Crave

What can we say? We're in the giving spirit this holiday. Whether you like 'em or not, they're yours now! Happy Holidays, everyone!

EPISODE 118

My gift to me!

Nespresso Essenza Automatic Espresso and Coffeemakers with Nespresso Aeroccino Milk Frother

Cool party favor or life-saving tool? You be the judge

Blast Knuckles: For the woman on the go who needs that extra sense of security

Mobigrip gives you a firm grasp on your handhelds

Radio-controlled key finder makes life easy for the scatterbrained

Digital Spoon Scale, for obsessively accurate cooks

R2 Fish Training School Kit

PRETTY
Sun and Moon Jars

Update: This blog has been corrected to reflect that the Mini 1000 will be available Wednesday on HP.com, and in retail stores later.

The Mini 1000 MIE has a custom HP interface meant to hide its Linux OS from users.

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)

After a brief experiment in the education market, Hewlett-Packard on Wednesday is set to introduce a whole line of Netbooks for mainstream consumers.

The HP Mini 1000 comes in three versions, with starting prices ranging from $379 to $699, and will be available on HP.com starting Wednesday, with worldwide retailers to be announced later.

HP first dipped its toe into the mini-notebook market back in April with the Mini-Note 2133, which it claimed was strictly for K through 12 students and some business travelers. At the time, HP was adamant that this was not meant to play in the same arena as the consumer-oriented Netbook from Asus, the Eee PC. Though it won't break out the numbers, HP now says the sales of the 2133 "exceeded all expectations."

But the new HP Mini 1000, Mini 1000 MIE, and the Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Edition are very much intended for consumers. So what's changed in just six months? The look and feel of the Mini 1000 line isn't drastically different from the 2133, but the Netbook market has had a dramatic makeover, though it's more noticeable abroad than here in the U.S.

Vivienne Tam is truly accessorizing here.

(Credit: Laptopmag)

Hewlett-Packard and world-renowned Asian fashion designer Vivienne Tam have been working together to create the HP Vivienne Tam Special Edition notebook. However, anyone attending Tam's fashion show during New York's Fashion Week at Bryant Park Tuesday has probably already seen it.

The special-edition notebook--which looks to be an HP mini-note, except it's sporting a 10-inch screen--debuted with the usual fanfare a fashion show receives at Fashion Week, but with a high-tech twist.

Models sashayed onto the catwalk workin' the designer notebook as a clutch purse, while looking fierce in Tam's clothing.

The HPs 10-inch screen seems to be a reflective one.

(Credit: Laptopmag)

The notebook is gleaming red and bursting with peony flowers--a signature staple of Tam's collection--on the lid. The peony design is then meticulously carried inside the notebook, under the keypad. The laptop also features a extra special enter key that bears the Chinese symbol for double happiness. The design 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. The notebook also features a complimentary embroidered storage sleeve that helps keep the exterior protected while being carried as a clutch.

The "digital clutch" represents the first time a computer company has partnered with a fashion designer to create a notebook PC as well as have it debut at a fashion show. In addition to the design of the notebook, Tam worked with HP to design its accessories and packaging.

UPDATE: With headlines this week like "AMD jumps into the netbook game," it sounded very much like Advanced Micro Devices was making a belated entry into the netbook segment. But this isn't the case, according to AMD.

AMD chips are already used in a number of existing netbook-like designs like the 10-inch Red Fox Wizbook (above) and OLPC XO laptop.

(Credit: Red Fox)

An AMD spokesperson said that this photo of a purported AMD netbook is, in fact, just a small notebook from Raon Digital--not an AMD reference design.

"It is a Raon Digital product and will start production at the end of July," AMD spokesperson Phil Hughes said in response to an email query. "They have two models. One is TL-56 (Turion processor)-based and the other is Sempron 3700-based."

And Hughes said there are already a raft of netbook-like products in the market using AMD chips including the progenitor of this category of small, low-cost laptops, the One Laptop Per Child XO (OLPC) laptop (which uses the AMD Geode LX-700).

Other products include Red Fox Wizbook (which uses the LX-800), and Kohjinsha E8 (which also uses the LX-800).

