HP gets serious about Netbooks

After a brief experiment in the education market, Hewlett-Packard is set to introduce a whole line of Netbooks for mainstream consumers.

The HP Mini 1000 comes in three versions, with starting prices ranging from US$379 to US$699, and will be available at retailers worldwide starting tomorrow, though when it will actually hit store shelves depends on the specific regions.

HP first dipped its toe into the mini-notebook market back in April with the Mini-Note 2133, which it claimed was strictly students and some business travelers. At the time, HP was adamant that this was not meant to play in the same arena as the consumer-oriented Netbook from ASUS, the Eee PC. Though it won't break out the numbers, HP now says the sales of the 2133 "exceeded all expectations".

But the new HP Mini 1000, Mini 1000 MIE, and the Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Edition are very much intended for consumers. So what's changed in just six months?
Read more »

Windows 7 to reach down to Netbooks

Microsoft has been growing its share of the Netbook segment in recent months, but it's largely on the back of the company's older Windows XP product, rather than Windows Vista.

The trend toward the small, cheap notebooks has not been lost on the software maker, however. When the topic turns to Windows 7 at the ongoing Professional Developers Conference, we would expect the software maker to talk about an operating system that can run well on all manner of laptops, including the ultra-low-end.

It's just one of many topics at the conference, which takes place in downtown Los Angeles, US, and end October 30.


Read more »

It's a mega-mini--Dell's Inspiron Mini 12

We first got a glimpse of Dell's 12-inch take on the Netbook behind closed doors a few months ago. After that, it kind of vanished from our radar screens, only to pop up Sunday, in an announcement that the system is making its debut in Japan.

It's an interesting hybrid of the ultraportable and Netbook formats, combining a 12-inch laptop chassis with the basic heart of a Netbook, namely the Intel Atom CPU. Most Netbooks have a 9- or 10-inch display, so the jump to 12 inches makes for a very different experience. Less portable, to be sure, but perhaps just big enough to win over those who say tiny Netbooks are too small and too hard to use, even for a quick trip to the coffee shop. Even with the bigger footprint, it still starts at 2.7 pounds (1.2kg) and tapers from 0.92 to 1.09 inches (23.37 to 27.69mm).
Read more »

HP Mini 1000 Netbook leaked--by HP

Had you been perusing HP's wares Sunday, you may have caught a glimpse of the company's upcoming Netbook. On HP's Home & Home Office shopping site Sunday, this image appeared:
The image, since removed from HP's Web site, noted that the HP Mini 1000 will start at US$399.99, weigh 2.25 pounds (1.02kg), and measure less than one-inch (25.4mm) thick. Given the model number and screen bezel, that's noticeably thinner than that on the 8.9-inch HP 2133 Mini-Note PC, it's a safe bet to say the Mini 1000 will feature a larger 10-inch screen.

No other details are known, so you'll have to wait a bit longer to find out whether the Mini 1000 ditches the 2133's pokey Via C7-M processor for an Intel Atom or a Via Nano CPU.

Need a strong sign that HP has a Netbook refresh in the works? On Amazon.com, the HP 2133 Mini-Note is currently selling for US$299--US$200 off its original US$499 price.

When the HP Mini 1000 is officially released, we expect to have a full review up shortly thereafter.

Via CNET Crave

Solid-state drive gets tiny

Solid-state drives aren't always faster than regular hard drives, but they sure can be tinier.

The smallest regular hard drives are the 1.8 inchers that Toshiba has been making for ultracompact laptops. On Wednesday, Super Talent Technology announced two SSDs that come in a significantly smaller form factor: .85 inch and 1 inch.

The new SSDs use Intel Z-P140 NAND Flash-based SSD technology and employ the older parallel ATA (PATA/IDE) interface, as opposed to the current and popular SATA interface used in regular-size SSDs. Both offer rather modest read and write speeds of 40 megabytes per second and 30MBps, respectively. They are also available in very small storage capacities. The .85 inchers offer 2GB and 4GB, while the 1 inchers offer 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB sizes.

Thanks to their tiny physical form and limited storage space and speed, these new drives are only suitable for ultramobile PCs and digital-multimedia broadcasting devices.

It's unclear how much these new SSDs cost. Chances are, however, that you won't be able to purchase them at all; rather, they will be available to OEM manufacturers only.

Via CNET Crave

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