According to Digitimes, Acer plans to focus most aggressively on ultrabooks out of the four major product segments. The company is set to launch four new models in the second and third quarters. While ultrabooks are currently rather pricey, Acer intends to introduce models priced more moderately in the range of $699 to $799.

However, the company plans to compete less on price and more on user experience and demand. Acer president Jim Wong noted that the high-end and low-end markets are dominated by Apple and Amazon, respectively. Therefore Acer intends to focus on the mid-range, which has an estimated shipment scale of 10-20 million units.

The company also plans to merge its netbook and ultrabook businesses within the next 18-24 months. Although developed countries are increasingly interested in ultrabooks, netbooks still can thrive and grow in developing countries and Acer intends to maintain its 45 percent worldwide market share in that space.

[via Liliputing]

Running along the bottom edge is “a set of what appear to be LEDs” the report continues. Insiders at Microsoft have supposedly confirmed that the modified netbooks are indeed official demo units, though the expectation is that – unlike the original Kinect for the Xbox 360 – Microsoft will not itself be building computers with Kinect baked in.

Instead, the company is expected to license the Kinect system as an add-on to Windows 8. Gaming is one possibility – especially as we already know Xbox LIVE will be integrated into the new desktop platform – but there are other options including hands-free multimedia navigation, easier control of an HTPC or new usability for the disabled.

Microsoft’s approach isn’t the only one we’ve seen looking to add different control methods to Windows 8. Tobii unveiled its Gaze system earlier this month, using eye-tracking cameras to add an extra dimension to traditional mouse and keyboard navigation. However, Tobii’s previous eye-tracking hardware has been considerably more expensive than a Kinect sensor, while Microsoft is also believed to be readying a second-gen version accurate enough to allow for lip-reading.

[via Electronista]

“While Intel’s control of the brand ensures that Ultrabooks stand out from traditional notebooks, vendors face a balancing act in terms of product strategy” Juniper Research suggests. “Meeting Intel’s specification secures brand status and funding, but the step-change from notebooks means many of today’s Ultrabooks are too expensive for many consumers.”

In an attempt to corral pricing into some semblance of a shopper-acceptable ballpark, it’s expected that more OEMs will turn to cost-cutting trades like hybrid hard-drives. Rather than solely using flash storage, as Apple does in the MacBook Air, which is fast but expensive, a large proportion of Windows-based ultrabooks will instead pair traditional drives with a far smaller amount of solid-state memory, the latter used to speed boot and resume times while the former takes care of data storage.

The real victim, it’s suggested, will be netbooks: the budget ultraportables are expected to muster just a third of today’s volumes by 2016. CES 2012 certainly wasn’t short of ultrabooks though the most exciting ideas still come out of Intel than from its brand partners; meanwhile, Apple is expected to refresh the MacBook Air imminently.

So, you get a 93-percent full-sized keyboard and a multitouch trackpad, as well as a battery that’s apparently good for up to nine hours of runtime. Connectivity includes three USB 2.0 ports, VGA and audio in/out, along with an ethernet port, and there’s a microphone and stereo speakers along with the VGA-resolution webcam.

Wireless options include WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0+HS, and there’s the choice to add HSPA+ mobile broadband with GPS too. Storage is courtesy of a 320GB 5,400rpm hard-drive, though HP is happy to sell you a USB DVD burner as well.

A spill-resistant keyboard and motion-detecting hard-drive round out the key specs, while software is either Windows 7 or FreeDOS. Pricing for the HP Mini 1104 is from $399.

The Aspire A0722 packs a 1GHz AMD Fusion C-50 dual-core processor with Radeon HD 6250 graphics, 2GB of RAM, and a 320GB hard drive. It’s six-cell battery offers a long battery life, although the specific rating was not listed. It also comes with a webcam, three USB ports, VGA, Ethernet, and HDMI.

The A0722 is available now via www.att.com for $449.99 without an annual contract. But with a two-year service agreement that requires a 3GB monthly data plan, the netbook can be had for $39.99.

[via AT&T]

Whether from underestimating quite how demanding the tablet segment would turn out to be – blame, admittedly, that can be shared among most of Apple’s rivals – or rushing a half-baked OS to market, the PlayBook fell embarrassingly flat. What RIM had perceived as a coy ecosystem boost, making email and calendar functionality dependent on a tethered BlackBerry smartphone, was unsurprisingly perceived as a significant failing. The overall polish of the iPad was conspicuous by its absence, and RIM’s app store felt sparsely populated in comparison to Apple’s.

The ensuing price cuts and eventual $485m write-off are common knowledge now. Yet, had RIM kept its head and stuck to its existing strengths, the PlayBook debacle could’ve gone significantly differently.

BlackBerry’s reputation has always been about fantastic text entry. The company’s smartphones may not have been the best-spec’d, or the most attractive, but those who spend their days punching out message after message quickly grew to appreciate the trademark BlackBerry keyboard. RIM itself showed some understanding of that USP, back with its first touchscreen phones, even if the implementation was patchy. The SurePress haptic keyboard technology in the original Storm ended up turning off more typists than finding favor, but it was at least a sign that RIM recognized what made it special in the increasingly crowded smartphone segment.

How, then, might the PlayBook had fared if it was not a tablet, but an ultraportable notebook instead? If you’re thinking Palm Folio then you’re on the right lines, perhaps, or more recently Motorola’s Lapdock range of ultraportable alternatives. Motorola hasn’t detailed sales of its various Lapdock options, so it’s hard to know whether they’ve been a runaway success or a slow-burner, but RIM arguably has more of a reputation for polished text entry than Moto every did.

RIM’s target audience was going to need some serious persuading to ditch its laptop, and the 7-inch PlayBook was never going to do that. The company argued that it offered a more spacious way to triage a bulging inbox and respond to messages, but it could have done better providing a decent-scale physical keyboard paired with all-day battery life and a larger display.

Where the Folio and Lapdock are reliant by design on a smartphone, RIM could have given its PlayBook laptop a brain of its own. In fact, a 360-degree hinge as Lenovo showed on its YOGA concept last week would’ve allowed the company to tick both touchscreen tablet and solid text-entry ability boxes. Even as a regular ultraportable, RIM could have positioned it as a legitimate alternative to a full-sized notebook, rather than a third device to carry alongside your PC and your smartphone.

