It now looks unlikely that either of those will make an appearance, at least not under the Everex name.  VIA themselves moved on to the altogether more impressive Nano processor, though Everex never stated any intention to adopt the new CPU.

According to the company themselves, the US operations are now closed and they are “in the processor of liquidation of all our assets”.  It’s unclear whether the liquidation will affect Everex Japan or Taiwan; neither site has any mention of their US sibling’s closure. 

[via GadgetMix]

Other specs include two USB 2.0 ports, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth and a 1.3-megapixel webcam.  There are also audio in/out connections, VGA and ethernet, together with an integrated microphone and Intel 945 GSE graphics.  OS in Windows, most likely XP Home, and the 4-cell battery is rated for up to 4.5hrs runtime.

FIC (First International Computer) is a majority owner in Everex, so it’s possible that the CW001 could appear with Cloudbook branding.  No details of availability or price, though.

[via Engadget]

The 10.2-inch model is expected to have a 1024 x 600 display with LED backlighting, up to 2GB of RAM and a 1.3-megapixel webcam.  Connectivity is via two USB ports, an express card slot and 4-in-1 memory card reader, as well as WiFi b/g and HSDPA & HSUPA WWAN.  It measures in at 263 x 185 x 32mm and weighs 1.2kg, and while FIC would not discuss pricing they did suggest it could be subsidized by wireless providers.

As for the 8.9-inch machines, they’ll be available in Taiwan and Japan by the end of August and the US in September.  WiMAX will be an option.  There’s no word on whether these machines are actually made by FIC, or indeed whether they use VIA’s latest OpenBook reference design.  Everex were one of the first companies to pick up VIA’s original mini-notebook reference design with their original Cloudbook.

[via PC Advisor]

In gaming, fans of multiplayer shooting, maiming and killing grew excited in their trousers at the news of QuakeCon 2008, confirmed for July 31st to August 3rd in Dallas, Texas, only to have their tumescence quelled by rumors that Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series, is less than impressed by instalment four on the PS3.  Turns out, Sony’s graphics prowess just aren’t enough for the Japanese perfectionist. 

Slightly less bloodthirsty is Guitar Hero IV, which according to Activision’s CEO may feature more than just guitars, and Rock Band, from which we exclusively brought you video of Zero from the Smashing Pumpkins which will feature in the next instalment.  And if flailing around is your preferred method of play, then the news that Nintendo have increased Wii production by 30-percent should put a smile on the face of anyone waiting for the addictive console.

Financial reports for the last quarter have continued to splutter out, with varying degrees of success.  Sitting pretty are Samsung, with profits 37-percent up thanks to their LCD and cellphone sales performance; they’ve obviously been thinking to the future, too, as the company has announced that their AMOLED panel production will be economically viable in 2009.  On the other end of the scale, Toshiba has had a dire three months with HD-DVD’s collapse costing them 95-percent of the quarter’s profit. 

In the middle, financially-speaking, lurks Apple, with middling sales but a potentially lucrative year ahead.  Not only is the 3G iPhone lurking just around the corner – check out our sibling blog iPhone Buzz for all the latest news – but the company is rumored to be announcing a refresh of the well-selling iMac line this coming Tuesday.

Finally, SlashGear brought you a couple of exclusives: first up, Clari-Fi’s audio tweaking headphone adaptor – still causing ructions in the comments – which managed to persuade James Allan Brady that his music was improved.  Secondly, Ewdi unboxed Everex’s gPC Mini, a Mac mini-sized compact PC running the gOS Space Linux-based OS.  He seems enamoured with it, but we’ll have to wait for the full review this week to find out exactly why.

unboxing video after the jump

Today, I have the opportunity to unbox Everex’s new Linux-based desktop. The gPC Mini is powered by the gOS Space operating system, a Linux distro that was built to accommodate MySpace user. As for the unit’s exterior itself, it looks quite similar to Apple’s Mac Mini, and as such quite attractive; however the dimension on gPC mini is a little deeper than Mac Mini. We will be reviewing the unit soon and so, for now, enjoy the unboxing video.

