AMD’s Atom killer roadmap confuses even itself

July 23, 2008

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Freshfaced AMD CEO Dirk Meyer hyped the firm's upcoming Atom-challenging processor the other day, calling it "Bobcat," and promising a November reveal. We'd think he'd be the guy to know, but now we're hearing seemingly conflicting words from AMD's Chief Marketing Officer, Nigel Dessau. Dessau says AMD is "watching... rather than playing" to see what becomes of the netbook segment. As Ars Technica points out, Dirk Meyer was only promising to announce a chip in November, not release one, so perhaps both of these statements are in step with each other, or maybe they're just thinking of different processor applications altogether, but for a company that's lacked a clear focus and a true Intel killer for the past couple of years, this sort of potential doublethink isn't helping anything.
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MSI to reportedly build LG’s X110 netbook

July 23, 2008

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MSI has been pretty successful with the Wind, wouldn't you say? Yeah, so would LG. Reportedly, LG is hoping to solicit MSI's services in order to craft its own X110 netbook. The mini laptop will purportedly boast an 8.9-inch panel, 120GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM and Windows XP runnin' the show. Interestingly, the price is expected to hover between $625 and $790 as it focuses on "design and material quality" rather than low cost. Anxious to see how that move plays out, aren't you?
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ASUS continues to mercilessly flog Eee brand with Eee PC 1000HD

July 22, 2008

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ASUS must think that best way to make the Eee PC stand out in the overflowing netbook market is to crank out minor, uninteresting variants of the same models, because otherwise we're at a total loss to explain today's appearance of the Eee PC 1000HD. Yeah, that's the 1000HD, not the 1000H, which we've already seen. Ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is that it's basically the same machine as the Pentium M-based Eee 904, only with the 1000's 10-inch screen. Right. So now not only are there an endless variety of Eee models, the model numbers themselves don't indicate anything logical: the Eee 901 is faster than the 904, which uses the basic case of the 1000 but shares a processor with the 900 and 1000HD -- but not the 1000 or 1000H, which are Atom-based like the 901. Hmm, Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play -- not easy to buy might be your big problem here, ASUS.

[Via Mobile Stylus]
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ASUS continues to mercilessly flog Eee brand with Eee PC 1000HD

July 22, 2008

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ASUS must think that best way to make the Eee PC stand out in the overflowing netbook market is to crank out minor, uninteresting variants of the same models, because otherwise we're at a total loss to explain today's appearance of the Eee PC 1000HD. Yeah, that's the 1000HD, not the 1000H, which we've already seen. Ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is that it's basically the same machine as the Pentium M-based Eee 904, only with the 1000's 10-inch screen. Right. So now not only are there an endless variety of Eee models, the model numbers themselves don't indicate anything logical: the Eee 901 is faster than the 904, which uses the basic case of the 1000 but shares a processor with the 900 and 1000HD -- but not the 1000 or 1000H, which are Atom-based like the 901. Hmm, Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play -- not easy to buy might be your big problem here, ASUS.

[Via Mobile Stylus]
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Report says Sony is planning a netbook, apparently news to Sony

July 22, 2008

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We'd heard some rumblings about Sony's plans to introduce a netbook of its own a little while back, but Sony exec Stan Glasgow seemed to put a damper on those the other day when he flat out said that the company was "not looking at competing with Asus." A report from China's Economic Daily News is now adding a bit more confusion to the matter, however, with it claiming that Foxconn will be providing at least some components for, you guessed it, a forthcoming Sony netbook. What's more, that same report also says that a number of other Japanese PC makers, including netbook nay-sayer Fujitsu, are also planning to get in on the low-cost laptop action in the fourth quarter of this year, although they apparently aren't quite ready to disclose any manufacturing partnerships just yet. Of course, it's entirely possible that these low-cost laptops could be just that, and not technically netbooks, but it certainly wouldn't be the first time that companies have jumped on a bandwagon after letting it pass by the first time around.

