Nokia: Maemo OS for MIDs, Symbian still the main priority

Nokia N900 is a great device and we love it! Nokia has said that they are going to reserve the excellent Maemo OS for their (upcoming) MID-based phones. That said, Symbian is still going to be main platform.

Next year, Nokia has promised us that they will launch even more Maemo based devices. We have already been very impressed with the Maemo 5 OS that the Nokia N900 MID runs. We believe that the Maemo 6 OS will bring even more capabilities including support for capacitive screens and multi-touch

HTC TOUCH DIAMOND compared to HTC TOUCH DIAMOND 2! [WindowsPhoneMix.com]

Over at our sister site dedicated to Windows Mobile Phones, we have posted a very thorough comparison between HTC’s two biggest offerings ever, HTC DIAMOND and HTC DIAMOND 2. Diamond 2 is a Windows Mobile phone with a gorgeous display, packing 800×480 pixel display into a small 3.2-inch screen. On the other hand, we have the Diamond, which has 2.8-inch display with VGA (640×480) resolution.

I still like my HTC DIAMOND. But perhaps, I’m hardly fair when I say that. I leave it to the folks at WindowsPhoneMix.com to decide that.

Click here to read the full article

Acer Aspire One 751H compared with Packard Bell Dot M/A

Netbook Italia (Italian) has done some serious comparison between the Acer 751H netbook and Packpard Bell Dot netbook.

• both have 1GB of RAM and 160GB HDD with 5400 rpm
• graphics – Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 500 for the Aspire One 751H and ATI Radeon X1270 for the Dot M/A, thus making the Packcard Bell more powerful than the Acer 751H.
• same ports and interfaces, 5-in-1 card reader, audio jacks, USB ports, WiFi b/g
• The Aspire One 751H come with a WEAKER Intel Z520 Atom processor whereas the Dot M netbook comes with an AMD Athlon 64 L110 a 1.2GHz. Despite slower clock speed, it is actually FASTER and more POWERFUL.
• However, the Packard Bell netbook comes with Vista Home Basic or Premium as OS which is slower than the Windows XP OS that comes with the Aspire One 751H
• same 6-cell battery in both of the netbooks

Read our ACER ASPIRE 751H review!

Gigabyte rolls out T1028x – better than Gigabyte T1028

If you have been searching touchscreen netbook that comes with an 10-inch screen and has ‘more than average‘ resolution, not 1024×600 but 1366 x 768, then the Gigabyte T1028M might be just for you. It is equipped with an 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU. The Gigabyte TouchNote T1028x will be the successor of old Gigabyte TouchNote T1028M. This machine has better screen (in terms of resolution), bigger keyboard and faster processor. It also has 160GB HDD and an Express card slot and has a pretty affordable price tag of $698.

Comparison between Gigabyte T1028 and the newer Gigabyte T1028x:

1. T1028x has faster processor (N280 versus N270)
2. More spacious hard disk (160GB versus 80GB)
3. Better screen: T1028 has 1024×600 pixel resolution screen whereas the T1028x has 1366×768 pixel resolution screen.

Intel Atom N280 versus Intel Atom N270

Intel introduced N280 this year which is set to replace the N270 Intel Atom processor. The N280 is marginally faster (1.66GHz) than the N270 (1.6GHz).

Click on read more to find out who wins.

Netbook vs Laptop: who wins? You decide

Intel has recently posted a webpage which lets the user decide between the netbooks and notebooks. By the article, it becomes very clear that the Intel is not happy the way the netbooks are affecting the sales of the notebooks. Couple of days we highlighted the fact, how the netbooks are affecting the sales of the notebooks.

From the chart given above (taken from this Microsoft link), it is clear that they perceive netbooks as devices for just surfing the web.

• Multitask: According to MS, you cannot multi task on a netbook. Right now, I am multi tasking fairly nicely on my EEE 1000H with concurrently running Photoshop CS3, 2 Firefox Windows with each having 8 tabs and WMP 11 (running in the background playing my favorite tunes). No hiccups.
• Create and Edit Videos: I use Windows Movie Maker all the time on my EEE 1000H and it works great for video editing on the go
• Encode Music: I use Goldwave application to edit music and apply filters on the music and I do not face any particular slowdowns
• Watch HD movies: 1080p with coreavc codec. ’nuff said

Click on read more to read more comparisons

Difference between EEE 1000H and EEE 1000HE

I had a chance to play with the EEE 1000HE today. Being the user of 1000H, I could not stop myself in comparing the two and justifying, if the EEE 1000H should upgrade to the 1000HE. The EEE 1000HE brings minor, but useful advancements over the EEE 1000H. In this post, I’ve enlisted and explained the differences between the two and if you will gain anything by EEE 1000HE over 1000H.

1. Keyboard: Immediately when you open the lid, you will see that the keyboard has undergone a huge change. Gone is the small right shift key which was placed at somewhat awkward location. The placement of right shift key is more natural now. Also, the location where the right shift key was present in 1000H is not taken by another function (fn) key. The ASUS representative there told me that this will let the consumer use the PageUp and PageDown buttons with one hand. Although, I doubt that one can hold this 1.4kg+ machine for a long time with one hand.
2. Battery: The EEE 1000H is quite famous for its great battery life thanks to its huge 6600mAh battery, which promised 5-6h of continuous usage. The EEE 1000HE comes with even more capacity (8700mAh). I expected it to be a lot bigger than the 6600mAh one, but it was marginally bigger than it. ASUS claims that it should give 8+ hours of usage and I agree with them.
3. Processor: The EEE 1000HE comes with a N280 processor, which is 60MHz faster than the N270 that is used in the 1000H. I did not feel any noticeable difference though.

To me, the biggest change is the keyboard. After using it for 3 minutes, I had already become accustomed to the new location of the right shift key. Does the new shift key arrangement makes a difference to me? No. The reason is that I do not use the right shift key much. I made the required change in my typing habits ever since I got my first EEE, which was EEE 701, which also had the small right shift key. So, when I moved to 1000H (I still have my 701), the right shift key did not bother me much.

So, the question arises, whether you should upgrade to the new EEE 1000HE. The answer is simple. If you own an EEE or another netbook, where you find the right shift key annoying and you cannot work without it, then you may go ahead and buy it. Otherwise, if you are accustomed to the right shift key or do not use it much, then you should instead get an extended battery for you existing netbook. However, it is different story if you have few hundred dollars begging to be spent.

EEE S101 vs Sony Vaio TZ – not a netbook battle

We know it would be unfair to battle Asus Eee PC S101 against Sony Vaio TZ, which is actually a highend ultra-portable. Although the S101 is considered expensive in the netbook world, but it is around $1000 cheaper than the VAIO TZ. The Vaio TZ has strong points like higher resolution screen(1366*768) and steller 7 [...]

Would the Netbooks die in near future?

An year ago, it was quite easy to differentiate a netbook from a notebook. But now, the differences between a netbook and notebook are getting blurred every day. We are already able to observe changes that occured in the netbook field in the past year. People yearned for bigger devices with bigger displays and more [...]

Palm Treo Pro review [huge review!]

Palm Treo Pro is the first Palm Smartphone with built-in WiFi. WIth a built-in QWERTY keyboard and numerous Palm enhancements, does the Treo Pro makes itself as a worthy contender to the rest of the Windows Mobile range? Read on and find out! Packaging Palm has really outdone itself with the packaging. It’s nice, classy, [...]