Archive for November, 2007

Secured Digital Applications today unveiled its new EyStar Bluetooth GPS receiver for the U.S. market.

“The EyStar Bluetooth GPS receiver forms part of a system comprising of navigation software installed in either a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone, PDA or laptop. No cable or line of sight is required to connect the receiver to a compatible cell phone, PDA or laptop. The pocket-sized receiver can be used without external power for up to 15 hours. The 20-channel all-in-view tracking SiRF Star III GPS receiver with its high sensitivity is particularly suitable for city or mountain navigation,” the press release says.

(more…)

Micron Technology has announced the RealSSD family of solid state drive products, which includes notebook- and desktop computer-use 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch models with 32GB and 64GB capacities.

Micron’s RealSSD solid state drives feature a SATA2 interface and a rugged, lightweight plastic casing, allowing for “at least a 50-percent reduction in weight when compared to similar density HDDs”. The RealSSDs consume less than 2 watts of power while active an even lower consumption in idle and standby modes.

(more…)

Intel Corporation today awarded the winners of the Intel University Competition On Renewable Energy (CORE), which challenged European universities to design a device capable of powering laptops by using renewable, sustainable energy sources. The winner is the Spanish team (Polytechnic of Madrid), which designed a solution based on a pedal machine powered by human energy.

“The cycling action produces energy which is turned into the electricity necessary to power the laptop by a power electronics converter. The solution was chosen as it demonstrates the team’s systematic approach to deal with all aspects of the challenge – from its ease of implementation to the innovative quality of its electronic components – with special features to allow for a realistic usage model,” Intel says.

(more…)

Zonbu has announced a new notebook computer and service based on an Everex laptop PC with Zonbu operating system preloaded.

“Starting at $279 upfront and a $14.95 monthly subscription fee, the Zonbu Notebook and service will include 20 best-of-breed software applications, free and automatic software upgrades, generous online storage, file remote access and sharing, automatic data back-up, unlimited online tech support, and free hardware replacement in case of damage. Best of all, it eliminates the need to spend any time on managing PC, or to spend money on anti-virus packages, back-up storage or firewalls,” the company’s press release says.

(more…)

Fujitsu has announced the development of the MHZ2 BH series of 2.5-inch hard drives with a maximum capacity of 320 GB. Sales of the new series will begin in February 2008, according to the company.

The Fujitsu MHZ2 BH HDDs, designed primarily for use in notebooks, small form factor desktop PCs, and consumer electronics products, use a SATA2 3.0Gb/sec intefrace and spin at 5,400rpm. These hard drives operate at 1.9 watts when reading or writing data, and have 0.6W power consumption on idle.

(more…)

Dell released today the XPS M1530, a “sleek and stylish” 15.4-inch multimedia-oriented notebook featuring the Intel “Santa Rosa” mobile platform, NVIDIA dedicated graphics, a slot loading optical drive, and an HDMI output.

“With starting price of $999, the XPS M1530 is loaded with premium features, like built in webcam and fingerprint reader, and design accents like touch-sensitive multi-media buttons, brushed aluminum accents and a choice of sophisticated colors,” the press release says.

(more…)

This holiday season, PC vendors and retailers have prepared some very interesting laptop deals, with prices starting below $500.

The most affordable notebook in the US market currently is the Asus Eee PC 4G Surf for $349, which is a standard price for this 7-inch ultraportable. It features an Intel Celeron M processor, 512MB of RAM, and a 4GB Flash memory based drive, but it has no optical drive.

(more…)

The Asus Eee PC, a popular ultraportable notebook computer, has been reviewed recently by Laptop Magazine, NotebookReview, TrustedReviews, PC Magazine, and CNet. According to the reviews, the Eee PC is a good and affordable solution for basic computing purposes.

Currently, there are three Asus Eee PC models available in the United States: the white and black Eee PC 4G models priced at $400, as well as the Eee PC 4G Surf version in white color for $350. These compact and light sub-notebooks weigh two pounds and feature 7-inch displays with a resolution of 800 by 480 pixels. The laptops have the Intel Celeron M processor at 900MHz and 910GML chipset with the GMA 900 integrated graphics, 512MB of system memory, 4GB of storage capacity, a built-in 802.11b/g wireless module, an Ethernet LAN connection, a web camera, three USB ports, a VGA output, and a media card reader.

