After our story of last week, it appears Nokia have rebuffed their own CFO. Nokia are now saying they have no plans to release Linux based phones. It’s possible that Nokia’s Linux strategy for Internet Tablets (where it is likely to be announcing more Linux *devices* in the next year) got confused with pure mobile phones, but we would have thought their CFO would know the difference. We’ll have to wait and see whether we see any Linux mobile phones from Nokia over the next year or two to see whether he was actually right…

As well as the existing Nokia Internet Tablet range, Nokia are definitely preparing Linux based cellphones. The comments have come from Nokia’s CFO, Rick Simonson. Whether it’ll be their own OS, Android, or LiMo, is unknown, as is whether it’ll use Trolltech’s Qt UI, a company Nokia bought earlier this year, but we can be sure of one thing; it’s likely Nokia will not stop at a single device, and we should, over the coming years, expect to see a whole range of devices. We don’t suspect Nokia will give up on Symbian S60 anytime soon, so it’ll be interesting to see if the Linux phones compete in the high end smartphone sector, and how much overlap of technology and applications they bring from the current tablets.

Story from Thumb Report, a new smartphone news service, which tried to encompass the news within 160 characters.

From the same developer who hacked a version of Android to work on the Zaurus comes the start of another interesting project; Ubuntu on Zaurus.  It’s currently only a v0.1 release, takes about 80Mb, and needs a fair bit of work before it’s a serious alternative option, but it bodes well for the future.  More details at LinuxDevices with the downloads hosted at zaurus.org.uk.

Logitech, who produce the Harmony range of remotes, only support Windows with their client. To help address this, Phil Dibowitz has started work on a Linux client for managing the remotes. Although still early days, it looks promising, and one we will be keeping an eye on, especially to see if it works with the likes of the Asus Eee PC.

Head to the Concordance website for more information.

We’ve found a very comprehensive review of the new Asus Eee 900 over at Eeeuser.com (who supplied the above picture), and it covers the whole device, including putting a KDE Desktop on the device. Even better, it’s a UK review of a UK supplied Eee 900. Clove have the Eee 900 in stock for £329 (inc. VAT). For that price you can have the device in Black or White, and with Linux or with Windows XP (no premium for XP on the 900!).

Head here for the full review.

Here’s a picture of the new Asus Eee PC 900. This will have the 8.9″ screen (1024×600 resolution), more memory, more disk space (4Gb flash onboard, with either an additional 8Gb SSD for XP and 16Gb SSD for Linux), and a formal choice of OS. The price will be from £329 (for the Linux version). The weight remains below 1Kg. Best of all, these should be available now (although whether you can actually purchase one today seems up for debate).

Along with a range of other manufacturers, HP have launched a mini notebook, called the Mini. This has the following specs:

• Via C7-M processor
• 1280×768 8.9″ screen
• Full QWERTY keyboard (just 8 percent smaller than normal)
• 512MB to 2Gb of memory options
• SuSE Linux OS (Vista Home or Business also options)
• 4Gb Flash Drive to 160Gb Hard Disk Drive
• VGA Camera
• WiFi Standard, Bluetooth on higher spec models

Full specs are available here on the HP US Website.

No information on UK pricing or availability, although we don’t suspect it’ll be long before it’s available.

Skype have already updated their v2 Skype for Linux client. They have added uPNP support (allowing better connectivity options for those behind a NAT device), and fixed a couple of key bugs:

• Skype crashed when user upgraded from 1.3 and had autologin enabled
• Skype crashed when user with enabled auto-sending video was added to conference call

Tech Digest have reviewed (via a video review) the $78 Brando External DVD Drive, which Brando only claim that it works with Windows. As you’ll see from their review, it works fine with the Asus Eee PC running Linux, although they don’t mention whether or not the Writer features of the drive work.

In case you missed it, a week or two back Skype released a major update to their Linux Skype client, with builds available for for Ubuntu, Debian Etch, Xandros, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Mandriva and Centros. As well as numerous bug fixed, the main new feature is the support for video calls, which brings the Linux version in line with the Windows and Mac versions.

Asus have stated that they believe the XP version of the Eee PC will outsell the current Linux version by 1.5 times, despite costing roughly twice as much. We’re not so sure, at that price (at least in the UK), they are competing against a whole range of conventional laptops which offer better screens (and higher screen resolution); it seems to us that one of the main driving factors of why they are selling is the price. No news on when the Windows XP version of the current device is due in the UK.

