Archive for November, 2006

Asus today announced the G1 and G2, the company’s “first two notebooks designed for mobile gamers”. The 15.4-inch widescreen Asus G1 and 17-inch widescreen Asus G2 feature the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors. The G1 comes with NVidia GeForce Go7700 with 512MB of video memory, while the G2 ATI Mobility Radeon X1700 featuring 512 MB VRAM.

(more…)

Laptops got only a small performance boost and battery life improvement from the use of the new Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile (code-named Merom) processors, the PCWorld.ca reports.

The magazine tested three Core 2 Duo based notebooks: a Dell XPS M1210, a Gateway M685-E and HP Pavilion dv6000t.

“The biggest performance increase over laptops with same-speed Core Duo CPUs was 7 percent. Enough to shave a few seconds off day-to-day business operations, but nothing more”, the report says.

Also, Mac World earlier reported 10 percent improvement when comparing MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo to its comparable Core Duo counterpart.

(more…)

Ego Lifestyle, European luxury lifestyle consumer electronics company, introduced the Tulip Ego laptop to US consumers at Barneys New York. The round shaped Tulip Ego features the world’s first interchangeable skin system. Available in different designer fabrics, finishes and colors, the skins can be changed using a customized USB-stick cap that comes with the laptop.

Tulip Ego is powered by AMD Turion 64 processor. The 5.7-pound laptop has a 12.1-inch (1280×800) widescreen display, ATI Radeon Xpress 200M chipset, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and a front-loading DVD/CD burner. It has an integrated webcam and a audio system with two microphones, “doubling the capacity to capture and control audio for internet calls (VoIP) and voice recognition software”.

The fashionable Tulip costs $5000.

(more…)

Panasonic announced updated Toughbook eLite notebook PC line, which now features various laptop chassis colors for W5 and Y5 PC series. Toughbook eLite W5 and Y5 offer magnesium alloy cases and shock mounted hard drives. The Y5 also includes a water resistant, “spill through” keyboard.

The ultraportable Toughbook eLite W5, featuring 12.1-inch anti-glare display, is now available for purchase in Steel Gray, Merlot, Galaxy Black, Glacier White, Blueprint, Rosehip and the new Crown Blue colors. The eLite W5 has an 8-hour battery life, and weights 2.7 pounds, the press release says.

(more…)

Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system is released to manufacturing this week and will be broadly available as a stand-alone product or preinstalled on new PCs on January 30, 2007.

Last month Microsoft started Express Upgrade to Windows Vista Program, allowing people buying certain Windows Vista certified laptops and desktops from October 26 2006 until March 26 2007 with Windows XP preloaded to get a voucher for a free or discounted upgrade to Windows Vista.

(more…)

Gateway today unveiled the 15.4-inch widescreen Gateway NX570 laptop series, featuring Intel Core 2 Duo (Merom) processor. The company also announced that during the holiday selling season, from now through December 28, the NX570X model will be offered with a $200 instant savings bringing its price down to $699.99. But, the NX570X incorporates older Intel Core Duo (Yonah) CPU.

The NX570 laptop includes dedicated ATI Mobility Radeon x1400 graphics with 128MB of dedicated video memory or integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 supporting up to 128MB of shared system memory. It supports up to 4GB of main memory and has SATA hard drive with storage space ranging from 40GB to 160GB. You can also choose an integrated multi-format double-layer DVD burner or a CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive.

(more…)

Apple today unveiled its new line of 13.3-inch widescreen MacBook laptops, refreshed with Intel Core 2 Duo (Merom) 1.83GHz and 2.0GHz processors. According to Apple, the Core 2 Duo MacBook notebooks are up to 25% faster than the previous Core Duo (Yonah) generation.

Starting at $1099, the bright white or sleek black MacBook supports up to 2GB of memory and up to 200GB of hard drive. Its graphics is powered by Intel GMA 950 card with 64MB of shared memory and Mini-DVI port, which enables DVI, VGA and S-Video output using separately sold adapters. There are various optical drive options when purchasing these MacBooks.

(more…)

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) will revise its laptop battery standard, IEEE 1625, targeting an improvement in the overall performance of laptop battery systems and seeking to address recent calls to make these systems more reliable and robust. The revised standard is expected to be completed within 18 months.

