ACER ASPIRE ONE 532H SUPPORT PAGE GOES LIVE

Acer it seems is all set to launch its first laptop based on the upcoming Intel Atom N450 Pineview processor. The device will probably be called Acer Aspire AO532h. It has already showed up on Acer’s support page, but it is still not yet available for order.

The Acer Aspire AO532h comes with a variety of system configurations. Every AO532h model will have an Intel Atom N450 processor and Intel GMA 3150 integrated graphics. Other specifications common to all models include 10.1 inch display, Ethernet, 1GB of RAM, VGA, 3 USB ports and audio jacks. All laptops will come pre-loaded with Windows 7 Starter Edition.

It seems that you will be able to choose between a 160GB and 250GB hard drive. You can also choose a display with either 1024 x 600 pixels or 1280 x 720 pixels.
The Aspire AO532h will be available in red, black, blue and silver. The product page only mentions a 3-cell battery option.

Pricing and availability
No word as yet, but this laptop is expected to be available soon after Intel officially launches its Pine Trail Atom chips on January 11.

LATEST SNOW LEOPARD UPDATE DOESN'T SUPPORT ATOM PROCESSORS

The latest Snow Leopard update (OS X 10.6.2) is out. While it does fix a number of bugs, it has introduced a major problem on its own. The new OS doesn’t seem to work with Intel Atom processors. It is not yet known whether this was intentional move by Apple or not.

Atom compatibility can’t be a huge priority for Apple simply because the company doesn’t have a product running on that processor. Another possible explanation for this incompatibility is that Apple wants to discourage the practice of installing their OS on netbooks using Atom processors.

There is still hope, though. Sooner or later a hacker is going to modify the OS so that it would support Atom powered netbooks. But for the time being, netbook users who have installed OS X on their device shouldn’t give into the temptation of downloading this new update.

WILL INTEL'S UPCOMING CEDAR TRAIL PLATFORM SUPPORT HD VIDEO PLAYBACK?

Intel doesn’t normally talk about unreleased products, but bloggers do. Some rumors doing the rounds suggest that the successor to the Intel Atom Pine Trail platform would be known by the name Cedar Trail. There is no confirmation from Intel yet, but now it seems that more details have emerged.

Unofficial sources claim that the Cedar Trail platform could be based on a 32nm process. The Cedar Trail chips are expected to support DDR3 1066 RAM, HD Video and DirectX 10.1 standard. The platform is expected to be released in 2011 but the processors may not be available until at least 2013.

If the Cedar chips do support HD video playback, they would considerably improve the performance of netbooks. The current generation of Atom processors have very limited HD video capabilities and the upcoming Pine Trail processors won’t improve the situation much either as they are meant to consume less power than the existing Atom processors with n

ASUS U3S6 PCI-E CARD TO BE THE FIRST TO SUPPORT USB 3.0 STANDARD

Asus has launched a PCI-E card supporting USB 3.0 ports. The card called U3S6 also meets SATA 6.0 specifications. The Asus U3S6 PCI-E is believed to be the first card to offer support for high speed USB 3.0 ports.

The card has two USB 3.0 ports and two SATA 6.0 ports. It is true not many products available today can utilize the high speed offered by USB 3.0, but things will eventually improve as more and more companies start switching to the new standard. Asus has used this card on their latest motherboards, the Xtreme Design P7P55D-E series, which can support the Core i7 and Core i5 processors. These motherboards will have 2 USB 3.0 ports in addition to the 10 USB 2.0 ports.

Pricing and Availability
The Xtreme Design P7P55D-E series motherboards and the U3S6 PCI-E card are expected to be available from next month. While the motherboard costs $299, The PCI-E card carries a price tag of $29.

JOLICLOUD'S LATEST VERSION TO SUPPORT INTEL US15W

The next version of Jolicloud, a Linux based operating system, will support the Intel GMA500 integrated graphics. Until now, it was not possible to run Jolicloud on netbooks powered by Intel’s Poulsbo (US15W) chipset because it lacked the driver support for the integrated GMA500 graphics.

As the latest version of Jolicloud has driver support for the GMA500 graphics, it can be used on the Dell Mini 10, Asus Eee PC 1101HA& T91 and Acer Aspire751 netbooks. Jolicloud has also announced the list of applications that can be run on its latest platform. One of those applications will be the one-click install of Spotify.

XP TRANSITIONS FROM MAINSTREAM SUPPORT

Well the day has come for Microsoft to move on. Today the big boys at Redmond confirmed that Window's XP will be transitioned from mainstream support to extended support. Basically end users will not see bid difference in support although you might find that it will be harder to get a Microsoft rep to discuss support options for XP unless you're willing to hand over credit card information.

WINDOW'S 7 TO SUPPORT WWAN

The features of Window's 7 just keep getting better. Latest on the list is the support for WWAN. Now we're not talking about popping a mobile broadband chip in your laptop and getting Internet. We're talking full 100% support. According to Window's Team Blog (Microsoft owned and operated), they have gotten a bunch of companies on board for Mobile Broadband enhancements in Window's 7 with partners including Acer, Asus, Dell, Qualcomm, Sierra Wireless, T-Mobile International, ZTE and others.

NVIDIA ION TO SUPPORT MORE THAN JUST VIA AND ATOM

Unless you've been living under a rock in geek world you are probably aware that NVIDIA and Intel are at it again in another one of their famous spats. So far neither company has gone to any legal lengths, but there has been a lot of word swapping and not too kind at that either.

WINDOWS 7 TO SUPPORT WARP

Microsoft is not too happy about all the class action lawsuits they have been getting over their Vista capable stickers that were placed on Intel machines they knew couldn't support the OS. So to prevent that the next time around the company says that they are going to include WARP (Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform) in their systems so those who do not have GPU's can do DirectX 10 accceleration without the need to upgrade.

MICROSOFT OPENS UP AND TALKS WIDE ON XP EXTENDED SUPPORT

Microsoft has delivered a letter to its Windows customers that detail the destiny of XP, Vista developments, and few details about Windows 7. June 30, 2008 will be the final day for Windows XP sales - it will no further be certified to key PC producers and sold at retail. Microsoft will endow with comprehensive support for XP until April of 2014. Microsoft is not wounding off the accessibility of Windows XP completely, however. Businesses will be capable to obtain Vista Business or Ultimate and have "downgrading" rights to utilize Windows XP. Downgrade rights are accessible to all businesses that accredit Windows. Windows XP Home and hors d'oeuvre version will still be obtainable on low-cost "net-books".

APPLE TOPS THE CUSTOMER SUPPORT AVAILABILITY RANKS

Computers are one of the mainly trouble-prone inventions, the sources Report tracks in its yearly merchandise dependability surveys. When it boiled up to solving issues, hang around time on the phone and the awareness of support staff, Apple’s technical support team achieved elevated scores transversely the board for both notebook and desktop systems in the magazines most recent assessment featured in the June copy. Other producers that stood out in the annual assessment were Lenovo, which was exceptional at problem-solving for notebooks, and Dell, which was exceedingly above average in this region for both desktops and notebooks. The annual reports also revealed the most inferior support was offered by HP and Compaq.