CES 2009

The new Classmate PCs will have twistable displays, allowing the Netbooks to be used in tablet mode.

(Credit: Intel)

Intel has revealed the design for a tablet version of its Classmate PC, a low-powered Netbook designed for use in primary schools.

The tablet-format Classmate, which was unveiled Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will let manufacturers build Classmate PCs that can be used either as a standard clamshell laptop or--with a 180-degree swivel of the display--as a touch-screen tablet. As with most Netbooks, it will run on Intel's Atom processor.

"Education is one of the best ways to improve the future for individuals, villages or nations," Lila Ibrahim, the general manager of Intel's emerging-markets platform group, said in a statement Friday. "There are 1.3 billion school-age children around the world and of those only five percent have access to a PC or the internet. The IT industry has a huge opportunity to contribute to how technology can improve students' learning and students' lives."

Ibrahim's division developed the reference design for the convertible Classmate PC based on ethnographic research. Child-friendly features include a water-resistant keyboard and a sturdy frame. Another feature is dubbed "palm rejection"--in tablet mode, the user can rest their palm on the touchscreen while writing, without the screen registering the palm's pressure as input.

(Credit: Viewsonic)

Seems like you can't swing a dead thumb drive on a string around at CES without it hitting some vendor's new Netbook. Many are stepping into the Netbook ring--even vendors that have never tried anything like one before; Viewsonic is an example.

During CES, the company announced its first ever Netbook, called the Viebook. The Viebook weighs 2.6 pounds, has a 10.2-inch screen and is powered by a Intel Atom 1.6GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM.

The Netbook also features a 160GB hard drive, 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel Webcam, and a 4-in-1 card reader. In addition, the system comes with Windows XP Home installed, and Viewsonic claims a 3-hour battery life.

The system will debut in February 2009 for $429.

(Credit: Erica Ogg)

As day two of CES 2009 came to a close, The 404 wrapped up the day with a solid audience of tired, dreary-eyed show goers desperate for some much needed entertainment.

Today Brian Tong joins the show to talk about the worst of CES, primarily the men's bathrooms, crying babies, and recycled floor tape. Best of all, we add a new segment to the show called "Sexy Press Release."

Be sure to catch us live again tomorrow from the CNET stage at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.

EPISODE 255

MSI U115

In 2009, MSI is coming out with a PC for all markets, from Netbooks, to all-in-ones, and even something for the gamers, starting with two new models in the U-Series line: the U115 and the U120.

According to MSI, the U115 is the world's first Netbook capable of simultaneously running SSD and HDD. By implementing the latest in hybrid storage technology, the U115 provides people with a reliable, shock-absorbent, speedy operating environment and boasts a 6-cell, 12-hour battery when operating in Eco mode.

MSI 120

The U120 is designed for portability and weighs just under 3 pounds, with added features like the Intel WiMAX Technology or a 3.5G Solution (optional). The computer offers people the ability to connect in more places and work online at a faster speed

MSI Wind NetOn

Wind NetOn - The AE1901 model is the world's first all-in-one to be equipped with the Intel dual-core Atom processor, which improves operational performance and conserves energy. The AE1901's power consumption is said to be only 20 percent that of a normal PC. With display options ranging from 16 inches, 19 inches, and 22 inches, one can be green and not go blind looking at the screen.

The G-Series brings a variety of gaming notebooks to choose from, the GT725, GT727, GT627, and GX420. According to MSI, the GT725 and GT727 are the first two models to break the 10,000 point 3Dmark barrier

The E-Series will also be launching two new versions of the advanced E-series Notebooks, the EX625 and the EX623. These new models feature ATI Radeon HD4670 video cards, a subwoofer, Dolby Surround II capabilities, 16:9 cinema-level displays, and Blue-ray optical drives

A model shows off Dell's new luxury notebook called Adamo.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET Networks)

LAS VEGAS--Dell trotted out a fashion model to show off the newest addition to its notebook lineup, but beyond explaining the name of Adamo, gave no further details.

Though rumors about Adamo circulated in December, Dell wouldn't confirm its existence. At its press conference here on the second day of CES, the PC maker did that--and only that.

Here's what we know: Adamo is sleek, thin, and black. And it's not a Netbook, meaning there's no Atom processor inside. But which processor is inside, company officials wouldn't say. And it will be for sale at retail locations sometime in the first half of the year.

A close-up of the Adamo shown off at a CES press conference Friday.

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET Networks)

Dell will say that it focused heavily on the industrial design of the notebook, using top-of-the-line materials. Based on what's outside, we can assume it's at the higher end of the spectrum, performance-wise. "It will have the better capabilities you'd expect," Senior Vice President of Consumer Products Alex Gruzen offered.