Unfortunately, it seems RIM is still driving ahead with its tablet ambitions. According to leaked roadmap information earlier today, the company has an eye on two new PlayBook tablets for 2012, initially a 3G-enabled 7-inch model, followed at the tail-end of the year with a 10-inch version toting 4G LTE.

Is the situation unsalvageable? Not necessarily. Lenovo has already borrowed ASUS’ battery-packing keyboard dock idea from the Eee Pad Transformer, so RIM may as well strike out with its own homage too. It’ll undoubtedly be bulkier than a true ultraportable companion device, but likely still smaller than the regular notebook the company could legitimately say it replaces.

RIM needs to stop trying to mimic Apple wholesale and instead focus on adopting the company’s more successful strategies: playing to your strengths, knowing your audience, and launching devices that set out exactly what they can do and deliver on it in a polished manner. The enterprise juggernaut takes a long time to turn around; that gives RIM more time to reposition than, say, a consumer-centric company. On the flip-side, though, should its business clients finally abandon it, RIM may discover it’s all but impossible to coax them back into the fold.

The peak of success thus far for netbooks was basically the entire year of 2008, as Miller notes, but as the decline continues to run since then, single digits to low double digits as the past year progressed, the emerging market still has a lot of wanting to take advantage of. What Intel needs to do here is make the success found in the $199 price point of this past Christmas turn into a continued success through the next year. To make an affordable small, compact internet connected device and let people know why they would want or not want to own one:

“We don’t want people to be confused on ‘should I buy a netbook or should I buy a laptop.’” – Miller

The value still exists in the netbook as a secondary device, so says Intel.

“If you’re a consumer heading into Best Buy and you don’t know what you need, we want to have options for both.” – Miller

As tablets released over the past few weeks and even just this week have changed the landscape for tablets, so too does Intel plan on changing the mobile environment on the whole with not just changes to single specifications in hardware, but in the full package. John Wallace spoke on this, saying that it’s the details, but not just the details, all of the details together that matter most.

“There’s potential to differentiate with a unified story.” – Wallace

You bet – and we expect many more manufacturers than just Intel to announce their intent to push a full package to the public rather than just the next big single specification. A fabulous column you should all take a look at once you’re done reading the above is one written by Chris Davies and entitled Context, not cores, is the tablet industry’s challenge.

Other connectivity on the slate includes WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI and VGA, and Gigabyte has designed a matching USB keyboard and carry-case. An optical trackpad can be found in the bezel, along with a 1.3-megapixel webcam. The dock also has a number of extra ports.

As for the Gigabyte T1006M, it’s a return to the convertible netbook days with a 10.1-inch capacitive multitouch display running at 1366 x 768. Connectivity includes USB 3.0, just as with the slate, and there’s integrated 3.5G WWAN. Gigabyte is making some boasts about the lengthy battery life from the 6-cell battery, though there’s no actual numbers to be found.

No word on pricing or availability at this stage.

Lenovo IdeaPad S Series

“Netbook” has become a dirty word in computing so allow Lenovo to endear you to the IdeaPad S200 and S206, two models supposedly offering a little more than what you might expect from a netbook. Each has an 11.6-inch HD widescreen display, Atom dual-core processor (S200) or AMD dual-core processor (S206) and up to 32GB SSD, they’re 0.81-inches thick and 2.8-pounds on the scales.

Chiclet keys, WiFi b/g/n and optional Bluetooth, along with a 0.3-megapixel webcam and Lenovo Quick Start “instant on” are useful, but the 4hrs of battery life seems on the low side. The S200 and S206 will go on sale in June from $349.

Lenovo IdeaPad Z Series

The IdeaPad Z580, Z480 and Z380 offer 15.6-inch, 14-inch and 13.3-inch displays, respectively, with Intel Core processors and up to NVIDIA GeForce GT640M 2GB graphics powering 1366 x 768 resolution panels and HDMI outputs. DVD or Blu-ray drives, WiDi and various multimedia processing apps lean on the entertainment message. They’ll go on sale in April from $599.

Lenovo IdeaPad G Series

Lenovo’s affordable line-up kicks off from $399 in June, with the F480, G580 and G780 offering 14-, 15.6- and 17.3-inch displays respectively. Veriface facial recognition, sensible and durable designs and basic multimedia are on offer.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y Series

$899 upwards gets you the Lenovo IdeaPad Y Series, out in April, with the Y480 having a 14-inch Full HD display and the Y580 having a 15.6-inch Full HD display. Intel Core processors, up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX660M 2GB graphics and Dolby Home Theater V4 sound paired with JBL speakers round out a multimedia and gaming powerhouse, while the backlit keyboard and HD camera with night-view are neat touches. A TV tuner is optional, and works with the WiDi wireless display streaming.

Hinges are low-profile and integrated, the keyboard keeps the popular chiclet design and it seems ASUS is still looking to push multiple color options, at least going by the above render. It’s a more grown-up look, than the somewhat toy-like previous stylings of most netbooks, though the biggest question still remains around performance.

ASUS demonstrated a number of Cedar Trail prototypes at Computex, and the first model to use the new processors is believed to be the Eee PC Flare 1225C, a variant of the 12-inch AMD Brazos based model announced last week. 10-inch options, the Eee PC Flare 1025 series, are also expected.

Acer’s Aspire One D270 netbook will be the successor to the D260 (pictured above) and will feature a 10.1-inch display running on a faster 1.6GHz Atom N2600 processor with 1GB of RAM and 320GB of hard drive storage. It will come with either a three-cell or six-cell battery, currently priced at 250 euros or $324 USD for the three-cell model and 269 euros or $348 USD for the six-cell variant. The netbook will likely come in an assortment of colors.

The D270′s N2600 processor is built on Intel’s Cedar Trail architecture with a dual 32nm core. It features Hyperthreading along with a 400MHz embedded graphics core. The next-gen Atom processor was originally slated to arrive in September, but GPU issues have delayed its arrival, pushing new Cedar Trail netbook past the holidays to launch in mid-January.

