Todays & Tomorrows Technology

We’ve been quietly crushing on the Mobinnova élan Smartbook since its Computex debut, and this preview video from NetbookNews does little to dissuade that feeling. Based on NVIDIA’s Tegra chipset, the promise is both high-definition support and up to 24hrs of audio playback from the super-frugal platform.

The élan has an 8.9-inch display and a distinctly nifty hinged port panel on the back, which should do a decent job of keeping dust and other things out of the sockets. It weighs 1.84lbs and has integrated WiFi and 3G connectivity, plus it’s fanless.

We’re promised a second video with a walkthrough of the élan’s software soon, but we already know it has a custom 3D GUI and support for Office documents, YouTube and Hulu video. More on the hardware specs of the Mobinnova machine here; we’re not entirely sure of when it will arrive, but it could be the tipped model expected at $244 on Black Friday.

Microsoft and NVIDIA are working together to optimize Windows CE for Tegra-based Smartbooks, with NVIDIA exec Mike Rayfield describing Android as having a “rough user interface”. Windows CE, meanwhile, has a “low memory footprint and a good collection of apps” and “is a rock-solid operating system that has been shipped billions of times” claimed the general manager for NVIDIA’s mobile business unit.

Their work centers on best balancing Windows CE’s use of the 750MHz ARM11 processor and the 1080p high-definition capable graphics chipset that make up Tegra. The upshot will be longer battery life and improved graphical capabilities, such as 1080p output via HDMI. NVIDIA is still working with Google to develop a Tegra-friendly Android build, but it will be around a year before there’s a version suitable for Smartbooks he suggests.

One of the key drawbacks for Android in Tegra implementations is its lack of hardware graphics acceleration support. All video and graphics rendering is currently done in Java code, which Rayfield says is too slow for HD; Google would not comment on Rayfield’s statements.

Rayfield also declined to comment on recent claims that Microsoft have decided to use NVIDIA’s Tegra platform for their upcoming Zune HD PMP. “Microsoft hasn’t confirmed that,” he told Computerworld, “so until they comment, I can’t.” However he did confirm that NVIDIA are working to optimize Tegra for use with Windows Mobile, a fact which will likely reignite speculation that upcoming Microsoft smartphones might use the HD-capable platform.

It doesn’t take much to differentiate your netbook, what with most sharing the same hardware, so Pegatron have managed to surprise and delight by slapping Yahoo!, Google, MSN and Skype keys on their Vivid prototype. To be honest, though, they didn’t need to bother: all they needed to highlight was the fact that this is one of the rare machines with NVIDIA’s Tegra chipset.


Spotted at Computex a few weeks back, the Vivid also has a matte-finish display and an integrated battery. The speakers are squeezed into a metal-mesh cylinder in the hinge, and there’s the usual array of audio in/out and USB ports.

The Vivid also runs a full version of FireFox and can play YouTube video. As well as having the long runtime promised by Tegra, it can also output 1080p through the HDMI port. Still no word on when we can see the Pegatron Vivid on shelves; we’re also hoping it’ll come in a few different colors.

Two Gartner analysts have lent their weight to ARM processors and the Google Android platform as potential players in netbooks and smartbooks, tipping the pairing as possibly headed for prime time. While they recognized that Android still needs fettling for the larger displays and broader usage patterns of a netbook-style device, Christian Heidarson and Ben Lee, analysts at Gartner, nonetheless praised its “snappy” performance on ARM-based sub-notebooks.

The various Android netbooks and smartbooks demonstrated at Computex 2009 are held up as examples of the development from smartphone to larger device for the platform. Of course, it’s not only ARM that Android can be adapted for; Acer have been working with a Linux developer in Taiwan to port Android to x86 processors, such as Intel’s Atom, for their upcoming netbook.

Of course, there’s a big leap from snappy performance to an appealing platform, and that’s something that Linux still needs to address for mainstream users. Sales figures of Windows and non-Android Linux netbooks suggest that buyers are willing to put up with slower performance in return for the familiarity and app-flexibility of Microsoft-based devices. Internet browsing, while perhaps the netbook’s primary purpose, is not all the budget ultraportables are used for; similarly, the absence of Flash support for ARM processors could prove a major stumbling block for an audience used to streaming video content.