Rumor Watch: New Mac Mini Go For Launch
Shuttle Mini PC D10 Coming Soon
Quite a surprising premiere is waiting just round the bend. It is Shuttle Computer Handels GmbH that presents its latest gadget. Shuttle Mini PC D10 will be unveiled at this weekend but only for Japanese market.
Unfortunately there is no clear word about when and where else D10 will be available to buy. But there might be a clue to get in Shuttle’s august worldwide press release about Shuttle Mini PC solutions. Read more
Dell Inspiron 910 Netbook Ubuntu Screen-shots Leaked
The Inspiron 910, Dell’s entry into the netbook market, generates a lot of interest and the anticipation for the release is mounting. I guess Dell will go official with the Inspiron 910 next week. Read more
Cuppa – The PC Of The Future
I was surfing on the Internet and I came across to one of the most interesting designs for the PC of the future. The PC concept is called Cuppa and is based on the RFID which stands for Radio-Frequency Identification. This method is used by small devices named tags which are integrated in objects in order to be identified from a few meters through radio waves, but there are also RFID versions without chips.
Cuppa could be used by everyone and it can be connected to many devices in your home like a TV or a cell phone and is most useful when you want to access your PC from all around your house. This future-PC was designed to be very portable therefore it will have a width of 266mm, a height of 111 mm and a thickness of 20mm.
The users of Cuppa also might see the informations they want on the TV screen, but they would need some extra chips in order to be able to show the applications on the TV. The Cuppa will also be capable to detect when of his “brothers” Cuppa is near and because is dubbed as the PC of the future the designers say that this device will be environmental-friendly.
MSI Is Planning A Low-Cost Notebook
Micro-Star International (MSI) is preparing its low-cost laptop which will be based on Intel’s Diamondville micro-processor and it will compete against Asustek’s Eee PC. The Eee PC is destined for markets like India and it costs around $250. The idea for MSI’s notebook is to be very cheap so it is built to use low-voltage.
Intel says that they unveil Diamondville at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai, in April. According to an MSI executive, their project will be ready when Diamondville will be ready and he said that they will launch the low-cost laptops in July or August.
We hope it will be a fair competition from which will benefit both the companies and both the customers.
DELL Inspiron 1525 Available For Shipping On 9 January
The Inspiron 1525 has been made available beggining with 9 January. It was expected to be released this December, but it was postponed. Dell’s Australian website listed the product details for the notebook. It features a 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7250, an integrated graphic card X3100, 15.4 inch Widescreen WXGA, TFT Display with TrueLife, 2GB 667MHz dual-channel DDR2 and 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive. Dells special offer includes a free upgrade of the hard drive to 250GB until 3 January. We think that it had been better if this offer came out for Christmas, but they probably know better.
Asus U3S Laptop Presented
A new, special laptop was just presented by Asus. We are talking about the U3S, which comes equipped with integrated GPS and an external GPS antenna jack. This feature alone is bound to make people that travel a lot curios about the product. U2S also features a 13.3 inch widescreen LCD screen and an exterior made out of magnesium aluminum. Its’ processor is an Intel Centrino Duo and comes equipped with Windows Vista operating system. One thing that is worth to be mentioned is that U3S does not come equipped with the above mentioned GPS feature. It is actually an optional feature and we do not know if it is included in the European price tag of 2300 Euro. We do thing it is not so you should expect to pay a few hundred extra Euro to have it installed. If you do not like or want GPS, you can also have 3G connectivity on the laptop or what was named as being “turbo memory”. The latter feature is said to speed up the boot up of U3S and provide increased power efficiency.
The laptop is not that special and does not have many interesting features, although the GPS add-on alone could prove to be a real life saver in some situations.
Skype Used on Dell Notebooks
The voice over Internet Protocol software used by Skype will be available on the new XPS notebook manufactured by Dell. This comes after the company’s move to purchase Zing Systems and seems to be a big boost to the possibility of increasing sales. Skype will be featured on the XPS M1210 and M2010 laptops and there will also be integrated microphone and Webcam, noise isolation and a mobile broadband antenna. Don Albert, director of business development for Skype North America declared:
This gives Dell customers a simple way to use the Internet to talk to their friends and family from home, in the office or on the go. Dell represents a new distribution channel for Skype. New products from Dell will complement the breadth of hardware designed for the convenience of Skype callers.
Skype is currently in the process of trying to convince more individuals to use their services. The end of April saw the company holding more than 100 million registered users. This is double the number of customers it had in September 2005. Unfortunately for them competition is gaining with AOL and YAHOO now integrating more call features in their instant messaging clients. Skype comes with counter offers like allowing users to make free SkypeOut calls to landlines and mobile phones in Canada and US until the end of the year combining the move with different promotions that are to appear soon. The deal with Dell is aimed at making it even easier for laptop users to chose Skype over the competition.