[via Notebook Italia]

Business buyers hoping for a netbook can still find the Latitude 2120 for sale, though with prices starting from $469 they’re unlikely to find much favor among general consumers. Better, then, to wait for what Dell has up its sleeve next; the company confirmed to The Verge that its general netbook days were over and Intel’s Cedar Trail chips wouldn’t change that.

Instead, “thin and powerful is where it is at for us” Dell marketing director Alison Gardner told the site, with models in the vein of the XPS 14z being the direction the PC company is looking to. Dell’s first ultrabooks are expected to show up in Q1 2012, meaning a CES reveal in early January is likely.

Many have suggested that netbooks will be killed off by the growing tablet segment, though Dell has also taken a knife to its tablet range too. Although it claims the Dell Inspiron Duo - currently listed as unavailable – is merely temporarily out of stock and still selling well, it recently axed its Streak 7 tablet. Instead, the company supposedly plans to focus on Windows 8 for future tablets.

The Asus netbooks tipped including the 1011CX and 1015CX will have a chassis similar to the 1011 and 1015 machines. The tech specs that have surfaced point to an Atom N2600 processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 320GB HDD. The display is a 10.1-inch unit and they run Windows 7 Starter. The price is on some websites at 300 euros. The X101CH uses the N2600 as well running at 1.6GHz with 1GB of RAM. The cost on this machine is thought to be under 250 euros.

Samsung’s Cedar Trail offerings include the N102S and NC110. The N102S will use the Atom N2100 with 1GB of RAM, a 10.1-inch screen, and Windows 7 Starter. This machine is expected to land for around 280 euros. The N102 has the N2600 at 1.6GHz, 320GB HDD, 1GB of RAM, and a 10.1-inch screen. It is expected to go for around 320 euros. It’s interesting to note that Samsung says it is phasing out 10.1-inch notebooks and heading to 11.6 to 12-inch machines.

These three devices are all powerhouses in their own right, and you’ve got to note that the newest ASUS doesn’t yet have a final build on it. That said, below you’ll find just a couple of benchmarks while the rest are sitting on NetBookLive where they originated from. Have a peek at what it means to be running the newest bit of automotive inspired computer design:

What you’ll see is first PC Mark 05, which is a CPU-based test, then 3DMark 06, which tests graphics. This Asus Lamborghini VX6 will cost you anywhere between $500 and $700 and the EEE PC 1215B rights right around the $300 range. The newest Lamborghini model is set to cost $500 USD+ and will be released SOON. While you wait, click the thumbnail in the gallery below for a sweet wallpaper coming straight from ASUS official.

[via NetBookLive]

BlueStacks released an alpha of its Player software for Windows earlier this month, allowing Windows users to load Android apps and run them with no modifications involved. Apps can be loaded from the regular .APK file, and played in either full-screen or windowed. A Mac version is in the pipeline, and the company confirmed it was in further talks with PC manufacturers regarding preloading BlueStacks onto new computers and tablets.

AMD says it expects to use the BlueStacks investment to leverage tablets and computers running on AMD processors, while Citrix is eyeing the software’s potential in enterprise settings. AMD has previously admitted that it was slow to broach the mobile computing market, only recently launching chips suitable for tablets and still ignoring smartphones.

Like Intel, AMD has struggled to gain traction among slates, seeing rival ARM picked for the majority of tablets for its chipsets’ low power consumption and solid multimedia potential. So far Windows-based models have been the exception, but Microsoft has confirmed it is working on Windows 8 on ARM builds for 2012.

Having cross-platform Android app compatibility could certainly work in AMD’s favor, and help the company differentiate between its chips and those of rival Intel. Reports out of Taipei have suggested AMD’s bargain pricing is already biting into Intel’s Atom sales.

[via GigaOm]

Hardware and Design

Chromebooks are built to a budget – Samsung is offering the Series 5 in the US at $429.99 for the WiFi-only and $499.99 for the 3G version, while in the UK it’s £349.99 for the WiFi-only model and £399.99 for the 3G – and so you get a mixture of laptop and notebook functionality and style. Our white review unit is eye-catching, certainly, with a glossy lid and gently rounded black plastic elsewhere. Stylistically it reminds us of the N310 netbook, though we wish the rubberized chassis had been carried over too.

Open the thin lid up, and there’s a reasonably sized bezel around the 12.1-inch 16:10 display. Samsung has used one of its so-called SuperBright LED panels, running at 1280 x 800, and we can’t fault the quality or colors; it’s also non-gloss, which makes it easy to use without reflections. Above is a 1-megapixel webcam. The whole thing weighs in at 3.26-pounds, which makes it heavier than a netbook but reasonable for a notebook.

The keyboard and oversized touchpad look somewhat cheap but are decent to type on, the keys themselves being large and nicely spaced. Cost constraints mean you don’t get backlighting. Because of the new Chrome OS the layout is somewhat different to what you might be used to on a Windows or OS X notebook: “ctrl” and “alt” in the lower left are broader than normal, the caps-lock has been swapped for a dedicated Google search key, and the function key row has been replaced by feature buttons. As well as dedicated back/forward keys, there’s a refresh button, full-screen button, window-switching, brightness and volume control.

We may be expected to start our new lives scurrying around the internet pipes, but Samsung and Google do at least realize that we still have peripherals we might want to plug in. Ports on the Series 5 include a proprietary VGA out (with a bundled adapter cable in the box) and two full-sized USB 2.0, along with a mic/headphones combo, a SIM slot (with a Three SIM preloaded) and a full-sized SD card reader. No ethernet port, however, with WiFi b/g/n or, on certain models, 3G to get you connected.

Inside is where things get shaky. The Chromebook Series 5 may be larger than a netbook, but it uses the same Intel Atom processor as you might find in one: a 1.66GHz N570, to be precise, paired with integrated graphics and 2GB of RAM. Samsung’s speakers are weedy and underwhelming too, lacking bass and grating at the top end of the volume range. 16GB of flash storage underlines the web-centric focus.

Overall, then, it all works, but it doesn’t exactly feel premium. That’s okay when you’re spending a couple of hundred on a netbook, but the Chromebook Series 5 occupies the blurred middle-ground between netbook and notebook. It’s a space where strong competition has driven regular Windows laptop prices down to tempting levels.

