Liquidware ships DIY tablet for visionaries, bored enthusiasts

If you're the type of person who enjoys getting their hands dirty (and we're betting you are), then feast your eyes on Liquidware's DIY tablet. The open source hardware company is now selling its Beagle Embedded Starter Kit, which is mostly aimed at embedded developers, but there's nothing to stop you "average folk" from picking one up for a weekend project.

The kit contains everything you need to get your homebrewed tablet off the ground: a 4.3-inch 480x272 OLED resistive touchscreen, a mainboard with a 720MHz ARM-Cortex A8 processor (the same chip found in the Droid and Pre smartphones), 2GB of NAND and an SD card slot with a 4GB card containing Angstrom Linux, and a 2600mAh battery module that can sustain the mainboard for "at least" 6.5 hours.

Sure, it isn't the most attractive slate around, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder right? At $393.61 (or $413.61 preassembled), the Beagle DIY tablet is well within the reach of anyone looking to break out the elbow grease – although there are some cheaper development kits around.

Extension sync, built-in PDF viewer coming to Chrome

Google has pushed out new versions of Chrome to the web browser's developer channel. The update addresses a number of bugs like the typical run-of-the-mill release, but it also packs a couple of interesting new features, including the long sought-after ability to synchronize extensions across multiple computers. Just like with bookmarks or preferences, now any copy of Chrome on which you are logged into your Google Account will have the same extensions as your other machines.

The feature is not enabled by default and we hear it's still a little buggy, but that's something to expect when running the dev build. To enable extension sync, right click on Chrome's shortcut, choose Properties, and at the end of the Target field add the following command line switch: "--enable-sync-extensions" (minus the quotes).

The other big new feature in Chrome's latest dev release is the built-in PDF viewer. In its current implementation the feature is fairly limited and appears to be based on the same technology that powers 'View as HTML' in Gmail. This means users are not required to have Adobe Reader installed, which could provide safer experience for those who often drag their feet when it comes to installing new versions of the plug-in. Google will still allow Acrobat Reader -- or any other PDF reader -- to be launched directly from Chrome in case you need more advanced capabilities.

If you are interested in trying out the new features just head over to the download page for Google Chrome's dev channel builds. If you don't want potentially unstable software running on your machine, though, it might be better to wait for these features to trickle down to the beta and then the stable release channels.

Acer intros new Intel and AMD-based netbooks

Acer launched a pair of updated Aspire One netbooks yesterday to include better graphics and -- for the first time -- AMD processors. The 10.1-inch AO521 and 11.6-inch AO721 both use the 1.7GHz Athlon II Neo K125, a single core chip with 1MB of Level 2 cache and an 800MHz bus, as well as the Radeon HD 4225 integrated chipset with 384MB of dedicated memory and a 250GB 5,400RPM hard drive to store data on.

Either should be about under an inch thick and weight around 3 pounds with the six-cell battery installed. The main difference, besides screen size obviously, is with the installed operating system and included memory. Whereas the 10.1-inch AO521 is limited to 1GB of RAM and Windows 7 Starter, the larger model packs 2GB of RAM and Windows 7 Home Premium. It also includes a standard full-size keyboard rather than a 93-percent sized keyboard on the former.

In terms of connectivity, both netbooks will get you 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Ethernet LAN and Bluetooth, as well as a webcam and digital microphone for video conferencing, and an HDMI-out port for connecting to an HDTV. These AMD-powered netbooks will reportedly start shipping today ship today at prices of $350 for the AOD521 and $430 for the AOD721.

For those Intel fans out there Acer also announced the Aspire One AOD260 and Aspire One AO533 with Intel Atom processors. The first is a slim model with a patterned look and a just over 2.4-pound weight. It carries the 1.66GHz Atom N450 processor, while the AO533 is just a bit heavier and features the newer 1.83GHz Atom N475. Both will be available later in the month, priced at just $298 for the AOD260 and $330 for the AOD533.