Packard Bell recently overhauled its logo in an effort to keep up with the times, but are its offerings up to the same task? The new imedia lineup immediately recalls the recently announced M-series desktops from Acer, and that's no accident. The innards are remarkably similar too, with the top models sporting Core 2 Quad or AMD Phenom II X4 processors, a 1.5GB GeForce GT230, HDMI out, Blu-Ray combo drive and a maximum of 8GB DDR3 memory and 1TB of storage. While none of the specs are on the blistering edge of innovation, there's plenty of power there and keen pricing could make them an attractive proposition. The entry-level Celeron-based units start at £299 ($490) in the UK.

Tired of hearing that your next favorite netbook / nettop is hamstrung with one of those woefully underpowered GMA950 graphics chipsets? Eager to see what all AMD is going to do about it? If The Inquirer is to be believed, an up and coming integrated chipset should elevate the multimedia prowess of low-end machines, as the RS880 would actually be based around the new Radeon HD 4200 core. In theory, at least, this chip would be around 15 percent faster than similar alternatives out there now, giving future netbooks just enough power to churn through 720p video without st, st, stuttering. Needless to say, the suits are refusing to comment on the matter, but we're definitely holding out hope for this one.

Just a few short weeks after eMachines outed its EL1300 line of SFF PCs, the company is hitting us up again with a new trio of full-size desktops. The ET1300-02, ET1810-01 and ET1810-03 are all encased within a luminous white mini-tower and ship with a matching LCD monitor, speakers and a keyboard. As for specs, the $449.99 ET1300-02 checks in with an AMD Athlon X2 4850e (2.5GHz) CPU, Vista Home Premium, NVIDIA's GeForce G100 (512MB), 3GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB hard drive, 18x SuperMulti DVD burner, multicard reader, HDMI / DVI / VGA outputs and an 18-inch E182H display. The $369.99 ET1810-03 steps to a 2.2GHz Pentium E2210 CPU, GeForce 7500 integrated graphics and just a single VGA port, while the $299.99 ET1810-01 cranks it down to a 1.6GHz Celeron 420 and 2GB of DDR2 RAM. The trio should be filtering out to respected retailers as we speak.

Need a little more proof that Intel's got some fly SSDs about ready to roll? We have confirmation from Micron that it's working on new and improved 34nm chips in capacities of 8, 16, and 32Gb. These lovelies are 17 percent smaller than the previous rainbow colored flash delights, and are faster too, offering 200Mb/s transfer speeds and when combined into an SSD, able to keep up with SATA 6Gb/s transfers. This press release confirms the chips will show up in flash memory from Lexar, but we're guessing that official Intel announcement can't be far off now.

It's no surprise that Dell's been dipping its toes in Android-infested waters as of late, and now the Wall Street Journal's reasserting a previous claim from early April that the company's hard at work on a MID powered by Google's mobile OS platform. Multiple sources have reportedly likened it to a slightly larger iPod touch, while one went so far as to suggest a very tentative second half 2009 target release window, assuming the project doesn't get 187'd before then. Despite its history with Intel and the chipmaker's penchant for MIDs, the report pegs ARM as the processor of choice. As for how this jibes with rumors of Dell's smartphone plans, that's where things get interesting, as WSJ quotes a source who said Dell's thinking about selling it through cell carriers like it's currently doing with 3G-equipped netbooks. The article repeatedly calls it a MID -- meaning a phone might still be in the cards, but given past whispers, it kind of makes you wonder.

It's just a rumor, but DigiTimes has pretty decent sources within Taiwan's motherboard industry. So what was a Q1 2010 mass production launch of Clarkdale CPUs is now rumored to be coming in Q4, notable as the first Intel CPU to use its new 32nm process technology with an integrated memory controller and graphics core built on a 45nm process. This jibes with what DailyTECH and others were reporting back in Feburary. DigiTimes adds that Intel expects Clarkdale CPUs to account for 10% of its total desktop CPU shipments in Q4 rising to 20% in Q1 2010. That means we should see the chips well before the holiday shopping season (near the October 22nd launch of Windows 7 makes sense) if true. As for AMD, well, last we heard they're still looking to "ramp up" production in the middle of 2010 with mass production capabilities arriving around Q4. Yeah, we know.

