Dell Inspiron Mini 10v: Flying V

Did somebody say Netbooks? Then you're in the right place, friend. We have Netbooks coming out of our ears, the latest of which is the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v laptop.

The Dell Inspiron Mini 10v is a cut-price followup to the Mini 10, running either Ubuntu or Windows XP and adding solid-state memory options. It packs a keyboard that's a respectable 92 per cent of full size, and the glossy 10.1-inch screen boasts a 1,024x576-pixel resolution. Like its bigger brother, the 10v has a 1.3-megapixel Webcam, a 3-in-1 card reader and three USB ports. There's no HDMI.

Inside the 10v lives an Intel Atom N270 chip, as opposed to the Mini 10's Z520 or Z530 chips. It has 1GB of DDR2 RAM running at 533MHz. The Windows variant includes a roomy 160GB hard drive and, unlike the Mini 10, you can also opt for solid-state memory, which is hardier but doesn't have anywhere near as much capacity. The version running Ubuntu packs an 8GB solid-state drive, and although we've been promised a 16GB SSD, we couldn't find it on the Dell site yet. There's no optical drive and only integrated graphics, but that's the same as the Mini 10 and par for the course with a Netbook.
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Intel's US$1.4 billion fine--that's a lot of Netbooks

We read with great interest Wednesday's news about the record US$1.45 billion fine levied against Intel by the European Commission for violating antitrust legislation. By giving rebates to PC makers buying Intel chips and urging them to drop products using other CPU brands, Intel maintained an unfair competitive advantage over the competition (namely AMD), according to regulators.

Years of appeals are doubtlessly ahead, but even if Intel ends up with a worst-case scenario, the company at least has booming Netbook CPU sales to fall back on, thanks to the popular Atom processor.

Doing a little back-of-the-envelope math, we figured out how many Atom-powered Netbooks it would take to cover this billion-plus fine.
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LonMID M100 merges PC and phone

Granted a mobile phone that transforms into a clamshell minicomputer is not novel. The premium business handset, the Nokia Communicator, immediately comes to mind. However, the LonMID M100 device by the company NFS is possibly the first to sport an Intel Atom chipset under the hood.
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Dell undercuts Netbook competitors with the US$299 Mini 10v

Dell has released a revamp of its Mini 10 Netbook, that "delivers on value", says the company. Accordingly, the new product's name is the Dell Mini 10v. Starting at US$299, the Mini 10v is a bold shot across the bow of the competition, notably Acer's S$699 (US$496.59) Aspire One. We've seen talk of US$199 or cheaper Netbooks bundled with mobile phone company contracts, but nothing this inexpensive as a stand-alone product.

The US$299 base price Mini 10v includes An Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive, a three-cell battery, and Windows XP. That makes for a perfectly serviceable Netbook experience, and Dell's cost-cutting seems to revolve around replacing the Intel Atom Z520 and Z530 processors used it the previous Mini 10 systems with the more common N270 (which is found in virtually every other Netbook). Interestingly, you can swap in Ubuntu Linux instead of XP, but the cost is the same.
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Intel laptops for 2009: Netbook chip revamp, rise of CULV

According to Digitimes, Intel's road map for the rest of 2009 is crystal clear and full of code names. Released Tuesday morning, the report shows that Intel is ready to start up-selling consumers on fancier new portable processors later this year across its entire product line. It's a triple-front chip attack on your holiday wallet.

The highest-end (US$1,200 and higher) machines will run the long-awaited dual-core "Calpella" platform, which basically refers to better-performing chips. Midrange machines (US$700-US$1,000) will get CULV-based processors, low-voltage dual-core CPUs that give more of a real notebook performance, as opposed to the currently limited Atom horsepower of Netbooks. (CULV stands for "consumer ultra-low-voltage")
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