Qualcomm has been showing off a bevy of devices called Smartbooks that the company thinks could be poised to swallow up the netbook market by outmanoeuvring them in their core strengths - the small-and-light and always-on-connectivity arenas.

The model pictured above and below is an Android-equipped device from Taiwanese manufacturers Quanta. It's packing a 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm which means that it has smartphone-esque features and connectivity, but the power of a low-end notebook.

Qualcomm is betting on 3G connectivity within netbooks becoming as ubiquitous as Wi-Fi. The resulting smartbooks will be more portable, more connected and cheaper than the traditional netbook, and elbow them out of the market.

The company also demonstrated a wireless charging pad for gadgets, and a C-motech Mangrove tablet computer running Windows Mobile 6.5 on a Snapdragon processor. Pics of those can be found on the images tab above.

Tags: Hardware Smartbooks Qualcomm Quanta Lenovo Snapdragon Android

Qualcomm planning smartbook assault originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:13:38 +0000

Qualcomm has unveiled a new device called the Lenovo Smartbook that it hopes will marry the smartphone with the netbook, very much like the HTC advantage attempted to do in 2007.

Qualcomm's CEO Paul Jacobs showed off the shiny, red smartbook during the company's annual analyst meeting in New York according to reports online.

The device, which is expected to be officially launched at CES 2010, sports a clamshell design to reveal a keyboard and screen.

It will be powered by a Qualcomm snapdragon chipset and be 3G enabled on AT&T's network in the US Qualcomm's CEO confirmed.

The Snapdragon chipset can already be found in the Acer Liquid, the HTC HD2, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and the Toshiba TG01.

Although no name has yet to be given, Qualcomm has said that it will run with the advertising slogan "The world organized around you" hoping the device would act like a sixth sense.

Tags: Hardware Phones Qualcomm Lenovo Smartbook Lenovo UMPC Snapdragon Netbooks CES2010

Qualcomm Lenovo Smartbook unveiled originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:46:01 +0000

Lenovo has unveiled five new "green" ThinkVision monitors, the ThinkVision L1711p, L1951p Wide, L2250p Wide, L2251p Wide and L2251x Wide.

The new line-up includes Lenovo's flagship monitor, the ThinkVision L2251x Wide, said to be the company's most "environmentally-responsible" monitor boasting recycled plastics and low power consumption.

The first TCO Certified Edge monitor, the ThinkVision L2251x uses 21 watts of power during operation, lower than the average 49 watts.

With chassis parts made of 65% recycled plastics, it also offers an ambient light and proximity sensor that turn the screen off when a user steps away. ?

The ThinkVision L2251x Wide also boasts a mercury-free panel and low halogen components and comes in packaging reduced by up to 44%.

Specs-wise the new range offers up to 1680 x 1050 screen resolution, a 1000:1 contrast ratio and a five millisecond response time while the ThinkVision 2551x Wide gets a built-in webcam and four USB ports.

The Lenovo ThinkVision L1951p Wide, L2250p Wide and L2251p Wide monitors will be available from 23 October for ?134, ?165 and ?176. ?

The Lenovo ThinkVision L1711p monitor will be available from 6 November for ?124 and the ThinkVision L2251x Wide monitor will be available in November for ?206.

Tags: Hardware Lenovo Monitors Eco

Lenovo launches five green ThinkVision monitors originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:09:19 +0100

Lenovo and Skype have announced a new partnership agreement that will see Skype for Windows software preloaded on "millions" of computers.

From now on, every ThinkPad laptop and ThinkCentre desktop PC distributed worldwide will include Skype software.

In a blog post Skype says: "If you buy a ThinkPad or ThinkCentre, you'll be able to get up and running with Skype quickly and easily by locating the Skype icon in the Start menu".

Bloatware or a useful pre-load that will save you time downloading the software? Let us know your thoughts in the comments box below...

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Tags: Hardware Lenovo Skype Software Desktop PCs Laptops VoIP Phones

Lenovo to pre-load Skype on "millions" of PCs originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:04:54 +0100

Lenovo has begun the Windows 7 battle with a shot across the bows of other hardware manufacturers. The company is claiming that it has the fastest boot and shutdown times out there - it says that its ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktop PCs will boot Windows 7 56% faster than XP or Vista.

Fran O'Sullivan, Lenovo's SVP for the Think product group, said: "To achieve Windows 7 Lenovo Enhanced Experience certification, Lenovo's technical team and developers have worked with Microsoft
during the making of Windows 7 to create an exceptionally-engineered hardware and software experience".

Lenovo took several steps to pump up the boot times. It contacted the driver for a "popular wireless device" that was causing trouble and demanded that they fix it. It hid certain devices from the BIOS so that the OS only loaded them when the boot had finished.

It did a similar thing with programs that autoload on Windows startup - relegating them until after Windows has booted up. Finally it stuffed an extra chip into its notebooks to more precisely measure how much battery was left than Windows does and help make it last as long as possible.

Lenovo's got a pretty sticker that says "Lenovo Enhanced Experience" on it, which it'll be putting on the PCs that contain these upgrades. If you're shopping for a Lenovo computer, that could be worth looking out for.

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Related links:

• News - Lenovo ThinkPad X200 and T400s announced

Tags: Software Lenovo Operating Systems Windows 7 Microsoft

Lenovo promises ultra-speedy Windows 7 boot times originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:33:46 +0100