Read -- DigiTimes
Read -- DailyTECH

Rumor has it that Intel is prepped to launch its new SSDs in the next two weeks. According to sources speaking to the The Inquirer, the new solid state disks will feature that smaller 34nm NAND Flash developed by Intel and Micron. As usual, the smaller manufacturing processes should allow for higher density SSDs (as high as 320GB) at a reduced cost to manufacture. In fact, INQ says, "there will be drives big enough to replace the HDDs in most, if not all laptops." With Intel already cutting SSD prices we remain optimistic that this rumor is true.

[Via TrustedReviews]

So much for Nokia and Intel keeping quiet on actual product announcements, huh? Just yesterday, the two mega-corps joined hands in what they called a technical collaboration, and while they wouldn't go into detail about what products would sprout from the partnership, it seems that Commercial Times has done the honors. Reportedly, Nokia has already ordered up a few machines from Compal and Quanta, two OEMs that are largely responsible for most every netbook on the market today. Not surprisingly, we're told that the Nokiabook will rely on one of Intel's Atom processors, and considering that the new wave of Atom chips aren't slated to land until 2010, you can pretty much put money on a N270 or N280 configuration. In related news, we're told that Compal will engineer a Qualcomm Snapdragon-based Nokia smartbook, though there's no word on what kind of OS (Symbian, perhaps?) will be included.

Just as we heard, Intel and Nokia have today announced a long-term partnership that just might / might not revolutionize the way you live. The all-too-mysterious release doesn't go into great detail about what exactly the partnership will lead to, but it's clear that the two are joining hands in order to "shape the next era of mobile computing." Indeed, the duo has stated that they expect "many innovations to result from this collaboration over time" and they are hoping to "define a new mobile platform beyond today's smartphones, notebooks and netbooks, enabling the development of a variety of innovative hardware, software and mobile internet services." It's hard to say if we'll be seeing a Nokia UMPC, MID or smartbook in the near future, but we have to wonder if the world is even interested. An Intel-powered smartphone? Color us interested. An Intel-powered Nokiabook? Meh.

Possible big news on the way later today. According to Bloomberg, Intel's very own Mr. MID, Anand Chandrasekher, will announce Nokia as a new customer of its mobile processors. This is important because Nokia is a long time friend of ARM and Intel by its own admission can't currently compete with ARM when it comes to the ultra-low power consumption requirements of smartphones. So whatever Nokia's got cooking will presumably be running on Intel's upcoming Moorestown MID platform or its ultra-low power Medfield silicon targeting mainstream smartphones in 2011. On the other hand, Nokia's CEO already expressed interest in entering the laptop race with Intel or the ARM-based Snapdragon rumored to be at the core. But if this announcement results in yet another Atom-based netbook, well, good luck with that Nokia.

[Via IntoMobile]

Thinner than some netbooks and more potent than four or five of them combined, Lenovo's ThinkPad T400s aims to hit some sort of sweet spot in between weak ultraportables and battery-draining 15-inchers. The 14.1-inch lappie measures in at a remarkable 0.83-inches thin and boasts a starting weight of under four pounds. Within, you'll find Lenovo's heralded roll cage technology, a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor, your choice of a 128GB SSD or 250GB HDD, a 9.5mm slim DVD burner or Blu-ray player, a multitouch trackpad, Ethernet, WiFi, optional WiMAX / WWAN / Bluetooth / ultra-wideband, a 34mm ExpressCard slot (or 5-in-1 card reader), a battery good for six hours and VGA / DisplayPort outputs. There's also support for the company's ConstantConnect and Protect technology as well as a built-in USB / eSATA port. In a surprising move, Lenovo decided to actually tweak the keyboard that has become a staple of the ThinkPad line; it increased the size of the Delete and Escape keys and tightened up the spaces between the keys to "help avoid crumbs that would otherwise fall below the keyboard." You can check the full release just past the break, and you can call one your own starting today for $1,599 and up.

