Apple CEO Tim Cook says that one day tablets will outsell PCs. He has good reason to think so, because iPads are out-selling Mac computers by 3 to 1. And it appears an awful lot of people got new tablets during the 2011 holidays. Juniper Research predicts that by 2016, PC makers could ship as many as 178 million ultrabooks…

Read more »

Some of the first netbooks with Intel Atom Cedar Trail processors are now available for pre-order. While Cedar Trail chips won’t offer huge performance gains over earlier Atom processors, there are a few advantages. The Intel Atom N2600 and N2800 processors, for instance, have more powerful graphics processors than their predecessors and can handle 1080p HD video playback. Many of…

Read more »

Not all netbooks are created equal, nor are all Android tablets. So if you’re shopping for bargains this Black Friday or this holiday season in general, there are a few things you should keep an eye out for. First, just because a computer looks like a netbook doesn’t mean it acts like one. For the past few years companies have…

Read more »

Nearly four years ago Asus launched the first netbook: a 2 pound laptop with a 7 inch display and a $400 price tag. While it didn’t come close to the $200 price Asus had initially promised, the Eee PC 701 was the cheapest ultraportable laptop on the market… and over the past few years we’ve seen netbook specs get better…

Read more »

So you want to take Windows 8 for a spin on a computer that doesn’t have a disc drive? Not a problem. While Microsoft has only released a disc image of Windows 8 Developer Preview, you can use the Windows 7 USB/DVD tool to install Windows 8 without a disc drive. I touched on this yesterday when I discussed installing…

Read more »

Though they’ve only been available for purchase since June, Samsung has already decided to drop the price of its Series 5 Chromebooks. The Wi-Fi only version is now $30 less at Amazon.com, priced at $399. The 3G version is now only $449 — down from its original $499. Acer’s Chromebook offerings remain cheaper at $349 and $429 for the Wi-Fi…

Read more »

Chinese computer maker Malata doesn’t get a lot of attention in the US, since as far as I can tell the company rarely sells any products in the States. But over the past few years Malata has come out with some of the more interesting mini-computer designs I’ve seen. Now the folks at Notebook Italia have gotten their hands on…

Read more »

Update: Microsoft has released its earnings report, and while Intel says netbook growth is slowing, the software maker says its numbers paint a different story — with netbook sales down 32 percent from a year ago during the same period. Overall, Microsoft is seeing a decline in consumer PC sales, but there’s still growth in the business PC sector.  Intel…

Read more »

The Sasmung NC215S is the first netbook with a solar panel built right into the case. The company says you should be able to get 1 hour of battery life for every two hours of charging time in the sun. While Samsung told me a few weeks ago that the laptop would be available for purchase in the US during…

Read more »

Netbooks are low cost portable laptops that can function as secondary computers for some folks — or primary computers for those who may not have the money to buy a more powerful machine (or the interest in spending that kind of money). But something neat happens when you make computers more affordable and more portable: you also make them more…

Read more »

It seems like every other day we see a report suggesting that tablets are killing off consumer demand for netbooks, but last week ABI Research released results of survey suggesting that both product categories remain pretty popular. About 27 percent of those questioned said they were “very” or “extremely” interested in acquiring tablets, while the figure for netbooks was about…

Read more »

Industry analysts are making a good living these days claiming that netbooks are dead and that tablets are holding the knife. But Intel’s not ready to hold a funeral just yet. In fact, the company just announced that 100 million Atom chips have been shipped since mid-2008, and most of them have found their way into netbooks and low power…

Read more »