Gigabyte's M1028 netbook / tablet hits the FCC

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/10/gigabytes-m1028-netbook-tablet-hits-the-fcc/

It's not an official confirmation, but it looks like the chances of at least some of Gigabyte's new netbooks showing up 'round these parts just got a bit better, as the M1028 has now hit the FCC and been put through its necessary paces. Now sporting the "CafeBook" moniker, the netbook appears to be mostly identical to the T1028 Touch Note model that made its debut at CeBIT which, as you can glimpse above, takes things a bit farther than the norm by opting for a convertible tablet form. Somewhat curiously, however, the manual now indicates that the system packs an 8.9-inch touchscreen (as opposed to the 10-inch we heard before), but all the other specs remain the same, including Intel's new and slightly improved N280 Atom processor, up to 2GB of RAM, a max 250GB hard drive, your choice of a four-cell or six-cell batteries, and optional 3G and WiMAX, to name a few features. Hit up the link below for the complete breakdown, including a peek at the system's innards.

[Via Liliputing]

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

Gigabyte's M1028 netbook / tablet hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SmartMoney Finds Using Fewer Ads Can Boost Click-Through

Source: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=134941

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In one case study, a publisher has managed to buck the trend of declining click-through rates with a potential solution: creating scarcity.

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Dow Jones Newswire Chimes In On Apple Netbook Rumors, Claims 10" Screen [Rumor]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/zAdJxmJupNU/dow-jones-newswire-chimes-in-on-apple-netbook-rumors-claims-10-screen

Just in case yesterday's Commercial Times report didn't get your speculative juices flowing, the repectable-sounding Dow Jones Newswire is basically restating it, with their own sources and a little extra detail.

The story is more or less the same: Apple is allegedly planning a touchscreen netbook for release as early as H2 of this year. As chum, this new report throws out a display size figure of "between 9.7-inches and 10-inches," again pointing to Wintek as the display supplier and Quanta as the device manufacturer. Actually, the most interesting part of this report is what remained unsaid, at least by the parties involved:

Jill Tan, a spokeswoman for Apple in Asia, declined to comment Tuesday. Wintek spokeswoman Susie Lee and Quanta Computer investor relations officer Carol Hsu declined to comment.

Obviously this isn't proof of anything, but it is a rich—and uniformly held—silence.

Aside from lending the original rumor a bit more credibility, the new report doesn't do anything to address the most pressing questions: what form-factor, and how much? I don't suspect we'll get answers to these questions until the existence of the "it" is a bit more certain, which, judging by the claimed shipping target, could be a while. [DJW via CNET Asia]

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Wolfram Alpha Search Engine Will Answer All Your Questions, Take Us to Infinity and Beyond [Future]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/gjNj1kwbMkI/wolfram-alpha-search-engine-will-answer-all-your-questions-take-us-to-infinity-and-beyond

Get ready, because the world as we know it is going to change in May 2009, when Wolfram Alpha—a computational search engine that belongs in the Enterprise's computer—appears, giving you precise answers to everything.

That's what this thing is going to give us: A natural way to plug into the vast pool of information of the internet and ask questions like Kirk will do in Star Trek. At least according to Stephen Wolfram—who changed the world of mathematical research with his Mathematica software and, as genius go, he's up there with the best—and other scientists who have tried it. The new engine will be able to truly interpret your questions and give you a real, precise answer.

It won't use a database of preset questions, but it will have the ability to actually understand what you are asking. So if you ask "How many protons are in a lasagna for six people?", the system will be able to recognize, interpret, and answer the question.

We can only hope that nobody asks "what's the origin of the universe?" or we will all explode to hell. [Wolfram via Daily Mail]

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Reasonably-Sized OLED TVs Stalled By Our Crappy Economy [OLED TVs]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/lOxxE2p6FRQ/reasonably+sized-oled-tvs-stalled-by-our-crappy-economy

When consumer budgets are tight, companies tend to back off the horrendously-priced luxury goods. But according to the OLED Association, it's not poor consumers that are holding up new, bigger OLED sets—it's poor manufacturers.

Ars interviewed Barry Young, Managing Director of the OLED Association, and managed to get a pretty good read on where the OLED industry is, and more importantly, where it's headed. The nebulous long term projections about OLED dominance still stand, but the short term prospects are, in a word, shitty. Here's why:

Some major manufacturers have gotten to be pretty good at building the small OLED TVs we're used to seeing (Samsung is about to introduce a midrange, 14.1-inch pipsqueak), and prices for these mini-sets should start dropping soon enough. Unfortunately, these small OLED screen are the largest panels anyone is capable of mass-producing right now.

Sparing you the mind-numbing technical details (those here), manufacturers are being faced with two equally unattractive (read: expensive) options for building TV-sized OLED TVs, like the one Samsung showed off last year: either devise an entirely new manufacturing process, which would require the invention of new techniques and machines for f! abricati on, or pursue a different type of OLED panel. Both options would circumvent the current size restrictions, but both options are extremely expensive.

In the current climate, companies like Samsung can't be certain that such risky investments will pay off fast enough, and for the time being, investment capital is scarce. Answering a question about Samsung's plan for a 32" OLED set, Young could only say this: "How soon Samsung will do their next generation will be affected by the downturn." In other words, sorry 2009. And 2010. [Ars via OLED-Display]

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