Weekly Roundup

Intel just posted the results on it’s Submit Early. Win Big contest which is a contest they used to kick off it’s developer program for the Intel Atom family of processors. More winners will be revealed on March 9th, as well as details on the next Intel Atom Developer Challenge. So if you’re a developer and haven’t heard of this program (where have you been) you can download the SDK here. /> Idea: I want to see a lightweight video editing application that can accept various file formats like those specifically used by Flash HD mini camcorders (i.e. Flip)

Winners:

The first place winner was an application called “DeskSpace” which was created by Otaku Software. The image to above is an example of what it looks like while running on your netbook.

DeskSpace is a 3D virtual desktop that gives you more space for your windows and icons. You can eliminate desktop clutter by arranging your windows and icons across up to six desktops, all easily accessible via a revolutionary 3D desktop cube.

I could see myself using one side for casual browsing, another side for games and another side for work / blogging.

The rest of the winners can be seen here: Results Page

If you haven’t downloaded the AppUp center for your netbook you should download it here. With the AppUp center you can download both free and paid apps specifically designed for use on your netbook.

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Weekly Roundup

When the Alienware M11X mini laptop gaming rig / netbook was first announced it certainly kicked up a lot of attention.
At the time of it’s announcement, it’s exact specifications and pricing were unknown. Alienware have now announced that the M11X will be available from $799 from March 2nd. While it won’t ship ’till [...]

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1. Alienware M11X
2. Alienware M11x Reviewed
3. Acer Announce 1810TZ & 1810T

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Weekly Roundup

Yesterday, the Earth stood still as Steve Jobs announced the Apple iPad. People everywhere got excited and many cannot wait until the day they can get their hands on one.

Many months ago, tech pundits were predicting how the Apple tablet was going to make netbooks as obsolete as type writers. Now that the iPad is out and we’ve heard and read what it’s all about, we can safely say that the iPad is not killing netbooks anytime soon.

Here are a few reasons why:

1) The iPad is not a computer

Netbook buyers are computer users who want to do tasks such as web browsing, edit the odd word document, watch movies, listen to music and store data. The Apple iPad can do most of these tasks but it’s really limited. I kind of like the external keyboard accessory it comes with though!

2) Without Wifi or 3G Internet access, the iPad is just a bulky iPod.

An iPhone without a data plan can still make phone calls and send and receive text messages. An iPod without internet access can still play music, run applications and play videos. An iPad without an Internet connection is pretty useless as you could do everything you want to do with an iPod. Unless you strictly want to read a book or watch a movie.

As netbook uses his or her machine to perform tasks that a computer does with or without internet access.

3) The iPad is expensive.

The cheapest is $499. The best-selling netbook, the Acer Aspire One, can be purchased for $329. It’s still portable, capable and can be equipped with 3G for an always-on Internet connection.

Netbooks do what an iPad can do and even more and are cheaper.

I could go on and on but I am sure that you too have some points to add so let’s hear them in the comments section below.

Personally, I think that I will get the iPad eventually (two years from now or so) because I think that developers will come up with apps that will make the tablet very useful and different to a laptop.

So yes, I will be a geek with a Blackberry, a laptop and an iPad. What will be ditched are the iPod and iPhone.

I can’t wait to see people who will be hauling the iPad around listening to music on it as if it was an iPod. I am laughing out loud in advance!

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Weekly Roundup

How do you keep your tiny shinny netbook protected and prevent it from looking dull at the same time?

The answer just landed in my inbox courtesy of a representative of Hard Candy Cases who alerted me on the company’s cool cases for netbooks and select MacBooks.

They claim to be “The first company to design fashionable snap-on protective cases for the top-selling Asus and Acer netbook models” and whether that’s true or not (I don’t have the time nor inclination to  verify and legitimize the claim), the bubble shell netbook cases that they have for sale are kinda sexy and useful.

