Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

With the launch of the Inspiron Mini 9, it seems Dell has decided to hold back the details on what most would consider a pretty important feature. The fact that the Mini 9 already includes an integrated 3G card. According to Dell spokeswoman Anne Camdenm “there’s a hidden bonus, however: an integrated 3G card.” Of course the first reaction is nothing more than, Very Cool! However you cannot help but wonder if that “hidden bonus” added any additional cost that may go unused by lots of buyers. Could Dell have shaved a few extra bucks off the pricing? Maybe, maybe not.

Anyway, as of now, Dell has not announced (other than Vodafone) which wireless carriers would be picking up the device. This could mean for some slow initial sales here in the US. Personally I was planning to purchase the Mini 9 for myself, but I may wait for some carrier announcements with the hope of seeing a subsidized version become available.

MORE »

We have seen the rumored specs, and rumored launch time frame, but just recently some of the official details have just been leaked, and they certainly answer just about all the questions you would have.

According to the source, it will be just a matter of days before the Inspiron 910 hits the available status, August 22 to be exact. the Inspiron 910 will feature an 8.9-inch display with a 1024 x 600 resolution, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 Diamondville processor, three USB ports, Wi-Fi, built-in webcam, Ethernet, two minicard slots, VGA out, headphone in, microphone out, a built-in card reader and powered by a 4-cell battery.

In addition it will come standard with 512MB of RAM and max out at 1GB of RAM, as for storage, users will have the option of either a 4, 8 or 16GB SSD. The Inspiron 910 will also give users the option of running either Windows XP or Ubuntu 8.04 as their operating system of choice.

One bit of information that has yet to reveal itself is the pricing, we can only hope that the rumored $299 starting price holds true, now lets just hope the launch date was indeed accurate. 

MORE »

So, the Amilo Mini has been showing its face quite a bit lately, first beginning with some leaked images, then a quick video surfaced and finally we saw some information about its interchangeable lids.

While it certainly has not been good at hiding, the Amilo Mini has remained somewhat elusive in terms of full specs, pricing and a release date, you know, the important items.

Of course, this is still just mostly rumor, but it looks like we have some more details. The netbook is expected to be officially unveiled during the upcoming IFA trade show in Berlin on August 28, hopefully we will see an availability date shortly after.

As far as the specs, it looks like it will be a fairly standard netbook offering, and include an Intel Atom processor, 1.3-megapixel webcam and running Windows XP. Similar to the specs the pricing is expected to come in just where we would expect, in the ballpark of $600-800 US.

Via [Liliputing]

It looks like the MINI will be the next automobile to go green here in the US. Thanks to some recent statements from MINI USA VP Jim McDowell it looks like they will be launching an electric MINI during the summer of 2009.

Of course at this time the details are still very light, and McDowell was not able to comment on just what type of battery will be powering these new models or whether they will be available for sale, lease or both. Its also still unclear if they will initially be released nationwide or just in California. MINI has promised more details before the end of the year.

Based on a company press release the initial release will consist of “several hundred Minis to experiment with electric drive systems.” This experiment is designed to see just how well they will do in the real world market.

Electric cars have been an interesting and growing trend and offer a seemingly dedicated following from those who own one. A release of an electric MINI should prove to be even more interesting considering how loyal many of the current MINI owners already are about their cars.

Via [AutoblogGreen]

Widely used in devices like the iPhone, mini notebooks, digital cameras, Flash-based SSD hard disk drives and more, flash memory chips usually have a lifetime of about ten years. This is even being optimistic. When you are using applications that need a lot of repeat writing and rewriting however, this can cause the cells to wear out even faster, and you can find your flash device useless in only a couple of years. So, a flash memory chip that is purported to work for up to a century? Literally unheard of. But that is just what Japanese scientists say they have developed. Scientists from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and the University of Tokyo also claim that the new chips work at a lower voltage than conventional chips.

MORE »

Opera has announced version 4.1 of the Opera Mini mobile web browser. Yes folks, Opera Mini is still alive and I assume more mobile phone users will be using it as its a simple, hassle-free, no-strings-attached mobile web browser that works with a wide variety of phones. I’m still using Opera Mini with my trusty old Sony Ericsson P990i, so I’m definitely excited about the update to version 4.1.

So, what’s in store for all of us with this latest version, Opera says - faster features. Opera Mini 4.1 receives request for web pages 50% faster than the old version, faster searching within a web page, faster web site upload and faster file uploading and downloading. In addition, when typing web addresses, Opera Mini 4.1 now suggests completions based on bookmarked sites and browsing history. 

MORE »

Before Asus even launches its own desktop Eee PC, its rival MSI has already rolled out a competing product. MSI’s small new wonder is called the Titan, which aside from having a small profile, will also be small on price - at only £235 or about $450 USD, give or take a few. It measures only 9.45 x 7.28 x 2.75-inches, and yet it features a 250GB SATA hard drive, 2 GHz VIA C7 processor, 1GB of DDR 2 memory and VIA’s CN700 integrated chipset. Two USB ports, VGA, TV out, 5.1-channel digital audio out, legacy PS/2 and serial ports, and a Gigabit Ethernet port are all built-in to round out this little baby’s set of I/O ports. While a dual-layer multi-format DVD writer is included to take care of your home theater needs. The catch? It doesn’t come with an OS, which at first of course sucks, but you can bag Linux (what the original Eee PC used to ship with) for free easily anyway, so it’s still kind of OK.

Via [Register Hardware]

At the Fortune Green conference, Dell CEO, Michael Dell was kind enough to show off their latest attempt at an environmentally friendly PC. Though still in the development process at the moment, Dell has begun boasting of the PC’s potential features. Purportedly, the device uses 70% less energy than most other desktop models and it is also 81% smaller than most desktop PC’s. Additionally, the mini PC will be made of recyclable items, thus helping reduce its carbon footprint and saving the world.

Okay, so saving the world may be a little bold, but it is a cool idea, and its nice to see a big company making an effort. The device has yet to be named, but the price expected to be between $500 and $700. Keep reading for a few more images of Dell’s eco-friendly PC…

MORE »

Everex has just announced their new mini PC, the MyMiniPC and have dedicated it to the “+100,000,000 MySpace users of the world.” The limited edition of the gPC mini (MyMiniPC) is running a special edition of gOS, called gOS Space 2.9 that has built-in support for MySpace. Aside from the built-in support for MySpace users Everex has also included some pretty solid features, which includes a 3D desktop and OS X style dock with a stacks like feature. Similar to other versions of gOS, the dock is pre-loaded with a mix of software such as Firefox and Skype, but now also includes a more media-centric stacks with links for MySpace, Music, TV & Movies, Fun and of course Work. 

MORE »

Everex is following up on the not-so-stellar release of the Cloudbook and have made the gPC mini official. As a new mini on the market Everex is pushing this as a nice option to hook up to your big screen TV or have it used as a “space-saving” PC. Running gOS, the gPC mini features a 1.86 GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core Mobile Processor, 512 MB RAM, 120GB hard drive, a DVD burner along with a graphics media accelerator GMA950 and Realtek ALC268 high-definition audio. The mini sized PC also has a full set of ports to include gigabit Ethernet, DVI, S-Video, Firewire, four USB 2.0, a 4-in-1 card reader, headphone/line-out and a microphone/line-in.

The mini gPC will retail for $499 and is scheduled to be available at NewEgg.com beginning March 1, 2008.

Read [Everex]