Video: Moblin v2.0 Netbook Beta Walkthrough

We already reported on the Moblin v2.0 Beta that launched earlier today, which comes with some quite big improvements from the previous version, including a brand new user interface. For those that have already downloaded the beta or those that are about to, I thought I’d flag an interesting video into some of its features.

The video is created by the development team behind Moblin and walks through some of the most important parts of the Moblin OS. The video was recorded a little bit before the beta so some of the bugs that are visible have already been fixed. It’s one of the most attractive UI’s that we’ve seen from a Linux kernel and we’re looking to test drive it ourselves shortly. In the meantime, check out the video after the jump. Read more

Acer Aspire One 751 netbook disappoints on benchmarks

One of the complaints from the recent Acer Aspire One 751 review, was that the 1.3GHz Z520 Atom processor was just not powerful enough for this 11.6-inch slender netbook. Now Riccardo from NetbookNews.it has come out with the benchmarks to highlight the same point. He says that you shouldn’t expect anything more from the netbook but basic web browsing and use of word documents and spreadsheets.

YouTube HQ (not HD) videos played okay, despite a CPU load of near 100 percent. However, HD Vimeo videos were unwatchable. So poor were the results that he ended up re-installing the operating system. He had thought that there was something wrong with the configuration. Whilst the HDD and RAM perform satisfactorily, he concludes that the poor performance is down to the Z520 CPU. A performance benchmark comparison chart against other netbooks is attached after the break.

It also seems that Acer is shipping a 4400mAh rated 6-cell battery, rather than the 5200mAh battery suggested by Acer’s website. The Aspire One 751 has a suggested retail price of £379.99 and is expected to be available from next week, along with the Aspire One D250 which will retail for £329.99. A 3G version of the D250 will set you back a pricey £479.99. Read more

AT&T to sell 3G netbooks in US stores nationwide

We recently reported that AT&T was considering rolling out its 3G netbooks nationwide, after successful trials in Atlanta & Philadelphia stores. This now seems to be the case, AT&T has announced that it will roll out 3G netbooks across all of its 2,200 stores & website by the summer.

“It’s clear there’s a demand for mini laptops,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “Our customers in the Atlanta and Philadelphia markets have responded well and the response isn’t limited to a specific demographic. We’re getting interest from tweens, teens, young adults, moms on the go and small business owners. Consumers and small business customers really seem to be attracted to the convenience and portability of this connected device.”

AT&T’s trials involved testing a $40-per-month fee for 200 megabytes of data downloads to netbooks, or $60 service for 5GB of downloads. The company plans to sell 3G netbooks from Dell, Acer and Lenovo. Pricing plans for the new netbooks will be announced at a later date.

Malware spotted on new Windows netbooks

Kaspersky Labs, who is known for its anti-virus software, has reported finding malware on a new $499 Windows XP netbook. A senior researcher with the firm scanned the machine and found three instances of malware on it. The researcher said that the malware appeared to have been accidentally loaded onto the netbook at the factory.

The malware included a variant of the AutoRun worm that spreads from PC to PC through USB thumb drives. The netbook was still in its original packaging when the researchers bought it. Read more

Asus France to phase out Eee PC 1000HE netbook

We recently reported that Acer UK are planning to slowly withdraw the best-selling Asus Eee PC 1000HE to re-focus the Eee PC line-up to just 3 models by July. These models will consist of the recently launched Asus Eee PC 1008HA Seashell, 1005HA and an as yet unannounced model.

Well it appears that the same may be happening in France, after Blogeee got confirmation that the Eee PC 1000HE will also be phased to make way for the new range of netbooks. Unlike the UK, it appears that the marketing for the upcoming Eee PC T91 convertible tablet will be unchanged for France.

MSI Wind U115 Hybrid now shipping in UK

The MSI Wind U115 Hybrid netbook has now started to ship in the UK. Whilst some of the bigger retailers have yet to list it, purelygadgets.co.uk has it in stock for the RRP of £499.99, whilst Laptops Direct has limited stock but is £50 cheaper at £449.99.

We have been eagerly awaiting the release of the Wind U115 Hybrid, mainly on the reports of its phenomenal battery life. We have seen tests that yield 13 hours on the 6-cell battery and up to 25 hours on the 9-cell battery.

It is expensive for a 10-inch netbook, however this premium is down to the Hybrid (HDD/SDD) storage solution and Intel’s latest Poulsbo chipset. The UK SKU will come with a 160GB hard-disk drive and 8GB solid-state drive. The HDD can be disabled which helps with the long battery times.

The 10-inch (1024 x 600) LED-backlit display is powered by a low-power 1.6GHz Z530 Atom CPU and US15W (Poulsbo) chipset. This chipset provides full hardware acceleration of HD files (including H.264, MPEG2 and VC1) helping to reduce the total power consumption. It will come with 1GB RAM and a 4-in-1 card reader. Other features include WiFi (including draft n), Bluetooth, a 1.3MP webcam and three USB ports.

Moblin v2.0 Beta for netbooks released, sports new UI

Intel has just announced that the Moblin v2.0 Beta is now out. The improvements are quite significant and include a completely revamped user interface, faster boot time (<10 seconds), longer battery life and smaller memory footprint.

The new UI has a homepage called M-zone, which stands for “My” zone (screenshot below). It has been designed from the ground up and includes social networking features such as status updates. There is also instant access to calendar, tasks and appointments as well as recently used files. Read more

Intel releases new details on next-gen netbook CPU

Intel held a teleconference today to outline some details on the next-generation netbook platform dubbed ‘Pine Trail’. This platform will consist of just two chips, a processor and an input/output (I/O) chip. This compares to the three chips that currently constitute the Atom platform (processor + I/O + chipset (memory controller/graphics)).

