Author: Tarandeep Kaur

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ASUS Eee Videophone – Another EEE accersory

Since the launch of the first EEE PC, the ASUS has been paying special attention to their EEE product line. They started off with just the EEE PCs and gradually added more products under the EEE brand. Their recent addition is the EEE Videophone, which claims to be the “World’s First PC-free Videophone for Skype”. It comes with a large 7-inch display and a rather shabby 0.3MP camera. The display resolution is WVGA (800×480)

It comes with built in wifi to effortlessly connect it to the skype and do video calling. For the folks who do not have wifi at home, they can use the not-so-sleek Ethernet connection to get online. It comes with a rechargeable battery. Weighing at 1.6kg, it just offers 20mins talk time and a rather long 2 hour charging time. You better use it on power adapter as you are not going to be able to do a lot of talking if you are not on AC adapter.

Dimensions: 202 mm (L) x 123 mm (W) x 253 mm (H)

Skype Services:

  • Skype-to-Skype calls (audio and video)
  • SkypeOut (call fixed lines and mobiles)
  • SkypeIn (receive incoming calls via an online number)
  • Call forwarding
  • Skype Voicemail
  • Conference calls (as a guest only)

[EEE VIDEOPHONE webpage]

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2-second Boot Time? Now, that is what I call an Instant-on OS! [Netbooks]

Moblin is an open source project that is build upon the Linux platform, which is geared towards netbooks, MIDs and UMPCs. At the Linux Collaboration Summit, which was held in San Fransisco, Intel discussed its plans about the upcoming major version of the Mobilin platform. Tests of the latest Moblin 2 alpha release show that the major components (including graphics system) can start up in mere seconds. Intel is stubborn that with the new Moblin platform, 2 second boot time is infact possible.

Within last few months, we have been hearing about plethora of instant-on operating systems. But, so far no OS has been able to boot in 2 seconds. If the folks at Moblin are able to do so, it can totally change the way we perceive our netbooks. For example: People on the go will prefer to use their netbook or MID instead of using their cellphone to check their email.

Sousou, who is the managing director of the Intel Open Source Technology Center said that the aim of Moblin is to improve the quality of the Linux user experience on Atom-based devices. We say that if they can get us online in just 2 seconds, then our experience would

Visit Moblin.org

[via arstechnia]

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Acer AspireRevo ION NetTop – gaming console?

Acer has launched its first ION powered nettop, which offers advanced graphics capabilities when compared to the other nettops already in the market. If you’ve been living under the shelves and have not heard about the ION platform, then you have missed something really big. Remember that a couple of months back, we brought you news that the first ION based hardware will be a nettop. General manager of Nvidia says

“You will be stunned and amazed watching HD videos, editing photos, surfing the web and playing the latest online games.”

Yes, Acer promises that you can easily play directX 10 games and play 1080p HD movies on this mighty little nettop.  You can equip the nettop with HDD or SSD although I do not see the benefit of using SSD in a nettop. RAM can be increased to a total of 4GB RAM.

[press release]

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Netbook Car Kit Mount

This universal netbook car kit mount will hold most 7″-10″ netbooks securely to your dashboard via either the rigid suction mount or the extra long flexi suction mount. This car it is ideal for anyone that requires to use their netbook in a vehicle, keep your netbook of your laptop and make it easier to operate.

You have the option of getting a rigid mount or long flexi mount.

Features:

  • Lightweight
  • Durable
  • Secure
  • 2 x connection points
  • 2x different suction mount options
  • Sudden Weight Load: 15kg
  • Constant Weight Load: 5kg
  • Suitable width of device: 150~250mm
  • Suitable height of device: 175mm
  • Operating Temperature: -40 – 65
  • Lever Lifetime: 10,000 times

It costs just £19.99 and worldwide shipping is supported.

You can order from the following link

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Acer 11-inch Aspire One pictures

Engadget was able to take some exclusive pictures of the Acer 11-inch Aspire one. It looks quite huge to me in pictures, much wider than I expected it to be.

