This is usually the season for door-busting sales, but I think this one has to do with reducing inventory more than anything. MSI is touting a new online promotion in India, the UK, Australia and Italy, and although I’m not near any of those parts, I checked it out. The promotional link took me to a deal for a free MSI Wind netbook with the purchase of an X600 notebook. The free netbook is the same U100 model I purchased in 2008 and is worth roughly $350. To get the deal, you actually have to print out the online coupon and take it to specific vendors.

Purchasing the X600 gets you a skinny 15.6″ notebook with 1366 x 768 resolution running on an Intel ULV chip and ATI Radeon HD 4330 graphics processor. The 2.1-kilogram notebook with 6-cell battery should run for nearly a full workday, and of course, you can always migrate over to your free netbook if you run out of juice.

Could the six-hour runtime of a netbook go to 36 hours in the future? It sounds possible based on recent ionic battery projects. Battery technologies simply haven’t undergone a major change in years, so most of our runtime gains have come through more power efficient hardware. But if I’m reading the news right, ionic liquid powered batteries might be the breakthrough to change that. According to Cody Friesen, a professor of materials science at Arizona State and founder of Fluidic Energy:

“[A] metal-air battery using an ionic liquid as its electrolyte not only functions significantly longer–because drying out is no longer a problem–but it also gets a big boost in energy density. “These liquids have electrochemical stability windows of up to five volts, so it allows you to go to much more energy-dense metals than zinc.” He says his research team will target energy densities of at least 900 watt-hours per kilogram and up to 1,600 watt-hours per kilogram in the DOE-funded project.”

As I see it, this technology is really geared for electric vehicles with large batteries. But I could envision this technology making its way down to notebook batteries. And if it did, you could “cram” more energy in a battery without increasing the size and weight.

Some quick math using the project’s median target shows why I’m hoping this comes to pass. If a 1 kilogram / 35.5 ounce ionic battery can hold 1250 Whr of juice, that’s about 125 Whr per 0.1 kilograms / 3.5 ounces. That works out to an energy density of 35.7 Whr per ounce of battery weight. The battery of my Toshiba NB205 battery weighs 11 ounces, so an ionic battery of similar weight could offer 392 Whr as opposed to the 63 Whr my current battery offers. I’m all for more efficient electric cars, but the ability to run my netbook for nearly a week of work time is pretty appealing too.

The discovery that developer builds of OS X 10.6.2 had removed support for the Atom processor kicked off a storm on the web. On the surface it seemed that the only reason for Apple to remove the hardware support that was already in the OS was to kill off the “Hackintosh” projects. Those are the projects that have hardy souls installing OS X on netbooks and UMPCs to fill the void that Apple is reluctant to fill.

Word has surfaced that the current beta build (10C535) of 10.6.2 has regained support for Atom processors. Whether this is due to the reaction to its removal, or to fixing an accidental removal we will likely never know. Of course, until 10.6.2 is finalized, we’ll have to wait and see if the Atom support stays.

It’s hard to believe it, but it’s almost two years to the day that I took delivery of my first netbook. Actually it wasn’t called a netbook back then — it was more of a spinoff idea from the OLPC project. It doesn’t matter what you called it; my Asus Eee PC 701 was a fun little machine. The device was useful, too. Every post I wrote from the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show was banged out on that little unit, although I had replaced the stock Linux build with XP by that point. Oh, the memories…

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So a you need a notebook-sized display, but want the portability and light-weight of a netbook, eh? MSI has you covered. You could go with the 13-inch X-Slim line that’s been around for a bit, or you could jump up to the slightly bigger X400 that’s now for sale in the U.S. Laptoping reports two online retailers have the 14-incher in stock for $799.99. I double-checked and Excalibur PC does offer the X400, but Mwave is either out of stock, or never had it to begin with.

Like the other light-and-thin X-Slim notebooks, the X400 runs on a 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Solo SU2700 CPU and integrated Intel 4500MHD graphics. In other words, you get better performance than a netbook but with some of the low-power benefits. You’ll need those benefits because the standard battery is estimated to last for up to four hours. The 14-inch display doesn’t gain you any pixels over its 13-inch cousins — it’s the same 1366 x 768 resolution found in the X300 line. In fact, for $120 less, the slightly smaller X340 at $679 offers a slightly faster CPU that uses less power (max TDP of 5.5W vs 10W), same graphics, storage and memory options. I’d be hard pressed to nab the X400 without comparing it to the X340.

