Still confused about the Litl Easel webbook? It’s an internet and entertainment-centric laptop that doesn’t behave like a typical laptop, even though it looks an awful lot like a laptop. The folks at CrunchGear got to sit down with the developers recently and they’ve put together a 16 minute demo showing just what the device can do. You can check out the video after the page break.

In a nutshell, the thing that sets the Easel apart is the operating system. Litl OS is designed to behave more like a TV or internet appliance than a traditional computer operating system. There are no folders or desktop shortcuts. Instead you have a series of “cards” that you can flip through to perform different actions. And every program opens in full screen mode.

In other words, it’s a dumbed down internet appliance that has the guts of a fully functional netbook, but which is designed to do less… not more. And for that, Litl wants to charge $699, or about twice the price of a typical netbook.

Is it worth it? I guess that depends on how much you hate normal computers. If you’re reading this web site though, my guess is you’re more interested in the Litl Easel because you’re wondering if it can be hacked to run Ubuntu, OS X, or Windows XP. After all, it does have a few interesting hardware features such as a display which can be folded to a 178 degree angle to let you use the laptop in a sort of picture-frame mode and a GPU which can handle HD video and HDMI output.

You can find the CrunchGear video below.

Post from: Liliputing

Litl Easel webbook gets video demo: Still not worth $699

A few items we’ve been tracking for a while are now shipping or available for order for the first time:

• Asus Eee PC T91MT 8.9″ touchscreen tablet with Atom Z520 CPU, Win 7 Home Premium for $532 – Amazon
• Asus Eee Box EB1501 nettop with NVIDIA ION, Atom 330, DVD burner for £339 – Amazon UK
• HP Pavilion DM1 11.6″ laptop with dual core Intel Celeron SU2300 CPU for £469.99 (Pre-order) – Amazon UK

The Eee PC T91MT is an updated version of the Eee PC T91 I reviewed this summer. The new version adds multitouch support and Windows 7 Home Premium. It’s been available for pre-order for a few days, but it began shipping this weekend.

The Eee Box EB1501 is the first Eee Box nettop to feature a dual core processor, NVIDIA ION graphics, and a DVD burner. It’s now available for order in the UK. No word on a US release date yet.

The HP Pavilion DM1 is the first 11.6 inch laptop from HP with a CULV processor. It won’t begin shipping for another few weeks, but you can now pre-order this laptop in the UK. We’re still waiting for a US launch.

Post from: Liliputing

Now (or soon) shipping

Acer recently updated the Acer Aspire 1410 laptop to include a dual core Intel CULV processor and Windows 7 Home Premium. And for some reason, Acer knocked about $50 off the price at the same time, making this $400 laptop one of the cheapest computers you can find with an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display and a dual core processor.

I reviewed the original version of the Acer Aspire 1410 a few months ago, and the folks at B&H were kind enough to send me an updated model to review. The model featured in this review has a dual core 1.2GHz Intel Celeron SU2300 processor and integrated Intel GMA4500MHD graphics. It has 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, 802.11b/g/n WiFi and a 6 cell, 4400mAh battery.

The Acer Aspire 1410 is available for purchase from B&H for $399.99.

For the most part, the hardware is identical to the version of the laptop that I previously reviewed, so portions of this review are taken from that earlier article. The primary differences are with the operating system and processor, so I’ve made significant changes to the performance and software sections, along with minor changes to other departments.

Overview

Superficially, the new version of the Acer Aspire One looks identical to the earlier version. But the new laptop has a smaller hard drive (160GB instead of 250GB), and a 1.2GHz Intel Celeron SU2300 processor instead of the 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 found in the original version of this laptop.

While the SU3500 has a faster clock speed and is part of the Core 2 family of chips, the new model’s dual core CPU helps the computer to perform better at some CPU-intensive tasks. But the Acer Aspire 1410 is not a high end laptop. It’s just a a bit above your average netbook — although with a $400 price tag, you really do get a noticable performance boost and a high resolution display for a netbook-like price. What’s more, the Acer Aspire 1410 ships with Windows 7 Home Premium instead of the stripped down Windows 7 Starter Edition that comes with most Intel Atom powered netbooks.

Of course, with an 11.6 inch display, the Aspire 1410 is a bit larger than your typical netbook. But it weighs just about 3.1 pounds, which is definitely within the standard netbook range.

