Sony bringing VIA's OpenBook to market?

Although late in arriving, Sony appears ready to join the low-cost, ultra-portable, netbook, mini-laptop party. An apparently generic prototype based on the Via OpenBook was just spotted at the Quanta booth at WiMax Expo. It seems that a quick check of the properties revealed a 1.6GHz Via C7-M processor and more interestingly, Sony as the manufacturer. When the Quanta exec demonstrating the box noticed "he quickly closed the properties window and declined to explain." Sony refused to comment. In other words, expect to see it in Q3.

Hitachi Maxell claims new Li-ion battery with 20x the power

Nikkei's reporting that Hitachi Maxell, in association with Nagasaki University, NIAIST, and Fuji Heavy Industries, has developed a new kind of lithium ion battery that can supposedly store 20 times the power, but is also cheap and easily mass produced. Apparently this new kind of battery drops cobalt, an expensive staple of the traditional Li-ion recipe, instead making use of nano-infused lithium with manganese. You know how it goes though -- unrealistic and exponential battery developments are all well and good, but until we see it productized, we're not exactly liable to buy into the hype. [Warning: subscription req'd]

Intel gets early hands-on with Intel-based ASUS M70VM

Looks like Intel and ASUS are gearing up to demo some Centrino 2 (Montevina) gear at Computex, as Intel's Senior Technical Marketing Engineer for Corporate Demonstrations blogged on Intel's site about running around using the yet-unreleased M51VA with WiMAX in Taipei. Sounds like he sure is enjoying the hardware his company produced, even despite the recent delays which are keeping it out of the hands of non-Intel folk like you and us.