Whoa, big day in the land of low-cost ultra-portables. First Dell, now Acer in what appear to be the first shots of Acer’s first sub-$500 ultra-portable. The images above were dumped into the forum over at UMPC Portal and show what appears to be an “Aspire One” branding to the right of the touchpad and what could certainly pass as the rumored 8.9-inch display. And although that UI is very un-Microsoft, there’s no denying the Microsoft flag waving back from the keyboard. We’ll know for sure if this is Acer’s contestant in the race to the bottom next week at Computex.

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Taipei (Taiwan) – TG Daily got its hands on Asus’ latest entry-level notebook, the Intel Atom-based EeePC 901. We were left with mixed feelings after seeing and playing with the device for a while. The processing and graphics capability is entry-level without any doubt, while the Eee PC 901’s price has arrived deep in mainstream territory.

The Eee PC has made quite some waves and some believe that it even resembles what the OLPC XO should have been, at least in terms of its market appeal and success. In Taipei we came across the Intel Atom-based Eee PC 901, which ran on an Atom Z520 processor, clocked at 1.33 GHz and rated at a maximum power consumption of 2 Watts (average power: 220 mWatts).

The unit also included Intel’s 130 nm integrated graphics chipset called SCH (“System Controller Hub”), which, however, left us unimpressed. The device we saw delivered choppy video playback on its 8.9” screen and convinced us that video is something you would not want to run on this device. But then, the Eee PC is really intended a cheap notebook. The power consumption during video playback, by the way, was 10 watts and we saw the power consumption max out at around 12 watts.

But wait: Cheap? We heard that the Windows XP version of the device with 20 GB of memory (4+16 GB) will sell for $649, while the Linux versions will come in at $549 or $599. By today’s standard, that is not really cheap anymore, especially, if you can purchase a generally much more capable notebook for the same price at your local electronics store.

The Eee PC 901 is scheduled to launch on Monday.

At least for now, we are not impressed.

By Theo Valich
TGDaily

We got to spend a little bit of time with a prototype of VIA’s new OpenBook reference design, and while it’s not going to revolutionize anything, VIA does seem to have a pretty good grasp on the balance of value, size and power necessary to compete in the subnotebook game. They were showing it off with Vista (though it will be available in XP and Linux versions as well), with an interface that was plenty responsive, and while the video we saw wasn’t an incredible display of multimedia showmanship, it was neat to see on the C7-M all the same. Our two main gripes are the seeming thickness of the device — 1.4-inches might be par for the course, but with this small of a laptop it seems awkwardly thick — and the itty-bitty, cheap-looking keyboard that doesn’t utilize the whole width of the laptop. The hope with a reference design is that some manufacturer might even be able to improve on VIA’s version, and we’d say the first problem point to address is the keyboard. That said, we’re quite impressed that VIA’s crammed as much inside the OpenBook as it has, and perks like 3G / 4G connectivity, a trio of USB ports and a media card reader are making that MacBook Air look positively last century. Now the waiting game for one of the dozens of OEM types to start pumping these out of factories and into the arms of cherub-faced mini-note fans the world over.

Gallery: VIA OpenBook hands-on

From engadget

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Eye-Fi’s expanding from a single card to a family of three tonight. All are the same 2GB as before, but now we’ve got the new flagship Eye-Fi Explore ($129), which includes geotagging courtesy of Skyhook (the same WiFi-based location system that helps the iPod touch and iPhone find their way). Then you’ve got the Eye-Fi Share ($99) — basically the same card we used to know simply as the Eye-Fi — and finally the Eye-Fi Home ($79), which appears to only be able to upload photos through desktop software using your home network. Expect ‘em all on sale come June 6th.

From engadget

Gallery: Eye-Fi launches Eye-Fi Home, Share, and geotagging Explore

HP’s Mini-Note 2133 is due to get all-new Windows XP configurations this month, and it looks like early pricing details are starting to leak out. If the numbers are accurate, a base 1.2GHz rig with 1GB of RAM and a 120GB disk will run you $729, and bumping things up to 1.6GHz, 2GB of RAM and a 160GB disk will set you back $819. That’s pretty steep — but remember, early pricing info on the currently-available models was a tiny bit off, so these numbers could change when these hit sometime next week.

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We’ve gotten a ton of info on the MSI Wind, but so far pricing details have been a closely-guarded secret. Good thing we’ve got wonder-importers Expansys to help us out, though — they’ve just listed the Wind at the pretty decent price of $610. That’s not bad for a 10-inch screen, 1.6GHz processor (supposedly an Atom), 1GB of RAM, an 80GB disk and XP, but let’s hope things get even cheaper when this thing hits the US for real.

[Via UMPC Portal]
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Although NVIDIA’s pledged to simplify its lineup for consumers and ATI’s been getting better, the current state of the graphics card market is still a pretty wild alphabet soup of model numbers and specs lists, so the crew over at The Tech Report decided to break things down using the only stat that matters: price. While the results aren’t exactly shocking (surprise: more dollars equals more FPS), what’s interesting is that multi-GPU rigs are really quite cost-effective, delivering performance on par with higher-end cards at significantly lower prices. For example, two Radeon HD 3850s run nearly as fast as a single Radeon HD 3870 X2, even though they cost a fair bit less, and two GeForce 9600 GTs can potentially outgun a GeForce 8800 Ultra. That’s always been the promise of SLI and CrossFire, and it looks like it’s paying off — any system-builders out there care to share their experiences?

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Not one to just follow the crowd, BUILT has thrown an interesting twist on the oh-so-popular Neoprene laptop case. The Laptop Backpack enables users to tote their 12- to 17-inch machine right on their back along with textbooks, LAN party flyers and a copy of The Daily Bugle; you’ll also find a couple of smaller compartments for storing peripherals and accessories. The material itself is water- and stain-resistant, and the pack is available in two sizes to fit all but the most atypical of frames. According to BUILT, the new wave of laptop carrying should begin today at $80 a pop.

[Via BeSportier]
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