So it isn't a question of AMD entering this market or not. It's already there. "Our journey with OLPC started three years ago," said AMD vice president Pat Moorhead. "We are in this market. But what we are (also) saying is that because we've learned a lot in this market, we see a much better opportunity in that 8 to 12 inch notebook space. As opposed to passing something off as a PC that is very un-PC like," Moorhead said.

Moorhead has listed pluses and minuses (mostly minuses) about the Asus Eee PC 8G netbook in his blog. He believes it is critical that netbook suppliers be clear about what the netbook lacks.

"Be very clear what (a netbook) can't do. With SSD flash versions it's not going to be able to sufficiently hold your audio collection. It prompted me to load (Windows) XP SP3 (service pack 3) and I only have a 167 megabytes remaining," he grumbled.

(Pat Moorhead's blog here.)

And AMD sees similar compromises that may disappoint users in the mobile Internet device (MID) category, too. But it's not that AMD is not a player. The company has shipped over 250 million Imageon processors to mobile handset suppliers that offer a wide range of devices including MID-like smartphones, according to Moorhead. "We licensed our intellectual property to Qualcomm, Nokia, STMicro, and Freescale. So we know that market pretty well," Moorhead said.

Intel, on the other hand, is pushing its Atom processor hard and finding a lot of interest in netbooks from companies like Acer, Dell, MSI, and a host of smaller companies.

Intel expects the market for low-cost computers to increase to 100 million units per year by 2011, according to Bloomberg, compared to the total worldwide notebook market that will hit 194 million units a year over the same period.

The proliferation at Computex of ultra-small, inexpensive netbooks poses this pesky question: why are traditional ultra-compact laptops so expensive?

The Asus Eee PC 1000 debuted this week with a 10-inch screen, 40GB solid state drive, and Windows XP. Pricing has been rumored at between $600 and $700.

Features and size threaten to push the Eee PC 1000 netbook into a category traditionally referred to as subnotebooks--with one glaring difference: price.

Subnotebooks like the 11-inch Lenovo IdeaPad or Sony Vaio TZ series typically start at above $1,500 and go up from there, ranging up to $3,000.

HP mini-note and traditional ultra-portable notebooks: both ultra-compact designs, but big price gap

(Credit: HP)

But as netbooks inevitably add more features, analysts and industry insiders are beginning to wonder what will happen to the traditional laptop category. "(If) you add more (gigabytes) of storage and a bigger screen, I don't know what makes this any different than a normal laptop," said Avi Cohen, a managing partner at Avian Securities.

Cohen said the obvious downside is a slower Atom processor--compared with a mainstream Core 2 chip--but on the upside Atom has better battery life. "Arguably there's a category of consumers that don't need such high processing power. Or, at least, a different kind of processing power," Cohen said.

Maybe many more than computer makers realize. Industry sources familiar with Intel's netbook strategy also see a potential clash of categories eventually. "Of course, it's always been a concern, as (netbooks) gets more and more traction," said one source familiar with Intel's thinking on this topic.

And as netbooks add more features and creep up in price, Intel has to worry about the market confusion that may ensue. "Is a $700 laptop, even running Atom, a netbook?"--the source asked. That may be the question that laptop vendors and Intel will have to grapple with as the netbook category grows.

(An Intel company blog back in March described the netbook as a small laptop "designed for wireless communication and access to the Internet. And they cost about $250, making Netbooks a potentially disruptive and high volume market segment.")

Of course, subnotebooks like the HP 2510p, Lenovo IdeaPad, and Sony Vaio TZ offer more features than today's netbooks: faster processors, more memory, bigger hard disk drives, and usually larger screens than a netbook like the HP Mini-Note.

But two forces may be working against this purported advantage: One, all of these features may be overkill for a lot of consumers who use traditional, pricey subnotebooks for only email and simple Web browsing. And, two, netbook makers may continue to expand their offerings to push them closer to subnotebooks while keeping the price low.

This is something that Glenn Henry, CEO of Centaur, the Via Technologies subsidiary that designed the Isaiah processor, has said. "The one gigahertz (Isaiah) is plenty powerful enough to do lots of things," Henry said. Via is also targeting the low-cost netbook category--and has been for some time. Its C7 processor is currently used in the HP Mini-Note 2133.

