electronics News

MeeGo is the new Linux-based operating system and user environment that came out of the merger of the Maemo and Moblin Linux projects. Today the MeeGo team released the first pre-release builds of the operating system, with versions available for:

• Intel Atom-based netbooks
• Intel Atom Moorestown handsets
• The ARM-based Nokia N900 internet device

The first full release of MeeGo is scheduled for May. But if you want a first look at the new operating system, you can go ahead and check it out today… or maybe tomorrow. I started downloading about 20 minutes ago and it looks like it could take another 14 hours before I have the 392MB USB image. It looks like the MeeGo servers might getting hammered, and I don’t see any mirrors or torrent files yet.

In an announcement that shouldn’t surprise anyone, the One Laptop Per Child folks have announced that they will be licensing Pixel Qi technology and outfitting future XO Laptops with 3qi displays. Pixel Qi was founded by Mary Lou Jepsen, who was one of the folks behind the design of the original XO Laptop.

The Pixel Qi 3qi display is a low power LCD screen that can switch between a full color saturation mode and a high contrast mode which looks almost black and white and which uses about 1/5th the power of the full color mode. In high contrast mode, the display is also easily readable outdoors in direct sunlight.

There’s still no word on when the first commercially available laptops or tablets with 3qi displays will hit th estreets.

Most netbooks I see these days come with glossy displays, which look great indoors under most lighting conditions. But throw some direct sunlight on them, and the shiny screens effectively turn into mirrors. A handful of new netbook models including the Asus Eee PC 1001P and Samsung N210 are available with matte displays which don’t have this problem. And now it looks like we can add the Acer Aspire One 532 to that list — or at least one version of this notebook.

Netbook News.de spotted a product listing at Amazon Germany for an Acer Apire One 532 netbook with a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel matte display. It sells for 298 Euros, or about $400 in Germany.

There’s no word on if or when this model will be available in other countries.

Other specs include a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 250G hard drive, Windows 7 Starter Edition, and a 6 cell, 4400mAh battery.

Last time I heard from SungWorld, the company had introduced a dirt cheap 7-inch netbook in China for about $73. Now it looks like the company has moved on to 10 inch models, with the SungWorld L3, a netbook with a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, Intel Atom N270 CPU, and GMA 950 graphics.

If the specs sound like they’re straight out of last year, that’s because they are. But the netbook is rather slim and light, weighing just over 2.2 pounds with a 3200mAh lithium polymer battery. SungWorld has also apparently crammed a digital TV tuner in the case.

Part of the way SungWorld is keeping the size down appears to be by eliminating the left and right mouse buttons and integrating them with the touchpad — a design feature I’m not particularly fond of.

Shanzhaiben reports that the SungWorld L3 will be available in black, white, pink, or dark green. The netbook will cost about 2099 yuan, which is about $308 US, although I don’t expect to see this netbook in the US anytime soon.

The Lenovo Skylight is a smartbook with a 10 inch display, a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, integrated 3G and WiFi connectivity, and a custom Linux user interface designed by Lenovo. The company introduced the Skylight to the world at CES in January, but it’s not expected to start shipping until next month. But Singapore blogger Darryl Kang managed to spend a few days with a pr-production model.

Since we’re talking about a prototype, it’s important to take everything he says with a grain of salt since there’s still time to work out the kinks before unleashing the Skylight on the world. But here are some of the highlights of Darryl’s first look:

• The Skylight is very thin and light by netbook standards, weighing less than 2 pounds and measuring 10″ x 8″ x 7.5″.
• The keyboard is nearly full sized and comfortable.
• There are no physical touchpad buttons, but the touchpad is enormous.
• Kang says the netbook started to feel slow when 9 or more applications were running.
• While Flash is supported, Youtube video playback quality wasn’t that great.

I’m a bit disappointed to hear that the Skylight continues to struggle with Flash video playback. I noticed the same thing when I tested a Skylight back in January. I would have expected this issue to have been addressed by now.

The other day we got a first look at VIA’s new VX900 graphics processor. Now VIA has officially introduced the new product, which can be coupled with a VIA  low power CPU to provide HD Flash and desktop video playback.

The VX900 media system processor uses VIA’s ChromationHD 2.0 video engine which supports hardware acceleration of H.264 video. That includes Flash video, so long as you’re using Flash Player 10.1 beta, which can take advantage of hardware acceleration features.

VIA says the new platform can handle 1080p HD video “without incurring a heavy CPU load.” The platform also supports Blu-Ray video playback, as well as hardware acceleration for MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV< and VC1.

The VX900 MSP supports DDR3 memory with speeds up to 1066MHz. And while VIA has been showing the media processor off with a Nano processor, it’s also compatible with VIA C7 and VIA Een chips.

In addition to the ChromationHD 2.0 support, the VX900 uses Chrome9 3D graphics with DirectX 9.0 support, but no DirectX 10. In other words, the purpose of this chipset is to enable HD video playback and some 3D effects. But don’t expect netbooks and nettops with the VX900 chip to be serious gaming machines.

Two US-based mobile broadband providers are planning to offer the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook at subsidized prices to customers that sign up for an extender service plan. T-Mobile will offer the Mini 10 with an integrated 3G modem for $199 when you sign up for a 2-year contract. The offer will be available starting tomorrow in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Miami.

Meanwhile, Clear will be adding the Dell Mini 10 to its list of netbooks available with an integrated 4G WiMAX modem. Clear will begin offering the Inspiron Mini 10 on April 1st for $250 with the purchase of a service plan.

The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook features a 10.1 inch,. 1024  x 600 pixel display, a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, Windows 7 Starter Edition. It normally has a base price of $279 with Windows XP or $299 with Windows 7. But that’s the price for the netbook without a mobile broadband modem.

