Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

At the very end of the press conference Fujio Nishida announced the new Sony Vaio X netbook. He was very vague about specific details but the Vaio X is a gorgeous 14mm thick, sub 700g, carbon fibre netbook.

At the moment specifications are very thin on the ground but a fellow blogger (sorry I didn’t get his name!) commented on it being the new Pineview N450 CPU and 2GB of Ram.

I managed to play with it for a few minutes and I found it very responsive, granted there wasn't really very much installed on the machine so there was not much to slow it down but initial impressions are very good.

There is no word on pricing but I am hoping it will be somewhere between the Vaio P pricing and a traditional netbook like the Mini 9. If it was £400-500 I could be very tempted with one of these but I think that maybe wishful thinking!

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Michael Arrington, the founder of Silicon Valley blog network TechCrunch has created a touchscreen web tablet called the CrunchPad which according to the New York Times could be released as early as this month.

With a 12-inch touchscreen and only 16mm thick, the CrunchPad promises to give us super fast internet access through its simple browser only OS. The browser will let you do all types of surfing, web based email and with Flash support all your YouTube needs. Its not fully known what powers the CrunchPad yet but it’s believed, like most netbooks will be Atom processor powered.

It is expected to retail in the States for $300 or £190 in the UK.

The Acer Aspire Revo is available via Amazon for £316.23, £263.98 and £149.99 respectively.

I have to say I am quite excited about the launch of the Acer Aspire Revo. It could possibly be the ultimate HTPC.

Play are now listing the Revo for pre-order with a release date of the 18th of May. Pricing seems quite decent with the 4 versions being priced at £179.99, £249.99, £299.99 and £329.99

We can’t get through a week without a new netbook being released. This time it is the Samsung N310 10.1-inch netbbok.

It apparently will have a "large size" keyboard while keeping its weight down to 1.23kg. The batter should also last 5 hours.

Samsung has drafted in Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa to style the N310, and this collaboration has resulted in a curvy, cutesy shape as well as, according to Samsung, a casing that boasts "amazing strength and superior reliability".

Tech specs are a bit vague but the N310 will have an Atom processor, XP, 1.3-megapixel webcam,

3-in-1 memory card reader, three USB ports and optional Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.

No word on pricing or availability.

Habey is putting a smile on HTPC fans with the release of 2 new mini HTPCs the BIS-6540HD and the BIS-6550HD.

The BIS-6540HD is capable of running an impressive 1080p signal with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor thanks to a special HD Hardware decoder.

The unit is completely fanless and supports SSD for 100% silent computing. It also features 2GB of DDR2 RAM, eight USB ports, a built-in CF socket DVI and VGA outputs, ethernet, and options for wireless and HD TV tuner.

Unfortunately there is no word on pricing or availability yet but it will happily play Planet Earth on Blu-ray.

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We posted about the Asus Eee keyboard back in January when it was seen at CES. Asus has now revealed some more details about the self-contained PC, as well as potential release dates, at the CeBIT show in Hannover.

The Eee Keyboard will be based on a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, and will be equipped with 1GB of RAM and an SSD with either 16GB or 32GB SSD.

There will be two versions at different price points, with the main distinguishing feature being a wireless HDMI connection to the TV.

The keyboard also comes with pair of USB 2.0 ports, a VGA connector and a standard HDMI port, along with bluetooth and wireless.

It is estimated that the standard version will cost $400 US (£285), while the wireless version will cost somewhere between $400 US and $600 US (£427).

Asus’ company chairman Jonney Shih said that the new Eee Keyboard could be released as soon as May this year, but that June would be a more realistic bet.

In a bit of a freak move by Intel they have announced that they will be partially outsourcing the fabrication of one of its CPUs to a TSMC.

This is the first time in history that Intel have outsourced their production and is to be the start of a long-term, "strategic" collaboration in which Atom IP will be ported to TSMC's manufacturing process, with the Taiwanese foundry fabricating Atoms for some customers.

According to Intel:

It is a long-term collaboration. It is not about capacity. It's a strategic relationship that allows us to expand the growth opportunities for both companies

This relationship between us and TSMC is strategic in nature; it's the first time we've ported a processor externally outside of an Intel process.

So it it is not due to the exponential growth in demand for the Atom CPU it must be about saving a few pennies!

Considering Intel are investing $7 billion in the US for building four 32nm fabrication plants I can’t really blame them for trying to find ways to save money

Ars Technica reported that:

Intel's margins on Atom are much thinner than those on regular desktop and server CPUs, and with each process shrink, Atom's cost (and price) will go down. But fabs get more expensive with each shrink, so the result is that Intel has to sell many more Atoms at 32nm than it does at 45nm to make money. The demand for all of those Atoms may or may not materialize, which is why Intel will pay TSMC to fab them and share the risk that the demand may not be there. Meanwhile, Intel wants to save its (very costly) in-house fab capacity for high-margin products, like its CPUs.

The main problem facing Intel is that, right now, nobody wants high-margin, high-performance CPUs. The demand is there for the cheap stuff, but Intel would rather not take the risk that this appetite for cheap will continue to balloon by turning even more of its premium in-house fab capacity to the task of cranking out Atoms. Better to dedicate the costly new 32nm fabs to producing high-margin CPUs on the hopes that demand for performance will eventually recover, while letting TSMC's fabs support any further growth in the Atom market.