Here are its specifications:

  • Atom Z530 + Intel SCH USW15S chipset
  • Intel GMA 500 integrated graphics
  • 1366 x 768 (16:9)
  • Power consumption: 4.3W
  • 8-hour lifespan with 6-cell battery (5200mAh)
  • 160GB HDD
  • 802.11 b/g WiFi
  • Bluetooth
  • 3G
  • Dolby Pro Logic Sound
  • multicard reader

Here are more pictures of it:

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Asus Eee PC 1008HA shows up at FCC

The US release date of the EEE 1008HA is now even more closer. How can we say that? The ultra thin 10-inch netbook from ASUS has been passed by FCC. So, it will be released in the US market any day now. Although I am a huge fan of thin netbooks/notebooks, I hate the fact that there is NO user replaceable battery in the 1008HA. It just does not make sense to send the netbook back to ASUS just to get the battery replaced.

[via]

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Gigabyte T1028 TouchNote get its product page

Gigabyte T1028 TouchNote netbook made its first appearance at CeBIT 2009. Its product page is now finally online at Gigabyte’s web site. The T1028 is convertible netbook or shall we say tablet, which comes with  10.1-inch screen with backlight display. You can choose between two processors: Intel Atom N270 processor running at 1.6GHz or the newer N280 running at 1.66GHz processor. It comes with 1GB RAM, an integrated 3.5G module, Wi-fi and optional WiMAX.

The Gigabyte also lets you choose higher resolution: 1366 x 768 (instead of netbook-ish 1024 x 600).

[via]

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Intel reveals new mobile processors for MIDs: Moorestone, Z550 and Z515

Intel Atom processor is now 1 year old. On its birthday, Intel has introduced two new processor for the MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices). The next generation ARM platform known as Moorestone consumes 10 times less power as compared to the earlier Atom platforms.

Moorestown is comprised of a system on chip (Lincroft) that integrates a 45nm Intel Atom processor core, graphics, video and memory controller, and a companion I/O hub (Langwell).

Intel also annouced two processors which are going to soon debut in the netbook scene: Z550 and Z515. We mentioned about both of them few weeks back. Z515 is meant for low-powered MIDs. It will come with Intel Burst Performance Technology (Intel BPT), which will make the processor run at 1.2GHz when needed.

The Z550 is the first Atom processor to officially reach the 2.0GHz barrier. The Z550 consumes the same amount of power as the 1.86GHz Atom processor.

[via digitimes]

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Netbook vs Laptop: who wins? You decide

Intel has recently posted a webpage which lets the user decide between the netbooks and notebooks. By the article, it becomes very clear that the Intel is not happy the way the netbooks are affecting the sales of the notebooks. Couple of days we highlighted the fact, how the netbooks are affecting the sales of the notebooks.

click to see bigger image

From the chart given above (taken from this Microsoft link), it is clear that they perceive netbooks as devices for just surfing the web.

  • Multitask: According to MS, you cannot multi task on a netbook. Right now, I am multi tasking fairly nicely on my EEE 1000H with concurrently running Photoshop CS3, 2 Firefox Windows with each having 8 tabs and WMP 11 (running in the background playing my favorite tunes). No hiccups.
  • Create and Edit Videos: I use Windows Movie Maker all the time on my EEE 1000H and it works great for video editing on the go
  • Encode Music: I use Goldwave application to edit music and apply filters on the music and I do not face any particular slowdowns
  • Watch HD movies: 1080p with coreavc codec. ’nuff said
  • Play Games: Netbooks are able to play most of the games that came around 4-5 years ago. Netbooks were never meant to replace your PSP, Xbox etc anyway
  • Run Complex office software: Office 2007 works fine on my netbook without any slowdowns

I personally use my netbook for everything. Even for heavy duty tasks like audio editing and video editing, it works great. The Atom CPU provides more than enough power for my needs. I am not a gamer. Perhaps that is the reason, I do not yearn for the Core 2 Duo processor in my netbook.

I can fully understand that the netbooks are affecting the sales of the notebooks, but misguiding customers especially by a company like Intel was not expected.

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Also read:

Netbooks destroying notebook market?