Laptops - Page 49

Sascha of Netbooknews has been able to get hold of a bunch of info and pics on Sony's new Vaio P netbook series scheduled for launch on May 22nd.

The original article is written in german, but in translation we can ascertain some key characteristics about the series.

Everytime we think we are finally done reporting that notebooks and related accessories pose a burn hazard, a new recall surfaces. Today Targus has issued a recall on about 507,000 notebook power adapters.

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The affected power adapters were made by Comarco of Lake Forest California. So far, there have been 518 reports of the connector tips heating up and 53 reports of the tip melting the plastic case.

There have been eight reports that consumers that burned a finger or hand due to the overheating. The recall includes Targus Universal Wall Power Adapters for Laptops. Only models with the following SKU numbers are affected by this recall: APA23US-02, APA23US-03, APA23US-04, APA63US-03, APA63US-04, APM62US-03 and APM62US-04. They were sold at WalMart, Best Buy and other major retailers.

Lenovo has made a big announcement today, introducing its new NVIDIA Ion 2 equipped all-in-one C200 desktop and IdeaPad S10-3s netbook.

Running quickly over the C200, this slick looking unit sports an 18.5-inch 1366x768 display and is powered by Intel's Atom D510 dual-core CPU together with NVIDIA's GeForce G210 GPU that uses NV Optimus technology to turn itself on when demand calls upon it (light gaming or 1080p HD content etc.).

Maingear makes a line of desktop and notebook computers that are typically aimed at gamers. The company is set to unveil a new multimedia notebook today called the mX-L 15. The notebook will use Intel Core i5 and i7 processors.

Sascha of netbooknews.de has managed to get some playtime with ASUS' upcoming Eee PC 1018P during a CeBIT conference and first impressions are real good, calling it "by far the most solid Eee PC I've ever, ever, ever had in my hands and the best keyboard I ever had on an Eee PC".

Lenovo has debuted several new notebooks today and easily the coolest, most interesting, and expensive of the bunch is the new W701ds. The ds notebook has two screens and is also available in a single 17-inch screen version.

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The W701ds version has the 17-inch screen plus a slide out 10.6-inch WXGA screen on the right side of the main screen. CPU options include the Core i7-920 Extreme or i7-820QM quad core. Windows 7, Vista Ultimate, or XP Pro are the OS choices. Graphics options include the Quadro FX 3800M or FX 2800M.

Both notebooks have X-Rite color calibration and Wacom digitizers. Storage is up to 500GB with 80GB or 128GB SSD options as well. Connectivity includes a single USB 3.0 port, four USB 2.0 ports, VGA, DVI, and DisplayPort. The single screen machine weighs almost nine pounds. The W701 starts at $2,199 and the W701ds starts at $3,799.

HP gave word to the folks at Engadget that since being first displayed at CES last month, several improvements have been made to its upcoming Compaq AirLife 100 Android PC and more confirmation was given as to its final specs list. With that, Engadget managed to tee up a time to come visit HP and get an update along with some video coverage on how it's shaping up.

There are times when a notebook user needs less performance and more battery life from their notebook. There are also times when the user has an AC outlet and needs all the performance the machine can muster. Not so long ago that would have meant you need two machines to meet both of those needs.

Some comments made by a high-up executive of NVIDIA just recently indicate the company's interest in external graphics adapters for notebooks. Whilst there's no definitive plans to introduce products of this nature to market as yet, Rene Haas who is the general manager of the notebook GPU sector at NVIDIA believes it is a big oppportunity for success :-

I think it is a big opportunity. We have two strategies at Nvidia: one is to put graphics everywhere, the other one is to [find more ways to] integrate discrete chips into the box. I think there is definitely a place for [external graphics cards for notebooks], no question. We continue to look at whether this is a GPU [docking stations] or external devices.

Notebook bags and cases are a dime a dozen and they are typically all pretty much the same. The things have the same features, look the same, and are honestly pretty boring for the most part. A new case has surfaced aimed at MacBook users called the Book Book that is actually pretty darn cool.

I'm not sure what to make of the smartbooks starting to hit the market. The first time I saw a netbook I thought the devices would never make it and today I own one and love it. I'm not going to say that the smartbook is not going to make it right now, but the things are costly enough to put them head to head with many netbooks.

The folks over at Netbooknews.de have managed to get hold of a bunch of snaps of ASUS' highly anticipated upcoming 1005P series Eee PCs which recently appeared on etailers websites in the UK and Europe.

The winter Olympics are coming up soon and we will be able to see all the crazy downhill skiing and snowboards that we want. A big undertaking like the Olympics requires lots of computing hardware and Acer has issued some special edition notebooks to celebrate its involvement.

