Todays & Tomorrows Technology

We’re still waiting for an official release for ASUS’ Eee Keyboard – the latest we hear is that it should drop sometime in August – but that hasn’t stopped French site Blogeee from getting their hands on one. Rather than cherish it for the rarity it is, they’ve decided to open the Keyboard up and find out what’s making it tick inside.

As you might expect, it’s basically a long, flat netbook, with a custom circuit-board to which ASUS have frustratingly soldered the 1GB of RAM. Cooling is via heat-pipes to the Atom N280 1.66GHz processor and accompanying chipset, leading back to a 40mm exhaust fan which, Blogeee report, makes little noise. Other components are more modular, such as the Bluetooth and WiFi adapters and the 16GB SSD.

The battery is a 1,880mAh pack that Blogeee estimate will be good for up to 1hr 40 minutes wireless runtime. The unit they’ve acquired also has a Silicon Image wireless HDMI transmitter which also takes care of up to 1080p graphics and HDCP certification, though we’ve previously heard that not all models will include it.

Blogeee end up a little confused about the point of the ASUS Eee Keyboard, suggesting that the storage is too little for a true HTPC while a regular netbook or nettop will provide just as good an internet machine. We’re still keen to try it out ourselves, but for now we’ll have to wait for the official release.

If you’ve been holding off on picking up one of HP’s Mini 110 series netbooks because you’ve wanted it in pink or white (what, really?) then today is the day to flex your credit-card. HP have unleashed the two new color versions of their 110 XP Edition, meaning you can have the 10.1-inch Atom N270/N280 netbook in sober black, coquettish pink or lost-in-a-snowstorm white.

Update: HP have also added the Broadcom HD Video Accelerator option to the Mini 110, priced at $30 (Thanks Peter!)


They’re our names, I should point out, not HP’s official nomenclature, so expect to be laughed at if you ring up to place your order and use them. Picking the non-standard color schemes pushes the price of the 110-series machines up by $20 each; they’re only available for the XP Edition variants, too, not the Mi Edition.

Otherwise your money gets you a choice of 16GB or 32GB SSD, or 160GB 5,400rpm HDD, together with WiFi b/g, 1GB of RAM and a color-matched keyboard. Prices start at $349.99 for the black model.

It looks like the torrent of Atom N270 netbooks won’t be followed by a similar rush of Atom N450-based budget ultraportables, as several manufacturers have apparently revealed plans to delay mass production until netbook heavyweights Acer and ASUS show their hand. That could push bulk availability back until the first half of 2010, despite engineering samples of the new Intel N450 chip already being available.


According to DigiTimes, lower than expected demand for netbooks – in part through segment saturation – in the first half of 2009 has left many vendors with legacy stock and reduced profit. That has encouraged them to take a more wait-and-see attitude, slashing R&D budgets and instead monitoring the big names to better gage the market.

Acer and ASUS are expected to reveal their N450-based ranges in Q4 2009, with white-box manufacturers planning to begin their own mass production in Q1 2010. The end result for the consumer may be reduced choice in netbook models, though given that the combination of building-to-budget, fitting in with Intel and Microsoft’s licensing limitations, and segment naivety has left most current netbooks pretty much identical to each other, that may not be such a bad thing.

Earlier in the month we heard that Atom N270 based netbooks and nettops would be unlikely candidates for inclusion in the Windows 7 Upgrade Program, and that’s looking to indeed be the case. ASUS have announced details of their program, including which models will be eligible, and only two of the company’s sprawling Eee PC netbook line are included: the 1101HA and the 1005HA.

Neither of these use the N270: the 1101HA adopts Intel’s Z520 CPU, while the 1005HA has the N280. You’ll also need to have a particular model in order to be eligible: the 1101HA must be running Vista Home Premium, while the 1005HA must be running either XP Pro or Vista Business. Considering most of these netbooks are bought with Windows XP Home, that doesn’t bode well for existing customers.

There are also a few Eee Top all-in-ones and the Eee Box EB1501 nettop, but it’s generally a poor showing for the company’s budget range.

