Shuttle are renowned for their small desktop PC’s. They aren’t known for being extremely cheap (or well made), but it is time for the tides to change with the official release of the KPC series of budget PC’s.
For a starting price of $US299, you get the K 4500 (there is supposed to be a Celeron version for $US199, but who cares about that?). Its insides include an Intel Core 2 Duo E2140, 1GB of RAM, 160GB HDD (limited time offer), Gigabit Ethernet, integrated graphics (Intel GMA 950) and “INTEGRATED 5.1 CHANNEL AUDIO W/DIGITAL PORTS”. With those specs, it will run the included Foresight Linux a treat (it’s a OS).
Yes, it is one of the new generation budget Linux machines, and you do seem to lose a lot of options in the process. The machine has no DVD drive or a space to put one. It only has 1 HDD bay. It only has 1 spare PCI slot, giving you no options for a better graphics option. To top it off, it isn’t really that small a PC, being around the same size as a fully featured Shuttle PC.
It won’t be a very good media PC. It will make an awful NAS box. It will make a pointless LAN gaming PC. On the other hand it will be a fantastic web surfing (or hosting) machine. Your mother will think its cute as she send her 3 emails a year (that all end with send to 10 other people for abundance). If they add a PCI-E slot, I will be on it faster then fat people at a free buffet.
For more info, click over to the lovely Engadget.
I’ve been negative about technology for the last couple of days, but that is all set to change with MSI announcing the Wind. It is MSI’s competitor to the EeePC, with a few small differences.
It will feature a 10-inch display, a inch and a bit larger then the upcoming EeePC. It will use Atom architecture, and though the tests have shown it isn’t lightning, I’m confident the battery tests will be impressive. It will feature a 2.5-inch HDD, meaning the user should be able to put any size drive they want in there, as long as it fits. OS wise it features other Windows or Linux.
Some people are saying that “those features are for a notebook not a UMPC”, but the EeePC is a notebook.If the EeePC could do the same thing it would be an even more attractive package. If you consider what you gain, especially with an expected 7 hour battery life, the Wind will be more complete for the mobile user.
The price range is pretty crazy, with it being as low as $US450 and going to around $US1000. It really excites me to imagine a device that I could charge and use for a whole day without needed a second battery. No date as yet, but expect a rant when the product is released and reviewed.
For more info, hit up Gizmodo.
That is the question the new GeCube hybrid device would be asking (if it had a father). The GC-GENIE-JR aka the Genie PC, is a Linux tablet computer, but at night when no one is watching, detaches its screen and becomes a digital photo frame.
While the little device doesn’t have a touch screen, it does mount the mouse on the back of the screen, which will give you the ability to do the basics without the keyboard. It will also feature an unknown 300MHz Intel processor (didn’t know they had plans to make one either), 256M of ram with 2G of storage.
It also comes with rubberised keyboard (water proof maybe) and will of course come with a wireless standard built in. While it isn’t going to replace your desktop, for a measly $US229, it is almost disposable.
GeCube also have plans to take over the EeePC market, with a 10.2-inch ultra portable notebook, running a VIA C7, 512mb of ram and the option to run Linux or Windows. That little guy should start around the $US279 mark, and my guess would be, to grow from that point with memory and storage upgrades.
All-in-all the options from GeCube will be very interesting. Whether they come to fruition is another question.
For more info, click over to The Inquirer.
Everex have been getting a lot of media time of late. They seem to make really check PC’s that give pretty good value. The latest computer to be released is the mini gPC, and is focused directly at the Mac Mini.
Inside you get an 1.86GHz Intel Dual-Core Mobile Processor T2130 (1MB L2 Cache, 1.86GHz, 533MHz), 120GB Hard Disk Drive, 512MB DDR2 667 SDRAM, DVD+/-RW, Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator GMA950, Realtek ALC268 High-Definition Audio, 10/100/1000 Ethernet Port, DVI-I Port, S-Video Port, IEEE 1394 Port, USB 2.0 Ports, 4-in1 Media Card Reader, Headphone/Line-Out Port, Microphone/Line-In Port. All this for as little as $US499.
