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Been saying this for the last couple of years. I used to have a 1200p laptopn, but presently the best I can get is 1080p, which sucks. But apparently Intel have plans. Fingers crossed!

Actually, I bet they WILL have solid refresh rates soon. Enterprising Android hackers have already written custom software for Nooks that gets them decent refresh rates (enough to badly play Angry Birds). It comes at the expense of grey scale range and battery life, though. See: http://liliputing.com/2012/02/nook-touch-hack-speeds-up-e-ink-shows-why-its-not-ready-for-tablets.html

Don't forget that tradional LCDs also function by physically moving around the molecules of liquid crystal to change how it polarizes light. It's not like there are tiny motors moving around the e-ink display components. Both are just electromagnetic fields moving around microscopic things. The only big difference is that the microscopic things in e-ink stay where you put them when the field is removed.

Give it time. We're a clever bunch, humans.

I want to use the device as a Nook, in addition to other stuff. If I do this bootable CM7 install, can I then install the Nook app for Android and use that? I don't want to be constantly popping out the MicroSD card and popping it back in again.

It looks like that shouldn't be a problem:

http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/30549-nook-color-app/

If I can install the Nook app, then I'm sold; I'll try this.

Is there any down-side to running off SD? Is it slower or anything like that? (I think my MicroSD card is Class 10, pretty fast.)

Thanks for the information!

P.S. Oh wow. The community has figured out how to get the Nook Tablet to boot custom software from the MicroSD! Won't be long before it's fully unlocked. I hope the Nook Tablet has Bluetooth hardware like the Nook Color has.

http://liliputing.com/2012/01/nook-tablet-can-now-run-cwm-recovery-boot-from-sd-cards.html

steveha

I have a Kindle Fire. I generally like it but the gripes above apply (no volume control, no security/locking for reading history, etc).

I can't wait to install a replacement version of android that's more like what you find on other tablets and phones: http://liliputing.com/2011/12/cyanogenmod-7-performance-on-the-amazon-kindle-fire-video.html

(I have no association with whatever site that is, I'm just exciting to be getting cyanogenmod on the fire).

Have fun navigating your Clockwork recovery with no volume buttons...

I have a Kindle Fire. I generally like it but the gripes above apply (no volume control, no security/locking for reading history, etc).

I can't wait to install a replacement version of android that's more like what you find on other tablets and phones: http://liliputing.com/2011/12/cyanogenmod-7-performance-on-the-amazon-kindle-fire-video.html

(I have no association with whatever site that is, I'm just exciting to be getting cyanogenmod on the fire).

The Nook Tablet (unrooted) is slightly more open than the Kindle Fire (unrooted)

Some links:

• side-loading apps to the Nook Tablet
• lightweight comparison
• slightly better comparison

My takeaway is if you have your gold geek card, get the Fire (less money) and root it. If you're less adventuresome, get the Nook for more openness, but get an micro-SD card or you're stuck with only 1GB of free memory.

Eh, no. IBM has discontinued Symphony and handed all the assets to Apache.

You really only need one link. But here's another. And here is a place where you can pop over to ask for help if you need it.

There are already folks working on getting Android (honeycomb) and Ubuntu on it. http://liliputing.com/2011/08/hp-touchpad-afterlife-hackers-bringing-android-ubuntu-to-hps-tablet.html

http://liliputing.com/2011/08/netflix-video-streaming-for-linux-on-the-way.html

According to this http://liliputing.com/2011/06/hands-on-with-the-asus-eee-pc-x101-200-netbook.html Asus will bring out a $199 netbook running MeeGo.

I don't want to buy a "product" that I can't tinker with.

Then feel fulfilled buying an android tablet. Didn't you do a lot of internet searching to roll your own linux? Roll your own ROM if you must. Most of the major android devices have been rooted so I don't see where your complaint is coming from. Even if it really really must absolutely be linux, just put linux on it. http://liliputing.com/2010/11/ubuntu-linux-shoehorned-onto-the-samsung-galaxy-tab.html

Sorry, I must've been in a hurry to bury MeeGo. The correct answer to the question "where is MeeGo" is "in the next article".

http://liliputing.com/2011/01/31062.html

I was testing this LAST YEAR. Oh look, it's available TODAY.

I linked to an article about OLPC 1.5. However, this more recent article states that they are continuing to use a Fedora-based OS.