Intel’s upcoming 32nm Clarkdale processor could be seeing a release sooner than expected, according to unnamed sources at motherboard manufacturers. The company has reportedly brought forward mass-production of the Clarkdale CPU to Q4 2009, compared to the original Q1 2010 date on their timetable.
Clarkdale will have two cores each capable of two threads, and include integrated graphics and a memory controller. It’s expected to be positioned as the company’s latest mainstream desktop processor, and account for 10-percent of OEM shipments in Q4 2009, rising to 20-percent in Q1 2010.

That’s still behind 45nm-process chips, which will still account for an expected 78-percent of OEM desktop shipments in the new year. Intel themselves have declined to comment on the report.

Samsung are preparing to launch a new, 11.6-inch netbook, the N510, and rather than Intel’s Atom Z5xx series of processors they’ve picked the 1.66GHz N280. The N510 will also use NVIDIA’s Ion graphics chipset, paired with 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard-drive.

The presence of Ion will make the N510 capable of high-definition video playback, which should make the WXGA 1,366 x 768 more usable. Rival machines such as the Acer Aspire One 751, which have similarly-sized displays but use Atom Z5xx series processors and standard netbook graphics, have proved woefully underpowered for HD content.

Other Samsung N510 specs include WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth and wired ethernet, together with an integrated webcam and microphone, multi-format memory card reader, 6-cell Li-Ion battery and Windows XP Home. It’ll apparently be priced at around €570 ($799), which is mighty-expensive for an Atom-based netbook.

After telling us – and then telling us again – that the Eee Keyboard would arrive this month, ASUS are now promising their nettop-in-a-keyboard will actually drop in August 2009. Rather than blaming manufacturing delays or last-minute firmware tweaks, ASUS claim the Eee Keyboard – which squeezes in an HD capable nettop and 5-inch touchscreen – was in fact held back while they attempted to define a niche for it to sit in.

That’s surprising, given that back at CES in January the company seemed to have a pretty good idea of what the point of the Eee Keyboard was. Fitted with Wireless HDMI, it can stream HD content either stored on its 32GB SSD or from the internet to a nearby display, with controls and other apps shown on the compact touchscreen.

Still no final word on pricing, but the last we heard ASUS were planning for a $400 starting price – though that doesn’t get you Wireless HDMI, only wired – and two different models. Each will have a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and both WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.0. Earlier this month ASUS demonstrated the Eee Keyboard running Moblin, rather than Windows XP as it has been seen using in the past.

SlashGear stopped by the Pepcom Digital Experience in New York this week, and caught up with one of the more interesting netbooks on the horizon: Lenovo’s S12. While it may physically resemble one of the company’s previous models, albeit with a larger 12.1-inch display, what makes the S12 really special is the NVIDIA Ion chipset inside. The demonstration – which you can see after the cut – showed silky-smooth simultaneous HD encoding and playback.

In fact, the Lenovo S12 was using its HDMI port to output 1080p content onto a big-screen HDTV while also re-encoding a 1080p clip into an iPhone-friendly format. Both moved on at a fair clip, and the playback was completely smooth and unaffected by the encoding process.

When you consider that the S12 is otherwise pretty much identical to a mainstream netbook today, it’s all the more impressive. As well as Ion there’s a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM and up to 320GB hard-drive, together with WiFi, Bluetooth and an ExpressCard slot. Full specifications are here. The Lenovo S12 with NVIDIA Ion is expected to go on sale this month, priced at $499.99; cheaper models, lacking Ion, will start at $449.99.

Sharp’s Mebius NJ70A is still too rich for our blood – $1,000 or thereabouts is simply too much to pay for a netbook, no matter how slick its touchscreen trackpad - but that doesn’t mean we’re not interested in lapping up all the information about the distinctive ultraportable that we can. UMPC Fever have acquired one of the Atom N270 netbooks and promptly shot a video unboxing.
It’s not just the trackpad – which is actually a 4-inch optical-touchscreen running at super-crisp 854 x 480 resolution – which makes this netbook stand out physically. The huge Mebius logo, basically a stylized Möbius strip, certainly stands out on the lid, but it’s arguably more attractive than a massive Sharp logo.

