Acer, makers of the 10-inch Aspire One netbook coming later this year, could be prepared to take business in a new direction, if a recent U.S. patent filing is to be believed.
Usually, the only reason we use the keyboards on internet tablets is because we can’t get to a more comfortable input device. Still, if you want to turn that on your head, here’s a beta application for Nokia Internet Tablets (the N800 and N810 specifically) that let you use them as a keypad and mouse for your main computer. BlueMaemo uses Bluetooth and works with Windows XP, Vista and Linux BlueZ. I guess it could be fun for freaking out anyone who’s using your desktop at the time. Can anyone say awesome Halloween prank? [JK on the Run]
First, Intel decided to go with Linux for its MIDs, and now it’s giving the bird to Microsoft again by revealing a contender to the Zune’s social music aspect. TuneWiki, a “social media player” software based on Intel’s Atom processor integrates music and video with synchronised lyrics and a social network.
Relax, people who’ve been using mobile broadband internet: your scarily unbranded ‘net surfing days are over. The GSM Association has coordinated 3 Group, Asus, Dell, ECS, Ericsson, Gemalto, Lenovo, Microsoft, Orange, Qualcomm, Telefónica Europe, Telecom Italia, TeliaSonera, T-Mobile, Toshiba and Vodafone among others to create the “Mobile Broadband service mark.” It’s a logo designed to let consumers know the item they’re using/seeing on the shelf in a store is a ready-to-run mobile internet device. But is it a cloud or a pair of seagulls? Hopefully the latter: you wouldn’t want to run your precious laptop outside when rain is threatening.
At the Intel Developer Forum last week, a lot of the buzz on the demo floor was around new Atom hardware. There were the requisite netbooks and EeeClones floating around, but it seemed like peculiar little quasi-computers, or palmtop Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) stole the show. Sure, it’s impressive to see a full, net-connected Vista or Ubuntu desktop running on something the size of a Sega Game Gear, but who exactly is supposed to buy these?