But if you’re looking for better performance or longer battery life, Acer also offers the Aspire Timeline 1810T and 1810TZ notebooks which run between $550 and $600 and which have higher performance chips and higher capacity batteries.

Design

The Acer Aspire 1410 measures 11.2″ x 8″ x 1.2″ at its thickest point. The thinnest point is near the front, where the laptop is just 0.9 inches thick with the lid closed. It weighs about 3.1 pounds. All of which is to say, it’s barely any bigger than your typical 10 inch netbook, and it’s actually lighter than some models (Asus Eee PC 1000HE, I’m looking at you).

Around the sides of the computer you’ll find 3 USB ports, a flash card reader, Ethernet jack, VGA port, and an HDMI output.

There are also headphone and mic ports, and it’s worth pointing out that the mic jack actually has a metal rim, which should make it a bit sturdier than the cheap plastic jacks found on most computers. Of course, you’re more likely to use the headphone jack on a regular basis, and that’s made of plastic.

The lid has a glossy finish which will show fingerprints, but it’s not the worst offender I’ve seen.

On the bottom of the unit you’ll find two panels that can be removed to upgrade the hard drive, RAM, or WiFi module. There are two RAM slots, and the laptop can handle up to 4GB of memory.

The speakers are located just under the front of the keyboard and there are two hardware switches on the front of the unit for turning the WiFi and Bluetooth on and off.

Keyboard and TouchPad

The keyboard is pretty much a full sized keyboard. The keys are nice and large with a little space between them, and the keyboard stretches almost from one end of the chassis to the other.

My one and only complaint about the arrow and Page Up and Down keys are crammed into a fairly tiny space in the bottom right corner. The more you use the keyboard, the more you get used to this configuration, which is similar to the layout on Samsung netbooks.

But I often have a hard time hitting the Page Up and Down keys in a hurry. The arrow keys, which also double as volume and screen brightness keys, are a bit easier to use.

I took a 2 minute typing test at TypingTest.com to see how this keyboard stacks up against others I’ve used, and I was able to type about 95 words per minute with 98% accuracy. That definitely makes this one of the better keyboards I’ve used, although I find that keyboard layout can be a matter of taste.

You may find other keyboards more comfortable depending on what you are used to. For instance, the keys on the Acer Aspire 1410 are all flat, and you may be more comfortable with concave keys.

The touchpad is small, but it gets the job done. It supports multitouch gestures such as using two fingers to scroll or pinching to zoom in some applications. You can also scroll through web pages and other content using the right side of the touchpad.

The palm rest area of the laptop features a brushed metal finish, while the touchpad is smooth. From a distance, it’s hard to see where the palm wrest ends and the touchpad begins, but you can feel it when your finger moves from one area to the other.

There are two distinct buttons below the touchpad for right and left clicks, and they work quite well.

Performance and Graphics

This is where things really start to get interesting. The Acer Aspire 1410 with the SU3500 processor is significantly faster than a typical netbook when it comes to CPU-intensive tasks such as playing HD video, video games, or transcoding audio and video files.

The new model with the dual core SU2300 processor performed even better in some cases, but not in every test. For instance:

Video test (transcoding 2:22 file from uncompressed AVI to XViD):

• Windows Vista/SU3500 model: 2 minutes, 41 seconds
• Windows 7/SU2300 model: 2 minutes, 9 seconds

Audio test (Converting 30:03 WAV file to MP3):

• Windows Vista/SU3500 model: 1 minute, 10 seconds
• Windows 7/SU2300 model: 1 minute, 18 seconds

So while the new model was faster at transcoding video using VirtulDub, it was a little slower at transcoding audio using WinLame. It’s possible that your results may vary if you use different audio and video files, different codecs, or different trancoding utilities.

It’s worth pointing out that when I ran the same tests on a netbook with an Intel Atom N270 CPU, they took 2-3 times longer to complete. So both versions of the Acer Aspire 1410 blow away a typical netbook when it comes to this kind of CPU-intensive tasks.

When it comes video playback, the laptop can handle 720p or 1080p video playback fairly well. I felt like there might have been a few dropped frames here and there, but overall playback was smooth and pretty watchable.

The laptop could also handle HD Flash video from YouTube, something which most netbooks with integrated GMA 950 graphics choke on. What’s interesting is that standard definition video from online video site Hulu gave the Aspire 1410 a little more trouble than HD YouTube videos.

