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Filed under: Laptops

We’ve long since known that MSI was a fan of overclocking. After all, just about every last one of its gaming notebooks come with one-button OC’ing courtesy of the Turbo Drive Engine technology. Now, it seems that the company is giving the spoils once reserved for the Crysis crowd to those with netbooks, or more specifically, the Wind. The freshly released (and absolutely official) v1.09 BIOS update enables simple overclocking by mashing Fn+F10, giving users the ability to push things 8%, 15% or 24% beyond their normally specified limits. Electric Feel over at ElectricVagabond has found that the update provides up to a 30% boost in performance, which he claims is quite noticeable in processor-intensive apps like Photoshop. You know you’re dying to give your Wind a little lift, so hit the via below for the step-by-step of getting this installed.

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Laptops

Early Dell Inspiron Mini 9 customers who sprung for a larger drive may want to check their partitions — Dell apparently used a static 4GB Ubuntu image during some initial manufacturing runs, leaving the OS in a 4GB partition and the remainder unused. The problem’s been fixed now, but if you were unlucky enough to get one of the wrongly-formatted units, Dell’s saying that you’ll need to restore from the System Restore disk, but there are some live partition options out there if you’re feeling brave.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Laptops

We’ve seen plenty of evidence of netbooks’ impact on computer round here (like the image above), and market research firm IDC has now found that the situation is much the same in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (otherwise known to market research-types as EMEA), and it has some numbers to back it up. According to the firm, it estimates that there were more than two million netbooks sold in the EMEA market during the third quarter of 2008, which is a hefty chunk (more than 7%) of the 27.9 million laptops and desktops sold during the same time period. Of those, IDC found that ASUS and Acer had corned a hefty 80% of the market, with broadband-equipped netbooks offered by cellphone carriers also helping to boost those two companies in particular. Not surprisingly, it only sees things going up from here, and it estimates that sales could potentially double to a full four million in the fourth quarter of this year.

[Via Register Hardware]

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Source: Donald Melanson

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Filed under: Tablet PCs

CTL’s sticking with the “2go” branding for its next-gen Classmate PC, but it’s not hard to spot the difference: it’s a convertible tablet. We’ve seen hands-on shots of the Intel concept a couple times before, but now CTL’s starting firm up some details for its own OEM version, and even sent along a few new live shots of the device for our enjoyment. The specs are unsurprising for a netbook-style device (we suppose the proper term is “netvertible” now, yes?) with a 1.6GHz Atom 270 processor, 1GB of RAM, 60GB HDD and 802.11b/g/n WiFi, but the departure is in the tablet functionality. The 8.9-inch, 1024 x 600 screen handles stylus and finger input, swivels flat for slate usage, and has an accelerometer for orienting the screen and potentially other (read: games) usage. The webcam swivels from back to front as well. CTL’s hoping to have an XP Pro version of the laptop available, but if Microsoft has its way we’ll probably be looking at a Vista Home SKU at retail (CTL’s existing Classmate PC sells at Costco and Amazon.com), in addition to a Linux version for more direct sales.

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Source: Paul Miller

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Filed under: Laptops

It’s hard to say what we’ve come across here, but if our retinas aren’t deceiving us too badly, this looks to be an in the wild shot (sans blur, amazingly) of Dell’s forthcoming E Slim. If you’ll recall, we caught a glimpse of said device way back in June, and the two look at least marginally similar using the oh-so-scientific eyeball test. But look, even if this thing isn’t the E Slim (though we’re guessing it is until proven otherwise), we’ve been told on numerous occasions that Dell is mulling the idea of pumping out a netbook with a 10- to 12-inch display. An accompanying screenshot of the unit’s internals was also provided, and while the model may say Optiplex1210, we’re guessing that’s just there for prototyping purposes; besides, the listed CPU matches up quite nicely with the aforementioned E Slim specs that slipped out this summer. So Round Rock — when are you going to come out and get official with your 12.1-incher? Before or after this coming Tuesday?

[Thanks, Anonymous]

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Laptops

You’ve already seen just how sexy ASUS’ Eee PC S101 is in person (save for that heinous brown motif), but now you can take a peek at just how luscious this slim slab of computing prowess looks in the eyes of a press photographer. And if you’re worried about real-world use, an early review puts those fears completely to bed. Critics found the machine to be absolutely stunning (a real shock, we know), and on the performance end, they were generally pleased. Of note, it did long for integrated WWAN and a tinier price tag, but we suppose you can’t have everything. Speaking of which, we’re seeing a probable €599 ($816) price tag for the European model, which clearly includes a premium for the aforementioned overall hotness.

Read - Press shots
Read - Review

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: GPS, Laptops

Word is that Dell’s Mini 9 is a modder’s paradise, rife with precious little alcoves in which to squeeze teeny-tiny new stuff. The confirmation: MyDellMini forum user Tom Beauchamp bought a USB GPS receiver (not much larger than a quarter) and snugly fit it inside his Mini’s case. He’s provided images and instructions so you, too, can illegally navigate with your notebook computer in the passenger’s seat of your car. We can’t recommend that sort of irresponsibility, but if you want to mod it just because you can, hit the read link for the instructions and images. Beware, of course, that a minimum amount of technical savvy is required to avoid breaking a perfectly good little laptop. Like that was ever going to stop you.

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Source: Samuel Axon

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Filed under: Laptops

Elonex’ One t and slightly upgraded t+ netbooks are certainly an improvement over the original Elonex One but, as Plug In Blog’s hands-on of the device shows, it still falls somewhat uncomfortably between the OLPC and a regular netbook. That said, for the £99 price tag (or less than $200), the site seems to think that the netbook will get the done job for its target audience: students, and even anyone else that’s not looking to do much more than email and some basic web browsing. Anyone needing more than that, however, had best look elsewhere, especially considering that the netbook’s underpowered and uncommon Ingenic XBurst processor will likely limit your software options beyond anything that doesn’t come pre-installed.

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Source: Donald Melanson

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