Software

The browser is undoubtedly the most commonly-used app on most people’s computers these days, so Google’s argument makes quite a bit of sense: why not junk the rest and just live online? Chromebooks promise resilience from viruses and malware – because just about everything is held at bay in the cloud – and utter simplicity, too. If something stops working then you close the browser tab and start again.

For those suffering the blue screen of death or Word disappearing and taking their carefully-crafted thesis with them, that all sounds tempting. Even if you’re an adept computer user yourself, you probably have friends and family who aren’t so skilled, and who likely turn to you for their unofficial tech support. Wouldn’t it be better to point them to a Chromebook and let them scamper freely across the web?

In some ways, yes. Chrome is familiar from the regular browser already available for Windows and Mac, only now you can’t escape it: Chrome OS has no Start menu or dock bar, no way to minimize the app and see the desktop. In fact, Chrome is the desktop. Where a Windows user might expect to find minimize/maximize and close controls in the top right corner, there’s a clock, wireless indicator and battery gage. The settings icon to the right of the address bar now not only controls browser configuration but the few options Chrome OS allows you: user accounts, touchpad sensitivity, wireless networks and the like.

Go to Gmail, or YouTube, or Google Docs and it’s just as you’d expect from your regular computer. Your bookmarks – if you’re a regular Chrome user – are pulled across too. In fact, if you’ve already committed your online life to Google’s various services, getting up to speed is a simple matter of mashing in your password. Various optional apps bring things like IM+ (for instant messaging), TweetDeck (for Twitter) and Angry Birds (for, well, hurling birds) into your life.

Unfortunately, around about here is where things start to go rough at the edges. Angry Birds may be a suggested game in the Chrome App Store, but it doesn’t play nicely with the Atom CPU. Glitchy graphics are something we didn’t expect to see on a title that plays problem-free on our phone. Full HD YouTube videos were also more than the Series 5 could cope with, though 720p was manageable. Other cloud services – like Spotify, for instance – fall foul of the missing local app support; their music catalogs may be online, but they require a local client in order to access them.

Then come the headaches of trying to step outside Google’s garden. Plugging in a mouse or a USB keyboard is fine, but try to access files on a USB stick or SD card and there are headaches galore. Some of those are merely UI head-scratchers – dragging & dropping may be a common practice on regular notebooks, but try to drag a file from your Chromebook to the little file explorer window that pops up when you plug external storage in and you’ll have no luck; instead, you have to save the file through the browser’s dialog – but others are more frustrating. The range of supported local file types is limited – JPG and PNG for images, MP3 and M4A for audio, MP4 and MOV for video – whereas Google’s online services like Gmail can handle a broader range. Ironically we often resorted to emailing a file back to ourselves so that Google’s online file viewer could display it.

Connectivity

If you want the cloud then you need a connection. Google was much maligned when Chrome OS first launched – on the Cr-48 developer machine – for the absence of offline support. Gmail, Google Calendar, your Google Contacts, everything demanded access to the internet in order to work. If you didn’t have a WiFi network handy or a 3G mobile connection, then your Chromebook was pretty much useless.

Google’s recent update to Gmail, Calendar and Docs, adding offline support, has partially addressed that. Just as in the regular Chrome browser, it’s now possible to cache certain aspects of each service locally, so that even without a connection you can continue to work. In the case of Gmail, that means you can browse through anything up to a week’s worth of messages in your inbox, assign labels and stars, create new emails and reply to existing ones. They’re saved until you next get online, when Gmail can sync again.

Calendar support is less flexible, allowing you to view your appointments and send schedule acceptances, but not actually create a new appointment. Similarly, Google Docs will let you read text and spreadsheets when offline, but you can’t create new ones or edit any existing ones. Presentations are completely inaccessible: forget running your next meeting from your Chromebook if you can’t get online while you’re there.

Altogether, it means the 3G-enabled version of the Samsung Series 5 makes a whole lot more sense than the WiFi-only model, unless you know for certain you’ll only be using it amid blanked WiFi coverage. Whereas integrated 3G is generally a luxury in a notebook, for a Chromebook it can be the difference between being able to work or being sat in front of a “can’t connect” message. In our test unit, Three UK charges £15.99 per month for 15GB of data, a healthy amount; in the US, Verizon offers 100MB per month free (for two years) or various prepay plans ranging from daily to monthly. Bear in mind you’re browsing the full internet, however, not some cut-down mobile version on your phone, and as such general use will consume more MB than you might expect.

Battery

Google and Samsung’s decision to use Intel’s Atom processor is, in part, because of the promise of longer battery life. The spec sheet promises up to 8.5hrs from the non-user-accessible 8,280 mAh pack; in practice, with a WiFi connection, we managed over seven hours of use before we needed to recharge. Of particular note are the standby times, with very little power used up between us closing the lid and opening it later.

Wrap-Up

In many ways the Samsung Chromebook Series 5 – and indeed Chromebooks in general – makes perfect sense. Being able to throw open the lid of your notebook and get online in seconds, with little in the way of config or battery concerns, is a liberating experience. The Samsung design isn’t going to give Apple any sleepless nights, but it delivers in most of the places it matters: the keyboard, the display, the battery.

Unfortunately it also drops the ball when it comes to power, and the Atom processor proves incapable of handling even Chrome OS’ constrained list of applications. Google’s offline support, though recently improved, still makes connectivity assumptions that our daily use couldn’t live up to. With no WiFi or mobile signal the Series 5 was of less use than our smartphone.

Chrome OS has promise, certainly. A simple platform for everyday users remains a tempting prospect; unfortunately, those we gave the Chromebook to in order to test the theory generally came back with questions about file support and other issues. In short, the problems had migrated from over-complexity in a regular notebook to under-complexity in the Samsung. We spend a lot of our time in the browser, yes, but not all of it, and ironically Chrome OS does a very good job of reminding us of that fact. If it was priced to suit its part-time companion functionality – perhaps a hundred or so less off the MRSP – then it would make far more sense. As it stands, though, we’d still opt for a regular notebook over Chrome OS.

The last delay had to do with issues regarding the graphics driver on the Cedar Trail processor. The architecture is built on a 32nm process and has the GPU residing on the same die as the CPU. At the time, the platform failed to attain Windows 7 certification, likely due to media encoding problems.

Now that issue should be fixed, but the platform has also added some new features. Cedar Trail will now support Intel Smart Connect Technology and Fast Boot & Standby, which uses Intel’s Rapid Start technology.