[Via Electronista]
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Fujitsu bumps Amilo 3540 to Centrino 2

July 21, 2008

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Fujitsu-Siemens's Amilo 3000 laptops have always been decidely stylish in their two-tone duds, and now the company's polishing them up a bit with new Centrino 2-based guts. First out the gate is the 15.4-inch Amilo Pi 3540, which features the new platform and NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS graphics driving a display Fujitsi-Siemens claims is dramatically better than the industry standard. There's also a spill-proof keyboard, silent mode, and a 15-in-1 card reader. Europe only at the moment, should be out in August starting at £699 ($1,392).
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Ego’s Bentley laptop is gonna make you so cool, we swear

July 21, 2008

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You know what's cool, right? Big, luxurious, fast cars. Those are cool. And then, you know, when you put a car logo on a laptop, and maybe a bit of leather upholstery? You're bordering on seriously cool levels, people. Take it from us, we know. Ego's been making luxury laptops of questionable taste and shape for a couple years now, and seems to have finally met the "alright, I guess" mark with its Bentley laptops. Complete with cross-over hand-stitching, a seemingly transplanted car door handle, and a few crappy specs, the laptop is most certainly not worth the £10,000 ($19,943 US) asking price. They go on sale this summer.
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Some analysts, PC makers express concern about netbooks

July 21, 2008

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While some may say that netbooks have already jumped the shark, others in the industry are now expressing some real concern about the low-cost, low-power laptops and, as the New York Times reports, they're warning that they could cut into PC makers' already thin profit margins. What's more, that word doesn't only come from the expected doomsayer analysts, but from some top tier PC makers as well. That includes Fujitsu, who's senior director of mobile product management, Paul Moore, says, "We're sitting on the sidelines not because we're lazy. We're sitting on the sidelines because even if this category takes off, and we get our piece of the pie, it doesn't add up." That's a sentiment echoed by Sony, who's Stan Glasgow says simply that, "we are not looking at competing with Asus," although he adds that Sony is "investigating" what consumers want in a second PC. Even Dell, which is set to dip its toes into the netbook waters, seems a bit hesitant, with vice president of marketing Michael Tatelman saying he thinks the devices have "limited consumer appeal," and that they're good for a "30- to 90-minute experience," but not for more intensive tasks. Of course, that's all before any of them heard of the new world's cheapest laptop, so there's no telling how things may shake out now.

[Thanks, Penny]
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World’s Cheapest Laptop may just be the world’s cheapest laptop

July 21, 2008

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We've gotta admire the functional naming here. "World's Cheapest Laptop." Hard to get that one confused with the world's almost-cheapest laptop, or similar pretenders. From what we can glean from this laptop's Alibaba page, it's built by Impulse, sports an NPX-9000 model number, and gives new meaning to the term craptop when it comes to specs. The 7-inch screen is accompanied by a 400MHz, MIPS processor, 128MB of RAM, 1GB of flash storage, and a few USB ports and an SD card slot. You'll be filling up one of those ports with a WiFi dongle, and we're guessing that SD card slot will be your lifeline for storing just about everything that isn't the Linux operating system. The wholesale price is $130 US, with a 50 unit minimum purchase. $6,500 for a laptop for you and 49 of your closest frenemies? We're sold.

[Thanks, Seema R.]
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Gigabyte’s M912 mini convertible tablet gets priced

July 20, 2008

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Gigabyte's M912 has remained largely in the shadows since peeking its head out in early June, but now we're finally getting a hint as to how much coin we'll be forced to lay down in order to acquire one. Based on information from a Taiwanese poster over at UMPC Fever, the M912V, which arrives with Windows Vista, 1GB of RAM, WiFi and Bluetooth, should cost around $656. The WinXP-based M912X will reportedly check in at around $620, while the M912M arrives with a lower resolution display (1,024 x 600 versus 1,280 x 768 on the other two) and no Bluetooth for $556. Take all of this with a tablespoon of salt for now, but at least you've got a general frame of reference to work with as you plan out which netbook to squeeze into your gadget portfolio.

[Thanks, YpoCaramel]
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