At Computex this past May, MSI showed off two tablets. One was an Atom tablet running Windows 7, and the other was an ARM tablet running Android. According to MSI’s Director of North American Sales, MSI has updated both models and will be showing them off at CES 2011. The Atom model now uses Intel’s new Oak Trail processor and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. The ARM models now uses a Dual-Core Tegra 2 processor and will either ship with Android 2.3 or 3.0, depending on Google’s schedule. For a while, we though the WindPad was just another tablet that would never make it to the hands of customers. But now it appears that MSI is readying the WindPad for launch sometime in the first or second quarter of 2011.

Via: InsanelyPortable
Source: Engadget

When I first emailed MSI A few months ago about getting a review unit MSI Wind, I did not immediately get a response. A month or so later I did get a response from someone who was very willing to send me a Wind. I asked about a U160 which they did not have in stock (Which I will attempt to review later) but I did manage to get a U135, which is second best.

The MSI Wind U135 we got contains an N450 Atom Processor running at 1.66GHZ, and 1GB Onboard RAM. It has a 160GB or 250 GB Seagate HD and it comes preloaded with Windows 7 Starter (More on that later). The first thing you notice when you open the machine is gloss, and by gloss I do mean gloss. The machine is pretty much ALL glossy apart from the bottom case. And as you can imagine, fingerprints begin to occupy the glossy surfaces quite quickly.

The rest is after the jump.

Compared to it’s ancestors the U100 and the U120 there are some visual cues shared from both models. The U135 has the LED lights from the U120 and the general rounded design of the U100. The Trackpad button is shiny faux metal like the U120 but is a single rocker like the U100. The Trackpad itself is much larger as proudly proclaimed on the box. The trackpad has an interesting design on it, a striped gray pattern, which is also shared on the glossy lid.

The Keyboard gets it’s own paragraph, because it might be one of the biggest reasons to upgrade. It’s in the awesome chiclet format, which places spaces between the keys. MSI really did get down to the nitty gritty with the design with the spaces between the keys being glossy. The Right shift key got shrunken because of the smaller keys, but that is a small price to pay for the improved typing experience.

The Screen is bright and has a glossy shine to it, which of course causes reflections and it shows vivid colors well.

In some circumstances you can see your face in the screen.

As demonstrated here

The Hinge of the machine appears to have improved and is smoother than the U100 and U120 hinges.

The ports on the machine remain unchanged from previous versions of MSI Wind, 3 USB, VGA out, Sound in/out, Charger, and SD Slot reader.

Windows 7 is really nice and zippy on this laptop, and it comes preloaded with a nice bundle of software including: Kidoz (Browsing for little Kids), Magic-i Webcam suite (PhotoBooth clone). The Windows 7 install comes installed with the normal suite of programs that windows normally comes with. HD Video playback on YouTube is essentially a slideshow, as the N450 struggles with flash, 720p and 1080p suffered. Standard def plays very smooth and nice.

The Battery life appears to be fantastic, I haven’t done many tests with it yet, but the machine had been on hibernation with on and off use for 30 days and is just now running out of battery. The Battery is a standard MSI Wind battery with it being compatible with the U100, U120, etc.

Showing the 6-cell battery

This U135 is a great upgrade for Wind users looking for a new style of Netbook. While in performance this U135 offers a modest bump in speed.

Here is a Slideshow of pictures of the MSI Wind U135:

Pros
- Better looking design.
- Windows 7 preinstalled
- Depending on Model bigger HD
- MSI Quality.
- Tried and true design, which is sturdy and overall good.

Cons
- Relatively meager performance bump
- Almost same design.
- No OSX compatibility thus far
- Gloss is a fingerprint magnet.

8/10 stars.

Direct Link to photo album:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mars478/sets/72157624666562168/

Portable applications for Windows and Mac have been around for a long time, but are less common in the Linux world. Due to the complexity of Linux dependencies, and the different way different distributions locate these dependencies, the portable Linux application long seemed like a dream.

Until now.

A new website PortableLinuxApps features a number of portable applications, which will work on any Linux distro. Being portable these can run off any drive or folder you choose.

The site also has a forum to dicuss the apps and request for more on the site.

Best of all, there’s starting to roll out ways to help you make your own portable application, should you not be able to find what you’re looking for.

Portable apps rules!

Check it out at: portablelinuxapps.org

Source and detailed info: makeuseof.com

netbooksunder200bucks.com

Digitimes is now reporting that Apple is preparing to launch a smaller, thinner MacBook Air. The reported size is 11 inch, which is 1 inch larger than your average netbook (10 inch). It is also reported to sport a Intel Core-i series CPU, possibly a Core i5.

Rumor is that it will be thinner and lighter then the original, but will also sport a high price tag. This just might end up being the worlds most expensive netbook!

Digitimes also reported that the iPod Touch will get an update, with a 3MP Camera and Apple A4 proccessor, just like its iPhone brother.

