Posted 02/05/10 at 12:30:09 PM by Nathan Edwards

To say that netbooks have historically been hobbled by Intel’s integrated graphics is to unfairly ignore their slow single-core CPUs, 1GB RAM maximum, miniscule keyboards, and awkward screen resolutions. It’s an unfair assertion, of course­—netbooks came into existence to be cheap, portable, low-powered machines. But the definition of netbook has been stretched, to the point where HP’s new Mini 311, while still considered a netbook, has an 11.6-inch 1366x768 screen, Nvidia integrated graphics, a large keyboard, and can support up to 3GB of DDR3 RAM, for less than $500.

At first, the Mini 311 looks a lot like any other 11.6-inch netbook on the market: Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, 3 USB ports, and a somewhat squashed keyboard. But the RAM is DDR3/1333, not the typical DDR2/667, and it’s soldered to the mainboard­, leaving a SODIMM slot free for an additional 2GB of RAM. The screen has a maximum resolution of 1366x768, significantly better than the standard 1024x600—for one thing, websites and programs built for 1024x768 won’t break. And thanks to the Ion platform, the Mini 311 can display 720p HD video, and output 1080p over the HDMI port—that’s right, a netbook with an HDMI port.

Continue reading this review after the jump.

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Posted 01/25/10 at 07:06:03 PM by Ryan Whitwam

If you were a kid, or had a kid, at any point in the last 20 years, you’re probably familiar with “Guess Who”. This classic game from Milton Bradley taught many of us that it isn’t okay to be different, because you’ll just lose right away. In a slightly nerdier take, the fellows behind the WOMWorld/Nokia site found themselves with 40 Nokia Booklet 3Gs. So of course, they used them to play “Guess Who”.

Instead of picking from a series of faces, each computer had a different mobile phone website on it. This is the sort of extravagance you rarely see, so drink it in. As to why they have 40 of these pricey netbooks, your guess is as good as ours. If you were wondering, at the going rate that’s about $24,000 worth of mobile computing goodness. Hit the jump for the video.

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Posted 12/29/09 at 08:17:48 PM by Ryan Whitwam

For as long as netbooks have existed, people have been buying more and more of them. More than 33.3 million netbooks will have shipped by year’s end, amounting to a 103 percent increase over last year. Revenue will be up about 72 percent indicating some price cuts. But according to DisplaySearch, as laptops with ultra low voltage (ULV) CPUs become cheaper, netbook sales will slow considerably.

They project netbook shipments to only grow by about 20 percent next year. Still, the situation can’t be bad when 20 percent growth is a big drop. As ULV laptops creep below $500, consumers will begin purchasing them in larger numbers. ULV computers have similarly good battery life, but better performance than netbooks running Atom chips.

The report also suggests that the uptick in ULV sales will likely mean manufacturers will take a revenue hit of only 1% or so. While netbooks will remain big sellers, they probably won’t have another year like 2009.

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Posted 12/22/09 at 04:00:00 PM by John Brandon

This holiday, you pull the wraps off a brand new laptop and open the lid to your shiny new mobile companion. The first thought you might have is to consider which apps you should install first and what's the fastest way to load the up the hard disk with music and movies. Of course, you inevitably have to think about your old laptop, and what price you can sell it for on Craigslist. But before you dump an old laptop or retire it to the den of forgotten gadgets, here are eight practical ideas on how you can extend its life.

Read on to get started on these projects!

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Posted 12/03/09 at 09:11:42 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Intel has announced that they are moving ahead with reckless abandon to create an app store for netbooks. Their goal is to have the store preinstalled on all Atom based netbooks running both Windows and Mobiln. The apparent model for the store is suspiciously similar to that of the Apple App Store. Developers would get 70% of sales and the remaining 30% would go to Intel. Intel also plans to review apps in a manner similar to Apple, but hopefully Intel won’t be as fussy.

It’s an interesting idea, but few details are available. Intel simply claims the store will launch sometime in 2010. Developers can get the SDK now from the Intel site. Will anyone be able to create compelling enough paid apps to attract users? After all, most netbooks are Windows based and there are a plethora of applications that run just fine on them. Do you expect anything interesting to come of this, or is the idea of a closed netbook app store a non-starter?

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Posted 11/18/09 at 08:17:16 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Asus is about to make a big change to their Eee PC line of products. The netbook pioneer has announced that all their future Eee PCs will come equipped with Nvidia ION instead of the slower Intel solution most netbooks and nettops use now. Nvidia claims that ION is ten times faster than Intel’s integrated solution.

ION is famous for being capable of outputting 1080p video without using much power. The ION platform is also able to run Aero cleanly on Windows 7. “These PCs will run circles around most Atom-based systems, so they are an excellent solution,” said Industry analyst Jon Peddie. With the upcoming Flash 10.1 supporting video acceleration, you can expect smooth flash video at long last.

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Posted 11/11/09 at 09:06:24 PM by Ryan Whitwam

A new round of testing by Laptop Magazine indicates that battery life on Windows 7 may not be all it’s cracked up to be. Microsoft claimed that their new OS would result in better battery performance on some netbooks. The testing, however, says otherwise.

Three netbooks were tested: the Toshiba mini NB205, ASUS Eee PC 1008HA, and the HP Mini 311. On average, the computers ran down 47 minutes sooner with Windows 7 than with XP. Still, two of the units were running after nearly five hours, and the Toshiba made it nearly nine hours on Windows 7. It may not be the same as losing nearly an hour on a conventional laptop, but it is something to consider. If you plan to buy a netbook, will you be hunting for one running Windows XP?

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Posted 10/29/09 at 08:42:12 PM by Ryan Whitwam

If you’ve ever tried to get any amount of real work done on a netbook, you know how frustrating it can be. One of the biggest barriers to regular netbook use is the undersized low-resolution LCD they come equipped with. In a recent demo at CEATEC Japan, Kohjinsha showed off their prototype dual screen netbook. In what was probably the biggest shocker of the show, it actually looks good.

When closed, the Kohjinsha netbook looks like any 10.1 inch unit. It doesn’t even look terribly bulky. In the video we can see a smooth sliding mechanism at work that folds out the displays symmetrically. This little beauty sports an AMD Athlon NeoMV-40 CPU running at 1.6Ghz, 4GB of RAM, and Microsoft Windows 7. No word on how badly battery life suffers due to the dual displays.

No exact release date or pricing info was available, but Kohjinsha expects to be offering the dual screen netbook late this year for less than 100,000 Yen (slightly under $1100). If this were available, would you pay more than $1000 for it?

Check out the full video after the jump!

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