Businesses with Windows XP and Office 2003 on their systems will no longer receive security updates, so they’re more prone to viruses, malware, and trojans. Software and hardware companies will stop making their products compatible with Windows XP after support ends, and there will be no tech support to call if you need help with your systems. Luckily, Microsoft has offered some decent discounts for upgrading to Windows 8.

There are a list of partners offering Open License discounts for Windows 8 and Office 2013. Businesses will have to purchase the two as a set however. They will also have to be running Windows XP Professional on their systems prior to upgrading to Windows 8. When purchasing both Windows 8 and Office 2013 together, businesses will get 15% off of their total cost, amounting to $477 per combo license. If businesses only want one product or the other, they can get Windows 8 for $188 and Office 2013 for $373. They’re limited to 100 licenses for each software.

According to ComputerWorld, last month, 39% of all PCs, and 42% of all Windows PCs, ran Windows XP last month. Analysts also believe that 1/3rd of all PCs will continue to run XP even after support ends. Chances are, if most of these businesses are still running Windows XP on their systems, they’re going to need more than just a license to upgrade. These businesses will most likely have to upgrade all of their computers, which is a costly effort and most likely the reason why they haven’t gone through with the change.

[via Microsoft]

It was discovered that the issue had been limited to machines running any combination of Windows XP, the latest Sonar antivirus software version, the 18 Sonar signature set from the July 11 revision and software from third parties. “The root cause of the issue was an incompatibility due to a three way interaction between some third party software that implements a file system driver using kernel stack based file objects – typical of encryption drivers, the SONAR signature and the Windows XP Cache manager,” Symantec said.

Enraged customers said they were forced to remove the software manually and disable their machines. Someone had said on the discussion boards that Symantec would compensate customers for the inconvenience, but the company recently responded to the problem saying that it would not be providing compensation packages. Symantec said it was working hard on a solution and providing technical support to customers, including directly reaching out to customers who had posted about the issue on the discussion boards.

[via Reuters]

Those are the customers that this move really affects. If you own one computer, and you use it on a daily basis, chances are you personally aren’t running a Windows XP system. It’s the people who have a networked office full of computers that have been resistant to change. But change is good, and XP is becoming very outdated. Of course, talking about this is like beating a dead horse. These are arguments that have been made for years. But Microsoft keeps getting pressured to continue XP support.

Well, not anymore. The company made a firm stance that it will officially stop supporting the XP platform, as well as Microsoft Office 2003, effective after April 8, 2014. “If you haven’t yet already, we do hope that you take this end of support countdown as an opportunity to migrate your PCs to Windows 7 and Office 2010 so that your business and employees are more productive and secure,” Microsoft wrote in an official blog post today.

[via Windows Team Blog]

Before getting to the mobile monitor, it made sense to take a glance at a couple other products in the Lenovo line that will appeal to those wanting to make good use of their new ThinkVision LT1421. First we are quickly re-introduced to the Lenovo ThinkPad T420S 14-inch mainstream laptop. Next we get to see a member of the X series of laptops from Lenovo, a series we got to see in the ThinkPad X1 back in May and more recently had a peek at in the Lenovo X121e 11.60-inch notebook, both of them being ultraportable laptops. Then it was time for some mobile monitor action.

This monitor is 14-inches large, weighs less than 2 pounds, and is less than one centimeter at its thinnest point. Its intended uses include flipping around just your extra display for viewing by coworkers, making presentations to small groups in schools, and just plain having fun or gaining some extra effective extra space for your ThinkPad notebook computer.

All you’ve got to do once you’ve got it out of the box is connect it to your laptop via USB, prop it up with its built-in photo frame stand, and you’re good to go! Of course you’ll also want to consider tilting the unit up or down, this made possible by its back-facing adjustable bar and slot-catching tray. This display matches the ThinkPad series of notebooks and its tray doubles as a screen cover for travel.

Have a look at Miller’s hands-on demonstration of this mobile monitor as well as a couple of well-working ThinkPad notebooks and let us know what you think! Then also have a peek at the rest of our hands-on videos from the event in our Pepcom Holiday Spectacular 2011 portal!

What you’re going to notice about Windows 8 the first time you use it is its willingness to work with whatever you throw at it. Applications are able to communicate with one another for activities like, for example, sharing, in a way that certainly hasn’t yet been perfected in any other system, a few mobile operating systems coming in close seconds. Creating an operating system that works with every bit of software your previous software was able to work with; that’s just smart business.

Right out of the box you’ll be able to work with pen styluses, keyboards, and mice without trouble, this of course referring then specifically to the tablet-based implementation of the software. Of course it’s time and time again that it must be reminded that Windows 8 does not have different versions for Tablet and PC, instead its running on what’s essentially the exact same user interface wherever you’ve got it running. One UI to rule them all should Microsoft be saying, now it’s got us wondering if Windows Phone 8 (only on 7.5 at the moment) will be the great connector of systems, mobile and non-mobile, as Microsoft does very much appear to be pointing towards this week at their developer conference BUILD 2011.

Moving, adjustable, and customizable panels make up your screens, each of them able to be made from a smaller bit of the other or made to represent an app that’s large and in charge. For example, you can make a panel that only connects to a single webpage, and if that webpage has an RSS feed, your panel will have a pretty good chance of showing you the feed as its updated on your Start Screen where it sits. Its pretty wild, to say the least.

This entire Reimagining of Windows will be positive for Microsoft. Windows has been an operating system that’s had no significant changes made to it that the public made any sort of recognizable ruckus about for too many years now – it’s time for a change, and it’s exciting to see that this is it. While there’s always room for requests on improvements and real improvements as the system progresses, remember the following factoid: as of this week, 1,502 product changes have been made to Windows XP since Microsoft released it to manufacturing. This number comes from Microsoft tracking said number with its update service showing the wild, wild truth.

We can expect what appears to be quite a hearty effort coming from Microsoft here, along with some rather large hints that integration changes will continue to occur until Microsoft is a singularity.

NOTE: We’ve got a Microsoft Windows 8 Complete Guide up for you as well as a Windows 8 Tablet Hands-on which you can see the video of here:

Windows 8 Tablet hands-on:

Three years ago was when Windows 7 launched, since then 450 million copies have sold. Inside September 2011, the amount of users using Windows 7 has finally trumped the amount of users using Windows XP on the consumer market. Microsoft tells us they know this because they’re working with the numbers coming from machines hitting the Windows Update Service. As with any update to a new version of a major operating system, one must ask a similar question as – and you’ll have to allow me to nerd out for a moment here – Alan Bradley from TRON when he asked what changes had REALLY been made to the system that Microsoft would find it necessary to give it a whole new number.

Turns out 1,502 product changes have been made to Windows XP since Microsoft released it to manufacturing, these all being non-security updates. Improvements galore! Now what does this mean for Windows 8? Does it mean that the software will be continuously updated as the folks at Microsoft see ways to improve it? Of course, that’s a given. How many changes have been made between the Windows XP and Windows 7 we’ve known between their inception date and this end-of-summer 2011 timeframe where Windows 8 is released? That’s a number we’ll have to figure out on our own.

Reimagining Windows

Microsoft brings you Windows 8 as a operating system that is said to improve everything they brought forth in Windows 7, and what’s more, every bit of software that runs currently on Windows 7 will be able to run on Windows 8 without a problem.

