Yesterday EMTEC announced that it would reveal the ultra-portable, affordable Gdium Mobile Netbook this week at CES. As long as it doesn't eat "raw and wiggly" fish, everyone should be ok.

Weighing in at 2.6 pounds with an impressive compact design (9.8 x 7.2 x 1.25 inches), EMTEC's Gdium offers a web-optimized 1024 x 600 resolution on a 10-inch screen, as well as what the company calls a "comfortable, extended keyboard." Surprisingly enough, Gdium's entire software package is based entirely on Open Source software, including Mozilla's Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client, Sun Microsystems' Open Office suite, an optimized version of Mandriva Linus OS, chat clients and more.

Under the hood, ST Microelectronics provides the Gdium's processor, based on the MIPS-64 architecture (Loongson 2F) and clocking in at 900 MHz. The netbook also sports 512MB DDR2 RAM, three USB 2.0 ports, WiFi 802.11 b/g, a webcam, the 16MB Silicon Motion SM502 graphics processor, a webcam, a SD/SD HC card reader and more. And while the netbook uses Mandriva as its sole operating system, the desktop actually utilizes the Metacity window manager.

“The Gdium netbook offering is unique to the marketplace,” said Chris Mack, EVP Sales&Marketing, EMTEC, North America. “The revolutionary new design and the unique synchronization feature of the G-Key separate Gdium from the rest of the pack. With a sub-$400 retail price point, we believe EMTEC will become a key player in the netbook market.”

According to the company, Gdium also has a dedicated website that offers not only multimedia resources and educational content aimed at students, but a social networking environment for all those Chatty Cathy's glued to their netbooks (you know who you are). Apparently, there's all kinds of things to do there, all built especially for EMTEC's new netbook.

Look for more information oozing from the innards of CES 2009 today and tomorrow. The Gdium has a base price of $429 USD.

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Source : Tom's Hardware US