Archive for March, 2007

Dell Inc. is now offering the Computrace LoJack for Laptops Theft Protection service to its notebook PC buyers.

Absolute Software, the maker of LoJack for Laptops, explains that LoJack software installed on your computer works behind the scenes to silently and securely contact its Monitoring Center, and if the laptop is stolen, reports its location using any Internet connection. The Recovery Team then tracks your computer’s location and partners with local law enforcement to get your computer back.

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Asustek plans to separate its own-brand laptop computer business under its wholly-owned subsidiary Asusalpha Computer, Digi Times reports according to industry sources.

Taiwan-based laptop makers, feel that such a move would weaken Asusalpha’s competitiveness in the OEM market.

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HP 510, the 15.4-inch widescreen notebook computer for budget minded users, is now available in the United States. Hewlett-Packard has suggested $565 and $699 retail prices for Celeron 1.4GHz and Pentium 2.13GHz configurations, respectively.

The offered HP 510 laptops ship with 512MB of DDR2 memory and with 60GB 5400rpm hard drive. The cheaper Celeron model (RU961AA) incorporates combo drive, while the Pentium version (RX709AA) comes with DVD burner. Some HP 510 models are built upon Mobile Intel 915GM chipset, while others are based on 910GML chipset, according to PC maker. However, both chipsets provide Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 with up to 128MB of shared system memory.

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Dell Inc. has confirmed that it will offer notebook and desktop computers with factory installed Linux operating system, after the thousands of Dell’s IdeaStorm blog visitors voted for that idea.

“Dell has heard you and we will expand our Linux support beyond our existing servers and Precision workstation line. Our first step in this effort is offering Linux pre-installed on select desktop and notebook systems. We will provide an update in the coming weeks that includes detailed information on which systems we will offer, our testing and certification efforts, and the Linux distribution(s) that will be available. The countdown begins today,” the company responded.

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Intel Corporation has announced that it will begin producing next-generation Penryn family of processors in the second half of this year. These new processors benefit from enhancements to the Intel Core microarchitecture and Intel’s 45nm technology, providing higher CPU performance and better energy-efficiency, especially in notebook computers.

Six Penryn family processors will include dual core laptop-use processors and dual and quad-core desktop CPUs under the Intel Core brand name, as well as Xeon server CPUs.

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Advanced Micro Devices has announced the availability of the AMD M690 chipset, designed for use in notebook computers. Along with AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core mobile technology and an integrated ATI Radeon X1200 series graphics processor, AMD M690 chipset incorporate a new power saving technology called Display Cache.

“To ensure longer battery life, the AMD M690 incorporates innovative memory technology known as Display Cache, designed to allow the CPU to operate in low-power mode without accessing system memory. This platform-level innovation coupled with the energy efficient processor design of AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core mobile technology extends battery life by up to 30 minutes over previous AMD mobile technologies.

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Hewlett-Packard today announced its HP Compaq 6515b and HP Compaq 6715b business notebook computers based on AMD’s platform and incorporating a variety of connectivity features.

With expected starting price of $649, the 14.1-inch widescreen 6515b and the 15.4-inch widescreen 6715b will be configurable with AMD Sempron and Turion processors, including 64-bit dual core Turion X2, and with a variety of connectivity features.

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Qualcomm, the wireless products provider, unveiled the addition of EVDO Revision B technology to its roadmap. The EVDO Rev. B will provide claimed download data rates of up to 9.3Mbps. It is an upgrade of current EVDO Rev. A featuring 8Mbps downlink speed.

According to Arstechnica, the 9.3Mbps download would be a dream come true to many cell phone and notebook computer users who rely on EVDO for the constant net connection.

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Hewlett-Packard Co., the world’s largest PC vendor, filed yesterday suit against PC maker Acer, alleging the infringement of five patents. They cover technologies such as read/write optical drives, power management in laptops, and digital bus arrangement, according to copies of the patents filed with the complaint.

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Samsung Electronics announced today that it has developed a 1.8-inch 64GB flash memory-based solid state drive (SSD) at its annual Mobile Solution Forum in Taipei. The new flash-SSD is based on an eight gigabit single-level-cell (SLC) NAND, which provides significantly higher performance over conventional SSDs, according to company.

“The read and write performance of the new SLC flash-SSD have been increased by 20 percent and 60 percent respectively over the 32GB flash-SSD Samsung introduced last year, meaning that the new SSD’s ability to outperform conventional rotating-media hard drives is even greater than had been anticipated,” the press release says.

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Sierra Wireless today announced an agreement to supply the new Sierra Wireless AirCard 595U USB modem for access to the Sprint Mobile Broadband EV-DO Rev A Network.

“The AirCard 595U USB modem can be plugged directly into the USB ports of notebook or desktop computers, or can be connected through an included docking cradle. This offers an alternative for customers without PCMCIA card slots and allows them to move a single wireless data service between multiple computers. The AirCard 595U includes an internal battery to ensure optimal performance, and offers GPS capability to enable “locate and search” functionality. The AirCard 595U supports both Windows and Macintosh operating systems,” Sierra Wireless says.

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Motion Computing today unveiled LE1700wt, the company’s latest flagship 12.1-inch screen tablet PC. New technologies available on the LE1700wt include Motion’s exclusive WriteTouch display option for dual-mode writing and touch-screen input, the Windows Vista operating system, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and a Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) integration.

“WriteTouch technology is a dual-mode display which allows the ease and convenient use of capacitive finger touch and active digitizer pen and inking capabilities – all in one powerful Tablet PC. With WriteTouch, you no longer have to decide between a touch screen and an active digitizer – you can have both,” Motion Computing says.

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Smartphone maker HTC today showcased its first ultra-mobile PC, called HTC Shift, at CTIA Wireless show in Orlando, Florida.

According to the reports, the HTC Shift will feature Windows Vista operating system, a 7-inch touch-screen display, a QWERTY keyboard and a 30GB hard drive. The Shift UMPC will provide a variety of connectivity options, such as Tri-Band 3G/HSDPA, Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi.

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The Canadian PC maker Eurocom has announced the D900C PHANTOM FSB1066 Mobile Workstation, its high-performance notebook computer featuring a 17-inch widescreen, a desktop-use Intel Core 2 Extreme processor with 1066MHz front side bus, two graphics cards running in SLI mode and up to 600GB of storage capacity with RAID 0/1/5 using three hard drives.

Eurocom D900C PHANTOM, which is based on Clevo’s D900C, comes with a maximum of 4GB of main memory. Users can choose currently between two different NVIDIA graphics cards - the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX with 512MB of RAM or the NVIDIA Quadro FX 2500M with 512MB of RAM, and can additionally select a choice of a single graphics card or two in NVIDIA SLI mode. For easy video card upgradeability, i.e. to GeForce Go 8 series, Eurocom D900C uses Nvidia MXM-IV (Mobile PCI Express Module), according to the notebook maker.

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Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card is going to be available for laptop computers, NotebookReview reports.

The X-Fi audio card for laptops uses ExpressCard slot to plug-in to a computer and features “Optical Out” and “Optical In” ports.

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