Specification

1.86GHz Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Mobile Processor T2130 (1MB L2 Cache, 1.86GHz, 533MHz), 120GB Hard Disk Drive, 512MB DDR2 667 SDRAM, DVD+/-RW, Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator GMA950, Realtek ALC268 High-Definition Audio, (1) 10/100/1000 Ethernet Port, (1) DVI-I Port, (1) S-Video Port, (1) IEEE 1394 Port, (4) USB 2.0 Ports, (1) 2-in1 Media Card Reader, (1) Headphone/Line-Out Port, (1) Microphone/Line-In Port. Power adapter and DVI to VGA converter included (keyboard, mouse and display sold separately). gOS Space pre-installed.

Next up, a new guy and/or company landed on the scene, the name, Van Der Led. So far we’ve heard about the new Asus Eee look alike from the company called Jisus, and then later this past week we wrote about a new cell phone watch from the same name, it’s all kind of fishy, but we’ll see. Speaking of Asus Eee-like computers, we first saw some reviews of the new HP Mini-Note coming from various sites, then later this past week we discovered that they’d gone on sale on HP’s site with an advertised ship date of April 15th. Lastly, in line with budget PC’s, Everex pushed out a new one, their MyMiniPC small form factor desktop PC that had a new version of gOS Space with the whole package being customized for MySpace users the world over.

Still on the topic of Notebooks, Toshiba released several new models including the A300, M300, P300, and U400 series’ of notebooks and extended the X205 SLI line by two new models. Toshiba also pushed out some new REGZA television sets ranging from 52-32-inches in size with most of them packing hard drives and built in DVRs as well as a ton of ports including 3 Ethernet NICs making these TV’s more connected than my computer. In other TV news Mitsubishi announced the name of its line of upcoming laser TV’s, thusly dubbed LaserVue.

In other news, Buffalo expanded their LinkStation line to include one of the first remotely portable models, it uses two 500GB laptop hard drives, a quite, small, fan-less case design, it offers up all of the lovable features of their LS line including the 1TB of storage space in a package small enough to fit in your hand. RedPost has upgraded their product lineup from the RedPost/Kit to the new RedPost SignBeta. Also, the BBC’s newest iPlayer has been expanded from the computer, to the iPhone/iPod Touch, and now to the Wii and is causing considerable network strain over in the UK leaving Internet providers looking to the BBC to cough up all or part of the estimated 831 million pounds needed to upgrade the network.

In Mobile news, we got an invite to go to an event being hosted by HTC in London on May 6th where we believe they’ll be unveiling their first Android Phone, rumored to be called the HTC Dream. Speaking of Android, we spotted a Nokia N810 that was running Android, and I must say it looked pretty amazing; hopefully they finish up the coding on the project so more N810 users can adopt the new Android OS.

Lastly in gaming news, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed got a release date of September 17th, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King has entered alpha testing. Microsoft is rumored to be working on a Wiimote-like controller for their Xbox 360 system which would be great for games much like the upcoming Star Wars title. There was also lots of news regarding Grand Theft Auto IV; the most interesting is that a shortage of the game is expected in the UK, who would have thought they’d enjoy frolicking around killing anyone and everyone in some random city.

Even excluding the MySpace part of this OS it’s simply amazing. They’ve added stacks much like OSX, they’ve added shortcuts for everything from News, Photos, Music, TV and Movies, and then a MySpace stack that has quickly accessible links to everything that you’d normally have to open a web browser and go to MySpace to do. The new computer even comes with some of the first MySpace Apps since the API was released.

I really love the new links they have added, I mean the TV and Movies tab, you’d think would contain a media player or something like that, instead it makes it possible to watch TV on the web by linking you to sites where you can legally, and generally freely, watch movies and television shows on the web, such as Hulu, NBC, CBS and other such sites where you can watch full episodes of Family Guy, The Simpsons, and Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Once again gOS and Everex are working with a partner to push Linux into major markets, only this time, instead of doing it with Wal-Mart, they are doing it with MySpace.

The new computer itself is also fairly amazing, it features a Pentium Dual-Core Mobile processor T2130 operating at 1.86GHz, half a gig of RAM, a 120GB HDD, a DVD burner drive, integrated Intel graphics and Realtek HD audio, FireWire, 4 USB ports, gigabit Ethernet, a DVI and S-Video port, 4-in-1 card reader, and headphone/microphone jacks. Even better yet is its attractive small, shiny white case measuring in at 1.5 inches tall and 2 pound in weight? The new MyMiniPC will go on sale today for a low, low price of $499.

