ECS and MSI conservative about ARM-based smartbooks

From Digitimes -

ECS and MSI will not follow Acer, Foxconn, Pegatron, Compal and Inventec which are all expected to launch ARM-based smartbooks later this year. ECS had previously gotten smartbook orders from China-based vendors. However the orders were subsequently cancelled. So now it has postponed entering the smartbook market until further developments.

Critical Windows 7 bug risks derailing product launch

From Infoworld -

According to various Web sources, running the disk utility chkdsk with the /r parameter (chkdsk /r) on a secondary hard drive could result in the infamous BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) when using the RTM build 7600.16385 of Windows 7 (both 32- and 64-bit versions). The bug is intermittent and does not always appear during efforts to reproduce it.

Via to help small Chinese netbook makers

An old but interesting article from Financial Times especially because I just picked up five China made generic mobile phones that all turned out to use the Mediatek chipset.

While branded netbooks such as Asus Eee PC sell for Rmb3,500 ($512) or more in China, generic "white box" netbooks are also available from Rmb2,000. These generic netbooks, often similar in appearance to those offered by Asus, HP, Dell, and Acer have appeared in second-tier electronics markets in some mainland Chinese cities.

Now VIA has extended a helping hand by making available a product platform for making cheap netbooks. It hopes to get the price below Rmb2,000 this year and down to Rmb1,500 next year and predicts the whitebox segment would capture up to 20% of the projectd 35 million units global netbook market.

VIA is hoping to replicate what Mediatek was able to do in China's mobile phone market. Mediatek, a Taiwanese chip design house, released turnkey solutions that enabled a lot of small electronics traders mostly in Shenzhen to make mobile phones at very low costs. The handsets, either imitations of branded products or just plain cheap handsets, have proven phenomenally successful that the government was forced to legaliz them.

Interestingly, most of VIA's customer for its netbook platform are manufacturers of such handsets and consumer electronics gadgets, such as MP3 players and DVD players.

Blue Lion Software launches NetDVD

NetDVD allows you to play DVD movies, audio CDs & games, install applications and burn CDs/DVDs on a Netbook PC. NetDVD adds a virtual DVD drive on your Netbook which connects to a real CD or DVD drive on another computer connected to your network.

For more information:

Product page here.

You can also download the free Try&Buy version here.

Intel to suspend Atom Z sales to netbook makers

From Digitimes -

Intel reportedly will no longer accept orders for its Atom Z from netbook makers as it is getting close to completely clearing its inventory. The company is expected to completely stop the supply of Atom Z processors before the end of 2009. However, it will still fulfill orders already placed by Acer, Asus, and MSI.

HP Compaq's $300 laptop reviewed, makes strong case to bypass netbook

From Engadget -

The HP Compaq Presario CQ60 is actually a plain-vanilla unremarkable model - except for one thing - its remarkable price. At a price tag of $300, as sold by Walmart, it is in netbook price range and is practically half the price of comparable notebooks. And per a Computer Shopper hands-on review, while over-all performance is so-so, it even seems to outperform some Intel Atom-based machines.

The trade-off vis-a-vis netbooks is you get a 15.6" screen and a DVD-burner but in a heavier and bigger form factor. It will definitely be an attractive proposition for some users.

DIY Eee Keyboard from Russia with Love

From Liliputing -

A member of the Russian Eee-PC.ru forum has created his own Asus Eee Keyboard by cramming the guts of an Eee PC 900 into a Sven Multimedia EL 4002 keyboard. The DIY Eee Keyboard may lack wireless HDMI, and it may not be as slim but it is a complete computer, including a VGA output, USB ports, and headphone jacks and mic.