Gigabyte M912. Convertible UMPC with high resolution

We saw these pictures at CeBIT, but back then it was not clear if it makes to production...

Click here to see more



But now it seems pretty official as it's on their website.

Here are the specs:

Intel CPU 1.6GHz with 1GB RAM
Chipset Intel ® 945GSE
8.9”LCD panel/WXGA 1280x768, w/Touch screen, LED Backlight
HDD 2.5” ,9.5mm S-ATA HDD 120/160/250GB
USB X 3,Mic in/Earphone out/D-SUB RJ45 /SD card
Wifi and BlueTooth 2.0 built-in
1.3M pixel CMOS camera
Battery Li-ion 4400mAh, Battery life 4 hrs
Dimensions: 235 x 180 x 28~42mm
Weight 1.2kg
OS: XP or Linux

Best news is that it should have good pricing too!

From the press release:
"The 2008 Computex event scheduled for June is the next major tradeshow that GIGABYTE will take part in, and the company plans to launch its latest INTEL mobile computing platform 8.9” low cost NB"

We should get more info next week from Computex.

Product page

Press release

Eee PC 901 to have 7 hour battery life?

Notebook Italia got word from Asus: Eee PC 901 will have 7 hour battery life..

Click here to read more

They also confirmed that 900 will coexist with 901:

"The news published by DigiTimes is not true. Eee PC 900 and 901 have characteristics and different target sales. Eee PC 900 weighs less than 1Kg; Eee PC 901 will have a battery capable of reaching 7 hours of autonomy. Both models coexist to meet the needs of different categories of users. "

My calculation:

We have seen that similar devices are using 8W/hour on average use.
If Eee PC 901 has 5800mAh ( 43Wh ) 4 cell battery, it could reach to 5.4 hours.
If Asus uses cpu downscaling like on 900, it could reach to 6 hours.

6 hours in real life is good for 7 hours marketing figures...

Notebook Italia [ translated ]

Acer Aspire One MiniNote

Acer's take on netbook race: Aspire One

Click here to see more



Expected to be 8.9 inch screen, Intel Atom and 299 euro pricing...

Thanks Steve

Asus Eee PC 900 battery life

Battery life is one of the most important feature on mobile computer. That's why I have been doing some testing with my Eee PC 900..

Continue reading..

These test were done under full load, using Battery Eater.
I disabled all battery savings, brightness was at 100% and wifi was on.
I also disabled standby at 10% so these numbers show the results from 100% to 0%.

You can use Eee PCs at 630Mhz or 900Mhz and these tests clearly show the difference.

You can get easily 30 to 50 minutes more battery life by setting the cpu speed to 630Mhz from either BIOS ( 0302 ) or with eeectl software.


The second difference on battery life can be seen on this diagram:


It jumped from 40% to 10% in 2 minutes...

After I disabled the default "shutdown at 10%" I got 30% to 40% more battery life!

Typically laptops are set to shutdown or sleep at 3%, but for some reason Eee PCs can only be set to do it at 10%. Worst part is that as Asus battery meter is so inaccurate it may shutdown your computer when it thinks there is only 10% left, even it can be 30% to 40%.

Not good Asus! They really should fix this.

Mix this with the news that Eee PCs are shipping with different sized batteries in different countries... not good..

As for the batteries, I can highly recommend:
Mugen 7800mAh for best size vs power option
MonoMobile 5200mAh for second battery ( about 50 dollars )
MonoMobile's new Super Large 10400mAh for extreme need ( 5 hours 45 minutes on full load test! )

Eee PC batteries at Conics.net

Meet Dell Mini Inspiron

Shiny new Dell netbook... Dell Mini Inspiron

Click here to see more







Looks good outside but inner area looks a bit cheap..
Keyboard seems to have a special curved surface..

Looks like 8.9 inch screen.
3 x USB, Ethernet, VGA out and audio ports.

I'd bet Intel Atom and nice pricing..

Not much info about the specs yet.. Expect more next week from Computex.

Thanks Gizmodo

Multi-touch on Windows 7

Click to see the video

Let's just hope that Windows 7 will be lighter than Vista with this feature...

..any hope?

Vista Blog

Via OpenBook unveiled, specs and video

Open-source hardware... Main thing is that this one could enable us to get more/less options if we need.

Click here to see more

8.9 inch 1024 x 600 screen
VIA C7-M ULV processor @ 1.6GHz
DDR2 up to 2GB
2.5” 80GB+ HDD
Wireless Broadband Connectivity Modules:
Base Module Option 1: Bluetooth + 802.11b/g WiFi
Base Module Option 2: AGPS + 802.11b/g WiFi + AGPS
Module 2 Options: WiMAX or HSDPA or EV-DO/W-CDMA
10/100/1000 Mb/s Network Controller
Touchpad & Full Keyboard
1-2MP dual headed webcam
VGAx1, USB 2.0 x3
4-in-1 Card Reader (SD/SDIO/MMC/MS)
4-Cell, 2600mA Lithium-Ion Battery ( 3 hours )
Weight: 1kg
240 mm x 175mm x 28(front)/36.2(rear)mm

Windows Vista® Home Basic
Windows XP
Ubuntu, Suse, G/OS

Only touch screen and SSD options are missing from the list...

Pricing is said to be ULCPC range, availability is still unknown.

