Archive for June 3rd, 2008
Guess what? We’re off the Eee (and your mama) and onto the launch of the competition. This time, it’s Acer’s Aspire One. The Atom-based, 8.9-inch, 1024 x 600 pixel laptop runs your choice of XP or Linux and packs 802.11b/g WiFi, up to 1GB of memory, an 8GB SSD or 2.5-inch 80GB, SD card slot, and optional 6-cell battery. It’ll also sport an integrated WiMax module when the networks finally light up. Expected to hit the US in September for $399 (that’s still unofficial) with a 3-cell, 2200mAh battery, standard. Puhlease. A few more snaps after the break, the rest at Engadget Chinese.
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment
What do you get when you cross a portable navigation device and a cellphone? Dash Navigation’s answer is the $399 Dash Express, the most credible attempt yet to crack the ancient driver conundrum of figuring out what’s nearby and the best way to get to it. In doing so, it stands to elevate the portable navigation device from a glove compartment shut-in to a mobile mentor — one that Dash hopes that customers will find valuable enough to justify $10 (or more) per month on a service fees.
Dash’s cellular connectivity enables it to take a hybrid approach to traffic information. Routes for which Dash has available information are marked with either green, yellow or red lines depending on the heaviness of the traffic. Solid lines indicate that the data has been supplemented by the Dash driver network – cars that have Dash units sending information upstream in real time. Dashed lines convey information that Dash picks up via its historical traffic pattern information provider Inrix. Dash claims that it needs about 1,000 units in most cities to cover major routes, double or triple that for the largest US cities such as New York or Los Angeles.
Even with its emerging network, the Dash Express is surprisingly effective at routing around known trouble spots on the fly. And while it occasionally failed to pick up on congested stretches, on several occasions it was so accurate as to the emergence of traffic that the route turned red just as conditions forced the car to slow to a crawl. Even at its early stage, Dash certainly proves the concept of the traffic-routing prowess of a “live” GPS device.
Continue reading Switched On: Dash delivers open roads, open questions (Part 1)
Man, we’ve waited so long for Intel’s Silverthorne to become Atom to become product that we’re feeling a bit misty at the sight of all those Atom-based netbooks pictured above. Intensified by the fact that VIA has apparently come to the show without a single Nano-based netbook of its own. Hold tight while we await official word from Dell about their “mini-Inspiron” netbook expected sometime today.
Update: We found a VIA Nano device!
Here’s the moment many of you Eee-wannabees have been waiting for, the official announcement of the 10-inch, 1,204 x 600 LED-backlit MSI Wind. No surprises here on the leakiest of all netbooks. Still, when you consider that your $399 buys you a Linux-based system riding atop Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom processor, an 80GB 2.5-inch disk, 5.5-hour rated battery, 1.3-megapixel webcam, Bluetooth and 802.11b/g WiFi, it makes the $625 price of the Eee PC 1000(H) pretty tough to justify. Unless 802.11n and that beefier battery really do it for you. If the price doesn’t sway you then how about a review? Laptop magazine just published their thoughts on the $499 XP model and gave it their “editor’s choice” award calling the Wind “the best all-around mini-notebook to date.” Now the bad news: the XP Wind ships June 16th while the el-cheapo Linux version won’t ship until later this summer. Full press release and specs posted after the break.
Continue reading MSI Wind benchmarked and reviewed: now official alternative to Eee PC
Look out — here’s comes a couple more snoozers from Hitachi. Sure, the CP-X206 and CP-X306 3LCD projectors will find their place in the wild, wild world, but with a 1,024 x 768 native resolution, that place isn’t apt to be your home theater. Respectively, you’ll find 2,200 and 2,600 lumens, while they both offer up a 500:1 contrast ratio, built-in 7-watt speaker and 29 dB noise rating in Whisper Mode. Clearly designed with classrooms and offices in mind, Hitachi threw in some swank anti-theft functionality, remote monitoring / management and a 2,000-hour hybrid filter. We’ve all been left out of the loop in regard to pricing, but it’s not like this thing just rocketed up your list of must-have gizmos, right?
This isn’t the first odd-ball GPS concept we’ve seen from Mio. This time, we’ve got a personal navigation device (PND) teamed with a digital camera. The device features a 3.5-inch touchscreen, 8 megapixel CCD, and presumably some kind of integrated geo-tagging ability. On display now at Computex where Engadget Chinese has all the pics.
[Via PMP Today and GPS Business News]
Continue reading Mio’s navigator concept looks like a camera + GPS Po’ Boy
When Dell’s long-awaited Latitude XT finally hit the scenes, many were captivated by the idea of a daylight viewable screen on such a portable rig. Up until now, however, there’s been little analysis over which was actually superior. Granted, we aren’t saying that you can’t disagree firmly with GottaBeMobile’s assessment, but after checking each out for an extended period of time, Rob Bushway actually concluded that the LED-based machine was preferable. Aside from coming in a few ounces lighter, the LED-equipped unit didn’t seem to perform noticeably worse than the DLV counterpart, and even battery life was practically the same for each. Don’t take our word for it, though — check out the entire writeup (video included) in the read link below.
