News Bits: ASUS Eee PC All-Day Battery, Voodoo Vanishes Inside HP, Atom Dual-Core

ASUS introduces Eee PC 1000HD and "Whole-Day" Batteries?

ASUS has added yet another model to its Eee PC netbook lineup, the 1000HD. It weighs 3.2 pounds and has a 10-inch display. The 1000HD is essentially an Eee PC 904 with a larger display/chassis, as it still features an older Celeron 353 processor running at 900MHz. It is available with up to an 80GB hard drive, 1 - 2GB of RAM, a 6-cell battery, and Linux or Windows XP Home edition. Black or white colors are available.

There is no information on pricing or availability at this time.

DigiTimes is also reporting that batteries that will supply "whole-day" battery life will be available for the Eee PC series of mini notebooks later this year.

Full Story (Engadget.com)

Full Story (DigiTimes)

Dual-core Intel Atom to ship in Q4

Intel is planning to launch its dual-core Atom 330 processor on September 21. The price will be $43, compared to the $29 the single-core 230 is selling for.
The Atom 330 has a 1.6GHz clockspeed, 533MHz FSB, and 2x512kb cache. Intel is late on the launch of this product since it is essentially going to be available in the fourth quarter.

Full Story (Fudzilla.com)

HP to merge Voodoo with consumer unit

HP has merged its Voodoo PC business with its consumer business. Voodoo's laptops will be sold alongside HP's traditional consumer PC lines. The Omen desktop will also be sold alongside HP desktops. HP said it always had plans to integrated the business. Despite the integration, HP will hold onto the Voodoo brand name.

Full Story (PCWorld.com)
Via (Engadget.com)

Gateway to go retail-only

Gateway will soon be going retail-only, ending all phone and online orders.

A Gateway spokeswoman said in an email: "We are planning to issue a news release tomorrow morning about Gateway's move to a 100 percent indirect model, focusing exclusively on retailers, e-tailers and channel partners." The spokeswoman said the change we being made to simply Gateway's business model.

The change is going to happen over this weekend; all products Gateway offered online and over-the-phone will be shifted to channel partners. This move makes Gateway more like its parent company Acer, who is also retail-only. Gateway products will still be available online, but only from channel partners.

Full Story (ExtremeTech.com)
Special thanks to forum Super Moderator Greg for submitting this bit

Video card vendors demanding recall of faulty Nvidia cards

According to a DigiTimes report, some channel vendors are demanding Nvidia recall video cards using the same core chip as the notebook graphics chips that were deemed defective. Nvidia did not give any specifics in the notebook-related GPU problems, but did say that the problem is only happening in specific notebook models manufactured by specific brands, and did not affect desktop-based products.

Full Story (DigiTimes.com)

Yahoo! Unlimited Music Store closing shop

Yahoo! Music is yet another DRM music store closing its doors. As of October 1, Yahoo! will not be providing any license keys for music purchased from the store, and it will not authorize music playback on additional computers. Therefore, customers who bought the DRM music will not be able to transfer music onto 'unauthorized' computers or access the songs if they decide to reformat.

Full Story (EFF.org)
Via (HardOCP.com)

 

DRM is so stupid.....

 

> The problem is only happening in specific notebook models manufactured by
> specific brands

*cough* b.s. *cough*

 

Agreed. If there was anything I had purchased from them, I'd be calling my credit card company to force a charge back.

It'll hurt Yahoo! I'm sure...they'll probably be out of business pretty soon as this rate.

 

But DRM is there to protect the consumers! The consumers! Really, the recording industry says so! And think of the poor starving artists!

The poor starving artists that, I might add, have never seen and never will see a dime of the money that Yahoo! and the RIAA's labels took from you for that music that they're not letting you have anymore.

It can be class-action lawsuit tiem nao?

 

So the Compounds (yes, I went there) is available only for dekstops as they claimed before? Or are there plans for dual core atoms in laptops?

