electronics News

I’d forgive you for thinking that the new HP Mini 110e is just another netbook based on Intel’s Classmate PC reference design. That’s what I thought when I first saw photos of it. But while there are some similarities, HP designed this mini-laptop aimed at students in grades 6 and lower from the ground up. I got a chance to snap a few photos of the HP Mini 100e, which you can check out below.

For one thing, the spill-resistant, chiclet style keyboard is a little different from any I’ve seen on a netbook to date. There’s no mistaking the fact that the laptop has the same toy-like design as the Classmate PC, but that’s because both are semi-ruggedized and built to withstand minor falls, scrapes, and scuffs.

The basic unit looks pretty institutional due to is stark white color. But educational institutions can customize the lid any way they like (for a fee), as you can see from the World Cup edition model HP was showing off.

HTC Tattoo is just an entry-level Android handset, but this doesn’t mean it could be free from being cloned in China. This time the maker not just simply copy the design of the HTC Tattoo, but also try to add something new. It’s built as a sider phone,so you are completely free  from the worry of being driven crazy by its poor quality resistive touchscreen. It’s not a smartphone, and specs include a 2.6 inches touchscreen, 0.3M pixels camera, dual sim, FM radio, 1500 mAh battery. The retail price is 620 Yuan (about $91 USD).

Google Voice is a service that lets you give out one phone number that people can use to ring all of your phones. Only want your work phone to ring from 9 to 5? You can adjust a setting for that. Want to be able to screen calls and send some numbers direct to voicemail? You can do that too. And want to receive automatic text transcripts of each voicemail message in your email inbox? That’s enabled by default.

The only catch is that Google Voice has been in private beta for the past year. Sure, over a million people have requested and received invitations, but if you couldn’t manage to snag one you were out of luck.

Today Google has finally opened Google Voice to the public, which means that anyone in the United States can sign up for an account.

If you’re still not sure exactly what Google Voice is, or why you’d want yet another phone number in your life, check out the video after the break.

Remember a few days ago when hackers installed Windows 7 on a JooJoo 12 inch tablet? Now it looks like you can do the same thing with OS X.

That shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. The JooJoo tablet basically has the same specs as a netbook, including an Intel Atom processor and NVIDIA ION graphics. And we’ve seen plenty of netbooks running Windows 7, OS X, and other operating systems. But since the JooJoo tablet ships with a particularly stripped down version of Linux which is designed to offer you a web browser and little else, you could make the case that installing an alternate operating system makes the tablet a heck of a lot more useful.

OS X may be a particularly good fit if you were hoping that Apple’s magical tablet was going to run the full desktop operating system instead of the same OS used by the iPhone and iPod touch.

The member of the JooJoo Forum that installed OS X says that the touch panel drivers still need some work and the installation process was “quite the pain,” but something tells me this is just the first of many JooJoo OS X hacks we’ll see. Or given the low sales numbers, maybe just the first of few.

Dell recently launched an update to its Alienware M11x gaming ultraportable laptop. The new model has the same high performance NVIDIA graphics as the first generation 11.6 inch, 4.5 pound gaming rig. But the new models feature Core i-series processors while the original came with a choice of an Intel Pentium SU4100 or Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor.

The folks at Notebook Review recently found themselves at an event where they could check out a few of the new models, and they ran a quick benchmark to see how the new CPUs stack up against the earlier models. Not surprisingly, the laptop scored highest with the new Core i7-640UM CPU, followed by the Core i5-520UM CPU. The Intel Pentium Dual Core SU4100 processor came in last… sort of.

It turns out that if you overclock the SU4100 chip, it actually comes in second. The new chips are also overclockable though, so that point is probably moot. Notebook Review didn’t have a chance to benchmark the same computer with an SU7300 chip, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t fall somewhere between the SU4100 and Core i5-520UM processor in terms of performance.

It’s worth noting that the wPrime test run by Notebook Review is primarily a test of CPU performance. Since the new CPU options are the main differences between the newer M11x models and the older ones, that seems fair. But this particular benchmark doesn’t really tell you that much about the gaming performance of these laptops.

Check out Notebook Review for the complete breakdown on the wPrime test results.

Over the past few years we’ve seen the budget ultraportable laptop space divided largely into 10 inch netbooks, typically with Intel Atom chips, and 11.6 inch and larger notebooks, sometimes with Atom chips, but often with higher performance low power chips from Intel or AMD. But every now and again some company comes out with a baffling machine that doesn’t really fit into either category — like the E-Benton MiniNOTE.

Like many netbooks released in 2008 and 2009, this laptop has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor and integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics. It has 1GB of DDR2 memory and a 120GB or 160GB hard drive.The laptop runs Windows XP and has 802.11b/g WiFi and a 1.3MP webcam.

But there’s one thing setting the E-Benton MinNOTE apart: It has an 11.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display. You don’t see 11.1 inch laptops very often, but this mini-notebook could hit the sweet spot for some customers looking for something a little larger than a typical 10 inch netbook but not as large as an 11.6 inch ultraportable. The laptop measures 10.8″ x 7.1″ x 1.2″. On the other hand, the keyboard looks like it’s probably about the same size as a typical 10 inch netbook keyboard — which is to say, not quite full sized.

E-Benton is a Chinese company, and while the laptop is featured on the FCC web site, it’s not entirely clear whether you’ll actually be able to purchase this model in the US anytime soon. If it does make it to US shores, I’m guessing it will be rebranded and sold under a different name.

The Acer Aspire 1551 thin and light laptop which was introduced last month is now available for purchase. The notebook has an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel HD display and a 1.3GHz AMD Athlon II Neo K325 dual core processor. It has ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225 graphics, and runs Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

You can pick up the Acer 1551 for $495.99 from PC Mall. In Europe, it’s selling for €499 and up.

The laptop measures 11.2″ x 8″ x 1.1″ and weighs 3.1 pounds. It has a 250GB hard drive and ships with 2GB of DDR3 memory, although it supports up to 4GB. You also get a 5-in-1 memory card reader, a VGA webcam, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, VGA and HDMI output, and 3 USB ports. The Acer aspire 1551 comes with a 6 cell, 4400mAh battery.

If you live in the US, you might think that chip-maker VIA lost the netbook wars. In 2008 HP launched a 9 inch netbook with a VIA C7-M processor, and in 2009 Lenovo released a 12 inch mini-laptop with a VIA Nano processor. And that’s about it. Intel has pretty much dominated the ultraportable space with Atom and CULV chips showing up in dozens of netbooks and ultralight computers. We’re starting to see AMD make a dent in the budget mobile computer space, but VIA is nowhere to be seen… in the US.

In Asia, on the other hand, companies are continuing to pump out a number of netbooks, tablets, and other devices with VIA processors. The chip maker was showing off a number of netbooks, notebooks, and tablets sporting VIA chips at Computex this week and Sascha from Netbook News shot a video showing a few of those products, including the latest OLPC XO Laptop with a VIA chip.

You can check out the video after the break, and remind yourself that if you live in the US, you’ll probably never be able to actually purchase one of these computers. Hopefully we will start to see some of the $100 to $200 tablets VIA has been promising, but I’m not going to hold my breath.