VC funding for cleantech startups tumbled in the third quarter, last week Vestas announced plans to layoff 3,000 employees, and on Wednesday, First Wind shelved IPO plans amid weak demand— the wind energy sector is certainly facing its share of headwinds but there are still signs of life.
On Tuesday, the South Korean government announced that it will invest 9.2 trillion won, or $8.2 billion… → Read More
Alternative energy is a growing market, and though many states offer tax credits, rebates, and other incentives to promote clean energy, it can still prove to be an expensive proposition.
It generally also requires plugging your energy source into the grid so you’re not left in the dark when the wind calms or the sun lingers behind clouds.
Here is a roundup of solutions that can help power a… → Read More
Terra-Gen Power announced closing $1.2 billion in construction financing and wind turbine orders. The company will build four wind power projects for the Alta Wind Energy Center in Kern County, California, for which Vestas-American Wind Technology will provide 190 turbines with a capacity of 570 megawatts. This is the largest number of wind turbines ever ordered for a single site in the U.S.
The… → Read More
MSI has sold millions of their Wind series of netbooks. Let’s all give them a round of applause shall we? But what does this mean for you guys? Good things, as luck would have it. Instead of some useless, commemorative award, they roll out the U135 model. And unlike most “Yay us!” products, this one actually has some worthwhile upgrades under the hood. → Read More
It looks like MSI is getting set to launch a 12-inch Windows 7 netbook from its U200 series. You’ll recall that the company released the Vista-based U210 back in mid-September, and this new one, the U230, appears to be very similar with the exception of the newer operating system and a bumped ATI Radeon GPU. → Read More
Okay, here’s the MSI Wind U110 ECO. It’s a netbook, through and through, with the added twist of a nine-cell battery good for what MSI claims to be over 15 hours of battery life. Not bad considering the weight of the computer is kept at a very-portable 3.2 pounds. → Read More
MSI’s gone the AMD Neo route with the Wind U210, available now for $429 at Amazon and Newegg. The U210’s got a 12.1-inch screen with a 1366×768 resolution, 1.6GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, Vista Home Premium, 3.2-pound weight, and a six cell battery good for over four hours according to MSI (five hours, according to Amazon’s product page). → Read More
MSI’s got a 12-inch Wind netbook rolling out to the US in the next few weeks. The U210 will feature an AMD CPU, though, which ought to place it in direct competition with Gateway’s LT3100. We can probably expect to see shorter battery life (the LT3100 promises five hours) in exchange for some extra power over Intel’s Atom offerings. → Read More
Hey, if you guys are thinking of starting your own netbook line — and why not, everyone else is doing it — take note that MSI has released the Wind U123 with a six-cell battery as the standard battery, while still keeping the machine under three pounds. Upgrading to a nine-cell battery only costs $30, too, and pushes the weight to a still-manageable 3.2 pounds. → Read More
Johannes over at German site Eee-PC.de was able to push a nine-cell MSI Wind U115 – the one with the hybrid SSD + HDD setup announced at CES this year – past the 25 hour mark using the Battery Eater notebook benchmarking test. → Read More
Here are some more details on that MSI Wind U115 Hybrid that we discussed earlier this month. The big selling point is the SSD + HDD setup, which allows the device to operate using the solid state drive while writing files to the hard drive, resulting in much longer battery life. → Read More
Aw, there I go giving away the entire post in the title again. I should have made it something like “What’s in your city’s water supply? MSI knows! Full story on the ten o’clock newscast” or something sensational like that. Oh well. Laptop’s got some interesting info about what we’ll see from MSI at CES, including: → Read More
Hark! Here’s a good deal on the MSI Wind. For one week only, starting today, MSI is offering a $50 mail-in rebate on the Wind with XP, 120GB hard drive, and 1GB of RAM. Buy.com has them for $299 after the rebate. That’s a good, good, good deal, so hurry. MSI Wind U100-439US [Buy.com] → Read More
Apparently MSI has recently swapped out the Synaptics touchpad on the MSI Wind with a touchpad from Sentellic. What’s the difference, you might ask? Well, that thing you’re able to do with Synaptics touchpads where you gently stroke your finger up and down the right-hand side of the pad to scroll up and down web pages and documents isn’t available on the Sentellic models “due to legal… → Read More
This little guy, the Febot, charges your batteries, literally. Like, it literally charges Duracell (and other, lesser brands) batteries. Well, “literally” is a bit strong, as it’s only a concept, but whatever. → Read More
Holy crap, you could drive a truck under that thing. That’s a nine cell battery for the MSI Wind netbook, which is available on Ebay’s UK site according to a post in the MsiWind.net forums. The item ships from China for a grand total of around £70 – roughly $115 in US dollars. Owners of this gigantic lump are reporting over 6.5 hours of battery life. When I tested the six-cell MSI Wind, I… → Read More
