SlashGear Week In Review - Week 39 2008
Netbooks made their typical strong showing this week, with ASUS announcing their intention to put 3G HSUPA into the Eee PC 901. Meanwhile their N10 was reviewed and deemed the first netbook "suitable for serious gaming", a promising title indeed. Lenovo's S10 also hit reviewers' benches, making a strong – if at times warm – case for the smallest IdeaPad, while Packard Bell unveiled their 'dot', targeted much more at the budget end of the scale. They'll have a fight on their hands, though; SlashGear reviewed the Acer Aspire One this week too, and when it comes to value for money it's a tough one to beat.
Arguably the biggest news of the week, however, has been T-Mobile's G1 – the first Android-based handset to be officially announced. Our sister-site AndroidCommunity.com ran a Live Blog of the whole event (and gave away a G1 to one lucky forum member), and we've got the photo galleries and hands-on video to show for it.
In components, Intel started shipping the dual-core Atom 330 CPU and Toshiba announced a 256GB SSD that's just 3mm thick. Hitachi took the wraps off a prototype display 58-percent thinner than their existing range, and SanDisk showed new 16GB microSDHC and Memory Stick Micro cards (the former of which should please would-be G1 owners who were getting annoyed by taunts of "the iPhone 3G can hold more media").
Speaking of the iPhone 3G, Apple partially gave in to requests for online ordering with a supposed queue-busting system that allows you to buy your cellphone, and fill in the accompanying paperwork, online. Then all you need do is queue up in the nearest Apple store to collect it. Far more interesting are the latest round of Apple MacBook rumors; what is "the brick" and will we find out on October 14th?
Personally, a new MacBook might be nice but I'm feeling a lot more lustful toward Sony's new VAIO TT ultraportables. With Blu-ray, a 256GB RAID array and 3G WWAN in an 11.1-inch package, I know what I'll be asking Santa for this year.
The week also saw Sling Media's Slingbox PRO-HD hit shelves and reviewers (not literally, of course, as that would hurt), leaving good impressions if not some frustration that most broadband upstream speeds simply aren't good enough to funnel high-definition content through smoothly. Here at SlashGear, we also took a look at the Motorola Z9 on AT&T; it might look like a mundane slider, but with 3G, GPS and on-device streaming media, it has the guts to match the appearance. Check out the review here.