NetbookBoards.com
Netbook, Netbooks, Netbook Reviews, Acer Aspire One, Lenovo S10, ASUS Eee PC, HP Mini-Note PC, MSI Wind PC

Microsoft, after receiving blistering criticism for the apparent abject failure of Vista, has rebounded and achieved startling sales gains in recent months.  Windows 7 currently holds 10% of the OS market after only 5 months, while Vista has managed to crawl up to 20%.  Stunningly, XP still dominates at 60-70% of users, showing that until recently, most people have been wary of upgrading.

Microsoft is not content to stop here, however: Windows 8 is already in development.  On the MSDN blogs, Chris Green, a former Microsoft employee, posted a chart that shows support dates for current and future products, posted above (dates are in dd/mm/yy). The date to look for is July 1st, 2011, the apparent time of public release.  Of course, if you are like this blogger who participated in the Windows 7 beta, that means you can expect to see what’s coming in a future not so distant.

Microsoft furthermore finally seems to be defeating the scourge that is Internet Explorer 6, arguably deemed the worst web browser of all time.  After multiple security flaws were revealed for Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Microsoft has started to push its first not-despised browser in a long time, Internet Explorer 8, which has finally overtaken IE 6 as the number one browser in the world.

Lastly, expect Windows 7 Service Pack 1 to come out in beta in June and final release in September.  One of the most notable features of SP1 will be out of box USB 3.0 support.

Via DailyTech.

IBM might have fallen from the spotlight of  the computer world, but it remains an integral figure in its innovation.  And to prove this, behold: IBM has announced it successfully developed a graphene transistor that is clocked at an insanely fast 100 GHz.  Needless to say, this is the fastest transistor ever made and silicon might just have lost its spot as the number one semiconductor.

The best silicon transistors have only managed to make to 40 GHz, and it is becoming exceedingly difficult to continue down the current path without some sort of breakthrough.  It looks like graphene will be IBM’s answer to this dilemma and with good cause. Not only is it much faster, but IBM used the same silicon fabrication techniques in order to make it.  This removes a major hurdle to transitioning to graphene.

Still, this is only the early stages of the process. As with all technological breakthroughs, it will be some time before it trickles its way down to personal computing. Nevertheless, it has been a good week for technological breakthroughs.

Via Gizmodo

Overall, there does not seem to have been a very positive reaction to Apple’s iPad. A poll conducted by retailer Retrevo has shown that fewer people want the iPad after Apple introduced it on January 27. Before Apple’s iPad announcement, 26 percent of those polled said that they had heard of the iPad but were not interested in buying one. This number jumped to 52 percent after the announcement on January 27.

It is hard to tell if expectations for the iPad were simply too high and people therefore could not be satisfied by anything Apple offered, or if the device was just very disappointing.

There was not a completely negative reaction in the poll. Before the announcement, 3 percent of respondents said that they would like to buy an iPad. 9 percent said they would buy it after the announcement.

Before the announcement, 49 percent said that they did not need an iPad, but 61 percent said this after learning about the features after the announcement.

Though the iPad appears to be disliked by quite a few, only time will tell how it will fare.

Via eWeek, image via Apple.

Macworld Expo opens this week in San Francisco and for the first time in a very long time, Apple will not be a participant. Many strongly associate the Expo with Apple and Steve Jobs’ keynotes. But does it really matter for the company and the Expo that Apple is no longer a participant? Macworld editor Christopher Breen says no.

The Macworld Expo was a marketing event for Apple, pure and simple. It was a great way to get people excited about Apple products and perhaps even let them see these products in person. But in reality, an Apple store can serve this same purpose: customers go to the Apple store not only to buy, but to look at Apple products and ask questions.

Another similarity is the one-way flow of communication. At both an Apple store and the Expo, Apple delivers a message to consumers. So in the end, Apple’s absence from the Expo will probably not make much of a difference. The Expo is about more than Apple and Steve Jobs’ keynotes—it’s about meeting people who like Macs and getting to see new products that Apple stores may not carry. It’s about interaction.

Via PC World, image via Apple.