Source: Digitimes

The major new feature of the final version is the new HTML5 launcher which replaces the original Netbook Remix launcher. This is a lot better looking and now means that Jolicloud looks a lot less like Netbook Remix. You can also log into this in any browser supporting HTML5 and install apps, reorganise the home screen and check your socila stream. There is now a lot more apps, over 700 all having been made by the Jolicloud team. Most of them are just apps that are in the cloud but there are a few still installed locally such as Chrome, Skype and Gimp. It also has all the latest drivers for most systems including drivers for 3G modems and touchscreens.

Here’s a first look at it by netbooknews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKhsUBJ5ocg

Find out more at: http://www.jolicloud.com/blog/

PCMag.com has made a new list of their Top 100 Free Applications for Smartphones. Their picks contain individual lists for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile, WebOS and Symbian. Each list contains a screenshot and a short description of the application. With several hundred thousand apps for some of the Smartphones these lists might come handy for new users or anyone looking for new apps.

Take a look at the list and if you think they missed a great app, make a topic about it in the Phone Zone of our forum and share it!

The Top 40 Free iPhone Apps
The Top 30 Free Google Android Apps
The Top 10 Free BlackBerry Apps
The Top 10 Free Palm webOS Apps
The Top 5 Free Symbian Apps
The Top 5 Free Windows Phone Apps

The Captivate is one of Samsung’s many Galaxy S smartphones. It features a stunning 4″ Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. Samsung’s AMOLED displays are known for their high brightness, wide viewing angles, outdoor visibility, and crisp image quality. The Captivate’s hardware also consists of a 1GHz Hummingbird processor (based on the ARM Cortex A8), 512MB of RAM, accelerometer, gyroscope, a MicroUSB port, and 16GB of internal storage. It’s 5 megapixel camera is capable of capturing 720p HD video at up to 30fps. You can also expect 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, and a tri-band 3G connection allowing “AT&T customers to make calls in more than 220 countries and download data in more than 195.” The Captivate will run Android 2.1 and will have a custom TouchWiz 3.0 UI by Samsung, to take advantage of it’s multi-touch capabilities. Samsung promises that the Captivate will receive a Android 2.2 Froyo update later this year, and will support Flash 10.1. It will be available on July 18 for US $199 by the US carrier AT&T. The Captivate may very well be considered the best Android smartphone on AT&T due to it’s thrilling hardware specs and features.

Source: AT&T , Cellphoneinn

A Chinese company named Musican has announced a new tablet. The Musican MID dual boots Android 2.1 and Windows CE 6.0. The most notable feature about this tablet is it’s aluminum outer casing, which makes it both very durable and attractive. The hardware consists of a 720MHz ARM11-based Telechips 8902B processor, 256MB of DDR2 RAM, and 2GB-32GB of internal storage. It also has a 3-axis accelerometer, a USB port, WiFi, and 3G. It’s card reader supports up to 32GB of external storage. The MID also has an HDMI port, which supports full 1080p video playback on an external display. It’s 7″ touch display has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, and is either resistive or capacitive. This tablet has great specs compared to many other announced tablets, and this may be a great choice for anyone looking for an ultraportable tablet computer.

Source: Pocketables , Musican

The smallest tablet, with a 5″ resistive touch display, is the RoverPad Go G50. It is based on Android 1.5, due to it’s minimal hardware specifications. The G50 uses a Marvell PXA303 chip, has 128MB of RAM, and 2GB of internal storage. For many people, 2GB is not enough to hold a significant amount of their media. That is where the MicroSD port comes in handy for expandable storage. On top of the MicroSD, there is one USB port, WiFi, 3G, and a GPS module. The display has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, making video playback very enjoyable.

The RoverPad 3WG70 is said to be the cheapest of all five models. Like the Go G50, it also runs Android 1.5, has 128MB of RAM, and 2GB of internal storage. It features a RockChip 2808 processor, clocked at 600MHz. The 3WG70 also has a USB port, MicroSD, WiFi, built-in speaker, and a camera. The display size and resolution is unknown. It most likely has a 5″ or 7″ resistive touch display.

The third tablet, the RoverPad Air G70, runs Windows CE operating system. Like Apple’s iPad, it has 256MB of RAM. The G70 also has a 667MHz Samsung processor (ARM11 based), Accelerometer, 4GB of internal storage, WiFi, and 3G. It also has multiple USB ports, a MicroSD port, headphone jack, and video out. Many audio and video formats are supported, making this a good eBook reader or music player. It has a 7″ resistive touch display.

Another tablet is the RoverPad Go G72, based on Android 1.6. Like the Go G59, it also uses the Marvell PXA303 chipset and has 128MB of RAM. It also had two USB ports, Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, Ethernet, and a GPS module. The G72 has a large 7″ touch display. It is unknown if it is resistive or capacitive.

Finally, the last tablet is the RoverPad TegA W70. It features the NVIDIA Tegra platform with 512MB of RAM, making it the fastest tablet of the bunch. It has 4GB of internal storage, HDMI output, a USB port, and camera, WiFi, and 3G. It runs Android 2.1 OS, which has many more features than the Android 1.5 and 1.6 OS’s in the other RoverPad tablets. The W70 has a 7″ capacitive display.

Rover Computers hopes to bring all five tablets to the market in October. Check the source below for more details and specs on each tablet.

Source: Hi-Tech.mail.ru