Inside, there’s an easily accessible Gigabyte WiFi module and Fujitsu 160GB hard-drive; the RAM also looks pretty easy to reach too. We’re just hoping that Sharp see sense and drop the touchscreen into their more grown-up ultraportables; pair it with something other than an Atom N270 and a somewhat more realistic price and you’d have a real winner.

HP have announced a new range of consumer desktop PCs, together with an update to their MediaSmart Server software for TouchSmart PCs. Slimline, Pavilion and Elite desktops have all been announced, together with a new Compaq Presario desktop. In addition, HP have announced that select consumer PCs bought from today onwards will be eligible for their Windows 7 Upgrade Program.
Both AMD and Intel processors are available across the ranges, and Blu-ray is also an option on some models. The Pavilion Slimline kicks off with an AMD Athlon single-core LE1660 CPU, 2GB of RAM and 320GB hard-drive, climbing to a Pentium dual-core CPU, twice the RAM and a 500GB drive. As for the Pavilion, that kicks off with an AMD Sempron LE1300, while the Pavilion Elite starts with a dual-core AMD Phenom II X2 and rises all the way to an Intel Core i7-920 with 6GB of DDR3 RAM, 750GB storage and a 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4650 graphics card. Finally the Presario machine has an Athlon X2 dual-core CPU, 3GB or RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE graphics.

The HP Pavilion Slimline s500 series begins at $289, while the Pavilion p6000 series starts at $269. Meanwhile the Pavilion Elite e9000 starts at $599 and the Compaq Presario CQ5000 is $379.

Gateway have rolled out two new small-form-factor (SFF) desktop PC ranges, its SX Series and DX Series, offering a choice of AMD or Intel processors, HDMI connectivity and compact desk footprints. The first SX model is the Gateway SX2800-01, a Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz desktop with integrated GMA X4500 graphics, 4GB of DDR memory, 640GB hard-drive and a DVD burner.
Meanwhile the two first DX Series models are the DX3400-03 and the DX4820-02. The former has an AMD Phenom X4 9750 2.4GHz processor with 8GB of DDR2 RAM, a 1TB hard-drive, ATI Radeon HD 4650 graphics (with 1GB of memory) and integrated WiFi b/g. The later uses Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q8400 2.66GHz processor, with 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a 750GB hard-drive, and NVIDIA GeForce G210 graphics (with 512MB of memory).

All three systems have gigabit ethernet, a multiformat card reader, at least eight USB ports, VGA or DVI as well as HDMI outputs, and HD audio support. The two Intel-based systems also have Firewire and eSATA ports, while the AMD-based DX model has an integrated TV tuner. Gateway are also hawking their FHD monitor series, the 21.5-inch FHD2101 and 24-inch FHD2402, which both support 1920 x 1080 Full-HD resolution.

The new PCs will be available in the last week of June, priced at $499.99 for the SX2800-01, $749.99 for the DX4300-03, and $899.99 for the DX4820-02 (which also comes with a 23-inch 1920 x 1080 LCD monitor). The FHD2101 LCD display is $199.99 while the FHD2402 is $269.99; both are available now.

As well as the somewhat VAIO-esque Mini 5101 netbook they announced this morning, HP have also got a new ProBook full-sized notebook for you to consider. The HP ProBook 4310s has a 13.3-inch display and the same styling as the rest of the S-series the company announced back in April; there’s also optional Gobi WWAN mobile broadband, DDR3 memory and a full-sized keyboard.
Under the hood, there’s a choice of Intel Celeron CPUs up to 1.9GHz, or Core 2 Duo CPUs up to 2.8GHz. RAM is up to 8GB, while storage is either up to 500GB of 5,400rpm HDD or 500GB of 7,200rpm HDD; you also get a choice of DVD burner or Blu-ray optical drives.

In addition to the optional WWAN there’s WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 and gigabit ethernet, and you can also specify a standard modem if you’re feeling retro. Ports include three USB 2.0, HDMI, audio in/out, an ExpressCard 34 slot and an SD/MMC card slot. There’s a 2-megapixel webcam and microphone array.

Graphics are courtesy of either Intel’s GMA 4500MHD chipset or ATI’s Mobility Radeon HD 4330 with 512MB of its own memory. Other options include a fingerprint reader and a choice of XP, Vista or Linux OS. The HP ProBook 4310s is expected to arrive on July 20th, priced from $799.

