Archive for August, 2007

Logitech has announced the addition of the Alto Cordless to the company’s notebook stand lineup. When compared to other Alto stands, the main innovation in this new product is its cordless keyboard, providing users with a more comfortable computing “away from the heat generated by the notebook”.

As same as the first Alto, Alto Connect and Alto Express, the Cordless model raises the notebook display to eye level, enabling the optimal display viewing. The specifications say it is designed for PC notebooks with up to 15.4-inch displays and connects to a computer via a single USB cable.

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Toshiba Corporation today announced nine new 2.5-inch laptop-use hard disk drives, including the model with 320GB of storage capacity, as well as the 200GB model at 7200rpm rotational speed.

Toshiba’s MK3252GSX notebook hard drive uses an improved read-write head and enhanced magnetic layer to achieve “an industry-leading capacity of 320GB”. The MK3252GSX spins at 5,400rpm and has 8MB of buffer memory.

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Fujitsu has designed a notebook computer with a biodegradable chassis, CNet reports.

“The Fujitsu LifeBook sports a chassis made from a plastic made from cornstarch, rather than petroleum. When it is disposed of, the chassis will decompose in a matter of months, as opposed to decades for standard plastic,” according to CNet.

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Augmentix Corp. today announced its new 14.1-inch XTG630 fully-rugged laptop, based on Dell Latitude D630 with Intel’s “Santa Rosa” platform.

According to the press release, the Augmentix XTG630 has fully-rugged notebook industry’s first 14.1” wide-aspect DirectVue LCD screen. The DirectVue display technology is claimed to dramatically improve the viewability in direct sunlight. This laptop system features Intel Core 2 Duo “Santa Rosa” architecture with up to 2.4GHz processor speeds, 800MHz front side bus and the integrated Intel GMA X3100 graphics.

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Asustek will begin shipping the Asus Eee PC low-cost laptop simultaneously to clients in the US, Europe, China, and Taiwan in mid-September, DigiTimes’ sources at the company say.

The Eee PCs will be available at $199, $239, $349 and $369 depending on specifications, reportedly.

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Laptop makers may fail to meet their annual shipments targets for 2007, due to shortages of computer components, according to the DigiTimes’ sources at Taiwan notebook manufacturers.

There is a lack of LCD panels, battery cells, optical drives, circuit boards and other important parts, according to the manufacturers and component suppliers.

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Apple Inc. may compact the I/O ports of its upcoming ultraportable notebook into a space-saving collapsible connection receptacle on the rear of the unit, the company’s new patent filling revealed.

Laptop designers from Apple say that mobile devices such as notebook computers are becoming increasingly thinner, so connections systems need to be reduced in size to accommodate smaller form factors.

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XtremeNotebooks has announced the 17-inch Xtreme 917V Accelerator, the first US distributed laptop to feature a quad core processor.

The Xtreme 917V Accelerator gaming/workstation notebook features desktop-use Intel Core Quad Q6600 or Q6700 CPU, depending on customer’s choice. Both processors have 8MB of L2 cache and 1066MHz front side bus, and are clocked at 2.4GHz and 2.66GHz respectively.

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The first Asus Eee PC notebooks will ship to the United States in late September and will be priced from $269 to $399, according to the source at Asustek North America, whose statement was posted at Eeeuser’s forum.

The source says there will be the Eee PC $269-$299 configuration with a 7-inch display, 512MB of system memory, 2GB of Flash memory-based storage, and a wireless connection. There will be options of four-cell or six-cell batteries.

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Fujitsu announced today the U.S. availability of the LifeBook T2010 Tablet PC, which features a 12.1-inch display, Intel’s “Santa Rosa” platform, the Core 2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage processor, and a claimed battery life of up to nine hours.

This pen-enabled convertible laptop has a WXGA 1280-by-800 pixels display with LED-backlighting and an enhanced outdoor viewing capability. The LifeBook T2010 is based on Intel 965GM chipset with the integrated GMA X3100 video controller and is paired with Core 2 Duo ULV U7600 or U7500 processor, depending on configuration. It ships with 1GB to 4 GB (actual 3.24 GB) of DDR2 system memory. The CPU and memory in this Tablet PC operate at 533MHz front side bus, which is slower than 800MHz/667MHz FSB in common “Santa Rosa”-based mobile computers with full-voltage processors.

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Logitech today announced the V470 Cordless Laser Mouse for Notebooks, which connects to a laptop via Bluetooth.

The V470 mouse features Bluetooth 1.2 wireless technology and laser tracking. In addition, with its Side-to-Side Scrolling Plus Zoom people can instantly zoom in and out, or scroll horizontally or vertically. This mouse has a battery life of up to 4 months.

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Moshi has released the PalmGuard 17, a wear-resistant thin film solution that protects the palm rest area of the 17-inch MacBook Pro against the deleterious effects of grease, scratches, smudges, and color-fade.

The PalmGuard 17 covers the notebook’s entire palm rest area. In addition, the package includes a separate protective films for the trackpad as well as the button.

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Apple has filled new patent application regarding its wide notebook touchpad with multi-touch capabilities.

The patent filling shows how this touchpad might be implemented on a Macbook Pro laptop, according to Gizmodo.

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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a voluntary recall of around 1,400 Sony-made batteries used in Toshiba’s notebooks. The recalled lithium-ion batteries can overheat, posing a fire hazard to consumers.

The affected laptops are select Toshiba Satellite A100, Satellite A105, and Tecra A7 models, which were sold in the United States from January 2006 through April 2006. According to CPSC, Toshiba has received three reports outside of the United States of notebook batteries overheating. No injuries have been reported.

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Fujitsu is expected to announce a hard drive technology breakthrough this week that could lead the company to produce a two-platter 2.5-inch HDDs with storage capacities of up to 1.2 terabyte (TB) as soon as 2010, Computer World reports.

Fujitsu says it has successfully demonstrated the ability to perform basic read/write capability of each individual nanohole of the new patterned media using a typical flying head on a rotating disk.

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