Netbooks

Circuit City rises from the grave (well, the domain name and IP, at least)

The prolonged death spiral of its retail stores have been well-documented (not least by our undercover spy shots of the so-called liquidation sales), but the Circuit City story seems to have added yet another chapter.

Computer vendor Systemax has agreed to purchase the bankrupt company's trademarks and domain names for $6.5 million, according to the Houston Chronicle. The actual sale is part of a May 11 auction of assets, and in court filings, Circuit City said, "The sale of the intellectual property and Internet assets would bring significant recovery for the sellers' estates and creditors."

If … Read more

Friday Poll: What would Intel see as a grown-up gadget?

A couple of days ago, Anand Chandrasekher, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Ultra Mobility Group, said, in essence, that Netbooks--one of the fastest-growing tech markets in the world right now--are for kids. Which is to say the mini-laptops are not for adults. We, of course, politely disagree.

But now we must wonder: what tech is for grown-ups? What are we expected to use if not Netbooks without drawing snickers from Intel? If we missed anything, please let us know in the TalkBack section below.

TechCrunch shows off prototype CrunchPad tablet

It's far from being on store shelves, but some additional details and photos of the CrunchPad, a mobile computing device as envisioned by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, have been released. The project's goal was to design and build a thin, light touch-screen PC without a physical keyboard or onboard hard drive. Instead, the system and its custom operating system would be entirely focused on Web browsing and using Web-based apps.

"I wanted something I couldn't buy, and found people who said it could be built for a lot less than I imagined," writes Arrington on his site. &… Read more

What we Craved this week: Scary robots, CTIA, jailbreaking, and the DSi

This week was a pretty diverse one here at Crave. We covered all the mobile news out of the CTIA 2009 trade show thoroughly, but there was plenty of other stuff going on.

On Thursday, we brought you news of a robot that came up with its own genetic hypotheses--and then tested them on its own. If they call it Skynet, we're screwed.

We also told you that AT&T would start selling subsidized Netbooks for $50, which is something I modestly predicted last year.

We had some fun with Nintendo's new DSi, and marveled at how … Read more

AT&T backtracks on video ban--or does it?

Earlier Friday, we brought you news that AT&T had made some fairly narrowing changes to its terms-of-use policies for wireless data. One such change would prohibit users from watching non-AT&T video services, such as Hulu, on their AT&T devices. Users around the Internet, of course, didn't much care for the change.

Since the story broke, though, AT&T has sent out a message to blogs and news outlets saying that the video-streaming portion was an error that has been deleted. Great for you, AT&T. But a quick check shows that … Read more

AT&T offers Netbooks with data service plans

Atlanta and Philadelphia residents can get discounted Netbooks with the purchase of AT&T's new "Internet at Home and On the Go" broadband services with a two-year contract.

The company announced the program earlier this week, and it will be immediately available in select stores.

With this program, customers can choose from a variety of Netbooks, including the Acer Aspire One, Dell Inspiron Mini 9 and Mini 12, and LG Xenia, with discounted prices ranging from $50 to $250.

The service plan starts at $59.95 per month and features access to AT&T's … Read more

Faltering economy boosting Netbooks

While there's been discussion lately about what the best operating system for a Netbook is, there is no question that the small form factor PC is a runaway hit with consumers.

In DisplaySearch's Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report for the first quarter of 2009, the research firm says Netbooks are on track to grow 65 percent over the course of the year from 2008's totals. Conversely, traditional notebooks are expected to grow just 3 percent this year. And, according to DisplaySearch, Netbooks will comprise one fifth of the 133 million notebooks to be shipped in … Read more

MacBook Mini mockup: Fan fake or the real deal?

When it comes to anything Apple--and especially anything Mac Netbook-related--you can blog virtually anything and get a huge response from readers.

Well, Monday's Apple Netbook entry comes to us from a Russian magazine that printed up what's almost assuredly fake concept art for a MacBook mini (it's not quite April Fool's Day, but we're close). What's amusing is that it all looks pretty real on the surface, with a price tag ($899), a release date (sometime this year), and detailed specs that have some folks drooling:

10.4-inch WXGA display 1280x768-pixel resolution with LED backlighting Nvidia MCP79 chipset Intel Atom Z740 1.83GHz CPU with 1MB L2 cache 2GB DDR3-800 memory Nvidia GeForce 9400M GPU 64GB solid-state drive Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n connectivity 1 USB 2.0 socket 1 Mini Display Port Lithium ion 5100mA battery

Looks too good to be true. Or does it?

9to5 via Gizmodo.

See another photo after the jump.… Read more

Verizon ready to hawk Netbooks?

Verizon Wireless is poised to sell at least one Netbook in the next few months, according to reports in Bloomberg and TheStreet.com.

Both outlets cite unnamed sources, but Bloomberg's source, said to be someone close to the project at Verizon, says a partnership is being negotiated with more than one PC maker. No word on what the service contract for a Netbook from Verizon would entail.

Currently, Verizon doesn't sell a 3G-enabled Netbook, but chief rival AT&T does. AT&T sells Acer Netbooks for $99 with service through RadioShack, and also sells Dell Mini Inspirons … Read more