Shortages of Parts for Notebooks
Fewer notebook deals are expected because of battery recalls and high demand. This causes key component shortages that currently affect the industry. The current worse case scenario for average users is a high likelihood of decreases in the next five months as PC manufacturers are paying high amounts for components. Loss of money are passed in PC supply in order to minimize losses and fewer discounts and promotions start to become a reality. There are different techniques that can be used by manufacturers although the one that is more likely to be seen is finding savings elsewhere. For instance, a laptop with less DRAM memory can help reduce the costs to make up for a higher priced battery.Problems appear because there are shortages of several key components. Demand is higher than expected and keeping up with it is starting to become a problem. Henry King, an analyst at Goldman Sachs LLC said:
“We believe third-quarter notebook shipments could be better than our forecast as long as the component supply is sufficient”
There is a shortage of LCD panels and small companies also struggle with lacks of Hard disks and are having problems with batteries. The brisk sales of LCD TVs is a reason for this shortage and small disk drives are also not available because of the usage in modern digital music players and notebooks.
A sub-$200 Laptop?
Could you ever imagine a laptop that’s cheaper than 200$? Well it’s true.Yesterday, Jonney Shih , the Asus chairman made a surprise during the Intels Computex keynote when he announced the $189 laptop.The notebooks dimensions are 120 x 100 x 30mm and it weighs almost 900g..When the chairman revealed the price tag , the whole auditorium bursed into applause. Jonney Shih says that this notebook has the most lowest cost and it’s easy to use.Also the laptop has been dubbed the 3ePC.
It uses a custom-written Linux operating system, a lot like the OLPC.Asus has decided on a convetional interface, where the desktop is very similar to the one on the Windows and for the internet surfers I can tell you that it’s brownsing with Mozilla Firefox.I found out from a spokesperson that the Asus notebook will be running with an office suite compatible with MS Office.He also sayd that the 3ePC will be available all over the world, in every nation, apart from the gadgets who appear only in the developing ones.
It has a low price, but you won’t be disappointed about the design and the flash-based hard disk.The Asus notebook has only a 2GB disk, but what can you expect at this price?The standard disk capacity of our days costs more than this laptop, like the 32GB disk from Samsung.The CPU’s laptop version shown a the Intels Computex had 512MB of RAM.We were told that another version will be available soon, at the price of $299.I wonder what’s going to be the difference between these two version.
The World’s Thinnest Notebook
With one of the most “sexiest” design i’ve ever seen ,the Intel mobile Metro notebook is less than 0.7 inches thick—about one-quarter of an inch thicker than Motorola’s iconic cell phone.All of this makes it the world’s thinnest notebook.It has only 2.25 pounds and it’s also one of the lightest small-sized portable computers. These laptop features may include an always-on Internet connectivity via various wireless technologies.
It includes the so-called small array microphones from Fortemedia, another company funded by Intel Capital,and designed to cancel out background noise,that is experienced by the so often web-calling users.
Now, more than ever, consumer-buying choices are influenced not just by function, but more often by the form of the gadget. At the same time, many more PC makers have given short shrift to design in hopes of keeping costs at a minimum.
Epson Endeavor NJ2050 Announced
Epson has announced a new corporate laptop, the NJ2050, that features a 15.4″ LCD display with WXGA and also WXGA+ and the option to choose between Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Celeron M. The NJ2050 also sports an ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 graphics card, up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 40GB to 160GB HDD and will come with Windows XP or Windows Vista preloaded, as the customer prefers.
Of course other features, like the SD/MMCD/MSPro memory card reader, gigabit Ethernet, PCMCIA slot, integrated stereo speakers, FireWire and the dual layer DVD burner won’t be forgotten. The laptop will be priced starting $589, with the basic configuration and can get to almost $1,000 with the best configuration.
Everex Released NC1501 Budget Laptop
Evorex has announced a low energy consumer laptop, with a 1,280×800 15.4 inches LCD display and a VIA C7-M 1.5Ghz CPU. The NC1501 also sports 512MB of RAM, a DVD burnet, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, a 60GB HDD and a 6 cell battery, with a lifetime of 4.25 hours. The laptop is already available, but with a 3-cell battery, for the price of $500.
Panasonic Upgrades Ultraportables
Panasonic is upgrading it’s ultraportable laptops, now featuring 1.06Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 64-bit processors. The Panasonic W5a has a 12″ display, 80GB HDD and 1GB of RAM, with a DVD writer, being priced at $2,109 and the T5a lacks an optical drive, having a battery lifetime of 13 hours, while the W5a only lives 10 hours. The T5a is priced at $1,898 and there’s also a 10.4 inches one, the R6a, priced at $1,772, with a 7.5 hours battery lifetime. The new versions will be released on May 18th.
Gateway E-155C Convertible Tablet PC Announced
 Gateway announced another convertible Tablet PC, the E-155C. It sports a 12.1 inches WXGA display, that rotates bidirectionally and a Intel Core 2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage ( ULV ) CPU. The E-155C comes with Windows Vista preloaded, weights 4.5 pounds and is 1.17 inches think, also featuring media reader, fingerprint reader, 1394, 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi, HDD capacity of up to 120GB and a DVD burner. We don’t know release date or exact price yet.