Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.
There’s a growing category of devices that fall in the space below laptops and above smartphones. It’s not a new space, there have been various incarnations over the years, most recently Microsoft’s Ultra Mobile PC devices, originally known as Origami. These days, Intel’s the one talking about this space, pushing what it calls MIDs, or Mobile Internet Devices. Well that’s all well and good — but what’s a MID?
Frankly, MID is an Intel marketing term coined around 2008. In a 2008 Engadget post Intel’s Dan Monahan described MIDs as having the following attributes:
- Consumer-class lifestyle devices
- Runs a ‘lightweight” OS with quick startup like Linux
- Optimized for things like media playback and web surfing
- In 2009 (or so) Moorestown-based devices will be classed as MIDs only
And Intel is aggressive about MIDs — the company was showing off so many of UMID’s devices at IDF last week you would have thought they were among Intel’s most strategic and largest customers. But it’s clear that the definition has changed over time, as the MIDs at IDF didn’t match the specs Mr. Monahan talked about in 2008. These devices all ran Windows and were really scaled down models of netbooks. And although they were impressively tiny, let’s be honest — I’m really skeptical about the future of this class of device, Intel’s aspirations aside.
Continue reading Entelligence: The Muddled MID market
Filed under: Handhelds
Entelligence: The Muddled MID market originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Did you miss us? We certainly missed you — but no worries, the live podcast is back, and we’ll be on to break down another hectic week in tech news at 5PM EST. Grab a drink and settle into the chat room below!
Update: And that’s a wrap. As usual, we had a blast — and if you missed it, the edited and sweetened version with Nilay’s vocals replaced by studio musicians will be up tomorrow.
Filed under: Podcasts
The Engadget Podcast, live… now! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today’s movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com.
It seems that LL Cool J is still too hip to be seen rockin’ the latest and greatest from Samsung, but evidently Chris O’Donnell had no qualms doing the honors. The recently loosed Instinct HD was recently spotted handling all sorts of detective word on this week’s episode of NCIS: Los Angeles, with the famed HD movie mode showing itself on a number of occasions. Truth be told, though — we get how a guy of O’Donnell’s affluence could swing $250 for a new featurephone, but is the average agent seriously in the same tax bracket?
[Thanks, Josh]
Filed under: Cellphones
Screen Grabs: Instinct HD captures evidence in NCIS: Los Angeles originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We just caught a glimpse of ASUS’
EeeBox EB1012 nettop last month, but it looks like the company is already doing things one better with its new, redesigned EB1501 model. As before, this one packs the increasingly common one-two punch of NVIDIA’s Ion chipset and Intel’s Atom 333 dual-core processor, but makes its mark by being the first EeeBox (and one of the first nettops) to come pre-loaded with Windows 7, which also means it’s not shipping until the end of the month. Otherwise, you’ll get the usual 2GB of RAM (expandable to 4GB) and 250GB hard drive, a built-in DVD burner, and an HDMI port to make it feel right at home in your home theater. No official pricing over here just yet, but it looks like this one will start at €399 (or about $580) when it hits Europe.
[Via Notebook Italia, thanks Magnus]
Filed under: Desktops
ASUS EeeBox EB1501 comes packing Windows 7, Atom 330 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’ve seen a few odds and ends on the ODROID — an Android-powered gaming device due this December — but we’ve never gotten a look at the handheld in action. That all changes today, as we’re privy to a new video of the spec-stacked (833MHz Samsung S5PC100 CPU, 512MB RAM) gamer taking an SNES emulator out for a spin. As you can probably guess, the device doesn’t flinch at a screenful of Space Megaforce sprites, but that’s not surprising given the horsepower. Now if only someone could get this configuration into a phone. While you impatiently wait for that to happen, hit the clip after the break to see what kind of damage the ODROID does on its own.
[Via SlashGear]
Continue reading Android-based ODROID handheld shows off its SNES emulation skills on video
Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds
Android-based ODROID handheld shows off its SNES emulation skills on video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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