Archive for June, 2007

Apple notebooks and desktops in May continued to take market share away from Windows-based PCs in the United States, according to the research firm NPD.

“Apple’s share of desktop and notebook sales online and through brick-and-mortar stores rose to 13% from 11.6% in April, according to The NPD Group. Apple notebook sales rose to 14.3% of overall purchases from 12.5%, while desktop sales inched up to 10.4% from 10.2%,” InformationWeek reports.

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Computer cooling solution provider Evercool has released the Magic NB-MA1 Notebook Cooler, “the world’s first patented air extracting fan for laptops”.

The Magic NB-MA1 allows quick extraction of the hot air, which stabilizes the operation of the notebook and prolongs its lifetime, according to Evercool. It comes with a universal clip making it compatible with major laptop brands and can rotate up to 180 degrees to adjust the angle.

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Sophos’ security experts have disclosed details of a worm called LiarVB-A that copies itself onto removable drives, such as USB Flash memory and optical devices, and also spreads itself via network shares.

The worm is not designed to generate income, contrary to the most of the malware. Instead, LiarVB-A attempts to spread information about Aids and HIV reportedly.

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French blog Le Journal du Geek has revealed the details of the upcoming Toshiba Satellite X200 gaming laptop PC.

The first spotted model in X200 series features a 17-inch widescreen display with 1440×900 resolution, Intel “Santa Rosa” notebook platform, Core 2 Duo processor T7300 with 2Ghz, and Nvidia GeForce 8700M GT 256MB dedicated video card supporting DirectX 10 games. It has 2GB of system memory and a 200GB hard drive spinning at 4200rpm. There is also an option of two 160GB HDDs at 5400rpm.

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Microsoft Research Cambridge’s Steve Hodges has demonstrated the multi-touch laptop, which enables the use of more than one finger to interact with content shown on notebook’s display.

For example, you can easily stretch or reduce the size of images or rotate them by using two fingers. The infrared electronics, located behind the screen of this modified notebook, also provides the ability to pick up infrared signals from a standard remote controller.

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Some of the latest Intel “Santa Rosa” platform-based Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops are reported to have overheating problems because of misapplied thermal grease.

“A reader at the MacRumors forums noticed his week-old MBP getting a little hot, so he bravely decided to pull the unit apart to check things out and found what he estimated to be forty times too much paste applied to the logic board. There are also a few threads on the Apple support site with similar pics of MBP logic boards slathered in grease, so this doesn’t appear to be an isolated issue,” Engadget reports.

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Gateway plans to unveil the 295 Series Tablet PC, featuring 14-inch screen and Intel “Santa Rosa” notebook platform.

According to leaked specifications, Gateway 295 (E-295M model) has Wacom and touchscreen capabilities, Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 processor at 1.8GHz clock speed or T7300 at 2GHz, 2GB of DDR2 system memory, and 60GB-100GB hard drive. It is not known if it has built in optical drive. The Gateway 295’s 14-inch widescreen display has 1280-by-768 pixel resolution and is managed by the integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100.

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Dell announced today it will replace for free the faulty LCD displays with vertical line problem in some of Inspiron 6000 and 8600, Latitude D800 and D810, and Precision M60 and M70 notebook computers.

According to Dell, the displays in small number of these laptop PCs develop one pixel wide vertical line or multiple lines across the screen. The cause of the problem has been traced to one specific component used in some of LCDs shipped on the potentially affected systems.

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Logitech today introduced its Kinetik 15.4 Backpack and Kinetik 15.4 Briefcase for notebook computers.

The Kinetik backpack and briefcase feature an exo-shell casing, which helps protect the laptop from damage, and a contoured back panel, which conforms to the back. These cases, made from lightweight and durable materials, provide bays for devices, as well as easy access to the laptop and other equipment, the computer accessories maker says.

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Logitech has expanded its Alto line of notebook stands with the new Alto Connect and Alto Express.

The X-shaped Logitech Alto Connect laptop stand incorporates four-port USB hub. One of the ports is located at the front of the stand for easy access when plugging in a device such as an MP3 player or thumb drive. Alto Connect also offers a cable-management system and a cavern for storing the USB cable when not in use. The new stand is compatible with any notebook PC, as well as with MacBook and MacBook Pro computers.

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The recently announced notebook-use Samsung’s hybrid hard drive (HHD or H-HDD), which combines a flash memory and a traditional hard disk for improved performance, is now available for purchase at CMS Products.

The offered HM16HJI model, which belongs to 2.5-inch MH80 hybrid hard drive series, features 160GB of storage capacity, 256MB of OneNAND Flash memory, Serial ATA interface, and 5400rpm rotational speed. It is priced at $299.

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Toshiba Corporation today unveiled that one of its notebook computers with a Sony battery pack recently caught fire, and announced the additional measures to encourage customer participation in the global Sony battery packs replacement program, which started last year.

“On May 24, 2007, a Toshiba portable computer with a Sony battery pack caught fire. Toshiba immediately asked Sony to investigate. The investigation confirmed that the cause of the fire was the battery pack, as in other incidents reported earlier,” the Company’s press release says.

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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) today announced a recall of the notebook batteries used in some of Gateway 400VTX and 450ROG series notebooks, because of overheating problems.

These batteries could pose a fire hazard to consumers, which are advised to stop using recalled products immediately and contact Gateway regarding battery replacement. Gateway has received four reports of battery packs overheating, including minor property damage, but no injuries have been reported.

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Toshiba today announced that its upcoming Satellite P205, Satellite X205, and Qosmio F45 mainstream laptops will feature HD DVD optical drives. In addition, Toshiba Qosmio G45 will be the first U.S. notebook computer with a writeable HD DVD optical drive, according to computer maker.

The Satellite P205, Satellite X205, and Qosmio G45 will have 17-inch displays, while the Qosmio F45 will feature 15.4-inch display. These HD DVD-equipped widescreen laptops will be priced from $1,449 to $3,199.

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Intel plans to launch Intel Core 2 Extreme X7800 and Celeron M 540 laptop processors on July 8th, as well as Core 2 Extreme X7900, Core 2 Duo T7250, T7800, L7700, U2200, U2100, and Celeron 550 on September 2nd.

The Core 2 Extreme X7800 and X7900, designed for gaming notebooks, are clocked at 2.6GHz and 2.8GHz respectively. Both of these high-end processors have 800MHz front side bus, 4MB of L2 cache, and initial prices of $851, according to Intel’s mobile CPU roadmap published by VR-Zone.

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