Chipsets

ARM chips equal integrated engineering. Where X86, Microsoft says, was the same for every system, ARM chips are optimized for unique situations. Like what Microsoft says about software made for working on Windows 7 now also working on Windows 8, so too does everything they present here work on ARM chips.

Boldness

What’s so bold about Windows 8 is that they’re envisioning an operating system that scales from small form factors, keyboardless tablets, all the way up to gigantic servers running hundreds of processors.

Julie Larson Green, Corporate Vice President of the Windows Experience at Microsoft noted during the week of the reveal of Windows 8 that they had started planning Windows 8 in June of 2009, before they even shipped Windows 7 out the door. Of course changes in both industry and technology spark change, and in this mobile landscape and move by many from one platform to another and/or the adoption of several platforms happening by the public, Microsoft planned accordingly. Microsoft wanted to top the release of Windows 7, but they did not want to do it in a way that was either linear or reactive – this being an interesting goal of course at that time as the idea of a tablet computer simply wasn’t a reality at the time – so what is there to react to?

In Windows 7 there were studies on form factor, user action models, and best of all touch. Microsoft has noted that they were the first group to add touch to a major operating system. As you know well, since that time, touch has all but consumed the mobile market, and recent developments in non-mobile computing have trended toward touch as well to a degree. With this, the demand for developers to create apps for every single little function, one by one, this showing itself prevalently again on mobile, but non-mobile beginning to take back what is theirs in the recent past as well with on-device app stores on all machines. These are only two of a whole slew of points Microsoft touched on during the BUILD conference showing off the first real look at Windows 8 in September of 2011.

Tablets and PCs

You begin with a lockscreen (seen at the top of this post). This screen doesn’t look unlike what you’re used to with Windows Phone devices, giving you pre-opening updates about time, date, updates, and of course its all displayed with a background of your choice. One of the new ideas Microsoft has to make this experience unique is “Picture Password”.

What Picture Password consists of is a specific photo or digital image that, when you see it, you’ll know to draw a certain combination of shapes and lines on your display. If you draw the correct combination, you will be logged in. Circles and lines are what’s at play here – perhaps drawing a hat on a squirrel will be your password combo?

Then there’s a Start Screen. This is the place where you’ll return all the time before and after moving to other screens and apps. You’ll again recognize the look of this space as being a rather Windows Phone experience, and as each app is represented by what Microsoft calls a “tile”, you’ll certainly feel at home if you’re an avid Windows Phone user. Each tile has the ability to show off different actions before its activated to reveal the app inside, movement and, for example, feeds showing social networking news. The “serendipity of the web” has here been brought into Windows.

Tiles can express essentially anything you want and are themselves resizable and customizable. Tiles can open up to apps or they can sit by themselves and work. There are “groups” that can hold tiles “like folders” as they say, and there’s a new feature called “Semantic Zoom.” What this Semantic Zoom does is to pull you back from your interface in a way that you’ve never been able to do on a Windows device before. Fast and fluid touch language throughout, allowing you access to all of your media, all of your content, all of your apps at once.

We got hands-on with the first Windows 8 tablet at BUILD 2011 as well, see the video unboxing and hands-on here:

Metro-Style Apps

There is a new kind of app called Metro-Style Apps. The first thing that makes a Metro-Style app what it is full immersion. What Windows has done here is to change what they’ve done in the past, that is adding widgets and “doodads” all around the majority of apps and is now being a bit more humble, letting the app take the show.

Any app on Windows Phone 8 can be turned into a Secondary Tile. You can, for instance, “pin” a webpage to your Start Screen – in this case you’ll have all the same features your original app had, here because this is a webpage and your original app was a web-based app, you’re able to see a changing feed straight from your desktop.

Charms

Charms are next – what this feature, activated by a swipe across your screen, is comprised of several icons, these depending on the app or location inside your system you are at. This may seem intuitive to those of you who’ve been using computers for years and years now, but as software engineers make the transition between mobile and stationary OS being separate to being one in the same, it’s little points like this that make all the difference.

What Microsoft is showing us here in Windows 8 is their next step towards a singularity in operating systems. Moving in and out of apps, shutting them down and opening them up, and even having more than one application open and working at once on the same page. This again is something that desktop mobile operating systems have been able to do for many years now, but as mobile moves into the fold, this is a big step taken.

Windows Key

There’s a button, be it physical or on the screen, wherever, that will always bring you back to your Start Screen. This is your Windows Key. If you’re using a Windows 8 tablet, you’ll likely have a physical or haptic-feedback-filled Windows Key. If you’re using a device with no physical keys, the Windows Key will be in some sneaky places for you to access.

Windows Store

For developers (who will be mentioned many more times before this guide is through), it’s the newly minted Windows Store that should be paid attention to. Windows users will be able to access this store for apps anywhere Windows is sold worldwide. Go wild!

Apps

Microsoft feels that all apps should be able to work together, all of this without any extra work done by the developers of the apps in question. One of the most obvious “contracts” this connectedness will be working on is sharing. Have a bit of content you’d like to share? Grab your Charms, hit the Share Charm, and share it through, for example, “Friend Share.” Here you’re able to contact your contacts through a huge variety of ways – share and go! The data package is taken by one app and sent to another app, all of this possible with any set of apps that have sharing activated.

Sharing can happen from any app in Windows.

Search is next, it being one the most essential bits in any successful computer system, operating systems a must. The Search Charm is present in quite a few apps and in the system to search files. You expect Windows to know how to search files, but here we’ve got a few new options, one of them being autocomplete of options if you like. You search your term and you get results PLUS you get a list of apps that are able to also search themselves. Search a term and find results on your own computer, then search through your web app, search a social networking site, search anything that supports search.

A hypothetical situation for this ability to search and select content from a variety of apps and services is if you’re creating an album of photos on a website. You can search from your local device, your app which seeks photos you’ve got on a cloud on the internet, and an app that seeks photos on your local network. Grab em all without having to launch every single app, all at once with search only. The selling point, if I may be so bold here, is that the apps are what makes up the system. Just like console video game systems, inkjet printers, and… well… every home computer in history, essentially, this system relies on the apps that it runs to run. That’s the promotion in part.

Spellcheck, auto-correct, “squiggle” underlining of words to show you they’re not necessarily understood by the system as English (or whatever language(s) you’ve got running). All of this is what you remember it as being from your current and past tens of years on your Windows machine – all of it’s intact here and is available free as part of Microsoft’s dealings with third party app developers. The same is true of the on-screen touch keyboard keyboard.

Measuring Style Device App / Connections

As you may well know by now, computers of all types, most recently mobile devices like tablets are able to connect to a plethora of other devices via Bluetooth, HDMI cable, USB, and a bunch of other slightly less popular means right this moment. In Windows 8, these connections will be handled by your Charms. Much in the same way that selecting File-Print works in most Windows systems now (though I’m sure some developers would disagree), you’re able to hit a charm, hit print, and if you like, work with a selection of settings. This interface has another name: Measuring Style Device App.

What a Measuring Style Device App does is represent a device in the system. This could be compared, if you wish, to drivers provided by manufacturers for specific devices, instead here it’s a whole new entity called a MSDA (for short) and has the ability to bring you a large set of options in, for example, a Charm.

