Filed under: Laptops

And you thought you could go the whole day without reading a single battery recall-related post; sorry, we’ll try harder tomorrow. So you probably remember yesterday’s scary report which quoted a Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesperson predicting that Sony’s upcoming US battery recall will expand beyond just laptops, and might include portable DVD players and videogame consoles too. Well the same woman who made that statement, Julie Vallese, has now backtracked somewhat by telling CNET that “Any recall that the agency will make will be limited to batteries that power notebook computers. We have no anticipation at this time beyond that.” So, does this mean that those other types of batteries are safe — or that the CPSC knows about problems with them, but since they apparently won’t be part of the recall, there’s no need to worry the public? It’s hard to say at this point, although Vallese’s previous comment was pretty clear — unlike the following response from Sony spokesperson Rick Clancy: “Sony has provided a wealth of technical data to the CPSC involving this tech, and it is omnipresent in a host of portable electronic devices, but as far as we know, from Sony’s perspective, there is no initiative planned at this time that goes beyond what has already been communicated with respect to notebook computers.” Doesn’t sound very reassuring to us. Only time will tell if other kinds of devices are at risk from those little metal particles that tainted many a laptop cell, but if we had to proffer a guess, we’d say it’s pretty unlikely that the QA breakdown which allowed so many batteries to become fire hazards was limited only to the manufacturing processes for notebook power packs. Let’s hope we’re wrong about this one.

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

---

SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Laptops

You probably thought we were done with this latest volley of Merom-powered laptops. Ha — you were wrong. Next up to board the Core 2 Duo train is Velocity Micro’s 15.4-inch NoteMagix L80 “Ultra Notebook Computer,” which adds T5500, T5600, T7200, T7400, and T7600 options (ranging from 1.66GHz to 2.33GHz) to the already available suite of regular Core Duo and Celeron M configurations. So besides the latest processors, what makes this model so “ultra”? Well first of all, it ships with a 256MB nVIDIA GeForce Go 7600GS card standard — a refreshing change-up from the usual integrated graphics we see around here — plus an option to bump the LCD resolution up to 1,680 x 1,050 from a ho-hum 1,280 x 800. You can also cram in as much as 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 7,200 RPM 100GB hard drive, and dual-layer DVD burner, with WiFi, a card reader, and three USB 2.0 ports part and parcel of any configuration. Available immediately, you can pick up a decently-speced L80 for about $1,655, but of course for the one we’d want, pricing is a little closer to $2,600.

[Via laptoping]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

So Fujitsu’s got four portable machines for us to peep today, but unlike the slew of Merom-powered notebooks we’ve been seeing, only one of these models rock that dual-core goodness. First off are two new members of the 15.4-inch Biblio NF family (pictured above), the NF60T with a 1.6GHz Turion 64 X2 CPU, and the 1.46GHz Celeron M 410-powered NF40T. The 60T rocks ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 graphics, 512MB of RAM (4GB max), and a 100GB HDD, while the 40T also gives you 512MB RAM (only expandable to to 2GB, though) and just 80GB of HDD capacity and integrated graphics; both machines, however, offer a full complement of connectivity options, with WiFi, FireWire, USB 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet, PCMCIA, ExpressCard, and D-Sub standard. Next up is the Core Solo-equipped (1.20GHz U1400) FMV-Biblio LOOX Q, with a 12.1-inch WXGA LCD, integrated graphics, 30GB HDD (hey, it’s really slim, at least), 512MB of RAM, and both WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0 radios. Finally we have the 8.9-inch LOOX P70T/V convertible tablet, which sports the exact same specs as the Q, but obviously replaces the XP Pro OS with Tablet PC Edition 2005. Look for the ¥185,000 ($1,581) NF60T and ¥150,000 ($1,282) NF40T to drop on September 2nd, the ¥260,000 ($2,222) LOOX Q to be available on the 15th, and the ¥250,000 ($2,136) P70T/V to hit shelves on September 28th — all initially in Japan, of course.