The Intel Smart Connect feature lets your computer periodically check on web apps such as Facebook and Twitter while in sleep mode. This way, your computer is always connected and updating even while you’re away.

Rapid Start lets devices resume from hibernation in less than 7 seconds. These boot times should become standard on all Ultrabooks and will be exclusive to Ultrabooks until Cedar Trail netbooks launch.

[via NetbookNews]

According to a source familiar with the situation, Intel plans to show Windows 8 running on tablets and notebooks with new Atom processors. The rumored Windows 8 Samsung tablet will also be running on Intel chips. Intel will be focused on its next-gen Medfield chips and providing more details on its ultrabooks during the Intel Developer Forum, but may also introduce netbooks running on Atom chips.

Windows 8 supports both the Intel x86 platform as well as the ARM architecture, allowing Intel rivals to expand into the PC business. NVIDIA and Texas Instruments are both expected to also show off some Windows 8 hardware at Build. Hopefully, we’ll get to see Windows 8 running on NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 or quad-core “Kal-El” processor, which are confirmed to be compatible and are due out later this year.

[via PC World]

The X101 netbook features 10.1-inch display with 1024 x 600 pixel resolution, 1.33Ghz Intel Atom N435 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB SSD. Connectivity options include WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, two USB 2.0 ports, audio, and an SD card slot. There’s also a webcam and stereo speakers. Battery life is rated at 4 hours with its standard 3-cell battery.

The specs aren’t too impressive, but that’s not surprising given its low cost. However, it does feature an incredibly slim chassis measuring only 0.69-inches thin and weighing about 2 pounds. And it also offers the Linux-based operating system, MeeGo, as an alternative to your usual Windows 7, if you’re into that kind of thing.

[via Liliputing]

For Q2 2011, the Acer reports a loss of 6.8 billion New Taiwan Dollars (NT$) or about $236 million, which is far more than the anticipated shortfall of NT$3.3 billion or $114.7 million and a drastic difference from its NT$1.19 billion or $43 million profit posted in the previous quarter. The company expects to continue operating in the red for the rest of this year, saying that it would be impossible to break even for the full year.

However, Acer Chairman J.T. Wang insists that tablets are only a fad and that he expects the “fever” for tablets to recede. The year before, Wang had predicted that the iPad’s market share would fall to between 20 and 30 percent of the tablet market, but to date, the iPad still takes well over 50 percent of tablet sales.

Acer has also had to deal with the departure of its CEO Gianfranco Lanci followed with internal conflicts on the company’s strategy. Transitioning its focus from it’s once flourishing netbook business to tablets, the company has in recent months released the Acer Iconia Tab A500 and A100 Android tablets.

[via Reuters]

Both of the machines run the same Atom N435 processor and sport 10.1-inch displays. The price for the N100 has been reported at about $200 here in the US by Russian and Indian websites. The official price for Europe or the US hasn’t been offered. The N435 processor operates at 1.33GHz. The screen for the machines is a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 resolution offering.

It has anti-glare coating, which is a very nice thing to have if you work in a room with lights on or outdoors. Graphics for both machines is via Intel GMA integrated. Storage is to a 250GB 5400 rpm HDD. Other features include a 3-cell battery, 1GB of RAM, and a memory card reader, VGA out, and USB ports. The price for the N102 is thought to be $299.

[via Notebookitalia]

Intel has reportedly hit a snag with the Cedar Trail platform and has been forced to push the launch of the platform from September to November. The reason for the delay is said to be issues with the graphics driver that resulted in the platform failing its Windows 7 certification. Cedar Trail processors are built on 32nm manufacturing process and will be the first netbook platform to use the 32nm tech.

Cedar Trail is a unified architecture platform. That means it has the processing cores and the GPU on the same die. Cedar Trail graphics are supposed to support DirectX 10.1 and have hardware decoding capabilities for HD content. The best guess on the specific problem is that the platform failed at media encoding. Submitting the drivers for recertification will take time, hence the delay of roughly a month for the launch schedule.

[via Physorg]

This case is the newest addition to Pelican’s already fantastically large set of hardcore cases. You’ve got the choice here of either the standard 1075 HardBack Case or the 1075CC HardBack Case with Netbook Liner. What’s that, you don’t have a Netbook anymore because it was foretold that the Netbook was dead? It may be time for you to check out the last of that breed (or perhaps the first in the resurgence:) the Verizon Compaq Mini CQ10-688nr, the first 4G LTE netbook on earth. But of course you could still toss your iPad 2 in there just as easily.

This case is the most hardcore piece of protection for your flat piece of hardware you’re likely to find, having a lifetime guarantee of excellence to boot. The dimensions of this case ring in at 11.38″ x 8.19″ x 1.63″ (28.9 x 20.8 x 4.1 cm) and its watertight gasket makes sure that even after its fallen down a mountain, getting dropped in a lake won’t harm your device inside. There’s an easy-open latch that remains shut no matter what you toss at it (unless you want to open it, of course,) and an automatic purge valve makes sure water and dust stay out while it balances air pressure throughout.

This case has an ever-so-convenient Pick N Pluck convoluted lid foam, a removable shoulder strap, and is good for any piece of electronics including external hard drives. This case again has a lifetime guarantee and is watertight, crushproof, and dust proof. You can get a quote on how much you’re going to be spending on this case today!

The screen of the machine has an anti-glare coating and the netbook uses the Intel Atom N455 CPU at 1.66GHz. The machine packs in a 250GB HDD and has 1GB of DDR3 RAM. The netbook also has a VGA resolution webcam for video chatting.

Other features include WiFi and a media card reader. The netbook will sell for $449.99 with a new 2-year customer agreement. The buyer will also need a monthly data plan with 2GB of monthly data for $30, 5GB of monthly data is $50, and 10GB of monthly data is $80.

While initial indications suggested that ASUS would offer the X101 as a dual-booting machine able to load into either MeeGo or Windows 7, the company later decided to split the two platforms between two separate models. That’s left the X101 to be the low-cost option, with a sub-$200 RRP, while the X101H running Windows 7 is a hundred dollars or so extra. [Update: We mistakenly suggested the X101 would be sub-$100; it's actually expected to be sub-$200]

Connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0, along with two USB 2.0 ports, audio in/out, an SD/SDHC memory card reader and a power socket to charge the standard 3-cell battery. ASUS reckons that’s good for up to 4hrs runtime, which is on the low side for a modern netbook. There’s also a 0.3-megapixel webcam and stereo speakers, and the X101 will be available in white, red or brown.

