, RAM and now Wi-Fi”

The netbook comes with typical specs: Atom N270, 1GB RAM and 160GB HDD and 10-inch display.

If you like to see some pictures of this netbook you can go to blogeee.net.

-Atom N280 CPU based Lenovo IdeaPad S20 12 Inches Laptop Coming Soon

-Lenovo Idea Pad S10 First Two Reviews; IdeaPad S10 Ripped Apart

Blur Future of Vista and Bright Future of Windows 7!

From the very first days Windows 7 emerged in public, there was no serious complaint, but many praises were heard about it. Even it was run on slow empowered netbooks with short memory several times and each time the result was satisfactory and good. This is exactly opposite of the reaction public showed about Vista from very beginning of its appearance in public.

Now the question is that after experiment of very cold welcome to Vista and the a lot of greeting to Windows 7 , for How many months will Microsoft keep the transition period from Vista to Windows 7 after availability of Ultimate version of Win 7?

According to PC World, Microsoft will try to stop selling Vista once Win 7 will be available in the market, although the MS’s time frame for Vista is “stopping support of all versions of Vista in April 2012”:

This time Microsoft aims to put the ghosts of its Vista troubles to rest as soon as possible, and could stop selling Vista as soon as Windows 7 is released.

Microsoft appears to be betting that Vista won't be missed once Windows 7 is released.

One smart thing Microsoft has done about Windows 7 is providing a Virtual space of Windows XP Mode to allow the users to use their XP software applications which will not be compatible with Windows 7 yet.

This big support for many users and companies who have kept their Windows XP yet and not upgraded to Vista will help them out to upgrade to Windows 7 without any delay and nagging!

Another important feature that Windows 7 has ( in the following XP) is its fast performance and supporting slow and empowered computers. In this economic turndown that people have more tendency to budget-friendly slower laptops and computers, Windows 7 will best option after the old Windows XP.

So, do you think Microsoft will keep selling Vista for long time as soon as releasing Windows 7?

I don’t think so!

-Windows XP Will Stay with Netbooks after Release of Windows 7

- Windows 7 in Netbooks: How is It?

-Windows 7 against Support for SLI and CorssFire! a Big Headache for Hard-Core Gamers?

-Microsoft Windows 7 to be Released in 2009?

-Even the Slow Asus Eee PC 900 with Intel Celeron Can Run Winows 7!

-Windows 7 on Eee PC 1000H vs. Vista: “Things are easier in Windows 7”!

Intel’s Survey: 60% of Companies Don’t Upgrade Their PCs!

Economic recession has been derived some good and bad outcomes in computer sector. For instance, one of the resultant of economic downturn is emerge of more budget-friendly standard laptops with better quality and feature set like 15.6-in HP ProBook 4510s laptop or ultra slim MSI X340 laptop that will be powered later with upcoming cheaper Intel CULV processor, or HP dv2 powered by low-cost AMD Neo processor.

Well, the bad side of this condition is huge drop-off of PC upgrade by companies and enterprises to new Core 2 Duo or Quad computers and vPro technology what Intel launched in 2006!

According to Intel’s survey, in the last 6 months out of 106 North American companies with minimum number of 5000 employees and European companies with 2500 number of staff, only 32% of them upgraded their desktop computers!

And according to Jack Gold- an independent analyst, only 10% up to 15% of enterprises have upgraded and equipped their computers with vPro technology!

Intel blames this policy done by enterprises as the major reason dipping its revenues in recent months.

To solve this Issue, Intel has done a research that shows the expenditure of upgrading desktop computers to equip them with vPro security and management technology can be recuperated in 10 months for large companies.

This is good news for enterprises, but everybody doesn’t agree to this research.

PC World explained:

One analyst, however, said such ROI figures apply only to a limited set of firms and do not encompass other costs of PC upgrades, such as buying or upgrading new software licenses, something many companies have also been delaying.

This analyze seems more reasonable as the two surveys show the same fact that upgrading hardware causes other sorts of upgrades that add much more expenditure than it shows apparently.

What do you think? Do you agree with Intel or confirm the current policy of delaying by companies? We would love to hear your opinions. Please share it with us in the comment section.

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Windows 7 RC1 Available for Download; The First Look at Win 7 RC1

While Windows 7 RC1 is now available for download to MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Broader public availability will begin on May 5 on the Microsoft Windows 7 site. It indicates the operating system is entering the final phases of development and is ready for partners to develop new applications, device drivers and services, and ready for IT pros to evaluate Windows 7 and examine how it will operate in their environment.

