Laptop News

A few months ago Peppermint OS hit the web and caused a bit of a stir. Basically Peppermint is yet-another Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. But what makes it special is the focus on allowing users to install native apps and web-based apps. Sure, Peppermint’s not the only OS with a focus on Cloud-based apps. There’s also Jolicloud and the upcoming Google Chrome OS. But Peppermint has the added benefit of being able to run desktop apps and looking more like a familiar Linux, Windows, or Mac desktop operating system.

This week the developers launched Peppermint Ice, a new version which replaces Firefox and the Mozilla Prism web app installer with Google’s Chromium web browser. Chromium also allows you to install web apps as if they were desktop apps, and Peppermint Ice comes with shortcuts for facebook, Google Docs, Hulu, Pandora, and Seesmic preloaded. It also has native apps including DropBox, Transmission Bittorent client, and XChat.

What’s more, Peppermint Ice is one of the fastest booting operating systems around. The developer says it boots in as little as 6 seconds on his notebook, while blogger Lee Mathews says it loads in just 10 seconds on his Gateway netbook with an Intel Atom processor. That’s about how long it takes to launch some “quick boot” software such as SplashTop or Hyperspace, but Peppermint is a far more powerful OS than either of those options.

Mozilla’s Firefox Home app is now available for download from the iTunes App Store. Firefox Home isn’t a full blown web browser for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. What the app does is give you mobile access the bookmarks, history, and currently open tabs from the desktop version of Firefox.

In order to sync your data, you’ll need to install the Firefox Sync add-on to your desktop browser. This will let you sync your bookmarks, passwords, history, and other preferences across multiple instances of Firefox on a computer or mobile device(although the password sync doesn’t work with Firefox Home… yet).

It’s not a perfect solution, but it does provide iPhone users with a way to take PC or Mac browser information with them on the go. Of course, another way to access your desktop browser preferences on a mobile device would be to use the Opera browser on your computer and Opera Mobile or Opera Mini on supported mobile devices, since Opera’s mobile browsers are full fledged web browsers which also happen to be able to sync with the desktop version.

The VXL Itona TL100 is a thin and light device with an AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 processor and an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display. None of that should be particularly surprising, because as you can see by looking at the photo above, the Itona TL100 is basically just a modified Lenovo ThinkPad X100e. The company didn’t even bother to remove the Lenovo branding. This is apparently all done with Lenovo’s blessing.

What sets the Itona TL100 apart from a typical Lenovo X100e is the fact that the Tl100 ships without a hard drive. That’s for security purposes, since the idea is that you would use this laptop to login to a remote computer to do our work. No data is actually stored on the device.

The computer is available with Windows XP Embedded or Widnows Embedded Standard and can connect to a server or network over WiFi or Ethernet.It includes 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, and 1GB of memory, although the TL100 can support up to 4GB of RAM. There’s also 1Gb of flash storage to hold the operating system.

Arc Computer has put together a concept design for a notebook computer that has a curved body. At first glance, it looks silly. At second glance, I could see how it could be useful. At third glance… it just looks silly again.

You can check out a few videos after the break, but here’s the general idea: By giving the computer a curved design, you can outfit it with an ergonomic keyboard and an OLED display that’s perfect for showing 3D content.

The concept device also has room for a touchscreen display in the center of the keyboard, which you could use as a touchpad and/or application launcher.

I don’t know if we’ll ever see this thing come to market — and honestly, if I was a betting man I’d put my money on no. But it’s certainly an interesting idea. You can find out more about Arc computers at curved-world.com.

While there are only a handful of Android powered tablets available in the US, it seems like every day a new one hits the streets in China. One of hte latest is the Phecda P7, a 7 inch tablet with an 800 x 480 pixel display, a 650MHz ARM11-based CPU, and Google Android 2.1. In a few months, an Android 2.2 Froyo update should also be available.

The tablet features 256MB of RAM, 4GB of flash-based storage, an SD card slot, 2 USB ports, and an HDMI output. The battery is just 1300mAh, but that’s reportedly enough to power the tablet for about 4 hours.

I doubt we’ll see this model outside of China anytime soon, but if you happen to be in China, it looks like a pretty good buy at about $220. Phecda has also put out a number of low cost netbooks and laptops over the past few years — and I have yet to see one of them go on sale outside of China.

The Eee PC 1015P is one of the latest 10 inch netbooks from Asus. And like any new tech product, a netbook hasn’t really been baptized until someone has taken one apart to see what it’s insides look like. Fortunately you don’t have to wait for someone to actually purchase an Eee PC 1015P and dissect it to get a look at the innards. The FCC has done the heavy lifting for us.

The FCC has published a series of documents related to the Eee PC 1015P, including some teardown photos showing the battery, RAM access panel, removed keyboard, and the insides of the computer including the motherboard, hard drive, and wireless module.

