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Dell Inspiron Mini 12 -- the big-screen, thin $599 netbook 
The netbook designation was always a bit tricky, and it's hard to tell where the "under $600" Dell Inspiron Mini 12 fits in. As the name suggests, it has a 12.1 inch WXGA (1280 x 800) screen, where netbooks normally stop at 10.2 inches. However, like smaller netbooks, it has a cheap Intel Atom processor -- which is fine, but not the sort of thing you'd want in a workhorse notebook PC. The Mini 12 also has a 60GB or 80GB hard drive instead of a solid-state Flash drive, but that's needed to run Windows Vista. Dell says:Like its counterpart the Inspiron Mini 9, the Mini 12 is ideal for teens, tweens, travelers and "Tweeters" to surf the Web, chat with friends, blog, stream content, upload photos or enjoy online videos, music and games. APC magazine in Australia got a machine from Michael Dell and has a world first comprehensive review. APC points out that that the Mini 12 uses a Z-series Atom processor (either the Z520 or Z530) and Intel's low-power Poulsbo chipset. Which is clever, but has the major drawback that it limits you to 1GB of memory. Laptop magazine has played with a prototype and says: At less than an inch thick (according to Dell its .92-inches at its thinnest point) and weighing 2.7 pounds, I couldn't help but look at the Mini 12 and think of $1,500+ ultraportables like the MacBook Air and Voodoo Envy 133.The Inspiron Mini 12 was just about the same thickness as the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 I had brought to the meeting, and only a bit thicker than the .76-inch MacBook Air that one of the meeting attendees had on the table (see the photos in the gallery below). But that extra girth buys the Dell more ports -- 3 USB, full-size VGA out, a 3-in-1 card reader, along with a mic and headphone jack. Dell is launching the system in Japan, so it runs Windows Vista Home Basic, but as APC points out, the Windows Experience "rating of 1.0 doesn't give us much confidence". (You really shouldn't buy a notebook PC unless it rates better than 3.0.) Later, however, Dell also expects to offer the choice of Windows XP or Ubuntu.The Mini 12 isn't the only netbook to run Vista -- the HP 2133 does, too -- but it would be interesting to know the details of that particular deal. Vista usually costs much more than the netbook version of XP, making it hard to hit netbook-style price points. Maybe if you're shipping more than 10 million units a quarter, like Dell and HP, the volume discounts make Vista more affordable....Update: Dell UK says "The Inspiron Mini 12 will be available in UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Austria in mid-November via regional www.dell.com stores. Ubuntu and Windows XP operating systems also will be available before the end of the year, and availability will also expand to Spain and Italy." So it wil start with Vista preloaded.DellWindowsMicrosoftguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
The netbook designation was always a bit tricky, and it's hard to tell where the "under $600" Dell Inspiron Mini 12 fits in. As the name suggests, it has a 12.1 inch WXGA (1280 x 800) screen, where netbooks normally stop at 10.2 inches. However, like smaller netbooks, it has a cheap Intel Atom processor -- which is fine, but not the sort of thing you'd want in a workhorse notebook PC. The Mini 12 also has a 60GB or 80GB hard drive instead of a solid-state Flash drive, but that's needed to run Windows Vista. Dell says:Like its counterpart the Inspiron Mini 9, the Mini 12 is ideal for teens, tweens, travelers and "Tweeters" to surf the Web, chat with friends, blog, stream content, upload photos or enjoy online videos, music and games. APC magazine in Australia got a machine from Michael Dell and has a world first comprehensive review. APC points out that that the Mini 12 uses a Z-series Atom processor (either the Z520 or Z530) and Intel's low-power Poulsbo chipset. Which is clever, but has the major drawback that it limits you to 1GB of memory. Laptop magazine has played with a prototype and says: At less than an inch thick (according to Dell its .92-inches at its thinnest point) and weighing 2.7 pounds, I couldn't help but look at the Mini 12 and think of $1,500+ ultraportables like the MacBook Air and Voodoo Envy 133.The Inspiron Mini 12 was just about the same thickness as the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 I had brought to the meeting, and only a bit thicker than the .76-inch MacBook Air that one of the meeting attendees had on the table (see the photos in the gallery below). But that extra girth buys the Dell more ports -- 3 USB, full-size VGA out, a 3-in-1 card reader, along with a mic and headphone jack. Dell is launching the system in Japan, so it runs Windows Vista Home Basic, but as APC points out, the Windows Experience "rating of 1.0 doesn't give us much confidence". (You really shouldn't buy a notebook PC unless it rates better than 3.0.) Later, however, Dell also expects to offer the choice of Windows XP or Ubuntu.The Mini 12 isn't the only