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Sony finally admits NVIDIA chips are borking its laptops, offers free repair
Last summer, while Dell and HP were busy pinpointing and replacing faulty NVIDIA chips in their notebooks, Sony was adamant that its superior products were unaffected by the dreaded faulty GPU packaging. Well, after extensive support forum chatter about its laptops blanking out, distorting images and showing random characters, the Japanese company has finally relented and admitted that "a small percentage" of its VAIO range is indeed afflicted by the issue. That small percentage comes from the FZ, AR, C, LM and LT model lines, and Sony is offering to repair yours for free within four years of the purchase date, irrespective of warranty status. Kudos go to Sony for (eventually) addressing the problem, but if you're NVIDIA, don't you have to stop calling this a "small distraction" when it keeps tarnishing your reputation a full year after it emerged? [Thanks, Jonas]
Sony set to introduce VAIO FZ2 laptops
It's not all that long ago that Sony bumped its VAIO FZ laptops into Santa Rosa territory, but it seems that the company is planning to expand the line even further, with Notebook Italia today getting word of a pair of new FZ2 series laptops. As with its current FZ offerings, these new laptops will each pack 15.4-inch WXGA displays, but they get an upgrade in the processor department to your choice of Core 2 Duo T7250 or T7500, along with NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GT graphics on the higher-end of the two, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and your choice of Blu-ray or DVD combo drives. No word on a release date just yet, it seems, but they'll apparently set you back $1,299 or $1,399 depending on the configuration.[Thanks, Laura]
Sony's VAIO FZ series: Blu-ray action in your lap
Nah, it shouldn't surprise you one bit that Sony's officially squeezing in yet another option in the VAIO laptop lineup, but this 15.4-incher packs a media-centric attitude into a (debatably) lightweight package, and moreover, sports a pricetag that's very un-VAIO-like. Aside from the typical black / silver motif, you'll notice a widescreen XBRITE display, a bevy of multimedia controls atop the keyboard, Intel's Core 2 Duo processors, NVIDIA's GeForce 8400M graphics card, support for 802.11n, HDMI out, audio in / out, USB 2.0, VGA and S-Video outs, 4-pin FireWire, and the obligatory Blu-ray drive for watching HD flicks on the go. Additionally, the FZ will include an integrated webcam, LocationFree placeshifting niceties, an ExpressCard slot, and a Memory Stick reader. Fortunately for you, this fairly well appointed machine won't break the bank as you may expect, as the non-BD-equipped rendition will start at $1,400, while the "Premium" flavor comes in just $2,000.