Interestingly, ASUS preloads a copy of the British Council English Language Learning app, complete with interactive games, videos and audio files, intended to assist non-English speakers to get up to speed. Whether the X101′s target audience will really appreciate that – or whether, perhaps more likely, it’ll be the first thing to be deleted from that mere 8GB of flash storage – remains to be seen.

[Thanks to everybody who sent this in!]

PC business revenue for Intel rose by 11 percent year-over-year, indicating that PC sales have yet to be majorly impacted by more mobile developments but have certainly slowed. Their Intel Atom chipset business dropped 15 percent year-over-year, which reflects the decline in netbook sales. This raises concerns in the company’s transition to smartphones and tablets.

However, when asked about Intel’s missing presence in the mobile device market, the company argued that they’re actually already a major mobile device player because they power all of the data centers that deliver content to mobile devices via cloud computing. Indeed, there was a strong demand for Intel’s server chips with their data center group revenue increasing by 15 percent.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in a statement that “Strong corporate demand for our most advanced technology, the surge of mobile devices and Internet traffic fueling data center growth, and the rapid rise of computing in emerging markets drove record results.”

[via ZDNet]

Liliputing has reached out to Samsung to see what the delay in shipping the netbook is. Apparently, there was a delay in getting the solar panels the rig needs. The delay in getting the solar panels means that the notebook will now ship in mid to late August. That is roughly a month wait if you want the netbook. You can still pre-order the rig on Amazon.

If you missed the post yesterday other than the solar panel on top, the machine has basic netbook hardware inside. That means a 1.66GHz Atom N570 and a 10.1-inch screen with the matte finish I mentioned and 1024 x 600 resolution. There are more details on the solar panel now too. The unit used will generate enough power to provide another hour of run time for every two hours of sun exposure.

[via Liliputing]

The machine has a 10.1-inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 and that screen has a matte finish. Matte finish is a good thing for a notebook that will be used in the sun a lot. You can only get the machine in black and Amazon doesn’t note the official launch date. The netbook runs an Atom N570 processor and has 1GB of RAM inside.

Storage is to a 250GB HDD and the machine has WiFi, Bluetooth, and a LAN port and runs Windows 7 Starter. I wonder how well the solar panels work and how much extra run time the user can expect. The typical solar panel isn’t very efficient and takes a long time to charge. The pre-order price is $399.

[via Netbooknews]

There’s also WiFi b/g/n, 10/100 ethernet, a 0.3-megapixel webcam and digital microphone, along with 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard-drive as standard. OS is Windows 7 Starter, unlike the dual-booting fun of last year’s models which offered both the Microsoft software and a copy of Android 2.1.

Still, there’s a molded ripple in the lid to make sure the “happy” levels are suitably topped up, and you could always use it as an ashtray or oversized nutmeg grater if in a pinch. The netbooks measure 1-inch thick and weigh a little over 2.5lbs, while the keyboard is 93-percent full-sized.

The new Acer Aspire One Happy 2 Series Netbooks are on sale in the US now, priced at $269.99.

Both of the new netbooks run the same Intel Atom N435 processor. The difference comes in the operating system that the machines use. The X101 will run the MeeGo OS while the X101H will run Windows 7. Unless the MeeGo netbook is much cheaper I don’t see it doing that well honestly. Both netbooks pack in a 10-inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600. They also both have SSDs for storage and a 6-cell battery powers both machines.

The X101 netbook will reportedly land in July starting at $199. The X101H will also land in July and will sell for somewhere in the $310 to $350 range. That MeeGo machine is very cheap. It’s not mentioned but I suspect to hit that low price some specs will be different on the MeeGo netbook with less RAM and storage than the Windows unit. What do you think; does a MeeGo netbook at $199 sound like something you would buy?

[via Notebookitalia]

On the outside, the new Lamborghini VX6S looks almost identical to its predecessor. The case and design still have the same style keyboard and trackpad. The only things noticeably different was that the VX6S on display was sporting a bright orange glossy hood and the palm rest was covered in leather.

The real changes are on the inside, where ASUS has now upgraded the processor and switched the graphics card from the NVIDIA ION to the AMD Radeon HD 6470M. The specs listed also mentions AMD’s HD3D capabilities of the graphic chip, which could mean a 3D display for the VX6S.

However, the display model was only a prototype, and the ASUS reps deliberated a bit when asked about possible 3D support before answering “no.” A lot of the specs could still be up in the air and even misprinted. The spec list had the words “New Intel Atom Processor NM10″ when NM10 is actually the Express Chipset used for Atom D510.

Nonetheless, the other specs are fairly standard with a 12.1-inch display, Bluetooth, Wireless N, 500 GB hard-drive, card-reader, and Windows 7 Home Premium. Pricing and release date are not yet available.

[via NetbookLive]

With the new focus on thin netbooks thanks to rigs like the MacBook Air and others, the Canoe Lake design is finally going to be built and sold to consumers. Malta will sell the design, though when it will sell the rig is unknown. The little spec card that sits along with the thin and sexy netbook gives up the details on the machine. It has a 10.1-inch screen and if I am reading the blurry print correctly the processor inside is a Cedar View processor. The machine will have either 1GB or 2GB of RAM as well.

It has dual USB 2.0 ports, a SD card slot, VGA out, and a headphone and mic out port. The machine has integrated WiFi and Bluetooth is optional. The netbook will use Windows 7 and will measure 15-18mm thick. The weight of the machine is unknown as is the selling price and availability. Check out the video below to see for yourself.

[via JKKMobile]

Cedar Trail devices will be fanless and have even thinner chassis than we’ve seen to-date. They’ll support Intel’s latest sleep technologies, like Rapid Start for MacBook Air-style flash standby and instant resume, along with Intel Smart Connect to allow for software updates even while the netbook is in standby.