Regardless, the 3.3-pound weight and 0.95-inch thickness might appeal to folks wanting a MacBook Air near-twin that runs Microsoft Windows.

Adventurous netbook owners have a new download waiting for them. The latest Moblin preview image, v2.1, is available and ready to roll. I’ve downloaded it, but haven’t yet burned the Live Image to a CD for use on my Toshiba NB205. I plan to have a look at it later today, mainly due to the new features:

“The Moblin v2.1 release for netbooks and nettops includes many community and customer requested enhancements; for example, support for additional nettop screen resolutions, myzone improvements, IM improvements, better language support, updated kernel, Moblin Garage, Moblin Application Installer, 3G data support, and Bluetooth.”

Since I use my netbook on the go, I want to test out the 3G data support. And the Moblin Garage — that place where all of the apps for Mobile are parked — warrants a second look as well. This image is just a preview of what’s to come, though. The Moblin team expects to release a stable version before the end of the year. It’s worth mentioning that the tested platforms for this version is reasonably extensive. Moblin v2.1 has been tested for compatibility on these netbooks: Acer AspireOne; Asus eeePC 901; 1005ha; 1008ha; Dell Mini 9; 10, and 10v, MSI Wind; Toshiba NB205; and Samsung NC10. The download is yours for the taking right here.

Image Credit: Moblin

Place your bets while there’s still time — with IDF around the corner, it’s almost a lock that we’ll see Moblin pre-installed on a netbook next week. But the jury is still out on who might offer it. OStatic makes a great case for Acer, since the company has already demonstrated early Moblin builds on its hardware. But ASUS, MSI and others are in the running, too. And you can’t count out Dell, who was one of the first to sell netbooks with Ubuntu.

Even money says that any netbook running this Linux flavor will show off Moblin v2. Not long ago, Steve Paine took this version for a ride and felt it to be “very slick and trouble-free.” Ideally, that’s what we all want in a device at its core, so it sounds promising. But the age old question has to be asked — are consumers ready to break away from the Windows paradigm? They haven’t yet, at least not in massive quantities, but for people who want a rock-solid netbook for basic tasks, this just might work.

That’s not to say that Moblin — or any Linux distro, for that matter — is “dumbed down” by any means. Linux systems are every bit as capable, if not more so, than Windows devices in many respects. I just worry about the perceived and real learning curve of a new operating system when expectations largely revolve around netbooks being smaller traditional notebooks. Regardless, I think OStatic is right on the money and that Acer outs the first Mobile v2 netbook next week. That approach makes much more sense to me than the Android netbook plans that Acer has, er had… or maybe still has. I can’t keep track.

Can’t wait for Moblin v2 on your netbook? You don’t have to. Just hit up the Moblin project and grab yourself a live image!

This morning I read a Forbes article entitled “Intel’s Not-So-Mighty Atom” and I walked away scratching my head in confusion. Actually, now that I think about it, I’m not so sure that I’m the one that’s confused. Lee Gomes takes the approach of identifying how the Atom processor “isn’t up to the demands placed on it by a full-fledged Windows Vista computer doing business in today’s Web world.” I agree with Lee on that point, but it’s like making the point that a sports car isn’t up to being as fuel efficient as a hybrid vehicle. A sports car isn’t meant to save gas, it’s meant to go fast and be fun to drive. Likewise, the Atom isn’t meant to power a desktop replacement notebook.

Lee mentions that the “typical Windows Vista netbook runs from $300 to $500.” That’s an accurate statement, but I’d argue its relevance. Why? Go out and look at netbooks for sale in a retail store or online. Now out of the lot of them, how many run Windows Vista as opposed to those that run Windows XP? I’ve been watching this market since it became a market and I’d say netbooks with XP outnumber those with Vista by at least 8 to 1. So why utilize Windows Vista to draw sweeping generalizations about the Intel Atom and netbooks as a whole? It simply doesn’t make sense.

The culprit, Lee says, is bad marketing research. People want lightweight portable computers with long battery life, so that’s why netbooks are made and sold. My question to Lee would be: if that’s what people want and computer makers are willing to build them, what’s the issue? Actually, is there an issue at all? Last I checked, netbook sales were up and growing in a what’s otherwise a down market for PC makers. Surely, there are a few happy customers in the tens of millions buying netbooks, no?