netbook to run Vista -- the HP 2133 does, too -- but it would be interesting to know the details of that particular deal. Vista usually costs much more than the netbook version of XP, making it hard to hit netbook-style price points. Maybe if you're shipping more than 10 million units a quarter, like Dell and HP, the volume discounts make Vista more affordable....Update: Dell UK says "The Inspiron Mini 12 will be available in UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Austria in mid-November via regional www.dell.com stores. Ubuntu and Windows XP operating systems also will be available before the end of the year, and availability will also expand to Spain and Italy." So it wil start with Vista preloaded.DellWindowsMicrosoftguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
Microsoft announces Azure Services Platform for the cloud
It's not called Strata, it's called Azure, but otherwise, Microsoft has just put up a press release, which provides a quick guide to the highlights of the first session at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.If you're a bit of a masochist, you might have tried following the keynote as live-blogged by "a cabal of bloggers from across a variety of sites and pubs." It says:Commentary will be brought to you in real time by Todd Bishop, TechFlash; Ed Bott, ZDNet; Kip Kniskern, Liveside; Rafael Rivera, Within Windows; Paul Thurrott, Windows Supersite; and Tom Warren, Neowin; and Long Zheng, Istartedsomething -- and yours truly. What, Windows commentaries from people who actually use Windows and know a bit about it? Not really an acceptable idea on the net, of course?.MicrosoftWindowsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
It's not called Strata, it's called Azure, but otherwise, Microsoft has just put up a press release, which provides a quick guide to the highlights of the first session at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.If you're a bit of a masochist, you might have tried following the keynote as live-blogged by "a cabal of bloggers from across a variety of sites and pubs." It says:Commentary will be brought to you in real time by Todd Bishop, TechFlash; Ed Bott, ZDNet; Kip Kniskern, Liveside; Rafael Rivera, Within Windows; Paul Thurrott, Windows Supersite; and Tom Warren, Neowin; and Long Zheng, Istartedsomething -- and yours truly. What, Windows commentaries from people who actually use Windows and know a bit about it? Not really an acceptable idea on the net, of course?.MicrosoftWindowsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
Bluehoo plays in an Azure skynet
Today, Microsoft announced its cloud computing infrastructure -- basically a cloud-based version of Windows Server 2008 -- at PDC, and a couple of people wondered if they could do anything with it. Quick answer: download Bluehoo, which "was born Friday 5th September 2008 at 2am and was the first non-Microsoft application running in Windows Azure."Download Bluehoo to your phone and it uses Bluetooth to discover "hoos" around you. You can check their profile, then it's up to you to start a conversation. You can, for example, go up to the blonde at the bar and ask if she can help you with your C# coding. Your little "hoo" (cartoon character) is blue if you're a boy and pink if you're a girl.Around 124,000 have signed up so far, but you are probably not close to one unless you are at PDC in Los Angeles. Or right in the centre of London where SportsDo is based.Sentient also developed SportsDo, "a GPS sports tracking system for your mobile phone which enables you to record your sporting activities while broadcasting live tracking stats to friends and family via the SportsDo web portal." It runs on Windows Mobile and Java phones, and PocketPCs. Mobile phonesMicrosoftWindowsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
Today, Microsoft announced its cloud computing infrastructure -- basically a cloud-based version of Windows Server 2008 -- at PDC, and a couple of people wondered if they could do anything with it. Quick answer: download Bluehoo, which "was born Friday 5th September 2008 at 2am and was the first non-Microsoft application running in Windows Azure."Download Bluehoo to your phone and it uses Bluetooth to discover "hoos" around you. You can check their profile, then it's up to you to start a conversation. You can, for example, go up to the blonde at the bar and ask if she can help you with your C# coding. Your little "hoo" (cartoon character) is blue if you're a boy and pink if you're a girl.Around 124,000 have signed up so far, but you are probably not close to one unless you are at PDC in Los Angeles. Or right in the centre of London where SportsDo is based.Sentient also developed SportsDo, "a GPS sports tracking system for your mobile phone which enables you to record your sporting activities while broadcasting live tracking stats to friends and family via the SportsDo web portal." It runs on Windows Mobile and Java phones, and PocketPCs. Mobile phonesMicrosoftWindowsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
How clean does Google want its homepage to be?