The Pine Trail platform will see both the memory controller and GPU move into the next-gen Pineview CPU. Currently both of these parts reside in the 945GSE chipset on the Atom platform. The benefits of moving from 3 chips to 2 chips is power efficiency, lower costs and better performance. Read more

Aluminium-skinned Asus Eee PC 1002HAE gets videoed

The Asus Eee PC 1002HAE is very similar to the Eee PC 1002HA apart from the fact that it has a sleek aluminium skin, chiclet keyboard and the faster 1.66GHz N280 Atom CPU (the 1002HA has a N270 Atom). It certainly looks very attractive and it’s a shame that Asus have only confirmed this for the Japanese market until now. Peter from Portable Monkey has gone hands-on with a ‘Deep Red’ version and provided his initial thoughts.

From the exterior it looks as if not has much has changed from the Eee PC 1002HA. However, the lighter aluminium casing brings the weight down from 1.45kg to 1.2kg. It’s nice to see the Eee PC 1002HAE using a matte display, although it does have glossy innards. A full review is expected shortly, in the meantime check out the video hands-on after the break. Read more

Video: Verizon’s HP Mini 1151NR netbook unboxed

Verizon Wireless’ subsidised netbook, the HP Mini 1151NR, has been given the first video unboxing treatment from MobileBurn. As well as the unboxing ritual, they also connected to the Verizon 3G network to test what kind of bandwidth the netbook got. The results were pretty impressive, achieving an upstream speed of 1,661 KB/s and a downstream speed of 779 KB/s.

Engadget also went hands-on with the HP Mini and were quite fond of it by the end. Setting the netbook up was a breeze, and once up and running, connecting to the network took an average of 45 seconds. Performance was satisfactory with general everyday tasks being lag-free. Image intensive websites were a bit slower than expected however. The speeds that they achieved were much lower than MobileBurn. They average upstream speeds of 777kbps and downstream speeds of 455kbps. Battery life lasted for two hours and 15 minutes on a full battery charge.

The HP Mini 1151NR netbook is sold for $199 with a two year contract. Verizon Wireless service plans start at $39.99 for 250MB of data per month or $59.99 per month for 5GB a month of data usage. Check out the video after the break. Read more

The art of creating a netbook video review [Funny]

Creating a video review is a fine art. Trying to get across the pertinent points as succinctly as possible, making sure the product is in full view, remembering all of the key specifications takes a reasonable amount of organisation and experience. These are things that the average person doesn’t even think about when watching these videos.

NetbookNews.de has come across an extremely funny example of a very polite Polish guy taking it very seriously. Apart from the dimly-lit garage setting, he has a full script in front of him whilst going
through all of the points. The video compares the Asus Eee PC 701 with the Polish NTT Corrino 100A. Check out the action after the break. Read more

Asus Eee PC 1008HA Seashell guts exposed

The Asus Eee PC 1008HA Seashell netbook had already hit the FCC over a month ago, however at the time there was limited information. There were no test photos of any kind (internal or external) and not even a manual. A confidentiality agreement deprived us of all the juicy details.

Moving forward six weeks, the 1008HA Seashell has already been released in the UK and US shipments are expected next week. One would think there is little else to find out. However, the FCC site has now updated the 1008HA page to include all of the test pictures including its internals exposed. Read more

Photos of the MSI Wind U200 netbook

The MSI Wind U200, is the first 12-inch netbook under the Wind brand name. It was only officially announced last week, but Johannes from NewGadgets.de has already gone hands-on with the unit. He has posted a number of pictures of the U200 in various different angles, but didn’t do a proper unboxing as he has a pre-production sample which currently has no box!

The MSI Wind U200 has a 12-inch (1366 x 768) display powered by a Celeron ULV SFF 723 CPU and Intel GS45 chipset with GMA 4500M graphics. It will come with 1GB RAM (2GB max), a 250GB HDD, Wi-Fi (including Draft n), Bluetooth, a 1.3MP webcam and a HDMI port. Altogether the U200 will weigh 1.4kg including its 3-cell battery. An optional 6-cell battery will add 200g to the weight.

We have attached a few of the pictures after the break, but to see the full set head over to NewGadgets.de. These pictures include the SIM card slot and an opened access panel, showing how easy it is to access the RAM and HDD. Read more

RIM CEO: No ‘Blackberry’ netbook plans

Research In Motion’s co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, has ruled out any plans for a future netbook. The Blackberry manufacturer says that it wants to focus on diversifying the range of handsets it offers rather than jumping on the netbook bandwagon.

RIM is looking at expanding the typical Blackberry range with candy-bar handsets, phones with touch-screen controls as well as those with mini-QWERTY keypads. “Form factor is a personal preference but it’s got to be something that lasts the better part of the day and you can hold up to your ear and clip onto your belt. Those are a very tight systems constraints for a netbook,” said Balsillie.

When questioned about the trying to cram too much into a phone’s dimensions he said, “if you want richer keyboards and richer displays you can just use peripherals and Bluetooth.” It looks like RIM is taking a modular approach rather than providing an integrated solution.

Via Pocket-Lint.

Fujiyama announces three touchscreen netbooks

Touchscreen netbooks are set to become much more commonplace as we move into the second half of the year, coinciding with the launch of Windows 7. Up until now, the two main netbook brands who offer net tablets (or convertible netbooks if you prefer), are Gigabyte with the T1028 and Asus with its Eee PC T91 and T101, due to launch shortly.

Now, Chinese manufacturer, Fujiyama has announced five netbooks on its website and three of these are touchscreen models. It has launched them under the E-PC brand (crafty!) The only netbook in convertible tablet format is the E-PC E-1001 which has a 10.2-inch (1024 x 600) touch screen. Read more

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