Crave

(Credit: SilverPac)

OEM manufacturer SilverPac has announced its latest digital photo frame, the SilverFrame, at the Computex tradeshow in Taipei, Taiwan. Before you brush this gizmo aside as "just another digital picture display," stop right there.

The 10.1-inch touch-screen-operated SilverFrame is probably the most advanced digital photo frame we have seen. It runs Windows CE 6.0 R2 with 512MB of RAM and supports Microsoft applications such as Windows SideShow and Live FrameIt. This means you can also surf the Web and access instant-messaging clients such as MSN.

As it is Wi-Fi-enabled, the SilverFrame (PDF) can view pictures and videos stored on social-networking sites such as Facebook, Flickr, and Picassa. It also has Bluetooth to receive images sent from your mobile phone, which can be stored in the 1GB onboard memory. As with most other digital photo frames, the SilverFrame has a multicard reader and micro USB/USB ports to import images from cameras.

According to SlashGear, the SilverFrame is on display at Microsoft's booth at Computex. But since SilverPac is just an OEM manufacturer, the company is now waiting for other firms to pick up the design.

Other noteworthy features:

There's been some buzz this week around Pixel Qi's 3qi display technology, which integrates e-paper attributes with LCD to create a versatile and potentially very energy-efficient screen. The idea is that with a flip of a button you can go from a traditional high-resolution color LCD experience to a low-power black and white mode to an even more energy-efficient e-paper mode that allows you to easily view text in bright sunlight.

This week the technology was demonstrated at Computex in Taiwan, and it seems very impressive. If these types of displays can be produced cost-efficiently, they may revolutionize the notebook and e-reader market. We're probably at least a year away from seeing devices with Pixel Qi's 3qi displays, but at least the company has some promising prototypes to show off and John Ryan, Pixel Qi's COO and vice president of sales of marketing, claims the technology is more mature than you'd think.

Check out the video and feel free to comment on how revolutionary you think this is--or isn't.

Additional reading: PixelQi puts three displays in one

(Source: Techvideoblog.com via Engadget)

Smartbooks: a different beast than Netbooks? (conceptual design from Freescale)

(Credit: Freescale Semiconductor)

While many eyes are on E3, Taiwan's Computex conference is more quietly generating some interesting news on the future of Netbooks and laptops that will eventually make their way stateside. For a peek into the crystal ball of mobile computing, let's take a look at what's been announced in Taipei, Taiwan, this week.

Mobile-phone-based Netbooks are growing: "Smartbooks," as they're being called by companies like Qualcomm, seem to be this year's Netbook. It's mostly a naming convention shift: ARM processors based on smartphone chips, like Qualcomm's Snapdragon, were demoed on Asus Eee PC Netbooks--running Android, no less. While Snapdragon competitor Freescale Semiconductor, who makes an ARM-based iMX515 processor, predicts hybrid Smartbooks that will look like tablets, others see them being even more portable Netbooks.

Regardless of the processor, companies are finally announcing the release of honest-to-goodness Android Netbooks, running a laptop-based version of the Google-created smartphone OS, later this year. Acer took the leap by confirming their release of Android Netbooks by the third quarter of this year, suddenly accelerating the "Android on Netbooks" argument we've been having on CNET. Is Android really a better OS solution? The point may be moot for laptop manufacturers such as Acer who are also entering the smartphone space, and are mostly likely interested in targeting Google for an across-the-board mobile OS option on their future devices. According to Acer, "a majority" of their Netbooks will run Android as an alternative to Windows. ... Read more

(Credit: SanDisk)

The Computex trade show, which opens Tuesday in Taipei, Taiwan, could also be known as Netbook-pallooza. It seems as if every tech company has something related to the rapidly growing category of mini-notebooks to announce there.

SanDisk is one of them, and though the company doesn't make a Netbook, it is eager to hitch its wagon to this PC trend. On Monday afternoon, the company is preparing to launch two new Netbook-centric products at the show: an SD card sold specifically for Netbooks, and its second-generation pico SSD, or PSSD.

The SD card will be available in storage capacities of 8GB and 16GB. SanDisk went with the SD specification because "95 percent of Netbooks have an SD card slot," and this way portable storage wouldn't take up one of the few USB ports the devices usually have, senior product manager Susan Park said.

It's also another way to make Netbooks even less expensive that they already are, according to Don Barnetson, SanDisk's senior director of marketing, by making additional storage portable instead of increasing the size of a hard drive or solid-state drive inside the machine itself.

And when you do that, more and more mobile carriers will start offering Netbooks for sale subsidized by wireless contracts, bringing the cost to consumers down.