The Averatec netbook that we caught “wind” of (pun majorly intended) back in August is now shipping. It’s called the Averatec Buddy and you’ll remember that it’s actually pretty much a rebranded MSI Wind, except that the Buddy has dropped the Bluetooth connection and popped in a 160GB hard drive. Oh, and the 10.2-inch screen features AveraBrite! Also, Averatec lists the Buddy’s weight… → Read More
Wow, lotsa good deals today. J&R is selling the black MSI Wind with Windows XP for $399 after a $50 price break and $50 mail-in rebate. And – and! – it would appear that they have them in stock, too. This is the three-cell battery version, if you’re wondering. But for $399, that’s a hard deal to pass up if you’re looking for a good netbook. The $50 mail-in rebate is good until the… → Read More
The fine folks over at Fudzilla have managed to wrangle photos of the upcoming MSI Wind U120, which should be available at the end of the year. Specs appear to be very similar to the current MSI Wind U100, except that the U120 will feature a SIM-based 3.5G wireless chip, presumably to attract a more business-oriented crowd. The netbook will still have a 10-inch screen and decent keyboard, and hard… → Read More
Sylvania had the right idea when it rebranded the 7-inch Everex Cloudbook as the Sylvania “g” netbook except for the fact that the Cloudbook never really took off. Then came the 8.9-inch Sylvania MESO, which was a kinda-sorta rebranded Amtek Elego by Digital Gadgets, a licensee of Sylvania. Huh? Now, Sylvania seems to be on the right track by rebranding the 10-inch MSI Wind as the Sylvania g… → Read More
Our friends across the pond will soon have some options as far as the MSI Wind netbook is concerned. Three new versions will be available soon, although there’s no definite time frame apart from “contact a local official MSI distributor,” per MSI. So here’s what’s coming. First, the U90X-007UK (pictured far left) will have an 8.9-inch screen instead of the standard 10-inch screen. See… → Read More
Remember Averatec? I sure do. I’ve owned two Averatec computers. One when the company used to be Sotec and another when it used to be Averatec. Now it’s sort of called TriGem, but sometimes called Averatec. Something like that. Anyhoo, Joanna Stern of Laptop Magazine spoke with Averatec’s marketing director and found out that Averatec and MSI are in cahoots. It turns out that Averatec will… → Read More
Hey, looks like Best Buy hasn’t jacked up the price of the MSI Wind! If you’re still looking for one for under $500 and you’re okay with waiting 1-2 weeks, you may be able to grab one through Best Buy. It’s online-only, so don’t bother heading out to your local store. It’s also the three-cell battery version, too, but don’t let that dissuade you. It’s still a nice little lappie. Q2… → Read More
What can we learn from this MSI Wind video review from our friends in Denmark? It is NOT waterproof. Not really. It’s what everyone on the blogs — on “The Engadget” — is talking about We may see a $100 Atom-based laptop within ten (10!) years Again, the Wind is not waterproof. The OLPC has a waterproof keyboard. Nobody knows when we’ll see the first ARM laptops running Google… → Read More
MSI, most recently reviled by us for essentially pulling a bait-and-switch earlier this month, is perhaps hoping to regain some of the credibility it lost when it raised the price of its tiny notebook by $50 after the fact. Quick, kiss some babies! Recognizing our corporate social responsibility, MSI Notebook is taking the initiative to launch the “Love with the Wind” global charity… → Read More
If you’re not yet turned off by MSI’s recent price hikes or you have a three-cell version of the Wind already, a post over in the MSI Wind Forums details how to turn the small-ish three-cell battery into a whopping nine-cell battery. It looks relatively easy if you’re really determined, although I’d likely not attempt anything that involved slicing the battery open with a box cutter. → Read More
Oh wow. Wow. This is a really odd decision. MSI has raised the prices of its Wind notebook (see our review here) from $479 to $499 for a version with Windows XP and a three-cell battery and from $499 to $549 for the version with XP and a six-cell battery. An MSI rep told Laptop the following: “Since the cost of the battery and materials raise (sp), we had no choice but adjust the MSRP to $499.99… → Read More
As I was preparing my review of the MSI Wind earlier today, I noticed that MSI’s product site pulled the notebook down for a bit. It’s back up, but I see that the six-cell battery version of the MSI Wind has been delayed until August now. Last time we reported, it’d been delayed until July. Looks like the battery shortage caused by the fire at the LG plant back in March is still causing some… → Read More
For those of you looking for a reason NOT to buy the MSI Wind, I can’t really give you a good one. It’s a great little machine. Go ahead and buy one if you’ve been waiting. For everyone else, read on for the pros and cons of this aggressively-priced, yet impressively-performing netbook. → Read More
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Boston, MA
Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
Berlin, Germany
