Unfortunately, it’s not me!
At least two members of the forums here have received their M528’s. Nalim and Skypeone have both reported that they have received theirs from Expansys and a quick check with a contact at Expansys confirms that some back orders have shipped.
Who’s going to be first with pics and first impressions of this device? Guest posts welcome!
In related news, the TIM IDOL is now available in Italy. Thanks Smurf!
Pushing netbooks even further into the laptop space (no-one can really deny that netbooks are the new consumer notebooks now) is the Nvidia Ion chipset.
It replaces the existing 945 chipset with a smaller chip and provides a big boosts to the graphics (10x is quoted) along with hardware decoding of video formats up to HD rates and digital TV out.
This is excelent news for gamers, CAD artists and people looking for Vista / Compiz eye candy.
Does this open the doors for a slew of SD-card-based games releases and re-releases. We think that there’s gold games for the new netbook crowd. TV-out is exactly whats needed too.
Don’t forget that the platform should also be usable in the bigger (7″ and above UMPCs and tablets.)
More details in an article over at Laptop Magzine.
Nvidia Goes Netbooks: Releases Ion Graphics Platform for Intel Atom.
Update: Lots of testing notes in the comments below.
A big thanks to Mobilx. Within 24 hours of them receiving a sample (not a retail version) Wibrain i1, they’ve shipped it out to us. It’s just arrived. I’ve taken it out of it’s wrapping to have a quick look and I think we’re luckier than expected. The HSDPA switch, antenna and SIM slot are there which indicates it’s an HSDPA version. I can’t turn it on yet to confirm 3G or processor type as it’s still cold from overnight transport and I don’t want to risk any condensation problems. I’ll give it an hour and go for it. [Will post anything significant via Twitter]
Strange things happen when you start talking about companies that might have crashed. All of a sudden the Wibrain website returned (as it was before unfortunately) and as an added bonus, Mobilx got hold of an Atom-based Wibrain i1 sample and have shipped it straight out to us which means one thing. Live Atom-based ultra mobile PC goodness tomorrow.
Before you get excited though, It has to be said that there’s absolutely no indication of a ship date for the i1 yet. Indeed, my emails to Wibrain are still going unanswered so I suspect some form of PR block which either indicates that they will launch at CES or that they are locked up in the war room trying to work out what the best strategy is. Or maybe they’re just fed up with my persistent calls for information ;-)
Live page is here. Planned start time: 2000 CET. Follow chippy on twitter for the latest updates.
Update: The WiBrain site is back. (Thanks jANjALANi.) Maybe we shook them up a bit because I now have some news about the i1. Coming later…
After delays on the WiBrain i1 and the disappearance of our usual contact-point within WiBrain, I was a bit suspicious that something was going on. Mobilx don’t have the original B1 models on offer any more and now it seems like the whole WiBrain website has been taken away.
Fingers crossed that this is just a short-term problem and that we’ll see the i1 soon. In the meantime, we’ll try and find out what’s happening.
The U2010 / U820 is one amazing bit of tech. At just around 600gm, with an 1280×800 5.6" screen, tiny convertible-screen form factor and an level amazing power efficiency it represents the leading edge of pro-mobile UMPCs. But it’s expensive.
More Images at AkihabaraNews.
The new, Japanese LOOX UC40 and UC30 look like they might be trying to address that by offering XP and a new 1.3Ghz variant in the C30. According to AkihabaraNews, "Fujitsu also announced that this move will help them lower their overall retail prices."
I doubt the possible price reduction is anything to do with reduction in component costs but maybe they did a deal with Microsoft. Maybe they got hold of a ULCPC-style low-cost license deal. On the other hand, the definition of lower prices here may be insignificant. Even if that is the case, its nice to see more XP / Atom options.
We have a request out to Conics to see if they plan to have these available as exports.
Source: AkihabaraNews
Ben reported on the new MSI netbooks recently [Not your standard cookie-cutter specs] and highlighted that MSI will use the Z530 and Poulsbo chipset, the Menlow platform, originally designed for MIDs, and not the existing netbook platform. They aren’t the first netbook devices we’ve heard about that will use this platform as the Dell Mini 12 is already out there using it but it could be that we see a lot more of these as it offers an interesting marketing possibility at a time when netbook manufacturers are trying to make their products stand out from the crowd.
LaptopMag recently interviewed MSI and asked about their decision to use the Menlow platform. The answer gives us some clues.
Why would MSI use Menlow? Part of the answer comes from MSI in the LaptopMag interview:
“Now we are going to come out with the U110 and the U115. These are similar to the past systems in size and will look like the original Wind but they utilize the Intel Atom “Menlow inch processor the Atom Z530.
The U110 and the U115 will be out in late January. The biggest difference between these two models is their battery life. With the U110, we will deliver 8 hours of computing time; and 10 hours with the U115. Both will use a 6-cell battery.”
So it looks like the 1.6Ghz Menlow platform is attractive because of battery life. Not surprising as it offers a lower idle power and lower in-use power. Battery life is a very important differentiator. Menlow’s hardware video decoding (1080p using H.264) can be used to differentiate too but here’s something that is more interesting and you probably won’t hear any product manager talk about it in these terms. The Menlow platform goes up to 1.8Ghz and CPU speed is about the best differentiator a marketing group could hope for. In netbook quantities, I wouldn’t expect any noticeable difference in the price either. $20 at the till maybe. When your average netbook customer is standing with a Saturday sales rep. in the local electronics store and has a choice between a a Samsung NC10 at 1.6Ghz and an MSI Wind at 1.8ghz, for the same price, which one is the customer more likely to go for?
If this process works, if sales figures indicate a preference for 1.8Ghz, expect either a clock boost on the N270 CPU (which is likely of course) or, for the higher-end of the netbook market and the ultra portable notebook market, a lot more action with Menlow in 2009. From where we are sitting, it looks like Menlow could eat into even more of the traditional laptop market but if it’s a net gain for Intel, they won’t complain!
Check out the interesting interview and watch out for comments about Linux, touchscreens and a temporary HDD set-up.
Finally a breath of fresh air in an area of computing where the only major difference in products was appearance and price!
I’m really glad to see some interesting new stuff from MSI. We recently talked about the MSI Wind U120 [Portal page] which is just like the original U100 but with 3G and some increased storage options, but that isn’t very exciting is it?
Now news is spreading that MSI will be releasing two additional netbooks some time around January. The netbooks will be the U110 and U115; I’ve put the interesting things in bold:
Like I said, all of this is new and exciting to see in a netbook. However, after reading this I can’t help but wonder how they plan on keeping the prices down. Nearly everything in this list will run the price up over current netbooks: new CPU+chipset, two storage drives, and draft-N Wi-Fi. We’ll have to wait and see but I would image the top end U115 will run you somewhere around $700 if not higher.
[Blogeee] via [Liliputing] [Electric Vagabond]
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