"Netbooks with ARM processors, coupled with Linux, and SSDs, could get to a $199 price point, which could be free with a subscription," he said. Barnetson thinks this will start to happen more frequently in the U.S. next year.

Once carriers are subsidizing Netbooks for free or almost free, then it would be in those carriers' interest to upsell Netbook buyers on things like SD cards for expandable storage, and other add-ons.

SanDisk also officially announced the availability of its PSSD, first announced at CES in January, to its original equipment manufacturing partners. SanDisk declined to name who would be offering its PSSD drive in new notebooks at this time.

(Credit: Crave Asia)

When we first set eyes on the PMP projector, we thought how cool it would be if the same feature could be incorporated into a laptop. Asus seems to share the same sentiment as it showcased a prototype with a swiveling projector where a Webcam would have been.

No details on the resolution or brightness were available, but from the photo we snapped at Computex in Taiwan, it's apparent that the current iteration will be viable only in total darkness. Moreover, the top bezel of the LCD is so wide, it results in a 12.1-inch portable having a 15.4-inch footprint.

(Source: Crave Asia)

Pictures of the Eee Monitor, the upcoming all-in-one desktop PC from Asus, have surfaced.

A PC World reporter at the Computex trade show in Taipei snapped a few photos of a company slide showing the Eee Monitor. Head here for the images.

It appears quite iMac-esque--shiny and white with a minimalist design. And although Asus isn't confirming a price just yet, it's a fair assumption that the Monitor, part of Asus' low-cost Eee line, won't have an iMac-esque price tag.

Details surfaced in January suggesting a $499 price point. The Eee Monitor is supposed to use Intel's Shelton platform and include a TV tuner, and a display between 19 inches and 21 inches.

It should be available in September, which is almost a year after new all-in-one PCs from Dell and Gateway began to hit the market.

(Credit: Acer)

At Computex 2008 in Taipei, the biggest buzz is about the developing new market for mini-laptops, sub-notebooks, "netbooks"
--whatever you want to call them. They're smaller than traditional laptops but larger than PDAs. Tech hearts are also going "buh-boom" over the revolutionary new chips running these tiny PCs of joy. To see what's being shown off at the international trade show, click here.

(Credit: GPS Business News)

Mio Technology is hoping to take GPS to new places, more specifically, beyond the car. At Computex 2008 (Asia's largest technology trade show), Mio unveiled a new concept product called the "PND (portable navigation device) camera" that integrates a GPS radio into a digital camera. Details and specs are pretty light at the moment, but according to GPS Business News, the device will feature a 3.5-inch touch screen and with the two integrated technologies, the camera will be able to geotag your photos.

Now, this isn't a completely novel idea. We've seen GPS modules that you can add to cameras, such as the Pharos Trips & Pics and the Sony GPS-CS1KA, to get this functionality. However, Mio's device aims to do away with extra accessories and let you carry just one do-it-all gadget. No word on when the camera will be available and even if it will make its way to the States, but perhaps SiRF Technology founder Kanwar Chadha's prediction is coming true? Will 2008 be the year where we see major manufacturers integrate GPS into digital cameras? And do you think this is a good idea?

(Credit: Nvidia)

Laptop gamers usually have a pretty serious case of desktop envy when it comes to their graphics cards, especially since even midprice desktops can sport water-cooled SLI dual-card setups these days.

It's actually gotten a bit better lately, as laptop gamers have had access to Nvidia's GeForce 8800 technology--putting them in the same general ballpark as the desktop cards. But when desktop PCs got the latest GeForce 9800 cards a few months ago, we were again feeling a little left out.

Today at Computex, the computer trade show in Taiwan, Nvidia unveiled a new lineup of laptop GPUs, called the GeForce 9M Series. The new chips run from the GeForce 9100M through 9600M GT (sorry, no 9800 yet), and offer many of the same benefits found on Nvidia's latest desktop offerings, including Hybrid SLI, which allows a discrete GPU and an integrated GPU to work together. Also worth noting: These cards aren't officially spec'd for DirectX 10.1. Nvidia says, "DirectX 10.1 is a collection of incremental feature additions beyond DirectX 10, some of which GeForce 8/9/200 Series GPUs already support, but not all."

The new GPUs fall into three main categories, and will be available in laptops starting this summer.

Performance
GeForce 9600M GT
GeForce 9600M GS
GeForce 9500M G

Mainstream
GeForce 9400M
GeForce 9300M GS
GeForce 9200M GS

Value
GeForce 9100M G