Some TV episodes and movies from Hulu played back flawlessly. But others were a bit jumpy. Overall, this laptop performed noticably better with Hulu video than the Windows Vista/SU3500 model and significantly better than most netbooks with Intel Atom processors and 1366 x 768 pixel displays.

But playback wasn’t perfect. So if you’re looking for a machine that can handle Flash video as well as local videos, you might want to spring for one of the higher end models or grab an NVIDIA ION powered netbook like the HP Mini 311.

Right now that ION graphics processor won’t help with Flash video, but Adobe is expected to release an updated version of Flash Player later this year or early next year that will support NVIDIA graphics, enabling 1080p Flash video playback on low power netbooks and notebooks.

I also ran my new set of benchmarks, which I plan to run on most new computers I test, at least until I run out of systems with different processors and graphics (There’s not much point in benchmarking yet another netbook with a 1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, and so forth). Here are the results from the new benchmarks:

• Audio transcoding test: 36 seconds to transcode a 13:24 WAV file to MP3
• Video transcoding test:  3:56 to transcode a 4:34 file
• Folder copy: Between 0:55 and 1:05  to copy and paste 2186 files totaling 478MB  (I ran this test several times)
• Folder zip test: 1:38 to create a 453MB ZIP file containing 2186 files

For comparison’s sake, the Asus UL30A, which has a dual core 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor completed the audio test in 32 seconds, the video test in 3:22, the folder copy test in 10 seconds, and the folder zip test in 1:02. The UL30A is clearly faster, but not a lot faster.

On the other hand, the Asus UL30A received a Windows Experience Index score of 3.4 and had higher subscores than the Acer Aspire 1410 in almost every category. The Aspire 1410 got a 3.2, with the lowest scores concentrated in the graphics and gaming graphics areas.

One problem I had with the older version of the Acer Aspire 1410 was that the webcam seemed to have a milky/foggy quality. It turns out there was a tiny piece of plastic covering the camera that I missed. This time around I made sure to remove the plastic, and the webcam image quality improved significantly.

Of course, it doesn’t matter how good the webcam is. If you’re overdue for a haircut, you’re still going to look like you need a haircut.

Display

Aside from the processor and graphics performance, the thing that sets the Acer Aspire 1410 apart from a typical netbook is the 11.6 inch, 1366  x 768 pixel display. And overall, it’s just about the perfect size and resolution for an ultraportable.

I’ve used several 10 inch or smaller netbooks with 1280 x 720 or 1366 x 768 pixel displays, and they usually give me a headache when I stare at the screen too long. To be fair, the problem is with the operating system and software which don’t scale properly, not the screen itself.

But when using Windows Vista XP on a 10 inch netbook, the text tends to be super-sharp and difficult to read from a comfortable distance.

The 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, on the other hand, was sharp, but not too sharp. Text and pictures were crisp and clear, and video looked great, but we’ll get into that more in the performance section.

The screen is glossy, which means that it turns into a bit of mirror in brightly lit settings, especially if the display is turned off.

Software

The main thing that sets the new version of the Acer Aspire 1410 apart from the previous model on the software front is the fact that it runs Windows 7 Home Premium instead of Windows Vista. This is a huge step up, since the laptop generally feels more responsive.

You also get new features like Aero Peek (which lets you look at the desktop by temporarily minimizing all windows for just a second without actually changing their position) and the new and mostly improved Windows taskbar.

Windows 7 Home Premium also includes Windows Media Center functionality, something which you won’t find on the Windows 7 Starter Edition that ships with most netbooks. While Windows Media Center is designed as a full screen interface for music, movies, and photos that looks good on a TV, it also includes some features like an Internet TV section with content from CBS, MSNBC, and others that makes it a welcome addition to a portable notebook like the Acer Aspire 1410.

Acer also made the somewhat baffling decision to throw in a copy of Cyberlink PowerDVD 8 for watching DVDs on this notebook that ships without an optical disc drive.

The rest of the software is pretty much par for the course. You get free trial versions of Microsoft Office 2007, McAfee Internet Security and Norton Online Backup as well as a full version of Microsoft Works.

GridVista

There’s also an Acer Gaming Console to access online games, and GridVista software, which lets you separate your display into zones so that you can snap windows to the right, left, upper right, lower left, or what have you.

Battery

The new processor and operating system doesn’t seem to have affected battery life very much. The US version of the Acer Aspire 1410 comes with a 6 cell, 4400mAh battery. I was able to get 4 hours and 57 minutes of run time when surfing the web and writing some documents with WiFi turned on and the screen brightness set at about 50 percent.