This is the ultimate for those wishing to make the move to Linux, due to its 3D desktop user interface that is extremely easy to use, but it’s also the dream PC for all those MySpace users that you know, all 100 million of them. The best part, in my opinion, is that with this new OS everything is geared to make it extremely easy to do almost everything you do online, but this time the hardware is also there to do everything you want to offline. Do I want one? Hell yes, and I’d use it all the time as I could save space, likely power, and still do everything I do now in a much more attractive package, all I need to figure out now is how I’m going to engineer a VESA mount for this thing.

[via Everex]

It has a single-chip WiMAX setup provided by GCT Semiconductor. Basically this will be the ultimate notebook for road warriors offering up maximum connectivity, minimal weight, and a compact form factor.

With this notebook you’ll get up to 4 hours of battery life, 2GB of DDR RAM, an 80GB HDD, S-Video out, Audio in and out ports and all that packed into a package that weighs less than 1kg and measures in at 240x175x27 millimeters. It should be shipping within a year, no more exact availability info was available and there was no price released at this time, but it sounds like these relatively cheap notebooks are wedging their way into the market as the things that higher end notebooks actually have to compete with, I mean who would have ever thought the Czars would be competing with the Serfs for power?

[via PhoneMag]

They both run slightly different versions of Linux, obviously the CloudBook runs gOS, the ZonBook runs its own custom version of Linux that does a lot of maintenance tasks on its own. For example it updates the OS in the background and backs up the users files to an online server in the background.

The reviewer was a fairly proficient Linux user and almost had to admit that the Zonbu notebook’s Linux install worked better than any of his installations. The CloudBook on the other hand was fun due to the challenges the OS gave him, so, if you are a true user or fan of Linux, the CloudBook is probably the one for you, on the other hand, since they are both priced pretty close to the same, if you are a normal user and just want a cheap, easy to use notebook the ZonBook is probably more your speed.

[via LinuxDevices]

You’ll still be able to order them online from Walmart.com, and chances are you’ll even be able to have them “Shipped-to-Store” or whatever in order to save money on shipping, but other than that you won’t be seeing them on the shelves again. Even at prices that are fractions of the cost of the other desktop and laptop offerings Everex just couldn’t move enough of the Linux based computers.

For now, its back to corporate greed the Wal-Mart way, that’s to say they are returning to an all Windows shop. In case you were wondering how many Linux computer models they are/were offering they had the gPC, gPC2, and more recently the CloudBook with the first two selling for $200 sans monitor, and the CloudBook selling for $400.

[via Canadianpress]

This interesting case you see on the CloudBook is called “PhotoFair.” Essentially what you have is a clear plastic case that goes over your UMPC of choice. You can slip a photo of your loved ones, or really anything else that you can fit on a sheet of paper.

While some may think this to be just a simple gimmick, it really makes customizing your CloudBook easy as pie. We don’t have any word on pricing or availability, but we’re hoping to hear more later this week while at CeBIT.

So, I called my local Wal-Mart, they said they were expecting it today, so, its either not going to be available in stores and the stores just don’t know it, or it is, and it just hasn’t arrived yet as the guy in the electronics department said they haven’t arrived yet. Hopefully they do become available in stores because its tax season and impulse purchases on high dollar items are rampant so they could make some money.

The CloudBook is the Eee’s only competitor right now, and the slight differences between the two almost make them targeted at entirely different markets. Me, myself, and I, I want the CloudBook for its 30GB HDD, and I kind of like the way it looks better too.

There is a DVI out port, S-Video (so you could turn your TV into a computer), USB and a 4-in-1 card reader. It measures in at 42x226x172 millimeters and will cost you a mere $499.

Its supposedly going to be landing on NewEgg on March 1st for those that want a Linux PC that they can stuff behind their TV. Personally, I’d rather have the Mac Mini, some of which have gone on sale as refurbished units for less than the cost of this gPC Mini.

[via i4u]

Now it seems is won’t be until the middle of March before we get our CloudBook computers. The reason this time, snow, snow in China is what is causing the delay.

Everex had better get things in order and quick, before people lose interest, I mean chances are, by the time we actually see the CloudBook in stores, there will already be something bigger or better either on the market, or headed to it. So, don’t quite lose faith, but its not looking good for the Everex CloudBook.

