Voice-controlled Asus Eee PCs due in H2 2009

Asus certainly looks to be pushing the boundaries of notebook/netbook technology. Having already announced that it expects its Fold/Unfold concept to have a commercial release this year, it has also mentioned that it wants to see ‘the end of the keyboard’ according to an interview with Asus CEO Jerry Shen.

Asus expects to launch its first Eee products (both netbook and nettop segments) which implement voice-recognition in the second half of this year. “Actually, internally we have one team dedicated to studying voice recognition. Touch and gesture input is universal, whereas language is not universal,” said Jerry Shen. It sounds like something that the company does seem to be pushing hard with dedicated teams in place working with third parties in both Japan and the US.

Now what I am confused about is that Asus Eee PCs have had some element of voice control features since the original 701. Back then, a number of apps could be launched by talking into a microphone. Now that was based on the Linux distro, so maybe Asus will be expanding this voice functionality into a Windows based system. Either way I’m not entirely sure what Asus has in store for us.

Samsung N310 full specs and pricing revealed

Samsung has now officially revealed the full specifications and pricing of it’s upcoming 10-inch N310 netbook. [Note that the official name of the netbook is ‘N310’ rather than ‘NC310’ which Akihabara News reported on this morning]. The Samsung N310 will be powered by the ubiquitous 1.6GHz N270 Atom CPU and will sport a 10.1-inch (1024 x 600) LED backlit display. This may disappoint some who were hoping for a more beefier CPU under the hood or a higher-resolution screen.

It means that performance should be very similar to other netbooks and the main point of differentiation will come from the love-it-or-hate-it design. It will also come with a 4-cell lithium ion battery rated at 4400mAh. The N310 will release in May at a price point of £399. It is expected to release in Europe in April for €499. Check out the full specifications after the break along with the first official press shot. Read more

HP Mini 2140 reviewed – worth the premium

Despite the fact that the HP Mini 2140 is targeted towards business users and comes at a premium price point, it is still one of the most well regarded netbooks in the market today. Following a video overview of the netbook last week, Lilputing has now posted a thorough review of the Mini 2140.

Overall impressions were positive, with the premium price point going towards a solid aluminium and magnesium alloy case, an accelerometer, a spill resistant keyboard, an ExpressCard slot, and a decent 3-cell battery. There is also another version of the Mini 2140 due in April that offers a higher-resolution (1366 x 768) screen. The revised Mini 2140 is one that we can’t wait to see in person as it’ll be the first 10-inch model with a HD screen. We have also attached a jkOnTheRun video review of the HP Mini 2140 after the break if you’re interested in HP’s little marvel. Read more

Acer’s new netbook series named Aspire One Pro

Acer is to name some of its upcoming netbooks under the Aspire One ‘Pro’ umbrella according to macles. As we revealed a few days ago, Acer is rumoured to have a 11.6-inch netbook on the cards along with a 10.1-inch model that was revealed earlier in the month. These two netbooks are expected to be known by the model numbers 731 and 531 respectively.

Acer has chosen the ‘Pro’ tag as it is thought that these netbooks will be targeted towards business users and ‘prosumers’, which is also likely to mean a higher price tag. No word on release date for either machine.

The Aspire One Pro 731 will have a 11.6-inch netbook powered by a low-power 1.6GHz Z530 Intel Atom CPU and 1GB RAM and come with a 160GB hard-disk drive. The new model will use the Intel Poulsbo chipset with GMA500 graphics core. Battery life of four hours is expected with the standard battery. It’s believed to weigh 1.25kg and measure 284 x 198 x 26 mm. The smaller 10.2-inch Acer Aspire One Pro 531 is apparently the same netbook that was pictured in recent FCC filings.

LG X120 netbook has April European launch, indicative pricing revealed

We have not heard anything about LGs upcoming X120 netbook since Mobile World Congress in February, however we now know that the X120 should start shipping in Asia by the end of this month. According to the official LG Korean site, the X120 will see its European launch in April, although specific countries have not been announced.