 

DRM is a terrible, terrible thing. It's a way to control how you listen to music. The RIAA loves control. I stopped buying iTunes music long ago, switching to CDs. Now I frequently buy from Amazon MP3. They sell LAME 3.9x encoded 256-bit MP3 files, which are of excellent quality. And it is usually cheaper than CDs.

Regarding the Eee PC - I have to agree with Engadget, ASUS is destroying that brand. It's now expanded into almost everything, including desktops, external cd drives, monitors, and now an incomprehensible amount of different Eee PC netbooks. ASUS has a bad habit of flooding the market with hodgepodge products . . . they have only a few good lines.

 

The thing I found most interesting here that none of you have touched on yet is that Gateway will essentially no longer be available to the average consumer.

That simply strikes me as odd...

 

Umm, why not??? Newegg sells Acer, so I'm sure newegg will have Gateways.

 

Once they put a dual-core Atom in an Asus Eee PC (or similar), I will be all over it. Until then, I am fine with my ol' 701.

 

That's very true. I guess maybe it was a smart move on their part. Only time will tell...

 

didn't hp outperform dell because they had their notebooks distributed through large retailers? hp should've left voodoo separate like alienware.. hopefully they'll cut down the prices to alienware level.

 

And why can't the average consumer simply step into their local Best Buy?

 

Guess I'm waiting for Q4 for my new netbook.

 

I'm of like mind. I have a powerful desktop at home, a work-supplied 14-inch business notebook, and my wife has a 15-inch multimedia notebook that I can use at any given time. My Eee PC 701 is my cheap travel laptop.

Sure, I'd like it to have a little more processing power, more battery life, a "slightly" larger screen (9"-10") and a better keyboard ... but considering that I already have access to three other computers on a permanent basis I'm not going to spend money on a replacement for my current Eee PC at the present time.

I'm just glad there are so many options in the netbook/subnotebook/mini notebook market right now (and more coming all the time).

 

I would think that the reverse would be the case. By only offering it in retail outlets, the larger group of buyers who step into places like Best Buy or Circuit City have a larger variety of models available from Gateway and possibly a wider range of stores as well.

 

acer is going to use its HUGE market channel to ram Gateway's down our throats, and they will sell very well, until people realize that it's an acer.

hmm... Yahoo, are you sure you don't want to sell to MS?

 

Can't wait for that battery to go mainstream.

 

I guess what I was thinking is that nowadays people are becoming more and more web savvy, and people are doing more of their shopping for electronics online. So why not apply this to the buying of notebooks too?

But I guess to each their own.

 

Once again, DRM hurts the customer...

 

In this case, it only hurt the stupid customers...

It's a good bet that the only reason the business is being shut down is because it wasn't making enough money; i.e., most people were smart enough not to play that stupid game.

All in all, I take this as a good sign that people are getting smarter about their rights in a digital age.

 

Are you calling everybody who purchases or has purchased songs from iTunes stupid? Obviously DRM is NOT the way to go when purchasing music, but it has been pretty commonplace until recently. Not only that, in the past it was basically the only way to purchase digital media legally. Nowadays we are lucky to have other options (Amazon MP3, etc).

I'm sure Yahoo! wasn't making money with their music store, but it seriously lowers their reputation in my eyes to see that they'd rather screw their customers over than keep their servers online and lose a few bucks. At least Microsoft has kept their DRM activation servers on long after they shut down their store.

Think about it this way. With Napster, illegally downloading music and media was super easy and very widespread. Eventually, people cracked down on it and companies began offering legal alternatives with DRM. Since most people don't like to do illegal things, they trusted the companies and purchased music from them not realizing that they are completely at the mercy of the company that runs the activation servers. Only now are we starting to see the effects of companies shutting down their DRM servers. Is everybody that has purchased DRM files stupid? No. Going forward, are people who buy DRM songs stupid? Maybe.

 

Well actually there are SOME good DRM companies for people like Ruckus. At least they are good for college students. XD

 

Yea, because it's free
I was talking about paid DRMs.

 

Ok ok yeah. I would NEVER actually pay for DRM. lol