Bad news, Atom fans. That dual-core nugget of netbook-powering goodness that you were so looking forward to seeing in Q3 won't begin shipping until Q4. According to some data picked up by Fudzilla, the Atom 330 will only be debuting in Q3 (September 21st, to be precise), but it isn't scheduled to get a shipping label until a few months later. Also of note, we're told that the chip will sell (at some place in the supply chain) for $43, but don't count on those savings being completely passed onto you.

[Thanks, sinai]

It was inevitable, was it not? With the success of HP's 2133 Mini-Note, it was pretty obvious that the outfit would be working up a second edition, and according to Jerel Chong, HP Australia's Market Development Manager for Notebook PCs, it's already "looking at a similar device but at a lower cost." Reportedly, the lower cost low-cost laptop will be ready for budget-conscience consumers sometime before 2009, though we have no idea what corners will be cut in order to hack down the price. Mr. Chong did mention that the cheaper edition would be less "durable," but considering that we never viewed the original as a Toughbook replacement, we're not so sure what he's really getting at. Nevertheless, those looking seriously at the more business-minded 2133 may want to hold off, but good luck suppressing that insatiable desire to be instantly gratified.

[Via TheGadgetSite]

While it may not all be his doing, newly-minted AMD CEO Dirk Meyer seems to be at the center of more than a bit of confusion in his first few days on the job. First, he detailed AMD's plans to take on Intel's Atom processor this fall, which was apparently news to AMD's Chief Marketing Officer, and now AMD is denying a report that AMD is set to spin off its manufacturing operations into a separate company, which arose out of an interview Meyer gave to the Austin American-Statesman. In it, Meyer reportedly said that AMD was "just months away" from spinning off its fabrication business, which would let it concentrate on designing, marketing and selling chips, and allow it to compete more effectively against its two big rivals: Intel and NVIDIA. As eWEEK reports, however, an AMD spokesperson now says that Meyer was referring simply to "how the company manufactures its wafers," which could possibly be a reference to the company's planned shift to a 45-nanometer manufacturing process. That's quite a difference, and we're guessing we'll be hearing yet more "clarification" on the matter before all is said and done.

Read - Austin American-Statesman, "New AMD chief sees clear path to recovery"
Read - eWEEK, "AMD Denies Fab Sell-Off"

[Thanks, Chris]

If you've been patiently awaiting the arrival of Gigabyte's M912 convertible tablet / netbook hybrid, seeing some lucky fellow far, far from where you are unbox it isn't apt to make the wait any easier. Still, there's at least some level of comfort in knowing that these are indeed filtering out, and besides, it gives you a chance to really size up what you're about to get yourself into. Hop on past the break and press play whenever you're ready.

[Via SlashGear]

Intel's got big plans for Moblin, that Linux-based "core stack" that's being optimized for all sort of mobile devices, from MIDs to carputers, and a big part of those plans is letting the community play a part in its development -- the company is just about to release the source for the first version of Moblin, with an alpha-level release of Moblin 2 to follow. Intel says its focus right now is decidedly on Atom, but that it's looking forward to seeing the community drive Moblin in other directions. There's no word on what Moblin 2 will offer, but it sounds like Intel is hoping that by getting Moblin out in the open, it'll become a de facto standard. Not a bad idea, but we'll see how it goes.

Read - Intel getting ready to release Moblin source
Read - Intel working on Moblin 2

We're almost totally over the whole netbook craze, but Toshiba's latest prototype shows there's still interesting things possible, even if it isn't a traditional laptop. The 5.6-inch touchscreen handheld runs Vista on Intel's Atom processor with a 64GB SSD and a GPS chip -- which like an awfully expensive setup, but Toshiba says they're aiming for netbook pricing. Of course, that means almost nothing, since netbooks are all over the map -- and that probably explains why Tosh says it's identified "six or seven" segments of the netbook / UMPC market, and that it might not compete directly with Eee-class machines. Sure -- but isn't an expensive handheld touchscreen netbook just a straight UMPC? Nice try, guys.

[Thanks, Pete]

It may have once talked about toppling both Intel and AMD within a decade, but South Korea's Hynix looks to have been knocked back on its heels a bit amid a general downturn in the DRAM market, and it's now taken the rather drastic step of closing down its plan in Eugene, Oregon, eliminating some 1,100 jobs in the process. As EE Times points out, that move is at least partly due to the fact that 300mm plants are ramping up faster than expected, making 200mm plans like the one in Oregon far less cost effective to operate and, apparently, too expensive to upgrade. There's also the little matter of some tariffs the United States had imposed on Hynix, which it was able to avoid thanks to its plant in Oregon, but which now appear to be set to expire. For its part, Hynix denies that has anything to do with the plant closing, and it adds that it is still looking at ways to "have a presence" in Eugene.

