We’ve been looking for ChromeOS to hit the shelves for a few months now and it looks like Samsung may be one of the first shops to pound out a small, COS netbook with a low-power processor. This mock-up describes a 1.5GHz machine with Atom N550 and 2GB RAM with a 1280 x 800 display. The stats come, from all places, a bug report from the Chromium Google Group.

No availability yet but, as Engadget notes, GoogleIO is right around the corner so maybe this thing will be the door prize.

via Eng

It looks like a little Chrome OS notebook for real haxors. I’d totally get one.

Product Page
via Wired

The Aspire One AOD255 rocks the dual-core Atom N550 cpu along with 1GB DDR3 memory. Along with the added horsepower, the battery is now rated at eight-hours. The rest of netbooks specs are predicitable — 10.1-inch LED screen, Intel graphics 802.11, b/g/n, 1.3 MP webcam, 250GB hard drive — but they are also just fine for the form factor.

The larger, 11.6-inch Aspire One AO721 goes about things a little different. Instead of utilizing Intel chips, this netbook dances with AMD with an Athlon II Neo K125 and 384MB ATI Radeon HD 4225 GPU. Nearly everything else is the same with its Intel counterpart, but the AO721 comes packing with 2GB of DDR3 memory and a six-hour battery.

Expect these models to hit the usual retailers sometime this month for $329 and $429.

via Digitimes

Well what do you know? Netbook growth is so low right now that in a recent report by NPD, Morgan Stanley Research lists last months growth as a negative number. That’s right, people are apparently selling the notebooks back or something. (not really, but no one is buying netbooks right now)

Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty’s report is intended to show the state of the netbook market and since the iPad was announced, netbooks declined steadily. She states that the iPad is partly responsible to the loss sales. August saw a 4% decline over last year’s numbers and apparently September will produce similar numbers. If the back to school spending spree can’t save netbooks, nothing can. Not even Santa.

I couldn’t agree more with the claim that the iPad hurt the netbook market, but let’s not put the netbook’s huge decline totally on the $500 iPad. You can’t convince me that netbook and iPad shoppers are the same demographic. Netbooks had their 15 minutes of fame last year and were already on a steady downward trend by the time the iPad hit the market in April. Could it be that mainstream consumers finally wised up and opted for a modern notebook instead of underpowered crap? I sure hope so.

Best Buy’s CEO recently stated to the Wall Street Journal that internal estimates pegs the iPad with cannibalizing notebook sales by as much as 50%. That seems more like it. A good chunk of customers that walk into Best Buy looking for a laptop, expect to pay a certain amount and the iPad is at the low-end of that scale.

Tablets in general will probably appeal to those that have a working computer but are just looking for a fresh experience. Netbooks somewhat filled that market the last year, but the early hardware paired with Windows Vista likely turned off most buyers from exploring that route again and can perhaps partly explain their massive decline. Either way, I can’t wait for the tablet to kill the netbook star.

If you recall, the AC100 from Toshiba is one of the first Android netbooks. Running 2.1, this twee netbook costs a little under $500 and Electricpig found it to be acceptable but not, obviously, amazing.

They were pleased but noted:

The Toshiba AC100 is on the cusp of something brilliant, make no mistake. Office bods who can get WiFi on the way to work may fall in love with its no fuss email and instant on tech. But the lack of Android Market access, and the loose ends Toshiba’s left in the software, mean there’s only a select few who for the price the Toshiba AC100 will truly benefit over a netbook – and even then, the 3G version might be the one to hold out for (And that has no release date yet).

Sad. However, it’s fairly understandable. Android 2.1 is not a desktop OS and until Chrome OS comes along to amaze us all we’re stuck with half-efforts.

The new LT32 runs with an 11.6 inch screen, and enough power to run HD video, something that most netbooks are forced to struggle with. For full details and specifications check out the press release below, but expect the LT32 to retail for $450, and be available from your local retailer in the near future.

From the press release:

Improved Netbook Performance, Graphics Boost Enhanced by Large HD Display

The Gateway LT32 netbook line uses an AMD Athlon II Neo K125 processor backed by 2GB of DDR3 system memory for speedy web-browsing, music downloads, moving through applications, and handling multiple tasks. Plus, the ATI Radeon HD 4225 Graphics with 384MB of dedicated system memory provides superb graphics and visuals. The result is sharper high definition images, richer color, and smooth video and games.