*New to the Windows 7 RC are advancements such as:

- Remote Media Streaming: to enable highly secure, remote Internet access to home-based digital media libraries from another Windows 7-based PC outside the home

- Windows XP Mode (beta): to allow Windows 7 users to run many Windows XP productivity applications, launched right from the Windows 7 desktop. Windows XP Mode will be available to Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate customers via download or, for the best experience, pre-installed directly on new PCs. As part of today’s announcement, Microsoft is releasing the beta of Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC.

- Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor: will help people analyze their PCs in preparation for a Windows 7 upgrade. Available soon, Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor will be downloadable tools that will help people determine their ability to upgrade from their Windows XP-based or Windows Vista-based PC to Windows 7.

- Refined navigation: Several enhancements to the Windows taskbar, JumpLists and search make navigation and finding exactly what you want much easier.

- Internet Explorer 8: InPrivate browsing in Internet Explorer 8 prevents browsing history, temporary Internet files, form data, cookies, and usernames and passwords from being retained by the browser. With Windows 7, you can start an InPrivate session straight from the JumpList. You can also open a new tab from the JumpList.

- Windows Touch: Controlling the computer by touching a touch-enabled screen or monitor is a core Windows 7 user experience. Improvements in the RC include several Windows Touch updates, including the ability to drag, drop and select items with touch, even inside Web sites that scroll both horizontally and vertically.

- Direct Access: This feature enables IT managers to provide mobile users with reliable and security-enhanced access to corporate network resources when they are on the Internet, without having to initiate a VPN connection.

- BranchCache: Delivered jointly by Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, this feature enables IT pros to decrease the time branch office users spend waiting to download files from remote servers by caching the previously accessed content locally in a branch’s network.

- BitLocker and BitLocker To Go: This helps ensure that sensitive data is protected across PCs and removable storage devices.

*The minimum system requirements for Windows 7 include: 1GHz 32-bit (x86) processor, 1 GB of RAM (32-bit), 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit) and DirectX 9 graphics device with Windows Display Driver Model 1.0

***First Look:

First of all there are some changes have happened to Windows 7 RC1 that made it different from January‘s Beta version. Microsoft has released Win 7CR1 without some features that were seen in beta version such as no providing the Bluetooth audio-class drivers by Win 7, and leaving out the ability of dragging and dropping folders into Windows 7 Libraries. MS also has added the “clarification about the Windows Easy Transfer feature for synchronizing data between PCs” according to PC world. This feature will work only on the PCs which run on Windows 7.

Laptop Magazine had its hand on Windows 7 RC1 and has reviewed this OS briefly. The folks there think that:

- Win 7 is the most stable OS of all

- The release version of IE8 is preinstalled on Win 7 RC. This fixes the problem of the early beta of IE8 pre-installed on Win 7 Beta which can not be upgraded and is very slow. The new one is more stable with better speed.

- The new XP Mode feature specifically helps the business users who use the software tools are not compatible with win 7 or the IT manage who have top deal and support with XP. This facility gives a free licensed Win XP to these two sorts of consumers.

- “In RC1 the parent folder is always visible in the address bar” which was not always possible in Windows 7 beta

- Removing the useful feature of “the Bluetooth audio-class built-in drivers” from RC1 is not appreciated.

- Alt+Tab is a small added feature to RC1 to help to switch among windows. “That’s an extension of the “peek” function”.

-3.5G-equipped Eee PC 1003HA and T91 with Win 7; 1000HG WiMAX Ready

-Windows 7 on Eee PC 1000H vs. Vista: “Things are easier in Windows 7”!

- Windows 7 in Netbooks: How is It?

-Windows 7 against Support for SLI and CorssFire! a Big Headache for Hard-Core Gamers?

-Is Microsoft insulting consumers with Windows 7?

- Windows 7: Is Microsoft making it a joke?

-Windows 7 on Eee PC 1000H vs. Vista: “Things are easier in Windows 7”!

-Microsoft Windows 7 to be Released in 2009?

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Netbook Linux OSes in rivalry: EeeXubuntu IS the Best of All for Netbooks

The Netbooks with pre-installed Win XP have had more sales and luck in the market so far. However there are many users who are fond of Linux OS and there are various Linux OSes have been released since netbooks were emerged.

The most common Linux distros in the market are Xandros, gOS, Pupeee and EeeXubuntu OSes.

