NetbookTech

MSI exits 2008 by announcing a new netbook model – the MSI Wind U115 Hybrid. Why the hybrid nomenclature? The system utilizes both a solid state drive (SSD) and a hard disk drive (HDD) simultaneously. Want to maximize battery life? Switch on “ECO on Mode” which shuts down the internal hard disk drive in favor of the solid state drive which offers a reliable and power efficient storage system.

Interestingly enough, the U115 also features the Intel Poulsbo chipset which means you’ll get the Intel Atom Z530 processor as opposed to the more common N270 processor seen in the majority of netbook systems out there.

MSI claims the U115 can achieve “super long battery life” but offers no details as to how long exactly this is.

Another new feature of the U115 – increased distance between the keys – 17.5 mm to be exact.

You still get a 10 inch display with the common 1024 x 600 resolution. You also get an LED power saving backlight display which offers a brighter more power-efficient display.

Specs for the MSI U115 Hybrid include:

• Intel Atom Processor Z530 running at 1.6GHz
• Windows XP Home
• Intel Poulsbo US15W chipset
• 1GB (by module only) DDR2 533MHz. Chipset support to 2GB
• 10 inch 1024 x 600 LCD panel
• 120GB/160GB 2.5 inch SATA HDD
• 8/16GB SSD
• 4 in 1 memory card reader with support for xD/SD/MMC/Memory Stick
• 2 megapixel webcam
• D-Sub, 3 x USB 2.0 ports. microphone in, headphone, RJ45 port
• 3/6 cell battery
• 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• 2 Speakers
• Measures 260 x 180 x 19~31.5 mm
• Weighs ~1.0 kg

No word on pricing nor availability as of yet.

[Check it out]

As expected, Intel’s Atom processor will be seeing increased competition in 2009. HKEPC reports that VIA Technologies is readying a dual core Nano processor called the Nano 3000 processor. The report states that the new Nano 3000 is being manufactured by Fujitsu on a 65nm process (yes, the News.com report states 40nm which we believe is incorrect here), will feature 64 bit instructions, a 2MB L2 cache, and SSE4 instructions. Will we see the dual core Nano 3000 in future netbooks? We’ll just have to wait and see.

[Check it out via News.com]

We here at NetbookTech/Krunker Media would like to wish all of you a very safe and happy holiday season. As you can tell, it’s been quiet around here lately – we’ve been on a short vacation – enjoying time with family and friends (not to mention attending some weddings too!). But never fear – we’ll be back up and running soon enough and guess what? CES 2009 is just around the corner and we’ll be there too! We’re pretty sure netbooks will be playing a major role at CES 2009 so stay tuned for intensive coverage.

And finally, enjoy the last day of 2008 and have a wonderful New Years. Here’s hoping 2009 will be a far better year than 2008!!

Now this is classic. Psion Teklogix has begun sending “cease and desist” letters to several websites that use the term “netbook” in their site. In a letter displayed at jkOnTheRun.com (and shown above), the attorney representing Psion claims the company owns the netbook trademark in the U.S., E.U., Canada, Singapore, and Hong Kong. In addition, the letter goes on to say:

“Psion places significant value on its trade mark registration and your use of the term ‘netbook’ could damage those registrations. We are therefore asking you to cease use of the term ‘netbook’.”

The cease and desist letter than closes by giving up to three months to remove all offending content – basically till the end of March 2009.

Now it’s no small secret that Psion had a “netbook” product back in the late 90’s but the company has since discontinued that product line – although according to jkOnTheRun, they still sell accessories including batteries for the netbook.

Since the “netbook” term was re-popularized by Intel, one wonders whether Psion Teklogix will send a cease and desist letter to the chip giant. After all – all of us bloggers and website owners are merely following Intel’s lead in using the term “netbook” (and the term “nettop”).  Oh yeah – Psion’s going to have to go after all the hardware manufacturers that have begun using the term “netbook” to describe their products. Ah yes.. there’s also the small thing with the “Netbook World Summit” which just took place earlier this month. I guess they have to change their name too now.

Now don’t get me wrong – I’m all in favor of trademark protection. Terms need to be protected – especially if they’re being used to misrepresent a product or service, but one has to wonder to what length? Now I’m certainly not a lawyer by any means, but common sense should dictate a little reasoning here. After all, before 2007, if you asked anyone what a “netbook” was, would anyone actually say “oh it’s a product from Psion”? I HIGHLY DOUBT THAT. The Psion netbook died.. and let it stay dead. Come on Psion – do the right thing and let us poor website owners, bloggers, and writers use the term to describe a class of products. After all – even if you successful defend your trademark here – will anyone still realize the “netbook” term is for your product? Nope. Consumers will think “oh it’s a small cheap notebook from ASUS, Acer, MSI, Lenovo, Dell, …..”

[Check it out via Guardian UK]

Who says netbooks are making a different in the PC industry? According to iSuppli, netbook sales have helped propel Acer to within less than 2 percentage points of Dell for total PC market share. On a sequential basis, Acer grew its unit shipment market share by 45 percent while on a year over year basis, it grew by 79 percent. The company shipped nearly 3 million more notebooks during Q3 than in the previous quarter – the majority of which were netbook systems.

“Clearly, the company’s netbook strategy is paying dividends”

Overall, iSuppli reached the same conclusions as IDC – that notebook sales have surpassed desktop PCs for the first time ever on a quarterly basis.

[Check it out]

Just what is Sony up to exactly? Over the weekend, Engadget spotted a teaser webpage pop up on the Sony New Zealand website here. Unfortunately the page is no long around but it does confirm that Sony will be making a big laptop announcement at CES on January 9th. The real question for us is – is this the long awaited Sony netbook? Could this be the device that the FCC recently approved? OR.. is this just something totally different?

