Intel announced today that it is working with ASUS to develop low-cost portable PCs. This project is not to be confused with Intel's Classmate PC, which as far as we know is a completely separate venture. There is no specific target price for these notebooks, however, Intel said that some might be available for less than $200.

The first Intel-ASUS laptop was announced at the end of a keynote address at Computex. Jonney Shih, CEO and chairman of ASUS, walked onto the stage with a prototype of the low-cost notebook PC. The PC itself is very small, and measures in at only 225 x 165 x 35mm. It weighs only 890 grams.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what market segment this PC is targeted at. Intel and ASUS both claim that it is designed for developing countries, but where that would leave Intel's Classmate PC is beyond our knowledge. There have been some discussion that ASUS will be offering the PC through traditional retail channely, meaning a government contract wouldn't be the only way to get this PC.he laptop series has been dubbed the Eee, which according to ASUS stands for, "easy to learn, easy to play, easy to work." Although we might not like the name very much, the price point should make u for it.

As can be expected, the laptop is based on an Intel chipset and CPU. The notebook is more flexible in terms of operating systems compared to Intel's Classmate PC, and similar to the XO, is based on a distribution of Linux. Intel and ASUS, however, opted against making a specialized Linux distribution and instead chose to base the laptop on the well-known Linux distribution Ubuntu. In addition to compatiblity with Linux, we are being told the laptops will also be compatible with Microsoft's operating systems.

The notebook's monitor has a 7-inch diagonal length. Unfortunately, ASUS didn't go as far as to reveal the resolution of the display. In terms of storage, the notebook can be equipped with NAND memory modules ranging from 2 GB all the way to 16 GB. As of right now, the price point of the laptop is expected to be around $199. Naturally, the price will go up depending on the laptop's hardware configuration. T

A working model of Intel's classmate PC is on display at Sandisk's stand in Comutex. Intel's Classmate PC holds a stark similarity to MIT's One Laptop For Child XO laptop. The Intel Classmate and XO are fundamentally different from one another despite targeting the same market. While the Intel Classmate attempts to stay true to traditional notebook PCs, the XO takes a rather unconventional approach.

The OLPC organization is headed by Nicholas Negroponte, who has been quite critical of Intel's Classmate PC on a number of occasions. He feels that Intel's low-cost laptop is much more "teacher-centric", while the XO is much more "child-centric." In addition, he feels that XO has an inherent advantage because it was not created for pure profit. Despite this, the OLPC organization has still faced criticism in the past.

Returning to the Intel Classmate PC, the laptop comes pre-installed with Windows XP Professional. Given that Intel has so much involvement in the design of the PC, it is no surprise that it comes equipped with an Intel Celeron M processor. Special attention has been given to the storage of the notebook, and it features 2 GB of NAND flash memory. The memory can be expanded through USB ports.

The memory modules are obviously supplied by Sandisk, given that the Classmate PC is on display at its booth. The Classmate PC seems much more similar to traditional notebooks than its competitor, XO. Screen brightness is also quite similar to traditional notebook PCs.

In an interview with German newspaper Wirtschafts Woche Steve Ballmer declared that the time is still not right for Microsoft to enter the European music player market with the Zune. The Zune media player made its debut in North America last fall, but wasn't met with a tremendous amount of excitement or success. For financial reasons, Microsoft will not be entering the European market just yet.

Speaking to the newspaper Ballmer said, "Bisher verlieren wir in dem Geschäft Geld, weil wir investieren müssen. Daher haben wir uns entschieden, noch nicht in neue Märkte zu gehen. Wann das der Fall sein wird, kann ich heute noch nicht sagen." Roughly translated, Ballmer was saying, "so far we are losing money in the business, because we must invest. Therefore we decided not to get into any new markets just yet. When will that be the case, I can't say today."

The Apple iPhone has finally received its official release date through a commercial which aired during "60 Minutes" yesterday. The ad is now available on the Apple website.