Video and digital media look vibrant on the Gateway LT32’s impressive Ultrabright high-definition 11.6″ LED-backlit display. The screen’s 1366 x 768 resolution boosts the detail and clarity while the screen’s 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio is great for enjoying Internet video including Flash video and watching movies. The large screen reduces customers’ need to scroll right and left through applications and websites, while also making room for a full-size keyboard for comfortable typing.

Customers can take all the photos, video, music and documents they want on the go with a large 250GB(2) hard disk drive.

Ready to Stay in Touch with 3G, WiFi, One-Touch Social Networking

Staying in touch with the new Gateway LT32 netbooks is easy and fun. All models have Wi-Fi® b/g/n for connecting at wireless home networks and hotspots. The integrated HD webcam in the Gateway LT32 netbook line gives consumers an easy way to capture photos and video, record video emails and take part in video-conferencing. Plus, the built-in digital microphone conveys excellent voice quality, keeping background noise levels low and minimizing echoes.

The Gateway LT32 netbook easily connects to peripherals such as printers, displays and digital cameras. It has an impressive three USB 2.0 ports for connecting multiple devices simultaneously as well as Gigabit Ethernet and VGA ports. Plus, it features a multi-in-one digital card reader for accepting popular digital media cards.

Like the rest of Gateway’s new notebook and netbook lines, the new Gateway LT32 Series features dedicated “social networking,” accessed through a function key to launch today’s most popular social networking sites – Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. With it, customers have a constant connection that is easy to access and will help them stay up-to-date with contacts on news and the latest posts.

Enjoyable to Use, Stylish Designs

The Gateway LT32 netbook line gives customers a boost in productivity with the multi-gesture touchpad that lets customers intuitively move through their applications and digital media. For example, customers can make a pinching motion to zoom in and out on documents, photos and websites, and a flipping motion to move quickly through photos, web pages and PDF documents.

The LT32 netbook’s look is sleek and modern, and features a matte chassis cover that resists fingerprints with a wave pattern that is subtle yet distinctive.

Pricing, Availability and Configurations

The new Gateway LT32 will be available at a starting manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $449.99.

A Google VP apparently spilled the beans at Computex although he didn’t mention anything about who will be making this netbook that supposed to come out this fall. Chances are it will be Acer, but we really don’t know at this point. More as we get it.

Maybe the standard Sony Vaio P is a bit pedestrian for your taste. It’s just not enough, right? Well then, how about one covered with crocodile skin? It’s supposed to be a digital clutch anyway.

Pricing info isn’t available, but it’s not going to be low-cost. The model’s spec’d out with the Atom Z560 Intel US15X chipset, 256GB SSD, and optional 12-hour battery. Plus all that crocodile skin can’t be cheap. [SonyBrands via eeepc via liliputing]

Consumers clearly want mobility. Laptop shipments are up 43.4% over last year with 20% of them being low-cost netbooks. The notebook segment as a whole made up 13% of the total PC sales in the first three months of 2009.

But it was the netbook numbers that’s most surprising. We’ve been hearing for weeks that netbooks are dead, no one buys netbooks, blah, blah, blah. However this Gartner seems to say differently by finding netbooks sales are up 71% over last year. So maybe the netbook segment isn’t dead, Mr. John Biggs. Perhaps the is a market for small, low-cost notebooks.

CULV notebooks are a fairly new concept introduced by Intel in 2009. Nonetheless, the low voltage CPU concept seems to have caught on pretty well, and Intel is planning on shipping new ultra low voltage Core i7 CPUs sometime this fall. Examples of current low voltage notebooks include the Asus UL30A and the Dell Z-series Inspirons.

In the netbook market, shipments are expected to reach 58 million units by 2014. Currently, Taiwan-based Acer is the leading manufacturer in this segment with a 37% market share. They are followed closely by Asus in second, then HP, Samsung, and Dell. Combined, these top five companies accounted for 90% of netbook shipments in 2009.