(more…)

The non-profit organization One Laptop per Child (OLPC) announced today it is extending its recently launched Give One Get One program beyond the initial two-week limited time offer through December 31, 2007, in the USA and Canada.

“In the past 10 days, we’ve experienced an outpouring of support from the public that is truly gratifying and encouraging,” said Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child. “Because so many people have asked for more time to participate either individually or in order to organize local and national groups to which they belong, we have decided to extend Give One Get One through the end of this year. During this extended period we will solicit input and transition to a program of giving only at the beginning of 2008. We want as many people as possible to have the opportunity to act upon the giving spirit of the holiday season.”

(more…)

Dell will release next month the Inspiron 1525 and 1526 15.4-inch notebooks, aimed at small businesses and low-end consumer market, Engadget reports.

“Initial specs sheets reveal that the 1525 will be based on the Santa Rosa architecture, while the 1526 gets AMD-powered and offers up an ATI Radeon X1270 graphics set. Furthermore, the pair will feature up to 4GB of RAM, WXGA / WXGA+ / WSXGA+ panel choices, SATA hard drives, an optional Blu-ray reader (1525 only), built-in WiFi, optional WWAN and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. You’ll also find four USB 2.0 ports, a 4-pin FireWire connector, Ethernet / 56k modem, VGA out, optional HDMI, audio in / out, a 8-in-1 multicard reader, ExpressCard slot and your choice of Vista or Ubuntu Linux,” the report says.

(more…)

The ASUS Eee PC 4G Surf notebook, priced at $349.99, is now available for purchase in the United States through NewEgg.

As same as the other ASUS Eee PC models, the 4G Surf features an Intel Celeron M processor at 900MHz and is based on the Intel 910GML chipset with the GMA 900 integrated graphics. This affordable 7-inch mini laptop features 800×480 display resolution. The 4G Surf comes with 512MB of system memory and 4GB of data storage capacity. There are also a built-in 802.11b/g wireless module, an Ethernet LAN connection, three USB ports, a VGA output, and a media card reader.

(more…)

BestBuy will be offering the Toshiba Satellite A135-S7403 notebook with a Canon PIXMA all-in-one printer for only $229 after instant savings during the Black Friday, November 23rd.

According to the retailer, this bundle will be available only in stores. There will be minimum 20 bundles per store.

(more…)

The Alienware Area-51 m17x and m15x gaming laptops, which incorporate the latest NVIDIA GeForce 8800M video cards, a feature called BinaryGFX for switching between integrated and dedicated graphics, and Intel Core 2 Extreme processors, will become available during the first quarter of 2008, the company announced yesterday.

The Alienware Area-51 m17x sports a 17-inch display supporting a 1080p (1920-by-1200 pixels) high definition resolution. The screen is managed by dual Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX or dual Nvidia 8700M GT graphics cards operating in SLI mode. This high-end laptop provides up to 640GB of data storage, plus an expandable Smart Bay hard drive option. The m17x ships with a Blu-Ray burner and supports up to 4GB system memory. In addition, it has the 1GB Intel Turbo Memory option for better system responsiveness. The Alienware’s upcoming notebook provides 802.11a/b/g/draft n wireless connectivity and an optional built-in TV tuner.

(more…)

NVIDIA released today the GeForce 8800M GTX and GeForce 8800M GTS video cards, which are claimed to be “the world’s fastest notebook GPUs” .

These 256-bit cards fill the top enthusiast GPU product positions in the NVIDIA GeForce 8M Series product line.

(more…)

PC MicroWorks has announced the Black-Hawk XR5 17-inch gaming/workstation notebook, featuring a quad-core processor and two NVIDIA’s new Geforce 8800M GTX mobile video cards in SLI mode.

The Black-Hawk XR5 is configurable with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 CPU at 2.66GHz, as well as with Core 2 Extreme and Core 2 Duo. All of these chips are designed for use in desktop computers. The dual NVIDIA Geforce (”Go”) 8800M GTX option provides users with 1GB of dedicated GDDR3 video memory and support for DirectX 10 games. The 8800M GTX has not been officially announced yet. However, it is expected to be the most powerful graphics card for laptops this year.

(more…)