Physicists at MIT have broken new ground in the exciting field of lasers.  They have successfully shown that germanium laser technology can be extended to use in personal computing, sometime in the near future.  This will have vast implications in the world of hardware.

Many hardware analysts are noticing that we appear to be reaching a sort of limit for data transfer speed.  The solution thus far has been reducing and optimizing the semiconductors that transfer the electrical signals.  MIT’s new potential solution: germanium lasers.

Germanium lasers operate at a frequency capable of transmitting data through optical signals as opposed to the traditional route of electrical signals.  This manages to save energy, because there is no need for additional power to send data faster.  This also removes traditional lasers from computers which have undesirable materials, like gallium arsenide.

So far this is more of a proof of concept than a market prototype. The cost of implementing this will likely be highly expensive, as it requires intricate patterns to be etched onto silicon chips.  Nevertheless, we can always wait for the promise of the glamorous future and its germanium lasers.

Via DailyTech

It is no secret that the two key ingredients of Microsoft’s software supremacy are Windows OS and Office.  They are the lifeblood of the company’s home consumer line, and new versions need to be pumped out at regular intervals to provide new revenue for the company.

However, despite the fact that Microsoft is due to release it’s new Office 2010 sometime this year, it also has worries that the announcing it could scare off consumers from continuing to purchase Office 2007.

Fortunately, it looks like the problem will be averted by Microsoft using the same tactic as it did during the Vista-Windows 7 transition.

Ars Technica managed to capture a screen of an accidental post of the details.  Essentially the info stipulates that that if users purchase Office 2007 from March 5 to September 30, they will be guaranteed a free upgrade to Office 2010 for most versions, as long as they request the upgrade by October 31st.  However, none of this is official yet, and the Microsoft blog posting these details pulled them down shortly after.  Either way, expect Office 2010 sometime around June.

Via DailyTech, image via Ars Technica.

The introduction of the iPad may turn out to hurt consumers; in a rather strange and ironic turn of events, e-book prices could be going up.

Amazon, the maker of the Kindle e-reader, has been fighting with publishers over e-book prices. Amazon wants to keep them at around $10 per book; the leading publishers want to raise prices to around $15 per book. Apple has entered the fray, saying it will let publishers set prices for e-books on the iPad.

There does not seem to be a valid reason for raising e-book prices. E-books are vastly different than traditional printed books: you cannot lend an e-book to a friend, or sell it to someone else, or even put it on a shelf in your home. There are no printing costs associated with e-books, either. Logically the price of e-books should remain lower than that of printed books. Amazon understands this, but publishers seem to have a more shortsighted view of the situation.

Publishers should be focusing on getting more e-book customers. Instead, they may be alienating current and potential future customers with this price increase.

Via PC World.

Apple’s latest device, the iPad, will be carried by AT&T when it is released. However, AT&T’s network is not the most reliable out there, as evidenced by the problems it has had since the iPhone’s release.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is concerned about the effect the iPad will have on the AT&T network. Last week, it posted the following on its blog:

With the iPad pointing to even greater demand for mobile broadband on the horizon, we must ensure that network congestion doesn’t choke off a service that consumers clearly find so appealing, or frustrate mobile broadband’s ability to keep us competitive in the global broadband economy.

Of course, it does not specifically mention AT&T by name, but there really is no doubt to whom the entry refers. AT&T’s network needs an upgrade that will probably cost around $18 billion. Apple apparently has faith in AT&T, at least judging by Apple COO Tim Cook’s comments.

The FCC blog entry also raises the question: will the FCC approve the iPad?

Via CoolTechZone, image via AT&T.

Lee Williams, CEO of Symbian Foundation, stated in an interview that he believes it is “very likely” that netbooks and tablets will start running Symbian in the next couple of years. Back in April, we blogged about the possibility that the smartphone OS would enter the netbook market. Now that Symbian Foundation has announced that the platform has gone open source, a process that involved the company negotiating with 200 third-party owners, the likelihood of the OS being ported to netbooks and tablet devices has increased even more.

Symbian supports both ARM and Intel x86 processors, and companies are beginning to experiment with the platform any which way they can to run it on a multitude of devices.

The source code is broken down into 108 packages, all of which can be downloaded here.

To read the full interview with Williams, click here.

