The rather unimposing xpPhone that a company called ITG is currently working on has just gained new features ahead of its (as of yet still unknown) release date. While it’s already known that it will have a 4.8-inch WVGA touchscreen display, AMD Super Mobile CPU and Windows XP pre-installed, ITG is set to offer upgrade options for everyone who orders, which include adding a 5-megapixel camera onboard, a 7-inch touchscreen, and even Windows 7 for an OS. Sounds pretty neat, but only time will tell if a device such as this really clicks with consumers (and not to mention our wallets). If pricing and release info come out in the next week or two, we’ll let you know.
The Android-based Nook e-book reader from Barnes & Noble won’t be shipping out until December 11, and that’s only the first batch. This is according to Barnes & Noble itself, saying that stronger demand that expected is pushing them to delay the product’s release. They won’t say just how many Nooks have been pre-ordered since the day it was announced and became available for pre-order, but it must be a pretty great number and it’s not really that surprising. Perhaps the consumers see potential in an e-book reader that’s running Google’s Android operating system. It does look very promising after all, and we hope to get out hands on one for a full test of its features.
The days when netbooks were limited to having just 2GB of RAM and single core processors are long gone. Even possibly no-name companies with unfamiliar brand names are churning out babies that further prove this point these days. The Flybook v5 has an awesome name and somewhat awesome innards: 1.2GHz dual core ultra-low-voltage processor, support for up to 4GB of RAM and Windows 7 multi-touch gestures on its touchscreen display. Besides the aforementioned features, it also touts a couple of USB ports, an ExpressCard slot and up to 4-5 hours of battery life. Pricing for the Flybook v5 isn’t known, but it’s probably not going to be available in your area anyway. If you want to see more or learn more about it, though, a hands-on video is available after the break. Read the rest of this entry »
Come January of next year at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Asus is expected to showcase a whole slew of exciting new devices along with a few old (already known) ones that also incite interest as excellent choices for mobile computing. Among those to be showcased are the company’s 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor powered netbooks, smartbooks and ultra-thin devices like their forthcoming Eee Reader and a few Google Android-based smartphones. Asus is also preparing 1.83GHz Intel Atom N470 netbooks but these aren’t going to be presented until CeBIT during another place and time. Still, we hope to learn more about all of these when we come to CES next year to cover the event live. Watch for it.
A member of the MyDellMini forums has modded a Dell Mini 9 and turned it into a Tablet PC. Rob928 took the netbook, stripped the lid off and trimmed the hinges among other things. He used a “Honda Fun and Easy” solderless touchscreen kit to create the tablet. One issue that was found with the mod, is that due to the design of it, it can get a little hot. It loses it’s heat through the keyboard but because the screen is basically upside down, the heat isn’t ventilated. If that wasn’t enough, he also added Windows 7 to the device, which is described as better for a touch screen device anyway. You can view photos of the various stages through Rob’s Picasa account.
Last time we reported on the Skytone Alpha 680 was in April when the expected release date would be around 3 months later. Since then we haven’t heard anything else about the Android powered netbook but, live pictures of the netbook have now surfaced.
The netbook, when it is released will run Android OS, come with 1GB SSD, 128MB of RAM and 533 MHz CPU. The display will be a 7 inch touch screen. Unfortunately, the netbook is described as “not really stable” which means we still won’t be seeing the netbook for a while yet. Until it is released, the live pictures of the netbook can be seen after the jump.
Viliv chose IDF 2009 to showcase an upcoming convertible touchscreen netbook pre-loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium called the Viliv S10. Accompanied by the company’s so-called Shuffle touchscreen UI for navigation, the Viliv S10 convertible touchscreen netbook comes with a 10-inch 1366×768 pixel resolution display, choices of either 32GB or 64GB SSDs for storage, 1.33GHz or 2.0GHz Intel processors and 1GB of RAM. Built-in 3G will be offered as an upgrade option and it looks like the Viliv S10 will also have the built-in USB ports and an SD card reader, just as you would expect of any netbook coming out these days. It won’t be in stores until the fourth quarter of 2009, though, and it will be priced rather high for a netbook at $500 and upwards according to one Viliv representative who was present at IDF 2009 for the netbook’s debut/demo. LaptopMag has a hands-on video of the said netbook so if you are interested in learning more about it, head on down to the link below.
What seems to be a clone of the T1028 tablet-netbook from Gigabyte has surfaced in China, to join the masses of netbook clones already on the market, albeit a clone with a rotating screen which could be the first clone of its type.
The ‘Shanzai 100 See Ban Gu’ comes fitted with a rotating 10.2 inch tablet screen, is powered with an Atom CPU and is complete with a 160GB hard disk drive and 1GB of RAM. Netbooked.net have taken a guess that the screen resolution will be 1024×600 but, that isnt confirmed and neither is pricing. Shanzai do comment that the netbook will be out in time for the Windows 7 release although, they don’t confirm that this is the OS the netbook will come installed with.
We’ve previously seen one modder add a touch screen to his Eee PC 901 and built it into a kitchen cabinet. It seems he’s not the only one to make this move. Another modder has modded his Eee PC 701, given it 2GB of RAM, a touch screen along with a TV receiver and sound system. He’s then added it to a kitchen cupboard, making it a “Kitchen PC”. You can see the video of how he did this below.
An Asus Eee Reader is said to be in the works and that it will be released before the end of this year. This information is based on a rumor that originated from online news site Digitimes a little over a week ago. Today, the Times Online says that Asus is indeed working on a so-called Eee Reader, and this time it is said that the information came from the Taiwanese company’s president Jerry Shen himself. Also according to Shen, there may be an entire line of Eee Readers out before 2010. Perhaps they plan to cover all market segments with both budget and premium offerings with different features and price points. Asus apparently wants to make a difference in the e-book reader market as it did in the notebook market after it launched its affordable netbooks, portable computers that beat good old-fashioned laptops in every important aspect: portability, usability and battery life. Not to mention affordability. Read the rest of this entry »
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