A few months ago, Google executive Marissa Mayer made an impassioned - not to mention lengthy and weirdly complicated - argument over on Google's blog about how much effort the company puts in to keeping its home page clean. It's sacred space, we were told: you can't add new stuff to it, because it makes the homepage all cluttered. And that's not Googley.The real idea was to explain that the company had decided to add a link to its privacy policies on the homepage - with the underlying implication being that privacy was so important it deserved space on that hallowed virtual wall.Except all that bluster means very little in the long run. After all, the company's supposed 28 word limit doesn't count promotional text - and we've had plenty of that recently. Indeed, just a few weeks after Mayer's post, we were suddenly treated to a big old link telling us to download Chrome, Google's new browser. It didn't last too long, but it was still there.And today I noticed another new addition: a link trying to get users to buy the T-Mobile G1/ You remember, the Google-powered phone.That link adds nine words - a 33% increase in wordcount. Not very Googley, really, is it?GoogleMobile phonesInternetguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
A few months ago, Google executive Marissa Mayer made an impassioned - not to mention lengthy and weirdly complicated - argument over on Google's blog about how much effort the company puts in to keeping its home page clean. It's sacred space, we were told: you can't add new stuff to it, because it makes the homepage all cluttered. And that's not Googley.The real idea was to explain that the company had decided to add a link to its privacy policies on the homepage - with the underlying implication being that privacy was so important it deserved space on that hallowed virtual wall.Except all that bluster means very little in the long run. After all, the company's supposed 28 word limit doesn't count promotional text - and we've had plenty of that recently. Indeed, just a few weeks after Mayer's post, we were suddenly treated to a big old link telling us to download Chrome, Google's new browser. It didn't last too long, but it was still there.And today I noticed another new addition: a link trying to get users to buy the T-Mobile G1/ You remember, the Google-powered phone.That link adds nine words - a 33% increase in wordcount. Not very Googley, really, is it?GoogleMobile phonesInternetguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
Ubuntu Linux is still a licence to lose money
Linux has always been a financial disaster on the desktop, and as Mark Shuttleworth -- the multimillionaire space tourist who bankrolls Ubuntu -- says in a conference call: "I don't think it will possible to make a lot of money, or maybe any money, selling the desktop." However, he is going to keep financing the operation for a while. He says, in CNet's report:"I have no objection to funding the business for another three to five years. I certainly have the patience to see us through any downturn. I think this downturn is going to be very good for Canonical... Canonical is not cash-flow positive, but our offering is very effective for those who want to pinch their pennies." Unfortunately, Ubuntu's main chance on the desktop has already come and gone. It would have been great if it had become the standard on netbooks. However, almost all the netbook manufacturers want to be able to tweak their adopted Linux and/or add their own software. Linux is now in decline on netbooks, and it looks as though it will never offer the same kind of comfortable, compatible cross-hardware platform as Windows. That kind of balkanisation, of course, ultimately destroyed Unix.Linuxguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
Linux has always been a financial disaster on the desktop, and as Mark Shuttleworth -- the multimillionaire space tourist who bankrolls Ubuntu -- says in a conference call: "I don't think it will possible to make a lot of money, or maybe any money, selling the desktop." However, he is going to keep financing the operation for a while. He says, in CNet's report:"I have no objection to funding the business for another three to five years. I certainly have the patience to see us through any downturn. I think this downturn is going to be very good for Canonical... Canonical is not cash-flow positive, but our offering is very effective for those who want to pinch their pennies." Unfortunately, Ubuntu's main chance on the desktop has already come and gone. It would have been great if it had become the standard on netbooks. However, almost all the netbook manufacturers want to be able to tweak their adopted Linux and/or add their own software. Linux is now in decline on netbooks, and it looks as though it will never offer the same kind of comfortable, compatible cross-hardware platform as Windows. That kind of balkanisation, of course, ultimately destroyed Unix.Linuxguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
