The next release, MeeGo v1.1 is planned for October and will include touch support. The MeeGo API has also been released that includes Qt 4.6. If you want to give MeeGo v1.0 a whirl on your netbook you can download it here.

Unity will be the desktop environment for Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition that is expected to be released in October 2010. Unity is designed for netbooks and touch devices and will include a new panel and app launcher.

Via Mark Shuttleworth.

“We thought [smartbooks] would be launched by now, but they’re not. We’ve seen things like Adobe slip — we’d originally scheduled for something like 2009,” said Drew. “Our target is mostly internet machines — it becomes sort of a requirement that they run the internet. [The delay in optimising] Flash has stalled it”.

It seems that manufacturers are also cautious on smartbooks given the low-take-up of Linux-based netbooks and the current fever-pitch around tablet devices. Some manufacturers who were planning smartbook devices are now looking at tablets instead.

Arm chips cannot support x86 applications (like Windows), therefore some are concerned on how well smartbooks would be received. “Some of it is also related to there not being many Linux [netbooks] out there either. We’ve only got Linux. If you look at forecasts for Linux netbook sales last year, not as many were sold,” said Drew.

Drew remains optimistic on the smartbook category and believes that they are now in a stronger position than they were two years ago. “I am disappointed that you can’t go down to PC World and buy a smartbook at the moment, but I’m convinced something will happen,” Drew said.

Via ZDNet.

Included in the list are netbook heavyweights Acer and Asus and highlights that we may see dedicated MeeGo netbooks at some point in the future. Acer’s Jim Wong, senior corporate vice president and president of IT Products Global Operations said: “Acer was an enthusiastic adopter of Moblin and we’re excited about Moblin’s evolution into the MeeGo software platform. We’re looking forward to ecosystem innovation that will be enabled by the open nature of MeeGo.”

Asus’ S.Y. Shian, vice president and general manager of Notebook Business Unit, said: “MeeGo is an exciting new software platform and gives customers mobile computing solutions based on Intel Atom processors which offer innovations for the user experience. As the netbook market grows, Asus is continually exploring offerings that optimize this computing experience and address the specific needs of today’s netbook customers.”

Jolicloud has named its customised Chromium (open-source version of Chrome) web app platform Nickel and even released the source code. Jolicloud says that Nickel is the “Chromium for fullscreen web apps”. The company says that over 600 apps are available in its App Center.

Lifehacker has been conducting a poll over the last week, asking its readers what is the best netbook operating system. First of all they asked their readers to flag their favourite, they then rounded up the five most popular OSes and conducted a poll to find a winner.

The five chosen candidates were Windows 7, Ubuntu, Jolicloud, OS X and Linux Mint. What I find strange about this collection is that there is no Windows XP. Given that Windows XP was preinstalled on pretty much every netbook before last October, it’s strange there’s a lack of XP love. I was also surprised to not see Moblin as one of the chosen five. Over 760 replied to the original post, which seems a reasonably high number to get a wide range of votes.

The poll itself saw 13,001 votes and declared Windows 7 the clear winner with 36 percent of the vote followed by Ubuntu with 27 percent. Jolicloud and OS X both garnered 12 percent of the votes each with Linux Mint at last place with 8 percent. Do you agree with the list? We’d love to hear your favourite below.

Via Engadget.

The Samsung N127 is powered by an Intel Atom Z-series processor, more than enough grunt to run Moblin adequately. Ars Technica got some hands-on time with the Samsung N127 and found that Moblin ran very snappily. As Moblin has been designed for small screens, the large icons and bright colours help with the user experience.

You’ll be glad to hear that battery life is also meant to be on par with the Windows XP version (a sign of good optimisation). The hardware itself is typical of most Samsung netbooks currently on the market. Samsung haven’t even got rid of the Windows key! Check out a hands-on video of the Samsung N127 from Liliputing below.

Samsung aren’t the only ones toying with Moblin on netbooks. MSI is planning a U135 netbook with SUSE Linux and the Moblin UI. Novell has worked hard to get boot times down to 30 seconds. This particular model is planned to launch in February. Liliputing spotted one of these at CES and shot a quick hands-on video that we’ve attached below.

The benchmark tests covered everything from video playback performance to encoding to battery power consumption and CPU/memory usage tests. The test netbook used was the popular Samsung NC10 with 2GB RAM and a 32GB SSD.

Interestingly, Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 came out on top, having the best battery life and lowest CPU/memory usage. The desktop distro OpenSUSE 11.2, was second, whilst Moblin 2.1 came third. Chromium OS was bottom of the pile, although considering very early source code has been released this is not entirely surprising. Check out the thorough tests at Phoronix.

Via Netbooked.

This new release brings a number of significant improvements including 3G and Bluetooth (device discovery and pairing) support, enhanced browser functionality, UI enhancements, integrated Moblin Garage (online application store) as well as a number of performance and stability improvements.

We’ve listed the full Moblin v2.1 feature summary from the press release after the break. You can download Moblin 2.1 here or check out a number of screenshots of the new release here.

Moblin v2.1 Feature Summary

• Internet Browser. After much work, we are including a new internet browser application that far exceeds our previous browser performance and adds full support for features such as plug-in support and add-ons. Many thanks to Moblin users and the developer community for their feedback and contributions.
• 3G Data Support. Support for 3G data connections using the Ericsson* MBM 3G modems. Support for additional 3G modems is planned for future releases.
• Application Installer Integration. The Moblin Application Installer is integrated and provides a logically categorized list of applications that you can choose to install. The selection of applications that appears within the Moblin Application Installer comes from the Moblin Garage.
• Clutter 1.0. With this new version of Moblin, we are releasing Clutter 1.0, the Moblin animation framework.
• Bluetooth Device Support. Bluetooth device discovery and pairing now supported via a new panel in the toolbar, which supports Bluetooth audio devices, input devices (keyboards, mice), OBEX file transfer, and using a Bluetooth* phone as a 3G modem.
• Connection Manager. Connection Manager (ConnMan) has significant modifications particularly in the areas of performance and reliability. The new version of ConnMan now supports Ethernet, WiFi, WiMAX, and 3G.
• Nettop Support. UI scaling is provided for a wide range of nettop resolutions, including the ability to show more information in the Myzone panel based on the available screen space.
• Improvements to Instant Messaging. Improvements have been included for Instant Messaging account setup, integration within the connection manager, and support for transparent connection to your friends on your local network.
• Input Method Support. Input method support is now included across the system.
• Localization. Moblin is currently localized in the following languages (English, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Swedish, Finnish, Korean, Japanese, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional). We also have a community translation project where Moblin is translated to additional languages by the community.
• In addition, Moblin v2.1 includes several updated versions of key technology components that the Moblin developers worked on with the various communities; these include the Linux kernel version 2.6.31, Intel Linux graphics driver 2.9, X server 1.6.4, and Mesa 7.6. We are also providing updated documentation, sample code and updates to the Moblin SDK. Detailed Moblin UX help documentation is included in multiple languages along with updated Moblin SDK documentation and sample code.