AFAIK, Google does not approve of Android use on tablets, and tries to limit "official" access to the Android marketplace to smartphones. Of course, even if a vendor cannot link directly to the Android marketplace, there is often an app available which does give such access. For example, most of the Archos tablets can use the Android marketplace if you sideload the gApps4Archos.apk application (google for it). The app was tested and approved by various reputable review sites http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/12/new-archos-tablets-get-android-marketplace-hack-works-as-promis http://liliputing.com/2010/10/google-marketplace-hack-for-the-new-archos-tablets.html http://androidcommunity.com/archos-tablets-get-android-market-thanks-to-new-apk-20101012/
BTW, the Archos tablets are all GPL-compliant. http://linux.slashdot.org/story/10/12/31/0116250/Most-Android-Tablets-Fail-At-GPL-Compliance

So you agree there are significant limitations?

Some other Slashdot users appear convinced that a developer should just accept the limitations of XNA, design games around them exclusively for XNA on Windows and Xbox 360, and hopefully use those games to build "game industry experience", one of the two pieces that the console makers require before a developer becomes eligible to buy the real devkit. (The other piece is a dedicated office.) But with your "little toy games" comment, I thought you had some different limitations in mind that were even more severe than those described on my page, to the point where one couldn't even make games comparable to those on the Super NES.

There is an "android touch" samsung makes it.

I wasn't aware of Samsung Galaxy Player 50 until I just searched Google to find out what you're talking about. The anythingbutipod.com story is less than a week old. This article states that it appears to have Android Market and other Google apps ordinarily seen only on phones. But with "no word on a US release yet", how much will the customs duty for a gray-market import run? And will a unit built for the European Union be able to access the Market from an IPv4 address that geolocates to the United States?

I have two smartphones on a family plan with verizon, runs about $130month.

Your plan at $65 per handset per month is still not low enough to convince a mom to buy four smartphones instead of a land line and four Nintendo DSi systems.

Actually, just a ThinkPad X41 Tablet, but you swivel the screen, and presto, tablet. I bought it used, cheap, so it's fun.

It needs a Wacom style pen, but it's a tablet, just not touchisensitive.

And even accounting for the pen, it's not all that.

And this kludge by Dell looks equal parts flimsy and flaky. I give it a C- on sight.

Now the Lenovo S10-3t was interesting. And the U1 was very cool looking. Can I find one?

I am not a Apple fan, but you don't need a voice mail contract to get access to the marketplace, you could use wi-fi. Yeah, you need 3g it get it in more places then wi-fi, but there isn't anything anyone can do about that.

Name one Android device that has access to Marketplace that you don't need a phone plan to buy. OHA requires devices to have phone capability to access marketplace:

Google hasn't officially given the go ahead for any hardware maker to install the Android Market app on a device that doesn't meet the minimum requirements -- which basically means you need to have a device with an accelerometer, WiFi, and phone capabilities.

Reflective displays are obviously not the solution in bright light situations.
Transflective is what I want: http://www.liliputing.com/2010/06/cpt-transflective-display-could-give-pixel-qi-a-run-for-its-money.html

This advantage seems to have gone away, more or less.

My own Atom-based Netbook can make a battery last all day.

Check this out. Standby time 180 hours. And by standby time, they mean the screen is off. Not "standby" as it is normally meant on regular desktops and laptops whereas the whole thing is off. The advantage there is instant on, not 1 second on, not 2. Instant. And while the screen is off, it can still be doing something. Checking your email, updating your rss feeds, whatever it would normally be doing. Basically, it's a continuous run device like a cell phone. And it's silent. And it generates little to no heat without a cpu fan. It also weighs less than 2 pounds. Your netbook doesn't even remotely compare to this. What's the difference? ARM vs Atom. Atoms aren't even on the same planet when it comes to power efficiency as ARM. Give it 5 years and maybe you can make that claim.

Meego for netbooks may or may not go anywhere, but there is an alpha for Meego for tablets out and it looks pretty sweet: http://www.liliputing.com/2010/06/meego-linux-tablet-edition-demo-video.html

That's not Google's tablet, that's a "Google Android Tablet" ("Google" as part of the OS name, not the physical tablet's branding.)

That's somebody else's tablet hardware running what looks like a seriously stock Android installation. (I mean, would Google go to all the trouble of designing a tablet with the same minimalist home screen as a mobile phone? Or a 600 MHz CPU when their phone sports a 1 GHz grinder?)

Waitasec, scam alert: here are some threads questioning whether this device actually even exists (commenters posting about unfulfilled orders for this very same "Google Android" tablet device.)

Here's a video for a "Smit MID-560" with a 5" *resistive* touch screen (rather than capacitive), speculated to be the hardware of this fakey "Google Android Tablet" that is not sold by Google.

