Lenovo postpones the launch of Lenovo S12 netbook until Windows 7 release

Lenovo IdeaPad S12 is one of the netbooks to have HD capabilities, thanks to the Nvidia ION platform. Sadly, Lenovo still has not released this powerful netbook to the masses. Reason: Windows 7. Yes, Lenovo has decided not to release their S12 netbook until Windows 7 is released.

Equipped with an already obsolete processor, Intel Atom N270, this netbook has a sharp display for sure as it packs in 1280×800 pixels in its 12-inch display frame! Anyway, we will see how this baby performs with Windows 7

Official Linux driver for Poulsbo Chipset

The Chipset US15W and the graphic chip accompanying it, GMA 500 perform pretty nicely under Windows 7 and Windows Vista, but they did not perform well under Linux (until now). If you are a guy that updates the repositories frequently in Ubuntu (v9.04), you will see a new package by the name of “poulsbo-driver-3D package”. Install it and restart your netbook. This will improve 2-D and 3-D capabilities of your netbook.

In case, for some reason, you are still unable to find it, I recommend you to visit the official repositories webpage and find “libdrm-poulsbo – 2.3.0-0ubuntu1~904um1″ package. From there, download the file “libdrm-poulsbo1_2.3.0-0ubuntu1~904um1_i386.deb” and run it on your Ubuntu-powered netbook.

Make sure you restart the computer to see the effects!

Samsung has developed an SSD with SATA mini-card design especially for netbooks

Samsung has unveiled its new Solid State Drive (SSD) which employs SATA-interface. The best part about Samsung’s new SSD is that they can not not be used as primary storage device but also as a complementary drive for netbook with dual drive capabilities.

“The said Samsung SSD boasts of a mini-PCI Express form factor with SATA 3.0GB/s interface. It will be available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacity. You can also have the option to get the SSD will full encryption.”

“The market is beginning to embrace a smaller SSD for the nascent netbook sector,” said Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. “The cost-efficiency and reliability of lower-density, highly compact Samsung SSDs are perfectly suited as the storage medium for the rapidly growing netbook marketplace,” he added.

Samsung has also taken care about data security. The new SSDs comes with an option of full disk encryption. This new SSD is 80% smaller than the normal 2.5-inch HDD. This gives the manufactures the potential to create smaller and lighter netbooks.

CONFIRMED: Qualcomm will launch Smartbooks at the end of this year

Qualcomm has confirmed that they will be launching ‘smartbooks’ at the end of this year. Qualcomm will be using their fast Snapdragon processor in their smartbooks as-well-as in their upcoming mobile phones. Qualcomm is pretty sure that it will be able to sell 2.5 billion units by the end of year 2011.

So what makes Smartbooks better than the existing cellphones and MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices)? Smartbooks will give you a very powerful smartphone in your hand and will come with both voice and data capabilities. Unlike netbooks and MIDs, the smartbooks can remain connected all the time. No need of shutting your device down or putting your device into hibernation. All that will all day battery-life and integrated GPS.

Also, we are happy to know that smartbooks will cost less than the existing netbooks. This indicates that the smartbooks should cost less than $400. If they are able to do that, it will be a huge hit among the consumers.

AMD finally to join Netbook Processor market. Well, kind of

AMD is working on a processor that is meant for low-cost laptops that will directly rival the Intel Atom platform. Rumor has it that it will consume lower-power and cost less than the Atom processors. However, AMD is still adamant that devices that will be using their upcoming processor will be notebooks and not netbooks.

AMD believes that netbooks with increased capabilities should no longer be called netbooks, but notebooks. He also added that ARM-processors will have a difficult time in the notebook market as they lack ‘software support’. Microsoft Windows OS cannot run on the ARM-based platform and require X86-platform. Linux although can run on ARM-based platform, but it is not as widely accepted as Windows.

So, is the ARM too late for the netbook party?

Asus EEE T91 supports Multi-Touch, but with Windows 7 only!

There is some (exciting) news about the recently unveiled ASUS EEE T91: It supports multi-touch! EEE-PC.de (german) were able to get their hands on the ASUS EEE T91, which was running Windows 7. They confirmed that it was able to recognize multi-touch. See the following video, which clearly shows that EEE T91 supports multi-touch