Internet Explorer 10

The newest version of IE aka Internet Explorer will be available as a metro-style app. Full screen action for you lovers of your monitors with all of the same hardware acceleration (even more than IE 9 does), same performance and better, same compliance and standards as IS and better, same security and same privacy as IE 9. But it’s better, better I tell you! Here you’ve got a totally immersive mode like with the other metro-style apps, and you’ve got four big gestures that, like with a lot of the rest of your system here, do the following:

Top to Bottom: Use the User Interface, in this case see your controls for webpages.
Right Side: Charms.
Left Side: Go back.

Of course you can create new tabs including the forever helpful “private” tab, you can travel to webpages, go back and forth, and use the internet in the same sort of hands-off way that all great web browsers work with. Internet Explorer 10 is able to go full screen and will, with gestures, be able to access the same lovely menus many other Windows 8 optimized apps will be able to as well.

Whispers of Photoshop

Adobe’s photo editing app has become so well known and used that an edited photo in our modern world is better known as having been “Photoshopped” than it is as having been “modified” or “photo manipulated”. We know this week at BUILD 2011 that Windows 8 will work with Photoshop on a touch platform. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Adobe bring a Photoshop branded app to a mobile platform, but it is the first time we’ve seen what appears very much to be a full-fledged Photoshop app that, as you know from above, will be able to work with keyboard and mouse, but will here be able to work with touch in a way that’s only been available through third party touchscreen displays and drawing pads. What we can hope for is a much more optimized experience in the near future.

Pen (Stylus)

Handwriting, drafting, and graphic arts are promoted in Windows 8 by a new optimization and integration of the pen, or the stylus as you may call it. You may use pen with touch at the same time and you may navigate the whole system with pen as well. Much in the same way that the on-screen keyboard, the physical mouse, and the physical keyboard are all supported for 3rd party developers by Microsoft, so too is the Pen. Get your drawing hand out and try to remember what it was like to use a pencil!

Cloud Connections

Windows 8 will have the ability to work with online clouds of information, developers at Microsoft keeping in mind that this new operating system is most certainly going to be used to access the connected web on many levels and with many different devices and types of devices. Microsoft gives one of the most obvious reasons for this: what if you reach an awesome level on your favorite game, then you’ve got to switch to a new device? You’d have to start over if it wasn’t for the idea of cloud computing – all that information can be stored for access by multiple computers without a hassle, and Windows 8 is built with this idea deep in its heart. Settings down to the state you last left your app in can be saved to the cloud with this system. One you, one system, any number of multiple machines to work with.

Mail and Calendar

Improvements have been made to your basic Mail app on Windows 8. You’ve now got the simple addition of Folders to your Mail app, this right next to Inbox and Content. Organization is key, and the ability to place pieces of content in folders has been a tried and true way to make this happen. As far as Calendar goes, you’re now able to view more than one person’s Calendar at once. For instance if you need to see your wife’s calendar at the same time as your own to plan an event, this dual display mode can come in extremely handy.

People

There’s an app called People which organizes all the humans you know, each of the people displayed with connections to their Facebook, Linkedin, phone number, email(s), and more. This app People acts as an all-encompassing social network hub as you’re not only able to connect to People’s different profile pages on social networks, you can instant messenge them through what appears to be every single instant messenger network in existence, threads of conversation set up, organization abound. The networks take a back seat, Microsoft hopes here, to your connection to the person.

Photos

Your Photos library app connects you to your local photos as well as photos (and other types of images) you’ve got on a large number of photo hosting services and apps. This app, like the rest of the content browsing and interaction apps, appears to be working quite quickly and efficiently on every platform Microsoft is using to show off Windows 8 at BUILD 2011. This Photos app brings your photos together in a way that Microsoft hopes is easy to manifest and understand. Select photos, place them in your digital basket, and share them, only a few gestures from start to finish.

Skydrive

Connected applications is at the heart of Windows 8. Using Windows Phone, you likely know about Skydrive which allows you to place media for later editing and access from the cloud. Your Skydrive Camera Roll on Windows Phone automatically collects photos you’ve taken and uploads them to the cloud. When you’re emailing photos from your Photos app, you’ll automatically be doing so using Skydrive, this allowing you to have these photos hosted by Skydrive instead of having to pack them into the email. You’ve got the option of attaching to the email in a traditional way as well, but Skydrive gives you the ability to, in many cases, send a whole lot quicker.

Heading online to Windows Live and Skydrive will also be optimized to work with Windows 8 to give you access to any of your connected computers. For example if you’re out in the park and you meet Auntie Sue and you want to show her a picture of your half-uncle Fred but all your Fred photos are at your PC at home, you can connect to your PC at home with your mobile device by accessing Windows Live in a web browser and check your Skydrive, there’s your content.

Windows Phone

Along these same lines, syncing and cloud connectedness flows freely through Windows Phone which, at the time Windows 8 is revealed at BUILD 2011, is currently at Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. On Windows Phone here you have only to log in once and you’ve got all of your connections to your various services you’d normally have access to from your PC, all of them synced up. There’s mail, however many mailboxes, calendar (two calendars if you like, for the reasons listed above), photos, and all of it connected to Skydrive and your Skyedrive Camera Roll. Your Windows Skydrive ID connects you to the same content from whatever device you’re working with.

The Same UI

Microsoft is here in Windows 8 pushing the idea that there only needs to be a single UI for all computers, not a new face for each device. Should you desire to use your tablet as a laptop, plugging a keyboard and mouse in for some classic notebook action, your user interface will not change. Windows 8 is designed to work with these instruments just as casually as it does with your fingers. Have you ever used a tablet for about an hour, then went back to a laptop or a desktop PC and found yourself wondering why it has so many fingerprints on the screen? You’re getting used to being able to work with your content with your hands as well as with a cursor interchangeably. This is what Microsoft has either seen or decided on the future being for its entire personal computer-toting population.

Some changes do technically occur, if you want to be a nitpicker, that is, when you plug your mouse in, that being your ability to bring up your charms by moving your mouse down into the lower left-hand corner of your screen, right-clicking a variety of items, most of them options based on the item you’ve clicked, very similar to what you’re used to in Windows systems currently released now. Right-click your Start Screen and you’ll get a little search bar next to your cursor that’ll allow you to look for an app and launch it right from there. No more app drawers needed, is what this means. Those of you that have many wonderful alternate means of launching apps with key combinations will take comfort in knowing that those key combinations will continue to be able to function in Windows 8 just as well as they worked in previous versions of Windows.

Wrap-Up

Windows 8 is about connectedness between devices, syncing, and single log-ins to attain all this. You should be able to grab any Windows 8 device, plug in your ID and password, and have access to all of your files as they sit soundly on the cloud. Skydrive helps with this, allowing instant background uploads of media, all of this importantly able to be shared across the interconnected web of Metro-Style apps you’ve not got on your system.

All of this is made possible and made to be successful in the future is the stance Microsoft is taking with Windows 8, that being that developers who want to create Metro-Style applications for Windows 8 should have access to the tools they need to make it happen – and Windows takes care of all of the connectedness and syncing for you through the live service. It’s no mistake that the first big reveal of Windows 8 took place during BUILD 2011, a convention for developers specifically.

We look forward to the future of Microsoft’s Windows 8 platform and will be covering it in depth here on SlashGear through the future!