Read- Biblio NF
Read- LOOX Q and P

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Laptops

Custom laptop designs are a dime a dozen these days, with everything from fast car logos to glorious “Pink Feather” designs being stamped onto the back of LCDs in an attempt to draw the eyes of punters looking for a new lappie. The latest custom job on the market is Fujitsu Siemens’ team of soccer themed laptops which don the colors and crests of four different Premiership clubs: Celtic, Aston Villa, Everton, and Tottenham Hotspur, to be precise. Under the soccer shirts, the laptops are Amilo 1536 models featuring 1280 x 800 15-inch displays powered by a 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics adapter. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find a 1.83GHz Core Duo processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, and a roomy 120GB 5400RPM SATA drive. Not quite striker material, we know, but the £1000 (plus three year warranty) price tag ain’t too shabby considering the bundled paint job. Fujitsu Siemens is promising other clubs will join the line-up to celebrate the recent start of the Premiership season, although don’t expect any teams with notable rivalries to be released at the same time. If you follow English football, you’ll notice that the first four club themed laptops are a rather disparate lot: there’s no Liverpool to go with Everton, no Rangers to go with Celtic, and so on. These guys obviously know how to manage their laptop teams without starting a football riot.

[Via Reg Hardware]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Laptops

Proving once again that people seem to be willing to overpay for underpowered gadgets that could possibly be seen as “fashionable,” Samsung has released a new £1,300 ($2,460) notebook whose main (read: only) selling point is its bright pink exterior. At this price point we’d expect to see words like “Core Duo” and “GeForce” on the spec sheet, but the new 12.1-inch Q40 only manages to throw down a disappointing 1.2GHz ULV Core Solo processor, just 512MB of RAM, a scant 60GB hard drive capacity, and those integrated Intel graphics which will only please gamers who are into Minesweeper and Sudoku. Still, you are getting a built-in DVD burner and Windows XP Professional as the operating system, so this lappy isn’t a total lost cause. Although the shiny Q40 is available exclusively at PC World, we have a feeling that you’ll soon be seeing it in the hands of celebutantes worldwide, and perhaps even being given away as a door prize on a future episode of My Super Sweet 16.

[Via Shiny Shiny]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Laptops

We’ve sure seen a lot of Core 2 Duo- and Core 2 Extreme-equipped desktops today, so props go out to Fujitsu for breaking up the monotony and announcing a laptop spec-bump instead. Available sometime during the fourth quarter, the new and improved LifeBook N6400 series — which was one of the first to get the original Core Duo treatment — stays true to the lineup’s origins by featuring the same 17-inch, Crystal View display and built-in subwoofer as its predecessors, but speeds things up a bit with some of that Merom-style Core 2 Duo love. The rest of the specs probably won’t change too much either, so you can expect to see configurations sporting dual 160GB hard drives, up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and most likely a non-integrated graphics chipset of some sort. With the release still more than a month away we don’t have any pricing details to share with you, but the current-generation N6410 (pictured) goes for around $1,700, so maybe that will give you some idea of what to prepare for.

[Via laptoping]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

We know that it’s a bit of a tease to keep featuring products that will never be available in the US, but we figure that if you’re not down with foreign devices, you probably would have stopped visiting this site long ago (or maybe you just skip over these types of posts). Anyway, the latest look-but-don’t-touch model comes from Japanese manufacturer PC-Koubou — the same company that dropped seven new laptops on us not too long ago — who just announced the impending release of its 15.4-inch Lesance AS520AW-DUO gaming notebook. As you probably guessed from the model number, this Windows XP Home Edition-powered machine sports an Intel Core Duo processor of the 1.83GHz T2400 variety, along with ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics (featuring 256MB of VRAM), a 1,200 x 800 pixel display, 1GB of 533MHz DDR2 RAM, and a 60GB hard drive running at 5,400 RPM. Also along for the ride are an ExpressCard slot (though no PCMCIA), 8x DVD super-duper multi drive, and four USB 2.0 ports, though WiFi and Bluetooth are nowhere to be found. If you happen to be visiting Japan starting next month, you can snatch one of these beauties up for just $1,371.

