NetbookTech

If you’re holding out for the possibilities of a Panasonic netbook, you might as well forget about it for now. A Panasonic employee by the name of Toshi Harada mentioned that the company will stay out of the netbook market - leaving it in the hands of other competitors. The company will continue to focus on the corporate market where Harada feels netbooks are not aptly suited for. Harada, who is from the Panasonic Kobe factory, stated the following:

“We’re focused on corporate rather than consumer needs, and performance is too low to work with office documents or other applications.”

Darn.. a Panasonic ToughBook netbook would have been cool (though probably expensive I would imagine).

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The ASUS Eee PC 1000H received a review treatment by the folks at HotHardware yesterday. If you’re not familiar with the 1000H, it’s essentially a 10 inch version of the Eee PC with nice long battery life thanks to the included six cell battery. Other specs include your typical 1.6GHz Intel Atom processors, an 80GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, built-in 1.3 MP camera, and HD audio. It’s certainly a nice looking netbook with a business-class feel to it. Here’s HotHardware’s verdict on the netbook.

All in all, the 1000H has its share of quirks, it definitely showcases an improvement in ease of use, and should open up the Eee PC lineup to a much broader subset of customers.

Read more at HotHardware’s website.

Dell is no longer charging extra for the “Alpine White” version of their Inspiron Mini 9 netbook. The base configuration for the Mini 9 is still $349 and you can choose from “Obsidian Black” or “Alpine White”. Previously, Dell was charging an extra $25 dollars for the Alpine White cover.. bleh…. I’m sure enough people have complained about this additional charge.

Now if Dell would only offer a hard drive option to the Inspiron Mini 9…

[Check it out via SlashGear]

Do you think you’re the only one with “netbook fever”? Nope.. even James Kendrick (the “jk” of jkOnTheRun) has the netbook fever folks.. and heck, he has an already small Lenovo IdeaPad U110 ultra-portable notebook!

I’ll admit it.. I’ve had netbook fever for some time now.. and I have several netbooks too! Of course.. I believe my fever has turned into a full on contagious disease.. a netbook disease mind you! Soon notebook salesmen will have to quarantine me because I’m turning everyone around me into netbook crazed folks instead of regular notebook users. I drop by the folks in Marketing and they take a look at my netbook and BAM.. it’s done. The fever has spread.. the questions abound about the netbook. What’s the cure to the fever/disease? Get a netbook!

I turn my head to the software developer sitting behind me and find out that he acquired the netbook fever too from yours truly. His decision? Get an ASUS Eee PC 1000. Yup.. the fever spreads.. it’s a contagion!

In any case.. to satisfy this disease, one has to look for a good netbook.. and thus JK posers a great question - “..decide on the perfect netbook if one exists.”

That’s not an easy task to accomplish. It seems like every netbook model out there has one small deficiency. The ASUS Eee PC 1000 seems like a great system yet it’s a bit too expensive. The Acer Aspire One certainly provides the most bang for the buck but those mouse buttons are horrendous. The new IdeaPad S10 is very very close…. were it not for the missing 6 cell battery. One could argue that the MSI Wind is a near perfect netbook (though some have complained about the keyboard).

Me.. the perfect netbook would have the following specs:

• Dual Core Atom processor - come on folks - upgrade to the Atom Model 330 processor!
• 1GB RAM if not 2GB
• 80 - 120GB HDD
• 10 inch display
• Solid keyboard with large right shift key
• Touch pad with mouse buttons BELOW the touch pad
• At least two USB 2.0 ports
• VGA port
• Wi-Fi (draft-N for the early adopters out there)
• ExpressCard slot
• Media card reader
• Small power brick
• Built-in webcam
• 6 cell battery
• Windows XP or Linux
• Good speakers
• Bluetooth 2.0
• A weight of under 2.5 lbs

Oh yeah.. all of that for under $500 dollars. Got it?

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Remember that new LG Xnote Mini netbook mentioned last week? It looks like it’s actually going by the name of the LG X110 MOMO netbook. LG has a product page up for the new X110 MOMO over at the United Arab Emirates version of the LG website. Specs for the LG X110 MOMO include the following:

• Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor N270
• Intel 945GSE chipset
• 80/120/160 GB Hard Drive
• 3G HSUPA support
• 82 key keyboard
• 1.3 megapixel camera
• Windows Vista Home Basic
• 512MB or 1GB DDR2 533MHz RAM
• 10 inch WSVGA LED (Hannstar) display
• Intel GMA 950 graphics
• Intel 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
• Dual Quad-band antenna
• 10/100 Ethernet
• Optional Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• SRS WOW HD, SRS TruSurroundXT, Stereo Speakers (2 W/ch)
• 4 in 1 media card reader
• 3 x USB ports
• VGA port
• Microphone in and headphone out
• 3 cell or 6 cell Li-Ion battery
• Measures 261.8 x 180 x 19-31 mm and weighs 1.19kg with 3 cell battery

No official word on price or availability however our original posting on the Xnote Mini suggested a price of around $600.

