Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"We're still scratching our noggins in a futile attempt to figure out the LifeBook U820's real purpose on this Earth, but for those who've got it all figured out, you'll likely be thrilled to know that this puppy is now on sale. $999 buys you a mini convertible tablet with an Intel Atom Z530 CPU, a 5.6-inch WXGA touchscreen, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 60GB 4,200RPM hard drive, built-in GPS / Garmin Mobile PC, Ethernet, a webcam / fingerprint sensor, Bluetooth / WiFi and a 4-cell battery. There's also a $1,299 version if that other variant just isn't up to your standards, but at any rate, feel free to punch the read link and have a think before pulling the trigger on either."

While my gadget lust still drools over this, I do agree that it is probably not very practical. I have not heard any complaints that the current batch of netbooks are too big, so not sure where they are going in this form factor. It is still too big to pocket, but I'd imagine they keyboard and screen are just too small to work at for too long. So, make it a little bigger, bump the screen up a few inches and drop it a few hundred and then you'll have a serious contender to bring something new to the netbook game.

"The Fujitsu Siemens Amilo which if nothing else is one of the most attractive netbooks we've seen yet. The 8.9-inch Amilo packs the obligatory Atom processor running at 1.6 GHz to power the 1 GB of memory and 60 or 80 GB hard drive (no SSDs offered). The Amilo will be a Windows XP device and has an ExpressCard slot, something that is not that common on netbooks."

I don't this this is at all attractive looking, but then again, I kind of like the styling of the original Eee. However, the addition of an ExpressCard slot helps differentiate this one from the pack.

"Fujitsu Siemens Computers on Wednesday announced the release of the world's first monitors to draw absolutely no power when in standby mode, or what the company calls Eco mode. The two SCENICVIEW ECO range monitors, the 20-inch P20W-5 ECO and 22-inch P22W-5 ECO, feature a power supply that automatically switches off when in the power-saving mode. The company claims the technology allows the monitors to draw zero watts during the state, in comparison to between one and six watt draws from competitors."

Sounds like it is using the small amount of power in the signal from the attached computer to control flipping the main power switch. One to six watts might not sound like a lot, but multiply it out by all the monitors out there and it really adds up. Very cool and I hope other manufacturers are able to implement the technology.