Intel PR, Becky Emmett, came to speak at our Berkeley Innovation meeting on Tuesday. She brought her ultra cute HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam netbook, which I’ve lusted after for quite some time—but she cautioned me to hold off on buying a netbook. Why? Intel’s ultra-thin, energy-saving processor, Atom, is going to show up in various laptop brands within just a few more months, so I’ll be able to buy something like the Macbook Air for only around $600, says Becky. That price tag seems almost too good to be true. The major concern over netbooks is that they’re not “real” performance laptops—I can blog and surf the internet, and that’s about it. If ultra-light laptops are coming out within a few more months anyway, I might as well wait for them and forget about the cute netbooks. For the time being, I’ll just have to lug around my 15” Macbook Pro while I travel all over Asia this summer.
Tuesday was also the first time I had heard about MIDs, Mobile Internet Devices. Why do we not have them in the US yet?! Then again, do I really need and want something in between my smart phone and my laptop? My iPhone pretty much satisfies my on-the-go internet needs (which only consists of tweeting TMI and checking my gmail).
Only two days ago, Ubergizmo and Yanko Design both blogged about Intel’s MID concept, a 180×80x20mm device with an OLED display, a physical keyboard, a trackball, and various ports. I mean, if people all wanted the Nintendo DS, who wouldn’t want to flaunt this?! I’m feeling pretty smug about blogging this since Gizmodo hasn’t mentioned anything other the Atom processor and Engadget doesn’t seem to know much yet either. Thank you, Ogilvy PR, for hooking me up with info—you guys are Full of Win.
photos courtesy Ubergizmo
Ogilvy also sent me some more information on MIDs that currently exist in Asia. Seriously, America—Silicon Valley—why are we behind?
Clarion MiND:
Viliv – MID S5 WIMAX:
UMID – mBOOK MID:
photos and info courtesy Ogilvy PR
Thanks Becky, Kiki, and Christine 
!