Pine Trail was officially let out of the bag today, and comes in four flavors: the N450, D410, D510, and NM10 Express chipset. The two new Wind netbooks use the N450 chip, which is designed specifically for those smaller-sized laptops, giving 15 per cent extra battery life.

Both the U130 and U135 have 10-inch LED backlit screens with 1,024 x 600 pixels. The first model has a 160GB HDD, the latter 250GB. 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3.5G WiMax are listed, along with stereo speakers and a 1.3-megapixel webcam.

On sale in January, the price for the UK market is £229 and £279 for the two models (approximately $368 and $448), with the U130 coming in "snow white" and "brilliant black," the U135 in "sterling silver," "brilliant black," "midnight blue," and "cherry red." [MSI]

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence, and William Kamkwamba has it in spades. At age fourteen, while many of us were sneaking out of classrooms, William was struggling to sneak into them—his family was unable to afford the $80 annual tuition. As is bound to happen to most students, he was caught. But instead of being sent to detention, he was barred from the school. In a show of the driven man he would become, he didn't allow that to hinder him and instead started spending his days in the local library. While there, he encountered a book called Using Energy:

Using Energy described how windmills could be used to generate electricity. Only two percent of Malawians have electricity, and the service is notoriously unreliable. William decided an electric windmill was something he wanted to make. Illuminating his house and the other houses in his village would mean that people could read at night after work. A windmill to pump water would mean that they could grow two crops a year rather than one, grow vegetable gardens, and not have to spend two hours a day hauling water. "A windmill meant more than just power," he wrote, "it was freedom."

This book is what changed his life. And I don't mean that as an exaggeration. It was truly what made a difference in his life. Because of that book, and the potential he saw in its ideas, William began to build:

William scoured trash bins and junkyards for materials he could use to build his windmill. With only a couple of wrenches at his disposal, and unable to afford even nuts and bolts, he collected things that most people would consider garbage-slime-clogged plastic pipes, a broken bicycle, a discarded tractor fan-and assembled them into a wind-powered dynamo. For a soldering iron, he used a stiff piece of wire heated in a fire. A bent bicycle spoke served as a size adapter for his wrenches.

Imagine that. A young boy being so motivated by ideas and the sheer need to build something life-changing that he discovered materials and uses for them which most of us wouldn't even dream of. As Mark Frauenfelder put it:

For an educated adult living in a developed nation, designing and building a wind turbine that generates electricity is something to be proud of. For a half-starved, uneducated boy living in a country plagued with drought, famine, poverty, disease, a cruelly corrupt government, crippling superstitions, and low expectations, it's another thing altogether. It's nothing short of monumental.

After completing his first windmill, William "went on to wire his house with four light bulbs and two radios, installing switches made from rubber sandals, and scratch-building a circuit breaker to keep the thatch roof of his house from catching fire." His project had the attention of village locals early on, but at this point he gained the attention of TED, Technology Entertainment Design, through whom he was introduced to individuals willing to contribute to his plans to "electrify, irrigate, and educate his village, as well as pay his tuition at the prestigious African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg."

In short: A young man struggled to educate himself, to build something his village needed, and in the end made a difference to the entire locale and gained the education he'd always wanted. Yes, it's a fluffy, feel-good story with a happy ending. What should you take from the it? Maybe that there's hope in the bleakest of situations, maybe that your teachers and parents were right about the power of education, maybe just that I'm a sappy bookworm with a soft spot for happy endings. No matter, if you wish to learn more, you can read the recently released The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, check out William's blog, or peek at this video from before he ever wrote his autobiography. [GOOD via Boing Boing]

• The Vue Personal Video Network kit we reviewed a few months ago is shipping today. The package comes with a base station and two wireless cameras. Check out Jason's thoughts for a better rundown, but in essence he found it to be an easy-to-use surveillance system that produces acceptable video quality. Whether or not ease of use is worth the premium over just setting up a webcam is your call. The base system runs for $300, and additional cameras can be added for $99 each. [Press Release]

• MSI's Wind U210 notebook is now available. The latest addition to the Wind family falls in the same price range as most netbooks, but some subtle differences under the hood set it apart from the crowd. For one, MSI went with a 1.6GHz AMD Neo processor instead of the standard Intel Atom N270 we're all used to seeing by now. The U210 also bumps up the RAM from the 1GB that has become the netbook norm to a healthy 2GB. Unfortunately, ION graphics are a no-show. AMD's integrated graphics solution drives the 12" display. The Wind U210 is available today for $430. [Amazon]

However, Intel tells us that it has not nailed down the launch of Pine Trail yet and maintains it will ship products to its customers before the end of the year. MSI hopes to be first to market with Pine Trail netbooks, including its 10-inch convertible U150 with Windows 7.