Via ZDNet, image via GlobalThoughtz.

Apple’s recent unveiling of the iPad was more than a simple product announcement intended to make consumers want to buy Apple products. The event proved analysts with an opportunity to examine Apple’s focus.

In short, Apple’s focus is going to be on mobile devices. This may not come as a surprise, considering the success of the iPhone, a mobile device par excellence. Apple is going to make its own chipset for the iPad, is refusing to support Adobe Flash, and is emphasizing iTunes. All these signs point to the fact that Apple wants to give users a very specific kind of mobile computing.

Right now, Apple is the largest maker of mobile devices in the world. In the words of CEO Steve Jobs, “Apple is a mobile devices company.” The introduction of an Apple chipset for the iPad shows how the company is more and more focused on the integration between its hardware and its software and does not want to rely on third-party manufacturing.

Via San Francisco Chronicle, image via Apple.

LG’s new X20 was reviewed and accepted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today. It’s no X30, but it can hold its own. Running Windows 7 on a Intel Atom N450 1.66 GHz processor, it’s got 250 GB of HDD, 2 GB of RAM, and with its 1.3 MP webcam and HSPA 3G, you can Skype on the 10.1″ 1366 x 768 screen. The keyboard and trackpad are a bit small, but those are the flaws we accept when dropping cash on a netbook.

Apparently, one test report shows that there are various model numbers by the X20, presumably for different regions. Going by the user manual, this netbook will be released in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, China, Singapore, Korea and India. Mum’s the word on pricing or release date though.

Via WirelessGoodness

Netbooks are a curious thing: too large and powerful to be a smartphone, and too small and weak to be a computer, thus limited by lack of portability against the former and just plain limited compared to the latter. And yet they’re selling like hot cakes. Why?

Maybe it’s because they fill that happy medium between the power of a laptop and the portability of a phone. They allow one to carry around something not much heavier than a purse, that one can easily use to browse the web or write a paper, and quite frankly, those consist of at least 80% of what I do with a computer anyway.

Having a device that well let allow me do those two things (and do them well) while decreasing my dependence on power outlets neatly fills up that netbook-shaped hole in my life. But hey, you don’t have to take my opinion for it. Go try one for yourself.

MSI is taking advantage of the latest Intel Atom Pine Trail CPU with it’s Wind U135 netbook. The MSI Wind has a 250GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, and of course, the 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N450 running Windows 7 Starter Edition. The screen measures 10.1 inches with 1024×600 resolution and the Wind has an Integrated Intel GMA 3150 to take advantage of it. There’s also a six-cell battery option which delivers up to 7.5 hours of life.

The chiclet-style keyboard is designed well, with decent spacing between the keys for comfortable typing. The touchpad, though attractive in the aesthetic sense, is a bit on the small side and does not support multi-touch. Furthermore, while the keyboard keys may give you that satisfying feeling when you type on them, the mouse button unfortunately does not. The LCD screen is LED-backlit and does not skip or lag in full-screen mode, and the speakers are acceptable by netbook standards: high max volume but low sound quality.

Via ComputerShopper and InformationWeek, image via Engadget.

So yeah. I admit it. I had no clue as to what Newsy.com was until I read the wiki article. And now that I have, I might have to frequent their site more often.

Newsy is now available to download from the Intel AppUp Center for free, offering 2-3 minute news videos for quick and easy viewing for owners of netbooks with Intel Atom chips. Users of the app will enable users to share videos via the traditional methods – Twitter, Facebook, and email – as well view and post comments which are, needless to say, synced to the site. Considering that a netbook is made for people 0n-the-go and that Newsy is designed for the same,  this could easily become a hit. Of course, it’s also one of the first applications available for netbooks, so that might not be saying much. Still the iPhone app seems to be climbing the ladder, maybe we’ll see a repeat performance.

Via PRWeb, image via IELab.

This isn’t exactly a traditional article for a site that claims to write about netbooks, but considering the primary functions of netbooks – portability, accessibility, and convenience – I thought it would be worth writing about. If the number of computers you own is greater than one, read on.

