IIT-B develops World's Cheapest Netbook

IIT Bombay has developed a 10-inch netbook, which it claims could be the world's cheapest, at around Rs 6,000. The netbook, conceived during the institute's work with the low-cost Akash tablet, will be unveiled in the second week of February.

The IIT Bombay team has worked on designing the netbook's specifications besides creating the OS image and the accompanying software bundle.

The project's objective was to understand its shortcomings and address them in the next product. In a bid to address the needs of students and to drive information creation, the team at IIT Bombay thought it was important to have a fully functional keyboard as opposed to a virtual keyboard, more battery time, a larger screen size (10-inches as compared to a 7-inch screen on a tablet), greater memory, more storage, a normal USB slot (not a micro USB), while not letting go of the price focus.

The netbook also needed to be light-weight for students to carry comfortably.

IIT Bombay has tied up with Delhi-based company, Basic Computers, which has delivered 1,000 netbooks for the pilot phase.

Dell not to make Netbooks anymore

They once roamed coffee shops and college lecture halls, now it looks like the netbook is heading to that scrap heap of old, unwanted technology. The company has decided at the end of 2011, that it won’t be making any more netbooks.

The folks at the mydellmini.com forums first noticed Dell quietly pulling the small and inexpensive notebooks from the online store.

The folks over at the Verge received confirmation from a Dell representative that Inspiron netbooks are not in the company’s future, though the Latitutde netbooks are still available for businesses. It’s not just old netbooks getting the axe either, Dell says it has no plans to release any netbooks in the future. However, its hybrid Inspiron Duo netbook will be back in stock next year.

It seems like Dell may instead be focusing its energies on developing Ultrabooks. The representative further said: “Thin and powerful is where it is at for us.” And while that doesn’t necessarily spell out Ultrabooks, Acer recently made a similar announcement, cutting out “cheap, unprofitable” products, and changing its focus to super-thin Ultrabooks.

Earlier this year, Dell slimmed its inventory by cutting production of two tablets: The Streak 5 and the Streak 7. Companies will definitely need to be efficient with their resources as the future Ultrabooks market is looking like it will be quite congested. 50 Ultrabook models are expected to debut come January at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show.

HP reveals Fusion Netbook with LTE

Hewlett-Packard has announced a netbook with some cutting-edge mobile broadband and graphics technologies that could make it the most powerful netbook yet.

The lightweight Pavilion DM1 netbook comes with an 11.6-inch screen, and runs on Advanced Micro Devices' new Fusion processor, which bundles a graphics chip and CPU into a single piece of silicon.

"It's got the portability of a netbook, but it's got the performance of a notebook all wrapped up into one," said Cara Baez, concept product marketing manager at HP.

AMD's Fusion chip, which was also announced on Tuesday, will enable users to view full 1080p high-definition video, a capability not readily available in netbook-sized laptops. HP already offers netbooks with 1080p video capabilities, but they use a separate high-definition decoder, which drains battery life.

In Fusion chips, the graphics processor shares resources with the CPU on the same piece of silicon, which reduces the need for an extra graphics card or accelerator. The DM1 runs for a maximum of 10.5 hours with solid-state drive storage, and 9.5 hours on hard drive storage.

"If you are running a lot of high-definition applications, that is going to eat down battery life," Baez said. "If you start at ten-and-a-half hours, even if you eat down a couple of hours off of that, you're still looking at substantially long battery life."

This laptop will also connect to LTE (long-term evolution) mobile broadband networks, which offer faster data transfers than current 3G networks.

HP declined to name the LTE provider, but Verizon Wireless in early December rolled out its LTE network across 38 cities in the U.S. HP said it would announce more details about the LTE capabilities on January 6.

The laptop offers up to 750GB of hard drive storage and includes other components such as a webcam. It will be available worldwide on January 9, with prices starting at US$449 depending on configuration.

HP also upgraded the Envy 17 and Pavilion DV6 and DV7 laptops to include Intel’s next-generation Core chips based on the Sandy Bridge architecture. There is a "performance bump" for the new laptops compared to their predecessors based on the previous generation of Core chips, Baez said.

The Intel chips integrate a graphics processor and CPU on a single piece of silicon, but the laptops will come with optional AMD Radeon 6000 graphics cards for more intense graphics tasks.

The DV6 and DV7 will be priced starting at $899.99 and $999.99 respectively. Pricing for the Envy 17 price was not immediately available.

Sprint unveils Dell Netbook and Notebook

Sprint and Dell has announced the first dual-mode 3G/4G-embedded netbook and notebook, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook and Inspiron 11z notebook.

Adib, Sprint's vice president of product development said "The addition of these two exciting 4G-embedded Dell products fits nicely within our current ecosystem of fixed and dual-mode devices that also includes phones, mobile broadband cards, mobile hotspots, and routers."

Both devices come with Windows Live Essentials 2011 pre-installed to help users share and sync content on the web and on their PCs and phones. Some of the products included in Windows Live are Hotmail, Messenger, SkyDrive, and Photo Gallery.

The Mini 10 netbook comes with a Windows 7 Starter. It features a 1.66-GHz Intel Atom processor, a 10.1-inch screen with 1,024-by-600 resolution, 1GB of memory, and a 250GB hard drive. The Mini 10 will be available to business customers on Oct. 31. It will hit Sprint stores and the Web on Nov. 14. The device is free with a $100 mail-in rebate for those who sign a two-year contract.

The Inspiron 11z notebook on the other hand has a 1.2-GHz Intel Core processor, an 11.6-inch screen with 1,366-by-768 resolution, 2GB of memory (expandable to 4GB), HDMI out, and a 250GB hard drive. The 11z will be available starting Nov. 14 in Sprint stores and online. It will be $149.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate and two-year service agreement.

Gateway LT2000 Another Netbook Appears

Gateway has announced a 10.1-inch addition to its compact notebook line: the LT2000 series. With 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, three USB 2.0 ports, a built-in webcam, and the ability to connect to the internet, the LT2000 sounds just like every other netbook.

It looks similar to other budget netbooks. It does seem on par spec for spec with other budget netbooks, though a 1.6-GHz N270 Atom CPU, 1GB RAM and a 160GB hard drive. Less impressive: A 3-cell battery that, if you're lucky, will last you three hours according to spokespeople. While we are talking about a $300 machine here, other netbooks that don't cost too much more can last over 3 times as long (like Toshiba's NB205-310).

On the software side, the LT2000 netbooks come equipped with Windows XP and pre-installed software. There's some free such as Microsoft Works. Then there's the trial bloatware (Office Home and Student 2007).

One semi-unique feature is the multi-gesture touchpad, which allows users to swirl and flick their way through web pages, music, and media. And even this is not completely unique, as it has been featured on many other models from various vendors, such as Acer's Aspire AS5536.

The LT2000 series netbooks are available now, in Cherry Red and NightSky Black.

Sony to enter Netbook PC market with new Vaio laptop

Sony Corp has plans to launch a new Vaio laptop that will sell for around 60,000 yen ($629) in Japan in August, making its entry into the fast-growing netbook market.

Netbook PCs are smaller and cheaper than traditional notebook computers and optimized for simpler computing tasks such as Web browsing and email.

Pioneered by Taiwan's Asustek in 2007, other global brands such as Acer Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc have pushed out their own lines since then.

The new Sony machine is equipped with Microsoft Corp's Windows XP operating system and Intel Corp's Atom processor.