Nice try buddy ... looks to be utterly bogus.

"This is actually a good thing."

Only if you're use to the Duke Nukem Forever release schedule.

At least I know every $200 netbook should be able to run to run Starcraft II since the game was developed 2005-2006. Seriously though, 12 years is too long, especially on a game that's this amazing.

This looks exactly like the Axioo's Pico. Is it done by the same company? Are these the factory rejects or something?

If I'm going to put windows on it I'm better off just spending $30 more and getting this with a intel atom, one gig ram, 160gb hard drive and windows 7.

drop the price to $100 and I'll consider it

Pixel Qi
With the ability to alternate between a black-and-white as-readable-in-direct-light-as-eInk mode and a standard color LCD mode, both with fast (normal LCD) refresh rates, and cost to manufacture on par with current LCD displays, this technology is the future of tablets (which will subsume the eReader market). And the first product, the Notion Ink Adam, is coming out this year.

http://www.liliputing.com/2010/01/shuttle-launches-push-for-notebook-motherboard-standards.html

That looks nice, though the battery life could be better though.

Found more info on it. Looks like it uses a modded version of Mandriva. The USB flash as a hard drive replacement is interesting. Only problem is that you will have to buy the special G-key USB flash drives to have them fit nicely in the slot.

Not bad at all.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to find Linux-only netbooks.

HP Mini 5101 is one of the best netbooks around in general (IMO, obviously), and you have an option of getting it with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop if you want (and yes, it'll be cheaper than if you order it with Windows).

Anyone referencing MSI's lousy distribution and support on their netbooks as a reason for Linux not being a viable offering while simultaneously ignoring Dell's continued success in selling Ubuntu based netbooks, laptops, and desktops is either (a) ignorant of the facts or (b) a deliberate troll. On the off chance that you are the former, I suggest you google Dell, linux, netbook and read through a few stories. (One of my personal favorites is the second one that showed up when I just tried the search. This one.) It is not only possible to successfully sell Linux, apparently Dell has found it to be very easy. :-)

So, who am I going to believe who understands the Linux market? A copmpany that threw out a half hearted, poorly thought out attempt to jump into a new market, or a company that actually /asked/ people what they wanted and then crafted a business strategy to capitalize on what people told them?

I was too lazy to add links but these guys do this

http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

esentially an Arm based netbook tablet with the guts behind the screen and a plug in keyboard which sort of turns it back into a netbook again.
It looks like the keyboard is weighted down with a battery to make a stable netbook.

Pricing appears to be $300 for the tablet or $400 for the tablet + keyboard battery combo. I think they have used something like a wireless keyboard to get a unit which can work detached from the screen.

I'd like to introduce them to these guys

http://pixelqi.com/

who make these screens

http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2009/06/hands-on-with-pixel-qis-new-epaper.html

Essentially its an LCD Screen which can turn off the backlight and run in a black and white mode at quite a low power.

PixelQI used one of the first screens to mod an aspire one.

speaking of mods heres a nice diy version of an aspire one tablet.
http://www.liliputing.com/2008/10/acer-aspire-one-retooled-as-a-tablet-style-umpc.html

The current atoms run about 2 watts, way too much for a smartphone even if they are able to cut that in half, and that's not even counting the power hog chipsets needed for the atom that require 5-12+ watts. By comparison the current cortex A8 packages with video etc that are able to do 1080p are able to make it under the 300 milliwatt line smartphone manufacturers are looking for.

And even better, if you're talking about Intel's chips two generations out, then consider the Cortex A9 quad core chips that are claiming to be ready to go and at reasonable power consumption in the same time frame if not sooner than Intel's offering. That article is actually claiming dual core Cortex A9 phones within a year that use about the same power as current chips with much better performance.

So as noted it looks like ARM is going to have a much easier time scaling up performance at the smartphone power draw level than Intel is going to have getting anywhere near it. And the Cortex A9 will probably spank the Atom. The race should benefit everyone though. Maybe we'll actually get some decent performing netbook, laptop, and desktop chips out of it that run on extremely low power.

http://m.news.com/2166-12_3-10263278-64.html
http://www.liliputing.com/tag/arm-cortex-a9
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2341032,00.asp
Crap, missed the link the first time. A couple more for good measure.

It's a pretty compelling little device considering it's only going to cost $199.

