NOTEBOOK AND LAPTOP REVIEWS: 6/1/09

TOSHIBA AND INTEL IN UNOFFICIAL RACE FOR 0.01NM CHIPS

This does concern notebooks and netbooks so bear with us. You might recall that Intel has been working on a 45nm chip codenamed Havendale to release into machines later this year. The new chips would be a step closer to its dreams of a 32nm system.

Well according to the sources at DigiTimes, they have totally scrapped these plans and are heading full speed ahead to the 32nm formfactor (codenamed Clarkdale) which would ship in the first quarter of 2010.

Where does Toshiba fit in all of this? Well the boys over there in Japan has joined the race in an effort to keep up with not only Intel but TI (Texas Instruments not the rapper). According to sources they are pretty close to their dream and will be revealing something pretty soon.

Concerning netbooks, if this should actually pull through, we could see major boosts in performance at a very low cost. We're hearing that Intel's version of the chips should run between $60 and $190. Not bad we say.

ASUS Eee PC 1005HA AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER VIA AMAZON

That pretty much sums it up for the post but just in case you wanted a few more details before checking out the ordering link below, the 1005HA is the brother of the 1008HA (albeit cooler).

The system sports the usual internals such as 1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 160GB hard drive, no Bluetooth but WiFi is available, 1.3 megapixel camera and a battery life that is said to last for 8 hours (6-cell).

The device can be pre-ordered VIA Amazon right now for the price of 3 Benjamin's and 1 Grant ($350). Check the READ link for ordering details.

SAMSUNG COLORFUL MINI S2 HDD

Hey ladies! How would you like a 2.5 portable HDD that fits snugly inside your purse and won't be mistaken for something else if you should have to retrieve it in public?

Well Sammy (Samsung) has announced the availability of its Mini S2 portable HDD series addition. You might remember that the Mini S2's have been around for some time now in 160GB all the way up to 0.5TB space.

Well they have just added a new addition to the pack which is really just a color variation of the first. But this one also sports little hearts all over the shell of the drive. We're hearing that its "coming soon" to Korea and will be available for import in the U.S pretty soon.

So if you need something to match your wardrobe outfit, you got just the thing.

NEW FAN TO CHIL YOUR LAPTOP

Its common to find laptop these days that pack enough heat to fry your nuts. But not everyone is interested in that and so there has been a slew of laptop cooling fans etc to fix the problem. But the Minifit XL looks to have fixed one problem, not only does it cool your laptop, it also places it at an angle for better viewing.

Th Minifit XL can take laptops up to 15" and is made out of aluminum. We would go into more details but those would probably bore you. So if you're interested in product availability as well as price etc. Check the link below for details.

Minifit XL

DELL VOSTRO 1220 OUTED IN SPY SHOTS

What do we have here? It seems to be one of Dell's latest models that hasn't even been announced yet. Yes people its the 12 inch Vostro 1220 Engadget got tipped off on this and so far the specs are looking pretty decent.

As said before there is a 12-inch screen, Core 2 Duo T6750 processor, 4GB of random access memory, 320GB hard disk drive, SD card slot, ExpressCard and fingerprint reader. You also get a few USB ports (3 to be exact), VGA out, ExpressCard slot and of course Ethernet etc. And if that wasn't enough there is also a built in DVD burner. Yes this is one "specy" system.

No word on a release date but we're hearing that the price of these things will be pretty darn good. Hope those rumors are true.

VIA: Engadget

MICROSOFT EXTENDS XP DOWNGRADE AGAIN

When will it ever end Microsoft? Apparently people are so in love with XP that the software giant has once again extended the expiration date of its venerable OS. The news comes on the eve of much distress in the business community that Microsoft's new licensing program for Window's 7 will cause panic and distress among businesses.

Thus the giant of all OS has said that XP downgrades will be available 18 months after WIndow's 7 is released or the first service pack hits computers (whichever comes first).

We're keeping our fingers crossed because its very likely that we could be seeing XP's life extended into 2020.