"If this category continues like it is, at the end of the year you may have mega hard drive-based netbooks," said the source familiar with Intel's strategy. "Let's say someone comes out with a really nifty (design), it's got some extra features, a bigger screen, and a few extra bells and whistles. I don't think that's a netbook even if it's running an Atom processor."

What is it then? That's the $64,000 question.

Sony is prepping a notebook based on Via's OpenBook reference design, PC World is reporting.

At the WiMax Expo taking place in Taipei, contract manufacturer Quanta Computer showed a mini-laptop based on Via's just-released design that will be out in the third quarter of this year. A sharp-eyed reporter spotted Sony as the listed manufacturer for the device. When questioned, Quanta representatives apparently clammed up, and it doesn't appear Sony will be commenting either.

The mini notebook has an 8.9-inch screen, at least an 80GB hard drive, will use a 1.6-Gigahertz C7-M processor from Via, and sports a VX800 chipset. The prototype on display was running Windows Vista Home Basic.

So has the Vaio maker finally caved? In February, a Sony exec said if the Eee PC started to do well, and major PC makers started to chase the low-cost laptop market, it was the beginning of "a race to the bottom."

Too late. Hewlett-Packard, Acer, and maybe even Dell, are joining the low-cost, lightweight computing fray. And those are just the big names. Asus continues to crank out Eee PCs, and similar devices from no-names like MSI are widely anticipated.

Sony likes to position itself and its products on the high-end. But it started producing a line of its Vaio notebooks last year that sold for as low as $800. At the time, the company said it wasn't interested in going any lower.

Things, of course, can change. And though low-cost laptops are still a tiny niche of the market, it is another way for manufacturers to differentiate their product lines as notebook prices and profit margins continue their inevitable decline.

(Credit: OLPC)

With all the attention we lavish on Netbook-style laptops such as the Asus Eee PC and the HP 2133 Mini-note, it's easy to forget that all these systems owe some of their DNA to the One Laptop Per Child project and founder Nick Negroponte's dream of getting a low-cost XO laptop into the hands of any student who needs one.

The original XO ended up having more impact as an influence than an actual product, as it was plagued by delays, price increases, and lowered expectations. But even if there are more Intel Classmate PCs and Eee PCs in the wild, don't count OLPC out just yet.

The group has said it is working on the next generation of XO laptops, and has released a few very intriguing photos and details for the XO 2.0. The most interesting part is clearly the dual touch-screens in place of a traditional keyboard and monitor. The publicity photos look a bit too sci-fi, and the final product (much like the original XO's early design mockups), will probably be somewhat more pedestrian.

The official press release points out four different areas where the new OLPC laptop will improve on the original:

Cost reduction - Set in early 2005, the original target price of the XO laptop was $100. Although that target has not yet been met (it is now at $188), it is clear that OLPC must aim for an even lower target price of $75. New developments in display, processor, and other hardware and software technologies will make it possible to achieve the $75 target in the future.

Lower power consumption - While the first generation XO laptop already requires just one-tenth (2-4 watts versus 20-40 watts) of the electrical power necessary to run a standard laptop, the XO-2 will reduce power consumption even further to 1 watt. This is particularly important for children in remote and rural environments where electricity is scarce or nonexistent. Lowering the power consumption will reduce the amount of time required for children to generate power themselves via a hand crank or other manual mechanisms.

Smaller footprint - The XO-2 laptop will be about half the size of the first generation device and will approximate the size of a book. The new design will make the XO laptop lighter and easier for children to carry with them to and from school or wherever they go. The XO-2 will continue to be in a green and white case and sport the XO logo in a multitude of colors that allow children to personalize the laptop as their own possession.

