We expected Mobile World Congress next month to be dominated by the Palm Pre, but Microsoft could be planning a few headline-grabbing announcements of their own. According to Neowin, three new Microsoft mobile services are slated for launch, together with the official unveil of Windows Mobile 6.5. They also suggest that the leaked GUI screenshots first spotted last November are authentic concept shots for the new WM6.5 honeycomb web start menu.
AMD could be preparing a new 3.1GHz Phenom II processor, for launch in Q2 2009, in the shape of the Phenom II X4 950. The chip, which is mentioned on a slide purportedly leaked from AMD themselves, has 8MB of total cache (which The Tech Report suggests could be split as 6MB of L3 and 512KB of L2 per core) together with a 125W thermal envelope, support for DDR3 1333MHz memory, and a 4GHz HyperTransport interface speed.
Having stopped by the FCC back in November, the newly-named Verizon Wireless Network Extender has now shown up in some staff briefing documents complete with a January 25th expected release date. Still rocking its Darth livery, underneath lurks the same Samsung femtocell as Sprint used in their AIRAVE; hooked up to your broadband connection, it creates your own personal CDMA cloud ideal for making calls in areas previously lacking Verizon coverage.
The 10-inch Acer Aspire One isn’t much of a mystery these days, with specs and estimated pricing both known, but until now we’d not seen photos of the netbook in question. Now, courtesy of Atharius, we can see exactly what changes Acer have made in scaling up their budget ultraportable from 8.9 to 10-inches: the white, glossy casing remains, but there are new end-cap details and, happily, the touchpad buttons have moved to their rightful place underneath, rather than either side.
While Apple’s Macworld keynote last week made no mention of the predicted Mac mini update, that hasn’t stopped the rumors regarding the company’s intent for the compact desktop computer. According to Tom’s Hardware, a NVIDIA partner has confirmed that Apple intend to use NVIDIA’s Ion platform for their new Mac mini, and in fact were the first to receive prototype units. The sources went on to suggest a March launch, coinciding with CeBIT.
Samsung have published the user manual for their upcoming netbook, the NC20, which is expected to launch next month. The NC20 has a 12-inch display running at 1280 x 800, 1.3GHz VIA Nano processor and a choice of HDD or SSD storage. There are also various tweaks to port positioning from the Samsung NC10, and what looks to be improved access to components via a larger panel in the base of the netbook.
Details of Archos’ upcoming entry into the netbook market have emerged, found among the files at ArchosTest.fr, and anyone hoping for something as interesting or concientously designed as the company’s Internet Media Tablets will be sorely disappointed. Instead, they’ve slapped their their brand on a dull OEM netbook design, the Hasee MJ125, with the usual 10-inch 1024 x 600 display, Atom 1.6GHz processor and 160GB hard-drive.
Images purported to be of HTC’s 2009 OEM range of smartphones have leaked. Twenty-five different devices are pictured, several of which are suggested as CDMA and GSM versions of the same handset, and the collection includes what looks to be a QWERTY-slider version of the HTC Touch HD, together with a new Android-based device codenamed the Hero.
Full gallery of leaked HTC 2009 devices after the cut
Acer had already confirmed that a larger version of their Aspire One netbook was coming in Q1 2009, and now we have more details and even an image. The 10.1-inch Acer Aspire One will be a larger evolution, rather than replacement, of the existing model, with the display running at the same 1024 x 600 resolution, but now have optional integrated 3G and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.
Details of an AMOLED touchscreen slider cellphone from Samsung have emerged, complete with an 8-megapixel autofocus camera and GPS. The Samsung S8300 has a 2.8-inch WQVGA 16m color AMOLED touchscreen and a widget-based interface; external hardware controls are limited to a D-pad and call/end buttons, although there’s a full numeric keypad on the slide.
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