Clear offers unlimited data plans with download speeds up to 6Mbps, while T-Mobile’s 3G plans are capped at 5GB per month for transfer speeds up to 7.2Mbps (although I’ve never know anyone to actually get speeds that fast).

 We’ve always been big fans of the ThinkPad X200 series because of its portability and durability, but its starting price of $1,099 is not exactly within reach of small business users or students on a budget. That’s where the X100e comes in ($569 as configured), a 11.6-inch notebook that’s light enough for travel but also faster, sturdier, and more comfortable than your typical netbook. We love the keyboard on this machine, and the loud speakers and low-light friendly webcam round out the package nicely. However, we wish this AMD-powered notebook lasted longer on a charge, and the bottom of the system can get hot. Is it worth tolerating these trade-offs?

Editor’s Note: After our initial review, we re-ran the battery test on the X100e, and saw an additional 20 minutes of endurance. As a result, we have updated the Battery section of this review.

Design

Slim, sturdy, and minimalist. That’s the vibe we get from the 3.2-pound X100e. Our review model came in a rather plain looking Midnight Black, but if you want more flair there’s a Heatwave Red version. The lid has a smooth finish, complete with the trademark silver ThinkPad logo, and this treatment extends to the deck. Unlike many other low-cost ultraportables, this ABS plastic machine feels like it will last, but we noticed little flex as we twisted the unit in our hands with the lid closed. What you won’t get that’s standard on the more expensive X200 series is an inner roll cage to protect components, or a fingerprint reader.

Underneath the front lip of the X100e is the speaker bar. The design tapers from 0.6 inches at that point to 1.2 inches in the back, where the six-cell battery juts out a couple of inches. Above the keyboard is a small power button that makes it more difficult to turn on the notebook than it should be. Otherwise the deck is pretty bare, with the exception of the isolated keyboard and dual pointing options (TrackPoint and touchpad).

Keyboard and Touchpad

The X100e sports a modern-looking and water-resistant isolated keyboard layout, just like the ThinkPad Edge 13. Although the function keys are shrunken, the rest of the keyboard is roomy and comfortable. The keys provided plenty of depth with excellent tactile feedback; we typed quickly with very few errors. In fact, the keyboard on the X100e is easily the best of any notebook with this size screen. We also appreciate little touches, such as the resolution toggle shortcut (Fn + space bar) for blowing up web pages or documents.

The X100e sports both a pointing stick and touchpad, each with its own set of buttons. The TrackPoint on this notebook was erratic at first, with the cursor racing all over the desktop until we dialed down the speed in the settings. The roomy touchpad worked fine, but it felt sluggish since we had to adjust the speed to use the stick. While zooming in on photos using a pinch gesture worked, the gesture to zoom out wouldn’t always register. Despite being narrow, we found the touchpad buttons easy to press.

Heat

This is definitely one of the warmest ThinkPads we’ve used. After playing a Hulu video at full screen for 15 minutes, we measured temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit on the touchpad and 103 degrees between the G and H keys. Worse, the bottom of the system was an uncomfortable 115 degrees. The left front underside of the system reached a disturbing 129 degrees. Considering the X100e is designed to be used in your lap, these high temps raise some red flags.

Scosche is going all out with a new line of products designed for netbooks (although, to be perfectly honest, they should work with pretty much any standard laptop). The products include new power, audio, connection, and case accessories.

In the audio lineup, there’s a new skyCASTER RF wireless headset for listening to music or making VoIP calls. The headphones have a range of up to 100 feet.

The company’s new netBOOK power accessories include three chargers. The netVOLT home is a 40 watt universal charger, while the 50 watt netVOLT Car lets you charge a netbook in the car. It also has an integrated USB port that lets you charge two devices at once. There’s also the inVERT — a 100 watt power inventor that you can use with a 12v power socket in an automobile.

As far as connection accessories, the Scosche netBOOK Connect line includes a Bluetooth USB adaptor, a flash card reader, and a 3-port USB hub with a cooling fan built into it.

Finally, Scosche is introducing a few netbook cases including the netSUIT Pro, which it describes as a case for netbooks or the Apple iPad tablet. There’s also a reversible sleeve and cleaning supplies in the Scosche netBOOK Protect line.

You can find more details and photos in the press release. unfortunately what you won’t find are any price tags.

Tablets are everywhere these days. Apple is making one. Dell, HP, and Samsung are making them. Fifty or more companies are developing tablets with ARM-based processors. And we know that Microsoft is working on a tablet called the Courier. Depending on which rumor you believe, Microsoft’s tablet will be based on either Windows 7 or Windows CE. But what if it ran Windows Phone 7 Series, the upcoming mobile phone operating system from Microsoft? Then it might look something like the tablet concept above.

While Windows Phone 7 Series is designed for handheld devices that you can stick in your pocket, there’s something compelling about using it on a larger device with an 8 inch display. Spreading things out lets you view the home screen and all the details available in a hub at the same time. This way you an see the live tiles with constantly changing updates while at the same time browsing through your people, music, Xbox live, or other hubs.

The concept tablet from Umang Donkey has a kick stand so you can place it on a table and e it without having to physically hold the device. Or you can fold the kick stand forward and use it as a keyboard, which is a pretty nifty idea.

And since this is just a concept, there’s no reason not to get ambitious. He’s thrown in two cameras so you can make 3D video calls. There are also game controllers located on the back of the tablet, which seems like a pretty awkward location — but at least they don’t take up any space on the front, which means the front of the tablet is virtually all screen.

I’m pretty sure this concept will never see the light of day. But it’s a pretty nifty concept. You can find a video of the tablet design after the break.

For the latest news on Windows Phone 7 Series, check out the Windows Phone category at mobiputing.