The LG X120 will cost 849,000 Korean Won ($610, €450, £420) when it is released in the region. Two models are expected to be released (X120-L76LK and X120-L76PK) although the press release is vague in what the differences between the two models are – possibly just colours? If the price translates over to the UK, it seems quite pricey, especially since the LG X110 can be bought for £230 right now. Read more

Possible Intel Atom N270 CPU price increases, flagship Z550 CPU delayed

Intel is considering increasing the price of its 1.6GHz N270 Atom CPU due to
component shortages according to Digitimes. The component shortages have been caused by a number of China makers entering the white-box netbook market. The N270 Atom CPU is one of the most popular CPUs being used in netbooks today mainly due its keen pricing.

To avoid a shortage of the popular CPU it is evaluating the possibility of increasing the price to that of the 1.66GHz N280 CPU. Intel’s N280 Atom CPU has a tray price of $65, although includes the GN40 chipset. The 1.6GHz Intel N270 CPU sells for $44 with the older 945GSE chipset. Read more

Samsung N110 netbook announced & reviewed

Samsung has unveiled yet another 10-inch netbook this morning, following the unveiling of the NC310. This time, Samsung is looking to build upon the success of its best-selling NC10, by announcing its third 10-inch netbook called the Samsung N110. The N110 has improved on its predecessor in a number of areas including an expanded touchpad and a higher capacity 6-cell 5900 mAh battery (versus 5200 mAh in the NC10) that should give over seven hours of battery life. The design is also slightly different with a glossy lid with red border. Read more

Samsung unveils new NC310 netbook

Samsung will shortly be launching a new netbook, dubbed NC310, for release on the global market according to Akihabara News. Whilst information is limited right now, what we do now is that this 10.1-inch netbook will have a battery life of 5 hours (no idea on battery capacity) rising to 11 hours with the extended battery.

There is also no information on what CPU powers the NC310, however we do know it will come with 1GB RAM and a 160GB hard-disk drive. Other features that come with the NC310 include WiFi (b/g only), 3G, Bluetooth and a 1.3MP webcam. The unit weighs 1.23kg, dimensions are unknown.

My personal opinion is that the NC310 range looks a bit cheap compared to the NC10/NC20. The range comes in a number of bright colours with what seems to be a large ‘SAMSUNG’ embossed on the lid cover. It makes it look a bit tacky in our view, although pricing will determine who this is targeted to. No release date has been announced thus far. We have included a gallery of pictures after the jump. Read more

Intel responds in Psion netbook trademark dispute

Intel has responded to Psion’s counter-suit regarding the use of the term “netbook”. The response, which was filed on Thursday 19th March, had some quite interesting titbits including the fact that whilst Intel admits using the “netbook” term in a generic sense, it denies using it as a trademark. It also denies that Psion has any rights to the “netbook” term. Read more

Sony Vaio P video tour

jkOnTheRun has been playing around with the Sony Vaio P for a few days now. Apart from demonstrating that the Vaio P does actually fit in a pocket, they also got round to posting a video tour of the unit. Overall impressions were positive with the Vaio P being very light and easy to use. The keyboard was one of the strong points, being surprisingly typable with chiclet keys, even allowing you to touch-type quite easily. One small negative was that the right shift key is really small and hard to reach. Battery life on the 2-cell battery was a respectable three hours. Read more

SMART offers Asus Eee PC 904 GO with embedded 3G

Netbooks offered as part of data packages are becoming a common strategy among wireless carriers across the world. Now the Philippines wireless carrier, SMART, is launching the country’s first netbook with built-in 3G. It will offer the Asus Eee PC 904 GO for an upfront cost of 1,000 Philippines Pesos (c$20) and a 24-month contract costing 799 Philippines Pesos ($16.5) per month. The contract allows a very reasonable 60 hours of internet access per month at speeds of up to 2Mbps.

The lifetime cost of the contract is P20,176 ($420) over two years which is not too bad considering a rather decent sized keyboard on the 8.9-inch model. The Asus Eee PC 904 GO is powered by a Celeron M processor rather than an Intel Atom and comes with 1GB RAM. It also has a 80GB hard-disk drive and 1.3MP webcam.

