Gadgety News

Don’t be calling it a Netbook, oh no!

This is an “Entertainment Laptop” baby.

But then with a size of just 12.1 inches, a thickness of less than an inch and a weight of just 3.8 pounds (1.7kg), I’m sure that it’s just as luggable as any budget mobile computing offering.

But there are a few differences with the dv2 over those Netbooks:

Powered by the new AMD 1.6GHz Athlon Neo MV-40 processor, the dv2 offers up an ATI Mobility Radeon HD3410 graphics chip, 4GB of memory, 500GB of storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an integrated webcam and 64 bit Vista Home Premium (nope, no XP here people) for the OS.

And, what about that external Blu-ray player and some HDMI out connectivity thrown in by those people at HP? - so you’re also getting a high-def movie player to boot!

I know what you’re thinking now.

It’s gonna hurt your wallet?

If I said that if the price stays similar to the HP US price, we’d be talking around the £475 mark.

You still want that Sony Pocket?

Engadget

While all here has an idea of Sony’s new netbook’s specs the price was still somewhat of a mystery.

I knew that this mini Vaio wasn’t going to be a budget buy but new leaks put the Vaio Pocket somewhere around the €700 mark (which at the moment is £700 near enough)!

That price point would give it the title of one of the most expensive netbooks on the market.

The leaks confirm the 1.33 GHz processor, and specifies it as a Z250 Atom, as well as the ultra-sharp 1600×768 8-inch screen.

It’ll be packing 2GB of memory as well as GPS, which suggests it’ll at least have an option of Windows Vista.

Please keep in mind that none of these facts are rock solid yet and we all have to reserve judgment until Sony releases the official announcement.

UMPC Portal

Asus, bouyed by the apparent success of their brown upmarket wunderkind, the S101, has decided to bring out a successor.

The S121 comes with the usual smattering of netbook specs such as the Intel Atom CPU, 1GB RAM and choice of OS……………

But the S121 also throws in WiFi-N connectivity and some upgrades compared to its S101 older sibling such as the 12.1” screen and it is expected to come with hybrid SSD/HDD storage and a full sized keyboard.

It’s still has the “exquisite” brown clothes which looks as though it might be a deeper hue than the S101’s.

I’m still on the look out for the price and availability (please comment if you happen to be privy to such details).  Til then I reckon you should keep around £500 to one side if you’re looking to purchase.

Asus via New Launches

Sony Style has leaked some specs of the netbook which is said to be Sony’s big reveal at CES 2009.

Its name is Pocket!

The pic is probably just a mere placeholder but the Pocket is said to soon become the smallest notebook in Sony’s line.

It will be rocking an unspecified 1.33Ghz processor which will likely be an Atom.

More groovy is its “razor-sharp” 1600×768 pixel screen on an 8-inch LED backlit screen  (those that can do maths will conclude that the figure is almost too many pixels per square inch).

It’ll also have the option of either a 60GB HDD or, the quirky offering, a 128GB SSD module.

IS this the first notebook where the optional SSD is larger than the traditional drives?

Battery and pricing are filled in as “X’ and “NaN”, still yet to be determined.  I’m thinking “not cheap” as the price point.

Colour-ways are red, silver-painted plastic (MMmmMmmm - not!) and black.

Sony Style via Sony Insider

When Asus mentioned that they were gonna produce an Ultra Mobile PC that was going to be priced somewhere around the €500 mark I thought to myself, “well it had better be good”

Well, they’ve  done it and the Asus R50A is actually shipping at €1,475!

It’s up to whether you think that a pocket PC that runs Windows Vista with a 1.33GHz Intel Atom processor, a gig of RAM, a 32GB SSD hard drive, a 5.6” screen at 1024 x 600, three USB ports, a microSD slot, a wireless keyboard, and an external DVD reader / writer is worth the cash.

You get hooked up to all the good stuff via 802.11 b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, and 3G.

All in all it reads like a netbook but in a hand held stylee.

If you wanna earn those Geek-Points and have the cash - well, why not eh?
Pocketables

Asus, the name behind the popularity of Netbooks and no frills computing pioneers are set to put a stop to the smaller models.

If you’re after an Asus netbook with a screen smaller than 10-inches you’d better get your skates on!

The president of Asus has confirmed the company is intending to get rid of its older and smaller Eee PC models in favour of larger and more recent models such as the 1002HA model and S101. And it has no plans to unleash anymore netbooks with a display size of 10-inches or under.

The phasing out of the smaller models begins with the introduction of a $200 model for our American cousins.

My mind is still boggled as they created this niche and broke through - perhaps they’re quitting whilst they are ahead. Perhaps they can’t see longevity in this market.