“The 1625 update will be a global effort,” says Rashba. “The leading laptop OEMs and battery manufacturers such as Apple, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, Panasonic, Sanyo, and Sony have indicated strong interest to participate.”

The group will meet bi-monthly in the U.S. and Asia to complete the work.

IEEE BEGINS REVISION OF LAPTOP BATTERY STANDARD

(more…)

Fujitsu today announced the ultra-light 12.1-inch screen LifeBook T4215 tablet PC, featuring the Intel Core 2 Duo Processor and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005.

The LifeBook T4215 offers three display options including a new indoor SXGA+ display, an indoor XGA display with wide viewing angles, and an indoor/outdoor XGA display with wide viewing angles. Fujitsu LifeBook T4215 is based on Intel 945GM chipset with Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 and built in wireless card with optional Bluetooth. It supports maximum of 4GB of main memory and has up to 120GB hard drive.

(more…)

Fujitsu Computer Systems today announced the LifeBook P1610 Tablet PC, a 2.2-pound computer with an 8.9-inch touch screen display. Fujitsu LifeBook P1610 is powered by the Intel Core Solo ultra-low voltage U1400 Processor and available with Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 or Microsoft Windows XP Professional.

According to the press release, the P1610’s 8.9-inch WXGA indoor/outdoor display has a backlight which illuminates the screen in indoor lighting. In outdoor lighting, a reflective surface within the LCD takes advantage of the sunlight to make the screen even brighter. “If the outside light is bright enough, users can turn off the backlight completely, dramatically extending the battery life,” Fujitsu published.

(more…)

Dell announced that, beginning tomorrow, the first AMD-powered notebook in its Latitude series will be available to customers at www.dell.com. According to press release, the 15.4-inch widescreen Dell Latitude 131L is designed for the small business users and is highly customizable. Dell Latitude 131L will be configurable with AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core with laptop’s price starting at $899 or a Mobile Sempron processor for $629.

Although there is no product page currently available, we found its manual and specifications on Dell’s site, saying the new laptop is based on ATI RS485M / SB600 chipset with ATI R485M integrated graphics with up to 224MB of shared memory. The 131L incorporates wireless card, 10/100 Ethernet LAN and a standard 56K modem.

(more…)

Wal*Mart yesterday started offering the Compaq Presario V5305WM 15.4-inch (1280 x 800) widescreen laptop for $398. The V5305WM notebook is powered by AMD’s Sempron 3300+ processor and comes with 512MB of main memory expandable to 2GB, ATI Radeon Xpress 200M graphics card with 128MB of shared memory and 60GB hard drive spinning at 5400rpm.

The Compaq Presario V5305WM notebook also has integrated 802.11b/g wireless, along with LAN port and a 56K modem. Intstead of old PCMCIA, the low-budget V5305WM has ExpressCard/54 slot.

(more…)

After long awaited MacBook Pro’s upgrade to Intel Core 2 Duo (Merom), the first tests show boost in its performance compared to older Core Duo (Yonah)-powered models. According to the Mac World, when comparing the 15-inch 2.16GHz MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo to its comparable Core Duo counterpart, the Speedmark improvement is 10 percent. We have posted earlier Geek Patrol’s benchmark test result (Geekbench 2006) which indicates that moving from the Core Duo to the Core 2 Duo means 32-bit MacBook Pro performance is up 10% without an increase in processor clock speed. Also, the Core 2 Duo is 20% faster (when executing 64-bit code) than the Core Duo (when executing 32-bit code), the Geek Patrol reported.

(more…)

Although it is not officially announced in the United States yet, this week introduced “world’s lightest 12.-inch notebook” Sony Vaio G is available for purchase directly from Japan via Dynamism.com. Featuring carbon fiber casing, the Vaio G weights 1.98lbs, but the optional integrated DVD drive will boost notebook’s weight to 2.17 lbs.

(more…)

Hitachi has unveiled its laptop-use hard drive product strategy for 2007, announcing 200GB 2.5-inch TravelStar spinning at 7200rpm and a 250GB 5400rpm unit. Two Travelstars will become available in the first and second half of 2007, respectively.

Both Travelstar drives will use perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology and hard-drive-level data encryption as a new feature for added security.

(more…)