Remember Kohjinsha’s nifty dual-display netbook from CEATEC, that sandwiched two 10.1-inch displays together for some extra-wide Windows 7 productivity? Another video of the netbook in action has emerged, courtesy of DigInfo, and if the sight of beautifully engineered sliding LCD panels makes you weak at the knees, well, sit down before you hit the jump.
Video demo after the cut
NVIDIA’s Ion LE promises to deliver the same 1080p HD playback as its regular Ion sibling, but at a cheaper price; to do that, it drops DirectX 10 support in favor of solely accommodating DX9. It turns out that the limitation is, in fact, an arbitrary one and that the Ion LE seems to have been artificially crippled by NVIDIA themselves; MyHPMini forum member runawayprisoner found that by slightly modifying HP’s own Ion drivers he could get them to install for the Ion LE.
It feels like we’ve been waiting for Lenovo’s IdeaPad S12 with NVIDIA Ion graphics for months, probably because it has been months. Announced back in May, demonstrated to us in June, then officially delayed in August until Windows 7’s launch, the arrival of the new Microsoft OS means Lenovo can finally push the IdeaPad S12 Ion out of the door.
Having gone in sale in Europe this week, the initial reviews of the Nokia Booklet 3G netbook are beginning to show up. The Wall Street Journal have shared their impressions of the 3G and GPS toting ultraportable, praising its battery life but immediately dampening their enthusiasm over what they describe as a “tiny keyboard”. Meanwhile Engadget Spanish are yet to review the Booklet 3G, but they have taken the time to unbox it.
Unboxing and hands-on videos after the cut
Advance interest in Nokia’s Booklet 3G is, if you believe the rumors, so strong that the Finnish company is already preparing the sequel, but we’ll wait until the first shipping units get played with before getting too excited. The Nokia netbooks have just started to ship in Europe, with O2 Germany offering the Booklet 3G for €249 ($371) with a 24-month, €20 ($30) data plan.
If you’ve dipped even the tiniest of toes into the tech world this past twelve months, you’ll likely have noticed the cookie-cutter spec sheets for netbooks. Intel and Microsoft’s policies on exactly how big a hard-drive, how much RAM and other elements of a netbook’s make-up have hamstrung what could’ve potentially been a hugely innovative segment into little more than a matter of aesthetics. Unfortunately neither company plans to lift those regulations any time soon, but we’re hearing at least that with the advent of the Intel Atom N470 the bar will be raised somewhat.
The first examples of Nokia’s Booklet 3G netbook are yet to drop into buyers’ hands, but according to leaks fizzing out of Taiwan the Finns are already discussing orders for their second-gen model. Notorious rumor-monger Economic Daily News has suggested that a new Booklet 3G with updated specifications is expected to be released in 2010, a statement that is, frankly, stating the obvious. However, reading between the lines we’d expect any updated netbook from Nokia to take advantage of Intel’s upcoming Pine Trail processors, such as the Atom N450, and we do know a little about that CPU’s release schedule.
MSI started shipping its cool U210 netbook here in America back in September. Our colder neighbors to the north in Canada may have been wondering why they could get their mitts on the U210 as well. MSI Canada has now announced that the U210 is shipping all across the country.
Netbooks are all pretty much the same with little to set each of them apart in the market. A company called ii-View has tossed its hat into the netbook ring today with the announcement of its A2 netbook. The machine promises to set itself apart via price and not specifications, which is to say it has the same specs as the hoards of other netbooks available.
For a while, everyone was jumping into the netbook market. There are still new firms offering up netbooks all the time, but many companies are also now jumping into the smartphone market as well. The OS of choice is Android and the latest company to announced an Android phone is on the way is Asustek.
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