Either way, the sooner we get a newer Atom the better (also keep in mind the next version of the all-popular Atom also differs by blending the CPU and GPU on the same chip). According to MSI, Pine Trail is showing improved graphics performance and at least 20 percent better power consumption.

We are hoping the netvertible with its planned resistive touchscreen performs better than ASUS' Eee PC T91. However its lack of a capacitive screen and multitouch support means it won't support any of Windows 7's cool Touch Pack apps.

But before going touch, MSI will release the 12-inch Wind U210, which like the recently released Gateway LT3100, has AMD's Yukon platform rather than Intel's Atom. MSI will offer it in two different skus, including one with Windows XP, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive for $379 and another with Vista Premium for $429. The U210 will be available in the U.S. during the first weeks of September.

Plus, the wind doesn't require huge expensive D batteries, of which this inflatable cash sink requires eight.

The wind also dissipates eventually, takes up no room in your garage, and won't pop or become mangled when your kid—innocent and adorable, yes, but naive as fuck—tries to use this thing on the lawn when he gets bored in the pool.

Still not convinced? The 360 degree movement, all at a neck-breaking 2MPH, is too much to pass up? OK, then, purchase away. Just be sure to send us a picture of the thing in six months when it's stuffed in a closet next to your Snuggie collection. [Cooolest Gadgets]

How ionic winds differ from typical cooling system is that by ionizing the air and passing it over a processor chip, the ionized air increased airflow on the surface, thus creating a cooling breeze over a hot microprocessor (as illustrated above).

Apparently, Tessera's cooling system not only consumes half as much power as other conventional laptop fans, but also can eliminate up to 30% more heat as well. It's pretty much the same technology from a couple years ago, yet reduced in size to fit your personal, portable needs. [Technology Review via BBG]

Sounds a bit weird and anti-green, but for some reason now you can charge its 4,000 mAh battery using a USB adapter or a car cigarette lighter. Why would you like to do a single charge with an external power source when you can just leave it by the window to have it fully charged is beyond me.

According to the company, one hour of sun and wind will provide you with 30 minutes of talk time in a cellphone. Fully charged, the K3 can load the battery cells for an average mobile phone five times, or an MP3 player more than ten times.

At $100 it is a bit on the expensive, but if their specs are correct, it looks pretty useful for emergencies. [CNET]

MSI Eco-Friendly All-in-One PC, Wind Top AE1900, features touch screen, sleek and
green design at an affordable price of $529

See this and other MSI Desktop models at the Pepcom EcoFocus Green Technology Showcase in
New York City April 29th from 6pm – 9pm

CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA – April 21, 2009 – MSI Computer, a leading manufacturer of computer hardware products and solutions, is excited to announce the MSI Wind Top AE1900. The AE1900 is a complete home computing solution featuring touch-sensitive PC navigation, a true 16:9 widescreen 18.5-inch screen, SRS Premium Sound and a sleek modern design that fits in with any décor.

The MSI Wind Top AE1900 features the Intel® Atom 230 Processor and runs Windows® XP Home operating system. It features a built-in webcam and microphone to insure convenient audio and video recording. Continuing along MSI's tradition of "green" computing, the MSI Wind Top AE1900 consumes 80% less energy then a traditional desktop PC. At full operation, the MSI Wind Top AE1900 consumes no more then 50 watts of power.

MSI also included a spacious 160 GB SATA 2.5 inch hard drive, 4 USB ports, a 4-1 card reader and ships the MSI Wind Top AE1900 with a stylish matching mouse and keyboard. The ultra-silent, state-of-the-art cooling system eliminates traditional cooling fan noises and keeps the sound level to no more than 26 decibels.

The MSI Wind Top AE1900 features MSI Wind Touch; allowing for easy user interface with all PC functions. Additionally, picture viewing has never been easier or more fun with MSI Easy Viewer. Users can quickly browse, enlarge, rotate and scan through all your images with the swipe of a finger. Lastly, data entry using natural handwriting or the touch on-screen keyboard and the SoftStylus™ program is now easier then ever. Please visit www.msicomputer.com/msiaio for a user-friendly and dedicated webpage designed specifically for MSI All-in-One PC.

[MSI]

This bests the already respectable 13-hour life of an MSI Wind armed with a 6-cell battery.

For his unofficial test, Johannes used Battery Eater set to its lowest setting. This is obviously as bare bones as you're going to get, so it's not unsurprising that he was able to achieve 25 hours, 4 minutes. However, even when you factor in what the time would have been if the netbook was being used for web surfing or other netbook-related tasks, you'd have to think the 9-cell would get 18 hours or so, as Liliputing suggests. [EeePC.de via Liliputing]

The sub-3lb system toured in this clip is loaded with an Intel Celeron M 725, which should be faster than an Atom. The 15.6-inch version comes with a Core 2 Solo. More about 'em both here.