Oh, and Adamo is pronounced "A-dahm-o." It means "to fall in love with" in Latin, said Michael Tatelman, vice president of consumer sales and marketing for Dell. "It started off as a project code name and then we fell in love with it too."

But Adamo wasn't the only news of the day. Dell also announced a new Netbook, the Inspiron Mini 10, a 10-inch Netbook that falls right between the Mini 9 and Mini 12.

We managed to be among the very first to snag a coveted Sony Vaio Lifestyle PC, so here are a couple of in-the-wild photos, plus some first hands-on impressions.

Despite the small overall size, we found the keyboard fairly easy to use. At first, the lack of a touchpad worried us, but the trackpoint was fast and responsive, and after 15 minutes or so, we got fairly used to navigating with it--a very light tap on the pointing stick will give you a left mouse click. We're still not entirely sold, however, and still think a touchpad is better for many tasks.

The 1,600x768 screen has a higher resolution than many 15-inch laptops. Some initial attempts at online video streaming played fine, and the built-in Verizon-powered mobile broadband worked as advertised.

Even with Vista as the operating system, the Vaio seemed to run about as well as any Intel Atom system with XP we've used (2GB of RAM and an SSD hard drive help). With Windows 7, purportedly excellent for Netbooks, it would probably fly (relatively speaking).

It's hard to convey just how small this thing actually is. In the photos below, you'll see it positively dwarfed by an HP Mini 1000. ... Read more

CES has officially begun and we discuss a slew of offerings from the show floor, as well as the Steve Ballmer keynote. Also, Tom is offered the chance to record his voice for TomTom GPS devices. That's a lot of Tom!

EPISODE 887

Ballmer Keynote
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10131585-100.html
http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/ces2009-microsoft-keynote.ars

Windows 7 goes Beta this Friday
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10135791-56.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10136418-75.html

Windows 7 might not come in '09
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10135943-56.html

CES Press conference roundup:
Samsung: super thin OLED
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10135532-100.html

Vizio takes the cover off Connected HDTV: Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, Yahoo! and more
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/vizio-takes-the-cover-off-connected-hdtv-netflix-blockbuster/

Yahoo! recaps a day of setting the Internet-on-TV movement on fire with Widgets
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/08/yahoo-recaps-a-day-of-setting-the-internet-on-tv-movement-on-fi/

Wall-mountable Blu-Ray player
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10134004-100.html

Audiovox, PlayStation 2 roll out
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10135464-100.html

Acoustic Research Harmony killers
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10133953-100.html

LG’s 240Hz LCDs flash backlights really fast
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10135326-100.html
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10135175-100.html

LG to implement noise-canceling in many of its phones
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10134765-100.html

The Sony P-series Lifestyle PC: Just don’t call it a Netbook
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10131906-100.html

OQO launches world’s smallest Vista PC with OLED screen
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090107-oqo-launches-worlds-smallest-vista-pc-with-oled-screen-see-notes.html

Pols hit panic button as DTV coupon program goes broke
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090107-pols-hit-panic-button-as-dtv-coupon-program-goes-broke.html

New energy efficiency rules for TVs sold in California
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F07%2F1946223

E-MAIL
Hey Tom, Molly, and Justin,

I was listening to show 886, and something caught my attention when
Natali was talking about the Giffen good. She said that when demand
increases, price increases when talking about high-priced technology
products. What she was actually referring to is called a Veblen good;
a Giffen good is when the price of an inferior good, a good that low-
income people generally prefer (ramen, bread, etc), rises and those
low-income people end up buying more of that good. A Veblen good is
like a Giffen good, but Veblen goods are generally luxury goods, such
as that new 17-inch MacBook Pro or a Lamborghini, etc. People buy
these Veblen goods at higher prices because it is considered to be a
mark of your financial status.

Sorry for such a long email, feel free to truncate it however you
wish, just wanted to clear that up.

Love the show, keep it up!
Daniel Byon

***********

Hey jamoto,

In Replyness to Daniels Email from Wednesday, I am also a UK listener and would like to say that the BBC does indeed broadcast their tv shows live on the internet. To clarify, the BBC iplayer is where viewers can watch shows from up to 7 days in the past and they also have a bbc watch live service which at this very moment I am watching live tv on the internet and on my terrestrial tv. This was also in place last year so Tom, you do get another correct prediction from 2008.

Chris Hisgrove

***********

Hi Buzz crew,

Tom, did I heard correctly in episode 884 that you'd love to get your voice on a TomTom? That's great news!
An even better news is that you don't even have to license your voice to us. You just have to record a few voice commands, convert them in a TomTom format and publish yourself on our TomTom HOME platform where Buzz-fans from all over the world can download it for free and put it on their TomTom. I'd sure be one of them!

