Joojoo tablet to ship at end of February

The Joojoo, a Web-browsing tablet device that's the subject of a high-profile Silicon Valley legal dispute, appears on track to reach early buyers at the end of February.

The flat touch-screen computer was known until December as the CrunchPad, after the technology blog TechCrunch. It was born from a post by the blog's well-connected and outspoken founder, Michael Arrington, that called for collaborators on a "dead simple and dirt cheap touch screen Web tablet."

Singapore-based Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan stepped up. His software startup, Fusion Garage, worked with Arrington and his team until November. At that point the project imploded, with Fusion Garage announcing it would sell the device under a new name - and without Arrington's involvement.

Despite a federal lawsuit filed by Arrington, Rathakrishnan said Wednesday that production of the JooJoo is under way. CSL Group, a Malaysia-based mobile phone and netbook maker, is subsidizing production costs in exchange for an undisclosed revenue share, Rathakrishnan said.

Arrington is seeking damages and to keep Fusion Garage from selling or profiting from the Joojoo device. His lawyer didn't return a message seeking comment about whether they might take further legal action.

CSL, which makes Blackberry-like phones it calls "Blueberry," will also be an investor in the startup's next round of funding, expected to close in the next two weeks. Late last year, Fusion Garage said it raised $3 million in a first round.

In an interview, Rathakrishnan would not say how many people pre-ordered the $499 tablet. But "a good part" of those who did will receive their devices at the end of this month, he said.

The tablet landscape has changed dramatically since the Joojoo was first unveiled. At the International Consumer Electronics Show in January, Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and others presented tablet prototypes. Less than a month later, Apple Inc. took the wraps off a long-anticipated version it calls the iPad.

Apple's iPhone upended the smart phone category, leaving competitors scrambling to come out with touch-screen phones and application stores of their own. Many analysts expect Apple's iPad to define the nascent tablet category in the same way.

Rathakrishnan, however, said he believes the Joojoo gives consumers a better experience than the iPad because it has a larger screen and people will use it to surf the "real" Web, or sites they see on their regular PCs, rather than consume bits and pieces delivered through add-on apps.

He also implied Apple had imitated Fusion Garage in its development and marketing of the iPad. Both devices start at $499, Rathakrishnan noted, and Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, made his presentation from what looked like a couch after Fusion Garage described the Joojoo as perfect for "couch computing."

Apple didn't immediately return messages seeking comment.

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ACER NETBOOK PRICES

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3-D laptops

In its search for another technology to excite us, the consumer electronics industry is reaching deep into the third dimension. The big push for 3-D TV won't happen until next year, but already we can get a taste of 3-D in the home on laptops.

AsusTek Computer Inc. and Acer Inc. both have new models with screens that can show both games and movies in true 3-D, if you're willing to wear glasses.

Testing these has been fun. Many games work with 3-D screens, and if you fire upBatman: Arkham Asylum on the Asus unit the caped crusader will look so solid that it's tempting to try to reach through the screen to grab his neoprene-covered abs.

But the effect doesn't make the game seem more realistic. If anything, Batman looks more like an action figure than he does in 2-D. Seeing in 3-D on these small screens makes me feel like I'm peering into a dollhouse.

Such limitations to the technology make it hard to see 3-D screens as something that will provide long-term enjoyment, or become a must-have feature. Three-dimensional movie projection has come and gone in waves since the 1950s, and more than 50 years before that, people ogled 3-D photographs. Neither has had staying power.

These aren't the first 3-D laptops either. Sharp Inc. started selling one six years ago. The fact that you probably haven't heard of it is a good indicator of how successful it was.

What's new is that 3-D is now cheaper. While the Sharp model cost $3,300, the new Acer Aspire 5738DG has a list price of $780. The Asus G51JD lists for $1,700, but it's a powerful gaming laptop. Either model is only slightly more than an equivalent non-3-D model, so trying 3-D is no longer a big commitment. Both models have 15.6-inch widescreens and are of the heavy "desktop replacement" variety. The Acer weighs 6.3 pounds and the Asus 7.5 pounds.

We can "see" depth because our left and right eyes have a slightly different view of the world. To replicate that, a flat screen needs to project different images to each eye. Each of the laptops I've tried uses a different technology to get there.

To see 3-D on the Sharp laptop, you didn't need glasses, but you had to keep your head in a particular spot. The Acer model has the same drawback, but in addition, you need to wear glasses! If you move your head from the "sweet spot," you start to see, faintly, the images meant for the other eye, ruining the 3-D effect. It doesn't help that any light reflecting off the screen becomes very distracting in 3-D mode, so proper positioning of your head and the screen is difficult.

In addition, the screen's resolution of 1368 pixels by 768 pixels is effectively halved by switching to 3-D, because every other line on the screen is polarized for a different eye. This makes games look quite fuzzy, and it makes on-screen text hard to read.

The Asus model has a much more elaborate and robust 3-D solution. It comes with powered, rechargeable glasses made by Nvidia Corp. that alternately black out each eye in sync with the screen, which alternates the images it shows. A small infrared emitter that plugs into a USB port keeps the glasses timed to the screen. Nvidia sells the glasses and emitter separately for use with desktop computers and certain LCD monitors. The Asus model is the first laptop with a compatible LCD screen.

With Nvidia's solution, you don't need to keep your head in a particular place, and the shutters in the glasses are efficient enough that the image meant for one eye doesn't leak into the other, so the 3-D effect is quite convincing. Because the full screen is seen by each eye, there is no reduction in the resolution.

That doesn't mean it's better than regular 2-D. The glasses visibly flicker, and everything looks darker through them. One game I tried, Dragon Age: Origins worked well in 3-D, but when I tried World of Warcraft, some of the on-screen text appeared at the wrong depth, seemingly projecting far in front of the screen. I went cross-eyed for a moment, before ripping off the glasses and switching to 2-D. (Nvidia said it would try to fix the error.)