EDGE TECH 128GB USB FLASH DRIVE IS ANYTHING BUT CHEAP

How would you like a flash drive that holds 128GB of flash memory? I'm almost sure that no one would pass up such an offer. What if I told you that it can be yours on July 31st for $390 USD.

You might be wondering what makes it so freaking expensive, well it does have that 128GB storage thing, and it comes with a good aluminum housing as well as basic encryption software for a little extra protection.

Yeah we know now the best of reasons. But hey, if you need more memory for your netbook, you might be able to hack it to fit one of these in there. Could be cheaper then buying one of those standard SSD thingys....

ASROCK MULTIBOOK G22

As you might have guessed looking at the netbook design and the name (as will as the logo) ASRock is a spinoff of ASUS. That however is beside the point when it comes to their new Multibook G22 which packs some impressive features for a netbook. Under the hood you'll find a dual core Atom 330 processor, NVIDIA Ion, 2GB of RAM and yes a multitouch trackpad. It also comes with a 12.1-inch widescreen display that is good for 1366x768 pixels. Not to stop there though, the system ads such things as a 320GB hard drive, 10-in-1 card reader, VGA out, HDMI out, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and a DVD burner.

Most impressive is it weighs just 3.3 pounds (without the battery). No word on price or availability yet, but we're sure that will come around in the near future.

ASUS AND DISNEY TEAM UP FOR CHILDRENS NETBOOK

Its not everyday Disney makes a succesful bid for the control of your kids tech lives. And so far most of what we have seen has fallen way below the success line. But it seems they might have just hit the jackpot as GadgetMix.com is reporting that Disney is working with ASUS to bring a netbook geared specifically towards kids.

The color choices will be limited with "Princess Pink" and "Magic Blue" as the starting colors. There will also Micky Mouse icons available for the netbooks.

On the software end, the device will come packed with a Disney interface (Linux derived), as well as parental controls and such. There will be themes available form Toy Story (third installment of the film coming next year), Wall-E and of course Mickey Mouse as well as other themes.

The specs don't say much though as it comes with the standard 8.9-inch Eee PC screen, 16GB of SSD or 160GB HDD and your usual 1GB of RAM. Release date is yet to be finalized but if you are interested in picking one of these bad boys up when they become available, be willing to dish otu three Benjamin's and a Grant (hence $350).

DELL LATITUDE Z SERIES LEAKED IN PHOTOS

This kinda goes without saying, but its not surprising that someone would leak a photo of a laptop. And that is exactly what some user of NotebookReview forums has done. As you can see this Dell Latitude Z series obviously takes some styling cues from its distant cousin the Adamo. More importantly, this model doesn't seem to be doing too bad in terms of specs. According to the stickers its packing Window's Vista Basic, Centrino processor.

Unverified but plausible is the speculation that it could be packing a webcam 9obviously), DisplayPort, Core 2 Duo processor (unlikely) and a scheduled release date of a week from today.

We're not banking on it but it is wishful thinking nonetheless.

MEET THE DosPara PRIME NOTE CRESION NA NETBOOK

By now you're aware that NVIDIA and Intel are not friends especially since NVIDIA announced that Ion would be competing with Intel's crappy GMA graphics cards in netbooks. Well this fight has a sudden turn of events as Japans DosPara has decided to pair "Romio and Juliet" together in the form of the Prime Note Cresion NA.

Yes people, NVIDIA's Ion chipset is paired with a dual-core Atom 330 processor, 2 gigs of RAM, 320GB hard drive and if that wasn't enough, memory card reader, optical drive (built in), HDMI out and a price tag of about $600 U.S.

Yeah, we're not too poised about the price but we do digg the idea of NVIDIA and Intel playing nicely....with some third party support.

ASUS 11.6-INCH Eee PC 1101HA COMING TO EU THIS MONTH

If you've been keeping up with this blog, you would have remembered that Asus demoed the Eee PC 1101HA back at Computex. Well they have not given it an official release date, but Notebook Italia is claiming the beast of a netbook is coming to Europe by months end. More importantly the device (according to them) will retail for the U.S equivalent of $560.

This is for a system that packs a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 processor, Intel GMA graphics, 1GB of random access memory, 160GB hard disk drive and Window's XP to boot.

