Following a tweet by  Dynamism today I took a look around to see if others were also advertising the Lenovo Ideapad U300s. Sure enough, we’ve got model details and prices available at a range of places in the USA and  even an estimated shipping date. It won’t be long!

The specifications match what we were told at IFA with two models being available.

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We’re really looking forward to Archos’ new G9 tablets, their inexpensive price and unique features are going make them a welcomed addition to the world of Honeycomb tablets.

As Charbax of ARMdevices.net shows us, the TI OMAP 4460 found in the G9 tablets will run at different speeds depending upon the capacity (and the price) of the tablet that you purchase.

When Archos first announced the Archos 80 G9 and the 101 G9, they were said to eventually be available in 8/16/250GB capacities, while other specs would remain the same. However, at IDF they are now showing that the 8GB variant of both models will run at 1GHz instead of 1.5GHz.

The lower capacity makes sense to bring down the price even further and offer additional choice to customers. What I don’t quite understand is the lower clock speed. As far as I can tell, the 8GB model of the 80 and 101 is still running the same CPU as the 16/250GB models. Feel free to correct me on this, but I can’t think of any additional fee that would be incurred to use a different clock speed on the CPU, so I have to wonder why they are lowering the speed on the 8GB variants.

My best theory is that Archos wants the more expensive models to be the most appealing, and give an additional incentive for going with one of the higher capacity units. If that’s the case, I can’t help but feel like they’re artificially giving users of the 8GB variants the shaft, though I’m hoping there is something less dubious behind it.

Archos confirmed US pricing for the 16GB variants of the 80 and 101 back when they were first announced; $270 and $349 respectively, and we should see the other models officially priced soon. Charbax has the official EU prices for all models here. The G9 80 and 101 will become available at the end of September, according to Archos.

Chippy is on the IDF show floor and we’ll see if he can get this question about the CPU speed answered for us.

Remember that Asus Eee Pad Transformer live session we were going to have next Friday? Amazon just sent me an update on the estimated delivery date.

“Asus EeePad Transformer TF101 10.1 inch Tablet PC (nVidia Tegra2 1GHz, 1Gb, 16Gb eMMC, WLAN, BT, Android 3.0) with docking station and keyboard Estimated arrival date: June 01 2011”

June!

It could be that Amazon UK are getting less stock than originaly intended and that some orders will go out, but not mine. If that’s the case though, why is the next shipment going to take 6 weeks?

I’ll be cancelling the order for the time being. If anyone sees the Transformer, with dock, available in the UK in the next week, let me know!

Posted from WordPress for Android with the Galaxy Tab

The AC100 is definitely getting closer. Amazon UK have a pre-order page up, Toshiba UK have product details up, Peter from Netbooknews in Japan says it will launch there next week and there’s now a German retailer showing the product. Although this is probably a UK QWERTY version being sold, it’s the availability figure that’s interesting. 2 weeks!

I’m quite excited about this one. We’ve got one on order and the more I read about it, the more excited I get. Yes, it won’t have any deep and meaningful productivity apps and yes, Android on a netbook style device will feel strange but with 8hrs battery life in a stylish sub-900gm package, a week or more standby power (and an estimated 2-3 days always-connected ) a high brightness display, dual-core ARM Cortex A9 and built-in 3G for 369 Euros (4-week delivery on the 3G version,) it’s something I just have to test out. It’s likely to have some of the issues of the similar Android-powered Airlife 100 [review]but I’m adamant that this concept has legs. As soon as someone brings out an always-on ‘smart’ netbook with the right applications, it will start a new chapter in laptop computing. No more shutdown!

If you’re in Europe, I’ve got good news for you.  The JooJoo tablet [News, specifications] is now available to pre  order.  No, don’t laugh because there’s an interesting twist here.  The price.

Ignore the  reviews  for a  minute and think about a 12 inch multitouch capacitive screen with BT, Wifi, SSD, Nvidia ion and the Atom1.6 CPU.  Then add (I assume its possible) Ubuntu, Moblin, X86 Android or some other flavor  of Linux  and  you’ve got  yourself  quite  a nice experimental pad  for just 359 Euros. If you like the though of developing or working with a home tablet, that’s not a bad price. With the right software it could make for  a really nice home theater component. Even XP should run on it if  you can squeeze it  into  the 4GB Flash. It’s no  iPad  and you’ll  have to contend with short battery life but it could be more fun than an Archos 9 which costs more, for less.

If  you’re in Germany, there’s even more ‘pad’ news for  you today because the WePad  just  went up for pre-order on Amazon.de [WePad info, specs] 449 Euros buys you the non 3G, 16Gb version and 569 adds another 16GB and the 3G module.

There’s no direct word on shipping dates for either of  the two devices but we had previously heard that the WePad won’t  be shipping until June/July. The JooJoo is in production although this push for European orders  could be to fund the next production run a somewhat risky thought.

Is there something better  round the corner?  We think there might be. Despite good efforts by both companies concerned here we think that the current Intel Atom platform hasn’t got either the right  hardware or software build yet. That might change with  Moorestown and MeeGo but for the time being, we’re more interested in the ARM/Android platforms based on their  ground-up personal, touch and power-efficient architecture.