The TouchPad B20 features a 10.1-inch display, and has an Intel Atom Z530 processor clocked at 1.6GHz inside. Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit is pre-installed. The TouchPad B20 also features 1GB DDR2, and a 120GB 1.8-inch SATA hard drive at 4200rpm. There’s a 2MP camera on the back, and no front-facing camera. There’s two USB ports, an earphone and microphone port, and an HDMI port. The whole system is skinned by Hanvon.

Our time with the device was limited, but we could tell that the tablet is light enough, but with Windows on board, and the $899 price tag we were told, there probably won’t be a line growing to get their hands on this device. Check out the hands on images below.

If you are a big XP fan looking at buying a new computer you will want to order that rig very soon. Dell says that per Microsoft regs, it will no longer be able to ship computers with XP Pro or Home after October 22. Dell also says that it will stop offering XP as an option on computers this month in preparation for the deadline.

Dell will continue to support XP machines until December of 2012. Customers ordering computers via the Dell Custom Factory integration service will continue to have access to XP equipped PCs after the deadline. Dell also reminds that you can run XP programs on Windows 7 rigs using the XP Mode that is offered. The date that shipments of XP orders have to stop per Microsoft is October 22.

The netbook itself features the standard 10.1-inch display. Inside, you’ll find Intel’s Atom N450 processor. You’ll also find 1GB of DDR2 DRAM, and a 160GB hard drive. Unfortunately, out of the box you’ll only get a 3-cell battery, but Acer will happily sell you a 6-cell model for an additional $95. There aren’t a lot more details to pass along, except for the price. At $375, it’s not necessarily a steal, but it won’t break the bank, either. There’s no word on official worldwide release, but that should change soon enough.

[via Yahoo! News]

Although at one point that may have sounded like a significant change, Microsoft are claiming that sales stats indicate 81-percent of new netbooks in the US actually use Windows 7 rather than any other OS.  More pressing, then, is the end of XP SP2 support, which is due to lapse on July 13th 2010; after that point, you’ll need to be using XP SP3 which is supported up until April 2014.

[via GoRumors]

Storage and RAM start off at 160GB and 1GB respectively – 320GB and 2GB are options – while ports include two USB, VGA, ethernet, audio in/out and both SD and CF card readers.  The whole thing measures in at 255 x 180 x 22 mm and weighs 850g with the standard 3-cell battery.

That battery is apparently only good enough for up to 2.5hrs use in XP or a mere 1.5hrs in Windows 7, which is pretty uninspiring frankly.  Still, that’s what impatience gets you; we’re hoping for better things from Apple’s iSlate tablet next week.

[via Cloned in China]

The hardware specifications look a little underwhelming, until you remind yourself of the scale of the PsiXpda itself. An Intel Atom Z510 1.1GHz processor is paired with 1GB of RAM and a 4.8-inch 800 x 480 WVGA resistive touchscreen; storage is a 16GB SSD and connectivity includes WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, two USB 2.0 ports (one of which is a mini USB) and optional 3G via a readily-accessed miniPCI card under a panel on the bottom. There’s also a microSD card slot (labeled TransFlash), a 2.5mm headphones/headset socket and a proprietary port for a docking station (that doesn’t currently seem to be available from PsiXpda).

PsiXpda unboxing video:

The whole thing measures in at 174 x 84 x 25 mm and tips the scales at 430g, a fair chunk of which is the 1,850 mAh battery that slots into side of the UMPC. Most distinctive of the form-factor is the PsiXpda’s slide-and-tilt display; it’s a little like an HTC Touch Pro2, though obviously larger. The display is flanked by a VGA webcam and left/right mouse buttons on the left side and brightness buttons plus a trackpad on the right side, and there are LED indicators for battery and HDD activity just above. On the top edge there are two buttons, one for power and another to temporarily turn off the display, handy for saving power but keeping the UMPC ready for instant use.

Touch-typists aren’t going to be won over by the PsiXpda’s backlit QWERTY keyboard, but it’s sufficient for casual use. It measures 155 mm across, with each key a roughly 11 x 10 mm rectangle; travel is minimal and it’s a reasonably loud, clicky ‘board. We like the broad spacebar (35 mm across) but some may be frustrated by the absence of a right-side shift key and the offset cursor key layout. Various functions can be triggered with an Fn modifier, including page-up and -down, volume, brightness, wireless on/off and the traditional Function keys; more useful, perhaps, is being able to manually rotate the display for a longer, narrower portrait view that’s great for reading news site columns. Unfortunately there’s no accelerometer to automatically flip the orientation, and the required key presses themselves are unmarked.

The standard OS is Windows XP Pro (while PsiXpda encourage owners to load up different platforms, and will supply whatever hardware drivers they have available, in a worst-case scenario they’ll always instruct people to restore to the regular XP build) and it copes reasonably well with the low-power hardware. Geekbench benchmarking results are, unsurprisingly, on the low end of the scale: an overall score of 440 puts the PsiXpda at just half what a basic, Atom N270 netbook can muster. In day to day use the UMPC is fine for browsing with a few tabs open, perhaps playing music in the background, but falls short of smooth 720p video playback. We also noticed some pauses and brief freezes, though we’re yet to see the PsiXpda freeze altogether.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest usability issues comes from the display. While it’s reasonably bright and crisp, the 800 x 480 resolution is particularly low, even for a netbook. When you consider many smartphones run at WVGA (and in fact the Motorola DROID throws in a few extra pixels, despite having a smaller, 3.7-inch panel) the PsiXpda makes a serious compromise. We could probably cope with extra scrolling if it wasn’t for two significant bug-bears: Windows XP doesn’t handle WVGA well, and often puts OK and Cancel buttons off-screen, and there’s no F11 button for easily flipping into and out of full-screen mode in apps like the browser. It’s possible to force the display into interpolated 1024 x 768 resolution, using a system tray Intel app, but what you roughly gain in on-screen detail you lose in clarity.  A tiny, pull-out stylus lurks in a silo on the side, but it’s too narrow for comfortable use; we’re also disappointed that PsiXpda didn’t load up Windows XP Tablet Edition, which adds handwriting and voice recognition; instead you’re limited to the standard onscreen QWERTY keyboard if you don’t want to slide the UMPC open.

Windows XP handled connecting via WiFi b/g with no problems, though we had to do a little groundwork before we could use the 3G modem. PsiXpda fitted an Huawei EM730 HSDPA module – they have other options, depending on the choice of networks where you live – but we had to supply the network settings that Google turned up. There’s a list of common UK settings in the UMPC’s (downloadable) manual, but if you’re outside the country you’ll have to supply your own. Flipping on 3G is then a matter of using the preloaded Huawei app, which can also send and receive SMS messages and make voice calls (either using the onboard microphone and speaker, or with a hands-free kit).

Battery life is the bug-bear of any ultraportable device, and PsiXpda are being upfront about their UMPC’s limitations. The official claim is up to 4hrs runtime, wireless shut off, dropping to around 2.5hrs if you’re browsing over WiFi, and we found those figures to be broadly accurate. That’s obviously nowhere near all-day longevity, but with judicious use of the screen shut-off button and Windows XP’s standby mode it’s possible to go eke runtime out using the PsiXpda for occasional web queries and email. Happily the power adapter is reasonably compact (considering you’ll probably want to carry it all the time) and the company throw in a neoprene slip-case for the UMPC that left us a little more comfortable dropping it into a bag. Less impressive is the amount of power consumed in standby mode; left to its own devices for a day or so, in standby and with no actual use, the PsiXpda managed to suck down the majority of its charge.