On the Acer, World of Warcraft failed the 3-D test in a different way: Objects cast shadows that fell in different directions for each eye, a weird and disconcerting effect.

Because games are internally rendered in three dimensions even for 2-D screens, it's a fairly minor technological twist to get them to display in 3-D with the proper screens. It's much harder to get 3-D movies. There's no established 3-D movie format yet, though a 3-D Blu-ray is in the works, and you can't buy the latest 3-D Hollywood movies for download either. For real 3-D movies, you're pretty much limited to a few short demo movies included with each 3-D laptop. The Acer, however, has a neat trick: It comes with software that turns any DVD into a 3-D experience. It does that by guessing which objects go in the foreground and which go in the back. It doesn't get everything right, but it is pretty interesting for a while, and it's probably the best thing about the 3-D experience on the Acer.

My guess is that anyone who gets one of these will quickly tire of the 3-D feature, and forget about it once they've misplaced the glasses. The good news is that those who do will be left with capable laptops for plain ol' 2-D enjoyment.

The Acer is a fine machine for work, browsing, light gaming and DVD viewing. Hardcore gamers may regret the Asus model's relatively low screen resolution of 1368 pixels by 768 pixels and its lack of what is known as a RAID array to speed up its hard drive. It does have an Intel Core i7 processor, the most powerful kind available for laptops, and a good graphics card.

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Dell 0.4-Inch Thick Adamo XPS Ultra Slim Notebook Launched

Dell recently announced its new 0.4-inch thin Adamo XPS notebook that gets the title world’s thinnest notebook.

The latest Dell Adamo XPS measures at 9.99mm thick and the new Adamo XPS Reinforces Dell’s Commitment to Craftsmanship and Design.

Dell Adamo XPS Notebook Features:

• Intel’s Core 2 Duo CULV processor
• Up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM (optional)
• 128GB SSD
• 13.4 inch WLED display
• Playback at 720p HD videos
• Microsoft Genuine Windows 7 OS
• Full-sized keyboard with aluminum keycaps
• Touchpad with gestures
• Replaceable battery
• Wi-Fi 802.11n connectivity

Dell has priced the new 0.4 inch Adamo XPS notebook from $1799 upwards.

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HP Pavilion Thinspiration dm1 Notebook Launched In India

HP India recently announced a new notebook called the HP Pavilion DM1 Notebook added to the new Thinspiration series. The highlight of this notebook is lightweight, ultra portable and thin design.

HP Pavilion DM1 Notebook Features:

• 1.2 GHz Intel’s ultra low voltage SU2300 processor
• 3GB of memory RAM
• 320GB hard-drive
• 11.6 inch HD LED display
• Battery life up to 9.5 hours
• 6 cell Li ion battery
• Weighs about 1.48 Kg

The new HP dm1 notebook is priced at Rs 38500 including taxes.

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Samsung NC20 netbook

Intel has had a near lock on supplying processors for netbooks - the cheap, tiny laptops that are the biggest hit in the computer market these days. Now there's an alternative from a Taiwanese competitor, Via Technologies. It might be time to leave your Intel-powered comfort zone.

I took the Samsung NC20, the first netbook on the US market with the Via Nano processor, for a spin. I found it to be a capable unit, comparable to the netbooks that use Intel's Atom chip, though there are some notable differences. If you're in the market for a netbook, perhaps for the fall semester, it's definitely worth considering.

First of all, the NC20 has a 12-inch screen. Netbooks have so far topped out at 10 inches, so the NC20 gives us a lot more space to work with. Intel has discouraged manufacturers from using Atoms with larger screens, saying the processor isn't powerful enough. (A few manufacturers, like Dell, have just started making 12-inch Atom-powered netbooks anyway.)

The size of the screen brings the NC20 closer to a full-size laptop, but the price and weight are still netbook-ish: $500 (Rs 25,000 approx) and 3.5 pounds. Like other netbooks, Samsung's lacks a DVD drive and runs the Windows XP operating system, rather than the more recent Vista. The keyboard is smaller than full size, but by no means cramped.

When it comes to performance, the NC20 is also clearly a netbook rather than a full-powered laptop. It's fine for Web browsing and e-mail, but not for the latest games or for video editing. The processor can't keep up with high-action scenes from shows like Prison Break on Hulu.com, resulting in stuttering video.

However, it did better at video playback than an Asus EeePC 1000HE, a good Atom-powered unit, indicating that the Nano has a bit more oomph. The NC20 can even play a modest 3-D game like World of Warcraft if you can put up with some sluggishness.

The Nano's extra muscle seems to come at the price of shorter battery life. The NC20 lasted just beyond three hours when set to play a video while accessing the Internet intermittently over Wi-Fi. That is decent but not great for this category. In normal use, it would probably last six hours. The 1000HE lasts more than 50 percent longer, despite a smaller battery. The Asus model's smaller screen accounts for some of the difference, but it's likely the processor plays a part in sapping the NC20's battery.

Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 7, will be out in October. The previews are positive so far, so anyone buying a computer now should be thinking about upgrading this fall. Yet the NC20 isn't quite ready for Windows 7. Because the graphics chip eats up part of the NC20's 1 gigabyte of memory, it would need a memory upgrade first, according to Microsoft's Upgrade Advisor software.

That's a minor issue. The NC20 is a light and cheap machine with a generous screen that proves that the Nano can hold its own. Laptops in this size range are also starting to show up with chips from another Intel competitor, Advanced Micro Devices, giving us even more choices. Netbooks have all been pretty much cast in the same mold, but that's about to change.

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