Now the question is that which one is practical for ordinary consumers especially in the terms of (easy) installation, having more useful pore-installed applications, and good support for extension like supporting the drivers of peripherals and providing easy and speedy internet connections through wireless broadband or LAN.

The folks in tuxradar have tested the four OSes that I mentioned above and compared to each other in detail. Their machine test was “an Eee PC 701, featuring 4GB of internal storage, 512MB RAM and a 900MHz Celeron processor.”

According to them EeeXubuntu OS was the best one of all because “the least painful to set up and to use”. It is based in Ubuntu and it provides range of software tools that are very useful.

Pupeee is the OS which scored closely to EeeXubuntu. It can easily be run from a Live USB key.

I recommend you to read the whole article to get more detailed idea about these four Linux distros.

Here I am just mentioning the scores that each OS achieved in this test:

1- EeeXubuntu scoring 8 out of 10

2- Pupeee scoring 7 out of 10

3- gOS scoring 6 out of 10

4- Xandros scoring 6 out of 10

- Atom N270 vs. Atom N280/ Apt Buying Netbook Powered with N280?

-Aspire D150 vs. D250: The Identical Netbooks with Different Names?

-VIA Nano-based Samsung NC20 at Amazon; Comparison with NC10/ Eee 1000HE

-CPU Test: Dual-core Atom 330 vs. Single-core Atom N270 vs. VIA C7

- VIA Nano L2100 vs. Intel Atom 230: Real Competition between Two Chip Makers

-Test Four: VIA Nano CPU vs. Atom Processor: Nano Really Better than Atom!

-Dual-core Nano 3000 the Rival of Atom CPU! Why to Come Very Late?

-2nd Test: Atom vs. Celeron M 353 vs. Core 2 Duo U7600; Wind PC vs. Eee PC 900

Friday, May 01, 2009

Samsung N310 netbook Available for Purchase in UK

Samsung N310 netbook has just arrived to UK and emerged in Amazon and Dabs online stores for purchase.

The Black N310 netbook is available for order at Dabs with the price tag of £399.99 inc vat. (In Stock) and the Mint Blue N310 one is available for pre-order in the same store.

The Black N310 is available for order at Amazon with the price tag of £399.05 with free shipping.

Samsung N310 sports Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM and 160GB HDD, 10-in super bright view LED backlit WSVGA Display with 1024 x 600 resolution , 1.3 megapixel camera, 3-in-1 media card reader, Bluetooth aerial, Stereo speakers, Wireless- B/G aerial, and Windows XP OS.

The keyboard and touchpad is coated by Anti-bacteria coating. The netbook weighs 1.23kg with 4-cell battery.

-Samsung N110/ N120 Netbooks in USA/ Dell Mini 10 with New Options

-MSI Wind U120 under Test (vs. Samsung NC10 and HP Mini 2140): Better Design, Better Price, Less Battery life

-Wind U100 PLUS Netbook and MSI X340 Slim Laptop Released Soon

Netbooks’ Battery runtime Comparison: MSI Wind U123 the Winner!

There are plenty good netbooks from leading laptop makers out in the market. So it is nice to compare some of them in the terms of battery runtime to get better idea which is best for the users on-the-go mainly.

Laptop magazine has compared Samsung N110 with 6-cell battery, HP Mini 2140 with 6-cell, ASUS Eee PC 1000HE with 6-cell, and MSI Wind U123 with 9-cell battery. The result is impressive

All the netbooks with 6-cell battery in this test had pretty good battery runtime over 7 hours what is really enough for most of the users. (Samsung N110 scored 7h and 24min, Mini 2140 got 7h and 19min and Eee PC 1000HE scored 7h and 8min) However 9-cell MSI Wind U123 model with the price tag of $379 scored the longest time 8 hours and 14 minutes.

If you need a netbook to provide longer battery runtime you can consider of Wind U115 Hybrid netbook or high capacity batteries that are sold separately for one of these netbooks in the market like 10 Hours Battery Life by Mugen battery for HP Mini 2140/ Mini 2133.

-MSI Wind U120 under Test (vs. Samsung NC10 and HP Mini 2140): Better Design, Better Price, Less Battery life

-Wind U100 PLUS Netbook and MSI X340 Slim Laptop Released Soon

-MSI to Expose Wind U110, U115, U120 & Affordable 13.3-in U300 at CES 09

-The Best Laptops of 2008 (list Round up)

- 10 Cool Pink Laptops and 5 Laptop Bags for Valentine’s Day