Enhanced book experience - Dual touch-sensitive displays will be used to enhance the e-book experience, with a dual-mode display similar to the current XO laptop. The design provides a right and left page in vertical format, a hinged laptop in horizontal format, and a flat two-screen wide continuous surface that can be used in tablet mode. Younger children will be able to use simple keyboards to get going, and older children will be able to switch between keyboards customized for applications as well as for multiple languages. The dual touch-display is being designed by Pixel Qi, which was founded in early 2008 by Mary Lou Jepsen, former chief technology officer of One Laptop per Children and a leading expert on display technology.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) chose a relatively obscure processor from Via Technologies for its high-profile Mini-Note 2133. An HP marketing manager explains why.

The HP 2133 Mini-Note PC starts at $499 and weighs only 2.7 pounds

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)

The Via C7-M offered what HP needed now, according to Robert Baker, a notebook product marketing manager for HP. "Via gave us that right mix of performance and price for the type of environment that this product is going into--content consumption." And the chip's low power requirements were a plus too. "Their power (efficiency) is where we needed it to be for this platform. Web surfing, creating Power Points," Baker said.

CNET Reviews said the 2133 Mini-Note performed at "an acceptable level" when "surfing the Web and working on office documents" but "doing very much more than that, or open too many windows at once, and things will start to bog down." And CNET Reviews added this: "We won't kid you--this CPU (1.6GHz Via C7-M) did not perform well at all on our standard benchmarking tests."

Via C7-M processor

(Credit: Via Technologies)

Timing also factored into HP's decision to go with Via's C7-M. Intel's low-cost Atom processor--which will compete directly with Via chips--is not shipping yet from Intel. Though Baker did not cite the Atom explicitly, he alluded to timing exigencies. "The other key thing was we were designing for education. We had to bring the product to the market now. A slip of a month kills you," he said. Educators need to get their hands on units "so they can make decisions for purchases they'll roll out during the summer when they're doing the vast majority of their purchases."

HP will, however, consider other processors such as the Atom when it's time to refresh the lineup. "There will be an interim refresh about six months in. If the Atom is the right processor, that's what we'll go with. We'll look at everything in the market at that time," he said. Via is slated to bring out a higher-performance "Isaiah" processor in the June time frame. HP will also look at that, he said.

The design for the 2133 was not driven by the wow factor, which is an Apple forte. "We didn't say, hey, we want something cool." The design was a result of a long process of "taking feedback from our customers. All those conversations were well over a year ago. This has been in development for a year now."

Whether ultra-compact, low-cost notebooks like the 2133 (starting at $499) and the Eee PC constitute a sea change in notebook buying habits nobody can say yet. To date, small, fully-functional notebook PCs--which the 2133 is intended to be--have carried a high premium. Look no further than the MacBook Air, said Baker. The Air starts at about $1,700 and jumps to above $3,000 with a solid state drive (SSD). The svelte, 2.8-pound HP 2510p subnotebook for corporate customers starts at about $1,500.

If this class of notebooks does take off, "you'll see more and more bang for your buck baked into these small machines," Baker said.

Surprising virtually no one, Hewlett-Packard has finally officially announced its new low-cost, low-power NetBook-style mini-laptop, called the 2133 Mini-Note PC. Of course, we've been following every detail of this system for months, including the presumed launch date, but they're finally officially on sale starting today, from $499-$749.

We've had a chance to play around with an early test unit for about a week now, and so far we like it a lot. Like the Asus Eee PC or Intel Classmate, the 2133 Mini-Note is a smaller-than-ultraportable laptop that trades high-powered specs for portability and price. The HP 2133 keeps the compromises to a minimum, however, with a decent 1,024x768 resolution on its 9-inch screen, and options for 2GB of RAM and even a 7,200rpm hard drive. Its best asset is a unique keyboard, which manages to cram in nearly full-size keys, as opposed to the tiny, hard-to-use keys found on other small laptops.

Our main sticking point was the pokey VIA processor (although VIA's integrated Chrome 9 graphics runs the Vista's graphical interface smoothly), especially with Intel's new Atom ultramobile chips around the corner, and skimpy battery life with the default three-cell battery (you can also get a larger battery, but it's so big as to defeat the purpose of having tiny laptop like this).

The upshot on NetBook-style laptops like this is that they're best for basic tasks, such as Web surfing and working on office documents--but that's 90 percent of what we spend our time doing on laptops anyway.

Check out our full review and video of the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC for a more in-depth look.