If you remember, in previous posts I once asked about the usefulness of netbook bags but I am more in favor of netbook cases because they accomplish two tasks beautifully: protect your baby and make it look hot!

About Hard Candy Cases:
Founded in 2009, Danville, CA-based Hard Candy Cases is a new company from computer accessory veteran, Tim Hickman, who started and ran Speck Products. The company merges fashion and function to distinguish and protect mobile computers from the wear and tear of daily use.  Additional information can be found at http://www.hardcandycases.com.

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Weekly Roundup

Here’s the weekly rundown of items that we posted to the middle column on UMPCPortal, our ‘Other News’ section. It’s all good UMPC and MID-related stuff that, in most cases, we didn’t write about as a main news item.

Shared…

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Weekly Roundup

We were expecting (a beta release of) Moblin 2.1 for handhelds before end of 2009 but it didn’t turn up. In a search this morning, however, found this. It’s a month old but it’s a build of Moblin for the…

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3. First post from Ubuntu Mobile Can I claim bragging rights for having the first ever…

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Weekly Roundup

Welcome to listen Meet Mobility Podcast.
Join me, Steve and Sascha talking about mobile computing.

Click to download [ mp3 57:45 ]

On the podcast: JKK – JKKmobile.com
Sasca Pallenberg – Netbooknews.com
Steve ‘Chippy’ Paine – Carrypad.com

Show Notes:

Netbooks

Sascha bought Aspire ONE 532H

The iPad And Chrome OS Netbooks Are On A Collision Course

Smartbooks/MIDs

Archos 7 -
Dell Mini 5 -
iPad – Summary podcast.

UMPCs

8.9? ExoPC slate. “Atom N270 at 1.6GHz, with 2GB of DDR2 memory and a 32GB SSD with SD expansion. Yeah, those specs are familiar too, and while we’re not thinking this will deliver the sort of snappy performance seen on the iPad, it will certainly be a lot more functional. Battery life is only four hours, but at least it’s user-replaceable, and a price of $599 matches the 32GB iPad. Likewise it will be available in March -”
NetbookNavigator – ‘Nav 9? Similar specs.
EviGroup Pad

UMID BZ Live session – (First impressions notes) No major showstoppers. Memory 512MB. No 3G version. No right shift key, optical mouse not the best (but way better than nothing) great battery life. $549 good price. N5 March/April.

Other

N900 Firefox/weave release . Plugin, Small screen optimised. Firefox quality. Fast javascript processing. Add-ons. (weave!) but no FLash!

Mozilla pulled it from N900 Firefox release – ““Support for plugins in Firefox for Maemo has been disabled. On most Web pages that use the Adobe Flash plugin, the performance of the plugin didn’t meet our standards, and the interactivity and performance of the entire Web page was negatively impacted.”

Flash. Will it last? Do we need it?
HTML5: Timescale.
Lower power web devices coming.
Developers should take note of rising % of non-flash mobile brwosers.

S10 blade coming.

Events

Events coming up:
DevMob2010. London. One day. Intel. 3rd Feb
MWC. Mobile phones meets mobile computing on 14th Feb.

Meetmobility is an occasional podcast from UMPCPortal, Netbooknews.com and JKKmobile.com
If you’d like to sponsor the podcast and help us make a more regular event, please contact us.

Meet Mobility home page
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Weekly Roundup

ArchiMate provides ways to develop visualizations and control of IT architecture to more swiftly obtain business benefits. To learn more, we interview an expert on this, Dr. Harmen van den Berg, partner and co-founder at BiZZdesign. by Dana Gardner
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Weekly Roundup

IBM Research has demonstrated a radio-frequency graphene transistor with the highest frequency (100 GigaHertz) so far. by Larry Dignan
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Weekly Roundup

Alienware are well known for making high powered computers aimed at gamers. So when we first heard that they were working on a netbook type device it gained our attention, along with that of many around the Internet.
The Alienware M11x is an 11.6-inch thin and light laptop which crosses into the netbook realm, but [...]

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