Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

When you take a look at all the netbooks out there, they all seem to have the same or similar specs.  The one thing that links a vast majority of them is the Intel Atom chip, and it seems to be doing well.  ARM, the company that makes between close to 80% of the processors used in cell phones wants to enter the market, as well as the desktop market.  That sounds good, right?  You’d probably expect a fairly clunky Linux distro or Windows XP to come with the machines.  Not so.  ARM has teamed up with Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu for these machines.

The machines will be built upon the ARMv7 architecture, specifically taking advantage of the Cortex A8 and A9 processors.  Of course, the operating system will take advantage of the best open source software available.  Not much else about the machines has been detailed yet, but seeing as ARM makes cell phone chips, it would make sense for the portables (whether they be MIDs or netbooks) to have terrific battery life, though we’ll have to wait and see for that.

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Black Friday, the day when consumers can generally expect to find some good deals, is thankfully just about upon us.  With a few weeks before Thanksgiving here in the US, it seems now is about the right time for the deals to begin making their way into the public eye.  Sadly, although Dell has plenty of deals listed for Black Friday, it seems that some are not as exciting as one would hope for. 

To begin with, Dell is planning to offer the Inspiron Mini 9 for $299, which offers a $50 savings from the regular $349.  The specs for that model include a 1.6GHz Atom processor, a 4GB SSD, 512MB RAM an 8.9-inch display and running Ubuntu 8.04.

Other notebooks that are on sale (and some that will offer a much greater savings) will be the Inspiron 13 for $699 (a $329 savings), the Studio 15 for $699 (a $245 savings), the Studio 17 for $799 (a $349 savings), the XPS M1330 for $1,029 (a $319 savings) and the XPS M1530 also for $1,029 (a $319 savings).  More deals after the break.

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Looking to get an Eee PC for less than an iPod?  Sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it?  Well, in its quarterly investors earnings call, Asustek announced a great number of things, including the fact that the baseline Eee PCs will be lowered to $200 by the end of 2009.  It seems 1.7 million Eee PCs were shipped last quarter, and Asus is expecting 1.8 million to be shipped this coming quarter.  There is some bad news for some, though.

Along with the price announcement, Asus announced that the 7” and 8.9” models will soon be phased out in favor of the 10-inch models.  That’s somewhat sad to me at least.  The 8.9” is the perfect size I think, especially if the screens on the 8.9” and 10” are the same resolution.

More after the break.

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HP has officially unveiled the Mini 1000 netbook, which serves as a follow up to the Mini-Note 2133.  And a nice follow up it seems to be, based on the specs and available options for the Mini 1000 it seems HP has taken some of the disappointing factors from their original 2133 netbook and made some notable improvements.

To begin with, the Mini 1000 will eventually be available in three models: you have the Windows XP based model that will start at $399, the Ubuntu-based Mobile Internet Experience (“MIE”) model that will start at $379, and the limited edition Vivian Tam model which will start at $699.  As of now, the Windows XP model is available for purchase, while the MIE model is expected in early January.  The limited edition Vivian Tam model will be available “in time for the holidays.“

Keep reading for more details.

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Dell’s long awaited entry into the netbook market has finally been made official, and based on the leaks it seems that it comes with little surprise, both in terms of pricing but also overall specs. The netbook has been officially dubbed the Inspiron Mini 9 and its available today with an estimated shipping date of September 16.

The Mini 9 offers a few configurations and will be available in either Obsidian Black or Alpine White, of course the Alpine White comes as a $25 premium. In addition to the outside coloring, the netbook will also offer a choice between Windows XP or Ubuntu 8.04 with a “custom Dell interface.“

The specs inside the Mini 9 are about the same as what we have been hearing around the Internet and include an 8.9-inch display with a 1024 x 600 resolution, 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950, Wi-Fi 802.11g and a 4-cell battery.

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Ubuntu’s founder, Mark Shuttleworth, has proposed a plan to make his distro of Linux just that much more popular. He plans on overtaking Apple’s Mac OSX in the looks and desktop experience departments in order to overtake the art-savvy giant. Sure, these plans do sound a bit confident for where Linux is now, but that almighty force of Linux programmers is really starting to leave an impression on the industry.

