netbooks

It seems like every time we turn around, there's a new version of Asus' popular Eee PC Netbook. After the initial 7-inch Linux and Windows versions, we saw the 9-inch version, and now we've finally gotten our hands on the Eee PC 901, featuring Intel's new Atom processor. (Of course, now there's the 10-inch Eee PC 1000, as well).

As we previously pointed out, this system has a 1.6GHz Atom CPU from Intel, replacing the now-dated Celeron M. Compared with the previous Eee 900 model, you can see that this new version (in black) has … Read more

The inventor of the Sugar user interface used in the One Laptop Per Child's XO says his company is developing a version for Intel's own low-cost laptop.

Walter Bender said in an interview Thursday with PC World that "a community volunteer is working with Intel on Sugar for the Classmate PC. Sugar Labs helped to expedite the relationship."

Bender is the inventor of the kid-friendly interface, which sits on top of a computer's operating system. His company, Sugar Labs, was spun off from OLPC in May. At the time of the announcement, Bender said Sugar … Read more

AMD took a big step toward improving its mobile offerings earlier this month, but it reportedly has other plans to match Intel's moves into this market.

Electronista spotted a post from a German site called Eee PC News on an AMD processor apparently known as the "BGA CPU," according to what appears to be a presentation slide authored by AMD. As The Register notes, the BGA CPU sounds an awful lot like a processor core called Bobcat that AMD first unveiled in 2007 but has said very little about since.

Bobcat was supposed to be a sub-10 … Read more

Scheduled to start shipping today, the MSI Wind has been delayed--blown off course, if you'll forgive the unavoidable pun. Citing battery shortages because of the fire at LG Chem's Ochang plant this past March, MSI has delayed the launch of its mininotebook until June 27. On that date, the company will begin shipping an XP version of the Wind with a 3-cell battery for $479. In July, MSI will start shipping the Linux version for $399 and an XP version with a 6-cell battery for $499. All models will feature an Intel Atom CPU and 10-inch screen.

Note: … Read more

We first started hearing about Dell's under-development 9-inch Netbook-style laptop after a prototype was spotted under founder Michael Dell's arm last month. Now the guys at Engadget have turned up a slew of leaked docs describing what the company is calling the Dell E and the Dell E Slim. No relation to the similar Asus Eee PC, naturally.

It looks like the Dell E will have an 8.9-inch 1,024x600 display, a 1.6GHz Intel Diamondville CPU (part of the Atom family), and have either a 4, 8, or 16GB SSD hard drive. RAM options are 512MB … Read more

If you've been waiting ever since last week's Computex announcement for the new 10-inch version of the Asus Eee PC Netbook, it's already been spotted on PCHome, a Taiwanese shopping site.

According to the specs listed on the site, this is the Eee PC 1000H version, which includes Windows XP, an Intel Atom CPU, and a traditional 80GB hard drive (as opposed to the SSD drive in other Eee PC models).

Since we're all waiting around for U.S. availability info, the real interesting part here is the price. Listed at $18,988 NT (New Taiwan … Read more

Sigh. We were growing weary of all this little-laptop news as early as March. Little did we know that the Eee PC, Classmate PC, and HTC Shift were only the tip of the iceberg. This week's headlines were dominated by news from the show floor at Computex 2008 in Taipei.

Asus introduced its 8.9-inch Eee PC 901 and 10-inch Eee PC 1000. Acer launched its low-cost mini-laptop, the Aspire One; our awesome colleagues at CNET UK paid the little guy a visit and shared a series of Aspire One photos. The $399 MSI Wind got a platform (Intel … Read more

UPDATE: With headlines this week like "AMD jumps into the netbook game," it sounded very much like Advanced Micro Devices was making a belated entry into the netbook segment. But this isn't the case, according to AMD.

An AMD spokesperson said that this photo of a purported AMD netbook is, in fact, just a small notebook from Raon Digital--not an AMD reference design.

"It is a Raon Digital product and will start production at the end of July," AMD spokesperson Phil Hughes said in response to an email query. "They have two models. … Read more

First International Computer, a Taiwanese computer manufacturer and the parent company of U.S.-based Everex, announced two new mininotebooks at Computex this week. The field of tiny laptops is already starting to look crowded (with the HP 2133, Eee PC, and MSI Wind--heck, even Dell's working on an mini-laptop), but FIC has a distinguishing characteristic right out of the gate: the otherwise identical systems can be configured with either a C7-M processor from Via Technologies or Intel's new Atom CPU.

Both the Via-based CE2A1 and Intel-based CW0A1 feature an 8.9-inch screen and a 1.3-megapixel … Read more