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.
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Is Apple planning a quiet iPhone update? That's what The BGR has heard, with two AT&T sources suggesting that the iPhone 3G 8GB will be replaced with an 8GB entry-level iPhone 3GS in time for Christmas. The move is apparently intended, one of those sources claims, to better battle the DROID army from Verizon.
NVIDIA’s Tegra may not have grabbed as much attention as its Ion sibling – the latter’s ability to grant the humble netbook with 1080p capabilities is certainly an eye-catcher – but the compact chipset is certainly doing impressive things inside the Zune HD and is poised to capitalize on Smartbooks too, so it comes as little surprise to hear that the company is readying its successor. The NVIDIA Tegra 2 – not yet officially named – is expected to drop in 2010, claim Fudzilla’s “high ranking industry sources”, with twice the computational and graphics power of the first-gen chipset.
Remember the talk in early October about a third Verizon Android smartphone from a small company and certified through the carrier’s Open Development program? The HTC DROID Eris and Motorola DROID pushed that mystery device to the back of our minds, but an FCC filing has seemingly revealed the device as the Saygus VPhone V1, another sliding form-factor with a 3.5-inch 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, 624MHz Marvell PXA310 processor and a 5-megapixel autofocus camera.
Last we heard, the CrunchPad budget tablet was set to leap to the market this month with a roughly $399 price tag. Now the rumor circulating California is that unexpected manufacturing expenses have delayed – perhaps even killed – the project; the Silicon Alley Insider claims that project founder Michael Arrington has been surprised by higher-than-expected quotes from suppliers.
HP’s Envy range promises MacBook style at mainstream prices, but is there a gap in-between the 13.1-inch Envy 13 and the 15-inch Envy 15? HP seem to think so; according to a support page on the company’s site there’s an Envy 14 on the horizon, which we’d presume would offer a 14-inch display.
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AMD are reportedly planning two new desktop platforms which will see a May 2010 launch, at least that's the latest rumor out of motherboard manufacturers. The AMD Dorado and Leo platforms will target the mainstream and high-end respectively, with each using ATI Radeon HD 5000 series video cards and processors from either the Athlon II or Phenom II ranges.
Remember the iPhone 4G SIM tray spotted in China last month? Well, if you’re looking to piece together your own next-gen Apple device, you’ll be keen to see China Ontrade’s latest purported component: it’s tipped to be the “iPhone 4 Generation Midboard”.
US would-be DROID buyers now livid by the European version of the smartphone’s multitouch support can take heart in the fact that while the Motorola MILESTONE gives with one hand, it takes away with the other. Mobile-Review’s Eldar Murtazin has revealed that – on his pre-release Euro model at least – Android 2.0 lacks turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps Navigation.
Update: A Google spokesperson has told us that the reason turn-by-turn is absent from the MILESTONE is because currently the beta is US-only.
SlashGear Japan