I understand that Lee is pointing out how limiting an Intel Atom netbook can be when compared to full-featured desktops. That’s not in dispute. But the fact is — proven by those big sales numbers for a market that’s not yet two years old – there’s a place for low-powered computing devices in the world. No, they may not handle Windows Vista well, although they’re pretty capable with Windows 7. And Lee’s right that “games like Flight Simulator are a joke,” but the fact that he even installed such a game on a netbook tells me that his expectations of the device were flawed from the start. It’s simple once you understand what both the Atom and netbooks are for: basic computing for several hours in various locations. Once you have that expectation in mind, I think you’ll find that both the chip and the device are well suited to the task. If instead, you need heavy duty multitasking, high-definition video and 3-D gaming, you’ll have to step up to a more expensive and power hungry chip in a what’s likely a larger device.

How about it, netbook owners? Netbooks and the Intel Atom certainly don’t do everything well, but are they doing enough of what you need on the go?

Feel the breeze? That’s the new Wind notebook from MSI. Yes, I said notebook and not netbook for this Wind, which we first heard about during Computex. The Wind12 U200 is a larger device than the Wind netbook line and doesn’t include an Intel Atom under the hood. MSI is taking advantage of the larger 12.1″ display to provide a resolution of 1366×768. The official press release calls the screen a “16:9 HD-ready Glittering Crystal Frameless Screen,” which I take as glossy, since I’ve never seen glittering crystals on a display.

While larger than a netbook, the U200 (full specs here) doesn’t weigh all that much more: 1.3 kilograms with the included 6-cell battery. There’s no information on the actual battery capacity, but MSI touts a run-time of 6.5 hours thanks to the Intel Consumer Ultra Low Voltage platform. If that’s true, that’s essentially the same run-time as my MSI Wind U100 netbook, but with a larger screen and a performance boost. The Intel chipset also allows for a full 4GB of RAM to be used. System memory is shared with the Intel GMA 4500 MHD graphics solution. The standard connectivity and ports are available, including an HDMI out.

LAPTOP Magazine got a brief hands-on back in June and liked both the larger keys and edge-to-edge screen. Their expectation back then was a price range of $499 to $699, but MSI’s official release doesn’t mention price nor availability. I did check my standard online sources here in the U.S., but didn’t find anyone yet selling the U200.

Another unofficial indicator is telling me that Intel’s Pine Trail platform won’t be seen in netbooks until January’s Consumer Electronics Show. An ASUS Eee PC roadmap is leaking through the web right now and there’s nary a Pine Trail mention on it. Couple that with last week’s plan from MSI to be the first with a Pine Trail netbook — they again mentioned CES for a potential launch announcement — and it’s pretty clear that the netbooks of 2009 are mainly of the N270 or N280 Atom kind.

That doesn’t mean the ASUS roadmap is boring by any means, however. If all goes to plan — and some of the devices are specifically tagged as in the “planning” stage — we’ll see several tiers of netbooks from ASUS: Good, Better, Best and Elite. Each internal tier is priced higher as you move up from the bottom, mainly because the netbooks increase in terms of size or  performance. The Eee PC 1101HA with its 11″ screen won’t be the big daddy after October. ASUS is planning the $499 1201N with the NVIDIA ION platform to power the 12″ display. Some other roadmap highlights from Netbooked:

• The 1005HA-P (10.5 Hour Battery) model will get a higher capacity 250GB HDD along with Windows 7 Starter, when Windows 7 goes on sale in late October.
• The 1005HA-M, as seen in Europe, will be launched with Windows 7 Starter. It has an Atom N270 processor. It has a matte display unlike the rest of the 1005HA models.
• New 1008HA models: The 1008HA-P (Atom N280 processor, 320GB HDD, 2GB RAM, BT, 802.11n Wi-FI) priced at $480 and the 1008HA-M (Atom N280 processor, 250GB HDD, 1GB RAM, BT, 802.11n Wi-Fi) priced at $430.
• Tablet netbooks: T91 has no change, but a T91MT (multitouch) will be released with 32GB RAM SSD with a price of $549. No release date set yet. T101P is mentioned, but nothing new we haven’t heard before: Next year with an Atom N450 processor, Pine Trail and Windows 7.

That last tidbit with the Atom N450 is interesting as that chip supports 64-bit computing, something I didn’t know about Pine Trail until now. I’m at a bit of loss for why a netbook chip would offer that because it’s highly unlikely it would benefit much in the near future. There might be a speed gain with a 64-bit operating system or apps, but support for RAM amounts greater than 4GB would likely be squandered. That is, assuming next year’s netbooks will still be limited by how much RAM they can physically support.