A sign of the times: Second Life's property hike
Just a few days ago Linden Lab chief executive Mark Kingdon was saying that there was no credit crunch in Second Life, and boasting that one day in August had seen more than $L120m of economic activity inside the virtual world (that's more than $450,000, or £280,000).But perhaps he was a little optimistic. While most of the land you think of in Second Life is the sort that people can build huge towering virtual creations upon, Linden also offers so-called "OpenSpaces" - tracts of land that don't have much in them apart from grass, trees and fields. Basically it's a way to make your Second Life empire bigger without needing to build stuff on it: virtual estates that you can lord it over.But even open land has a cost - and Linden now says that people are hanging out too much in these areas, which in turn is using too much processing power, and as a result the price has had to go up. And not just up a little bit, but - as pointed out by Eric Krangel - it's rising by 66% from $75 to $125 a month.(yes, a month. I still find it almost impossible to bend my brain around the sums of money people will pay for presence there)So while the evidence there was no credit crunch inside Second Life might have been solid, but it seems fairly obvious that a real-world recession or depression will have an impact on virtual spaces like this. And raising prices won't go down well with money conscious customers. Kingdon is effectively the head of Second Life's central bank, an analogy pointed out by Wired chief Chris Anderson at Pop!Tech last week. Is this a gamble that will pay off? Will Linden need to be prepared for a bailout of its own?Virtual worldsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
Just a few days ago Linden Lab chief executive Mark Kingdon was saying that there was no credit crunch in Second Life, and boasting that one day in August had seen more than $L120m of economic activity inside the virtual world (that's more than $450,000, or £280,000).But perhaps he was a little optimistic. While most of the land you think of in Second Life is the sort that people can build huge towering virtual creations upon, Linden also offers so-called "OpenSpaces" - tracts of land that don't have much in them apart from grass, trees and fields. Basically it's a way to make your Second Life empire bigger without needing to build stuff on it: virtual estates that you can lord it over.But even open land has a cost - and Linden now says that people are hanging out too much in these areas, which in turn is using too much processing power, and as a result the price has had to go up. And not just up a little bit, but - as pointed out by Eric Krangel - it's rising by 66% from $75 to $125 a month.(yes, a month. I still find it almost impossible to bend my brain around the sums of money people will pay for presence there)So while the evidence there was no credit crunch inside Second Life might have been solid, but it seems fairly obvious that a real-world recession or depression will have an impact on virtual spaces like this. And raising prices won't go down well with money conscious customers. Kingdon is effectively the head of Second Life's central bank, an analogy pointed out by Wired chief Chris Anderson at Pop!Tech last week. Is this a gamble that will pay off? Will Linden need to be prepared for a bailout of its own?Virtual worldsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
Sinofsky talks about Windows 7 for netbooks
