News Bits: MSI Wind notebook, 10-inch Eee PC, Aspire 5920 Gets WiMax

MSI announces Wind notebook

Image Credit: DigiTimes

MSI today announced its Wind PC, a competitor to the Asus Eee PC and other low-cost notebooks. It will be available with 8.9- or 10-inch widescreen displays with LED backlights and a 1024x600 resolution. It weighs about 2.2 pounds (1kg) according to MSI and uses a 2.5-inch hard drive. The Wind notebook is only going to be offered with Windows XP, with no plans for Linux support. The price range for the Wind is $470 - $1,099.

Full Story (DigiTimes.com)

Asus to launch 10-inch Eee PC

An Asus executive today said that the company is planning to offer an Eee PC with a 10-inch display, the biggest that will be available. The statement was made at the launch of the Eee PC 900, which features a 9-inch display. Asus says they are now including larger screens due to feedback fromusers. Asus is still working on a larger keyboard and touchpad. No date has been set for a release of the 10-inch Eee PC.

Full Story (PCWorld.com)
NotebookReview.com review of the Asus Eee PC


Acer adds WiMAX to the Aspire 5920

(view large image)

Acer today announced a new version of its Acer Aspire line with a built-in WiMAX module that will be sold through Sprint Nextel. It is already being manufactured and could be available by the end of this year. The notebook will be sold in conjunction with the service like cell phones are. More details and pricing will be available after the laptop officially launches.

Full Story (PCWorld.com)
Via (Laptoping.com)
NotebookReview.com review of the Acer Aspire 5920


LG to produce widescreen panels for low-cost notebooks

LG is planning to produce widescreen panels for low-cost notebook computers in the second half of this year. Production of 8.9-inch, LED-backlit, 1024x600 resolution panels will begin in August. It will be followed with a 10.1-inch 1024x576 16:9 panel in October and a 9.4-inch widescreen in April of next year.

LG is currently working on LED backlighting technology for notebooks; the company hopes that all notebook panels can use LED backlighting by 2011.

Full Story (DigiTimes.com)


OLPC XO experiencing keyboard problems

Many domestic buyers of the OLPC XO laptop who purchased one through the "Give 1, get 1" program are experiencing keyboard issues where one or more keys gets stuck down or become activated when adjacent keys arepressed. OLPC says they have been unable to determine what is causing the problem since the keyboards come from several different suppliers. It is unknown how widespread the problems are.

Full Story (Slashdot.org)
NotebookReview.com review of the OLPC XO


Windows Vista is an incomplete product according to Ballmer, admits problems

CEO of Microsoft Steve Ballmer said at an event in Seattle yesterday that Vista is "a work in progress." He also said Microsoft would learn from the mistakes it made with Vista. Ballmer acknowledged that one of Vista's larger problems is performance, a main complaint of customers, and admitted that many customers are extremely resistant to a move to Vista andare choosing to stay with XP.

Full Story (ChannelRegister.co.uk)

 

The link to this page actually goes to the Random Threads 7574 page.

I don't know which 9" screen mini notebook I want more. I am choosing between the Atom powered EEE 900, Dell, Acer, and MSI. I like the EEE900 better than the MSI due to its looks, features, and accessories it comes with, but I still don't yet know what the Acer or Dell look like. I do hope that the Atom powered EEE 900s come with the LG LED screen.

 

Spelling error:

 

Windows finally makes a confession???, So they knew all along that Vista was "sicK" then why charge us such a huge price for a "half-baked" OS?? Why force us to buy it in the first place?? A lot of us had to upgrade our pc specs or buy new higher spec'ed pc just because of vista.
Vista should have cost 1/8th its price then. All vista users need a refund check and an special apology letter from microsoft.

 

The Asus CEO's words aren't worth the paper they're printed on. He repeatedly gives incorrect information about availability, pricing and specifications.

 

I agree.... All users who purchased Vista, directly or indirectly (such as purchasing a laptop with Vista license), should get a nice, cleaned up version of Vista sent out for free...

What I mean by that is a clean Vista, without the "annoying UAC", with SP1 already smoothly integrated, all updates included...

If they did a mass-rollout like that, they could help "clean-up" Vista's image as a slow, resource hungry OS, and instead, it would be considered a leaner, very compatible OS, with security, DirectX 10, better management of large memory states (64-bit version), and by-and-large, much superior hardware and driver support (now compared to at initial release)...

