Originally posted on October 16, 2009 @ 8:40 pm
Well, it looks like we’re about to get more powerful netbooks in the future. You see, the Intel Atom N450 (1.66GHz, GMA 3150 graphics core) is about to hit stores come January. But if you can afford to hold off buying a new netbook a bit longer, the Intel Atom N470 will be worth it, and it’s coming March next year. [Read more…]
Originally posted on October 9, 2009 @ 10:00 am
Laptop Magazine was able to get their hands on an HP Mini 311, and wowza, it won points for performance. Usually I belittle HP’s netbooks because the stuff running under the hood is no match against other, relatively uglier netbooks, but somehow HP Mini 311 seems to change the game.
11-inch screen goodness aside, the HP Mini 311 has a standard Intel Atom processor which every netbook worth its salt has been rocking since time immemorial. And we all know how limited the Atom is. But thanks to the powerful NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics, the Mini 311 trounces your typical netbook when it comes to video playback, video gaming, or the 3DMark06 benchmark. It also outperforms every netbook and some CULV powered machines in the more general PCMark05 test. And would you believe you can squeeze at least 5 hours out of this baby?
And seriously, for $399, you can’t do any better for that price range.
Originally posted on October 24, 2009 @ 12:33 am
Lenovo has already announced plans to, um, announce the 11.6-inch Lenovo IdeaPad U150 on Monday. It is a thin and light laptop with an Intel CULV dual core SU2300 processor.
If you’re curious about what runs this little baby, here are the specs:
disk if your computer is in freefall to help prevent damage and data loss.
Originally posted on October 27, 2009 @ 10:00 am
So let’s say you’ve been using the Jolicloud netbook OS for some time now. And you want your friends to actually join you for the ride, but dang, it’s a closed alpha and you can’t get your friends to use the new OS.
Now if you’re a Jolicloud user, you should be able to see 10 invites in your homebase so you can get your friends to use Jolicloud. If you have a friend who uses Jolicloud, this is the perfect time to bug your friend as well.
Originally posted on December 3, 2009 @ 7:20 am
We’ll be seeing Intel’s new Atom line, the Pine Trail-M, sometime next year (I hope it comes out Q1), and already the netbook world is abuzz about what it means.
Fudzilla reports that the new netbook platform will consume less energy – about 20% to be exact – than the current Atom iteration. Maximum PC says that Pine Trail-M is smaller and cheaper to produce. The Pine Trail-M is actually 64% smaller than the current Atom! And I thought the Atom is already one of the smallest processors out there. Imagine that.
But for all the hype that it created, what does the Pine Trail-M really mean for us netbook owners?
Lower power consumption doesn’t necessarily mean a noticeable change in battery life.
Remember, the processor is but one component in your netbook. Just because its power consumption has been reduced by 20% doesn’t mean that your battery life will increase by 20%. The other components of your netbook – the hard drive, the monitor, and others -will still consume power the same way they’ve done before.
A cheaper processor probably won’t mean cheaper netbooks.
I know, I know. I’m disappointed too. I want my netbooks cheap. And powerful. But we all can’t have our cake and eat it too, right? I’m guessing that by the time the Pine Trail-M comes out, netbook manufacturers will take advantage of the new processor’s cheaper price point and smaller space to add more components and features into their netbooks. I won’t claim to know what exactly are they cooking up, but let’s imagine netbooks with better, discrete, video cards. Heh, I’d even want a netbook that’ll put a Macbook Air to shame, but that would be kind of pushing it.
But what do you guys think? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.