There don’t seem to be any major surprises, but there is a fairly large amount of free space inside this 10 inch netbook, which should come as good news to hackers who like to cram extra components in their mobile computers.

Two of the most interesting devices I’ve seen this year are the Lenovo Skylight smartbook and IdeaPad U1 Hybrid notebook with a detachable display that works as a standalone tablet. And while both will miss their original shipping deadlines since Lenovo decided to scrap the custom Linux distribution powering the devices and replace it with Google Android, it looks like we should still see both of these products hit the streets before the end of the year.

Lenovo President Rory Read tells CRN that the Skylight and the IdeaPad U1 should both be available before the end of 2010. As expected, the primary reason for the delay is that Lenovo is retooling both machines to use Android instead of the Skylight OS largely because the “ecosystem around Android is really picking up speed.”

In other words, there’s better support for Android, and hopefully we’ll see some good third party apps for these devices thanks to the large developer community already working with the Android platform.

One thing I’ll be curious to see is whether Lenovo manages to keep one of the nifty features found in the pre-production version of the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid running Windows 7 and Skylight OS. When you were surfing the web with the device in notebook mode using Windows 7, you could remove the tablet and continue browsing on the same web page even though you had switched to Skylight OS. This made the combination laptop/tablet device a nice grab-and-go solution, and I hope Lenovo figures out how to do something similar with Android.

This week Toshiba introduced two unusual new mini-laptops. The Toshiba AC100 is one of the first 10.1 inch mini-laptops to use an NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset and run Google Android 2.1, while the Toshiba Libretto W100 has two 7 inch touchscreen displays, with one acting as a virtual keyboard. Neither are available in the US yet, but Netbooked notes that you can place pre-orders for both models in Japan.

The Toshiba AC100 is sold under the Toshiba Dynabook AX name in Japan, where it’s going for the equivalent of about $494 US.

The Libretto W100 is a bit lot pricier, running about $1377 US.

I should point out that while the product page for the Dynabook AZ has the words “Windows OS” on it, the web site is actually pointing out that this model doesn’t run Windows, since it instead ships with Google Android. Because it has an ARM-based processor, the only version of Windows it could possibly run would be Windows CE.

Both models are expected to ship in Japan in August.

Update: Acer USA has confirmed that it has no plans to launch the Aspire 532G “in the upcoming back-to-school cycle,” although future plans are still being determined. So it sounds like it’s possible the netbook may see the light of day eventually… but it might not.

The Acer Aspire One 532G was on track to be the first 10 inch netbook to ship with second generation NVIDIA ION graphics. But now it loks like the project could be canceled or postponed indefinitely.

French site Blogeee reports that Acer has canceled the Aspire One 532G, although it’s not clear whether the cancellation is global or if it just affects Acer’s French or European divisions.

The Acer Aspire One 532G was first introduced in February, although NVIDIA didn’t officially launch its new ION graphics platform until March.

The netbook was expected to ship with a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, and a stripped down version of the NVIDIA ION chipset designed for smaller laptops which would likely overheat if you stuffed the full graphics card into such a tight space. The laptop was expected to have a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, a 6 cell, 4400mAh battery, and Windows 7 Starter Edition and sell for less than $500.

I’ve put in a request for comment from Acer. NVIDIA has already told me that they cannot comment on rumors regarding partners’ products.

The Samsung N150 is the cheapest 10 inch netbook the company has released so far this year. But the company hasn’t been shy about sprucing things up with a few custom models, like a kid-friendly version, a colorful Corby edition, and an Adidas-themed model. Now Samsung is introducing the Samsung N150 Plus, a model that will be sold exclusively through Best Buy stores in the US.

Laptop Magazine has reviewed the new model, and spells out the features that set the N150 Plus apart from the original Samsung N150, including:

• A higher capacity 250GB hard drive
• A new power management utility to prolong battery life
• A new lid design
• Microsoft 2010 Starter Edition comes pre-installed

Laptop Mag reports that the battery lasted for 7 hours and 12 minutes, which is just 13 minutes longer than the battery life they got from a standard Samsung N150. But that’s probably because the new power management utility kicks in most when the computer is in sleep, rather than when you’re using it. You should be able to leave the computer in sleep mode for longer while losing less power. At least that’s the idea.

Probably the main reason to spring for the $372 Samsung N150 Plus instead of the original N150 which sells for about $40 to $50 less is that the N150 Plus comes with Office 2010 Starter. But the Starter Edition only comes with Word and Excel. If you want PowerPoint or more advanced features, you’re going to need to shell out $150 or so to upgrade. You could also use Office Web Apps online for free, or install OpenOffice.org or another free office suite if you’re not too concerned with making sure your office software is 100% compatible with docs created using Microsoft Office.