ASUS announces DR-900 eReader

Dancing on the grave of Acer, who put the kibosh on their eReader plans mere days ago, ASUS have now announced a third eReader.

Mostly the same as the DR-950 we saw a few weeks ago, this model sports a 9″ touchscreen e-ink display with resolution of 1024×768, 4GB storage and support for all the major eBook formats.  This model also sports WiFi and 3G connectivity, so you can purchase books while you’re out and about.  The battery is rated for an impressive 10,000 pages turns (that’s enough to read the entire Harry Potter series twice, bookworms), and this model sports a headphone jack so you can have your books read to you in a soothing Text-to-Speech Engine brogue if that’s your thing.

No word on the all-important pricing and release dates yet, but hopefully all that will become clear over the next few days at CeBIT.

Via Engadget.

Intel and Nokia are reportedly planning nuclear “Penwell” CPU with 3G

Intel and Nokia have put each other in their 5 and are officially BFFs! Not only have they morphed their respective mobile Linux platforms into one melting pot to create Meego. But it doesn’t seem to end there as rumors are surfacing of a hardware collaboration too. It was announced the two companies seem to have a special processor in which to accommodate an x86 core, together with various other circuits on a chip. This is called “Penwell” and could be a combination of x86 CPU and 3G modem.

We are moving definitely in the realm of speculation with “Penwell”, the rumors are based on references that can be found on Google. What going on with this chipset is somewhat questionable. Charlie Demerijan from SemiAccurate reported that Nokia and Intel are working on a system-on-Chip (SoC) design. It is meant to be manufactured in 32-nanometer-scale nuclear core, code-named “Medfield” combined with a HSDPA / UMTS modem.

Such partnership would make strategic sense. Intel is looking to crack the mobile/smartphone market that is heavily dominated by ARM and Nokia wants to grow its mobile market share in the US as well as developing its netbooks. Sounds like an exciting venture if true and would fit very well with their MeeGo mobile operating system.

Source SemiAccurate Via NetbookNews.de

FON at Mobile World Congress 2010

FON is creating an open WiFi roaming network to cover the whole planet. At Mobile World Congress they are showing the new FON router that will be used by 3G carriers to give to consumers and upgrade the software functionality of smart phones to be able to carry some of the heavy video playback over WiFi networks rather than using up all the 3G bandwidth for that type of activity.

Thanks Again Charbax

Hands-on with the Compaq Airlife 100

Chippy from UMPCPortal has taken some time out from running around like a madman at MWC to sit down with the Compaq Airlife 100.  If you’ll recall this is the new Snapdragon-toting Netbook-form-factor-Smartbook, if thats not over-complicating things.  The Airlife 100 runs Android , has a 10.1″ Resistive touchscreen, and due to that lean Snapdragon under the hood has a claimed 12-hour battery life (Obviously take that with the usual battery-life-related pinch of salt).  The Airlife 100 also has built-in 3G, a card reader, 16GB SSD and a keyboard and touchpad specifically tailored for Android (The touchpad has Home and Back buttons alongside it, for instance).

If Compaq (or HP, as it’s likely to be branded in the US) can hit a good pricepoint for this device it could be a real hit.  See UMPCPortal’s hands-on below.

Netbook Navigator Nav9 Tablet launches for $799

It would appear the cost of removing the keyboard from a Netbook equals roughly a tripling in price these days.  The Nav9 tablet from Netbook Navigator starts at $799, sports a last-gen N270 processor, 2GB RAM, a 16GB SD (Upgradeable incrementally to 128GB), 802.11b/g/n, Intel GMA 950 Graphics, Bluetooth, a 1.3MP webcam, and a couple of USB ports all in an 8.9″ slate form factor running Windows 7 Home Premium.  The display is 1024 x 600 and supports multitouch.

You can also include a 3G antenna, or opt for a larger battery (the standard battery is a miserable 3 cell unit good for only 2.5 hours of runtime, the bigger one will get you 4 hours), with the top unit coming in at $1,399.  Even if you don’t like the iPad I think anybody of sane mind will stuggle with the idea of paying twice the price for a smaller tablet with a much shorter battery life.

Strangely, Netbook Navigator have put together a chart comparing the Nav9 to the iPad and the Archos 9 (which you can see here), which shows that although the Nav9 is arguably better equipped than the competition, it is heavier, smaller, and conveniently any mention of battery life is omitted.

Regardless, if this tablet presses your buttons you can order it right now from the Netbook Navigator website here.

Via Liliputing.

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