Category: General

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Disturbing news: Revenue drops in ASUS, Pegatron and Gigabyte

ASUS has suffered a disturbing 16.15% drop in the month of January and even-more-disturbing 38.91% yearly due to the various disturbances in the Eastern Europe. The ASUS shipped a modest 300,000 unit of Notebooks and Netbooks in the month of January and also shipped 1.3 million motherboards in the same month.

Coming to Gigabyte, which although shipped 1.6 million motherboards and 250,000 graphic cards in the month of January also suffered a drop of 31.46% this year.

Pegatron announced drops of 18.4% on month and 35.7% this year. It shipped 1.56 million motherboards, 400,000-450,000 notebooks and 482,000 graphics cards.

Now, we know why the ASUS would not be coming out with any new netbooks in the coming months. Given the current market conditions, the companies have no choice but to wait for sometime to let the market heal itself.

[digitimes]

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Garmin and ASUS shake hands to form GarminAsus Alliance

Garmin Ltd.  and ASUSTeK Computer Inc. today announced a strategic alliance that will leverage the companies’ navigation and mobile telephony expertise to design, manufacture and distribute co-branded location-centric mobile phones. Garmin and ASUS have already begun joint development on a diverse mobile phone product line, which will be known as the Garmin-Asus nüvifone™ series. The companies expect to bring to market several Garmin-Asus nüvifone models in 2009, and a new Garmin-Asus nüvifone model will be announced at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, February 16-19, 2009.

We were also able directly from folks at ASUS that the phone that were released under the name Garmin nüvifone will be rebranded and renamed to Garmin-Asus nüvifone. ASUS has partnered with a huge company which is the global leader in satellite navigation, and has sold more than 43 million devices.

[GarminAsus.com]

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Dell mini 9 for just £194 at Tesco [Netbook]

Dell mini 9 is available at Tesco for mere £194.77. Dell mini 9 is a quite capable netbook with 8GB SSD and 1GB RAM.

Here are it’s full specifications:

  • Intel Atom N270 processor @ 1.6GHz clock speed
  • 1GB RAM
  • 8GB SSD
  • Linux (Ubuntu)
  • WSVGA screen
  • WiFi b/g

For £194, it is not a bad deal at all considering what you get.

[TESCO]

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Acer Aspire one 103 now available at J&R [Netbook]

Now you can pre-order the new 10-inch Acer Aspire One at J&R, which is now available for quite affordable price of $349.99. It is available in four different colors: black, white, red and blue.

Specifications

  • Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz)
  • 10.1” at 1024 x 600 resolution display
  • 1GB RAM
  • 160GB HDD
  • GMA 950 graphics
  • Windows XP Home SP3
  • Webcam
  • 802.11b/g wireless
  • 6-Cell Battery
  • 2.95 lbs

The one available at J&R is different from the one available at PCcorner, which sports an Intel N280 Atom processor @ 1.66GHz and a 320GB HDD instead of 160GB HDD found at J&R

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Acer plans SSD version of 10-inch Aspire One [Netbook]

At first, there were no plans for the SSD version of the Acer Aspire 103 netbook, but now it seems that the ACER is indeed planning to release a linux version of their Aspire one 103, whose HDD version was released couple of days back. The SSD will have the capacity of 16GB and will run Linpus, a custom linux distro. Other specs wil remain the same as the HDD version.

It is nice to see that ACER is still thinking about those folks who want the ruggedness and reliability of the SSD. Personally, I use my trusty old ASUS EEE 701 more than my notebook or my ASUS 904HA just because I know that it uses SSD. Although, the capacity of the SSD is not huge, but anyday I would not be carrying my DVD collection on it. If I feel the need of extra space, I can always plug-in my external USB HDD.

[zdnet]

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Viliv S7 = Impressive! [UMPC]

Looks like SONY is not the only one that has released a luxury netbook. Joining it in the new war of luxury netbooks/UMPCs is the new Viliv S7. The new Viliv comes with a small 7-inch screen and a tablet design. It uses hybrid storage memory scheme meaning you get both SSD and a big HDD under the same hood just like the MSI Wind U115 hybrid.

viliv-s7-impressive-umpc

Features:

Uses 1.33 or 1.86 GHz Intel Atom CPU (SIlverthorne)
7.0-inch display with 1024 x 600 resolution
1.3 megapixel camera
16 GB SSD+60 GB HDD
1GB of RAM
Windows XP
WiFi, Bluetooth
GPS

This UMPC is feature packed with mobile broadband ie WiMax so that you are always connected. It weighs a mere 800gm making it a great portable device. Read Viliv S7 review here.

 

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Get a free LG X110 in UK [Netbook]

We have covered the LG X110 in the past too, which looks a lot like the MSI Wind netbook. The major difference being the inclusion of 3G module. The difference between the LG X110 and the MSI Wind is the use of better casing in X110. It has the same  comfortable keyboard found in MSI Wind.

Here are the specifications of X110:

  • 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor
  • 10-inch WSVGA LCD
  • 1GB (DDR2 533MHz) RAM
  • 160GB HDD
  • RF Receiver – HSUPA
  • 82 Key full keyboard
  • 1.3 megapixel camera
  • Windows Vista OS
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
  • 3-cell battery/6-cell optional
  • 3 USB Ports

The funny part is that if you go for the free-netbook plan, you would have paid nearly $1000 to your network provider.

[slashgear]

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Samsung NC10 in Blue [Netbook]

Just a couple of days back, we told you about the the Samsung NC10 which was released with the pink color. Now, it is available in blue. There is no difference in feature set of the original NC10 and the blue version of it.

Samsung NC10 in Blue

Specs of the Blue Samsung NC10:

Item Weight 1.3 Kg
Product Dimensions 30 x 22 x 10 cm
Item model number NP-NC10-KA02UK
Form Factor NetBook
Screen Size 10.2
Processor Brand Intel ®
Processor Type Atom N270
Processor Speed 1.6 GHz
Processor Count 1
RAM Size 1 GB
Hard Drive Size 160
Graphics Card Description Media Accelerator 950
Operating System Windows XP Home
Lithium Battery Weight 695 grams

While most of the (male) professionals would not like to carry the pink color along with them, the blue color would be less embarrassing to carry. Personally, I would still go for the black color. [NotebookItalia]