Prior to the announcement, the only hint that was given regarding the highly anticipiated cell phone's launch date was that it would debut in late June. The Apple iPhone is now officially set for release on June 29. The 25 days left up to the iPhone's launch should provide a little more time to save up for the $499 required to buy the 4GB version or the $600 to buy the 8GB version. After the initial price, though, you'll still have to swallow the 2-year AT&T contract.

AMD recently unveiled its 65nm AMD Turion 64 X2 processors at an event alongside NVIDIA and Broadcom. Up until now, AMD's mobile processors have been able to resist the change to a smaller manufacturing process. As AMD continues to rapidly refresh and convert its Fab 36 manufacturing facility, more manufacturing capabilities are being opened up to the company.

Intel has held an advantage in process technology over AMD for quite some time now, and originally moved its mobile processors to 65nm in 2006. Reducing the manufacturing process usually results in lower power consumption and lower operating voltages, which also means lesser cooling requirements. All of these characteristics are key to the success of a mobile platform, which explains why Intel and AMD are both aggressively refining their manufacturing process.

The performance changes, however, aren't always immediately drastic. It is common practice for companies to shrink a familiar CPU with a finer manufacturing process before creating a completely new chip on an unknown process. This allows the semiconductor to mature the manufacturing process with a familiar design, clearing out process design related issues, before moving on to producing new chips on the smaller design process. This means that although the performance changes of the current 65nm Turions might not be groundbreaking, the new chips will certainly allow AMD to refine its 65nm process technology and work out design issues before they launch their next-generation processors.

In an attempt to further extend battery life, the new AMD-based platforms, which were the main focus of the event, will use the recently launched AMD M690 chipset which has a new memory technology called Display Cache. The technology allows the CPU to operate in low-power mode without accessing system memory. Combined with the new 65nm design process, AMD hopes to extend mobile battery life to 5 hours.

At the 3GSM World Congress 2007 in Barcelona, Microsoft today announced PlayReady technology, a new DRM mechanism made to increase interoperability between mobile devices.

PlayReady has been optimized to meet the increasing demands of mobile device manufacturers. The new DRM supports multiple content types, including music, videogames, and movies. The new DRM also supports a broad range of business models such as subscription, rental, pay-per-view, preview and super-distribution. Currently, Microsoft’s PlayReady supports Windows Media Audio (WMA), AAC/AAC+/HE-AAC, Windows Media Video (WMV), and H.264.

Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president of the Consumer Media Technology group at Microsoft said, “Our wireless partners worldwide asked for a single system to power a growing array of business models and consumer scenarios — the result is Microsoft PlayReady. With consumer demand for digital goods of all types growing exponentially, this technology delivers a foundation for the future and accelerates the transparent delivery of rich content to consumers.”

PlayReady has been designed to be fully backwards compatible with Windows Media DRM 10, also known as PlaysForSure. As such, devices that support Microsoft PlayReady can also access content using Windows Media DRM.

Currently, the limitations of PlayReady are not very clear. For example, with Apple’s FairPlay content can be shared on a limitless number of iPods, however, it limits sharing content between PCs/Macs to only 5 times.

Microsoft claims that its new technology will give consumers a new level of freedom by making it easier to move content between mobile devices. The most important feature of PlayReady is that it can be used on a number of different platforms, including low-end devices. It is in no way a “closed system.” The technology will be available with what Microsoft’s claims a “well documented” porting kit for easy implementation on multiple platforms. Microsoft currently plans for the technology to be available in the first half of 2007 for handset and device implementation.

Boston-Power, Inc. will soon be offering a next-generation notebook lithium-ion battery line that will feature the world’s fastest recharge time along with matching the lifespan of regular notebook PCs. Dubbed Sonata, Boston-Power is working closely with HP in testing and validating the new technology.

“As the world’s number one supplier of notebook computers, HP is deeply committed to capitalizing on innovations in portable power,” said HP Distinguished Technologist Dr. John Wozniak. “We believe that lithium-ion is the best solution to power notebook computers for the foreseeable future. HP welcomes opportunities to incorporate advancements in this area into our products to the benefit of our customers.”

