Eee PC - Blog

Intel maybe a little late in shipping its Classmate netbook to the UK now that our UK friends have the Eee PC 901 into their shore, but still the Classmate netbook which is released by Actronix in the UK may just be worth a look.

Released under a new branding, which is JumpPC, this small and relatively cheap netbook features:

• 900MHz Intel Celeron Mobile processor
• 512MB RAM
• 2GB Flash storage (or a 30GB HDD)
• 7-inch 800×480 LCD display
• 2 USB ports
• 10/100MB/s Ethernet
• 802.11 b/g WIFI
• webcam
• Windows XP Home Edition.

The JumpPC has a price tag of around $474 and is available for pre-orders at JumpPC product site.

Source: Register Hardware

The same day that the Asus Eee PC 900 appears on most U.S. retail stores is its product launch in Manila, Philippines. None other than two representatives from Asustek came all the way from Taiwan to launch the Eee PC 900 before the Filipino press people, bloggers and enthusiasts. The Eee PC 900 would sell for almost the same $549.99 equivalent to Philippine peso. Unfortunately, when I asked the Asustek representative if they have the black version, he said that Asustek is releasing the white version first. But there is certainly the black ones, as I noticed in their press kit. I’m guessing that they would deplete their stock of the white Eee PC 900 first before releasing the black ones. As for other colors, Asustek doesn’t seem keen on releasing other funky colors similar to the colors of the Eee PC 700. And yes, the Eee PC 900 would come with the 4400mAh battery, which the Asustek representative said would last for a good 3.5 hours. We’ll have to confirm that from actual users though. Here are a couple of shots of the press launch, as well as some shots comparing the Eee PC 900 with the 701. Just click on the thumbnail for a larger view.

Intel has officially announced the 2nd generation Intel Classmate PC - an affordable, fully functional, rugged Internet-centric computer platform with wireless capabilit, longer battery life, water resistant keyboards and more shock resistant.

With its looks and features and the targeted market for the Intel Classmate PC, which as the press release say is for the world’s children, I think the Classmate PC was not intended to rival that of the Asus Eee PC. But it was probably meant to compete more with the OLPC XO which is also a social fund raiser for children’s cause.

Anyway, the Intel Classmate PC version 2 would sell for around $300-$500 dollars and who have the following features:

• Intel® Celeron® M processor
• 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and mesh network capabilities.
• 7-inch or  9-inch LCD screen,
• 6-cell battery life,
• 512 MB memory,
• 30 GB HDD (hard disk drive) storage
• integrated webcam
• Microsoft Windows  XP and variants of the Linux

Register Hardware is running a story revealing the rumored Intel rumored Eee PC competitor which remained unnamed as of this writing. The notebook sports a 7-inch LCD display with 800×840 display, port array, 10/100Mb/s Ethernet, VGA output and 3 USB ports including ExpressCard 34 bay.

It is not yet known whether Intel’s EEE rival will have a SSD or a hard disk. This new Intel rival is different with the previous Intel sub-300 notebook we featured a couple of weeks ago - the Intel Smartbook.

Here’s some pictures of the Intel notebook which was demoed in Intel IDF:

Charles Cooper over at Cnet has written an interesting column remarking on the development of mobile devices.  With the Intel Developer Forum this week in Shanghai, China, he gets some feedback from Kevin Kahn, the director of the Communications Technology Lab at Intel.

As Intel’s chipsets get smaller, and smaller, the race is on to create the ultimate mobile computing product, but meanwhile things screen size or button size still irk us (that right-hand shift key on Eee PC is still giving me trouble).  Charles Cooper throws in the question of what the hell happened to having mobile devices easily interact with each other- like, for instance, wirelessly connecting to a larger display when you need to. Mobile computing has so much possibility, but they haven’t had time to even begin to scratch the surface yet.

Intel’s Developer Forum will discuss and showcase a number of technologies they’re currently researching, including a multi-band, power-efficient, CMOS Transceiver. They’ll tackle topics ranging from Energy Efficiency to Biosensors to Gaming.

The Asus Eee is powered by the Intel Celeron-M ULV 353 (future models of the 900 will include Intel’s ‘Atom’ processor) and its ultra-low-voltage is just the ticket for such a compact machine.  Intel’s technology is just one of the building blocks, and from there Asustek has created a user-friendly computing experience that can easily go where you do.  The Eee PC is a strong example of how consumer needs and bleeding-edge technology are finally coming together, bit by bit- even if the Eee has yet to adopt things like a touchscreen or GPS, those sorts of features could easily appear on the horizon. 

I hope that this is going to be the last of string of rumors and speculations about Intel’s upcoming sub-300 PC, which is also being touted as the Asus Eee PC killer. Finally the msytery has been solved. The Netbook is not after all to be called the Netbook. It’s actually will be called the Smart Book and will be manufactured by Malaysia’s very own FTEC.

Also, the Smart Book will be marketed as a mainstream computing machine for children, even as early as those in pre-school. So, I guess its nto after all an Asus Eee PC killer or rival but more of the OLPC.

And finally we got the official specs of the FTEC Smart Book which will be released in 7-inch and 9-inch display model.

The 7-inch Smart Book features Intel Celeron M Processor, Wi-Fi, 512RAM, 40GB HDD, USB 2.0 and Linux OS. While the 9-inch Smart Book features 2GB NAND Flash, USB 2.0, Webcam and Linux OS. Prices for the 7-inch and 9-inch are set at $377 and $409 respectively.

The FTEC Smart Book was launched today in Malaysia. Check this site for the actual photos of the event.

Via [Engadget]

This new machine has surfaced, and rumor has it that the machine is the Intel soon-to-be-released Netbook.

Intel is apparently going the market of ultra-portable, ultra-cheap notebooks, and will be releasing the Netbook. The Netbook is suggested to run a 900Mhz processor, have 512MB of RAM, sport a 40GB hard drive and 9″ display, integrated WiFi, weigh less than three pounds, and cost less than $400.

Rumor also has it that the machine will be released in June this year.

Source: Engadget