Sylvania Smartbook, eReader coming to CVS

Folks with low income, rejoice as the CVS will be releasing a 100 dollar smartbook and a 180 dollar eReader sometime soon. According to the recently leaked marketing material, the store will be stocking Sylvania smartbook that will run Windows CE along with an eReader equipped with a color display.

There is not much information on the details of the smartbook but we do know that the eReader packs 512MB of flash storage, Wi-Fi and access to Kobo eBookStore. Stay tuned for more information!

Hundred Dollar Netbook

Remember our review of $100 nettop? Well, it took the manufactures quite a bit of time to come up with a $100 netbook. From China, meet the Wabook that runs on Windows CE 6.0 OS. Weighing just 850gm, it is powered by an ARM-based VIA 8505 300MHz CPU, and features 128MB RAM, 10.1-inch 1024×600 display, 1GB flash memory, micro-SD slot, 3x USB 2.0 ports and 1,800 mAh battery.

Wait, don’t panic as 128MB RAM is enough to run Windows CE OS smoothly, without hiccups. Also, for those who have concerns with that small battery, it should last you 4-5 hours easily as it is powered by a very power-frugal ARM processor.

Viliv HD5 PMP or MID – You decide

Viliv HD5 is a MID packing a 5-inch touchscreen with a WVGA (800×480) resolution and runs Windows CE OS. Equipped with an HDMI output, it has supports high-def 1080p videos and even includes a DMB/DAB tuner!

You can choose between 8GB/16GB/32GB of SSD storage. Let’s hope they throw in some decent browser to this marvelous hardware so that it can be used as a proper MID.

Paradigm Shift eBook Reader to showcase ebook readers at CES

At the upcoming CES 2010 event to be held in Las Vegas, Paradigm is going to unleash two ebook readers with 5-inch and 7-inch displays respectively.

The 7-inch model, oddly named as EER-071WF runs Windows CE OS. It has a touchscreen interface and has DRM encryption support. Since it runs Windows CE OS, it inherits the capability to run Web-browsers, word processors, media players and so on. 2GB is the storage space that is built into it, which can be easily expanded via T-Flash expansion slot. The 7-incher retails for $200

The 5-inch model – EER-051 is a pure ebook reader. It supports heaps of formats that includes ANSI, UNICODE TXT, DOC, PDF, HTML, FB2, PDB and EPUB (non-DRM encrypted). Comes with a gig of storage memory expandable via SD expansion slot. Retails for $150 and comes in a variety of colors – white, pastel blue, pastel periwinkle, pastel pink, black and silver

A netbook/smartbook for just $73 – by Singworld Windows CE netbook

Boy! These smartbooks are turning out be really cheap. Here is a 7-inch smartbook from Sungworld priced ridiculously low at $73. Of course, at $73, you cannot expect a netbook running XP. It has a ARM processor running at 300MHz clock speed, made by VIA. It has a 7-inch WVGA (800×480) display and comes with 1GB of storage. It runs Windows CE and comes with a built-in 1800mAh battery

Few days back, we mentioned a netbook/smartbook that costs $50 and is able to run Linux. Now, we have a slightly higher priced smartbook by Singworld that runs Windows CE OS. How low can they go?! Anyday, I would choose the one running Linux though over the Windows CE

CHUWI W3000 MID – A MID that runs Windows CE

The W3000 is a local MID from China. It runs Windows CE OS and features an 4.1-inch display with WVGA resolution (800×480). It has a pretty decent battery, 2500mAh which should be more than enough for MID running on an non-x86 chip. It uses Telechips chip which is ARM-compatible.

It has TV-out function, built-in WiFi (b/g/n), GPS, FM radio and a micro-SD card (upto 8GB supported). It comes with a photo-viewer, music as-well-as video player. Dimension: 129 × 76 × 14.5mm

Toshiba churns out a Windows CE-based MID – JournE Touch Multimedia Tablet

Toshiba has introduced JournE Touch Multimedia Tablet. It is 7-inch touchscreen device that runs Windows CE and has supports for wide array of formats including H.264, WMV and DivX.

It has expandable memory (SD card slot) and has the ability to output sub-1080p videos via its HDMI port that is there in its dock. It will retail for 250 Euros at the end of this year. The touchscreen uses resistive touch technology and comes bundled with a stylus too. It also has WiFi b/g and has IE for your Internet Pleasure.

Now, for the sake of clarity, this is not a Windows Mobile device. Windows Mobile devices use Windows Mobile OS which is based on Windows CE. Many other companies use (heavily) modified versions of Windows CE to adapt the OS as required.

ARM-Based Netbook with Apple Logo lands in China

At numerous occasions, Apple has stressed on the fact that they are not interested in the netbook market as they think that netbooks do not have the horsepower to run anything other than a web-browser (which is NOT TRUE). But, this has not stopped a local Chinese manufacture to make a FAKE Apple netbook with a ‘glowing’ apple logo. This ‘fake’ netbook uses an ARM CPU and runs Linux or Windows CE. It comes with a 3-cell battery and weighs only 1.7 pounds. All this for an affordable price of $200.

Although it comes with 3-cell battery, but it should still give you long run time as ARM CPU is almost 10-times more power-frugal than the Intel Atom CPU. But, keep in mind that ARM CPU is not x86 compatible and this means that you won’t be able to run desktop OS like Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7.

Nvidia Tegra-Powered Netbook to be launched later this year

We are finally going to see a sub-$200 netbook soon as Nvidia’s Tegra Netbook is finally going to be launched at the end of this year. It will come with the new Tegra chip which also going to be used in the upcoming Microsoft Zune HD. This chip lets you enjoy full HD and Flash videos.

Nvidia has not unveiled the full specs yet, but they do have a prototype on display that features an 8.9-inch screen, Wi-Fi, 3G, and webcam. It does run Windows OS, but it is not Windows XP. Instead, it runs Microsoft CE OS. Nvidia also mentioned that the final product could be loaded with the Google Android OS.

Take a look at its picture, it is still using the small right shift key. It spoils the overall typing experience. They should better fix this before releasing the final product.