Cracking panel issue in the EEE 1008HA netbook

ASUS has commented on the cracking panel issue that has affected some of the EEE 1008HA netbook. ASUS says that they had seen the defect before it reached the hands of consumers. Fortunately, there is nothing to worry about as the defected netbooks won’t reach the consumer market.

Asustek noted that the cracking was not due to faulty design or manufacturing, but because it has been using panel components from a secondary supplier

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.

Sony now offering Z530 proccessor for VAIO P

Sony is now (finally) offering the ‘faster’ Atom Z530 processor to the US consumers. The Z530 runs at 1.6GHz as compared to 1.3GHz Z520 processor. The ‘new’ Atom will be offered in the new P698E model, in which Sony has also bundled the 128GB SSD. Keep in mind that Z530 is still slower than N270/N280 processor, but offers better battery life.

I don’t think that it would be appealing enough for the consumers to shell out so much. Anyway, if you have $1500 lying around, then you should give this little thing a shot!

[SONY VAIO P Z530 model]

Acer Android netbook will dual boot with Windows!

Talk about being playing safe. Acer has decided to bundle Windows XP along with their first few models of Android netbooks.

Acer knows very well that they are going to be first to launch a netbook with mobile phone OS. Obviously, a lot of risk is involved and bundling their Android netbook with Windows XP is a great way to know how well the consumers receive the Android netbooks. However, it may result in increase in overall cost by $20-$30 due to license fee of Windows XP.

Dell phases out Mini 9 netbook

Dell has confirmed that it won’t be making Mini 9 netbooks anymore. The Dell Mini 9 was launched in September 2008 at a price tag of $349. Since then, the Dell has released several (bigger) netbooks as the market was responding better to the bigger netbooks as they allowed the manufactures to equip them with bigger keyboards and bigger screens.

Dell is now urging the consumers to go for the Dell Mini 10V instead which is currently retailing at $299 and comes with a bigger 10-inch screen.

Sandisk Netbook SDHC card!

Sandisk has launched Netbook SDHC card with capacities of 8GB and 16GB. With this product, Sandisk is targeting the users of SSD-equipped netbooks that usually come with small storage capacities. Using 8GB or 16GB will let the users to immediately increase the capacity to store their stuff.

“SanDisk is committed to offering flash memory products that create the best possible consumer experience,” said Eric Bone, vice president, retail product marketing, SanDisk. “Our Netbook SDHC card helps consumers get the most out of their netbooks by increasing storage capacity and providing a reliable means of transferring data from the netbook to a removable storage device or another PC.”

The 8GB card will retail at $39.99 and 16GB for $79.99.

Acer to be the first netbook manufacture to OFFICIALLY launch Google Android Netbooks!

Although myriad of netbook manufactures have announced that they will be making Google Android netbooks, but the Acer is going to be the one that will officially launching them in the year 2009 itself. At first, we thought that it was going to be the ASUS that would launch Android Netbooks at the end of this year, but then we heard about news that they have postponed the production to the next year, 2010.

Jim Wong, Acer’s global president of IT products and services said something which really captured my attention,

‘If we do not continue to change our mobile Internet devices, consumers may not choose then any more.”

But, why would one need to run a mobile phone OS on a netbook? True, it will help them to save few dollars, but then we can achieve (almost) desktop-class productivity when using an OS like Windows XP/Vista/7.

Good news is that Acer is not downgrading the processor to ARM and they have decided to stick with the powerful Intel Atom platform.

LonMID M100 is a MID with built-in phone!

A lot of consumers have always yearned for a MID that has a phone function built-in. The LonMID M100 comes with a dedicated phone pad to easily dial the numbers. Inside, you will find a massive 4.8-inch display, which is even bigger than the Toshiba TG01 (Windows Mobile device). On the outside resides a 2.4-inch display. The bigger display comes with WVGA resolution while the display on the outside has QVGA resolution.

It has Atom Z500 processor clocked at mere 800MHz and uses 1GB RAM. For memory expansion, there is a micro-SD slot. It runs MIDinux, a custom linux distro.

Specs-wise, it is too slow to be a netbook and too big and heavy to be a smartphone.

Skytone netbook to cost $250

Remember the Skytone netbook that we mentioned a couple of days back? Some more details are come up about this Android-netbook. The netbook will be named Alpha 680 and will cost $250. It will run on an ARM processor and will weigh just 1.5 pounds which is even less than the EEE 701.

It uses the same chip that is being used in the iPhone too, the ARM 11. The skytone netbook is set to debut in month August or September this year.
Don’t you think that $250 is too much for the Android netbook? By spending a few more dollars, one can buy an Atom-powered netbook. But, the biggest asset that the Android-netbooks will have over the Atom powered netbooks will be better battery life.

Only time will tell, if the consumers will adopt netbooks running Android OS.