While we have heard rumors of a 3G version of said laptop that is yet to be clarified. Check out the video below.

FINALLY A NETBOOK FOR UNDER $200

Who would have thought that the day would come so soon that you would be able to buy a sub $200 netbook from some guy in Thailand. Well that day has come and you can finally get the Gecko EduBook for a nickle under the $200 buffer zone.

Better yet it runs on those little AA batteries you have lying around the place and carries a screen just 8.9 inches with a 1024x600 display which is LED-backlit. More importantly it has a 1GHz processor and yes it can be bought right now for $199.

All you will need to do is pay a moderate shipping and handling fee as it is coming from Thailand. Oh and if you want to equip your entire class with one each you can get an extra $40 knocked off the price.

WINDOW'S 7 E (for Europe) WILL NOT HAVE IE8

Again this news should not be surprising especially inspite of the fact that the EU has been turning Microsoft into their personal money bag for quite some time now. But its now official that Window's 7 will not come with IE8 in Europe.

But fair not, because Microsoft will allow OEM's to install it themselves and you can be sure that there will be some good incentives for those who do. So don't just relax and thing Opera has won the fight just yet.

ARCHOS INTROS WINDOW'S 7 TABLET

Its not like this should be entirely unexpected from Archos seeing they specialize in this type of thing. But this one is really cool especially seeing that it will launch in October with some version of Window's 7 installed. More importantly it will carry Bluetooth, 80GB HDD and dual DVB-T antennas. As to the processor it seems that there will be an Atom 7515 1.2GHz CPU included and pricing is set somewhere in the low $600's.

And guess what we have a video below of this product being demoed. Please do not follow the gentleman who claims that it is multi touch because to this point there is no confirmation by Archos if that is true or not.

HP ROLLS OUT NEW NOTEBOOK MINI 100 IN ITS MINI NOTEBOOK FAMILY

HP announced the launch of its latest notebook HP Mini 110 series which will replace Mini 1000. This new member in Mini notebooks family is available in pick chic, black swirl and white swirl protective HP imprints and comes in two flavors- The HP Mini 110 Mi Edition (Linux) and Windows XP Edition costing $279.99 and $329.99 respectively.

Its Linux version can be further upgraded to faster N280 CPU from Intel N270 Atom CPU while its Windows XP version features identical CPU upgradation option. Both the gadgets include 10.1 inch screen at 1024x576 resolutions. Some of the other features include WiFi connectivity and 6-cell lithium-polymer battery which require extra $40 in the price.

The best part about this new series is that you can take it anywhere you want with all-day battery life and has the ability to connect to the Net without a WiFi hot spot. The Mini 110 contains three USB ports, a VGA connector, a LAN jack, microphone/headphone combo jack and a five-format memory-card reader. Weighing about 2.6 pounds, this notebook’s economy-class version is expected to hit Indian markets next month. However you can order in advance at the HP Online alongside fashionable HP Viviene Edition.

ACER TO LAUNCH 3D-DISPLAY NOTEBOOK BY END OF OCTOBER THIS YEAR

According to the media reports, Acer is planning to come up with a new 3D notebook by the October end this year. It is to be believed that Taiwanese ODM Wistron is co-developing the system with Acer and will accompany with software supporting 3-dimensional videos and can convert those into 2D.

Having 15.6 inch screen, the notebook will be equipped with Windows 7 but will need stereoscopic glasses to witness the three dimensional effect. Upon asking from the company about this, the officials said that the work is going on for glasses-free 3D display and will capitalize on recent popularity of 3D effect in movies and TV shows.

In the meanwhile the company is already working on its next line of netbooks which are expected to hit the markets in second quarter of next year. By introducing 3D display, they may be targeting very restricted target audience so it would be difficult to say whether this new gadget will walk on the roads of success or not because similar attempts in the past have failed. Let’s see how Acer will create magic with its 3D effect display.

SNOW LEOPARD COMING THIS SEPTEMBER FOR $29

Apple has finally "come clean" concerning Snow Leopard. At WWDC they have finally detailed the informants concerning Leopard. We were a little disappointed because instead of reinventing the wheel, they refined it which doesn't seem to be what the rumors were saying concerning the new onslaught of Microsoft and Window's 7.