[Via The Wall Street Journal]

Intel is looking to simplify things by adding more processors. Yeah, doesn't sound all that sensible to us, ether, but stay put. Okay. Ready for some acronyms? Their just-announced EP80579 Integrated Processor features a system on a chip design that integrate the Pentium M core with a Memory Controller Hub (MCH), I/O hub (ICH) and data path acceleration engines (among other things dependent upon model). They believe these new Integrated Architecture (IA) chips will simplify consumer electronics like set-top boxes and MIDs due to their consolidated design that will reduce incompatibility issues. Intel also says portable devices will benefit from the new processors' energy efficiency. Speeds run from 600MHz on up to 1.2GHz and all sport a 256KB L2 cache. As for when this new tech will end up in your cable box or MID, no news on that just yet. In other words, don't call your provider just yet.

Just weeks after "reinventing" Voodoo with the Envy 133 laptop and Omen gaming desktop, it looks like HP's had enough -- it's decided to straight-up merge the specialty PC shop with its core consumer business, and sell its products alongside the Compaq Presario and HP Pavilion lines. Yeah, that'll make Voodoo seem totally hardcore. For it's part, HP says it's always been planning on this kind of merger, and that the move will make Voodoo product easier to buy worldwide and faster to get with no change in service for existing customers, but it's also oddly ambiguous on whether the Voodoo name will live on -- saying only that it's "likely," but that a decision hasn't been reached. All this means that it's even weirder that HP has both the Voodoo and Blackbird gaming lines, of course -- any bets on which one gets axed first?

Read - PC World article
Read - HP CTO Raul Sood's blog entry on the merger

Freshfaced AMD CEO Dirk Meyer hyped the firm's upcoming Atom-challenging processor the other day, calling it "Bobcat," and promising a November reveal. We'd think he'd be the guy to know, but now we're hearing seemingly conflicting words from AMD's Chief Marketing Officer, Nigel Dessau. Dessau says AMD is "watching... rather than playing" to see what becomes of the netbook segment. As Ars Technica points out, Dirk Meyer was only promising to announce a chip in November, not release one, so perhaps both of these statements are in step with each other, or maybe they're just thinking of different processor applications altogether, but for a company that's lacked a clear focus and a true Intel killer for the past couple of years, this sort of potential doublethink isn't helping anything.

MSI has been pretty successful with the Wind, wouldn't you say? Yeah, so would LG. Reportedly, LG is hoping to solicit MSI's services in order to craft its own X110 netbook. The mini laptop will purportedly boast an 8.9-inch panel, 120GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM and Windows XP runnin' the show. Interestingly, the price is expected to hover between $625 and $790 as it focuses on "design and material quality" rather than low cost. Anxious to see how that move plays out, aren't you?

ASUS must think that best way to make the Eee PC stand out in the overflowing netbook market is to crank out minor, uninteresting variants of the same models, because otherwise we're at a total loss to explain today's appearance of the Eee PC 1000HD. Yeah, that's the 1000HD, not the 1000H, which we've already seen. Ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is that it's basically the same machine as the Pentium M-based Eee 904, only with the 1000's 10-inch screen. Right. So now not only are there an endless variety of Eee models, the model numbers themselves don't indicate anything logical: the Eee 901 is faster than the 904, which uses the basic case of the 1000 but shares a processor with the 900 and 1000HD -- but not the 1000 or 1000H, which are Atom-based like the 901. Hmm, Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play -- not easy to buy might be your big problem here, ASUS.

[Via Mobile Stylus]

We'd heard some rumblings about Sony's plans to introduce a netbook of its own a little while back, but Sony exec Stan Glasgow seemed to put a damper on those the other day when he flat out said that the company was "not looking at competing with Asus." A report from China's Economic Daily News is now adding a bit more confusion to the matter, however, with it claiming that Foxconn will be providing at least some components for, you guessed it, a forthcoming Sony netbook. What's more, that same report also says that a number of other Japanese PC makers, including netbook nay-sayer Fujitsu, are also planning to get in on the low-cost laptop action in the fourth quarter of this year, although they apparently aren't quite ready to disclose any manufacturing partnerships just yet. Of course, it's entirely possible that these low-cost laptops could be just that, and not technically netbooks, but it certainly wouldn't be the first time that companies have jumped on a bandwagon after letting it pass by the first time around.

[Via Electronista]

Fujitsu-Siemens's Amilo 3000 laptops have always been decidedly stylish in their two-tone duds, and now the company's polishing them up a bit with new Centrino 2-based guts. First out the gate is the 15.4-inch Amilo Pi 3540, which features the new platform and NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS graphics driving a display Fujitsu-Siemens claims is dramatically better than the industry standard. There's also a spill-proof keyboard, silent mode, and a 15-in-1 card reader. Europe only at the moment, should be out in August starting at £699 ($1,392).

You know what's cool, right? Big, luxurious, fast cars. Those are cool. And then, you know, when you put a car logo on a laptop, and maybe a bit of leather upholstery? You're bordering on seriously cool levels, people. Take it from us, we know. Ego's been making luxury laptops of questionable taste and shape for a couple years now, and seems to have finally met the "alright, I guess" mark with its Bentley laptops. Complete with cross-over hand-stitching, a seemingly transplanted car door handle, and a few crappy specs, the laptop is most certainly not worth the £10,000 ($19,943 US) asking price. They go on sale this summer.