That’s almost identical to the experience I had with the single core version of this notebook when running Windows Vista. Interestingly, when I tried installing Windows 7 RC on the original model, battery life went down by about thirty minutes.

You’re probably not going to get 5 hours of run time if you use the laptop to watch video in a continuous loop. But for light weight tasks like web surfing and maybe watching the occasional online video, you can probably expect 4 to 5 hours from the dual core Acer Aspire 1410.

Verdict

The Acer Aspire One strikes an excellent balance between power, performance, price and battery life. The updated model offers marginally better performance and a much improved operating system at a lower price, which makes this $400 laptop look pretty attractive.

But it’s not perfect. It’s bigger and bulkier than a 10 inch netbook, and there are plenty of other machines that offer better performance or battery life. But I haven’t seen another machine that offers as much as the Aspire 1410 at this price point.

Post from: Liliputing

Acer Aspire 1410 review (dual core version)

I’ve had a bit more time to play with that Zune HD that I unboxed yesterday, and I think I’m going to have a love/mild annoyance relationship with this media player going forward. Here’s what I’ve noticed so far after using the Zune HD for about a day:

Pros:

• The user interface is incredibly slick and the animations are attractive without being particularly distracting.
• The desktop Zune Marketplace software is excellent for arranging media, downloading podcasts, and purchasing media for download. I might keep using it even if I don’t decide to stick with the Zune HD as a portable media player.
• The multitouch OLED display is bright, sharp, and vivid.
• I like the way Zune Marketplace features are integrated with the user interface so that, for example, you can find related artists to the musician you’re listening to, and download photos and biographic information on the fly over a WiFi connection.

Cons:

• There are only three hardware buttons: Power, Media, and Home. None of these buttons will let you do things like pause, fast forward, or skip tracks without looking at the screen, because all of the playback controls require the touchscreen.
• There’s no support for DiVX, or MPEG-2 or a number of other formats, for that matter. The Zune HD only supports WMV, H.264, and MP4/M4V files.
• While the user interface is sleek, it’s not particularly customizable. I’ve been using a Windows Mobile PDA as a music player (among other things) for years, and while WinMo gets a lot of flak, the fact that you can choose your own media players is kind of awesome.

And while it’s awesome that the Zune HD lets you transfer your 720p videos to the device without transcoding them, the fact that it has a 3.3 inch, 480 x 272 pixel display that can’t actually display HD resolutions is a bit ironic. Since the model I’m using has only 16GB of storage space, and since my video collection is in DiVX, I’m tempted to just transcode a bunch of my 720p video files to QVGA H.264 files to save space and cram more media onto the Zune HD, which kind of defeats the purpose of having an HD-capable portable media player.

That said, if your media collection is already in the correct format and if you don’t crave hardware buttons or the ability to tinker further with the user interface, the Zune HD still packs an awful lot of wow factor. And once your media is on the device, the Zune HD really does a nice job of playback. I’m still hopeful that the App section of the Zune Marketplace will open up to include third party apps though. Right now, there are only a handful of apps including a calculator, weather forecast application and a few games.

You can check out my video overview of the Zune HD user interface after the break. It’s a little blurry because it turns out it’s kind of hard to shoot this kind of video with my digital camera. But it should give you a general idea of what the user experience is like.

Post from: Liliputing

Day two with the Zune HD (software overview) – Video

Gizmodo

Ever since Asus sent me an O!Play HD media player to review, I’ve been meaning to gather a few more of these tiny media boxes and do a proper roundup. But Gizmodo has beat me to it. The tech blog put together a not-quite comprehensive roundup of media streaming devices from Western Digital, Seagate, Popcorn Hour, Patrio, and Netgear.

The Patriot box is actually quite similar to the Asus O!Play and has similar software and support for all the same audio and video codecs, which is to say, nearly all of them. But Gizmodo found that the video quality on the Patriot box was subpar. Gizmodo’s Wilson Rothman liked the Western Digital and Seagate devices best, but the truth is most of these little guys have clunky interfaces, lack support for online media, some video formats, or suffer from other problems.

In related news, Engadget reports that Asus has released an updated version of the O!Play in Spain. The O!Play HDP-R3 has integrated 802.11b/g/n WiFi and a flash card reader and sells for about $133.

But I’m starting to think the best low cost media player is really just a nettop with good graphics capabilities like the $330 Acer AspireRevo AR3610. Sure, it costs more than most of the other boxes, but not a lot more. And it’s a heck of a lot more versatile.