It also comes with the custom Linux OS, that they seem to put on all the Everex gear, but considering you can get a notebook with better hardware for around the same price, it isn’t as sweet a deal as the other Everex PC’s. To top it off, it isn’t very attractive to look at, which is a small thing, but if you pay the cash you’d expect a little nicer design.
For more info, click over to Gizmodo.
There are different versions of WPA, but apparently one of them is hackable and there is a video to prove it. Seems to need some Linux skills to do it, and it looks bloody complex, but is definitely do-able. The video is here, and remember with great power comes great responsibility.
It is CES time, and as I previously predicted, there is a lot of UMPC news. The new articles that I noticed the most today are based around the Kohjinsha SR8KP06, Asus R50a, Lenovo MID, Aigo MID and WiBro MID. For the people who don’t know, and so I don’t have to go through it later, MID stands for Mobile Internet Device.
Everex, known for their series of extremely cheap and extremely popular budget computers, have announced there entrance into the UMPC market with the upcoming Cloudbook. Like the series of desktops already scattered around, this little machine will feature a custom version of Linux and an assortment of Google tools.
Inside the 9-inch wide Cloudbook you get a 7-inch screen (not touch unfortunately and res unknown), 1.2GHz VIA C7-M (ultra low voltage), 30GB hard disk drive, 512 RAM, WI-FI, Ethernet, DVI-I, 4in1 card reader and 1.3MP Webcam. Its 4 cell lithium-ion battery, will also give you a reasonable 5 hours of battery life.
This little guy will be available later this month (25Th Jan) and will sell for $US399. I like to think it is a interesting device with a great price point, but without a touch screen or at least a way of hiding the keyboard, it is just a small notebook.
For more info, click over to the SlashGear Webpage.
Read the rest of this entry »
Since I’ve been gone we have seen the OLPC go up in price, we have seen the Palm Foreo shown off and then disappear, the VIA NanoBook impress and now we have the big news of something which sits between the lot of them. The device I’m talking about is the Asus EeePC.
It isn’t the latest news, and has been talked about for a few months now, but lets have a quick run over of what it is. Inside you are looking at something which should be quicker then your OLPC, with a 900Mhz Intel processor, integrated Intel GMA 900 graphics processor, 7-inch display, 256 or 512 MB DDR2-400 (upgradeable to 1GB), 2, 4, 8 or 16 GB flash Solid state drive, Hi-Definition Audio, 5200 mAh 4 cell battery (different numbers everywhere on life, but about 3-4 hours), PCI Express Mini Card connector, 10/100 Mbit Ethernet, 56k modem, 802.11b/g wireless LAN and a SD card slot for expandability. That is only the top of what it is capable of with some variants of the notebook to feature a built in web camera and possibly bigger screens in the future (10-inch). The whole ultralight weighs a measly 890 grams, making it light enough to keep on you most of the time.
The software part of the unit runs on a special edition of Xandros, which is a Linux based OS originally designed for simplicity and to mimic some parts of the windows environment. Asus have also said that it will be compatible with Windows XP, though that will be a extra cost to the user.
The questionable part is the reality of this unit. There has been tests run on and reviews by some websites about this unit (mostly positive), but the release dates are constantly changing and the specs as well. Even the price has gone up by around $US70 putting it at around $US269. Even those facts are being requestioned everyday!
Now I have to ask why? I understand it is cheap and does quite a bit, but then again it lacks quite a bit as well and considering the OLPC can do almost everything it can do in theory and at the same time help the poor, why would Asus release a notebook at could possibly compete with it? Is it a greedy move by Asus or just a smart one? Will be a great side kick to users who want a small cheap secondary device to travel with or Will it be to small and to under powered to be any use to anyone?
Now it is time for predictions. I expect this to be shunned by a lot of pro OLPC supporters, and for a lot of public releases from Asus saying it is the same but different to the OLPC. I expect it to be released later then we all expected (why rush? There is still no competition). I expect it to have a great initial release selling lots, but later on considered a gadget unless you upgrade to the more expensive mode. Seeing Apple and Asus have a tight relationship, expect an Apple variant of this notebook (more expensive and shiny).
For now that is all I will rant on about this product, but expect an update when I know more about the subject at hand.
For more info, hop skip and jump over to either the Asus EeePC Website, Wikipedia EeePC Page or the EeeUser Website.