HP have announced a new netbook, the Mini 5101, and like their original entrant to the market they’ve gone with business-friendly materials targeted at “on-the-go professionals”. The HP Mini 5101’s 10.1-inch display is clad in anodized aluminum, while the lower case is made from magnesium alloy. Inside, there’s the usual Intel Atom processor, in this case the 1.66GHz N280, paired with up to 2GB of RAM and up to a 320GB HDD or an 80GB SSD.

Two display options are available, a standard 1024 x 600 or an HD-capable 1366 x 768 16:9 panel, with graphics via Intel’s GMA 950 chipset. Ports include three USB 2.0, VGA, ethernet, audio in/out and an SD/MMC card reader, while there’s also WiFi a/b/g/n, optional Bluetooth 2.0 and optional EVDO/HSPA WWAN. A 2-megapixel webcam lurks up in the screen bezel, along with stereo microphones.

The whole thing weighs from 2.64lb, and measures 10.3 x 7.09 x 0.91 inches. It’s being offered with either Windows XP Home, SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 or FreeDOS, as well as either 4-cell or 6-cell batteries. Pricing starts from $449, and you can pick up the HP Mini 5101 from July.

Kohjinsha’s SK3 UMPC, which we saw yesterday, has been officially launched in Japan. The 7-inch touchscreen SK3 gets an Intel Atom 1.33GHz processor paired with 1GB of RAM and a 60GB 1.8-inch 4,200rpm hard-drive; there’s also WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0 and GPS.

As expected there are also dual cameras, a low-resolution webcam by the screen for video calls, and a 3-megapixel version presumably for still shots. Ports include ethernet 10/100, VGA, audio in/out, a microSD slot, two USB 2.0 ports, multiformat card reader and an ExpressCard 34 slot.

It’s also impressively smaller than its SC3 predecessor, at 193 x 132 x 30 mm, and weighing just 720g. Kohjinsha are suggesting 3.2hrs runtime from the 17Wh battery in the Jeita test, a test known to produce over-ambitious results. Steve from UMPC Portal (who, frankly, we trust about battery runtime estimates more than we ever did Jeita) is guesstimating at between 2 and 2.5hrs of real-world use, which is a real disappointment.

Still, we won’t argue with more options in the ultramobile touchscreen category, and we’ve a feeling Japanese customers won’t either when the Kohjinsha SK3 goes on sale there. It’s expected to be priced at the equivalent of around $733, including local taxes.

Shuttle have announced a barebone version of their X50 all-in-one PC, offering buyers the choice to install the storage and memory they prefer. The X50 – announced officially back in March - has a 15.6-inch 1366 x 768 16:9 resistive touchscreen and Intel’s Atom 330 dual-core processor; in its barebone form it comes devoid of RAM or hard-drive.
According to the press release, it seems the X50 barebone can be outfitted with between 512MB and 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and various types of 2.5-inch drive. That could be anything from a budget 80GB hard-drive to a high-capacity SSD, though that would arguably be overkill given the 1.6GHz processor and GMA 950 graphics.

Other specs include a 4-in-1 memory card reader, gigabit ethernet, WiFi b/g/n, VGA output, five USB 2.0 ports, audio in/out and a VESA mount on the back. It comes with no OS, but instructions for loading software from a network connection or USB drive are included.

The Shuttle Barebone X50 will go on sale at the end of June, with an MRSP of €361 ($499).

Intel are about to announce a deal whereby they will supply Nokia with mobile processors, according to an anonymous Bloomberg tipster. The deal is expected to be revealed today in a conference call with Anand Chandrasekher, senior VP of Intel’s ultra-mobility group; Intel themselves have only confirmed that they have an “important announcement” to make.

What’s unclear at present is the nature of the chips Intel will be supplying Nokia. The company’s CEO has previously said that they’ve considered a move into the notebook or netbook segment, though failed to specify whether such a device would take the form of a traditional, 3G-connected laptop, or something more unusual such as a MID or UMPC.

It seems likely, then, that Nokia are looking to use Intel’s Moorestown platform, expected to arrive in 2010, or – further in the future – their Medfield platform for smartphones that’s penciled in for 2011.