Of course, right now I’m just using my Nintendo Wii as a media center by using Orb to stream videos from the living room PC and PlayOn to stream videos from Hulu and other web sites.

Post from: Liliputing

Gizmodo rounds up media players, Asus releases a new one

The Asus Eee Box EB1501 is an upcoming nettop from Asus with a dual core 1.6GHz Atom 330 CPU, NVIDIA ION graphics, and a slot-loading DVD burner. It’s probably the most powerful and versatile member of the Eee Box family to date. Unfortunately there’s still no news on the price or a US release date. But Asus has uploaded the user manual for the Eee Box EB1501 to its support site, which means those are just about the only two surprises.

The nettop will ship with a stand, optional remote control and IR adapter, and a Mini jack to S/PDIF adapter. There’s also an optional VESA mount, HDMI-DVI adapter, and HDMI cable. The Eee Box EB1501 has a 2 USB ports and a card reader on the front, as well as a disc drive, power button, and audio jacks. On the back you’ll find the VGA and HDMI outputs, 4 more USB ports, an Ethernet jack, and an eSATA port.There’s also a wireless antenna to help boost the range of the 802.11b/g/n WiFi.

The manual is available in a number of languages including Chinese, English, Dutch, Finish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Hungarian, Spanish, and Thai. In other words, it seems like the EB1501 will be available worldwide.

Update: The EB1501 is already available for order in the UK.

Post from: Liliputing

Asus Eee Box EB1501 user manual now available

Netbooks and Notebooks

• Refurbished Acer AOD250  10.1″ netbook w/Win XP, 3 cell battery for $239.99 + free shipping – Buy.com
• Samsung Intel Atom 1.6GHz 10″ Netbook for $309 + free shipping – Beach Camera
• Lenovo IdeaPad S12 Nano ULV 1.3GHz 12″ Netbook for $349 + free shipping – Lenovo (coupon: USPS12VIA)
• Asus Eee PC 1008HA 10.1 inch netbook w/Win XP for $362.66 + free shipping – Amazon
• Buy any Alienware laptop or desktop and add an Inspiron Mini netbook for only $99 – Dell

Nettops and barebones systems

• Foxconn Atom Dual-Core 330 Small Form Factor PC Barebone System for $119.99 + free shipping – SuperBiiz (coupon: SUPERSTEAL10)
• Shuttle X27D barebones nettop w/Atom Dual Core 330 CPU for $194.66 + free shipping – Amazon

Accessories

• $15 off purchases over $100 or more when you use Ebillme to pay – ZipZoomfly (code: ZZF121609)
• Super Talent Luxio 16GB USB2.0 Flash Drive (Black) for $43.99 + free shipping – SuperBiiz (coupon: SUPERSTEAL5)
• Cooler Master Easy Fit Case (Brown) for up to 10 Netbook for $11.59 + free shipping – Buy.com

You can find more deals on netbooks, gadgets, and accessories in the Liliputing Deals section.

Post from: Liliputing

Deals of the Day

The Flybook V5 is an intriguing little device. It’s a convertible tablet style notebook, which means you can use it as a laptop or fold the 8.9 inch display down over the keyboard for use in tablet mode. But unlike the 8.9 inch Asus Eee PC T91, the Flybook V5 has a 1.2GHz dual core Intel CULV processor, supports up to 4GB of RAM, and has a user removable battery that should run between 4 and 5 hours.

Sascha from Netbook News got to spend some hands-on time time with the Flybook V5 and it looks pretty intriguing. Instead of a touchpad, it has a small pointing stick near the top right corner of the keyboard and a series of buttons you can press above the keyboard to perform some actions. The keyboard looks a little small and cramped for my tastes, and it has the same awkward right-shift key placement as many early 7 and 9 inch netbooks. Since the right shift key is to the right of the up arrow, you can be pretty certain that some touch-typists are going to end up hitting the wrong key.

The battery is at the front of the laptop, which is rather unusual for a notebook of this size. That means it’s unlikely that we’ll see an extended battery released for this notebook. But it does mean that the ports can hang out on the back instead of the sides. On the back of the unit you’ll find 2 USB ports, audio jacks, a VGA port, Ethernet and modem jacks, and an ExpressCard slot.

You can check out Sascha’s hands-on video after the break.