When showing the pre-beta version of Windows 7 at Microsoft's PDC in Los Angeles, Steve Sinofsky showed a debranded netbook running Windows 7. Ars Technica got him to confirm that Windows 7 was targeted at netbooks ("Of course!"). The site has put up the rambling conversation verbatim, but it contains a couple of interesting points. The core exchange is as follows:AT: Because that's been sort of the embarassing situation with XP's being extended, extended, extended and one of the drivers is the netbooks that Vista just won't fit on. SS: Well here's my view of it. So first, I'm not going to get into defining a netbook, let's just say many of these new, low-end PCs are selling with Vista on them. The model I got, that I was running today is available with Vista on it. The one I got all my friends as gifts, because you know, they're like gifts now. I put Vista Ultimate on all of them, I just upgraded Vista to Vista Ultimate. The key thing that really drove the XP installation where the very first ones of these netbooks tried to have only flash drives. The reality is that, for better or worse, Vista's disk footprint wasn't going to fit on 8GB of flash. And the reason for that is not anything to do with performance, or bloat or anything. We do a lot of really customer focused things, like we have a gigabyte and a half of printer drivers. So you might not want them, but boy they're really useful when you need them.Ars should have pushed a bit, because really there is only one version of Vista, and that's Vista Ultimate. If you have a cheaper version, Microsoft will be happy to sell you an "in place upgrade" over the phone.Presumably, Microsoft will also come up with a "Netbook Win 7" at a suitably low price, because netbook manufacturers are paying less than half as much for XP under Microsoft's ULCPC deal as they would pay for Vista -- or, indeed, they used to pay for XP. But if they do, that's likely to make Windows 7 less profitable than Vista, and it will be interesting to see how Microsoft tackles that problem. Possible answers include: by adding a subscription element; and by using Windows to display advertising.WindowsMicrosoftguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
When showing the pre-beta version of Windows 7 at Microsoft's PDC in Los Angeles, Steve Sinofsky showed a debranded netbook running Windows 7. Ars Technica got him to confirm that Windows 7 was targeted at netbooks ("Of course!"). The site has put up the rambling conversation verbatim, but it contains a couple of interesting points. The core exchange is as follows:AT: Because that's been sort of the embarassing situation with XP's being extended, extended, extended and one of the drivers is the netbooks that Vista just won't fit on. SS: Well here's my view of it. So first, I'm not going to get into defining a netbook, let's just say many of these new, low-end PCs are selling with Vista on them. The model I got, that I was running today is available with Vista on it. The one I got all my friends as gifts, because you know, they're like gifts now. I put Vista Ultimate on all of them, I just upgraded Vista to Vista Ultimate. The key thing that really drove the XP installation where the very first ones of these netbooks tried to have only flash drives. The reality is that, for better or worse, Vista's disk footprint wasn't going to fit on 8GB of flash. And the reason for that is not anything to do with performance, or bloat or anything. We do a lot of really customer focused things, like we have a gigabyte and a half of printer drivers. So you might not want them, but boy they're really useful when you need them.Ars should have pushed a bit, because really there is only one version of Vista, and that's Vista Ultimate. If you have a cheaper version, Microsoft will be happy to sell you an "in place upgrade" over the phone.Presumably, Microsoft will also come up with a "Netbook Win 7" at a suitably low price, because netbook manufacturers are paying less than half as much for XP under Microsoft's ULCPC deal as they would pay for Vista -- or, indeed, they used to pay for XP. But if they do, that's likely to make Windows 7 less profitable than Vista, and it will be interesting to see how Microsoft tackles that problem. Possible answers include: by adding a subscription element; and by using Windows to display advertising.WindowsMicrosoftguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
HP picks Intel Atom for new Mini 1000 netbooks, but they're not upgrades on the Mini-Note 2133
