Roundup of netbook news from Engadget

While I was busy messing with my server yesterday, those crazy kids at Engadget were busy posting updates about netbook related news. Rather than rehash yesterday’s news in three separate posts, I figured I’d just give you the highlights reel. So here’s Engadget’s netbook news from October 15th in 60 seconds or less:

HP bullies OEMs into help its netbook biz: Word on the street is that HP is telling partners that it will reduce its orders from any manufacturers that are working with with ASUS, you know that company that makes the Eee PC which competes with the HP Mini-Note.
Apricot PicoBook: A £279 netbook with a 60GB HDD, 1.2GHz VIA C7-M CPU, 8.9 inch display, and Windows XP. Basically it’s a VIA Nanobook/Everex Cloudbook with another name.
Toshiba NB100 in the wild: A pre-production model of the Toshbia NB100 was spotted in Switzerland, and while the netbook has a nice looking case, the screen is a bit heavy on the glare and the keyboard is a bit cramped.
Dell Inspiron Mini 12 makes an appearance on the Dell web site: A computer with a 12 inch display isn’t exactly a netbook. But if you don’t care about semantics as much as you do about finding cheap, light weight, and relatively small netbooks, it looks like the Inspiron Mini 12 will pack a higher resolution display and a more powerful CPU than its little brother, the Dell Inspiron Mini 9.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Update: HP denies using any strong-arm tactics with OEMs.

Posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008, 5:38 am by Brad Linder

http://liliputing.com/ Brad Linder

Actually, it's quite the opposite. Each and every one of these items could
have been a full length post. But after spending 12+ hours working on the
site yesterday I didn't have the energy to do them justice. So rather than
not let my readers know abotu them, I decided to just post a handful of
links and brief summaries to let you know what I'd been reading.
Szabs

Dear Brad,

I'm a devout reader of your site, I'm gonna buy my netbook for christmas but until then, I read every single article about them. (Except for the classmate and via cr*ps )
Could you just simply skip these roundup posts? They make me feel like you have nothing to write about when I see them. I can't wait to see the first handson with the samsung nc10. Keep up the good job, I love your site!

Szabs
Kraft

I shouldn't speak for Szabs, but I can't help but put in my guess that he was thinking that this was akin to an earlier roundup (like this one: http://www.liliputing.com/2008/10/liliputing-ne... ) which really does look to me like a summary of earlier liliputing posts, rather than this current roundup which is all engaget.

Personally, I have a pretty short memory so I don't mind the rehashes, although new material is always better
Fanfoot

Great site btw!

The interesting news about the Dell Mini 12 is it appears it has a Poulsbo chipset, the first “real” netbook chipset. In theory since Poulsbo is 2.3w while 945GSE is 6w, using Poulsbo + Z versus 945GSE + N would use 4w rather than 8.5w. So the battery life could be much better.

I've seen jkkmobile slam the current drivers though, and assume he knows what he's talking about so presumably this isn't true at the moment, and it'll be interesting to see what happens when this thing is released. Also with the display being so big, this isn't really the best vehicle for deploying Poulsbo, which would be more interesting in a small device with little room for an extended battery, and less current draw from the screen.
DougC3

I've read that the Poulsbo chipset and Z series processors (Silverthorne) are designed for MIDs and UMPCs, which are “between cell phones and netbooks,” and the 945GSE and N series Diamondville are of course for netbooks and nettops.

Yet people have been eagerly waiting for the Poulsbo to show up in netbooks for months, and the Silverthorne has shown up in a few things, such as the Kohjinsha Sx3 tablet, which runs Vista and seems otherwise very much like a netbook.

Is this weaker combination really powerful enough to adequately run a full-featured device like the Kohjinsha Sx3 or Dell Mini 12?
DougC3

Just wanted to add my two cents worth about the articles which summarize recent posts: If I haven't been to the site in a while they are a quick and handy way to see what I've missed (though I'll probably go ahead and scan everything anyway). I don't understand why anybody would find them objectionable. If they don't want to read them, isn't that what the scroll bar is for?
DougC3

Just wanted to add my two cents worth about the articles which summarize recent posts: If I haven't been to the site in a while they are a quick and handy way to see what I've missed (though I'll probably go ahead and scan everything anyway). I don't understand why anybody would find them objectionable. If they don't want to read them, isn't that what the scroll bar is for?
DougC3

Just wanted to add my two cents worth about the articles which summarize recent posts: If I haven't been to the site in a while they are a quick and handy way to see what I've missed (though I'll probably go ahead and scan everything anyway). I don't understand why anybody would find them objectionable. If they don't want to read them, isn't that what the scroll bar is for?

Roundup of netbook news from Engadget

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