Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I’ve never been a huge gamer, so when people (particularly Nvidia Tegra partners) tell me the handheld gaming platform may define the future more than the traditional smartphone or smartbook, my eyes glaze over.  But what leads apps interest for iPad and its imitators, as well as for all smartphones, particularly iPhone?  That’s right, games.  And if 3D presence-based systems are capturing the high-end of HD flat-panel TVs these days, why shouldn’t augmented reality capture the future of gaming?

But what really turned my head in the latest Qualcomm-Mattel partnership was the …

Chart courtesy of iSuppli Corp.

The relative ranking of notebook/netbook suppliers did not change significantly in the first quarter of 2010, according to market analysis firm iSuppli Corp., except for a sudden surge by Samsung Electronics in global netbook sales, driven in good part by heavier presence in U.S. markets.  Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for mobile computers at iSuppli, credited Samsung’s presence in netbooks as the main factor pushing the company from ninth to seventh place in the overall mobile PC market.  While the rest of the industry experienced seasonal declines of 5.4 percent, Samsung’s …

While the stuttering start and uncertain future of smartbooks has been eased somewhat by the decision of major companies to simply cut off their keyboards and declare them innovative alternatives to the iPad, there is a new blow. Google will not be playing the active role in hardware many had hoped…

Speaking to British heavyweight newspaper the Telegraph, Google CEO Eric Schmidt dismissed a multitude of Internet rumors by saying it has no plans to build a Google-branded smartbook to promote Chrome OS.

“We’ve talked about it,” he admitted. “We have a reference spec for Chrome …

It has already been three months since HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion, but now the computer maker has announced the deal is officially complete, and again reiterated its plan to expand webOS beyond the smartphone sector.

“With webOS, HP will deliver its customers a unique and compelling experience across smartphones and other mobility products,” said HP executive vice president Todd Bradley. “This allows us the opportunity to fully engage in growing our smartphone family offering and the footprint of webOS.”

Ever since the Palm deal went public there has been plenty of talk about …

Taken at face value it would seem to have been a pretty bad week for Microsoft. Or has it?

Following the leak of confidential slides revealing some of the key features in Windows 8, the Redmond-based giant also announced the cancellation of its KIN range of ’social mobile’ phones  just six weeks after they first went on sale. How could this be a good thing?

According to a tip Engadget received from within the company, the death of KIN was a drastic step taken to simplify product offerings so it can take …

Arguably the biggest challenge for mobile devices today – be they netbooks, smartbooks, tablets or smartphones – is battery life, and ARM thinks it has found a major obstacle to prolonging it: Wi-Fi.

ARM CEO Tudor Brown was speaking at The Future of Wireless conference in Cambridge this week, and The Inquirer reports Brown as saying the power required for wireless communications is extremely wasteful. He gives the example of chip designer Atheros, which claims Wi-Fi on a laptop is just 1-2 per cent efficient. In real terms, this means a draw of between two …

(Photo of Lenovo President Rory Read courtesy of DigiTimes.)

DigiTimes is reporting that Lenovo and Toshiba will begin selling smartbooks by year’s end.

According to the site, Toshiba’s Dynabook smartbook will have an Nvidia Tegra chip, Android OS and a 10-inch screen. The system will be available in August.  This appears to be the same AC100 leaked via datasheet in early June, and confirmed by Toshiba in backhand fashion June 21.

Lenovo, which earlier this year shelved plans for a Linux-based smartbook, will now apparently introduce two smartbooks, the Skylight and …

Netbooks played a large part in the success of Windows 7. That might seem like a strange thing to say about a sector which breathed new life into Windows XP, but Microsoft learned it must never be caught out again by an emerging computer sector which couldn’t viably run its latest operating system. As a result, Windows 7 was vastly more scalable than the infamously bloated Vista and is arguably the most scalable OS in the company’s history.

Consequently, we have become somewhat hot under the collar now that details of Windows 8 are starting to leak …

Smartbook and netbook proponents alike have been focused on some pretty silly issues.  We worry about the comparative performance of standard or dual-core microprocessors, we wonder if handheld devices need an HDMI port, we fret over the relative maturity of Android and Chrome.  The past weekend has shown that such issues don’t make a damned bit of difference to the target audience.  In fact, they indicate that we were wrong to chide Smartbook AG for releasing a jewel-encrusted laptop a few months back.  It’s obvious that users of handheld devices are looking for little …

Hoping to capitalize on what it sees as an underserved market, Hewlett Packard this week announced a $300 netbook geared toward elementary schoolchildren. The Atom-based system will not be sold at retail but will instead be sold in quantity to school systems and districts.

In announcing the Mini 100e Education Edition, HP says it “aims to close the digital divide by offering students and teachers an interactive learning experience at an affordable price.”

It’s been about fifteen years since that phrase – digital divide – entered the lexicon. I wonder, is there still a divide, or …