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Asus Announces App Store for Netbooks, MeeGo.com

David Buckner — Mon, 31 May 2010 18:52:42 +0000

MeeGo version 1.0 now available on MeeGo.com. The store, much like Intel’s AppUp store, provides applications, games, utilities, and other varieties of programs for netbooks and other devices. Both services hope to compete with the likes of Apple’s iTunes app store.

Link: MeeGo.com

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Intel AppUp Store for Netbooks

David Buckner — Mon, 31 May 2010 18:48:31 +0000

Intel launched a application store for netbook in January. While still in beta, it’s soon being copied by other companies such as Asus. The online store let’s users download and purchases applications, games, and utilities for their netbook much in the same way that Apple iTunes serves apps for their iPhones, iPads, and iPods.

Link: http://www.intel.com/appup/

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Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 10.1 Inch Black Netbook (Windows 7 Starter)

Scott Buckner — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:08:56 +0000

Small on the outside, but big on the inside, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 Netbook is one of the worlds most feature-rich netbooks with Quick Start and OneKey Rescue System. The IdeaPad S10-2 netbook is just over an inch thick with the 6 cell battery and weighs a miniscule 2.65 lbs but comes packed with features like VeriFace facial recognition technology, OneKey rescue system, and stereo speakers with Dolby Headphone technology. But the biggest feature of all is the Quick Start button that lets you access music, pictures, games, and the web, even before Windows loads. So flip open this ultra- small netbook and discover a powerhouse of unique features. Best of all it’s from Lenonvo, makers of award-winning ThinkPad business notebooks.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 Netbook comes with all the essentials Windows 7 Starter operating system, built-in 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, 1.3 megapixel webcam, 160 GB hard drive, 1 GB DDR2 RAM, 1.6 GHz Intel N270 Atom Processor, 10.1” (1024×600) 16:9 LED display, Intel GMA950 Graphics, and a 6-cell Lithium-ion battery with up to 6 hours of battery life. Add to all this DolbyHeadphone Technology, 4-in-1 Media Reader, Multi-Touch pad, Quick Start,VeriFace facial recognition technology, the OneKey Rescue System, and you have a netbook that is excellent for work and play.

The VeriFace facial recognition technology is an interesting way to securely log on to your computer. Having a Multi-Touch Pad allows you to quickly zoom in and out by simply moving two fingers apart or together. Headphone sound quality is definitely enhance with the DolbyHeadphone technology.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2’s speed is average to good in stock configuration, however, upgrading to 2GB of RAM definitely helps. Windows 7 Starter works well but doesn’t allow for much customization. So, if you want to personalize your netbook you will need to upgrade to a full version of Windows 7 or opt for the XP version of this netbook. Battery life is approximately four hours plus during streaming video or downloaded movie viewing. While surfing the web or enjoying music will give you very close to six hours of battery life. The Six hour battery life does fall a bit short of other netbooks with 8-9.5 hours of battery life. The Keyboard on the S10-2 is only 89% of a standard keyboard and may be a bit small for some users.

The price of Lenovo’s IdeaPad S10-2 Netbook is very good when considering all of it’s features. However, most people will want to have a faster system and will need to upgrade the RAM. Not having a full version of Windows 7 is one more thing thing to consider if you want to customize a system to fit your personal preferences. The cost of upgrading these two areas lowered the rating of this netbook to 3 stars because the three most important areas to most people are Cost, Speed, and Flexibility. But even with these extra costs the IdeaPad S10-2 netbook may be worth it to get all the features offered by this netbook.

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Toshiba Satellite T115D-S1125 Nova Black AMD Athlon Neo X2 1.5Ghz 11.6″

David Buckner — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:07:03 +0000

With up to nine hours of battery life rating on the Satellite® T100 Laptop Series you’ll be able to keep going from the moment you boot up till you log off at night. It’s time to experience more unplugged freedom to do, explore and enjoy.

Don’t give up the performance you need for the thin and light portability you’ll love. With responsive, energy-smart, ultra-low voltage processors from AMD® and Intel®, lots of DDR3 memory and up to 320GB* of storage, this Satellite® T100 notebook will help you go far—and keep you going strong.