[Via MobileWhack]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Laptops

Lenovo has just announced a new addition to its Z61 series of ThinkPad notebooks — which currently consists of the Z61t and Z61m — in the form of a “mobile workstation” called the Z61p. Like the other models in this lineup, the 15.4-inch Z61p offers consumers several Intel Core processor options (maxing out with the 2.0GHz Core Duo T2500), but improves upon the graphics setup by including a Mobility Fire GL V5200 chipset from ATI with 256MB of VRAM. Other features include 1GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM (expandable to 3GB), up to 100GB of hard drive capacity (in either 5,400RPM or 7,200RPM varieties), a 1,920 x 1,200 pixel display, WiFi, Bluetooth, an ExpressCard slot, and the popular ThinkVantage suite — though you’re not getting the 3G WWAN or titanium case options found on the other Z61 models. While all the pricing details are not immediately clear, it looks like a well-configured system will be going for around $2,400 when these become available next week.

[Via laptoping]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

UK rebadger PC manufacturer Rock has a blazing new 17-inch laptop in store for British gamers, the Core Duo-powered Xtreme CTX T2700. As its name suggests, this model sports a T2700 CPU running at 2.33GHz, along with 1GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM, a zippy 7,200RPM 100GB hard drive, 8x dual-layer DVD burner, and on the connectivity tip, the always-popular Bluetooth and three flavor WiFi. Graphics on this model also promise to impress, with a 512MB-equipped GeForce Go 7900 GTX card from nVIDIA handling the heavy lifting for the1,920 x 1,200 WUXGA display. As you’d expect, a configuration like this doesn’t come cheap, and will cost around $3,200 when it drops in the next few days.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Laptops

It’s not uncommon for electronics — and especially laptops — to begin showing some discoloration after a few months or years of wear and tear, but reports coming out of Mac forums and websites of three- and four-week old white MacBooks sporting heavy staining on the trackpads and wrist rests are causing no small amount of alarm among the Apple faithful. Having ruled out heat, smokers, and people not washing their hands enough, commenters are now starting to use ugly terms like “manufacturing defect” to explain why disparate white MacBooks are all showing signs of heavy use barely weeks out of the box, with afflicted users reportedly unable to remove the stains even armed with the harshest of cleaning agents. While it’s too soon to really gauge the scope of this supposed problem, if we owned a MacBook we might start using external input devices just to be safe, and if we were in the market for a new one, well, we might even drop the extra loot for that fancy — and seemingly stain-resistant — black edition.

[Thanks, Calamier]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Laptops, Media PCs

Along with the 15.4-inch 5670 and 20.1-inch 9800 notebooks that we'd already known about, Acer formally unveiled at Computex two other HD-DVD- and Centrino Duo-toting models from the Aspire line that we hadn't seen before: the 17-inch 9510 and 15.4-inch 9110 (pictured). All four models are being billed as all-in-one multimedia centers, and with all but the 5670 sporting 1,920 x 1,080 resolutions, S/PDIF and HDCP-capable HDMI outputs, optional analog and DVB-T tuners, and of course those high-def, backwards-compatible optical drives (still waiting on those Blu-ray models, though), it sure sounds like Acer knows what it's talking about. Both of the new-new notebooks also offer up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM and nVidia graphics cards, but the 9510 rocks the GeForce Go 7900 GS with 512MB of RAM and up to 240GB of hard drive space, while the 9110 has to settle for the GeForce Go 7600 with 256MB of RAM and a HDD that maxes out at 120GB. Unfortunately, Acer was so busy selling us on the benefits of all these new machines that they forgot a few important details, so both pricing and release dates for each and every one remain a big fat mystery for now.

[Via Notebook Review]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Laptops, Storage

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Laptops

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Laptops

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Laptops

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Laptops

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments