Archive for October, 2007

Increasing laptop computer shipments in the second half of this year have caused shortages of Intel’s mobile processors and wireless LAN modules, DigiTimes reports.

“Due to Intel’s misjudgment of notebook demand, the gap between the company’s production capacity and market demand is increasing. Intel recently stated to makers that it will readjust its production capacity to solve the shortages and it expects the problem should be solved by the end of the year,” the report says.

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Western Digital today announced it is now shipping its new WD Scorpio WD3200BEVT 2.5-inch laptop hard drive with 320GB of storage capacity. The HDD has the world’s highest capacity for this form factor, along with the Toshiba MK3252GSX.

The Scorpio WD3200BEVT has a 5400rpm spin speed, a Serial ATA 3Gb/s interface, and a 12ms access time. It features WhisperDrive technology for quiet operation, ShockGuard technology for protection from shocks, as well as IntelliSeek technology, which calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise, and vibration.

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One of the Asus Eee PC models, the $399 Pearl White Eee PC 4G, is now available for purchase in the United States through NewEgg.

This model of the Asustek’s new low-cost ultraportable personal computer features 512MB of DDR2 system RAM, 4GB of Flash memory-based storage, and a built-in web camera, which is not present in some of cheaper Eee PCs.

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Lenovo L3000 Y410, the company’s 14.1-inch consumer-oriented notebook, is now available for purchase in the United States.

The L3000 Y410 features up to Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 processor at 1.66GHz, a 667MHz frontside bus, the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, and 2GB of system memory expandable to 4GB, as well as a 160GB hard drive, and a DVD burner. The laptop’s 14.1″-diagonal WXGA (1280 x 800) display has a glossy finish, and is accompanied by an integrated 1.3-megapixel camera.

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NVIDIA will release the GeForce 8800M GTX, a DirectX 10 high performance video card for gaming notebooks, during the third week of November, the Inquirer reports.

The first 8800M GTX GPUs will feature 512MB of video memory, with 256MB models to follow. The card will operate at lower clock speeds than the corresponding desktop model - the 8800 GT - due to laptop-specific thermal and power consumption requirements. The card will have a MXM Type III form factor reportedly, but there is no information on how many shader units it will have, as well as on exact clock speeds.

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Apple has just released the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system, which brings “more than 300″ new features and some changes over the previous 10.4 Tiger version.

Leopard, which is a 64-bit OS also compatible with 32-bit software, has a brand new desktop with Stacks, a new way to access files from the Dock; a redesigned Finder for browsing and sharing files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, a new way to instantly see files without opening an application; Spaces, used to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; a data backup software called Time Machine; and a variety of other new features and improvements.

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Samsung Electronics has announced that it has developed the first 30-nanometer 64 Gigabit (Gb) Flash memory chip. This will enable the company to produce a 1.8-inch solid state drive with 512GB of data storage capacity, TG Daily reports.

Also, 16 of these 30nm 64 Gb NAND Flash chips (one chip represents 8GB of storage) can be packed into a memory card form factor, such as SD or CF-II, providing 128GB of capacity.

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Sprint and Alcatel-Lucent have announced the SprintSecure Laptop Guardian service for corporate users, which enables 24/7 notebook computer security through remote monitoring, location, and locking if a laptop is lost or stolen.

The solution utilizes a unique Mobile Broadband connection PCMCIA card that serves as a two-factor authentication device.

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The non-profit organization One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has announced that its low-cost XO notebook computer for poor children faces a production delay, which would cause a shortage of these computers available in the United States and Canada as part of a holiday giving program.

According to the report, it would now be tough to get those laptops to South America by December, and also meet orders for the recently announced OLPC’s Give 1 Get 1 scheme for people in the United States and Canada, said Mary Lou Jepsen, chief technology officer for the OLPC Foundation.

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Alienware has launched the new AlienExchange Trade-in Program, allowing customers to trade in any number of electronic devices toward the purchase of new Alienware products.

The Trade-in Program allows anyone who is considering purchasing Alienware products the chance to increase their finances by trading in items such as desktop and notebook computers, servers, monitors, as well as gaming consoles, mobile phones, MP3 players, PDAs, cameras, camcorders and projectors, and home and car audio receivers.

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Hewlett-Packard (HP) has announced that it will integrate Sprint mobile broadband capabilities into several HP Compaq business notebook PCs.

“The companies will jointly market HP business notebooks that can take advantage of the dynamic features of the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network, such as the faster data speeds provided by 3G EV-DO Rev. A technology,” the press release says.

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Staples will start selling the Dell Inspiron 1521 and Inspiron 1721 notebooks, starting November 11th.

Staples will be the only office superstore to offer Dell products in stores and through its web site, according to Dell.

“As part of its ongoing efforts to extend the advantages of its direct business model, Dell’s relationship with Staples is the latest in a series of retail agreements aimed at reaching more customers worldwide,” the press release says.

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Lenovo has produced a fully ruggedized ThinkPad notebook PC, according to the company’s official blog.

The Lenovo ThinkPad with enhanced ruggedness has outer casing made of thick magnesium, while the corners are reinforced with thick rubber pads. In addition, the laptop’s exterior is completely sealed so that it can be used under running water, according to the post.

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Verizon Wireless has announced the UM150 USB wireless modem, optimized for the company’s EV-DO Rev. A network and the BroadbandAccess service. This modem, which connects to laptop and desktop computers via a USB port, also features a microSD memory slot.

According to the press release, users of the UM150 USB modem in Verizon’s EV-DO Rev. A coverage areas are provided with average download speeds of 600 kilobits per second (kbps) to 1.4 megabits and average upload speeds of 500- 800 kbps. This means that customers can download a 1MB file in about eight seconds and upload the same-sized file in less than 13 seconds.

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Dell will offer laptop and desktop computers with the Ubuntu version 7.10, which is the latest release of this Linux OS distribution.

The Ubuntu 7.10, introduced this week, replaces the older 7.04 version. The shipping date for Ubuntu 7.10-powered Dell PCs is unknown yet, since the company “needs to take the time to qualify the final code on its systems for optimal interoperability”.

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