Story courtesy of Engadget.

At CeBIT this week, Asus have shown off the new Eee PC 900, which features the 1024 * 600 8.9″ screen we expected it to, features 1GB of RAM, up to 12GB of disk space, and should come in both Linux and Windows XP flavours. This will, of course, put the price up compared to the current model (which should continue in production), but may well suit some people’s requirements. It should be available in the “middle of 2008″.

If you fancy the Cloudbook, but are less sure about Linux, then people are already getting Vista to run on the device, albeit a little slowly. Head over to the Cloudbook forums for more information.

For those that use LinuxMCE to manage your media library, then Java Mobile Orbiter is for you. It’s a Java app that can run on your mobile phone to control your LinuxMCE server via Bluetooth. It should run on a large variety of phones, as long as they support Java and Bluetooth.

[Via Smart Home Blog]

If you haven’t got an Asus Eee PC, an Everex Cloudbook, and weren’t impressed by the upcoming Elonex One, then maybe this HP UMPC is for you, it’s due for launch in April, and has a 8.9″ 1366 x 766 (WXGA) display, ExpressCard/54 slot, Wireless LAN, nearly full-sized QWERTY (95% of full), integrated webcam, and optional SSD drive, and should run Vista or Linux. However, it’s likely to be a fair bit more expensive than the other 3 PCs.

[Via Engadget]

The Linutop 2 has been announced by French mini PC vendor Linutop. It features a 500MHz Geode processor, 512Mb RAM and 1Gb of Flash. The Linutop 2 measures 5.5 x 1.4 x 5.5 inches (14 x 3.5 x 14 cm), and weighs 20 ounces, and takes about 8 Watts of power. The OS, that’s preinstalled, includes Firefox and OpenOffice by using a version of the Xubuntu LiveCD image in the Flash. One neat feature is the ability to mount it behind a monitor using the VESA mount (although this may be nothing more than a bit of folded steel with a few holes in the right place).

However, at the price of roughly £210, we feel the VIA ARTiGO we covered here, and available from Linitx.com may be better value, and more suitable as an every day small PC.

Specs from Linux Devices.

The Times have covered the Elonex One, which is a £99 laptop due for formal announcement at The Education Show in Birmingham at the end of February. The One will have 1Gb of memory, WiFi, and run Linux (just like the twice as expensive Eee PC and the thrice as expensive Everex Cloudbook), a 7″ screen, although it has no CD drive. It should weigh aound a kilo (2.2 pounds). Pre-installed software will include web browser, email client, mp3 software, and it will feature access to ONEunion, which seems to be some form of content sharing system. Although being targetted at schools (hence the choice of launch venue), it should also be available for general sale.

Alternatively (and unlike the Eee PC), a second version for £120 will feature Bluetooth and 2Gb of memory instead.

Story from Times Online.

Some clever individuals have worked out that you can install the gOS (the Ubuntu based OS that ships with the Everex Cloudbook) onto the Asus Eee PC (instead of the Xandros based OS Asus favour). More information here.

[Via Engadget]

The Everex Cloudbook has still not been released, although it should be available in February. Due to that 30Gb Hard Disk, it will be quite easy to install Windows XP, instead of the gOS Linux based OS it ships with. Everex have confirmed that Windows XP drivers will be available for download from their website.

If you want to buy one today, head to PC World and pick up a Packard Bell EasyNote XS, which appears to be the same device. There’s even a review of the Packard Bell here giving more information on these devices.

At CES, a new term seems to have been common - MID. MID is a Mobile Internet Device, and according to Intel, the big difference (compared to UMPC devices) will be that although UMPC devices are high spec units running full OS (eg Windows XP), MID devices are lower spec devices running Linux. Intel will be supplying the chips and chipsets, and various manufacturers will be producing the actual devices, but they are likely to have touchscreens, WiFi (and/or WiMax), and will run Mobile Internet Linux. Skype have confirmed that their Skype client will come preinstalled on these devices. For those devices with webcams, Skype video will also be supported.

These devices are similar to the Nokia Internet Tablets, which already supports Skype, and with Skype coming to PSPs, and the 3 SkypePhone, Skype seem to be bringing their proprietary client to many different platforms.