The third segment of the market, the regular notebooks, still commands the largest shipments with 160.5 million units expected in 2010. However, this is only a 21% growth from 132.9 million last year. Nonetheless, any growth is certainly welcome in this economy, and leading notebook manufacturers like Acer, HP, and Dell will benefit significantly from this expansion.

Competition from Netbooks that use processors from United Kingdom-based ARM–commonly referred to as “smartbooks”–and tablets, such as the iPad, will also be a factor in the Atom-based Netbook slowdown, Rau said.
In the first quarter of this year, Atom processors as a percentage of Intel mobile processors fell to 20.3 percent, compared with 24.3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year and 23.5 percent in the third quarter, according to Rau, citing figures to be published later this week. “Pretty much all of last year, it was in the 23, 24, 25 percent range. So, 20 percent coming into Q1–that’s a noticeable change,” he said.

So yeah, you can argue that you’re doing all kinds of crazy work on your netbook, but that doesn’t mean your next laptop will be a netbook. It will be actually usable.

Not surprisingly on Apple’s earnings call today, there were a lot of questions about Apple’s newest product, the iPad. And I do mean a lot — it seems that about half of the questions were about the product. Unfortunately, neither Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer nor COO Tim Cook gave many answers about the product. Their standard line was that there wasn’t enough data yet to draw any conclusions. But Cook did slip in a few interesting statements about the device.

When asked about Apple’s recent decision to delay iPad shipments to Europe, Cook candidly said that U.S. demand for the iPad “has shocked us.” He noted that it’s a good problem to have, and that there are no production problems — Apple simply underestimated how popular the device would be right off the bat. Apple announced that first day sales surpassed 300,000 and that first week sales were past 500,000. But since then, they haven’t said much. Some estimates put sales past 1 million already.

More interesting though, was what Cook said in response to a question about the iPad’s positioning against netbooks. “To me, it’s a no-brainer,” Cook said. “It’s sort of 100 to 0. I can’t think of a single thing a netbook does well.” This echoes similar statements made by CEO Steve Jobs when he remarked during the iPad’s unveiling that netbooks “aren’t better at anything.” And in the past, Jobs has noted that Apple didn’t know how to build $500 computers that weren’t a “piece of junk.” Clearly, Apple thinks of the iPad as different than a regular computer, and, a netbook.

Of course, Apple’s newly heated rival Google has a different opinion. Later this year, Google will unveil the first Chrome OS netbooks. These machines have been built by partners working closely with Google to make sure they’re not — at least in Google’s mind — pieces of junk. This year’s holiday shopping market for $500 machines should be interesting, to say the least.

The promotion starts on April 4th, and ends on July 3rd, so you’ve got plenty of time between now and then to upgrade. There’s other news too, Microsoft also dropped the price of upgrading from Windows 7 Home Premium to Window 7 Professional. Formerly, it cost $89.99, but Microsoft dropped the price to $79.99. Not a huge discount, but at least they are giving you something, eh? Just a suggestion, if you’re curious why you should upgrade, check out the Windows 7 wiki.

Update: This is in fact for new netbook purchases only, and only at certain retailers.

[via Liliputing]

The Acer suit also mentioned plans to out a Google Chrome OS netbook sometime in the second half of the year, which is right along the same lines we’ve been hearing all along. Chances are the company is simply waiting for Google to release the final build of the OS, which will then get stuffed in a random netbook.

Features:

• Military grade fabric and fasteners
• TSA checkpoint friendly
• Triple stitching at stress points
• Made in the USA
• Basic version $25 – Price as reviewed $63

Pros:

• Customizable based on your requests
• Polar fleece lining
• Made to order

Cons:

• Made to order (it can take a while to get your product)
• Customizing adds up fast

In the interests of being honest, I feel it’s important to share the fact that the maker is a personal friend of mine. He did not know, however, that the bag that I ordered was going to be reviewed. I got it off his website just like a regular customer.

Now, a little back story on this product. The creator of the Psyopper bags is a computer enthusiast named Brad, and after buying a Dell Mini 9 a few years back he was looking for a quality netbook sleeve in which to carry it. After going the cheap route, and reading about the complaints and problems that other people were having finding something that would last – he took things into his own hands. After many attempts, the first version of the netbook fitted sleeve was born. Being an active part of the Dell Mini enthusiast community, Brad started offering his products for sale a little over a year ago, and has made a few changes based on customer response. He’s currently on the 3rd generation of his basic product.