At any rate there is a new remote Finder as well as support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 which allows you to not only sync mail but also calender and address books. QuickTime X has a whole new foundation including HTTP streaming. It also allows users to upload videos to MobileMe and YouTube.

Better yet Snow Leopard has only half the footprint as its predecessor (Tiger) which amasses to 6GB in space saving as well as 45% faster installs. The new track pads will include handwriting recognition and the entire system has been bumped up to 64-bit.

But the best news of all involves the price and availability. In terms of price, those who have Tiger will be able to update for only $29 come September. And if you are psyched by the new MacBook Pro systems recently announced but do not come with Leopard, if you purchase any Mac between now and September you will get to upgrade for only $10 (which is shipping costs). Pretty awesome we know. You ready for Leopard?

SAFARI 4 IS OUT OF BETA

Well what would you know, Safari 4 has been released and according to Apple, offers "unparalleled speed." They go on to say that this concerns their tests against Internet Explorer 8. Some of the new features included is a full history search that features cover flow (like what you find in iTunes).

In Leopard (debuting this September), Safari will run on the 64-bit framework so we are hoping to see that "performance...up to 50 percent." Another feature includes SL Safari plugins that runs as a separate processes so when a plugin crashes the browser will not.

Needless to say you're probably psyched to use it so yes it is available for Windows, Leopard and Tiger right now. So head over to Apple.com and download it.

CUTE PENGUIN FLASH DRIVES APPEAR EVERYWHERE

Every once in a while we bring you the lighter side of the computer world and today is no exception. If you are in love with your "supposed" ancestors in Antarctica, then you might want to check out these new flash drives which will be available like NO!

They come in 2GB, 4GB and 16GB sizes and as you would expect, titled specifically Penguin drivers. Better yet every time you buy one of these little fellows, you will help save the real ones because a portion of the proceeds will go to WWF (World Wildlife Fund).

As we said before they are available now on Amazon between the prices of $12.95 and $42.95.

QUALCOMM 1.3GHz SNAPDRAGON CHIPSET

Well it looks like Qualcomm's really taking up its arms involving the world of smartbooks (fits between netbooks and smartphones). They have just announced the Snapdragon chipset which is said to be 30% stronger, use 30% less power and come with 1.3GHz CPU.

All this means that come 2010 your smartbooks and smartphones will have gotten a whole lot faster and powerful as well as energy efficient. Qualcomm is supporting CDMA 3G, UMTS, 2D and 3D acceleration as well as integrated GPS and high def video recording and playback. WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, WXGA (1280x800) is supported as well as MediaFLO, DVBH or ISDB-T digital mobile TV.

You can be sure we'll be keeping our eyes for some of these devices. Its about time out Blackberrys and Window's Mobile phones got a little more powerful. And of course we wouldn't mind seeing what this can do for smartbooks and netbooks.

VIDEO: SNAPDRAGON RUNS ANDROID

No doubt you've been hearing rumors that Android was coming to a netbook near you. You probably might have remembered we covered a few stories last week about home mods doing it. Well finally we have something better to show for it.

Here at Computex (yes its going on now), an ASUS Eee PC smartbook is up and running with Android on a 1GHz Snapdragon chipset. The benefits of this of course is circumvent the expensive licensing fees of Windows XP as well as some cool things such as 720p HD video capabilities. The chipset runs on a 1.3GHz build. But fear not for dual-CPU 1.5GHz are on the way.

You can check out the full details in the video below.

DELL STUDIO XPS 13/16 AVAILABLE IN RED

We're not sure why you wouldn't be convinced to pick up a Dell XPS after our review. But in case you needed that little something, we have it right here. Right now, you can pick up the best notebook Dell has made not only in Black but also in red with the leather trimmings in red also.

We're not sure if this will appeal to more women then men, but you'll finally be able to have it in either crimson or executive black. And its still for the price of $900 at many retailers. Pretty good price for a notebook that matches the Macbook at every point (and some).