Dropbox is one of many services that allow you to store your information online, a feat called cloud storage, which constitutes anything from that place you store those pictures of sexy wome – ahem – tax documents you don’t want your wife or kids finding, to essentially becoming the online equivalent of your backup drive. Dropbox is also available for smartphones – a special, mobile-optimized version for Blackberries and an app for iPhones, though this isn’t the first cloud app by Apple.

Where Dropbox rises head and shoulders above the crowd, though, is that while the actual storage is located or some remote server in a building somewhere, it’s also located as a physical folder on every machine that you’ve installed Dropbox on. A file dragged into this folder on one computer instantaneously exists not only on the cloud folder but also every other machine you have logged into Dropbox.

This is incredibly useful. Why? Start a paper on your desktop in the morning, continue on your netbook on the train, write the conclusion on your computer at work and finish editing on the train back. This is the future at work here, people.

Via Suntimes.com and TechCrunch

The latest security update from Microsoft will patch a bug in Windows that has existed for 17 years. It first appeared in Windows NT 3.1 and has been incorporated into most versions of Windows since then. The security update will also fix 25 other holes, five of which are critical.

The old bug was discovered by a security researcher at Google in January 2010. It involves a utility that allows new versions of Windows to run old programs. The researcher was able to exploit Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 due to this bug. Microsoft will patch the bug in its February security update.

The security update will also fix bugs in Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2004 (the Mac version of Office 2003). This update is not the largest released by Microsoft—the October 2009 security update fixed 34 flaws, eight of which were critical. Microsoft also has recently released a patch for a vulnerability in Internet Explorer that is thought to have led to the attacks on Google in China.

Via BBC News, image via BBC News.

Apple’s 27-inch iMac has had big problems, most of which Apple has not yet solved. The company is getting desperate and, in the latest move of the iMac saga, is offering to buy back defective iMacs from users in the UK.

Apple has been overwhelmed by complaints of yellow-tinted iMacs. No one is quite sure what is causing this problem—it could be an inherent LCD defect or a driver issue. Since this problem is so widespread, Apple has run out of replacement displays in the UK and is now offering to pay customers if they return their defective iMacs instead of try to get a replacement. Apple pays customers a 15 percent premium, which should be at least $300.

The whole thing is a public relations nightmare for Apple, mostly because these iMac problems have gone on for such a long time. Apple does seem to be handling the situation the best it can, though.

Via DailyTech, image via Gizmodo.

In the latest move of the Apple-Google battle, Apple has banned an iPhone app developer from using the word “Android” in the description of his app in the App Store.

The Flash of Genius app, developed by Tim Novikof, was a finalist in Google’s Android Developer Challenge, a contest that honors innovative apps. Novikof wanted to mention this fact in his description of the app, but Apple did not take too kindly to this. The app was rejected and Apple said it was not appropriate to mention the app’s success in the Android Developer Challenge.

Apple has caused controversy in the past for rejecting apps, including the Google Voice app and Google Latitude app. And this week, Apple raised some eyebrows by revealing a new policy that says developers are not allowed to make apps that use location data solely for location-based ads. Apple’s policies regarding the App Store have caused quite a bit of consternation amongst analysts.

Via PC World, image via PC World.

In response to Steve Jobs’ jabs at Adobe Flash, Adobe’s chief technology officer Kevin Lynch has defended Flash and accused Apple of not wanting to cooperate with his company and add Flash support for the iPhone and iPad.

Lynch wrote in a blog entry expressing Adobe’s willingness to enable Flash for the browsers on the iPhone and iPad if Apple would be willing to cooperate. Jobs recently said that Apple is unwilling to have Flash support on its mobile devices because Flash is too buggy. Lynch disagrees, saying that Flash is not released with known crash bugs and it could not have achieved its popularity if it were as buggy as Jobs says it is.

Furthermore, Flash will be available on all major smartphones—with the exception of the iPhone. Flash support could give iPhone competitors an edge.

Lynch also said that he does not see HTML 5 replacing Flash, though Steve Jobs does. 75 percent of video on the Internet uses Flash.

Though I do love Apple and Apple products, I agree with Adobe on this. The iPhone’s biggest flaw, in my opinion, is its lack of Flash support.

Via PC World, image via Adobe.