HP got into the netbook market six months ago with the HP2133, but its original machine ran Vista on a slow Via C7 processor. (See my mini-review.) Now the world's biggest PC maker has followed Asus and others with the HP Mini 1000 series, which runs Windows XP on a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor. Prices start at $399.99. HP's sales blurb says:The HP Mini 1000 is the perfect on-the-go companion for the ultra-mobile consumer. Stay connected with more people, in more places. Our HP Mini is available with an 8.9" or 10.2" diagonal display, weighs only 2.25 lb., and has a nearly full sized keyboard. Personal computing just got a whole lot smaller. The basic price gets you an 8.9 inch screen and half a gig of memory. It costs an extra $50 for the 10.2 inch screen (but it still does WSVGA: ie 1024 x 600 pixels), and an extra $25 to get 1GB of memory. Since the Flash drive is only 8GB, you may also want to pay an extra $40 for a 16GB solid state drive or $50 for a slow (4,200 RPM) 60GB hard drive. However, a fully expanded version does not look very competitively priced. Also, you can't upgrade the operating system to Vista (a Linux version will appear later) or upgrade the Intel 950 graphics, and there's no long-life battery.However, you can get a special Vivian Tam edition, which is red and peonic. HP announced this on September 9 (press release) when "Vivienne Tam and HP unveiled the design of the new must-have digital clutch on the catwalk today at Tam's fashion show during New York's Fashion Week at Bryant Park." It says:The peony design features a unique blend of Asian and Western cultures, antiquity and modern style, technology and fashion. It was inspired by Tam's "China Chic" style, which is recognized from the runways in Milan to the Olympics in Beijing and represents her personal mantra to live well and be beautiful.Gizmodo has pictures of the machine, but not the fashion show. Funny idea.However, the HP2133 was a solid and beautifully made bit of kit. The Mini 1000 looks like a standard plastic netbook, and it looks like something that HP has bought in from one of the usual Taiwanese netbook suppliers. In other words, I'm guessing that it's a bit of badge-engineering, where the 2133 was real HP engineering. Sure, the HP2133 is bigger, but its aluminium/magnesium construction, quality keyboard, scratch-resistant WXGA screen, Windows Vista and $1,500 look-and-feel make it a much more desirable machine ? if HP would just upgrade the spec a bit. Fitting an Atom would be a start, but there's a petition asking for a Nano CPU, an nVidia MCP79u GPU, and a 6-cell battery, which would make it a killer product. But don't get your hopes up: the petition has only 33 signatures.GadgetsComputingguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
HP got into the netbook market six months ago with the HP2133, but its original machine ran Vista on a slow Via C7 processor. (See my mini-review.) Now the world's biggest PC maker has followed Asus and others with the HP Mini 1000 series, which runs Windows XP on a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor. Prices start at $399.99. HP's sales blurb says:The HP Mini 1000 is the perfect on-the-go companion for the ultra-mobile consumer. Stay connected with more people, in more places. Our HP Mini is available with an 8.9" or 10.2" diagonal display, weighs only 2.25 lb., and has a nearly full sized keyboard. Personal computing just got a whole lot smaller. The basic price gets you an 8.9 inch screen and half a gig of memory. It costs an extra $50 for the 10.2 inch screen (but it still does WSVGA: ie 1024 x 600 pixels), and an extra $25 to get 1GB of memory. Since the Flash drive is only 8GB, you may also want to pay an extra $40 for a 16GB solid state drive or $50 for a slow (4,200 RPM) 60GB hard drive. However, a fully expanded version does not look very competitively priced. Also, you can't upgrade the operating system to Vista (a Linux version will appear later) or upgrade the Intel 950 graphics, and there's no long-life battery.However, you can get a special Vivian Tam edition, which is red and peonic. HP announced this on September 9 (press release) when "Vivienne Tam and HP unveiled the design of the new must-have digital clutch on the catwalk today at Tam's fashion show during New York's Fashion Week at Bryant Park." It says:The peony design features a unique blend of Asian and Western cultures, antiquity and modern style, technology and fashion. It was inspired by Tam's "China Chic" style, which is recognized from the runways in Milan to the Olympics in Beijing and represents her personal mantra to live well and be beautiful.Gizmodo has pictures of the machine, but not the fashion show. Funny idea.However, the HP2133 was a solid and beautifully made bit of kit. The Mini 1000 looks like a standard plastic netbook, and it looks like something that HP has bought in from one of the usual Taiwanese netbook suppliers. In other words, I'm guessing that it's a bit of badge-engineering, where the 2133 was real HP engineering. Sure, the HP2133 is bigger, but its aluminium/magnesium construction, quality keyboard, scratch-resistant WXGA screen, Windows Vista and $1,500 look-and-feel make it a much more desirable machine ? if HP would just upgrade the spec a bit. Fitting an Atom would be a start, but there's a petition asking for a Nano CPU, an nVidia MCP79u GPU, and a 6-cell battery, which would make it a killer product. But don't get your hopes up: the petition has only 33 signatures.GadgetsComputingguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