That brings us the product that I have today. Since I needed a case for my Dell Mini 10v with a 6-cell battery, the case that I ordered is customized to that particular design. The stitching is extremely well done, and it obvious even by holding the bag that it’s quality. All of the Psyopper products are custom made, of top-shelf materials. This means the shell is 1000 Denier coated cordura nylon, the lining is high quality polar fleece, the straps are Milspec webbing, and the velcro could probably hold a car door shut. You can also order Psyopper’s products with a PALS grid (which is currently used by the military). Now, it’s important to note that my particular bag is customized to fix the Mini 10v, with the extended life battery. As such, it will only work with this particular netbook, however if your order your bag to fix a standard 9 or 10 inch system it should fit with no problem. In fact, Brad tells me that his sleeves have be used successfully with Acer and Asus products, with no problem. And speaking of that customized fit, the bag holds my netbook very securely. I carry my netbook with me quite often, and at no point have I ever felt that it might be in danger of falling out of the bag, or not properly protected.

I chose a few add on options for my bag, including a shoulder strap, front pocket, and a USB key holder. This did add to the price, but is well worth it since I now have enough room to store the power supply for my netbook in the case, as well as my trackball. I actually use the USB holder to store a card reader, since my netbook is primarily for when I’m out taking pictures. The basic version of the netbook bag starts at $25, and from the order screen you can choose the closing type, the internal lining color, the trim color, etc. This is for the basic bag, with a velcro patch to hold it closed. After you work out the basics, it gets a little dangerous. For example, when I ordered my bag I included an additional pocket (for $10), a carry handle ($5), dual USB stick holder ($10), and a 1″ detachable shoulder strap ($8). I also needed to add the 6-cell battery feature, which added an additional $5 to the cost. I’ll admit, I went a little crazy, the cost of my bag came to a total of $63 when it was said and done. Was it worth it? Absolutely. For $63 I got a bag that’s custom tailored to fit my computer, with all the features that I want, and without extra stuff that I don’t.

Conclusion: The cottage industry is not dead. I would feel comfortable comparing Brad’s Psyopper products to anything from Crumpler, or Timbuk2, and I think his product would come out ahead. In this day and age of mass production, it’s good to remember that there’s still the little guy out there. In fact, when you compare the features the Psyopper product is very price competitive with the big guys.

Psyopper Netbook Sleeve

I guess it’d be ok for doing your computing in the cloud, but the CTEB7G wouldn’t be useful for much more then internet browsing. The thing is powered by a VIA 533MHz processor, has 128mb of RAM, 2GB of flash storage, and sports an 800×600 display. You’ll also have built in wifi, 3 USB 2.0 ports, and it runs Windows CE 6.0. Bad news though, this particular machine is only available in China at the present time. Perhaps it’ll show up at your local drugstore in those wire bins near the check stand. Or WalMart.

The Wind U135 is the first to contain Intel’s new Pine Trail Platform for the Atom processor. The keys are also supposedly 20% larger, always nice for small-form factor products. On a whole, the device operates on only 7 watts of power, and when combined with the optional 6-cell battery, gives you a decent amount of up-time. The rest is pretty standard. You get Windows 7 and 1 GB of DDR2 memory stock, and you can choose between a 160GB or 250 GB hard drive. It also integrates a 1.3M webcam, 3 USB 2.0 ports and a 4×1 card reader.

These units will run you between 309.99 – 329.99 USD at your favorite electronics retailers.

The standard UX17 is a Core Solo, with 1GB of RAM and weighed about 17 ounces. The new improved version is a Core Duo U7700 which had to be hand soldered on to the motherboard. The modders also put a 128GB SSD drive in, but they were unable to increase the amount of RAM. There are a few drawbacks with this level of hardware in a netbook like this. The builders didn’t mention the battery life, and there’s no doubt in my mind that heat will be be an issue as well. Regardless of the problems, it’s still impressive that anyone can put that much technology in a such a small case. For the full write up, including how they did it, visit Tom’s Hardware.