After its Japanese announcement earlier this week, it was only a matter of time until the Dell Vostro 1220 made an appearance on the company’s US site. Sure enough, the 12.1-inch 3.36lb notebook is now available to order, offering a choice of Intel Celeron 900 or Core 2 Duo processors with prices starting from $799.
Intel have announced that it will be rebranding its CPU range to supposedly simplify the lineup, focusing on the “Intel Core” prefix and transitioning the Centrino brand to cover the company’s WiFi and WiMAX products. Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 will eventually replace Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad, distinguishing different feature sets; somewhat confusingly, some processors will slot into multiple i-prefix categories, depending on their capabilities.
For instance, the upcoming Lynnfield desktop processor will be an Intel Core chip, but have various models that slot into the i5 or i7 segments. Broadly speaking, i3 is an entry-level chip, i5 is a mid-level chip and i7 is the flagship high-level processor. It’s not all change, though, as the Celeron and Pentium brands limp on to cover “affordable entry-level” and “basic computing” respectively.
We called dmedia a “damp squib” when they failed to show up with their promised WiMAX MID at CES; they countered by tipping a Computex launch, and sure enough the 4.3-inch touchscreen device appeared. The M0 has a Fujitsu WiMAX module together with a Samsung 533-800MHz CPU and 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, plus a 5-megapixel camera.
Video hands-on after the cut
Sony Japan have announced that they are working on WiMAX enabled versions of their VAIO Z ultraportable and VAIO P netbook. Expected to land in Japan before the end of this month, the notebooks will take advantage of Intel and UQ Communications plans to blanket the country with WiMAX access.
There’s nothing like a WiMAX ultraportable to wake you up on a Monday morning, and we’ve got three of them. Samsung, Clevo and Toshiba have all announced WiMAX-enabled models; netbooks in the case of the former two – the Samsung NC10 WiMAX and Clevo M811L WiMAX - while Toshiba have stuffed the high-speed connectivity into a full-spec notebook, the dynabook SS RX2/WAJ.
Video demo
ITG’s xpPhone was one of the more curious prospects for Computex – something with the form-factor of a MID but resolutely intended to be used as a cellphone – and jkkmobile stopped by to check it out. The xpPhone certainly tries to fit in as much as possible: SSD up to 64GB in size, multiple wireless options including Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G and WiMAX, and an AMD mobile processor.
Video hands-on after the cut
The Amazon Kindle may be sitting pretty as the best-known ebook reader out there right now, but all that could change if some of the new breed of e-ink devices have their way. Computex 2009 has seen a few new designs introduced, often packing various wireless technologies and/or touchscreens. IAC stacks up the wireless, with WiMAX, EVDO and WiFi, while Netronix has been showing multiple sizes from 6-inches through to 9.7-inches.
Video demos after the cut
We hope you’ve not stabbed your credit card details in for that Sony VAIO P order yet, as ECS have an alternative that might take your fancy. The ECS T800 netbook has the same long-and-narrow form-factor of the VAIO, but pairs it with an 8.1-inch LCD, a choice of 800MHz or 1GHz Texas Instruments OMAP3 processors, and the Android OS.
Video demo after the cut
NVIDIA have announced twelve new Tegra-based devices at Computex 2009, which the company is describing as MIDs (Mobile Internet Device). According to NVIDIA, Tegra is capable of up to 1080p video playback, hardware acceleration of Flash video, 25 days of music on a single charge and always-on processors with support for 3G, WiFi and WiMAX.
As descriptive names go, ITG’s xpPhone says it all. The 4.8-inch WVGA touchscreen slider is, as you might expect, a phone, and runs, unsurprisingly, Windows XP; it’s all chugging along on an unspecified AMD mobile processor with up to 1GB of RAM, a choice of up to 64GB SSD or 120GB hard-drive, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS.
SlashGear Japan
