Intel has been pumping out a Classmate PC reference design since early 2008. These netbooks are the company’s response to the OLPC XO Laptop, and are designed as durable, relatively low cost machines that are ideal for classroom settings. The earliest models weren’t all that exciting, but over the years Intel has spruced things up with a larger keyboard and touchpad and a touchscreen display and swivel allowing you to use the netbook in tablet mode.

Today at CeBIT, Intel introduced the newest version of the Classmate PC.

The new model has a 10.1 inch touchscreen display, a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, and a rubberized case with a handle allowing you to carry the netbook like a handbag. The computer has a resistive touchscreen (read: no multitouch) and comes with a stylus that fits inside the case.

The webcam at the top of the display can be rotated, which means you can use it whether the Classmate PC is in tablet or notebook mode.

Intel doesn’t actually manufacture the PC itself. Instead, you should start seeing OEMs and distributors start selling the new Classmate PC models next month.

You can check out a hands-on video of the new Classmate PC from Netbook News after the break.

via Engadget

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The Apple iPad is expected to begin shipping in the next month or two, and while it remains to be seen whether it will truly revolutionize the slate PC space, there’s one thing the iPad has already done: spark a ton of competition in the tablet space. For much of 2010, the iPad was nothing but a rumor, but PC makers were bending over backward trying to create products that would compete with the as-yet-unannounced tablet.

Now that we know the iPad is basically an oversized iPod Touch with a faster processor and larger display, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that one company has decided the best way to compete is to launch a tablet that looks like… an oversized iPod Touch.

Shenzhen, China-based manufacturer TESO’s new tablet looks pretty much exactly like an iPod Touch or iPhone — if those devices had 10 inch displays and ran Windows 7 instead of the iPhone OS.

On the inside, the tablet is pretty much a standard netbook with a few extra features thrown in for good measure. It has a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB of RAM, and hard drive instead of the iPad’s solid state storage. The tablet also has a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel touchscreen display, a 3G modem, and GPS. It has a 3000mAh battery

The tablet weighs 2.6 pounds and measures 11.4″ x 5.9″ x 0.8″. Overall it’s rather large and heavy for a tablet. And you know, it runs Windows 7 and won’t be able to handle iPhone apps.

via Cloned in China and M.I.C. Gadgets

The Viliv S10 Blade is a 10 inch netbook with a touchscreen display and a swivel that lets you use the computer in laptop or netbook mode. It’s not clear whether it will be available from a US distributor anytime soon, but if you’re willing to pay the somewhat high price of importing one from Korea, Dynamism will be taking orders for the Blade soon for $699 and up.

Update: It turns out Dynamism is the US launch partner. So it looks like the base price is going to be $699 at launch.

The base model has a 10.1 inch, 1366 x 768 HD display, a 60GBВ  hard drive, 1GB of RAM, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU, and Windows XP. Optional upgrades includ Windows 7 Home Premium, a faster 2GHz Atom Z550 processor, and a 32GB or 64GB solid state disk. You can also get the Viliv S10 Blade with a 3G HSPA modem.

Dynamism says the laptop has a 10 hour battery.

At $699, the S10 Blade is definitely one of the more expensive Atom-based convertible tablets on the horizon. You can already pick up a Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t for $549 or less. And the Asus Eee PCВ  T101MT should be available soon as well.But the Viliv S10 Blade is a nice looking machine which promises excellent battery life and decent performance.

You can see some more photos and check out my firsthand impressions of the Blade in my hands-on post from CES.

via UMPC Portal

Capacitive touchscreens are great — if you want a finger friendly, multitouch tablet or smartphone with an on-screen keyboard, large icons, and no stylus required. But what you lose with a multitouch capacitive screen is accuracy and palm rejection capabilities. And that means handwriting and drawing are a lot tougher on tablets and phones with capacitive screens. In fact, for the most part, they just won’t recognize input from a stylus or the back of your fingernail at all.

Smartphone maker HTC released a stylus last year that’s designed to work with capacitive screens though. The HTC ST C400 is actually designed for the HTC HD2 smartphone, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work with other devices as well.

The ST C400 went on sale last month and you can pick one up for about ВЈ16.99 in the UK, or about $23 in the US. The stylus apparently has a magnetic charge which lets it work with a standard touchscreen. I haven’t seen any reports of anyone using this stylus with a touchscreen notebook like the Asus Eee PC T91MT yet. If you’ve had a chance to try one out, let us know about your experiences in the comments.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t convertible touchscreen tablet-style netbook has a base price of $549 at Lenovo.com. But Newegg has the netbook in stock for just under $500 plus $5 for shipping within the continental US. As an added bonus, this model has an 8 cell battery while the version on sale through Lenovo’s web site has a 4 cell battery.

The Ideapad S10-3t has a 10.1 inch capacitive touchscreen display, a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor and GMA 3150 graphics, 1GB of RAM, and 250GB hard drive. It runs Windows 7 Starter Edition. It has 802.11b/g/n WiFi, 2 USB ports, and VGA output

The laptop measures 11″ x 6.9″ x 0.8″ and weighs about 3.3 pounds with an 8 cell battery. You can read more about the Lenovo Ideapad S10-3T in the Liliputing Product Database.

via Netbooked

Credit: All Touch Tablet

The Asus Eee PC T101MT still isn’t shipping to customers yet. But the folks at All Touch Tablet got their hands on a review unit of the first 10 inch touchscreen tablet-style netbook from Asus. And they’ve posted a short review of the laptop.