[Check it out via GearLog]

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10 netbook finally arrived yesterday via UPS Ground. The somewhat worrisome aspect - the packaging for the system was rather beat up from the shipping (you’ll see pictures of that below). In fact, I was very disappointed that Lenovo shipped the S10 simply in the original box that the netbook came in. There was no additional packaging around it. Had I known this, I would have opted for a different form of shipping instead of UPS Ground.

Here are pictures of the box:

Luckily, the S10 suffered no damage whatsoever.

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Folks - you know netbooks are all the rage when middle America is writing up stories about them (either that or they’re just lacking news these days). Case in point - Steve Alexander of the Minneapolis - St. Paul “StarTribune” has written a netbook story entitled “Light on the arms, wallet, and speed.” The article describes netbooks and their advantages/disadvantages, and then profiles two consumers - one who likes netbooks and one who doesn’t. According to Minneapolis real estate agent, Chris Deutsch, (who owns an ASUS Eee PC):

“Deutsch said a netbook is less expensive and lighter than a laptop, and adequate for Net access”

Meanwhile, Shane O’Gorman of Eau Claire, Wis said this:

O’Gorman said a netbook is overpriced, barely lighter than a laptop, and runs too slowly

Hah.. yes - they’re both right aren’t they?

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DigiTimes is reporting that Acer chairman, J.T. Wang, believes the total netbook market will reach 50 million units by 2009 - that’s a whole lot of netbooks folks. He also thinks that Acer will achieve a 30 percent market share of the netbook market (approximately 15 million units) by then.

And what about netbooks vs notebooks? Wang is like everyone else these days - netbooks will affect sales but by how much?

“Wang acknowledged that netbooks will consume part of the notebook market but said the overlap will only be 20-30%’

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A new day, a new netbook. This time it’s LG Electronics turn as they’ve introduced the new Xnote Mini netbook in South Korea. The Xnote Mini has the following specs:

• 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor
• 10 inch display
• Weighs 2.6 lbs
• 160GB HDD
• 1GB RAM
• Wi-Fi support
• 3G support coming
• Built-in 1.3 megapixel camera
• 3 cell battery
• Three USB ports
• SD card reader
• VGA port
• Ethernet port
• Stereo audio connectors

According to Electronista, the Xnote Mini will be available in three colors (white, black, and pink), and will only offered with Windows XP. Price is believed to be around $600 dollars. Sorry the ladies do NOT come with the netbook (pics are from Akihabara News)

[Check it out via Electronista]

Mobile Computer UK has published a hands-on look at the newly announced ASUS N10 notebook/netbook. The N10 is part of their newly announced N-series which comes from ASUS’s laptop division (a separate group from ASUS’s Eee PC division mind you). The N series actually consists of four different notebook configurations with the N10 the only one that can be viewed as a netbook given the price/feature set. The N10 utilizes the Intel Atom processor running at 1.6GHz and comes with a nice 10.2 inch display.

However, the N10 is not your “yet another netbook copycat” system. First off, the N10 has a stylish sleek look and feel that’s much more reminiscent of expensive ultra-portable notebook systems. Secondly, the 10.2 inch display has a resolution of 1024 x 768 (instead of the more typical 1024 x 600 display commonly seen in today’s netbooks). Secondly, the N10 comes with an NVIDIA GeForce 9300M graphics chipset which can be enabled with a switch and a reboot. What this means is you finally have a netbook capable of running 3D games at reasonable frame-rates and resolutions.

Other specs to the ASUS N10 are as follows:

• Windows XP Home or Windows Vista
• Up to 2GB DDR2 memory
• 10.2 inch display
• 160GB to 320GB SATA HDD
• External Super Multi Optical Drive
• Built-in 1.3 megapixel camera
• Optional Bluetooth 2.0 camera+EDR
• 802.11 Wi-Fi
• Measures 27.6 x 19.5 x 2.99-3.71 cm and weighs 1.4 kg

No final word on pricing but Mobile Computer UK thinks the N10 will be around $600 dollars which to me is a bit pricey for a netbook system. It cross that magical $500 dollar mark for me.. the mark where I start comparing netbooks to full blown inexpensive notebook systems.

Here’s a video from their hands-on:

[Check it out]