If all this sounds like compromise on top of compromise, then welcome to the tablet world as it currently stands. For all we’ve critiqued, there’s also something immeasurably useful about having a full Windows computer to hand, and one which can be so easily used while standing up or without a desk in front of you. Holding the PsiXpda as you would a PSP, using the responsive trackpad with one thumb and the mouse keys with the other, makes for a nifty web-browsing experience, and the whole thing is ideally sized for thumb-typing with the screen pushed up. At such times we appreciated the soft-touch rubberised coating on the back of the UMPC, and its relatively light weight; having full access to Spotify over 3G and WiFi left us wishing for longer battery life.

PsiXpda video demo:

Like the Psion range its name coyly alludes to, the PsiXpda UMPC is a niche product that suffers from broad comparisons to the rest of the ultraportable market. Netbooks are, obviously, cheaper and faster, with more eye-friendly displays and bigger keyboards, but they don’t perform quite so well at true mobile use – standing in line at the store, browsing while walking (always making sure to keep an eye out for lampposts and open manholes, naturally). Problem is, today’s smartphones do an increasingly good job at delivering the desktop internet experience while in just that sort of mobile situation, and couple it with longer battery life too.

We’re not sure how many units PsiXpda need to sell in order to make good on their investment; the company has told us it’s a sensible number, and they’re not fooling themselves into believing this UMPC will change the world. They’re already thinking of version 2.0, too, which will hopefully address such shortcomings as the undersized headphone socket. This isn’t the UMPC to push the form-factor into the mainstream, but it’s a welcome addition to a segment that lacks native vendors rather than imports and eBay. Perhaps the next-gen model will be better suited to a broader audience, but at £499.95 ($821) the PsiXpda has a few too many compromises to be appealing to all but the UMPC-faithful.

The xpPhone runs Windows XP on an unspecified processor, and packs a full QWERTY keyboard along with a touchscreen.  ITG are offering preorders for the handheld, which can be specified with various modular radios making it suitable for various GSM 3G standards in both North America and Europe along with CDMA/EVDO and TD-SCDMA/TD-HSDPA.

It’s not entirely clear why the xpPhone has captured so much interest (relatively speaking) where other MIDs/UMPCs have failed; potentially it’s down to the company emphasising its voice-call capabilities.  Still no word on exactly how much ITG will be charging for the xpPhone, though.

ITG xpPhone video demo:

[via Pocketables]

First impressions are surprisingly positive, given the relatively lackluster specifications. An Atom Z510 processor – running at 1.1GHz – doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, but from a cold boot the Windows XP desktop was on-screen in around 35 seconds and usable ten seconds after. Programs load reasonably quickly – though the fan kicked in pretty much full-time when we loaded up TweetDeck, known for being somewhat system-intensive – and with the addition of the dragging add-on for Firefox we were able to browse with no problems.

PsiXpda unboxing video:

The relatively low screen resolution (for a PC) of 800 x 480 does present a few issues with onscreen dialog boxes, which sometimes can be cut off at the bottom. We’re also less than enthusiastic about the stylus, which has a very narrow barrel and only extends to a stumpy 3.25-inches. Happily the touchscreen itself seems pretty responsive, and the trackpad – which is integrated into the right-hand side of the screen bezel – works well (the left/right mouse buttons are on the left-hand side). Only the very middle keys on the full QWERTY are more than a slight stretch when thumb-typing, though there’s not a great deal of travel and the buttons are quite loud.

It’s possible to turn the WiFi/Bluetooth and 3G off independently, and with the addition of a SIM we had a connection up and running shortly after adding in the network’s APN details. The supplied WWAN connection manager also allows you to make voice calls and send messages, though the interface isn’t as friendly as a smartphone would be. Still, in a pinch you could use the PsiXpda for that.

We’ll be putting the PsiXpda UMPC through its paces over the next few days, and seeing whether there’s really a space in-between today’s capable smartphones and netbooks/notebooks for it to occupy. Until then, enjoy the unboxing video and the initial demo video below!

PsiXpda demo video:

Other specs include a somewhat paltry 512MB of RAM, 8GB SSD, WiFi and a 1,200mAh battery, which also seems on the small side.  Ports include a 3.5mm headphone jack, miniUSB and microSD, and there’s a 2-megapixel camera on the back.  To give you an idea of scale, there’s a shot of the VPC08 next to a Nokia N97 mini in the gallery below.

Along with the touchscreen there’s an optical mouse for navigating while you’re holding the MID with both hands.  Apparently you can power on the phone aspect of the VPC08 independently of the MID side, so that should eke out a little more runtime.  No word on pricing or availability as yet.

[via Pocketables]

There’s also two USB 2.0 ports, 10/100 ethernet, VGA output, audio in/out, an SD card slot and stereo speakers.  Wireless connectivity includes standard WiFi b/g and optional Bluetooth and GPS.  A 1.3-megapixel webcam lurks up in the top left-hand corner, and as the image suggests you can use it in portrait or landscape mode (no word on whether there’s an accelerometer tucked inside for automatic orientation flips).

No word on runtime from the 4,800mAh battery, either, nor pricing.  If you have a need for ten of the HT560′s – that’s the minimum order amount – we’re sure Shenzhen Seed Industrial Co. would be happy to tell you some figures.

[via Gadgetmix]

There are cameras front and back – presumably for video calls and general photography, respectively – and what looks to be an optical mouse on the right-hand bezel; the mouse buttons are on the left, while there’s a scroll-wheel built into the top right-hand corner.  It’s not entirely clear how large the display is, but the current guesstimate is 6- to 7-inches.

We’re hoping that, as a brand with a pretty strong foothold in the US and Europe already, ViewSonic will have little trouble launching the N01 MID outside of China rather than leaving matters to importers.  No word on pricing as yet, nor release date.

[via Pocketables]

Netbook manufacturers, including ASUS, HP and Toshiba, have chosen to put Windows 7 Starter on the newest crop of netbooks and, without a doubt, did so with a push from Microsoft. (Don’t forget about the higher profit margins on Windows 7 netbooks.)  In fact, Retrevo.com, which is similarly evidencing dissatisfaction with Win 7 Starter, reports that 23 of the 28 netbooks on sale at Amazon.com right now are preloaded with Starter edition. And it doesn’t surprise me that Retrevo’s survey on netbooks with Windows 7 Starter found that 54 percent of consumers would be unsatisfied with a new netbook equipped with Windows 7 Starter Edition because of limitations in the OS.  I am, without a doubt, in the same camp as that 54 percent.

Though Microsoft lifted the three-application limit before releasing the slimmed-down version of its operating system in October, it managed to include a number of restrictions including lack of support for DVD playback and the graphical Aero Peek interface.  My major gripes, however, lie with the following shortcomings of the OS, which are far greater than dealing with the aging Windows XP.

Locked desktop background – You cannot change the desktop background on any Windows 7 Starter system. That’s simply ridiculous. I have been changing backgrounds in Windows since my very first desktop that ran Windows 95! Can I live with a blue Windows logo on my netbook’s desktop? Sure, but why should I?  Yes, Windows 7 may be more aesthetically appealing than Windows XP, but who wants to look at a blue shaded Windows logo forever?