There’s also Intel WiDi for wireless displays, and synchronization technologies across multiple platforms. As well as Windows support there’ll be Chrome OS and MeeGo options, while Intel is promising battery life in the 10hr+ bracket and “weeks” of standby time. NetbookNews already grabbed some hands-on time with ASUS’ Eee PC 1025c Cedar Trail netbook, and you can see their video below.

As for smartphones and tablets, Medfield will arrive to replace the currently available Atom Z670 – which has already found its way into more than 10 slates, and will show up in convertibles, sliders and other form-factors before Medfield debuts in the first half of 2012 – bringing Android 3.0 Honeycomb support among other things. Set to go into production later in 2011, Medfield will, Intel reckons, allow for sub-9mm tablets at under 1.5 pounds, despite also having sufficient grunt to do some gaming.

Press Release:

Intel’s Maloney Talks Mobile Growth, Industry Opportunities at Computex

New Roadmaps Across Intel® Core™ and Atom™ Processor Families to Usher in Next Wave of Laptops and Connected Mobile Devices

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Intel defines new category of mainstream thin and light mobile computers, called Ultrabook™.
Intel aims to shift 40 percent of consumer laptops to the Ultrabook™ by end of 2012.
Separately, Intel is accelerating the Atom™ processor roadmap to a one-process-generation per year cadence to enable a wider range of optimized solutions for multiple market segments.
Intel highlighted its next-generation, fanless netbook platform, codenamed “Cedar Trail,” a range of new Atom processor-based tablets available today, and a “Medfield” tablet reference design for sub-9mm designs, weighing less than 1.5 pounds and supporting a choice of operating systems.

COMPUTEX, Taipei, May 31, 2011 – Intel Corporation Executive Vice President Sean Maloney today said that by the end of 2012, 40 percent of the consumer laptop market segment will encompass an emerging new breed of no-compromise computers, called “Ultrabook™,” which will increasingly combine best-in-class performance, improved responsiveness and security in thin, elegant form factors.

During the opening keynote speech at Computex, one of the world’s largest technology trade shows, Maloney provided further details on the significant changes Intel is making to the Intel® Core™ processor roadmap to enable this new category. He also reiterated Intel’s push to accelerate the pace of innovation for Intel® Atom™ processor-based system-on-chips (SoCs) for netbooks, smartphones, tablets, and other companion devices.

“Computing is taking many forms,” said Maloney. “Technology innovation is a catalyst, and we believe the changes Intel is making to its roadmaps, together with strong industry collaboration, will bring about an exciting change in personal computing over the next few years.”

The “Ultrabook™”

Intel’s vision is to enable a new user experience by accelerating a new class of mobile computers. These computers will marry the performance and capabilities of today’s laptops with tablet-like features and deliver a highly responsive and secure experience, in a thin, light and elegant design. The Ultrabook™ will be shaped by Moore’s Law and silicon technology in the same way they have shaped the traditional PC for the past 40 years.

Maloney described three key phases in the company’s strategy to accelerate this vision, which begins to unfold today with the company’s latest 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processors. This family of products will enable thin, light and beautiful designs that are less than 20mm (0.8 inch) thick, and mainstream price points under US$1,000. Systems based on these chips will be available for the 2011 winter holiday shopping season and include the UX21, ASUS* Ultrabook™. ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih joined Maloney on stage to showcase the company’s new ultra-thin laptop based on the latest 2nd Generation Intel Core processor.

“At ASUS, we are very much aligned with Intel’s vision of Ultrabook™,” said Shih. “Our customers are demanding an uncompromised computing experience in a lightweight, highly portable design that responds to their needs quickly. Transforming the PC into an ultra thin, ultra responsive device will change the way people interact with their PC.”

Building on the latest 2nd Generation Intel Core technology, Maloney outlined the next generation Intel processor family codenamed “Ivy Bridge,” which is scheduled for availability in systems in the first half of 2012. Laptops based on “Ivy Bridge” will bring improved power efficiency, smart visual performance, increased responsiveness and enhanced security. “Ivy Bridge” is the first high-volume chip based on Intel’s 22 nanometer (nm) manufacturing technology that uses a revolutionary 3-D transistor design called Tri-Gate announced in May. Maloney also highlighted complementary USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt™ technologies which are part of Intel’s ongoing work to drive the PC platform forward.

Following “Ivy Bridge,” planned 2013 products codenamed “Haswell” are the third step toward achieving the Ultrabook™ and reinventing the capabilities of the laptop in ultra thin and light, responsive and more secure designs. With “Haswell,” Intel will change the mainstream laptop thermal design point by reducing the microprocessor power to half of today’s design point.

Accelerating the Intel® Atom™ Processor Roadmap

Maloney highlighted key milestones and additional details on upcoming generations of Intel Atom processor-based platforms for tablets, netbooks and smartphones. The Atom processor will outpace Moore’s Law, accelerating from 32nm through 22nm to 14nm within 3 successive years. Having a cadence of a new-process-generation every year will result in significant reduction in transistor leakage, lower active power and an increase of transistor density to enable more powerful smartphones, tablets, and netbooks with more features and longer battery life.

Reaching its 100 million-unit milestone this month, Intel is preparing its next-generation netbook platform, codenamed “Cedar Trail.” “Cedar Trail” is the first netbook platform based on Intel’s 32nm technology, and will enable ultra-thin, fanless designs with new capabilities such as Intel® Rapid Start technology which provides fast resume, Intel® Smart Connect Technology which enables an always updated experience even during standby, Intel® Wireless Display and PC Synch, which let users wirelessly update and synchronize documents, content and media across multiple devices. In addition, the new platform is expected to enable more than 10 hours of battery life and weeks of standby. “Cedar Trail” will support leading operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows*, Google Chrome* and MeeGo*.

In addition, Maloney showcased more than 10 tablets, running on three different operating systems, that are available today based on the Intel Atom processor Z670. The platform already has more than 35 design wins since its launch in April, with several convertibles, sliders and other innovative designs on shelves now and more coming through the rest of the year.

Maloney also discussed “Medfield,” Intel’s first purpose-built 32nm platform for smartphones and tablets. “Medfield” has been optimized for both low power and high performance and will deliver long use-time, rich media and gaming, and advanced imaging capabilities. To illustrate this point in tablets, Intel showcased a “Medfield” design running Google Android* 3.0 (“Honeycomb”) for the first time. In production later this year, the platform will enable sub-9mm designs that weigh less than 1.5 pounds for tablet designs in market the first half of 2012. It will support a range of operating systems including Android and MeeGo.

