ASUS Eee PC 1101HA Vista Premium Model won’t be launched in Japan

Few months back, ASUS Japan launched the ASUS Eee PC 1101HA and confirmed that it would be released with Windows Vista Home Premium (thus making it freely upgradable to Windows 7 free upgrade). Sadly, that plan has been canceled. The reason behind this could be that ASUS may launching it with Windows 7 after Windows 7 has been officially released to the public.

ASUS EEE 1101HA is the first 11-inch netbook by ASUS that has built-in overclocking capabilities. It has extremely long battery life (8h+).

SmartQ5 Android MID to be shipped at the end of September

We have already mentioned about Android-based MID, SmartQ5 in the past. According to the latest news bits, this MID will be available in Japan end of September. It has a Samsung CPU running at 667MHz, with 1GB of RAM and has both WiFi and Bluetooth radios. It has a 4.3-inch screen and sports WVGA (800×480) resolution.

We expect it to be under $200 as spotted it to be selling at $150 last month

Lenovo S10-2 HD launched – has a mind-boggling 1280×720 resolution

Lenovo has launched HD version of its netbook in Japan and Germany. The most outstanding part about it is its resolution which is 1280×720, which is much better than what you see in standard netbooks (1024×600).

It will retail at 349 Euros (with 19% VAT)

Disney Netbook MK90H soon landing in the Japanese land for 335 Euros

If you live in Japan and have been eying on the Disney netbook for your kid, you won’t need to wait for long. ASUS will be launching its Disney netbook in Japan in the month of September and we expect it to be made available worldwide by October. It will be priced at €335.

ASUS will be including a ‘kid-friendly’ interface on top of Windows-XP including some themes built around Mickey Mouse, Cars, Toy Story, Wall-E etc. Also, since it is meant for small children and they will be stepping into the big-bad world of Internet, parental controls are very much needed in order to stop your child from viewing “you-know-what”. In addition to that, the kids can only correspond via email to those people which are approved by the parents.

Viliv X70 MID launched in Japan

After launching X70 in Hong Kong last month, Viliv has finally launched its X70 Premium MID in Japan. It is going to cost $632 in Japan. It has 7-inch display and runs at the usual 1024 x 600 resolution, which is used in almost all the netbooks and UMPCs out there. Like most netbooks and MIDs, it also comes with SDHC slot via which you can further add 32GB of storage space by using 32GB SDHC card.

MiniPC Japan launches Atom-Powered Desktop – GF27

MiniPC has unveiled their new Atom-powered desktop, GF27, which used Intel Atom N270 processor. You have the option to get one with one 3.5-inch HDD or two 2.5-inch HDDs, Dual-LAN and DVI. It has 4 USB ports (2 in the front and 2 at the back). Strangely,earphone and microphone ports are placed at the back of the it, which may not liked by a lot of people.

It is odd that MiniPC used N270 Atom processor in GF27, which is meant to be used in netbooks. They could have easily used Atom 230/330 which are considered more suitable for desktop hardware.

Bandai’s new offering – Rilakkuma Netbook

Now, the netbook manufactures seem to be not only targeting the business individuals, but also the kids. Bandai has come with a netbook that is meant for children, the Rilakkuma netbook. The Rilakkuma netbook comes with a funky cartoon picture on the lid of the netbook. The Rilakkuma netbook will cost you $865 in Japan. If you ask us, it is a pretty expensive netbook for kids as even most of the modern netbooks cost less than half of it! Here are its specs:

• 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor
• 8.9-inch display with 1024×600 resolution
• WiFi
• 1GB RAM
• 160GB HDD
• Digital TV tuner

How can they charge so much just for a sticker? Call it fortunate or unfortunate, but it will retail only in Japan. Rilakkuma will be making just 500 of these netbooks. So, hurry up if you are interested

Asus soon to launch U20A – a powerful notebook/netbook with Core 2 Solo processor

If you are into 12-inch mini notebooks/netbooks, but just could not stand the poor performance of the Z520 processor (see our review of the ACER AO751H), then you would absolutely adore the new ASUS U20A. From outside, it looks like a typical 12.1-inch netbook with 1280×800 resolution, but underneath lies the fast Core 2 Solo SU3500 clocked at 1.4GHz, which is all the way faster than the Atom N270/N280 processor.

If that was not enough for you, it comes with 4GB of RAM, which is not at all common for netbooks. With the U20A, you get the massive 320GB HDD, a DVD writer and Intel GS45 Express chipset. It runs Windows Vista Home Premium OS. To power all this, it comes equipped with a lithium-ion battery, which claims to give you 8.3 hours of use (which we highly doubt). It weighs at 1.8kg, which is pretty heavy for netbook, but we cannot complain as it packs in a bigger screen and a DVD burner too. This will be released in Japan in next month. We would love to see it coming to US and in other parts of the world.

Windows 7 to cost less than Windows Vista; upgrade details inside

Today, the Microsoft has finally announced the retail and upgrade prices of Windows 7. The differences in price are much more notable when you compare them to the prices of Windows Vista. The Home Premium upgrade version has dropped $40 and the Ultimate upgrade version has dropped $40. 

However, if you preorder Windows 7 upgrade, you can get it at a really low price if you are living in US, Canada, UK, Japan, France or Germany.

Get it from Microsoft Store

Fujitsu Japan updates LOOX M Netbook

Fujitsu Japan has updated its existing LOOX M netbook. Now, the LOOX M comes with the new Intel Atom N280 processor. The Fujitsu LOOX M is very decent netbook although a bit pricey when compared to other netbooks. This netbook is available only in Japan for a hefty price tag of $660. Well, you have to pay for the brand value. It is available in three colors – red, white, and lavender.

Let’s see its specs:

• Intel Atom N280 processor 1.66GHz
• 10.1-inch screen (1024×600)
• 2.7 to 5 hours battery life
• 1GB RAM
• Intel 945 GSE Express chipset
• 160 GB HDD
• webcam
• multi-card reader
• Bluetooth