[via CrunchGear]

I don’t know if they are biased, they don’t seem like it, and they certainly have some worthy products to compare it to (such as an Eee) but they seem to be having nothing but problems with the notebook. Right off the bat the installed version of the OS had too big of a screen resolution so the little installation things you have to go through when you first turn on a computer were too big and they couldn’t move onto the next screen because they couldn’t find the buttons to do so.

Apparently that issue is only in the Press versions of the notebooks, so normal customers shouldn’t have to worry too much, but they seem to have had some other problems with the notebook and overall say it “needs more time in the oven”. They do like a lot of the features that come with the CloudBook but there seems to be a lot of the useability type of features that are lacking, click on through for what they have to say so far.

[via laptopmag]

Wal-Mart has not even added Cloudbook to its site, and NewEgg is listing the product under “deactivated item”. The Cloudbook was initially delayed for 16 days – hopefully there won’t be anymore delay.

Many people have been anticipating this Asus EeePC alternative, especially those who wants more storage for the same price range. The Cloudbook will retail for $399 when it hits the stores. Cross my finger for Chris!

[via gadgetell]

They will be targeted to compete with the Asus Eee PC and the Everex CloudBook in both specs and price. A slightly larger screen would be kind of nice, maybe some more flash storage or an actual hard drive wouldn’t be an entirely bad idea either.

It will probably run some version of Linux as well, it would be nice if they could be the first to just put plain old Ubuntu on it instead of trying to modify or make it better, it’s the most popular distro of Linux for a reason; it’s already really easy to use. Even RedHat or Fedora would be better than the remade distros that have been shipping with these laptops.

[via zdnet]

The two notebooks hardware wise are nearly identical, so there won’t be much of a difference there, you’ll just have pretend it doesn’t say “ASUS” on the lid. I have no clue why you’d switch between two different Linux distros that are already pretty close to the same though, but if the gOS is what really makes you happy then go for it.

Some issues that you will run into during the installation are that the install screen is much larger than the Eee screen; this can be overcome by holding the Alt key and then moving around the screen. Other than that, after the install finishes, you’ll have to get the Eee Ubuntu drivers either through your Eee’s Ethernet or from a flash drive and then install them all, and that’s it.

[via jkOnTheRun]

The Cloudbook – initially known as the CE260 when first announced last June - is a UMPC and it measures 9” in length and weighs only 2 pounds. It has a 1.2GHz VIA C7-M, ultra low voltage, CPU and it has 5 hours of battery life on a 4 cell lithium-ion battery. It also features 30GB of internal storage, DVI-I, 4in1 card reader and 1.3MP Webcam, and is based on VIA’s own NanoBook UMPC reference design (another version of which Packard Bell currently sell in the UK). The Cloudbook will be available January 25th at Wal-Mart and will retail for $399.

The Gbook is a laptop that has a 1.5GHZ VIA C7-M processor, 512MB DDR2 SDRAM, 60GB SATA HDD, DVD/CD-ROM, 15.4” WXGA and a widescreen display. It weighs 5.3lbs and 14.06”x10.67”x1.02”. It’ll cost $399 and be available though Wal-Mart as well.

Although you do still get all the online services, the custom OS, and the cheap price at the cost of a monthly subscription fee, you also get a fully fledged laptop. Its an Everex featuring a VIA C7-M 1.5GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, a 60GB HDD, DVD-ROM, 128MB VIA Chrome9 graphics, and WiFi in b/g flavors.

Not bad for $279 and $15 a month. I have yet to look at the contract terms, but I am sure there is something in there to keep you from buying the laptop and a month of service for under $300 and then ditching the service and installing your own OS. It is a good deal though for those who can’t be bothered to mess with things like off-site backups, virus software, and firewalls, this service would pretty much take care of all of that for you as well as connect you to a good amount of online storage allowing you remote access to your files and the ability to share them with friends and family.

Zonbu 15.4-inch laptop unveiled [via PCLaunches.com]

The notebooks will be available in sizes from 12.1 inches all the way up to 17 inches and will run the GOS version of Ubuntu 7.10. Everex is a subsidiary of a Taiwanese based company known as First International computer.

I guess we can expect the market to be flooded with Linux-based and cheap laptops and desktops in 2008. I am seriously considering going and buying one of those Everex desktops, and I can’t wait till their laptops come out.

Everex to offer Linux Notebooks under $300 in 2008 [via i4u]