• CPU: 533MHz Freescale i.MX31 ARM-based processor
• Operating System: Google Android
• Display: 800 x 480 pixel touchscreen (Sascha says it's not glossy, but you can see a fair bit of glare in the video)
• RAM: 256MB
• Storage: Up to 8GB SSD
• I/O: 3 USB ports, mic, headphone, and 4-in-1 card reader
• Weight: 680 grams, or about 1.5 pounds

See working video of it here

... Asus slapped Intel and Microsoft in their respective faces, in a single stroke, see:

  Asus introduces Qualcomm Snapdragon-based Eee PC running Google Android
http://www.liliputing.com/2009/06/asus-introduces-qualcomm-snapdragon-based-eee-pc-running-google-android-video.html

This hardware will probably be suitable to run the Linux flavor of one's choice, I guess.

And Microsoft's out of the game here. ;-)

So hows that been working out?

First, the company posted a profit in the first quarter, which surprised analysts, but net profit is down a whopping 94% from the same period last year. And the company recorded a large operating loss for hte company.

http://www.liliputing.com/2009/04/asus-posts-profit-has-no-plans-for-arm-android-netbooks-this-year.html

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/03/asus_dual-scree.php
http://www.liliputing.com/2009/03/asus-shows-dual-screen-notebook-prototype.html
http://gizmodo.com/5162780/asus-dual-panel-laptop-resembles-two-iphones-mating

Mind you, I really liked the look of the wallet that the MS Codex came in, with the mesh pocket and pen-holder and stuff.

Is there any chance that they might market just the wallet, without all the nasty heavy electronic stuff? The wallet's cool. Wouldn't mind one of those. You could maybe stick, like, a tear-off notepad in it. It'd be useful.

Why does it appear to be underwater in this picture? Is it radioactive? It looks like pictures of 'swimming pool' reactors. Or maybe it has a P4 processor.

That said I doubt Win7 will work on netbooks, so I won't be surprised that XP will be with us for a long long time to come.

Actually, there have been lots of Win7 installs on netbooks, and the general consensus is that it runs fine. Is it as quick as running XP? Well, no, but don't forget that XP is a seven-year-old operating system that required a Pentium II at release.

I've been running the Win7beta for a couple weeks now, and it's been a pretty nice experience. My machine's perfectly capable of running Vista, though, so I haven't noticed many speed gains. The UI touch-ups are nice, though.

When was the last time you got excited about a new Dell product offering?

Last friday:

http://www.liliputing.com/2009/01/dell-launches-usb-tv-tuner-for-inspiron-mini-family.html

There are plenty of reasons for a netbook other than cost, as Liliputing has argued quite articulately again and again.
- Being able to throw it in a bag and not have to sacrifice as many other things to make the weight manageable.
- Being able to work more efficiently in small spaces like airline or commuter rail seats.
- Better for women and children who have smaller hands and don't gain from larger systems.
- Low enough weight to be used while standing, as is desired by, say people working inventory in a factory or looking over drug interaction data in a hospital corridor.

For about half of these, a tablet would be just as good or considerably better than a keyboard oriented device, especially with the new Swype-style onscreen keyboards.

As for apps, well, how many of those are one buck quickies? How many from vendors who used them to promote desktop apps? And how many simply not the same kinds of things one would choose for a tablet?
I'm sorry but I'm seeing plenty of opportunity, plenty of possible demand, and no real third party barriers. But then, hell, I've been waiting for a chance to buy such a device for about fifteen years now.

Personally, I can't help but wonder if this "leak" was actually Apple orchestrated to stir demand but fuzz specifics before next week's MacWorld Expo. As I've said a hundred times before, let's see what's out by January 10th and then talk about longer term trends.

Cool people call them "Liliputers" anyway. http://www.liliputing.com/

Oh yeah, one other thing:
Maybe now we understand why ASUS is so adamant about the N10 is *not a netbook*. They didn't want to get in licensing trouble with Microsoft.
Also, with the XP licensing restrictions, don't expect to see dual-core Atom chips in netbooks anytime soon. Unless Microsoft get's pressured enough to relax their confidential agreements/requirements with the netbook manufacturers.
In case you can't tell, I'm feeling pretty down on Microsoft dictating the hardware capabilities of the netbook I can purchase. They're an OS manufacturer, and not the only choice in town!

Andy

Andy

These sites disagree.

I guess it's down to whether or not you believe the video made by manufacturers of a competing product...

As this liliputing article points out, this is a rebrand of a common product (razorbook, elonex one, etc.).
The linux distribution is, well, unknown, and the specs are less than impressive; basically it's a MIPS32 CPU, PDA rather than laptop range. Liliputing also has a $99 laptop on their homepage right now, with even less impressive specs.