Xbox 360's "new experience" gets good reviews
Microsoft is letting people try the New Xbox Experience (NXE) that existing users will get on November 19, and it seems to have been well received. It's a whole new interface based, like the Wii, on avatars, though you can also use a Quick Launch menu system instead. Engadget says:The look is sophisticated and spacious, with soft gradients, smooth fades, and classy design touches throughout. From a visual standpoint, the NXE is roughly ten million times more pleasant and accessible than the previous version.The new interface also brings new features, including a Netflix video channel that lets you watch streaming movies free (if you're a Gold member with a Netflix subscription), including HD content.In New Xbox Experience (NXE) Review: It's Pure Improvement, Gizmodo says:Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether or not you like NXE, since we're all going to be forced to update the firmware to connect to Xbox Live. But luckily, NXE is an all-around upgrade from the old 360 OS?which really wasn't so bad in its own right.NXE is faster, prettier and more functional than its predecessor. It brings us avatars and Netflix, full game installs and more robust multiplayer. Truth be told, we could have been shown NXE as the operating system behind the Xbox 720, and life wouldn't have been so bad. Instead, we get it a few years early. And we consider ourselves lucky.Engadget's wrap up says:Overall we're highly impressed with what Microsoft has done. This isn't just PR-speak or phony praise -- the company has demonstrated a tremendous understanding of the needs of the market and its customers, both with this software update, and the recent price cuts on the low-end Xbox 360 packages. If this is "just the beginning" -- as the team claims it is -- we're going to see some pretty exciting stuff in the future. For now, however, the combo of rock-solid, next-gen game console, multi-tiered entertainment delivery system, and robust social networking engine leaves little to be desired. Let's just hope that developers can live up to the system's potential.Joystiq has Video tour: New Xbox Experience Exposed, which provides a bunch of videos to take you through the new system. It's very unusual for a console to get a complete software makeover three years into its career. (I can't remember it happening before.) I can't imagine it would be happening unless Microsoft was planning a big Christmas push to exploit the lower price points it's got from its new chips and Jasper motherboard. Realistically, however, the name of the game now is to be much the best-selling console after Nintendo runs out of stock?.GamesMicrosoftguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
Microsoft is letting people try the New Xbox Experience (NXE) that existing users will get on November 19, and it seems to have been well received. It's a whole new interface based, like the Wii, on avatars, though you can also use a Quick Launch menu system instead. Engadget says:The look is sophisticated and spacious, with soft gradients, smooth fades, and classy design touches throughout. From a visual standpoint, the NXE is roughly ten million times more pleasant and accessible than the previous version.The new interface also brings new features, including a Netflix video channel that lets you watch streaming movies free (if you're a Gold member with a Netflix subscription), including HD content.In New Xbox Experience (NXE) Review: It's Pure Improvement, Gizmodo says:Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether or not you like NXE, since we're all going to be forced to update the firmware to connect to Xbox Live. But luckily, NXE is an all-around upgrade from the old 360 OS?which really wasn't so bad in its own right.NXE is faster, prettier and more functional than its predecessor. It brings us avatars and Netflix, full game installs