Onkyo has bettered Japanese based Kohjinsha's DZ-series dual-display laptop with the new DX dual-screen unit, which while for the most part is just a rebadge, makes a good step forward in the way of its dual 10.1-inch 1366x768 LCD displays that give better res (1024x600 on the Kohjinsha unit) without the cost of physical portability.

Asus has unveiled what it claims to be the world's first multi-touch netbook called the Eee PC T91MT. The convertible tablet netbook has an 8.9-inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 that supports multi touch. The OS is Windows 7 Home Premium and the netbook runs an Intel Atom Z520 CPU.

HP's have a very tidy notebook on the horizon dubbed the Envy 13, due to hit the streets on October 18. The folks at Engadget managed to get a hold of one early and have taken a bunch of snaps showing us just how sweet this thing looks.

Just saw this interesting video where an NVIDIA ION based netbook plays a flash video using the GPU. It is pretty impressive, especially when you see them pop it up on the big screen. Of course there is something that is bugging me about this demo.

If you watch the screen displaying the demo from the ION is flickering very badly. It made watching this a little rough and gave me a headache. Besides that it means that the ION was being displayed on a screen with at least a 120Hz refresh this is twice the refresh on the smaller screen (which should be running at around 60Hz).

I know you are wondering what this has to do with anything; well you see the faster the refresh the slower your frame rate can be and still maintain the appearance of full motion video. It is an old trick, back the CRT days it was not uncommon to see 100Hz refresh rates making 20 FPS games look playable. After all if memory serves the human eye refreshes at about 50Hz. So at 120Hz you are more than doubling the screen refresh which removes much of the stuttering you would see at 60Hz.

It would be interesting to find out more about the test and to see it run on the same display. I have found the 9400 IGP to be little lacking when it comes to HD video even at 720, of course we will have to wait and see what happens once this is out an available to the general public. It will be interesting to see if the performance shown in the video can hold up in the real world.

So what would you do with four screens on your favorite portable? This thought came to me today while checking out the news from Intel's IDF event being held at the moment.

At the show was an interesting concept, this is a laptop with a main screen and three (yes three) smaller OLED screens.

These three screens would be above the keyboard and could show a variety of widgets. The interesting thing is that they can be interacted with through multi-touch gestures and your standard mouse. You would be able to drag files between the screens, including the main one.

Although the concept is interesting, I am not sure how much traction it will gain in the market. I could see this having a bigger impact if the screens could be tilted out for better viewing. Of course this is a prototype and there would be plenty of refinement before anything like this would make its way to your local (r)e-tailer.

Hot on the heels of the new HP ION based netbook, we see VIA is launching what it is calling a "NetNote". Besides the ridiculous sounding name, this new product category is noteworthy for the fact that it is capable of playing back 1080p HD video.

This is the same high-end resolution that the NVIDIA ION platform is shooting for. Now while this is very impressive, what I did not see in the press release was any indication that the associated netbooks were able to display this on its tiny little 10.1 - 12-inch displays. If they cannot playback 1080p natively in the display, it does reduce the impact of having this feature available in the first place. They might manage 720p in a 10-incher, but I doubt 1080p is going to happen. I would think that if this was the case, we would see it bandied about in the text of the PR. Instead we only see VIA working hard to create a new category in the mobile world exactly where we do not need a new category.

VIA is getting this performance from its VX855 media processor combined with its Chrome9 HCM IGP. The company is also dropping in an HDMI port to turn your NetNote(Book) into a mobile HD media center.

Still it is nice to see competition in the world of the Ultra-Portable. As it stands, while netbooks may look a little different on the outside, internally they are pretty much the same. This makes for a very boring market segment.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery they say. Well if that is true then the new Envy from HP is very flattering to Apple. When I first saw the leaked imaged of the new Book from HP I thought it was a mockup with the Apple logo removed.

But that was only with a glance; once I looked it was obvious it was not a Mac. Still, it is close in the front image. After that first impression I started reading a little more about the Envy.

It was then that I realized that this new book is using a name from the Voodoo line without actually being a Voodoo product. This is an interesting development. Right now all of the Boutique PC makers are having a rough time as custom built PCs and system are a luxury commodity that many just simply do not see as necessary. This move could be a way for HP to convey a sense of quality and performance but at a lower price.

The HP Envy should be out in both 13 and 15 Inch flavors but no official specs have been released. I am curious to see what the Envy 13 and 15 do have under the hood so that we will know if HP took more than the name from Voodoo.