As it's a reference design for others to sell, you will see it with different logos from many OEMs and ODMs. Everex got the early start at CTIA 2008.

Details, News and Links for OpenBook

VIAOpenBook.com

Asus Eee PC hits Finland with 3G options

Bundled with 3g HSDPA modem and subscription starting at 21.80 €/month..

Continue reading..


Finnish operators Elisa and Saunalahti are going to sell Asus Eee PC 4Gs with Huawei E220 for monthly fee.

Asus Eee 4G prices with unlimited 3G connection and modem:

384kbps: 21.80 euros/month
512kbps: 26.80 euros/month
1mbps: 31.80 euros/month
2mbps: 41.80 euros/month
5mbps: 46.90 euros/month

If you sign for new ADSL connection, you can get Eee PC for 12e/month (24 month deal).

Huawei E220 is not as nice as E169 I tested, but E169 will be also available for this bundle as soon as Asus updates their 3G drivers to support it.

Eee PC 4G will be available only with Xandros Linux, Pearl White and with 4400mAh battery.

If you want to have XP on it, you should check my review of it.

As it ships with 4400mAh battery, you can expect about 2.5 hours battery life. If you need more , you should think about buying 3rd party battery for it.

I asked Tom Lindblad, Director of sales at Elisa, about Eee PC 900/901 and the answer was Q3.. so maybe for Christmas.. and maybe other mobile computers too..

Press release, Elisa

Product page, Saunalahti

MSI Wind U100 dissected

Click to see the pictures







That 2.5 inch disk sure looks big on it.. If understood right, the RAM is soldered but there is empty slot for adding more.

Thanks llinsh!

Ultra Mobile Podcast no. 15

Welcome to listen Ultra Mobile Podcast no. 15. Join me and Steve talking about Ultra Mobility.
On the podcast: Intel Atom, Asus Eee PC 900 and 901,UMPCs vs ULCPCs, ASUS Eee PC UMPC rumor, Samsung Q1 refresh and devices at Computex.

Click here download it [ mp3, 44:58 ]

Asus Eee PC SSD read and write tests. 4G vs 8G vs 900

Continue reading..

Asus Eee PC 4G internal 4GB SSD

Asus Eee PC 900 internal 4GB SSD

Asus Eee PC 8G 8GB PCI-E SSD

Asus Eee PC 900 16GB PCI-E SSD

These results show quite clearly how slow the 16GB SSD is... not good for installing OS. This split to 4GB and 16GB drives on 900 is just stupid..

I can only hope Asus fixes this issue on upcoming models. Minimum of 8GB fast flash on first drive.. best would be only one even bigger and faster SSD.

Thanks guys!

Multi touch screens for MIDs and UMPCs

Both LG and AUO have been busy prepping new multi touch screens..

Continue reading..

Both are demonstrating at SID’s Display Week 2008

LG:

- 4.3 inch multi-touch screen
- 7 inch LCD featuring an embedded touch sensor and slim and light form factor

AUO:

- 4.3 inch multi-touch screen
- 8 inch multi-touch screen
- Grease Free and Touch Mura Free technology ( anti fingerprint/grease )

We should expect them to be available at Q2 2008

LG Press

AUO Press

WILLCOM D4 UMPC gets reviewed

Want to see Vista killing a beautiful UMPC...

Click to see the video and pix

"Beautiful design, ergonomic, a well thought out keyboard, multiple positions, touchscreen…… I’m impatient to get my hands on a final version (the first thing I’ll do is install XP! HAHAHA)."

Details, News and Links for Sharp Willcom D4

Jump to akihabaranews.com for full read

16GB internal SSD conversion for Eee PC 4G

If you were thinking if it could be done; the answer is yes...

Click here to see more


It's not easy and you would need software to flash the chip but Hoschi did it...

Jump to Eee-PC.de for full story [ translated ]

Quick test: EeePC Tray Utility

Asus has uploaded softwares and drivers for Eee PC 900 XP version.. testing new ones now..

Click to see the video

This one is called EeePC Tray Utility and it installs with ACPI drivers..

Asus Support site

Asus Eee PC 901 pricing and more specs

As we all knew, it will be launching June 3rd at Computex.. but with bluetooth and higher price?

Continue reading...

Around $650...

I hope this is not the final price as it was supposed to be ULCPC..spelled Ultra Low-cost PC..

Maybe if they also upgraded the SSD? ...for non splitted 32GB SLC?

Thanks Engadget

Aigo MID with XP.. or is it UMPC then..

Testing Atom running 800Mhz with XP Pro..

Click to see the video

All drivers not yet working but looking good...

More coming soon.. Joe is testing more stuff right now..

UMPCFever.com

Unboxing and hands-on with Aigo MID

Joe has been playing with Aigo MID and posted his findings.. Aigo MID uses the same hardware as Gigabyte M528, but it has Midinux OS where M528 has Ubuntu Mobile

Click to see the video and pictures

"I have never play a small X86 device likes this. Compact, Stylish, Innovative and Entertaining.

The Midinux GUI is easy to play, easy to learn and easy to use (Hahaa~~). Most of the application you need may find in this small device.

The Intel Atom Z500 is not a high performance processor but seems work smoothly in Midinux (and Windows XP). All the thing govern my orientation to get one is the price!!"


Jump to UMPCFever for full read and gallery of pix

Details, Links and News about Aigo MID