and more robust multiplayer. Truth be told, we could have been shown NXE as the operating system behind the Xbox 720, and life wouldn't have been so bad. Instead, we get it a few years early. And we consider ourselves lucky.Engadget's wrap up says:Overall we're highly impressed with what Microsoft has done. This isn't just PR-speak or phony praise -- the company has demonstrated a tremendous understanding of the needs of the market and its customers, both with this software update, and the recent price cuts on the low-end Xbox 360 packages. If this is "just the beginning" -- as the team claims it is -- we're going to see some pretty exciting stuff in the future. For now, however, the combo of rock-solid, next-gen game console, multi-tiered entertainment delivery system, and robust social networking engine leaves little to be desired. Let's just hope that developers can live up to the system's potential.Joystiq has Video tour: New Xbox Experience Exposed, which provides a bunch of videos to take you through the new system. It's very unusual for a console to get a complete software makeover three years into its career. (I can't remember it happening before.) I can't imagine it would be happening unless Microsoft was planning a big Christmas push to exploit the lower price points it's got from its new chips and Jasper motherboard. Realistically, however, the name of the game now is to be much the best-selling console after Nintendo runs out of stock?.GamesMicrosoftguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
Less is more for TV ads... or is it?
Spinning off a big PR push by the TV website Hulu (sort of like iPlayer, but for American commercial TV) a few pundits are throwing around the idea that less might be more in advertising. It all comes out of some figures put out by Hulu - repeated by the New York Times' Brian Stelter, suggesting that fewer ads might mean each ad is more effective. The implication? Perhaps running fewer ads might have the same affect on ordinary TV. Even that venerable tome Valleywag is behind the idea - usually cause for concern).It's an easy call to make - after all, American TV is plagued by advertising (a lot of it, frankly, terrible). And Hulu is a really good service: I've only started using it properly since I moved to the US and it's been a revelation (certainly just as important as iPlayer has been in the UK). I'd love to get rid of all those ads, but suggesting it would balance out in the long run is precisely the sort of 1+1=3 web perspective that leads to bad decisions and bankruptcy. After all, Hulu still doesn't turn a profit even when its not paying the millions it costs to produce the TV shows in the first place. Advertisers might like the idea of more effective ads, but will they pay more money for such a service? And, unless they can find a way to show fewer spots and actually turn that into profit, why would you bother?Digital videoInternetTelevisionguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11
Spinning off a big PR push by the TV website Hulu (sort of like iPlayer, but for American commercial TV) a few pundits are throwing around the idea that less might be more in advertising. It all comes out of some figures put out by Hulu - repeated by the New York Times' Brian Stelter, suggesting that fewer ads might mean each ad is more effective. The implication? Perhaps running fewer ads might have the same affect on ordinary TV. Even that venerable tome Valleywag is behind the idea - usually cause for concern).It's an easy call to make - after all, American TV is plagued by advertising (a lot of it, frankly, terrible). And Hulu is a really good service: I've only started using it properly since I moved to the US and it's been a revelation (certainly just as important as iPlayer has been in the UK). I'd love to get rid of all those ads, but suggesting it would balance out in the long run is precisely the sort of 1+1=3 web perspective that leads to bad decisions and bankruptcy. After all, Hulu still doesn't turn a profit even when its not paying the millions it costs to produce the TV shows in the first place. Advertisers might like the idea of more effective ads, but will they pay more money for such a service? And, unless they can find a way to show fewer spots and actually turn that into profit, why would you bother?Digital videoInternetTelevisionguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsTechnology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk, 2008-10-31 22:05:11