According to Maloney, “The work Intel is doing with the Intel® Atom™ processor roadmap, coupled with the significant changes we are making to our Intel® Core™ processor roadmaps, will continue to enhance Intel’s ability to deliver complete hardware solutions with a choice of software platforms across a full spectrum of computing — from back-end servers that power the cloud to the billions of devices that access the cloud.”

The Cloud’s Rapid Expansion

More people and devices connecting to the Internet will lead to unprecedented growth in cloud-based services for storage, synchronization and entertainment, according to Maloney, and Intel is poised to grow with it. He said that one new Intel-based server is needed for roughly every additional 600 new smartphones or 122 new tablets connecting to the Internet. He also reiterated the company’s “Cloud 2015” vision of a world of interoperable “federated” clouds that allow enterprises to share data securely across public and private clouds; “automated” networks that allow the movement of workloads between servers in the data center for better utilization and energy efficiency, and “device-aware” clouds that know what types of applications, commands and processing.

In closing, Maloney stressed the critical role of the Taiwan IT industry in the next transformation of computing. He called for collective innovations that will lead the industry into the next era as computing takes many new forms and becomes ever more pervasive and affordable. “The Taiwan IT industry will be instrumental in realizing this vision,” said Maloney.

More information about today’s announcements is available at www.intel.com/newsroom/computex

Ports include two USB and a headphones socket, and inside is a 6-cell battery. The 10-inch 1024 x 600 screen gets a webcam on top of it, along with a dual-microphone array, and there’s ASUS’ usual chiclet keyboard.

Full specs are unclear at present, though the X101 is expected to weigh under 1kg and, according to NetbookNews (who shot the video below), come in red and gold as well as the white version in ASUS’ press shots. We’re guessing there’ll be a black model, too, for the less ostentatious among us. No word on pricing and availability; we’ll update as soon as we know more.

Update: ASUS says the Eee PC X101 will kick off from $199.

“You can use multimedia educational materials. For example, you can view elementary and middle schools textbooks, do intellectual training exercises, view various types of dictionaries, edit documents and even learn foreign languages” Pae Myong-sok, factory representative

The report did not specify the OS each machine used, though it is not believed to be Microsoft’s Windows platform. Suggestions have been made that North Korea’s own modified Linux build, “Red Star”, could be the most likely candidate. The office version appears to be the most complex, with preloaded productive software and a browser; it also has twin USB ports, which the educational machines do not.

While the browser may be present, it’s unclear how many users will actually get onto the internet. North Korea strictly limits access to the web, with a domestic intranet service available at libraries and schools. Some digging by North Korea Tech, who screengrabbed the shots you see here from the TV report, has suggested that the office laptop (below) may be a rebranded Sylvania machine commonly sold in the US for $99 at CVS stores.

Meanwhile, the MeeGo team says it’s targeting an October 2011 release for v1.3. You can get a sneak preview of what might be in there by browsing the MeeGo Featurezilla list; it includes various NFC systems along with improved graphics acceleration and more.

The MeeGo Conference 2011 takes place later this month. We’re expecting to see tablet and smartphone hardware from LG, though whether Nokia will bring along its first MeeGo device remains to be seen.

[via My Nokia Blog; image from our MeeGo tablet UI preview]

Click on the MacBook Air 11, for instance, and Microsoft suggests the obvious rivals are three netbooks, two running Intel Atom 1.66GHz N455 processors and another with AMD’s new E-Series dual-core Fusion APU. Now, the ultraportables may be similar in size, but the performance of the MacBook Air’s 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo is likely to considerably exceed that of the three netbooks.

There are also legitimate questions about build quality and other factors which add to the Mac appeal. Obviously anybody looking to spend money on a new notebook should balance what’s on the market, but these broad brush-stroke comparisons seem only likely to provoke further platform arguments than actually assist shoppers in making an educated decision.

[via WinRumors]

Other specs include 2GB of RAM, Bluetooth and WiFi, an integrated webcam and a Synaptics touchpad. That differs a little from Acer’s model, which has a 1366 x 768 display and seemingly uses one of AMD’s Fusion processors instead.

Samsung, Acer and ASUS are all among the company’s namechecked to be producing Chrome OS hardware for launch in the second half of 2011. However it seems likely that Google will do some sort of presentation of the latest hardware and software at Google I/O early next month.

[via Engadget]

Both the ZGB and the tablet called Seaboard are believed to run Chrome OS. The Seaboard bug report surfaced from Chromium bug logs. The hardware in the machine apparently includes a Tegra 2 processor, Atmel MXT touchscreen, and the rig has a pair of USB ports too. The report also pointed to 1GB of RAM and HDMI output, which are all standard tablet fair today. However, some other tidbits confuse the matter a bit.

Apparently, there are some details that indicate the Seaboard has a “lid switch” and other details pointing to a physical keyboard. I think the easy guess, here may be that the machine is a convertible netbook. With Android doing such a good job on tablets today, I wonder about the viability of Chrome on a tablet. We will have to wait for more details to surface to get the full picture of what the Seaboard may be.

[via CrunchGear]

Acer has reportedly ordered as many as 500,000 10.1-inch touchscreens, for use in its tablets, though even then that’s not as many as the company was apparently hoping for. Apple’s demand dominance in the touchscreen segment has meant that Acer will only reach 70-percent of its shipment forecast at most.

As for Acer’s remaining notebook plans, according to component sources the company is using so-called Shuriken screens, produced by LG Display, to create ultraportables with bigger than average panels. A new model, set to debut in May 2011, will have a 14.1-inch screen in the same form-factor as a 13.3-inch notebook, thanks to the Shuriken panel’s minimal frame (down from 12mm to 8mm) and scant 4mm thickness.

However, the screen technology is around 50-percent more expensive than traditional notebook displays, and Acer is reportedly intending to use this initial, unnamed model to gauge consumer willingness to pay for a bigger screen in a compact form-factor. If buyers are willing to dig deep into their pockets, the Shuriken panels could become a key aspect of Acer’s range.