Archive for December, 2006

Acer Aspire AS3690 is offered this holiday season by TigerDirect and Wal-Mart for $500 after $100 rebate and for $548, respectively. The 15-inch 1024×768 screen laptop features Intel Celeron M420 processor at 1.6GHz, 512MB of main memory, 60GB hard drive and a DVD/CD-RW combo drive.

The offered Aspire AS3690 incorporates wireless connectivity, Ethernet LAN, 56K modem, VGA out an 5-in-1 media card reader.

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AMD’s current laptop PC platform codenamed ‘Kite’, featuring Turion and Mobile Sempron processors, is to be refreshed starting next year. The refresh will include notebook processors update, as same as use of hybrid graphics and forthcoming wireless 802.11n standard, according to the unveiled company’s public roadmap.

The ‘Hawk’ processors will debut in Q3 next year with an 800MHz DDR2 memory support. The Hawk will be a 65nm CPU, according to the reports. Additionally, in 2008, Griffin processors and ‘Puma’ notebook platform will bring low-voltage computing.

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Falcon Northwest recently unveiled the Intel Core 2 Duo-powered FragBook TLX “thin” and “light” laptop, with 17-inch 1680×1050 widescreen display and NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 graphics featuring 256MB of video memory.

Weighting 7 pounds, the 1.5-inch thick TLX FragBook comes with Core 2 Duo T7200, T7400 or T7600 CPU, and with up to 2GB of main memory. It has MSI 80211G wireless LAN Card, and offers 80GB or 100GB Seagate Momentus SATA hard drive spinning at 7200rpm, or 5400rpm Momentus HDD with 160GB of storage capacity.

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Antec has released Notebook Cooler S, a portable laptop cooler which prevents overheating, and NP-100, a “high-capacity notebook power adapter that increases the life of laptop batteries”.

Notebook Cooler S uses two blowers to direct cool air across the base of the laptop as it rests on the device. The Cooler S connects to the computer via the USB port. The USB plug-in includes a pass-through connector, allowing the port to remain functional. It is claimed that the Cooler uses very little power, preserving laptop battery life. Users can also choose between maximum cooling and minimum noise with two fan speed settings, the press release says.

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Samsung Electro-Mechanics (SEM), CyberLink and Siano Mobile Silicon today jointly announced the SuwonExpress, an ExpressCard solution for watching mobile digital TV (MDTV) on laptop computers.

The SuwonExpress mobile digital TV card is based on Siano MDTV SMS1000 receiver chipset, and ejectable antenna from SEM. It supports four spectrum bands that are commonly used for mobile TV and five modes (or standards) of mobile TV: DAB, DAB-IP, T-DMB, DVB-T, and DVB-H. It is bundled with a complete multi-standard mobile TV software suite from CyberLink, which includes Electronic Service Guide, a TV player, and a recorder, the press release says.

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Fujitsu today announced the world’s first 300GB notebook-use 2.5-inch hard drive, as a part of the new MHX2300BT HDD series. The Fujitsu MHX2300BT 300GB and 250GB hard drives will begin shipping in the first quarter of 2007.

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Dell today announced addition of Blu-ray Disc technology into its product line, offering the next-generation optical disc format as an option on the XPS M1710 gaming and multimedia laptop. Configured with Blu-ray, the Dell XPS M1710 supports read/write capabilities across CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc media. Using Blu-ray Disc technology, M1710 users can burn up to 50GB of data or up to 50GB of theater-quality video on a single piece of media, the company’s press release says.

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HP Compaq nc6400 laptop is now configurable with integrated Cingular Wireless UMTS/HSDPA-based technology, Hewlett-Packard announced today.

“Customers can now enjoy the benefits of mobile broadband both in the United States – either with Cingular Wireless BroadbandConnect or high-speed EDGE services – and abroad in more than 115 countries in which there are UMTS or GPRS/EDGE networks available. The HP Compaq nc6400 is the first notebook with a tri-band UMTS modem supporting data rates of up to 3.6 megabits per second in the U.S. and in many countries around the world,” the press release says.

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CompAmerica today released Tiger Shark 9500 x2, the “Extreme Gamers / Extreme Cad Cam / Extreme Multimedia Laptop” featuring 20-inch widescreen with 1680 x 1050 resolution. For gamers there is dual SLI nVidia GeForce Go 7950 GT graphics option, while for modeling and engineering there is dual SLI nVidia Quadro FX Go 2500M, both with 2X512MB of DDR3 video memory in SLI mode. The notebook is powered by AMD Turion 64 X2 dual core processor and has built-in four-speaker audio system with subwoofer.

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After the long awaited Apple’s MacBook Pro refresh with Intel Core 2 Duo processor, the reviews said the 15-inch versiron of this notebook is one of the best mobile PCs on the market. But, the 15-inch MacBook Pro should get a little cheaper, according to the reviews.

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Asustek today announced the 14-inch widescreen Asus V2 business notebook with High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) wireless broadband capability, advanced security features and Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

“Incorporated with HSDPA wireless broadband capability, users will enjoy a boost for download speeds by approximately 10 times faster via WCDMA networks without the need to connect the computer to a mobile phone. Access emails, surf the internet, download attachments and access corporate networks through the convenience of a virtual private network”, the company’s press release says.

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Intel this week announced design completion of its first mobile WiMAX baseband chip. Combined with the company’s previously announced single-chip, multi-band WiMAX/Wi-Fi radio, the pair creates a complete chipset called the Intel WiMAX Connection 2300, the Intel’s press release says.

Executive Vice President and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Sean Maloney at the 3G World Congress in Hong Kong showed an Intel Centrino Duo mobile technology-based notebook with mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e-2005), Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n), and high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) 3G capabilities successfully accessing the Internet at broadband speeds over a mobile WiMAX network.

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Laptop makers will “likely” soon choose to incorporate lithium polymer batteries over the current commonly used lithium ion batteries, Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow said during a meeting with reporters Wednesday.

Notebook battery manufacturers have pushed the energy density (or capacity) of lithium ion batteries, with lithium packed into cells. When an internal short occurs, it can set off a chain reaction and start a fire. This was a cause of massive notebook-use lithium ion batteries recalls recently. On the other side, lithium in lithium polymer batteries is contained in a polymer gel.

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The most employer-owned portable computers stay in the workplace, although when mobilized, are often used in hotels, home offices and client locations. Home-owned mobile PCs spend more time outside the home than work mobile PCs do outside the workplace. Besides various rooms of the home, such as adult bedrooms, living rooms and home offices, home-owned laptops and tablet PCs are used twice as often as work mobile PCs in a school, at the library, in a cybercafé, or at a restaurant, the 2006 Mobile PC Profile Report from MetaFacts says.

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Ecamm Network today announced the immediate availability of the Huckleberry MacBook Mirror, a device that connects to the lid of any Apple MacBook or MacBook Pro laptop, reflecting the built-in camera’s field of view back over the top of the screen. This allows users to create pictures and movies while still viewing and controlling their favorite Mac video application, the press release says.

“Instead of filming yourself, it will now film what’s in front of you” using MacBook’s or MacBook Pro’s webcam with Huckleberry, Ecamm says.

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