The first pint of Laughing Lab for the weekend should be tipped in the direction of Rick Merritt of EE Times, who provided us with a hilarious yet quite serious observation on why designers are not likely to consider the Intel Atom in a system-on-a-chip (SoC) design. His six reasons all have merit (pun not intended), such as high royalties, business-term gotchas, and little visibility into architectural details.

But Merritt’s final point, that Intel does not know how to sell processor cores, should be expanded to the embedded world in general.  Intel …

The New York Times‘ “Bits” blog today posed a question whose premise, I believe, bodes well for smartbooks. That is, why can’t computers work more like smartphones?

The blog specifically compared the simplicity of the iPhone to the complexity of Windows and, yes, even the Mac OS. “Both operating systems are still pretty geeky and difficult for many computer users to navigate,” the blog notes. “The iPhone…is the epitome of simplicity. You control it by touching the screen – an intuitive interface that even a toddler can figure out.”

As a Mac, Windows and iPod Touch …

There are certain things which shouldn’t come as a surprise in life: death, taxes, Ashley Cole’s infidelities and Apple’s inability to see anyone else’s point of view.

Dailytech reports that Apple COO Tim Cook, speaking at a Goldman Sachs tech conference this week, predicted the end for netbooks:

“I’ve been very clear about my view of netbooks, I think they are an experience that most people will not want to continue to have,” he is quoted as saying. “People were interested in the price and they got it home and used it and went ‘Why did …

The interminable debate over whether Apple or the Microsoft-Intel crew is more evil went ballistic this week, thanks largely to new AppStore policies on soft-core porn, and fed by a Michael Wolff column on Apple’s cult-like behavior.  We, of course, will say “a pox on both their houses,” and will always encourage another look at ARM and Linux.  But today we will post two examples of evil on either side of the fence, just to show our intent for fair and balanced reporting.  It’s probably important to say that, regardless of corporate …

[Snickering steamroller courtesy Gizmodo]

A research firm called Global Industry Analysts this week projected the worldwide mobile computing market to hit over $328 billion by 2015. This is not particularly surprising given the sophistication of mobile technology, fast wireless networks, attractive prices, new and exciting form factors and the ever-dwindling age of gadget consumers.

This got me thinking about a time of death for desktop PCs.

Shipments of laptop computers finally overtook desktops in the third quarter of 2008 after years of faster growth. According to IDC, U.S. desktop shipments will drop to 25 million …

Easily confused with the Japanese mega-corporate of the same name, ‘Pioneer Computers‘  is a budget-conscious Australian PC maker determined to show us just how low smartbooks can go…

Looking to step on the toes of the Haleron Swordfish, the company has announced the $199 AUD ($177) ‘DreamBook Lite E79′. Given the impulse purchase price (you can pay more for an iPod nano), it isn’t surprising to see Pioneer cut right back on the specs, but it does still keep true to the smartbook mantra.

Tick number one is the choice of an ARM-based Samsung …

Post-CES postmodernists may insinuate that the smartbook category is sooo 2009, but ABI Research thinks the concept is viable enough to dedicate a research report to the smartbook category, released Feb. 21.  In the usual good news/bad news scenario, ABI predicts that worldwide shipments of smartbooks will reacl 163 million annually by 2015.  Still, analyst Jeff Orr is not so sure the sub-category of “smartbook” makes sense in the broader field of mobile Internet devices.

Orr called for volume unit pricing of smartbooks at $200 or less, and for a focus …

It has been an interesting last 48 hours. Firstly, thanks to British Airways for not killing me. Secondly, thanks to Freescale Semiconductor for voting us Smart Mobile Devices Top Pundit 2010 and thirdly, thanks again to British Airways for not making one third of this award collection posthumous. Breathing rocks.

So it seems apt that I should conclude my Mobile World Congress coverage with something equally out of the blue: MSI’s exciting dual screen netbook prototype. Hidden away in a small covered corner of MWC, it is somewhat similar to the …

…. Is this mike on?  No, I won’t put down the beer, that’s what made Ricky Gervais famous!… I really wasn’t aware of this Freescale Semiconductor effort to identify leading smart mobile device pundits until getting the note from Dustin at Lois Paul & Partners (which meant I couldn’t have stuffed the ballot box, so stop the catcalls) …. No, that story about being in the shower at the time was not true, though I was watching the Tiger Woods feed and felt as though I needed a shower.

In all …

A cadre of leading telecommunications and handset companies have apparently had enough of Apple’s dominance in mobile applications and have formed an alliance aimed at delivering applications to all mobile phone users regardless of platform.

According to a statement, the Wholesale Applications Community “aims to unite a fragmented marketplace and create an open industry platform that benefits everybody, from applications developers and network operators to mobile phone users.”

The community will provide a single point of entry for developers to build a mobile application once and have it run on a wide range of handsets regardless …