ApoTheTech

Whenever netbooks or mobile phones are bundled with subsidized plans, the prices are greatly reduced. Now, the Acer Aspire One netbook, which was the best  seller last year is now available from AT&T at just $80.

This is a pretty good deal for a netbook that still sports pretty impressive specifications:

• Atom N270 processor
• 120GB HDD
• 1GB RAM
• Windows XP home
• 8.9-inch screen
• 1024 x 600 display

However, it comes with just 3-cell battery which will be able to give you just 2 hours of battery life

[via radioshack]

Yesterday, we posted about the ibuddie netbook which would be powered by Android OS. Now, Skytone is also going to release its Android powered netbook.

It will come with following specifications:

• 533MHz ARM processor
• 7-inch touchscreen
• 800 x 480 resolution
• 128MB of RAM
• 1GB of storage
• SD card slot
• 3G (optional)

The netbook may seem pretty underpowered when compared to the netbooks powered by Atom processor, but we must not forget that we are talking about a netbook that runs mobile OS.  Android OS is certainly not ‘that’ tasking on the CPU and hence, does not a lot of horsepower to run.

It is nice to the option to get one with 3G built-in though.

[Skytone] [via theenquirer]

MID (Mobile Internet Devices) is a segment which started along with UMPCs (ultra mobile PCs) and Netbook. Both UMPCs and MIDs simply failed to take off.

The Compal Electronics has reduced its R&D resources specifically allocated for MIDs due to the uncertain business outlook for the segment, according to industry sources.

However, Compal made a wise move by shifting those employees to the netbook R&D segment.

[via digitimes]

Intel N280 processor and GN40 chipset provides better hardware video decoding and 3D graphics performance only if you are using Windows Vista. This is because only Vista (or later) gives you directX 10 and DXVA 2.0.

Unfortunately, most of the netbooks are still shipping with the Windows XP. With Windows XP, you only get DXVA 1.0 due to which hardware video decoding does not work properly. With Vista, DXVA 2.0 is available and hardware decoding worked fine.

Right now, only Eee PC 1004DN and Gigabyte Technology’s Touch Note T1028 have GN40 chipset. It may be true that netbooks with N280+GN40 combo may offer better hardware video decoding, but the overall performance with a BETA product like Vista is simply horrible on the netbooks.

I tried Vista on my EEE 1000H with 2GB RAM and the performance is disappointing. I will (patiently) wait for the Windows 7 instead.

[via digitimes]

Fujitsu has released many portable devices like UMPCs and netbooks in the past. Most of them have really been ground-breaking (take U820/U2010 for example). Although the Loox M looks quite pretty from outside, but from inside it is just-another-netbook.

It comes with 1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 160GB hard drive, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, three USB 2.0 sockets and a multicard reader. True, there is nothing ground-breaking about these specifications, but its price of $611 is surely something which most of the netbooks in the market are not carrying right now.

[via fmworld (japanese)]