..::Intel Computers,Processors,Mother boards::..

HP Mini 100e Education Edition Netbook for Schools

 HP announced the Mini 100e Education Edition netbook designed “to help schools around the world acquire affordable, reliable computing technology.” This education-focus Mini is powered by Intel Atom N455 processor and 1GB DDR3 memory. It comes with a 10.1-inch LED-backlit display with 1024×600 resolution.
In addition to optional WiFi, the Mini 100e also include an integrated worldwide modem that is compatible in all countries with the V.92 standard for dial-up internet connection.  It also packs webcam, spill-resistant keyboard and and an integrated carrying handle. It comes with Windows XP Home, Windows 7 Starter and SuSE Linux OS options. The price will be below $300.

Stantum Slate PC Multitouch Tablet

Stantum unveils its proof-of-concept Slate PC, a multiouch tablet PC based on Dell’s Inspiron Mini 10 netbook. The Slate PC, said to be “future of netbook”, gets a 10.1-inch multitouch LCD panel and Stantum’s PMatrix technology. The screen has 1024×600 resolution, 500:1 contrast and 200cd/m2 brightness. The device supports both finer and stylus input.
The Slate PC also gets a more compact case, compare to Mini 10. However, webcam, Buetooth, WiFi have been removed. It runs Windows 7 32 bit for multitouch support. No words on pricing and availability.

Acer Ferrari One F200 Netbook

Shuttle are best known for producing a wide range of small form factor PCs including complete systems and barebone units which can be filled with components to suit the user’s needs. The main selling points are the small size of the units, but also the high quality finish of the cases which aren’t out of place sitting next to your flatscreen TV.

Surprisingly the design aesthetics Shuttle are well-known for have never been applied to a product outside of its desktop range, but there are rumors that is about to change and Shuttle are considering manufacturing a line of laptops.

DigiTimes is reporting that Shuttle are issuing 150,000 new shares in order to raise capital and wants to build a new 40-person team for the design and production of the laptops. Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) has also been mentioned as a company housing the talent Shuttle needs and intend to tempt staff away from for its new team. ECS are a Taiwanese company specializing in the design of motherboards, but also manufacture a range of systems including barebones PCs and laptops.

ECS says it has no knowledge of any of its staff being approached and Shuttle has not released any information regarding such a move. The company did, however, recently unveil the X50 Touchscreen all-in-one PC which is a tablet PC with a carry handle and can be seen above.

Read more at DigiTimes

Matthew’s Opinion

I really like the design of the Shuttle small form factor PCs, but have always found them to be an expensive option when considering building a small footprint system. You pay a high premium for a small box that looks so nice. The X50 is quite attractive too and it doesn’t take much imagination to see it with a keyboard next to that screen in a laptop format.

I think a Shuttle laptop range, and netbook for that matter, would be quite popular as it could really stand out from the crowd with its design aesthetics. I fear they may carry the same premium as the company’s current systems, but then they may appeal to the same crowd as buys MacBooks, but would rather stick with a Windows-based solution.

At the moment this remains just an industry rumor, but I hope it happens just to see what Shuttle can produce.

Netbooks are clearly intended for light use and as a second machine for e-mail, Net surfing, and light office tasks. That’s due mainly to the limited power offered by the underlying hardware and the tiny screens to some extent. But it looks like netbooks are about to get a whole lot more powerful if a netbook on display in Japan is to become the norm.

The Japanese tech site Akiba PC Hotline has images of a new netbook from a company called Shenzhen Weibu Electronics. The specs of the machine can be seen in the image below:

As you can see, the Atom is a dual core 330 and has been married with Nvidia’s Ion 9400M graphics solution. Up until now such a configuration has only been seen in nettops and not netbooks.

The good news is you are clearly getting a much more powerful machine, but the power requirements will increase meaning attaining the 9 hour battery life some single core netbooks manage today isn’t going to happen. I’m betting most people may be able to put up with that in return for a faster machine though.

The cost of the Shenzhen netbook works out to roughly $527. The release date is unknown.

Read more at CNET

Over the past few days I’ve been taking Intel’s Moblin 2.0 Linux desktop for netbooks for a spin. Can Intel compete with its long-time partner Microsoft in the operating system game?
Moblin has had an odd history. Back in April Intel handed over its Moblin mobile Linux project to the Linux Foundation and many took that as a sign that the chip giant wanted to walk away from the project. However, since then Intel announced that it was working with Novell to bring Moblin to netbook desktops.It seems that rather than walk away from Moblin, Intel wanted the project to be seen as a Linux project and not an Intel project.

Moblin is an interesting project that’s based on a Fedora Linux backbone, it uses a GNOME desktop and apps. But it’s also different from every Linux distro I’ve seen too.

So how is Moblin different? Well, rather than being application-centric like most operating systems, it’s function-centric. So rather than firing up a browser, you have a specific tab on the menu bar to change your Twitter status or access the Internet. The home screen, called the M-Zone, is the user’s command center for seeing what social network pals are up to and communicating with them.

Does this function-centric approach work? Well, personally I don’t think it does. When I first loaded it up I was confronted by a whole raft of mystery meat navigation. The only way to figure out what something did was to randomly click about and see what happened. I’m not sure if the problem boils down to the interface just not being usable, or to whether the OS still needs a lot of work doing to it. The current state of the OS seems to turn a netbook into a very limited device, and I can see some users never being able to figure out how to add useful applications such as office apps onto their netbook. The same complaint could be leveled at any Windows-based system, but Linux distros usually make downloading and installing more apps easy.

This project could deliver a nice, workable OS for netbooks, but for now I’m left feeling that the OS turns a netbook into a Fisher Price “My First Twittering Netbook” platform.more