Which team are you rooting for in the 2010 FIFA World Cup going down in South Africa? If you are like many people in the UK it will be England. Well, luck has it there is a netbook specially designed to let you show the whole world just how patriotic you are. The Hi-Grade Notino Ml100E is the super ultra portable netbook to have which comes embellished with imagery intended to warm the cockles of an ardent England fan.

The netbook was released in an effort to keep up with the World Cup theme set by the Hi-Grade’s new Notino W5900E laptop. While previously seen that themed case designs would more often than not estrange as many people as they would attract them, the Hi-Grade Notino ML100E’s optically arresting decoration possesses rather more panache than the simple England-strip design noted in the W5900E laptop.

At the core of this ‘England Red’ netbook is the 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor which has been the backbone of many a netbooks in the market. Actually, the Hi-Grade Notino mL100E has so much in common with the Samsung N210 and Eee PC 1008P. It further boasts a 10.1” (1024X600 resolutions) which is in line with other 10.1 inch netbooks, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM and a 160 GB Hitachi hard drive.

The netbook further features a couple of USB ports beautifully built into the side, an external VGA port, microphone and headphone sockets. There is a memory card drive slot that allows for extra storage facilities which facilitates the extension of the RAM in Windows 7 Starter. Of course the Operating System is Windows 7 Starter, and connectivity options include 10/100Mb/s Ethernet, WI-Fi, and 802.11n. There is a webcam in place onto the top of the LED display screen.

Perhaps the most unique feature of this netbook is that unlike in most netbooks which have trackpad buttons located beneath the trackpad itself, the official England netbook, which costs circa £ 311.38 inclusive of VAT, has its trackpad buttons located to each side of the trackpad.

Getac Inc is a leading manufacturer and innovator of rugged computers designed to meet the demands of field-based applications. Having been in existence for quite some time now, Getac Inc has managed to swim over turbulent and competitive technology waters and stay ahead of the competition, thanks to its long standing tradition of providing excellent devices to its consumers, such as the upgraded Getac E100.

This lightweight E100 packs quite remarkable features in the 3-pound chassis and as mentioned, it is designed to meet the rising demand for practical, all-in-one solutions for utility workers, customer service, and general field use. Featuring an improved Central Processing Unit, expanded storage capacity to hold more digital files, and a very solid state drive, this power machine has been designed as a real power tool.

Securely nestled in its craggy magnesium alloy chassis lies some of the most advanced technologies fundamental to offering maximum security, productivity, and connectivity all in a device that attractively balances at the palms of your hands.

First things first, the Getac E100 fully meets the MIL-STD-810G and IP65 standards for protection against dust, dirt, motion, water, vibration, temperatures name them all – all factors that are likely to severely disable or spoil a commercial-grade computer device. It also meets the standards for longevity and durability.

Features include:-
- 812.11a/g/n wireless LAN
- Bluetooth 2.0
- Built-in microphone
- 1.6GHz processor providing up to 5 hours of battery life
- 2 USB ports
- RS-232 Serial port
- 3G network connectivity

Further, the standard solid state drive provides advanced protection to documents and files against accidental drops, vibrations, and such like abuses normally encountered in the field. The device further boasts anti-reflective and advanced LED backlight thanks to the 800NITs sunlight readable display with a touchscreen that offers effortless readability of content on the screen even when under direct sunlight.

The other notable essential feature that field workers would love is the new embedded backup battery that facilitates rapid hot-swapping with spare batteries meaning you can be able to replace battery packs safely without having to shut the system down.

Generally, tablets are very cool, but not all tablets get the ‘respect and appreciation’ manufacturers expect from the market. Take for example convertible tablets; they are simply the old tablet PCs with a simple twist in the sense that the hardware is updated but the concept remains the same, of course with a very expensive price tag on the new updated device.

Despite this well known fact, Gigabyte has decided to give a try and introduce something new to the convertible tablet target audience market — the new Gigabyte M1125 model. This 11.6 inch powerhouse is powered by the Core-i-series line of processors which needless to mention are more powerful than the Atom processors that is normally found in your everyday netbook, no wonder this new device has been dubbed the powerhouse.

Further, it will have a high resolution 1366X768 pixel touchscreen display and will come fully equipped with a full-size chiclet keyboard for all your typing needs, of course when you will not be using it as a tablet.

Additional features include:-

Intel Core i3 ULV CPU

USB 3.0 ports

11.6 inch screen, HD Ready (1366 x 768 pixels)

Docking station when working at the office

VGA and LAN ports

Those are the few features already revealed to the market as of now. However, Computex Taipei 2010 is the place you ought to be if you are really interested in checking what Gigabyte M1125 convertible tablet has in store for you. It seems so much will be going on down in Computex Taipei 2010 and we can only wait in curiosity and see whether Acer and HP will update their rival models – Aspire 1825PT/PTZ and the Touchsmart TM2.

If the current info that has been leaked to the media about the Gigabyte M1125 is anything to go by, HP and Acer had better have something new as the M1125 looks very nice. Details about shipping and pricing and additional features will also be released then, so keep it here for more information about this powerhouse of a device.

Well it seems so much is going to happen at the Computex 2010 in Taipei, at least where MSI is concerned. Not only will MSI be launching the single and dual screen tablets that we have all been waiting for, there is a new concept in the cooking which has already leaked out. MSI has leaked out a very interesting and intriguing concept device dubbed the MSI ‘Sketchbook’.

This Sketchbook retains the traditional layout of a normal PC but has a very intriguing movable keyboard. You simply twist the keyboard and you will have with you a pen-driven graphics tablet. In other words, the Sketchbook offers a new twist on the convertible netbook where rather than twisting it to convert into a tablet; the base which has a keyboard rotates on one side to present a full-size graphics tablet over the other — thus the name.

Laptops have seen amazing changes and are now almost replacing desktop PC for most functionality. Laptops as just about as powerful devices as they are a heck of a lot of flexibility in that you can use them anywhere, be it on the airplane or in the coffee shop. On the other hand, if you wish to use a computer to carry out specialized functions, you may be forced to add USB peripherals, which needless to mention make laptops as stressful to carry around as desktops.

The new sketchbook concept device could however change all that, at least for some people. MSI looks to target students, artists, and hobbyists and anybody else who would benefit from a convertible that offers a full-sized tablet by simply swiveling the base. The company has however remained very mum, save for the leakage of the concept design in Amsterdam, about the pricing of the sketchbook or possible release date — or if at all the sketchbook concept design will ever see the light of day and hit the market.

It is however expected that the company will launch it at Computex 2010, alongside the dual screen netbook concept that it introduced at the beginning of the year and the PC-in-a projector concept design.

The recently released Belkin 4 port hub looks cool and is well designed. By offering a swivel head this hub will stay out of the way of the other ports on your computer. You can twist it both up and down and left and right. It may be a little ahead ahead of its time against other hubs out there.

The hub will add four high speed USB 2.0 ports and give transfer speeds of up to 480 Mbps. As well as the swivel option it also comes with its own power supply. It weighs 282 grammes making it perfect for your netbook if you need to take your hub abroad or out and about.