Believe it or not, the picture above is not a toy. It’s the real thing. I mean a real nettop, a Hello Kitty-inspired nettop. It’s called the MiNew A10 and I’ve got to admit that the Hello Kitty skin looks great. But don’t get me wrong here, I’m not a Hello Kitty fan. But folks, this nettop is even better than the HP Vivienne Tam Edition or the Acer F1 netbooks.
Kidding aside, this netbook packs in your usual nettop stuff including an Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, GMA950 chipset and 160GB of HDD. In case you’re wondering what’s inside the Hello Kitty Skin, you can find it here.
It looks like we’ll be seeing more touch-enabled netbooks in the coming days. If Taiwan touch panel maker Young Fast Optoelectronics is actually preparing orders for its multi-touch panels, well then we might be seing more netbooks in the likes of the Eee PC T91 and the MSI Wind U150.
According to Digitimes, Young Fast is currently developing analog matrix resistive (AMR) multi-touch panels for use specifically of netbooks. And it seems that the company is anticipating more orders to come in the following days. This is despite the fact that Young Fast has already shipped 12 million units of its touch screen panels.
Expect other companies to follow Young Fast direction since Microsoft has already granted several touch panel manufacturers with the Windows 7 certification.
Let’s just hope that prices of these touch panels will be competitive so that netbook manufacturers would not be forced to release touch-enabled netbooks at a high price.
Here we have Acer’s latest foray into the ultraportable netbook/nettop market with the release of their Veriton N260G nettop to the U.S. market. First thing we got to tell is that this box looks a lot like your ordinary gaming consoles. But inside is a power-packed machine loaded with the following features:
• Intel Atom Processor N280 (512KB L2 Cache, 1.66GHz, 667Mhz FSB) • Intel GN40 Express Chipset • Windows XP Professional, Recovery CD with Windows Vista Business • 2GB DDR2 SDRAM • Two Memory Slots: Upgradeable to 2GB (One GB in Each Slot) • 160GB SATA Hard Drive(2) • Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M (Intel® GMA 4500M) • Multi-In-One Card Reader • Six USB 2.0 Ports (Four in Front, Two in Back) • HDMI Port • PCI Express Mini 1.1 x 1 Slot • Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 802.11 b/g/Draft N • PS2 Keyboard • USB Optical Mouse
Love those specs? If you do, be prepared to shell out $399 to get this little powerful Acer Veriton nettop. It’s so small that you can even place it upright or attach at the back of an LCD.
Ready to battle the whoever is reigning supreme or threatening to take over the touch screen netbook/nettop market in the U.S. is Gigabyte with the availability of the Gigabyte Booktop M1022 and Touch Note T1028 netbooks.
Both Gigabyte touch screen machines are now selling at Amazon, with the Booktop M1022 having a price tag of $449, while the Touch Note T1028 is selling for $599.
The Touch Note T1028 is a 10.1 tablet netbook that could easily compete with the just released Asus Eee PC T91 which is selling for around $499 by virtue of its smaller touch screen display. *Update – the Amazon product page says this netbook is no longer available*
On the other hand, the Booktop M1022 happens to be a tablet convertible PC that comes with a docking station and boasts of a 6-cell battery that can give out 8 hours of battery life.
Aside from the Eee PC Tablet T91, T91GO and T91A, Asus is also set to release the Eee PC Tablet T91H. While the previously announced netbook tablets all have an 8.9-inch display, the T91H will have a bigger 10.1-inch display instead.
In case you have not been reading our updates, the Eee PC Netbook Tablet T91H will have GPS capability, 3G connectivity and multi-touch interface.
And for some live hands-on with the Eee PC Tablet T91H, here’s a video provided by AsusTablet.com:
Asus Taiwan has officially announced that it will be participating in the Windows 7 Upgrade program. This means if you’re buying a new Eee PC or Eee Top PC during the specified elegibility period, you will have the option to easily upgrade the Windows XP installation of said Asus products to Windows 7.
According to Asus, once the Windows 7 Upgrade Program is rolled out, buyers of qualified models from the Eee PC family will be assured of Windows upgrade feature for free, that is if you’re from the U.S. While for the rest of us who will opt to buy new Eee PCs will get to enjoy only discounted shipping and and handling fee for the Windows 7 upgrade.
So, if you’re planning to get a new Eee PC whether nettop or netbook, you might want to wait until around October 22, 2009 when the Windows 7 is scheduled to be launched. Unlesss of course you don’t mind paying extra for the upgrade of its OS from XP to Windows 7 later on.
Still remember that Acer nettop which recently got a hands-on? Well, what do you know, Acer has announced that the Revo nettop is now loaded with the ultra-sleek Splashtop instant-on platform.
The said nettop, called AspireRevo would immediately give users access to their favorite applications as soon as they powered on their machines.
Set to for an immediate release in Europe, the AcerAspireRevo running on Splashtop was made possible through Acer’s partnership with DeviceVM which more popularly known for their instant-on software. The two companies are confident that the projected 6 million units of nettop to be sold in 2009 would come to reality.
While the Eee PC T91 may be one of the most anticipated products right now, this won’t stop Gigabyte from coming out with a TabletPC of its own – the T1028M is said to be Gigabyte’s first Atom powered tabletPC.
Judging from the available images of the T1028M, we could say that it certainly looks pretty sleek. Specs-wise though, there’s nothing really new.
The Gigabyte T1028M features the standard Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, WiFi N and a of course a 10.1″ touchscreen display.
What’s interesting about this tabletPC is the fact that it lacks Microsoft Tablet Input which specifically works with a touchscreen display. Gigabyte is probably letting its consumer to wait for the release Windows 7.
Anyway, if you’re interested with the Gigabyte T1028M, it will be available in Japan end of this month. The same time that another Gigabyte tabletPC is coming out.
Good news to all those who are eagerly anticipating the release of the Eee PC T91. Well, it this post from the eee forum can be construed as reliable, the Eee PC T91 might start shipping well – today.
So, for those who pre-ordered this touch screen tablet netbook, expect your Eee PC T91 to start arriving in a day or two, depending on where you pre-order it.
Another proof that the Eee PC T91 may indeed be shipping today is the fact that it is already appearing on the Asus Event comparison chart which also gives the complete specs of the Eee PC T91 as follow:
Asus’ much awaited table netbook with touchscreen features more popularly known as the Eee PC T91 is set to be released in UK next month. UK online retailer Blightly is about to receive the T91 in their inventory and already, suggested retail price has already been known.
The Eee PC T91 is will have a hefty price tag of around $750 according to Register Hardware. Yes folks, that maybe too much to pay for a netbook right? But the Eee PC T91 is not your regular netbook. It’s Asus’ first convertible tablet netbook. And for that price you’d get the following specs and features:
8.9-inch swivel display
1.33 GHz Intel Z520 Atom CPU
Intel US15W chipset
1GB RAM
36GB storage(16GB SSD, 20GB online storage)
3-in-1 card reader
2 USB ports
0.3MP webcam
Windows XP Home
So what do you think? Is the Eee PC T91 worth the price tag it carries?
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