Foxconn and Hon Hai Both Planning ARM Smartbooks 59
wonkavader writes "Tuesday was a good day for smartbook news. News articles from Sept. 8 tell us that both Foxconn and Hon Hai are developing ARM-based smartbooks. PC World reports that
Foxconn's devices 'use a few different Linux operating systems, including one similar to the Intel-backed Moblin OS and one developed by Foxconn. The company is currently looking into Google's Android mobile OS for possible use as well.' Reuters reports that Hon Hai is also developing them. Hon Hai makes the iPhone and the Wii."
It will be cheap, but will it be common sense? (Score:5, Insightful)
I love my little low power cheap FoxConn r10-s4 barebones ($130, newegg) but the critical issue with netbooks is largely ignored: how easily do they break? IF somebody makes one with an aluminum case and the right padding inside so you can beat it up and spill things on it, I'm sold. Otherwise they've missed the whole point of cheap portable computers: You take them into places ad situations you wouldn't take others.
Smartbook? Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
Why the hell must every variant on any technology get a new name these days. We had laptop. Then they got smaller and the same thing was called a notebook. Then the same thing got a little smaller and it's called a netbook. They get a non-mainstream cpu though and now they're a smartbook instead?
Re:windows on ARM exists (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Consumer Windows on ARM? How about WinCE? (Score:4, Insightful)
But windows CE has all the problems that Linux has but more.
Lack of hardware support. Know of any printers with Windows CE support that you can get at Best Buy?
Lack of software support. It is all aimed at the mobile market.
Linux will actually have more software and hardware support out of the box than WinCE.