Post from: Liliputing

Flybook V5: Touchscreen tablet with Windows 7, 8.9 inch display – Video

NVIDIA’s Tegra platform enables HD video playback on low power devices by combining an ARM-based processor with NVIDIA graphics. The first Tegra powered device to hit the market is the ZuneHD, but we should start seeing more mobile devices and netbooks using the platform in the coming months.

But according to Fudzilla, NVDIA is already looking ahead to the next generation Tegra platform.

Tegra 2 will be available sometime in 2010 and it will use a dual core ARM9 based CPU to provide enhanced performance for cellphones, smartbooks, portable media players, and other devices.

Post from: Liliputing

NVIDIA Tegra 2 coming next year

The NVIDIA Tegra platform combines a low power ARM processor with high performance NVIDIA graphics to enable HD video playback on low power devices with excellent battery life. We’re still waiting for the first NVIDIA Tegra powered netbooks or smartbooks to hit the market. But there is one device that’s already available that uses the Tegra chipset: The Zune HD media player.

The folks at NVIDIA sent me a 16GB Zune HD to play with. I’m just starting to explore the Zune hardware and software, but while I’m setting it up to synchronize with my PC, I thought I’d share my unboxing and first impressions videos. You can check them out after the break.

This particular model has the NVIDIA logo etched onto the back. I forgot to highlight that in the video, which is why I took the photo you can see above.

I’m pretty impressed with the slim size, light weight, attractive UI, and super-crips display. The real test will be how well it handles HD video playback and what kind of battery life it gets. But I’m already finding myself wishing that the Zune HD had calendar and contact applications and the ability to sync with Microsoft Outlook. If it could do those things, I might be willing to toss aside my 6 year old Dell Axim X50v PDA and upgrade to a smaller, thinner device. I don’t really want to pay $50 or more per month to get a smartphone, and nobody really makes standalone PDAs anymore. (Update: Thanks to obo for pointing out that HP does still have a few iPAQ models that aren’t smartphones).

I suppose I could always get an iPod Touch if Microsoft doesn’t expand the app marketplace for the Zune HD, but the HD video playback capabilities on this little media player make it pretty compelling.

On the down side, I just ran into my first snag: The Zune HD can’t handle DiVX files. I have dozens of videos on my computer that I’ve recorded using a TV tuner and compressed to DiVX to save space. The Zune software won’t recognize them, and if I want to get them onto the media player I’m going to have to convert them to WMV, H.264, or another recognized format.

Post from: Liliputing

First look at the Zune HD with NVIDIA Tegra – Video

CLEAR launched its citywide WiMAX network in Philadelphia a few weeks ago, but the company held an event today in the iconic LOVE Park to kick things off. I stopped by to check things out, and you know what? Citywide internet access doesn’t make for a whole lot of exciting visuals. You know, cause wireless broadband is kind of invisible until you plug it into your computer. And you can only look at so many setups of computers plugged into modems and USB dongles.

That said, the folks at CLEAR did make things interesting by hosting a balloon drop ceremony. There were about 200 balloons and each had a code for a prize. I got $8 in music downloads. Somebody is supposed to have gotten a laptop.

If you’re not familiar with WiMAX or CLEAR, here’s the deal: It’s sort of like a citywide WiFi network. You can either get a modem for your home which you can plug directly into a computer or into a wireless router to host a home network. Or you can get a USB dongle that will work from your home or on the go, but only with one computer at a time.

CLEAR promises download speeds averaging between 3 and 6Mbps with bursts of up to 10 Mbps, and download speeds of about 1Mbps. That makes it generally slower than many cable modem services, but similar to or faster than many DSL plans. And it’s a lot cheaper, with plans starting at $25/month for home use and $35/month for mobile use — with no data caps.

That’s a heck of a lot cheaper than mobile broadband modem plans available from 3G cellular networks. The down side is that CLEAR isn’t available in nearly as many parts of the country yet. It’s available in about 2 dozen cities in 9 states right now.

There are some launch specials now including an online deal where you can get a home and mobile plan for $50/month lifetime plan. CLEAR also offers voice service, so you could sign up for home internet and voice. There’s also an internet special right now allowing users to signup for home, mobile, and voice service for $70/month for life.

One feature I especially like is that you can sign up for month to month plans. You have to pay a $17.50 activation fee if you go month to month, while it’s waived if you sign up for a 2 year plan. But that’s a lot better than the signup and cancellation fees you have to deal with from most other broadband and mobile broadband internet service providers.

