The Litl Webbook met with confusion when it officially launched earlier this week. While the 12-inch notebook may resemble a netbook for kids, its $699 price tag slots it in among grown-up laptops, begging the questions of who exactly is the target audience and why should they bother? CrunchGear’s Doug Aamoth caught up with the Boston company to find out some more details plus get a hands-on play with the Webbook itself.
Video demo and interview after the cut
The thought of a ThinkPad netbook is enough to make anyone even vaguely familiar with Lenovo suspicious, but according to ThinkPadToday that’s exactly what the company have up their corporate sleeve. They’re claiming that the rumored ThinkPad X200e will actually drop as the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e on January 5th 2010, with the tagline “Entry level ultra portable, the first ThinkPad of its size”.
HTC’s CEO Peter Chou has reignited speculation that the company is preparing some sort of netbook. Chou apparently told reporters at the Taiwanese launch of the HTC HD2 that the company was “carefully looking into that category and how it can be part of that”; the comment echoes the chief executive’s vague allusions to a tablet or MID style device when SlashGear talked to him at the HD2’s debut in London last month.
According to ASUS UK, the company’s upcoming Eee PC 1201N complete with NVIDIA Ion graphics will be arriving in stores come December. Speaking to Electricpig, the company confirmed that the 12-inch Ion machine was imminent, but are yet to define the actual specifications. Meanwhile, ASUS’ first Smartbook has apparently been delayed according to a market specialist at the company, and is now not expected until Q2 2010.
Continued »
Having heard earlier this week that Apple had blocked Atom processor support in their latest build of OS X 10.6.2, we're now being told that the low-power Intel CPU has once again been welcomed back into the Mac fold. A newer 10.6.2 build, 10C535, has restored Atom support, meaning owners of netbook-turned-Hackint0sh machines may not be left without the latest software in their DIY Apple ultraportables.
Given that most netbook press releases look like photocopies of each other, we’re particularly intrigued by the Litl Webbook. Spotted last week whipping through the FCC, the Webbook is described by Litl as “an internet computer for the home” and uses a home-grown always-on OS; it can be used as a standard netbook or, flipped round, as a more passive TV device with an optional remote control and “TV style” control knob.
With the holidays fast approaching cell phone carriers are stocking up on inventory and amongst the new Motorola DROIDs, HTC Heroes, and Palm Pixies are a slightly larger, yet unfamiliar crop of devices – netbooks. AT&T is all giddy about its exclusive availability of the Nokia Booklet 3G and Sprint announced just yesterday that it will be selling the Dell Inspiron Mini 10V. Verizon already has three netbooks in its arsenal, including HP’s new powerful Mini 311. Clearly, lining up the selection isn’t a problem, but what the carriers haven’t figured out yet is that selling netbooks requires a totally different approach than selling phones. The deals and the subsidized model, in my mind, make as much sense for netbooks as building and then plowing a virtual Farmville farm!
OLPC chairman Nicholas Negroponte has revealed that the twin-display OLPC XO-2 2.0 project has been scrapped, in favor of an updated – but cosmetically identical – revamp of the existing 1.0 XO-1 model and a new, model 3.0 that has “totally different industrial design, more like a sheet of paper”. Speaking to Xconomy, the outspoken exec also sought to redefine the initial, well-publicized aim of “the $100 laptop” in terms of total cost of ownership: $1 per child per week to buy, maintain and connect the machine.
More OLPC model 3.0 details after the cut
Continued »
Celio have finally released their software driver for BlackBerry owners wishing to use the company's REDFLY "Mobile Companion" device. Announced back in September, the new software means the BlackBerry's display can be replicated on the netbook-sized REDFLY C8N and C7 terminals, with users able to take advantage of a larger keyboard and a trackpad for navigation.
Sprint have announced their first EVDO-enabled netbook, though they don’t quite seem to have figured out the magic tipping point that really pulls in the customers. The carrier is offering a Dell Inspiron Mini 10 with integrated EVDO Rev.A, but rather than do the sensible thing and hack great chunks off the up-front price (while knowing you’ll make it back with the mandatory two-year agreement) their netbook is in fact $199.99, and that’s after the rebate.
JP