No multi-monitor support – Last week I discovered the hard way that the Nokia Booklet running Windows 7 Starter wouldn’t let me extend its 10-inch desktop to an external monitor. Since you can only clone the desktop in Windows 7 Starter, don’t plan on keeping an email client open on the 10-inch display and your browser open on a larger monitor.  (Yes, that’s my netbook setup and it’s too good to part with.)

Subpar battery life – According to reports from LAPTOP Magazine and Liliputing, Windows 7 Starter edition is getting an average of 40 minutes less battery life than netbooks running Windows XP. That is quite a bit of wasted juice.  Given that battery life is one of the best selling points of netbooks, I’d prefer to get some extra run time and sacrifice some of Windows 7’s features.

Don’t get me wrong; there are a number of things better about Windows 7 Starter than Windows XP, like the ability to connect to multiple networks and connect quickly. But, as I’ve  said before, I’d rather have function over form and losing the core functionality of an operating system just rubs me the wrong way. While I am aware that most of my complaints can be solved by paying $80 and upgrading to Windows 7 Home Premium, adding 80 bucks to a netbook isn’t an insignificant cost and, in some cases, that’s as much as a quarter of the cost of the system itself.

So, big deal that Windows XP looks outdated, it provides me and other netbook users with the right price along with the essentials — the ability to change the wallpaper to an image of choice, longer battery life and the  capability to extend the desktop to another monitor. Of course, word is that Microsoft could be finally pulling the life support on Windows XP before the end of the year on netbooks. Maybe the threat of Google’s Chrome OS, which is supposed to be shown in an early beta form this week, will be a viable alternative or perhaps scare Microsoft from pushing Starter onto netbooks. Until then, I am continuing to name Windows XP my netbook operating system of choice.

The whole thing measures 6.1 x 3.7 x 0.89 inches and weighs 12.3oz, and squeezes in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, WiFi b/g, a microSD card slot, mini USB, VGA stereo speakers and a microphone.  In fact accommodating all that only leaves space for an 8GB SSD, which seems on the meager side, but you do get an optical mouse to diddle while you weep.

Somewhat unusually for a Chinese gadget of this sort is the price, which currently – on Amazon China – is 5999 yuan ($878).  We’re used to seeing MIDs vaunted at half that price, but then again they seldom actually appear for sale; perhaps this higher pricing is a sign that Soyea actually might ship some of these, should buyers be brave enough.

[via Pocketables]

It seems that the only thing preventing the Ion drivers installing on an Ion LE system is the absence of the latter’s device ID in the driver’s INF.  Once that’s been added, the installation works and you’ve got DirectX 10 support on what was tipped as a lesser chipset.

In order to see any difference, of course, you’ll need to be running Windows 7, as DirectX 10 isn’t compatible with Windows XP; it seems likely that the block was part of NVIDIA’s concession to Microsoft’s XP licensing policies.  The Ion LE, after all, is only meant to be available on Windows XP based netbooks and nettops.  No word from NVIDIA on whether they’ll block the driver hack in future releases.

[via Netbook Choice]

And if only words could kill. Last week at the launch of Windows 7, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke about the dreams of the new operating system and showed off a group of new notebooks that ran the improved Windows, but none were netbooks. He remarked that many have been disappointed in the poor performance and graphics of the mini laptops, echoing almost exactly what Michael Dell had to say a week earlier. The CEO of the corporation that has a complete line of Inspiron Mini netbooks indicated that users are dissatisfied with the small screen sizes and limited power of them after 36 hours of usage. Bottom line: users would rather use a larger sized notebook, according to Dell. (Funny, I’ve been using the same netbook during travel and couch surfing for the past 18 months and I get far more mileage out of my netbook than that, Mr. Dell.)

Clearly, Dell along with Intel and Microsoft want to promote the sales of more profitable machines with full priced operating systems (not a cheap, eight-year-old version of Windows) and a higher powered processor and chipset. And can you really blame them, especially when we heard last week that Apple’s high-priced MacBook line is selling better than ever? When consumers choose a netbook over a more expensive notebook with a higher-priced processor and full $100 version of an operating system, the manufacturer takes a hit and makes little to no moolah.

The phenomenon isn’t new, however. Author of Disrupting Class Clayton Christensen refers to it as over servicing the customer base or “disruptive innovation.” If the vast majority of consumers simply do not need or use the amount of computer power in a typical notebook, then the innovation of the netbook appeals to them, thus fundamentally disrupting industry. And that is exactly what has been happening according to DisplaySearch’s latest numbers. The revenue of notebook sales has gone way down, while netbooks are up by over 200 percent.

But will Michael Dell and the other would-be netbook killers really destroy their own invention? Will they take the knife to the throat of the 10-inch, Intel Atom powered, Windows XP netbook knowing full well that customers are craving the product? They are trying to by releasing, with the help of Intel, a new crop of notebooks with larger sized screens that still maintain the long battery life of netbooks yet pump out more performance. Powered by Intel’s ultra low voltage processors the new products are about $200 to $400 more expensive than a netbook.

No doubt, consumers will buy these new thin and light laptops. The $800 13-inch ASUS UL30 has been getting rave reviews for its mix of battery life and portability. But those 10-inch netbooks will be hard to kill off. They line the shelves of Best Buy and continue to be the bestselling consumer electronics item on Amazon. And believe me, this upcoming holiday season that won’t be changing. People like the attractive price point and when they are living in the Cloud and enjoying the portable form factor it doesn’t seem to be a big issue that they are only useful for only a few hours at a time.
Netbooks struck a cord, which is why the Frankenbook will still be haunting Mr. Ballmer and Mr. Dell come next Halloween.

The AOD250 dual-boots between Windows XP and Android, and at least that process is relatively straightforward.  Twin power buttons might have been neat, but in fact you get a reboot dialog – which you can see in the gallery below – offering a choice of Microsoft’s or the open-source OS.  Booting into Android took a mere 20 seconds, while shut-downs were almost instantaneous; however it seems that Acer have done little to rework Android to the larger netbook display.

More worrying, they’ve also removed the Android Market from the netbook, together with seemingly blocking the ability to sideload software; in effect, turning Android into a closed OS.  That could be a byproduct of using Android OS 1.0 in this pre-production model, so we’re hoping for more flexibility in whatever ships.  In the end, the Windows side (and the hardware) is just as you’d expect from a 10-inch Acer Aspire One netbook, but while the Android side shows promise, it’s nowhere near mainstream level yet.

Despite that flexibility of choice, the underlying netbook is pretty straightforward.  ASUS have used Intel’s Atom N270 1.6GHz CPU with 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard-drive, together with a 10.1-inch 1,024 x 600 display and 3-cell, 2,200mAh battery.

As for the casing, that gets a new geometric texturing as well as the style of the Seashell series.  No word on pricing as yet, but we’re expecting the no-OS model to come in relatively cheaply, with the Linux version next up (though perhaps still not most popular in terms of sales.

[via NetbookItalia]

There’s also both SSD and hard-drive based storage onboard, rather than a choice between them; the xpPhone can have up to 64GB of flash and 120GB of HDD, with the former promising power-frugal use while the latter, ITG says, offers the “full internet experience”.  Three modem versions are on offer – “Vodafone”, “AT&T” and “Orange” – though there’s no indication of which bands each choice provides.

