LG Focused on Android Tablet for Q4 2010

Who loves Android! I know I do! Windows seven tablets still have be squinting my eyes and wondering about battery life and User Interface. Well LG already has a Windows 7 tablet, LG has just announced [Read more]

Dell working on convertible netbook tablet with ARM

Android Central have obtained a roadmap that shows a few new items. Meego Netbooks and MIDs, Tablet a netbook and then a super thin 11-incher, which can weigh less than 900 grams. The “Sparta” netbook tablet and “Athens” a 0.9-kilogram “true netbook”, with an ARM processors, optional 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth.

What is a Netbook Tablet? We can only guess, because the image of the roadmap suggests a really bold design. With a 11-inch (1024 × 768) display (which appears in the display frame is rotated!), ARM CPU and UMTS model it is more a Smartbook tablet, right?

About the release dates we are a little confused, because it is rather unusual to see a road map that extends over 21 months. The Sparta and Athens are due on the market in autumn 2011. However our friends at Engadget say this year as this roadmap seems to contradict alot of other information. There are idications that this is an older road map because of the moblin logo when they should be using a MeeGo logo.

We already know about a other items on this roadmap like the Dell Streak which is going to appear with T-Mobile (confirming an earlier report) and Vodafone. While towards the end of the year, China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile to bring the Dell Streak in China in the market.

The 7-inch Tablet Dell Looking Glass Pro looks like the big brother to the “normal” Looking Glass with a HD digital TV tuner is expected to arrive in the first Quarter of 2011 and the standard model in the fall.

Via NetbookNews.de

Intel considering value SSD’s for netbooks

According to a slide we bumped into over at XFastest, a Taiwanese hardware community, Intel is working on “value” SSD’s for small form factor devices. These SSD’s will offer “good enough” performance, but we’re wondering if Intel isn’t just a little bit late into the game.

Oddly enough, Intel seems to be working on SLC based SSD devices that rely on the SATA interface with a capacity of 8-16GB+ with an expected launch some time in 2010. The SSD’s should have a read performance of about 40MB/s and a write performance of about 30MB/s, both being no better than your average hard drive.

We’re not really following Intel’s logic here, especially as Microsoft has said no to hybrid storage solutions on netbooks. This might change with the launch of Windows 7, but no-one really wants a primary drive that’s limited to 8 or 16GB. Everyone knows that Windows tend to “grow” as you install applications, even if they’re not installed on the same drive as Windows. Furthermore, in a hybrid storage scenario, you need to install your key applications onto the SSD, since to gain the battery life advantage, you need to switch off the hard drive.

This roadmap might be a little bit dated though, as Intel is getting ready to launch 320GB SSD’s in the 2.5-inch form factor and there’s no mention of such a device. The integrated NAND module is unlikely to make it to the netbook market for now, as it’s intended for high-performance notebooks and some desktop systems that will arrive later this year, or early next year.

We hope to see more netbooks with SSD’s as standard, but until the pricing come down to more reasonable levels, this is unlikely to happen. However, even a 32 or 64GB SSD should be plenty for most netbook users and we expect the market to head this way sooner or later.