Could Intel's new Moblin 2.1 OS make a dent against Windows in the mobile and desktop markets?
At this week's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, the chipmaker debuted a beta version of its Moblin 2.1 open-source operating system targeted to run on a variety of devices, including smartphones, Netbooks, nettops, Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), and in-car systems.
Moblin 2.1 will compete with other open-source operating systems like Google's Android and bump up against Microsoft in the burgeoning nettop arena.
Originally developed for Netbooks, Moblin 2.1 (short for mobile Linux) will come in three flavors--one for handhelds, another for Netbooks, and a third for nettops.
In the market for handheld gadgets such as smartphones and MIDs, Moblin 2.1 will run on Atom chip-based devices. The beta demoed by Intel at IDF showed off capabilities for touch-screen and gesture input. The new interface will also let users switch among different open applications and will provide shortcuts to social-networking apps.
The Moblin 2.1 Web browser will also support Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight 3 technology to run interactive Web-based apps.
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Rafe Needleman/CNET News)
This week's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco kept us all busy this week, with plenty of new components and products that use them. We'll start off with the event host, Intel, which announced small-form-factor versions of its Centrino 2 processors (that should ignite plenty of rumors about a Centrino 2-based MacBook Air). Intel also broke out a SATA solid-state drive and announced a dual-core version of its Atom processor, due next month. The company also showed off an update to its tiny Classmate PC, which will include a touch screen.
There were plenty of other manufacturers' Netbooks and UMPCs on display at the show as well; check out our photo gallery for a peek at all the little guys. We also got wind of more details about Dell's upcoming Netbook. Given the sheer number of these devices that are being released these days, is it any surprise that Intel reportedly expects to ship 20 million Atom processors this year? (If you're feeling overwhelmed with Netbook choices, check out our article on building the perfect Netbook.)
In product announcements, Lenovo refreshed the ThinkPad X300 with Centrino 2 and called it the ThinkPad X301; HP broke out some ultraportable EliteBooks; and Dell started decorating the cases of its Studio 15 and 17 laptops. Also, we filled in the gaps on the mobile workstation front with news about two new Dell Precisions.
In Reviews, we had a look at Dell's latest business system, the Latitude E6400. We also all but closed out our roundup of back-to-school laptops, where the Dell Studio 1535 took top honors in the sub-$1,000 category and the Gateway P-7811FX was declared king of the desktop replacements. In fact, the Gateway's $1,449 price tag was so low that it prompted us to wonder whether there's even a place for high-end expensive gaming laptops any more.
Also worth reading: Eric Franklin takes a look at Hydra multi-GPU technology from LucidLogix; Acer dropped the price of its Aspire One Netbook; NotebookReview continued its How It Works series with an explanation of graphics hardware; and David Carnoy wonders why tech companies have to make their product names so incoherent.
Have a great weekend!
But with Intel's new low-power and low-cost Atom CPU, the prices for these machines are coming down to almost reasonable levels. And many vendors, realizing that no standard mouse-and-keyboard-based UI is suitable for this form factor, are releasing their products with new, iPhone-like interfaces that are a better for their touch screen displays.
All the new ultramobiles come with wide-area networking technologies (either HSDPA, EVDO, or WiMax), which makes them potentially very interesting Web application platforms. To my knowledge, though, there are no HTML standards nor generally accepted guidelines for writing a Web app for a touch-screen interface, except for what Apple is doing. This will make using these products as Web clients frustrating at first.
Several of these new devices were on display at the Intel Developer Forum. Many of the products are currently for sale in Asian countries, but some are coming to the U.S. later this year or early next. Click through to the embedded gallery for a tour.
Intel finally announced its own SATA solid-state drive for notebook and desktop clients, and our secured lab has become a feeding frenzy of folks geeking out on the X25-M, just one of the SSD drives Intel introduced Tuesday at its Developer Forum in San Francisco.
The mainstream SSDs will come in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch models and both will use standard multilevel cell NAND flash memory that will hopefully translate to a lower cost-per-bit for the consumer.
As of the time of this announcement, Intel hasn't released pricing. We're crossing our fingers that the company will eventually price these drives within a reasonable range for the average consumer; most current 64GB SSDs fall around $800.
Along with the 80GB drive, Intel also sent over its own system benchmarks that show a 50 percent improvement in system performance as well as a 9x improvement in HDD performance. We'll obviously put these numbers to the test and report our own benchmark results along with a full review in early September.
The ThinkPad X301 will look pretty much the same as the X300 shown here.
When the Centrino 2-equipped ThinkPad X200 waltzed into our Labs and demonstrated not only impressive performance but also jaw-dropping battery life, we wondered when our other favorite ThinkPad, the X300, would be spruced up with Intel's latest components.
Turns out, we didn't have to wait long. Today Lenovo announced the ThinkPad X301, a component refresh to its popular 13.3-inch laptop. The new version will incorporate an ultra-low-voltage Core 2 Duo processor that's expected to be unveiled at the Intel Developer Forum this week. The ThinkPad X301 will also come equipped with DDR3 RAM, which (combined with the new processor technology) will make it "20 percent more powerful than the X300," according to the company.
Other enhancements include support for DisplayPort video output, a 128GB solid-state hard drive option (available in September), and, later this year, WiMax connectivity.
Pricing for the ThinkPad X301 starts at $2,599 and systems will be available from Lenovo beginning August 26.
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