Tag: Netbooks

Microsoft may have buried a wireless networking feature in Windows 7 Starter, the edition installed on most netbooks, but it did not actually disable the ad hoc wireless feature, as the firm's marketing materials claim, a noted Windows blogger said.

Ad hoc wireless networking, which lets several Windows computers share a single connection, was one of several networking features Microsoft claims are not available in Windows 7 Starter. Those features, which include ad hoc networking, Internet connection sharing and network bridging, are present in the more expensive, tools-laden editions, such as Home Premium and Professional.

Insyde Software, a provider of UEFI-based BIOS for the mobile computing industry, announced the official opening of Insyde Market, a first-of-its-kind applications store designed exclusively for netbook computer users running Googles Android operating system.

Googles Android, originally designed for mobile phones is now being used as an instant-on environment for netbook computers. Insyde Market is an online application store that provides Android applications validated for netbook computers. Other markets offer Android applications for mobile phones, but no other market is providing Android apps specifically for personal computers.

The Yukyung Viliv lineup ultraportable of mini-computers is, in a way, a bit of a throwback to the days when UMPCs and MIDs ruled the pocket-gadget landscape and laptops were bulky and expensive and didn't have any great battery power to speak of. Back in the days of the OQO and the Samsung Q1, you didn't expect an ultraportable to have the same productivity power as a full-fledged computer...you were, in fact, happy when it just did one or two things right.
Those days are over, though. For $300 you can now get a Netbook which, while lacking the horsepower that modern PC users expect, can still run rings around laptops from the days when the Patriots still won Super Bowls.

Intel on Tuesday took a step in bringing application stores to netbooks, announcing a program that will help developers build applications for mobile devices.

The chip maker's Atom Developer Program will help developers optimize and port existing programs for use on mobile devices based on the Atom processor, said Intel CEO Paul Otellini in a keynote speech at the Intel Developer Conference in San Francisco. The program will also provide tools and software development kits to write applications that could be sold through app stores, he said.