Acer Aspire One AOD250 notebook runs both XP and Android, lacks Google integration
There was always talk of using Android as a netbook OS (a
“smartbook”) but until that comes along we’ll have to settle for Android
as an instant-on OS. In today’s example – the Acer Aspire One AOD250
dual-boots Android and Windows XP. The Android experience is sub-par but
the important thing here is that Android runs on a x86 CPU at all.
The main issue with this version of Android is that it’s an unofficial port, at least as far as Google is concerned. That means no Gmail and no Android Market. Since these are the two major disadvantages, it all seems a little pointless. Oh, and it seems that Acer couldn’t pull off what HTC did – bring Flash support to the Android browser – they opted for Firefox. Yep, you read that right – Firefox.
Or rather a port of an alpha version of the Linux Firefox – these early versions don’t even come with the Firefox title, they use “Minefield” instead (that should be an indication enough that it’s not ready for prime time-yet). At any rate, Android seems to handle native-code applications well, but we wouldn’t get our hopes up for Firefox ever making it to mobile phones.
So, it’s not all perfect, but you get Google Contacts and you can use Gmail through Firefox, which reportedly ran without hiccups. Still, the whole thing looks undercooked but thanks to the backup/update utility you get in XP, updating the Android OS should be pretty painless.
Booting into Windows XP, turns the AOD250 brings the familiar netbook experience, so there’s not much to say about that.
The main issue with this version of Android is that it’s an unofficial port, at least as far as Google is concerned. That means no Gmail and no Android Market. Since these are the two major disadvantages, it all seems a little pointless. Oh, and it seems that Acer couldn’t pull off what HTC did – bring Flash support to the Android browser – they opted for Firefox. Yep, you read that right – Firefox.
Or rather a port of an alpha version of the Linux Firefox – these early versions don’t even come with the Firefox title, they use “Minefield” instead (that should be an indication enough that it’s not ready for prime time-yet). At any rate, Android seems to handle native-code applications well, but we wouldn’t get our hopes up for Firefox ever making it to mobile phones.
So, it’s not all perfect, but you get Google Contacts and you can use Gmail through Firefox, which reportedly ran without hiccups. Still, the whole thing looks undercooked but thanks to the backup/update utility you get in XP, updating the Android OS should be pretty painless.
Booting into Windows XP, turns the AOD250 brings the familiar netbook experience, so there’s not much to say about that.
The Kohjinsha AMD Neo netbook has a dual display… Say what?!
We’ve seen lots of “dual-something” products (did somebody say
dual-SIM phones?) but who would guess that there will be a dual-display
netbook? Well, there is – the Singaporean company Kohjinsha has just
announced one. And we have it caught on video.
OK, a
dual-display 17-inch multimedia laptop sounds impressive. But a 10.1″
NETBOOK with two screens… that doesn’t even qualify as odd. What’s the
point? Instead of a large enough screen you get a second 10.1-inch
screen so your initial display becomes twice as wide.
Anyways, the swivel netbook seems cute and
some might find this idea nice. The Kohjinsha seems well equipped – it
runs Windows 7 and packs a promising 1.6 GHz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40
processor, up to 4GB RAM and 160GB of storage. When not in use, the
second screen is under the other and to start using it, you just have to
pull it out. As a result, when folded, the netbook is considerably
thicker than the others of its species.
And there is another deal breaker – the
frame. It would’ve been great if there was no frame at all between the
two displays or if it was almost invisible. The Kohjinsha netbook isn’t
frameless so the displayed information will be separated by the black
frame in the middle.
The price of approximately 750 euro (that
makes around 1100 US dollars) sounds steep but keep in mind that this is
the first netbook of its kind and being unique comes at a price. We
expected it to hit the shelves in Japan by the end of the year.
Toshiba announces 14 megapixel back-lit image sensor for mobile phones and digicams
If you’ve been loosing your sleep about the megapixel war coming to an end – rest assured it won’t be anytime soon. Toshiba just announced their 14 megapixel 1/2.3” back-lit CMOS image sensor, intended for use in mobile phones and digicams.
Back-side illumination (or BSI as Toshiba likes to call it) boosts light sensitivity by 40%, which should make up for the constantly shrinking pixels. That is because lenses are deployed on the rear of the sensor, not on the front, where wiring limits light absorption.
Sampling of the new sensor will begin in December and mass production will follow from the third quarter of 2010. A 14 megapixel camephone as a present for Christmas next year sounds pretty good, right? Oh yeah, given enough processing power that thing is also capale of 1080p@60fps video recording.
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