Includes:

AMD Athlon™ Neo X2 Dual-Core Processor L325
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
2GB DDR2 800MHz memory
ATI® Radeon™ HD 3200
320GB HDD (5400rpm)
HDMI output port
Hard Drive Impact Sensor
11.6″ HD TruBrite® LED Backlit display
1366×768 (HD), 16:9 aspect ratio, Supports 720p content
Built-in microphone, Standard stereo speakers, Headphone jack (stereo), Microphone jack (mono)
Webcam and microphone built into LCD bezel
Wi-Fi® Wireless networking (802.11b/g)
No Bluetooth (No Antenna)
10/100 Ethernet LAN
Memory Card Reader SD
2-USB (2.0), 1-USB (2.0) with Sleep and Charge

So what is the word? Excellent. This netbook gets high marks for putting everything you need into a single nice package at a decent price. The ATI 3200 graphics processor makes the netbook able to play a decent amount of games. The keyboard is not the best of the bunch, but gets good marks for ease of use. Well built and Toshiba quality round off an excellent buy.

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Gateway EC Series Cherry Red 11.6 Celeron M 743 Netbook

David Buckner — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:46:08 +0000

Claims up to 6 hours of battery life, includes a 11.6 screen, runs a Intel Celeron 1.3GHz single core processor, 2GB of RAM, and finally a splash of Windows 7 Home Premium . Also includes a 250GB drive.

Runs your typical Integrated 4500MHD graphics processor for average performance and a HDMI port. However, this unit is fairly snappy feeling. The full sized keyboard, well full sized for a netbook, is well laid out and easy to use. Some minor complaints of the keys are flat so you can’t get a feel for your typing position.

Nice and fresh Cherry Red makes it stand out, and it includes all the nice features of a typical netbook. For the price this is worth the look.

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Acer Ferrari One Netbook

David Buckner — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:32:52 +0000

Acer’s new Ferrrari One 200 netbook with the slick new Ferrari red paint job sports a Athlon 64 X2 L310 1.2GHz processor. A large 11.6″ 1366 x 768 LED backlight CineCrystal technology display, and full size keyboard for easy typing round out this fast netbook.

Basic Windows Experience Scores:

Processor – 3.6
Memory – 4.9
Graphics (Aero) – 3.3
Gaming Graphics – 4.7
Primary Hard Disk – 3.3

Sandra’s Processor rates this unit at 7.29GOPS.

What’s not to like about this netbook? Many might find the paint job over the top and the Ferrari symbol a little tacky, but for those of us into black and hot red, this is the unit to get. It’s fast for a netbook We dropped in a 128GB SSD drive and the Primary Hard Disk jumped to 5.9 in Windows Experience Score.

The keyboard is the best selling point of this unit along with the large 11.6″ LED screen. It’s a pleasure to type on for such a small unit. Battery life is about 3-4 hours, and it would have been nice to have a 9 cell battery to push that life even higher.

The lack of Bluetooth in this unit hurts things a bit, and 3G is optional unit. Finally there is no HDMI port. Instead Acer opted for the new ATI XGP connection for external video card units of the future. At this writing such external video cards are not available. It would have been better just to include a HDMI port as is it really necessary to have such option on a small unit? While graphics might be sped up, the rest of the unit is just average performance in comparison to a desktop.

All such details aside the unit is a fun netbook to use. The excellent keyboard and screen, along with the fastest speed of any shipping netbook puts this unit at the top of the list. The $599 price is a bit steep, but you get a dual core processor and Windows 7 Home 64-bit edition with it.

The price and lack of some basics like Bluetooth and HDMI bring this units rating down a bit. It’s a solid unit, and nice features, but it’s at the high end range of netbooks and not to include something as simply as bluetooth makes no sense on the part of Acer.

More updates on this unit in the future as we use this unit in everyday things.

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3M Vertical Notebook Computer Stand

David Buckner — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:46:40 +0000

Position your notebook screen at an ergonomically correct height while taking up less desk space than the LX500. Riser has 3 inches of vertical adjustability and is compatible with most docking stations. Cable management feature keeps cords organized. Non-skid base. Helps free up desk space. Comes in black and silver.

This unit comes in a small square box, and putting the two pieces together is easy to do. You have to manually adjust the knob to select the height you want. It can be a little tricky, but once set it’s solid construction shows that it will last. This unit works great for netbooks, and small laptops.

At the highest setting your laptop/netbook in order to work correctly your laptop needs to be able to open the screen all the way back to nearly a flat setting. Many notebooks don’t go this far back and only a few netbooks will do so as well. Unless you plan to set it at the maximum monitor height this is not a problem.

We highly recommended this simple unit. The cable management in back is a benefit, and the unit takes the minimum amount of space.