‘Always-on’ is going to be a seriously important weapon in the fight for the netbook market for ARM-based ‘smart’ devices. The Airlife 100 appears to offer that in a well-balanced netbook-style package.

We’re still trying to digest and analyse the Maemo, Moblin, Nokia, Intel, MeeGo news but it’s clear that this is a serious marketing effort. It also raises a lot of questions.

I just finished an overview post on the ever-interesting Notion Ink Adam slate over at Carrypad.com. As I researched the slate, I came away rather impressed with it. While we have yet to see production models, what Notion Ink claims to be bringing to the table with the Adam could very well surpass the iPad [Product page] in terms of power/battery life/features is this a result of a small company’s ability to take risks that a large company couldn’t afford? Most of us are all too familiar with Apple’s practices. […]

It happened. Maemo and Meego launched. Im standing in the press conference now and will report later but expect Meego to be available in Q2. More info at Meego.com The Big Merge: A Message from Intel and Nokia | MeeGo.

Compaq Airlife 100, originally uploaded by umpcportal.com. Ive just had 15 minutes with the Compaq Airlife 100 and have come away very impressed indeed. As I’ve mentioned before, this idea of being always connected, always on, always active is going to be compelling and I really think that when users start to experience this they will find it very difficult to go back to a device that needs to be taken out of a standby state and connected to a network. The UI was well-developed and modified for the touscreen […]

There has been lots of talk about Notion Ink’s upcoming Adam slate device which will be running Android. One of the reasons why this 10 inch slate has interests piqued it is one of the first devices that we’ve seen using the oft-mentioned, but never quite implemented, Pixel Qi screen, that might be coming to market. The screen has the ability to display full color and motion just like a standard LCD screen, but it can be switched to a transreflective mode which makes it highly readable in direct sunlight, […]

Though we might not have loved the N900 as a consumer phone [Product page] [Review] it’s definitely a wonderfully hackable device for those who have the proper skills. Because PS3 controllers and the N900 are both Bluetooth equipped, they can be paired together. In the video below, you’ll see someone cleverly using their N900 as a console emulator with TV output to a big screen and PS3 controller. Pretty sweet if you are looking for a portable emulator setup. [youtube]tON2gO72b1U[/youtube] via Engadget

Netbooknews.de has the IdeaPad S10-t3 [Product page] and pops the box open to let us all have a look. This multitouch convertible looks quite slick and comes with a massive battery. They were even kind enough to include an English unboxing (embedded below) in addition to their usual German one.