The Sonata product line will be a drop-in technology companies will be able to use with existing notebook computers. No design changes will be required on the part of the notebook computer OEM. The new battery will feature enhanced safety features, a longer lifespan, and a faster recharge time.

Its safety features include “slower chemical kinetics, novel current interrupt devices, new thermal fuses, unique pressure relief vents and safer pack configuration.” Safety is a large focus of Boston-Power, as they believe that they are “answering the call for safer, longer lasting lithium-ion batteries.”

Geared towards on-the-go notebook computer users, Sonata provides the industry’s fastest recharge time. Recharging the battery to 80% capacity will take just 30 minutes, about half the time of most other battery solutions. In addition, Boston-Power has also addressed the problem of battery lifespan. Sonata has been designed to match the lifespan of notebook PCs, meaning no more replacement batteries.

The fist public unveiling of Sonata will take place this Thursday at DEMO 2007, a premier event for the latest in emerging technologies. The first notebook computers that use Sonata batteries are expected to begin shipping this summer.

FAIR, an aid organization dedicated to the spread of ICT in developing countries, has accused the OLPC organization of misleading and exploiting poor countries with its $100 laptop. The aid organization claims that countries are “being misled into measures which shift the focus away from their real needs.”

By now many of us have heard of the One Laptop Per Child initiative, more commonly referred to as OLPC. The non-profit organization was initially created by faculty members of MIT’s Media Lab to design and distribute relatively inexpensive laptop computers to emerging markets and third-world countries. The organization’s primary aim is to “revolutionize” how children are educated today through its inexpensive laptops.

FAIR accuses the OLPC organization of manipulating poorer counties through a number of different methods. It believes the largest drawbacks of the laptops are high price, high technological risk, misleading marketing, and having the wrong target group.

“In OLPC's agreement with Libya … one OLPC with Internet and support costs USD 208 per schoolchild. A normal school with 500-1,000 students must thus invest USD 100,000 to 200,000 to join the OLPC program. This price represents a normal 10 year budget for a school in the world's 50 least developed countries (LDCs).”

Although the price of a single OLPC might seem inexpensive at first, the cost of a large number of units can easily add up. The price of the laptop has actually gone up significantly since it was first launched. Originally planned to be sold for $100, added features ran the price up to $150 and from there finally hit today’s $208 mark. In the Libya deal, the cost for each OLPC was calculated out of a memorandum of understanding to purchase 1.2 million computers, one server per school, and a team of technical advisors who would setup the infrastructure for $250 million. These added costs were able to effectively double the price of the laptop from the originally planned price to $208.

FAIR also accuses the OLPC project of misleading marketing. They claim that OLPC is not “giving enough information about the weaknesses and pitfalls of the new technology.” They went on to say that “Attention is being directed away from the gaping deficiencies and the project's high risk and OLPC is being marketed as a "100 dollar laptop", when it really costs over USD 200- plus other substantial investment costs.”

FAIR was also critical of the OLPC’s modest technical specifications.

“OLPC cannot today be used as a replacement for a normal PC…..With its limited 512 Mb memory it is equally likely that OLPC could never be able to become a satisfactory work station.”

The current BTest-1 units only come with 128MB of RAM. The CPU is an AMD Geode GX-500 which is clocked at 366 MHz paired with an AMD CS5536 South Bridge chipset. For storage, the laptop uses 512 MB of flash RAM.

“Every year in the west we destroy tens of millions of PCs which are far better than OLPC and which would cost not much more than a tenth of OLPC to put to use in developing countries. This is established technology which can run the latest software and get the recipients up to western levels of IT technology without delays. In the present circumstances this is a far better alternative. For western organisations such as MIT, OLPC and their sub-contractors to benefit by transferring expensive and risky technology to the world's poorest countries, without any documented need for it, looks like exploitation to those of us who are really committed to global aid work.”

FAIR believes that a much better method for bringing technology to poorer third-world counties is by recycling used PCs, which is what the organization already does. 80% of the equipment the organization receives is reused in its projects while less than 20% is recycled for their materials.