After months of complaint from US would-be VAIO P buyers, Sony has apparently relented and added a new, faster processor option to their “don’t call it a netbook” ultraportable. The VAIO P VGN-P698E gets Intel’s 1.60GHz Intel Atom processor, likely the Z530, together with a 128GB SSD and the usual integrated Verizon EVDO Rev.A and GPS.

Unfortunately that’s still a fair few clock-cycles behind Japan’s latest VAIO P, the 2GHz Atom Z550 model announced earlier this month. In fact it’s slower, even, than the now-toppled Japanese flagship – which ran at 1.86GHz with an Atom Z540 CPU – and the Windows XP option is also unavailable, as Sony have seemingly decided US customers only want Vista.

Best of all is the price: for the smudge of extra processing power and double the SSD you’re looking at $1,499.99. That’s a full $500 more than the 1.33GHz 32GB SSD model. It’s available for pre-order now, and will begin shipping around June 26th.

Acer have announced new 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch notebooks, the Aspire Gemstone Blue range, priced from just $479.99. The 15.6-inch AS5536 has a 16:9 display, AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.1GHz dual-core CPU, 3GB of RAM and ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics, together with a 320GB hard-drive, DVD burner and WiFi b/g/n.

As for the AS7735Z, that has a 17.3-inch 16:9 display, Intel Pentium T4200 2.0GHz processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and Intel’s GMA 4500MHD graphics. There’s also a 250GB hard-drive, DVD burner and WiFi b/g/n. Both machines have a webcam, multi-format card reader, and a multitouch capable trackpad.

The Acer Aspire AS5536 is available now, priced from $479.99, while the AS7735Z is also on sale now, priced from $599.99. As of the end of the month, they’ll be joined by the Acer Aspire Gemstone Blue AS5739G, with a 15.6-inch display, Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 2.1GHz processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT130M graphics with 1GB of discrete memory and a Blu-ray drive. It also has a 250GB hard-drive, fingerprint reader, WiFi a/b/g/n and the multitouch trackpad; it’ll be priced from $749.99.

It’s ironic that what a year or two would’ve been called a UMPC (and, frankly, ignored by most people, tech writers included) is now called a touchscreen netbook and garners far more interest. Latest on the block is set to be the Kohjinsha SK3, an upgrade to the existing 7-inch SC3 UMPC. Among the changes are a new battery and upgraded cameras.
The SK3 has a convertible resistive touchscreen, a couple of inches smaller than that of the ASUS Eee PC T91, which folds flat onto the keyboard for portable slate use. Inside there’s the same 1.3GHz Menlow-platform processor – capable enough, we’ve seen, for Vista – though no word on whether there’s an SSD option this time around. WiFi has been upgraded, adding draft-n support, and there are still PCI Express, SD, VGA and ethernet connections, together with GPS.

According to UMPCPortal’s sources, the Kohjinsha SK3 will get its official announcement this week. No word on battery life from the newly-streamlined power pack, nor what sort of pricing we could expect.

After the MSI X-Slim X340’s recent frankly awful review, we’ve been waiting for a third-opinion and hopefully some indication that the ultraportable’s poor showing was a one-off aberration. Unfortunately, many of the critique points from that review – poor build quality, “cheap and nasty” trackpad and “tacky” keyboard – also crop up in NotebookReview’s piece.
Stylistically, the X340 rates highly again, and reviewer Kevin is fairly accommodating of the roughly 3.5hrs battery life given the overall slim profile. Performance, though, doesn’t get the same pass-card, with Kevin suggesting the Core 2 Solo based ultraportable “doesn’t feel that much faster than a netbook”; in fact, compared to the Intel Atom N280 CPU the X340 only just scraped ahead in some benchmarks. Thankfully the Intel X4500 integrated graphics do a decent job with 720p, though there are still reportedly “a few blips in performance”.

The end result is a keyboard described both as “comfortable” and in need of “some extra bracing”, a shambolic touchpad and performance more in line with a netbook than the notebook the X340 professes to be. Still, it’s far cheaper than a MacBook Air, at $799.99 with 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard-drive, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth, that that’s likely to persuade plenty of people to take the risk.