Color options are white, red, black and silver.  To be honest, while we know the xpPhone is not vaporware – after all, we saw video demos of it from Computex – we can’t imagine many of these will find their way to the US or Europe.  A lot will hinge on pricing, after all; can ITG really deliver a reasonably high-end spec for the sort of SIM-free figure people will comfortably pay?

[via Pocketables]

Your money gets you 1GB of RAM, a 16GB SSD (8/32GB optional), WiFI and a webcam, together with three USB ports, an ethernet port and optional GPS, Bluetooth and 3G.  There’s also an accelerometer used to automatically rotate screen orientation, and a 3,000mAh Li-Poly battery apparently good for up to 2.5hrs usage.

The whole thing measures 199 x 127 x 21 mm and weighs 691g; while there’s no VGA port, a USB to VGA adapter will apparently be included.  OS is Windows XP and Shenzhen also throw in some handwriting recognition apps too.  No word on when it will launch in China, but we probably shouldn’t expect this particular designer device to head over to the US or Europe.

[via Cloned In China]

Over the past month, I’ve spent a lot of time with Apple’s Snow Leopard. As part of this project, I put aside my PC and switched over to using a Mac full time. For the sake of the project, I settled on a 13″ MacBook Pro as I needed the greatest portability/power combination. The 15″ MacBook Pro was a little too big to travel with and the MacBook Air a little too underpowered for me. In addition, I installed both Windows XP and Windows 7 under VMWare Fusion (although I found that I had little need for either of them). Here’s what I learned.

Hardware: The MacBook Pro is a fantastic piece of hardware. The attention to detail is amazing, from the MagSafe connector that makes it virtually impossible for anyone to trip over your power cord to the integrated iSight camera that makes video conferencing a simple task. At a travel weight of 4.5 lbs. it’s not the lightest Mac you can get but it’s light enough for me and I’m willing to trade the extra performance and capacity over the MacBook Air. The latest MacBook Pro finally adds an SD expansion slot so transferring photos was much easier. However there’s still less model choice than you’ll find in the PC world. If you like the form factors Apple offers, you’re in great shape but if you’re looking for more choice, especially in smaller form factors, you might not be happy with Apple’s decisions.

Web Apps: All the web-based apps I used just worked. While some apps did not love Safari, I was able to fix that with a quick download of Camino, a Firefox based browser that is optimized for Mac OS. I could see where running a particular app could be an issue but it’s not something I encountered.

Productivity Applications: For the most part, I used the Mac version of Microsoft Office to collaborate with the rest of the organisation and it mostly worked out OK. App launching is slower than I’d like but it does work. In general, I find Office 2008 for Macintosh to be best version of Office that MSFT has done for any platform, but there’s still a lot Microsoft can do to make it better. In general, I found I preferred using Apple’s tools such as Pages and Keynote where possible. On at least one occasion, a PowerPoint presentation I spent hours on in the Mac version was unable to be viewed properly on Windows machines, necessitating going into VMware and using Microsoft Office 2003 under Windows XP to properly get things working again. For the most part, knowledge workers should have no issues going back and forth and staying compatible but the more complex the document, the more likely there are going to be issues. Graphic Art apps, particularly the Adobe Creative Suite line, ran flawlessly, as expected.

Exchange Synchronization: Working with Exchange was one of the biggest issues for me. At the moment, Microsoft’s own Entourage application simply didn’t work well in practice. Calendar times didn’t sync up and all-day appointment’s were often – but not always – a day off. This is where Snow Leopard really shined. I found I was able to totally avoid Entourage and simply use the native OS X apps for mail, contacts and calendar. The only catch is you need to be using Exchange 2007 at the server level. If you’re not, the best way to get to Exchange support is to use Outlook itself, under a virtual copy of XP or Windows 7 with VMware.

The bottom line is that the Mac platform today is not the Mac platform of old and there’s a lot of benefit for going with Apple and relatively little hassle for doing so. The ability to run Windows seamlessly via dual booting using Apple’s Boot Camp, or virtually with programs such as Parallels Workstation or VMware, means that Windows applications demanded by enterprise are only a click away. Combined with Snow Leopard, and the ability to have native Exchange support, I plan on staying with my Macbook for the time being.

That should be plenty to run Windows XP Home, on top of which you can see from the (murky) photos that Sinchun have thrown in some finger-friendly customisation.  Meanwhile there’s no shortage of connectivity, either, with WiFi and Bluetooth, together with SiRF Star III GPS and a 3G module.

There’s also a removable battery, though no estimates on exactly how long the MID will last for.  Sinchun hope to have the UMPC-501 A on sale midway through this month, priced at under 3,000 yuan ($441).

[via Cloned in China]

In fact the support was purposefully disabled, with Sony product marketing spokesperson Xavier Lauwaert claiming that the company’s engineers blocked VT out of concern it might “expose our systems to malicious code that could go very deep in the Operating System structure of the PC and completely disable the latter.”  However he also revealed that Sony is looking to retroactively enable VT support “on more recent models”.

Lauwaert also denied speculation that Sony had saved money by purchasing Intel chips that were cheaper due to not including VT support.  The company is yet to officially confirm which models will see the virtualization technology enabled.

[via Engadget]

It’s also suggested that Acer’s research has indicated that market demand for the dual-OS netbook is not yet strong enough.  Meanwhile ASUS’ Android netbook isn’t predicted to launch before the end of October, while its T101 10-inch convertible touchscreen netbook is on hold until after Microsoft release Windows 7. 

Both companies, according to industry sources, are instead planning on focusing their attentions on the ultra-thin notebook segment, such as those using Intel’s CULV range of processors.  ASUS are tipped to have 12-, 13.3- and 15-inch models ready, with 12- and 14-inch models following in August, while Acer already sells 13.3-, 14.1- and 15.6-inch models with further options – including integrated optical drives and discrete graphics – dependent on market demand.

Separately, Acer and ASUS are among several nettop manufacturers who are believed to be pushing to clear their existing inventories with further price cuts.  Along with MSI and Synnex Technology International, they’re clearing the way for Intel’s upcoming Pine Trail-D nettop processors, also expected to launch in Q1 2010.  ASUS will launch an NVIDIA Ion equipped nettop in October 2009, together with the Eee Box 1006.

Full round-up, plus video, after the cut

One early area of controversy is price, with Notebook Review giving ASUS credit for bringing “the first budget-priced tablet netbook” to the market, while Engadget and Gizmodo aren’t so forgiving.  You’re not getting a fast processor for your money, either; Liliputing found the T91 “choked on sample videos I downloaded from Microsoft’s WMV HD showcase”, while Notebook Review’s benchmarks on the 1.33GHz Atom Z520 CPU and 1GB of RAM found the T91 to be slower than most Atom N270 netbooks as well as Samsung’s VIA Nano-based NC20.

Battery life is mixed, with Notebook Review eking out 4:31 of constant use while GottaBeMobile could only manage 3.5hrs.  CNET saw 4:20 of video playback before the T91 expired, while Engadget came somewhere in-between with nearly four hours of general use.

The ASUS’ compact 8.9-inch touchscreen met with mixed feelings, with Liliputing describing it as “relatively responsive” while Notebook Review found it “easy to accidentally trigger the wrong icon” when stabbing with a finger.  CNET also had trouble navigating the compact panel, and Gizmodo had to use the stylus in order to be accurate.  The glossy screen coating is roundly disliked, as both a glare and fingerprint magnet, and some bemoaned the lack of accelerometer auto-rotation.