The OLPC organization seems to have already thought about this approach though, and have already posted its reasons for not using recycled computers in its FAQ.

“Finally, regarding recycled machines: if we estimate 100 million available used desktops, and each one requires only one hour of human attention to refurbish, reload, and handle, that is forty-five thousand work years. Thus, while we definitely encourage the recycling of used computers, it is not the solution for One Laptop per Child.”

After winning an appeal against Apple, the company now plans to move onto the offensive. In a press release, the company stated that it would be suing Apple for 100 million USD. The figure is to receive compensation for Apple’s earlier lawsuit in which Luxpro claims they lost valuable market opportunities and a large amount of product orders.

Conveniently enough, Luxpro seems to have left out the fact that when the company initially began to market their products, they chose to use the brand name “Supper Shuffle.” The branding strategy, however, was discontinued and Luxpro instead chose upon using the “Tangent” brand name.

The OLPC project, which will finally begin to start shipping its XO laptops worldwide this July, is attempting to accomplish than just an economic feat. The main goal is not just to provide a low-cost computer, but to help introduce a new approach to technology for children in developing markets. The driving focus of the project is that children are being taught the use of office applications instead of how to create and develop new things.

To achieve its goal of transforming the learning process, OLPCs will come with a slim and unique version of Linux that is geared towards education. Instead of the conventional windows and files approach, the home screen of these computers will be centered on a stick-figure icon. A white ring surrounding the stick-figure will display all programs that the student is currently running. The desktop (or “neighborhood” as the OLPC project terms it) also features a black frame that displays additional icons.

At the core of the XO interface, developers are now announcing the first details of Sugar, the OLPC Human Interface. Sugar provides chat and sharing functions for the core applications featured on the OLPC. Christopher Blizzard, a lead developer for the OLPC project, emphasizes "We want this interface to be social. This means that kids can communicate in every app that they can show each other things, that they can take each other on tours of the web and many other ways of collaborating."

The end-result of the OLPC will be a computer that will offer a new approach to learning. Blizzard adds “90 percent of the underlying programming code was cobbled together from technologies that long existed in the open-source programming community.” All of the tools available on the XO will be freely modifiable by anyone.

When finally delivered to students around the world, the low-cost laptops are expected to transform education. The laptops will come with a wide range of programs, including a Web browser, word processor and even an RSS reader.

Nicholas Negroponte, who originally launched the project two years ago at MIT’s technology labs, is quite optimistic regarding the future of the OLPC. In an email interview with the Associated Press, Negroponte wrote "I have to laugh when people refer to XO as a weak or crippled machine and how kids should get a 'real' one. Trust me, I will give up my real one very soon and use only XO. It will be far better, in many new and important ways."

The OLPC project will attempt to take full advantage of their low-cost computers, which as of right now will feature a 366-megahertz AMD processor along with 512 megabytes of flash memory, which will be the primary means of storage. USB 2.0 ports will also be included for further memory expansion along with a built-in camera.

The machines are currently being manufactured by Quanta Computer Inc. Each country will receive a localized version of the laptop specific to the official language of the country. In addition, OLPC representatives will be sent to schools for one month in order to help teachers and students adjust to the new computers. The project has so far received $29 million in funding from many notable companies, including Google Inc., News Corp. and Red Hat.

The OLPC project page expects Sugar to start beta testing this February with the first OLPC shipments starting in July 2007.

Although Lenovo stated that their laptops were not vulnerable to spontaneous combustion such as Dell and Apple notebooks were, it seems that an incident at LAX airport where a Lenovo notebook PC caught fire has changed their minds. The notebook, a ThinkPad T43, was found to be equipped with a Sony battery which combusted after overheating causing a scene at the airport. In response to the event, Lenovo has told Reuters that they have launched a probe into Sony and are currently investigating the cause of the batteries’ explosion. Sony’s response to the airport incident was saying that they still had "not determined that the laptop in question was loaded with a Sony battery."