The lilliputian IdeaPads from Lenovo are coming, as we know, and now they’re a little closer, having passed through the FCC’s certification process. This is the final regulatory hurdle the IdeaPad S9 and S10 faced before going on sale in the US and comes just in time, as the duo of subnotebooks are expected to hit shelves next month. [Engadget via SlashGear]
Windows Vista hasn’t been adopted joyfully by the masses, but consumers don’t always have a say when it comes to the next Windows OS they’ll be using. Most of us have to run whatever comes preinstalled on our machine of choice. And according to Microsoft, starting June 30th of this year, that OS will be Windows Vista only.
There is an exception: A rag-tag group of small, cheap rebels that are exploding in popularity. Netbooks, mini-notebooks, ultraportables–whatever you want to call them–are bending the rules and reigniting Windows XP as a manufacturer-supported OS.
With Computex 2008 in full swing, the sub-notebook announcements are coming fast and furious. First came the Eee PC 901 and 1000, followed by the MSI Wind and the Asus Aspire One. Now we have learned that AMD is entering the fray with two new ultraportables.
When Blam broke the news on Dell’s mini Inspiron, there was one thing he was stuck on: How to categorise it. Is it a subnotebook? A UMPC? A netbook? (Knowing the specs might have helped, but probably not much.) Part of the problem is that the category names themselves are very new and pretty vague. Here’s a mini-compendium of the most popular terms for dwarfish laptops being tossed around, where they come from and what they’re trying to say. Help us decide which ones to keep, and which to ditch.
Tech Corner claims these are photos of the upcoming Intel Netbook (not to be confused with its stationary Nettop counterpart) that runs Windows XP Pro “like a champ.” The small, low-cost device is said to be Intel’s education-centric answer to products like the Asus Eee PC and OLPC. Judging by the photos and Tech Corner’s writeup, the laptop is about 10-inches in size with a 9-inch screen, under 3 pounds, has 512 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD and standard internet connections. But there are a couple of info bits that don’t quite line up with previous reports.