Unfortunately, the area of main agreement is in disappointment with Windows XP.  Since Microsoft won’t allow ASUS to use the Tablet PC Edition variant of the aging OS, they’ve been forced to develop their own touch interface.  That gets praise for its appearance – Engadget call it “really nicely designed” – but the functionality is more mixed, with out-of-the-box performance good but the lack of customization a real drawback.  Gizmodo describe it as “a glorified app launcher for a handful of custom apps” while GottaBeMobile are forced to “wonder if the amount of resources put into developing the TouchGate UI are really worth it in the end.”

Gizmodo’s comment – “it’s half tablet, half last-gen netbook” – says a lot.  Windows XP is never showing its age more than when trying to deal with non-standard user interfaces, and it may take Windows 7 to really let the T91 shine.  The ASUS Eee PC T91 is available to order now, priced at $499.99.

T91 Unboxing:

T91 software overview:

T91 hands-on:

As a result, the as-yet unnamed netbook won’t necessarily be any cheaper than Acer’s existing Aspire One range.  Many had hoped to escape the so-called “Windows tax”, believed to add around $25 to the cost of each netbook for an XP license.  However the company had also confirmed that if demand for a solely-Android netbook is perceived, then they will consider developing such an option. 

It’s unclear what the announcement of Google Chrome OS, an open-source platform for netbooks, will do to Acer’s plans.  The company has already been named as one of Google’s hardware partners.  As for Android netbooks, MSI and ASUS are tipped to be developing such devices but with no 2009 launch plans.

Otherwise the specifications of the MID are unchanged, which means buyers still get an 800MHz Intel Atom Z500 processor, 512MB of RAM, 8GB SSD and a microSD card slot.  As well as the HSPA 3G there’s WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, while the 1,880 mAh battery is apparently good for between two and three hours of use.

It’s disappointing that BenQ didn’t upgrade the RAM while they were switching out the storage – the original S6 came with a choice of 2GB or 4GB – and the runtime figures are looking a little short compared to some of the recent netbooks.  You’d certainly hope for more given the frugal (i.e. slow) Atom processor.

[via Pocketables]

As standard, both netbooks come with Intel’s N270 1.6GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and an 8GB SSD.  Graphics are via Intel’s GMA 950, and there’s a 5-in-1 memory card slot.  There’s only one display option so far, a 10.1-inch 1024 x 576 panel, though we’d expect to see a 720p-capable screen appear soon, and WiFi b/g and a 3-cell battery are standard.  Upgrade options include:

• Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz – $25
• 2GB DDR2 RAM – $50
• 160GB 5,400rpm HDD or 16GB SSD – $15
• 250GB 5,400rpm HHD – $65
• 32GB SSD – $90
• 64GB SSD – $180
• 6-cell Li-Poly battery – $40

According to HP’s webstore, the Mini 110 will begin arriving at customers on or around June 24th.  If you don’t mind the wait, you’ll have a netbook that early reviews tipped as HP’s best yet.

[via Portable Monkey]

Video demo after the cut

The slate functions as a full standalone touchscreen device, running on a 533MHz Samsung ARM-based CPU, and allows for full wireless connectivity and all the usual Android apps.  The base section uses the slate as a display, and runs Windows XP – that means the usual range of productivity and office apps will work fine.

Right now it’s a prototype, with III (the Institute for Information Industry in Taiwan) looking for partners to commercialize the idea.  It reminds us of the Always Innovating Touch Book, though of course that only has computing components in the slate-screen section.

Video hands-on after the cut

Contrary to our initial expectations, ITG didn’t cut down the number of buttons on the xpPhone’s keyboard; that’s perhaps because the device is considerably larger than we first envisaged.  The 4.8-inch touchscreen is swaddled by a thick bezel, and as you can see in the video it’s a chunky device.

We can’t imagine holding the xpPhone to our head and using it as a traditional smartphone, but with a Bluetooth headset it might be more practical.  An estimated five hours of battery life is always welcome, but we’re unconvinced overall; this seems a little too much like the jarring mash of device-types that has led MID sales overall to be disappointing.

Video hands-on after the cut

That processor is actually quite clever, because despite the relatively low billed clock speed it also supports 1.2GHz bursting.  While running at 1.2GHz would generally produce too much heat and have too great an impact on battery life, bursting-compatible applications will be able to poke the Z515 into running at the faster speed until the CPU’s controller decides things are getting too hot.

There are also dual cameras, front and back.  Squinting at the product spec in the video below (courtesy jkkmobile), it looks like the KAX15 has 512MB of RAM, runs Windows XP (though the press shots have an Android-esque status bar across the top) and have WiFi and Bluetooth.  No word on specific launch dates or pricing, but at least the Compal KAX15 will land before Moorestown.

The Android/Windows XP dual-boot netbooks are expected to go on sale in Q3 this year, with Wang suggesting that Acer will work closely with carriers to sell these particular models.  If demand for a solely-Android machine is there – from telecoms providers, at least – then Acer will consider dropping their dual-OS strategy.

Wang described the move as “much safer” for Acer, given lack of consumer acceptance for Android at its present developmental stage.  The company is likely to promote Android as a value-added feature for mobile use, given the platform’s emphasis on connectivity.

According to Wong, “today’s netbooks are not close to perfection at all. In two years, it will all be very different … If we do not continue to change our mobile Internet devices, consumers may not choose then any more.”  He declined to suggest possible pricing for the Android netbooks, though analysts have previously tipped a Windows XP license as adding around $25 to the sticker tag of each machine.

The Android netbooks will go on sale alongside Acer’s Windows XP range, rather than replacing them.  Acer will be the first manufacturer to ship an Android-powered netbook, though Dell have previously demonstrated one of their internal prototype machines running the Google open-source OS.

[via Android Community]

Update: Video demo after the cut

Chipset and graphics are courtesy of VIA’s VX875 Media System Processor and UniChrome Pro II IGP, respectively, and they’re paired with a healthy 1GB of RAM.  Connectivity includes Bluetooth 2.1 and a transflash card reader, plus there’s a 3.2-megapixel webcam and GPS.

According to iDOT, the CCI MID is dual-platform, running Windows XP and Android.  It’s unclear whether one single device would have both of those systems, or if they’re trying to cover all their bases: Android smartphone or full XP MID, depending on what resellers prefer.  No word on pricing or availability, but we hear there’s video coming up from at least one blogger attending the show.  Video below courtesy jkkmobile:

The cheaper model is the original UMID Linux machine, with 16GB of SSD storage, the Atom 1.3GHz processor and 512MB of RAM.  That’s priced at $659.42, whereas the XP Home version (which comes with an 8GB microSD card, too) is $765.78.  If you’re outside of Australia then you won’t have to pay GST sales tax; however you may be liable for import duty in your home country, so do some homework before ordering to save yourself a potentially nasty surprise.

Of course, what Justek don’t have is the matte black version of the mbook M1 with the matching black keyboard, spotted earlier this week.  Unfortunately, now that I’ve seen the black version, the white one just wouldn’t cut it.  If you can “make do” with the white, there’s a promotion for free shipping (at time of writing).

[via Pocketables]