“As we innovate and offer more and more services under our mobile broadband portfolio, we hope to advance our ‘Internet for All’ agenda, to bring the benefits of broadband Internet to the grassroots,” said Orlando Vea, Chief Wireless Advisor of SMART.

HP Mini 2140 – Video overview

Whilst the HP Mini 2140 is targeted at business customers, many consumers have been picking this up having received a number of favourable reviews over the last couple of months. Lilputing recently went hands-on with the Mini 2140 along with a video overview. Like the Mini 1000, the HP Mini 2140 has a fairly large keyboard (92 percent the size of a full-size qwerty keyboard) with wide, flat buttons. The mouse configuration remains the same, too: the right and left mouse buttons flank the mousing surface instead of sitting below it, which makes navigating and editing documents slightly difficult. But at least the mouse buttons on the HP Mini 2140 are rubberised and rise above the surface, improving the mouse’s manageability. Read more

Fujitsu working on M2010 netbook?

Fujitsu is planning to release the M2010 netbook in July this year according to UMPC Fever. All that has been revealed is a rather amateurish hand-drawn picture of the new model and therefore there is very limited information. The only reason this rumour has any kind of credibility is due to the fact that it was revealed by a forum member of the site, Codyyuen, who is a staff member of a Fujitsu distributor in Hong Kong.

The picture for the M2010 shows a rather standard (10-inch?) netbook design. So maybe Fujitsu is just following the herd. The original Fujitsu M1010 had rather average specifications with an 8.9-inch (1024 x 600) widescreen display powered by a 1.6GHZ N270 Intel Atom CPU and 1GB of RAM. It also came with a 60GB hard-disk drive, Bluetooth 2.1, 1.3MP webcam, 4-in-1 SD card reader and WiFi.

Via Portable Monkey.

Asus Fold/Unfold notebook will cost $1,000 – $1,500

Asus plans to bring its Fold/Unfold concept to reality by commercially launching the product in September or October 2009 according to a TechRadar interview with Asus’ CEO Jerry Shen. He also said that the new type of notebook will retail for somewhere between $1000 to $1500. We previously reported that a launch was being pencilled in for the third quarter this year, but this is the first time we have had details on pricing.

This new form factor has a keyboard that slides backwards as the screen is opened, maximising room for the keys, trackpad and palm rest. As we have discussed previously, this new concept is a very interesting development for netbooks as given the size limitations of netbooks and efforts by manufacturers to maximise keyboard space, we would be very surprised to not see this concept appear in an Asus netbook at some point in the future.

Acer Aspire One 11.6-inch netbook planned?

Acer is set to release the most advanced Aspire One yet, moving away from the 10.1-inch models currently in the series, with an 11.6-inch model according to macles. Up until now the Acer Aspire One netbook has only seen minor technical revisions, whereas this new model is expected to be a new generation of netbook/mini-notebook for Acer.

The design itself is very similar to previous models, however the 11.6-inch (1366 x 768) display with widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio has enabled Acer to stick a full-sized keyboard with flat keys into the netbook. Acer has also rung the changes underneath the hood too with the 11.6-inch netbook powered by a low-power 1.6GHz Z530 Intel Atom CPU, rather than the N270 Atom CPU. The net effect of this is an increased battery life of four hours with the standard battery and eight hours with the higher-capacity battery, despite the larger screen size over the 10.1-inch variants.

The new model will also use the Intel Poulsbo chipset with GMA500 graphics core, instead of the Intel 945GSE and GMA950 graphics core found in earlier models. Despite the confusing numbering for the graphics core, the GMA500 is more advanced and features H.264 hardware decoding along with other video codecs. The new platform has a TDP of just 4.3W compared to 11.8W highlighting how much difference the move will make to power efficiency. Macles has had a good track record of breaking news on upcoming Acer-netbook development so whilst we still await official confirmation, we wouldn’t be surprised if this was true. Check out some larger pictures of this new netbook after the break. Read more

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