You can check out more photos from the CLEAR launch event in Philadelphia after the break.

Post from: Liliputing

CLEAR holds Philly launch event for citywide 4G WiMAX network

Asus smartbook prototype (Summer, 2009)

Last week word broke that Asus was planning on launching a so-called “smartbook” in the first quarter of 2010. Now it looks like the company is either pushing back the release date or hedging its bets. Either way, Register Hardware reports that the machine won’t be available until Q2, 2010.

Although the term “smartbook” isn’t as common as “netbook,” it’s generally understood that smartbooks are small, low power, internet-connected laptops that typically have ARM-based processors. An Asus spokesperson told Register Hardware that they also usually have 5 to 7 inch screens, which means it’s probably a safe bet the Asus smartbook will fall somewhere in that range.

If the machine does have an ARM processor, it also won’t be able to run Windows XP or Windows 7, although it’s not clear if it will run Google Android, Google Chrome or a Linux distribution such as Xandros, Ubuntu, or Moblin.

It’s worth noting that Register Hardware is a UK site, and Asus does have a habit of launching products at different times in different countries. But while the UK typically gets Asus notebooks a little while after they show up in Taiwan, they usually hit the UK before before the US.

via Netbook Choice

Post from: Liliputing

Asus pushes back Smartbook launch

Lenovo makes some pretty decent laptops and netbooks. But there’s one thing that always bugs me about Lenovo computers: the Fn and Ctrl key placement. Most computer makers put the Ctrl key on the bottom left corner of the keyboard, and place the Fn key just to its right. Lenovo inverts those two keys.

That means that if you’re used to another keyboard, you’ll often find yourself hitting Fn when you meant to hit Ctrl on a Lenovo keyboard, or vice versa. If you only use Lenovo PCs, it’s probably not a big deal. But if, like me, you spend a lot of time using a number of different computers from different vendors, this can be pretty frustrating.

Well, Lenovo is starting to recognize your pain, and the company plans to start offering ThinkPad users the ability to swap the Fn and Ctrl key functions in the BIOS. In other words, you’ll still be stuck with a keyboard that has the Ctrl and Fn keys in the “wrong” locations, but when you hit the Fn, it will act like Ctrl, and vice versa.

Unfortunately, it looks like the new BIOS option will only be available on future ThinkPad models. There don’t appear to be plans to make it available for existing notebooks or for Ideapad models such as the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 or Ideapad S10-2.

via Engadget

Post from: Liliputing

Lenovo to let users swap Ctrl and Fn key functions

Netbooks and Notebooks

• Acer Aspire One AOD250-1042 (Red)  netbook w/Win XP, 3 cell battery for $259.99 + free shipping – SuperBiiz (coupon: SCREAM30)
• Acer Aspire One AOD250-1042 (Blue) netbook w/Win XP, 3 cell battery for $259.9 + free shipping – SuperBiiz (coupon: SCREAM30)
• Refurbished HP Mini 110-1025DX 1.6GHz Atom Netbook w/ Windows XP, 3 cell battery for $244 – eCost
• Get a $75 gift certificate when you pre-order an Asus UL20A 12.1 inch notebook – Amazon

Accessories

• Kingston 32GB DataTraveler 112 USB Flash Drive for $67.95 – Buy.com
• Verbatim 320GB USB Portable Hard Drive – Blue for $49.99 – Buy.com
• 50% off netbook sleeves: Deals from $8 + free shipping – PC Micro Store via Dealnews

You can find more deals on netbooks, gadgets, and accessories in the Liliputing Deals section.

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Deals of the Day

Lenovo has been putting out netbooks for a while, but the company’s low cost mini-laptops are all part of Lenovo’s consumer oriented IdeaPad series. But Lenovo’s been talking about the possibility of putting out a business-class netbook as part of its ThinkPad line since April. And now Chinese web site zol.com.cn has posted some pictures of what it says is the upcoming ThinkPad netbook.

It’s possible these photos are of something else altogether, but if they’re accurate you’re looking at the Lenovo ThinkPad X200e. There’s not much information about the specs, but the laptop appears to be running Windows XP and it has both a touchpad and a pointing stick in the middle of the keyboard.

Update: ThinkPadToday reports that the laptop will be called the ThinkPad X100e and that it will be available January 5th, just in time for CES.

via Cloned In China

Post from: Liliputing

Rumor: Lenovo developing its first Thinkpad netbook