Shuttleworth believes the idea that open source operating systems need not only be for the tech savvy and he aims to push for easier, more stable, and more attractive aspects to updates to his operating systems.

With Ubuntu updates popping out about every 6 months now, this dream may not be as much as a reach as it may seem. If there was one Linux distro that had the best chance of changing the software industry, it would definitely be Ubuntu. Shuttleworth has established the goal of “revolutionizing the open source ecosystem” by the summer of 2009 and finally “beating” Apple by 2010.

Read [The Register]

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It seems as though Dell is the first big corporation to really take Linux seriously. Dell is now offering a variety of its PCs with Ubuntu 8.04 pre-installed. However, the customer can only choose the Ubuntu as the option on Dell’s XPS 1330 and Inspiron 1525 PC’s. Sure, this won’t necessarily give Linux any large holding in the market share, but hey, it’s a start right?

Dell says it will begin launching the PC’s this August. Although one would expect the cost of these models to be cheaper, it actually turns out being just as expensive. Why? The cost to take the PC’s off the factory lines and install our faithful Hardy Heron racks up some charges in itself, thereby eliminating one of the major advantages of having a free Linux distro. You can expect to pick up one of these systems for $949 and $549 for the XPS and Inspiron, respectively.

Read [Dell]

• Dell rolls out 32GB SSD equipped pink, red Inspiron Mini 9’s in Japan
• ARM teams with Canonical to break free of cell phones
• Dell quietly adds artwork options to the Mini 9, Mini 12 lineup, also adds pink, red

Looking for a simple way to run the Ubuntu Eee OS on your Eee PC? Then this may possibly be the answer for you, the team behind the Ubuntu Eee project have announced that they will be offering a limited edition 4GB SD card with the OS pre-installed.

Users would have to just insert the SD card into their Eee PC and then select to boot from the SD card. Nothing really special to do, nothing to install, just insert the card and start up your computer.

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Xandros is currently in the process of purchasing Linspire. The agreement, which was signed on June 19 would require Linspire to change their name to Digital Cornerstone Inc, however as of now a purchase price has not been made public. Linspire was originally founded by Michael Robertson and was initially called Lindows, until a certain company forced them to change their name to Linspire.

While Linspire is certainly not as commonly know of a Linux distribution as Ubuntu or Xandros, this sale could potentially mean some interesting things when it comes to making Linux easy to use for non-technical people. Xandros has done good things recently with the Eee PC, but they could take one important item from Linspire and make it even easier for everyone. That feature is called CNR, or Click n Run and it allows for a one-click installation of thousands and thousands of software titles. Think of how much easier the Eee PC could be with a one-click application installer.

Of course, details of the transaction have not yet been made public, and Xandros has not announced any plans they have for the future of Linspire, the current Linspire customers or the possible integration of some Linspire features into Xandros.

Read [Michael Robertson] Read [Slashdot]

• ARM teams with Canonical to break free of cell phones
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Whether you are into the recent popularity of the ultra-portable notebooks that have been swamping the market lately, or just sitting back and waiting for it to finish, its hard to deny that some of the pre-loaded operating systems are less than desirable. While the pre-installed OS on the Eee PC from Asus is limited and seems slightly child-like, its very functional, especially when compared the the gOS that comes loaded on the Everex Cloudbook that is slightly painful to use.

Given the options available lots of people have been choosing to install an older, albeit still very functional OS, Windows XP. However in some good news coming from the Linux front, Mark Shuttleworth, the CEO if Canonical has given up some excellent information in a recent interview with The Guardian. Its news that should make any ultra-portable and Ubuntu fan very happy, they are planning on launching a new flavor of Ubuntu, dubbed the “Netbook Remix.“ The OS, which is being worked on closely with Intel is expected to be announced during Computex, which takes place during the first week of June. Luckily this is just a short time away, hopefully the Netbook Remix OS will be available shortly after the announcement with drivers to support the wide variety of ultra-portables currently on the market.

Read [The Guardian] Via [Gizmodo]

• Same old same old nebooks again
• Dell quietly adds artwork options to the Mini 9, Mini 12 lineup, also adds pink, red
• Asus unveils the brushed-metal Eee PC 1002HA