Ah, remember the positive and forward thinking of last year……….those long summer days….

What do you reckon?

Tech Digest

Apricot Computers has returned to the UK with an entry into the netbook market.

Apricot’s “PicoBook Pro” is an 8.9-inch netbook boasting optional WiMAX support that will be priced at £279. Oh, and it’s tiny!!!!!

It runs either Linux or Windows XP, has a 60GB hard drive and boasts a battery life of 4 hours.

They even throw in 1GB RAM, wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g and a VIA processor, graphics and chipset.

The PicoBook Pro is light, weighing in at 0.98kg, gets a “generous-sized” keyboard, VGA output, Bluetooth, two USB 2.0 ports and a memory card slot.

Apricot Computers claims the device is green as it uses tree-loving ultra-low voltage (ULV)/1.2GHz and fast-booting in under 30 seconds.

It’s available to order now to be shipped on 1 November.

For £279 you get Linux pre-installed, XP will be charged extra.

It’s a shame.

But this here thing is destined to fail unfortunately.

At first it seems a good idea but when you do a James Brown and “break it down” you see there are many stumbling blocks.

The OLO Computer is reportedly thinking of bringing to market a netbook-styled device that seems to require users to plop their iPhone / iPhone 3G into the palm rest.

Now, I’m guessing all manner of sync’ing will ensue which is good but then is the iPhone then a trackpad?

It could be that the machine uses the iPhone as it’s ‘core’ but then it will only be able to run iPhone apps and the screen on the pic is showing MAC OS - which is the next point.

Apple aren’t reknowned for sharing their OS’s with anyone so we can surly cross that off the list.

Sad thing is - all the juicy info should be posted this week…….the week of a certain announcement from Apple………….

Liliputing

Official OLO Teaser Page

LG has decided to join the throng and have launched the LG Netbook X110 at IFA in Berlin.

Available in white, black and pink, the mini laptop will be powered by Intel’s Atom 1.6Ghz chip, have an 80GB hard drive and 3G support right out of the box.

The LG Netbook hooks up to WLAN 802.11 b/g and 10/100 Ethernet for fast and stable connectivity and pretty pictures arrive to your peepers via a WSVGA 10-inch widescreen.

Following the UK launch, Phones 4u will be initially selling the Netbook in pink and white, there will be a black variant available in due course.

Sony has finally come clean and gone all official about its new VAIO Z, FW, SR and BZ laptops.

They share the VAIO design, Centrino 2 processors, configuration options and setup software to remove that nasty trial ware, and as you’d expect, a whole slew of Blu-ray between them.

My particular fave is the VAIO Z.

When you see that it manages to be toting a Blu-ray drive and HDMI into a lovely 1-inch thick, 3.4 pound, 13.1-inch 16:9 form. It even has room for a NVIDIA 9300M graphics card and a full size hard drive bay coupled with an option for dual SSD in a RAID configuration - you can see that it is a very clever lappy.

The 13.3-inch VAIO SR is Sony’s bid at the ultraportable “mainstream”.

Expect aggressive pricing, multiple colour options to go with its four pound weight for luggability but don’t expect Blu-ray.

The 16.4-inch VAIO FW is the big Daddy.

It has a 16:9 aspect ratio screen for playing back those Blu-ray movies.

Finally, the VAIO BZ is aimed at getting Sony right in that business laptop space.

There’s a 15.4-inch screen, magnesium alloy case, spill-resistant keyboard, vPRO and all that other la-di-dah security-related business stuff, though no HDMI or Blu-ray - it’s for working on Jenkins!!! 

The keyboards for the Z, FW and SR are all of the isolated, raised key variety, which might remind people of the MacBook keyboard, but is actually a design Sony has been toying with for a while now.

The BZ and FW start at $1,000, the SR at $1,400, the FW premium at $1,750, and the Z will hit at $1,800, with an SSD option for $2,300.

All should be available in the next month or so.

Crave have got an Eee PC 901 and Acer Aspire One in the same room. Once they’d met and sniffed at each other for a while they were unleashed to see who would come out top dawg.

There was much love for the Eee PC 901’s £319 price tag and 8.9-inch screen.  Also the 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and 20GB solid-state hard drive along with 20GB of free online storage were given the nod of approval.

They point out that the Acer Aspire One has a wider range of configurations that start at a pocket-friendly £220.

The One also has an 80GB mechanical hard drive and an optional 3G module for surf-anywhere Web access.

Battery life and keyboards may be the deciders.

I like the Eee but have yet to get my mits on an Aspire One so what do Crave say?

Click the clicky thing for their gallery and words of wisdom.

Crave