Those of you who speak German will probably mind the incessant slurs intended to offend American audiences, but luckily, I don't speak a word of it so I was able to enjoy the mechanics of battery removal with no guilt for enjoying my sausages on a bun. [via CrunchGear]

The Wind Top AE1900 is an Atom 230-based system, supporting a max of 2GB of RAM on top of a 160GB hard drive, DVD burner, wireless n, card reader and webcam. But what makes it all exciting is the system's 18.5-inch WSXGA 16:9 touch screen LCD, complete with a quick 5ms response time. You see, even with this much screen space, the computer needs only 45W to operate. And yes, that factoid is totally worth regurgitating my headline to reinforce that 45W is less than many light bulbs need.

As Rob at bbGadgets points out, "Now, I'm almost certain I had an Apple monitor that looked just like this about 7 years ago..." We're pretty sure, too. The crazy thing is that this whole computer will cost thousand(s) less than that Apple Studio Display when it comes out to an undisclosed market at an undisclosed time. [MSI via bbGadgets]

Sure, you could probably pick out a model or two that aren't here (especially since I cropped a row for the lead shot), but if this picture illustrates anything, it's that, yes, the netbook market has become commoditized—though only at the cost of also becoming horrendously confusing with all the product spam. [UMPC Portal via Electricpig]

And no, we don't mean wind-microphone attenuation. We mean, can it recognize how hard you are blowing into the phone? Because the IM-S410 features "Wind Recognition" that allows you navigate photos, videos and games by blowing into the phone.

For instance, in a bundled game, you can blow on a flower to watch its pedals float away. During a call, you can blow into the mic to send your companion an emoticon (what were you thinking?). Or, if we're reading the translation correctly, you can even blow into the phone to take pictures—which might actually cause less shaking than pushing a button.

There are, of course, other features to the IM-S410/S410K. But we're just concerned with the ones that blow. [Pantech via Akihabara News]

He says the trackpad is now bigger, and has a grainier feel to it, giving your finger a bit of traction on the pad. The U120 now has a second mouse button, which is a welcome addition, Chen says.

Other things he mentions as improvements, or at least not completely terrible, are the general build quality (sturdier plastic, better vents) and aesthetic design (black screen bezel, more angular). There's not much to report in terms of performance, because it has the exact same hardware as the old Wind, and pretty much runs the same.

But anyways, check out the full post, since there are plenty of pretty pics and more insights over at [Gadget Lab].

Unfortunately, the 10-inch Wind U120 isn't really much of an improvement over its predecessor. While the U120 has been upgraded with a fancy black matte screen, dissections have found the internals to be nearly identical to the U100, and the stat sheet agrees:

• Intel Atom 1.6 GHz Processor
• 512 KB L2 Cache, 533 MHz Bus speed
• 160 GB SATA Hard Drive, 1GB DDR2 667MHz RAM, 2 GB Max
• 6 Cell Battery
• Built-in Gigabit Ethernet LAN and Modem Module, Built-in 802.11b/g/n WLAN Card

The U120's claim to fame is 3G support (in the U120H), not found in the current model available at Amazon for $470. While this base U120 will surely come down in price, you might as well pick up a U100 for the time being and save yourself a $100 or so bucks, if you can handle the 3-cell battery found in the cheapest versions. [Amazon via Crunchgear]

This MSI Wind features a red/pink-backed screen with a ridiculously festive heart on the back. It's the perfect way of saying either, "I love you" or "I think you generally leave your holiday decorations up for too long, but I accept that."

Love isn't free, though. In fact, love's paint job and detailing costs about $80 over the identical, base U100 Wind ($430). [MSI]

Their tent, sponsored by LG, had connectors for a variety of handsets (good on LG for that), and I've read scattered reports today that said you'd get about a 30% charge in 30 minutes.

Now, if they could only find a way to recharge our exhausted CES 2009 staff, who are no doubt spent after their extensive conference coverage and a few innocent pranks. Those CES massages were a start, but only a start. I imagine they need something more.

TreeHugger has some video of a GotWind rep explaining the system and making a charge:

[Treehugger]

The door is the entrance to the Driebergen-Zeist railway station, where it's predicted to generate 4600 kwh of energy a year—or somewhere around what the average house needs annually, depending who you talk to. Not bad at all. Sure, it's probably not enough to power all of those train lines, but it's essentially free energy. And heck, it's a lot more practical than this idea. [Boon Edam via Inhabitat]