Entries from December 2008 ↓

The end of 2009 is less than a two weeks away, and it’s only been a few short months since mobile computing enthusiasts were treated to the first netbooks making their way to retail shelves, with the likes of the early Asus Eee PCs and HP’s short-lived but strangely popular Mini-Note 2133 powered by Intel Celeron and VIA C7-series processors. Today, we’re already seeing a throng of netbooks in various shapes, sizes and colors available to buy, such as the Lenovo IdeaPad S10.

Lenovo may be a little later to market than most of the other laptop makers also keen to grab a slice of the netbook pie, but at the very least they’ve managed to produce a respectable product that also happens to be one of the better netbooks we’ve had the chance to play with so far.

Full write-up and oodles of pictures, all after the break.

Continue reading →

I came into the office this morning to see a colleague’s IM status reading ‘No Steve keynote at Macworld’, or something to that effect. Given that the news popped a couple hours earlier in international time, hopping onto Techmeme and the other tech news sites I usually frequent, there was plenty that the Internet had to say concerning Steve Jobs’ absence at Macworld 2009 due during the first week of January in San Francisco. Not only that, Apple’d also released an official statement that 2009 would be their last year exhibiting at Macworld, though organisers IDG state that Macworld would continue in 2010. Continue reading →

Palm’s rolled out its latest Windows Mobile phone – the Treo Pro. Reviews are mixed; some call it its most polished design to date, others call it a lacklustre, boring offering.

My personal experience with it – it’s certainly more streamlined than previous Treos, with good build quality and a nice, but not excellent, screen. Windows Mobile users might take a shine to it, but apart from that the phone doesn’t exactly redeem Palm’s failing fortunes.

And it’s boring. Unabashedly, undeniably boring. Is it a Treo? Or is it a Treo trying to be a BlackBerry? The Treo QWERTY thumb keyboards were what sold a lot of business users on the phone’s merits. But the keyboard in this iteration just doesn’t have the same level of comfort though it is a lot prettier.

There still is hope for Palm, or so it claims once CES rolls around. A super secret media-only event will show off what Palm calls its NEW-ness. It’s inevitable that it will be a new device. But the real question is whether it will be good enough to keep the Palm brand alive. Or will it just be another bland disappointment?