Of course everyone knows that both Sony and Apple are noticeably absent from the netbook market. Yet -  is this a market that they absolutely have to enter? As seen by others in the market, entering the netbook industry could result in lower profit margins as well as cannibalization of higher end notebook/laptop system sales.

Sony and Apple are two companies which focus on substance and style when it comes to their products – resulting in devices which are often more expensive than competing products. This holds true for Sony’s notebooks too – so the real question is – would Sony be willing to part with that model and offer an inexpensive netbook?

Our guess here at NetbookTech is no. If Sony is going to make a statement such as “On the 9th of January, you will change the way you look at laptops. Forever.” then a new netbook model wouldn’t justify such a statement.

So what would? I guess we’ll just have to wait.

[Via News.com, Engadget.com]

Not resting on its laurels, Samsung appears ready to debut a new netbook in the coming new year. Dubbed the Samsung NC20, the new netbook will substitute the Intel Atom processor with a Via Nano U225 processor clocked in at 1.3GHz and will feature a larger 12.1 inch display, a 160GB hard drive, and 1GB of memory.

Other notable specs include:

• Bluetooth 2.0
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• Ethernet
• 3 in 1 memory card reader
• 1.3 megapixel webcam
• 1.5 kg weight

According to Notebook Italia, the NC20 will cost around 642 dollars which is definitely more than the current NC10. It’ll be interesting to see how the Nano performs against the Atom in this space. Expect the NC20 in February.

BTW, the Notebook Italia article is of course in Italian.

[Via Akihabara news]

Are the days of crappy netbook graphics performance coming to an end? The answer to that might finally be YES. NVIDIA announced the new Ion platform which couples the NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GPU with an Intel Atom processor resulting in a system that is actually capable of offering a decent “visual experience.”

There are several use case scenarios for such a system – and of course the one that concerns all of us the most is the netbook scenario. While NVIDIA has yet to demo a netbook utilizing the entire Ion platform, they did say on their website that an Ion based system would:

• Deliver 10x faster graphics and video transcoding
• Full HD video decode and display
• 1/2 the size yet the same battery life
• Be ready for Windows Vista Premium AND Windows 7

Of course the Ion platform is  ideal for other target markets such as Notebooks, Nettops, and all-in-one systems – yet the real issue here is the netbook market which  clearly is booming during a time when nothing else seems to be booming.

If the NVIDIA GeForce 9400 can make its way into future generation netbooks without an increase in cost to the consumer, then this is a clear winner to all of us. As Darren Gladstone of PC World notes, “why stick to low expectations?” when it comes to netbooks. Shouldn’t we be demanding higher performance from systems that cost on average $400 dollars? I couldn’t agree more and let’s hope NVIDIA fulfills that promise.

Make sure to read the PC World article for even more info on Ion and the GeForce 9400 GPU.

[Check it out]

The Samsung NC10 netbook finally gets a review treatment by the folks at PC Magazine here. You already know the NC10 is our favorite netbook here at NetbookTech.com but what do the PC Mag folks think?

“The Samsung NC10-14GB is a well-equipped netbook whose trimmings include a standard six-cell battery, but we’d like to see its price adjusted down to MSI’s and Acer’s level.”

Here are the pros listed:

“93 percent keyboard. 10-inch widescreen. Standard six-cell battery. Excellent battery-life scores.”

And the cons:

“Touchpad is small. Price could be lower.”

I agree that the price for the NC10 could be lower to better match up against the recent price drops with the MSI Wind and Acer Aspire One (with the six cell batteries of course). However, a $50 dollar difference is still palatable when you consider you’re getting a well built netbook with practically every feature you need AND you get the Samsung brand.

[Check it out]

It appears the Lenovo IdeaPad S9 netbook is finally hitting the U.S. shores – thanks to the folks over at CompGeeks (geeks.com). The S9 is essentially the younger brother of the IdeaPad S10 – featuring as you’ve probably guessed by now, a smaller display at 8.9 inches. However, there are other significant changes in the S9 when compared to the larger S10 netbook.

The netbook uses the same Intel Atom processor running at 1.6GHz. It comes with the same base of 512MB of RAM but instead of a large capacity notebook hard drive, the S9 favors a smaller 4GB SSD (SLC kind). The system also forgoes Windows XP for Linpus Linux Lite. Other features on the system include:

• Intel GMA 950 graphics
• 4 in 1 media card reader
• 10/100 Ethernet
• 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
• 0.3 megapixel webcam
• 8.9 inch WSVGA display
• 80 key keyboard with two button touchpad
• ExpressCard/34 slot
• Measures 0.9~1.1 x 9.8 x 7.2 inches and weighs 2.43 lbs

Thanks to Liliputing for catching the other interesting observation. The S9 is essentially the same form factor as the S10 except with a smaller display. Make sense – when you look at many 8.9 inch netbooks, they are essentially using a form factor that could easily house a 10 inch display – they just choose not to. Makes sense from an economic standpoint to have one common housing.

So now, the real question is – is the S9 worth it? Geeks.com has it for $344.99 – which is just a few dollars below the base price for the S10 which has a larger display and larger storage. If the form factors are the same, is it really worth it for you to opt for a smaller display? 

Oh yeah – Buy.com is also selling the S9 – except at $359.46. The funny thing is – it’s actually acting as a proxy to guess who? Geeks.com. You’re better off buying it directly from Geeks.com while you still can.

[Via jkOnTheRun, Liliputing]