I for one, would appreciate something along those lines...

Its sad that I purchase a license for Vista, and end up having to use "modified" versions, such as Last Vista v2 to accomplish what Vista should have been like in the first place...

 

oeh a bigger 10" EEE thats interesting since i find the current models to small but the 10" was already a rumor like a year ago asus then said there would never be such thing as a 10" even though they already showed it to the public once !!!

 

Thanks for the picture - I think I might just stick with the 900 because I thought they wouldn't increase the cage that much.

 

I'm sorry, but if Asus keeps listening to user feedback, we'd be looking at 15.4" EEEs in a few generations. It's one thing to address criticism, but it seems that Asus doesn't really know where this is going.

 

Good point, admlam. The whole point of an EEE PC is because it's so small. But they'd probably draw the line around 12", because they'd run into a whole new market.

Btw, am I the only one who thinks so, or are those Acer Inspires UGLY!?!?!

 

No, there fugly.

 

That would be they're, a contraction of they are; there, as you put, is reserved for specifying location.

 

Well, the size increase to 10" gives them an opportunity to improve the frankly shoddy keyboard on the 900. It's the only thing keeping me from picking one up, because the keys are simply too small. Thats why I'm looking at stuff like the HP 2133 and the ECS G10L.

 

Actually, it is much, much cheaper to release an incomplete OS and receive bug reports from users than to do "in house" testing. Do you know what's the funniest thing? They call this "Customer Support". Don't you just love Microsoft?

 

Prices of these things are going up with each release. Personally, if they are going into the price ranges of full-sized laptops, I'd rather get a 10" with a fuller sized keyboard with an optical drive.

http://www.vyeusa.com/home.php

Emailed these guys inquiring if they would possibly be releasing a 10" version. They replied that it is in the works, but nothing was final.

They squeezed pretty much all you could ask for in a 7 inch laptop/tablet with the S41.

 

There you go, Vista fanboys.

*huggles XP*

 

you do know that when XP was released it was a 'work in progress' too right?

Very few OS'es are released with all bugs ironed out because it's extremely expensive to do so in house (you want to pay 100 testers for a few bugs a month, or get paid money and receive all the bug reports you need to fix it). At least Microsoft has the courage to stand up and say it, If they were anything like Apple they would be saying that everything is fine, it's a perfect Operating system and no bug fixes will be needed. (Yes I used to own a Mac and got suspended from the Apple forums for pointing out a bug...).

And since when was Vista expensive or required people to upgrade their hardware? Home premium costs less then XP, and a system perfectly capable of running Vista is very cheap, the only major upgrade was the RAM usage, and a 1GB stick costs what? £10?

And I think the EEE is heading towards a brand, though as a few people have said I doubt it will go above a 12", Asus are obviously trying to create a brand that people associate with cheap, affordable, portable laptops. And the Windbook just goes to show that the EEE 900 is a good price point, $450 - $1000? Very vague, and usually the prices that end up with these estimates will be somewhere around the $550 - $800 mark

And yes I think the Acer looks bad too, very subjective but I just think that Acer and the Satellite laptops look very bulky and badly designed for what they are.

 

Those guys aren't really competitors here IMO. That S41 you are talking about is $1500!! We are talking BUDGET subnotebooks here...

 

Never mentioned ANYTHING about the Vye's being direct competitors to the Eee's/Mini's/Wind's/etc. Mentioned it soley based on SIZE.


HOWEVER, the MSI is priced UP TO $1100, so what I said in my first 2 sentences has merit.

$1100 sound "budget" to you??


Granted, the street price "should" be less than that, but the fact remains that prices are creeping up.


So like I already said, if the prices on these things are in the realm of FULL-SIZED laptops, I'd PERSONALLY prefer to just get something as small that can "do it all".

 

I think all that would have been necessary would have been giving Vista Home users the option to downgrade to XP Home, and certainly giving that option and sending out free XP Home discs to Vista buyers who requested them would have been good service.

 

There the most beautiful Toliet seats ive ever seen. Oh, wait they are laptops????

 

I thought the point of subnotebooks was their small size. With the growing screen (and most likely prices as well), the gap between these EEEs and budget notebooks are getting closer. I wouldn`t be surprised if a consumer chose a $600 Acer rather than a EEE when the specs on the Acer, even at the low end for notebooks, is vastly superior to the EEE.

A bigger screen size might actually be detrimental IMO.