Asus wisely decided to drop the sluggish Intel Atom Z520 processor used in its 9 inch Eee PC T91MT tablet. Instead the T101MT has a faster 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 Pine Trail CPU and GMA 3150 graphics. It also packs 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and Windows 7 Home Premium.

Review John Pope says the build quality is decent, with little flex in the keyboard and a solid hinge that doesn’t feel like it’s going to break off. On the down side, he says the hard drive is kind of noisy, and the touchscreen wasn’t very precise near the edge of the display — although this may be the result of a defective screen on the demo unit.

He says the computer also feels overall pretty sluggish — although it’s not clear if it’s actually any slower than any other Atom-powered netbook. Clearly, a more powerful processor will provide zippier performance. But there are few budget tablets available with Intel CULV or faster processors.

You can check out John’s unboxing and hands-on video after the break.

via SlashGear

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Taiwanese PC maker Gigabyte briefly added a product page to its web site for a new convertible tablet-stylenetbook called the T1000 today. And then it removed the page. Fortunately, you can still see Google’s cached version of the page.

The Gigabyte T1000 looks like an upgraded version of the Gigabyte T1028X TouchNote. Like the TouchNote it has a 10.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel touchscreen display that you can fold down over the keybaord for use in tablet mode. But the upcoming T1000 has a new Intel Atom Pine Trail processor.

To be more precise, it will be available with either a 1.66GHz Atom N450 or 1.83GHz Atom N470 CPU. I’m guessing it’s the latter option that caused Gigabyte to remove the product page. While I’ve seen several companies introduce products with theN470 CPU, Intel has yet to acknowledge its existence, and companies have a habit of pulling down pages that mention it.

Rounding out the Gigabyte T1000’s specs are 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, Intel GMA 3150 graphics, 2 USB ports, an eSATA/USB combo port, mic and headphone jacks, D-Sub and Ethernet jacks, a flash card reader, and an Express Card slot.

The laptop will also have 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and the option of a 4 or 6 cell batter. It looks like the 4 cell model will be called the T1000X, while the 6 cell model will be the Gigabyte T1000P.

The notebook measures 10.4″ x 8.4″ x 1.6″В  and weighs 3.3 pounds with a 6 cell battery. The 4 cell version is a little thinner and lighter.

No word on pricing, but Gigabyte’s convertible tablet-style netbooks (or netvertibles), don’t tend to come cheap.

via Netbook News.de

There are all sorts of touchscreens out there. But one of the biggest lines diving, say, an iPhone touchscreen from those found on many tablets, notebooks, and Windows Mobile phones is the line between screens that accept stylus input and those that are finger-friendly. It’s rare to find a touchscreen that can handle both types of input, which is a shame because would be nice to be able to draw on a touchscreen with a stylus then put it down for a moment to type on an onscreen QWERTY keyboard with your fingers.

But it turns out there is a type of touchscreen that can handle exactly that kind of usage. French display maker Stantum has a multitouch display that can handle both types of input. What’s more, the Stantum display can recognize up to 10 simultaneous inputs, which means you can tap away with all of your fingers at once. If that’s the kind of thing you’re likely to do.

Stantum has been making screens like these for more than half a decade, but the folks at Laptop Magazine caught up with the company at Mobile World Congress this week and found that Stantum is partnering with global chip makers that could allow the screens to show up in laptops and tablets soon.

The latest version of the touchscreen also recognizes pressure-sensitive finger input. In other words, a light press generates a light line or dot while pressing down harder nets you a thicker line on the display.

You can watch a video of the screen in action at Laptop Magazine’s web site.

What do you get if you take the guts of a netbook and cram them into a 10 inch tablet PC without a keyboard? An ever-growing class of relatively inexpensive tablets which are rushing to fill a niche that has yet to show any real consumer demand. The latest entry is the iiView iPad, which weighs less than 2 pounds, runs Windows 7 Starte rEdition, and sports a 10.2 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel touchscreen display.

On the inside, the vPad is pretty much all netbook. It has a 1.6GHz Intel atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 160GB hard drive and sells for $499. Sure, that makes it kind of expensive for a netbook, but the price bump isn’t surprising considering you get a touchscreen display and a lighter-than-netbook case.

For $699 you can get a souped up model with 2G of RAM, a 320Gb hard drive and integrated 3G. There are a few other $599 configurations in between. The web site claims that even the higher end models come with Windows 7 Starter, but that seems a bit fishy to me, since Microsoft doesn’t license Windows 7 Starter for devices with 320GB hard drives and 2GB of RAM.

What say you? Are you looking for a touchscreen tablet running Windows 7 Starter? Or would you rather have something with an OS designed for touchscreens such as a Google Android-powered tablet or an iPad?

via Notebooks.com

Windows 7 includes a number of touch-friendly features including support for tap-and-drag, pinch-to-zoom, and other gestures. The new taskbar is nice and big and features large icons for launching applications. And the on-screen keyboard is designed for tapping with your fingers rather than a stylus. But PC makers Asus and Acer seem to think that Microsoft hasn’t gone quite far enough, and they’re bundling their own suite of touch-friendly applications with their convertible tablet-style notebooks.

The Asus Eee PC T91MT and upcoming T101MT have the Asus TouchGate software. And Notebook Italia spotted an 11.6 inch Acer Aspire 1820P convertible tablet at Mobile World Congress, sporting the Acer TouchPortal software suite. Basically, TouchPortal looks like Acer’s answer to TouchGate. I’m not entirely convinced that anyone needs either application, but here’s what you get with TouchPortal:

• A full screen user interface
• A touch-friendly music, movie, and image player
• A handful of touch-friendly video games

Yeah, that’s about it. You can check out the hands-on video after the break.

via Netbook Choice

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