Think the megapixel race is bad? Now we've another to worry about, with both Toshiba and Intel hastily approaching 0.01nm technology in order to make chips faster, more nimble and smaller. According to undisclosed sources at Digitimes, Intel has actually canned production plans for its 45nm Havendale processors, which were originally slated to slip into machines later this year. The cause? It's heading straight to 32nm, reportedly hoping to ship its Clarkdale line in Q1 2010 with entry-level prices ranging from $60 to $190. In related news, Toshiba is joining the likes of IBM, Samsung and Globalfoundries in an effort to dish out chips based on 28nm process technology. Needless to say, the move is being made in an effort to "stay relevant in an area dominated by the likes of Intel Corp and Texas Instruments." Now, if only we could get one of these potent, low-power chips inside of a netbook, we'd be pleased as punch.

Read - Intel cans Havendale in move to 32nm
Read - Toshiba speeds to 28nm

The sun rises, seasons change, CPUs get faster, and Intel's plans get leaked. That's the way it works, so while this report from Digitimes listing out Intel's chip releases through the beginning of next year should be taken with a grain of salt, feel free to make it a small one. Apparently there's a new line of celery-packing Celeron processors coming in Q3 called E3000, starting with the 2.4GHz E3200 and the 2.5GHz E3300. Both feature 1MB of L2 cache, 800MHz FSB, 65W power consumption, and hardware virtualization, meaning either can take you to XP-on-Win7 nerdvana. There will also be a new Core i7 960 chip with a core frequency of 3.2GHz in the fourth quarter, which is also when the nettop-intended dual-core Atom D510 will drop, while the more portable-friendly dual-core Atom D410 won't release until Q1 next year -- bad news for those who'd been hoping for a speedier netbook under the Christmas tree.

Intel's jumped into familiar waters this month at Computex when it showed off Braidwood, a flash memory-based accelerator that works by caching I/O from the processor, reportedly enabling applications to launch much faster. Though not directly stated, for all intents and purposes it looks like this is a spiritual successor to Intel's Robson / Turbo Memory, a similar initiative from the company's past that didn't quite meet the commercial or critical success it had hoped. Whether we see better results this time is gonna be a story we revisit in the more distant future: Braidwood's coming as an option with the Nehalem-based Clarkdale processor, which isn't ramping up production until late this year.

Archos attempt to resurrect the UMPC category of devices got off to a good start yesterday in Paris with the launch of its 16-mm thick Archos 9 pctablet -- a 8.9-inch 1024x600 pixel tablet riding an 800MHz or 1.2GHz Atom Z515 processor, 1GB of memory, up to 120GB disk, webcam, Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11b/g WiFi, and SIM card slot for WWAN connectivity. Archosfans just posted a video of the Archos 9 prototype in action and honestly, that resistive touch-screen looks pretty damn impressive to finger taps. However, since it's running Windows 7, a full-blown desktop OS, you'll still need to pull out the included stylus on occasion to interactive with the Windows 7 UI or applications designed for a mouse and keyboard. Fortunately, the Archos 9 offers an optical mouse on the right-side bezel and left and right mouse keys along the left. Other notable highlights include a removable battery of undetermined capacity, a docking port for added expansion (Ethernet, 2x USB, VGA output), stereo speakers, and an adjustable kickstand for viewing video or working on the Archos 9 with attached USB keyboard and mouse. The Archos rep says it'll be priced between €450 and €500 when it ships around the time Windows 7 launches at the end of October. What we're wondering is how much finger-friendly UI customization will be included by Archos and how they plan to market the device to consumers who already own smartphones, laptops, and even netbooks. Video after the break.

P.S. While Archosfans claims the Archos 9 is multi-touch, nothing that we've found supports that claim on the Archos site or in the video demonstrations. Nevertheless, multi-touch resistive touchscreen technology does exist as demonstrated to us by Stantum back in February. In fact, the ASUS Eee PC T91 also features an 8.9-inch resistive display that does support mult-touch.