It's a rather easy process for geeks like us and I'd be very happy to assist.

All the best,
Jeff from TomTom and long time listener

PS: Love the show

***********

Hey Buzz Crew,

Hope your enjoying CES. I’m stuck in snow snow and more snow…

I was listening to yesterday’s show (1/7) where you talked about a 10
meg max download over 3G for iTunes on the iPhone. While this is
true, I just go to your www and download the mp3. This works fine, so
I’m not sure why AT&T doesn’t block this then?!?

- Bob, the Nuclear Engineer

We're coming to you from CES 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada and it's all about Netbooks today. I'm sure we'll get more buzz about 3D TVs and more later this week. Also, Ellie doesn't like it when we call out the title of the show, but that makes it easier for Jason to find them for his special edition! (And please excuse a bit of distortion in today's episode. Sorry! -Jason)
Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 886

Yawn— MacWorld (woohoo iTunes DRM free!!)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10133230-37.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090106-apple-mwsf-announcements-new-macbook-pro.html

Apple activates iTunes downloads over 3G, with a caveat
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10133349-1.html
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2009/01/06/apple-labels-both-win-with-drm-free-itunes-tiered-pricing

Free Nine Inch Nails albums top 2008 Amazon MP3 sales charts
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090106-free-nine-inch-nails-albums-top-2008-amazon-mp3-sales-charts.html

AMD’s Neo processor debuts in HP notebook
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090106-amds-neo-processor-debuts-in-hp-notebook-whoah.html

Asus says Netbooks can be upscale with the S121
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10131423-100.html
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/06/asus-s121-with-worlds-first-512gb-ssd/

…and new Eee PC with swiveling screen
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10131412-100.html

MSI XSlim MacBook Air-like thing
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/01/msis-super-thin.html

LG’s Watch Phone: production please?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/lg-shows-off-gd910-watch-phone-production-later-this-year/

LaCie breaks off quad-interface 2big Quadra RAID drive
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/06/lacie-breaks-off-quad-interface-2big-quadra-raid-drive/

Google’s Android runs on a Netbook — Google OS in the offing?
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=316
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090105-android-netbook-port-leaves-some-pondering-google-os.html

Phishing is a minimum-wage job
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F06%2F2213256&from=rss

SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone announced
http://www.cnet.com/8301-19515_1-10131943-234.html

Pay-as-you-go airline charges by the minute
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/01/new-airline-pla.html

What piracy? Movie biz sees record box office in 2008http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090105-what-piracy-movie-biz-sees-record-box-office-in-2008.html

E-MAIL

Hey jamoto,
As one of your UK listeners, I’d just like to clarify the ‘liveness’
of the BBC iPlayer. It actually broadcasts tv shows on the internet an
hour after they are first broadcasted on tv. Just thought that you
should know.

LTS,
DanieInHell

**********

Hey Jamoto++,

Web Developer Matthew Horoszowski (say Horoshofski) here and just
wanted to point out this article,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/technologynews/4126913/Mind-game-where-players-use-brainwaves-to-float-ball-through-hoops-unveiled.html
,
which talks about a new game that uses your brainwaves to control a
small ball and move it through hoops and things.

Guess that one prediction for this year down!

**********

Hey JaMoTo + 1:

On the dial tone issue from Monday’s show: when someone moves out of a
house or and apartment, the phone company *should* leave dial tone on
the line, but with no account information. This gives access to 911 and
611 (to be able to call the company to fully activate the line). When I
worked for BellSouth, that service was called a QuickServe.

However, QuickServes can be disabled if the line is needed at another
residence or business and no other cable pairs are immediately
available, hence the reason that Tom’s line didn’t have dial tone.
FWIW, no dial tone, no 911.

Barry Stubbs

**********

Stop it!!! Stop with the announcing of the title in the actual show!!

Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, STOP!!!

<3 Ellie

(Credit: Asus)

Asus is still chasing the "upscale Netbook" market with its latest shiny little box, the S121. Rather than being part of the well-known Eee PC line, the S121 is being called an "Ultra Slim Mobile Notebook," and uses Intel's Atom-based Menlow platform--essentially an updated version of the Atom CPU currently used in most Netbooks.

To fancy it up, Asus is including a 128GB solid-state hard drive, Swarovski crystals in the display hinge, and a leather palm rest. The whole thing is a bit less than one inch thick and weighs a modest 2.6 pounds, making for a nice step-up alternative to the standard plastic Netbook.

It will also include (as have a few other recent Asus systems) a Linux-based quick-launch environment for easy access to the Web and documents without booting up the full OS. Final price and availability details of the Asus S121 should be forthcoming.