Gadgets Mobile

HP has unveiled its entry into the “laptop for kids” market with a machine called the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC. The machine is a direct competitor to Intel’s Classmate laptop and Asus’s Eee PC, but with some major differences in hardware.

The Mini-Note will have a VIA processor at its core with options up to 1.6 Ghz speeds and between 512-2048 MB of RAM. The machine itself will weigh just over 2.5 pounds and comes with an 8.9 inch WXGA screen supported by VIA Chrome 9 UMA graphics and either a 4 GB Flash module or a 120 GB standard hard drive. It will also have an OS option of Linux or Windows Vista.

See Geek’s coverage of the 2133 announcement 

Matthew’s Opinion

If you look at the top spec machine this isn’t a bad little laptop. You get a 1.6 Ghz VIA C7-M processor, 2GB RAM, 120GB hard drive, wireless, Windows Vista Business, and a 6-cell battery. The only let down for me is the size of the screen, but this does make it even smaller and therefore more portable.

The Eee PC by comparison can’t compete on battery, screen size, memory, hard drive and the 900MHz Intel Celeron may struggle next to the 1.6 Ghz C7-M, but I am not sure on the performance comparison. The only place is really comes out on top is the price with the top model costing just US$399. If you are giving a machine to your children then that is a big factor in my view.

As a further comparison Dell sell their standard Insprion 1525 laptop starting at just US$499 (plus delivery), which gets you some higher spec components, but other lower ones too. For example you get a bigger screen, but less memory and only Vista Home Basic.

To me the Mini-Note looks more aimed towards being a second laptop for adults or the main laptop of an older child.

Would you consider it for your ultra-portable solution?

It might not be the most accurate comparison, but that’s how it feels from the outside: now you can review, and most importantly *read*, reviews about doctors. Doctors will also have a login to edit their personal information and communicate with “consumers”.

Mission statement
“Vitals was created to give consumers the tools — for the first time — to make intelligent, informed decisions about which doctor to choose. Our web site offers you a variety of ways to help in your choice of the right doctor.”

Throughout the fierce format war I decided not to upgrade for fear of picking the losing side. It turns out that I was right, as I was rooting for hd dvd. Luckily some of the early adopters will get their money back from Walmart.

Walmart has officially announced that they are offering full refunds to anyone that purchased an HD DVD player from them after 11/1/07. Of course you’re going to have to return the now (almost) useless player and present your receipt in order to get your cash. Kudos to Walmart for helping out those who picked the losing side.

Source: CrunchGear

The USB Smart Cable is convergence done right. It combines three things: a USB phone charger, a MicroSD card reader and a dangly cellphone charm. And oddly, it’s that last one that makes it so useful – the cord is always attached to your phone.

There are three to choose from. One to fit Nokia DC 2.0 sockets, one Mini 18 pin and one for Mini USB devices. The best part? They only cost $9.

Product page [USB Geek]]

After cranking out a series of working fuel cell prototypes for digital cameras last year, one company says it’s finally ready to start mass-producing the methanol-based cells. Indeed, if MTI Micro has its way, these diminutive cells will start showing up in laptops, cell phones and digital cameras by 2009.

CEO Peng Lim gives a pretty compelling case for why gadget addicts shouldn’t shed any tears for lithium ion batteries, too.

“The main advantage of fuel cells is that they will last twice as long as a battery pack of the same size. … And the recharge time is almost nonexistent,” Lim told News.com. “Powering up a fuel cell-based phone only requires squirting in some new fuel or putting in a new cartridge.”

Not bad…save the fuel squirting bit, which sounds kind of impractical. And what about stability? Yeah, that’s where things also get a little dicey. Methanol, of course, is a flammable liquid and I’m guessing cellphones with methanol-based fuel cells aren’t going be met with open arms by the TSA or U.S. regulators. That being the case, you can probably expect stand-alone universal chargers with said fuel cells first. The built-in variety? I’m guessing that might take a little longer than a year to approve.

At MTI Micro, pushing fuel cells for portables [News.com]

Wal-mart has announced that it is now offering refunds for HD DVD players purchased on or after November 1 2007. Consumers have until April 30 2008 to return the players with or without the original packaging. Consumers just need to present their proof of purchase to get a refund.

If you are one of those who bought hd dvd players, only to find out later on that movie companies will no longer support it and instead put their videos on Blu-ray discs, now is the chance to get your money back or add a few more bucks to purchase a Blu-ray player instead. Similarly, other big box retailers such as Best Buy, Circuit City and Future Shop all have similar return policies for HD DVD players.

Via [Engadget HD] Read [Wall Street Journal]

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Without listening to it, it’s impossible to know if the Clari-Fi offers a genuine improvement to MP3 sound quality or if it’s just another Monster Cable. One thing is very interesting, though: the Clari-Fi uses power from the audio signal itself to do its magic.

The mp3 player add-on sits in line with your headphones and smoothes the audio in real time. The resplendently-titled Kirkwood Rough of Intunition, the company behind the Clari-Fi, says that the circuitry removes digital artifacts from the music and reduces listening fatigue. There are two models available, one for music ($60) and one tuned for podcasts ($50). For those of you still not convinced, here is some technobabble to bludgeon your skepticism into submission:

[D]eveloped with custom silicon with the sole purpose of quasi-logarithmically compressing audio sources having earphone load impedances of 25 to 50Ω. The compression algorithm continuously limits digital artifact peaks.

Product page [Intunition. Thanks Neil!]

It looks like Apple might have made a mistake with its recent update to the Airport Extreme. We reported that the software update had fixed a long standing annoyance, which stopped people using Time Machine to back up to a USB hard drive over the air.

The problem? Apple is treating this new feature as “unsupported”, which likely means that it was accidentally included in the updated software. Glenn Fleishmann, a writer for Macworld, details the glitches on the Tidbits blog, and speculates that it was in fact a “debugging feature […] that wasn’t properly turned off before the updates shipped”.

So, while everything might be going smoothly for you, Gadget Lab reader, remember that the one thing you don’t want to mess around with is backups. If Apple isn’t offering support, it means that something is broken. Be careful out there.

Time Machine via AirPort Disk Is Unsupported, Apple Says [Tidbits]

We’ve had a feeling Philips wasn’t really in love with the TV market lately, and now word comes from the New York Times that it will no longer manufacture displays for North America. The name — and apparently the high concept Ambilight designs — will still be on shelves, courtesy of a five year deal branding Funai-built televisions (already the name behind Emerson, Sylania, Symphonic and others.) Seeking — like every other manufacturer lately — to reduce risk and focus on its patents Philips will still design and manufacture TVs outside N.A., as well as oversee U.S. marketing, while Funai takes over all other operations Stateside beginning September 1.
[ Source ]

The European Union is readying legislation and guidelines to govern in-flight cellphone use, but as you might expect, the needs of the consumer are being left out. The European Commission is setting rules so that planes can offer coverage in any member state’s airspace without having to negotiate contracts for each and every country. It will also decide on the equipment to be used in planes to ensure inter-operability (and no doubt a nice fat contract for some lucky vendor).

Good, sensible stuff. What the guidelines and rules don’t cover, though, are the prices. Despite slow moves made by the Commission to stop the price-gouging of travelers roaming in Europe, in-flight prices will not yet be regulated. High call costs might thankfully deter many passengers from using their phones on planes, but then, it might have the opposite effect: people may shout extra loud so everybody on the flight knows just how much money they are spending, just like the early days of the cellphone itself.

EU to harmonize takeoff of in-flight mobile calls [Reuters]

Photo: Kai Hendry/Flickr