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GeForce 9400M to hit notebooks from five major vendors, mock Intel
Now that NVIDIA's GeForce 9400M has made its debut in Apple's new MacBooks, Technical Marketing Director Nick Stam says that five major notebook vendors are planning to ship systems with the chipset -- though we don't know if that includes Apple or not. Stam expects NVIDIA will carve out 30 percent of the integrated graphics market for itself, partly by improving other experiences besides games -- Google Earth, photo editing, day-to-day video encoding, and other activities performed by people who use keys besides W, A, S, and D. Frankly, we're just thankful we've evolved past the days when we needed a 19-inch monster to perform high-impact 3D tasks without sacrificing to the sinister gods of screen tearing.
Intel's Clarksfield to begin production in second half of 2009
Penryn-based Montevina just hit the streets a few months ago, but hardware geeks are fickle fellows, so Intel said today that Clarksfield, its Nehalem-based mobile CPU, will go into production in the second half of next year; sadly, there was no word on when the chips will actually be available to consumers in the Calpella platform, which (rumor has it) will have built-in WiMAX. Clarksfield will include an onboard memory controller and a bunch of other new techs like its desktop brethren, so the promise of performance gains comparable to what we've seen in the desktop benchmarks is there -- we'll just have to wait at least a year to enjoy them, so get comfy.
OLPC America will bring XO to the US
Proving once again that he's still got love for the home team, Nick Negroponte has announced the impending launch of OLPC America, a division of the organization with its own director and chairman that will bring low-cost laptops to US students. According to an IDG interview with Negroponte, distributing the XO stateside has always been in the plans, arguing that "to have the United States be the only country that's not in the OLPC agenda would be kind of ridiculous." Besides helping out kids at home, NickNeg anticipates that a domestic deployment will accelerate the project to critical mass in terms of adoption, software, and developer support. OLPC America will reportedly work with individual state governments to handle the details of the disbursement, although specifics of the plan will remain under wraps until the official launch later this year.[Via Slashdot]
Asus M70S and M50S notebooks boast 1TB of storage
As you may have read in our coverage of Hitachi's new 5K500 2.5-inch 500GB drive, Asus will be the first manufacturer to pack a pair of these capacious components into a set of upcoming widescreen models, giving the 17-inch M70S and 15-inch M50S the distinguished honor of being the world's first one terabyte laptops. Besides those oddly-sized drives (which can configured in either RAID 0 or RAID 1), these machines will also offer up to WUXGA or WSXGA+ resolutions (for the M70 and M50, respectively), 2.4GHz T7700 Core 2 Duo processors, AMD ATI Radeon HD 3650 graphics, and a fingerprint reader, along with an optional hybrid TV tuner and remote. As usual, the good stuff (pictures, pricing) will be coming in a few days at the Show of Shows.
Dell releases Inspiron 1525 in the US
Well it missed a 2007 release by just days, but now Dell's Inspiron 1525 -- upgrade to the 15.4-inch 1521 -- is finally available for purchase in the US, starting at just $500. Of course, it'll cost quite a bit more to configure one of these colorful rigs to a power user's specifications, and even then, you're capped off at a 1,200 x 800 screen resolution being pushed by integrated graphics. Still, even the starter model provides quite a few nice features, including integrated 2 megapixel webcam, travel remote, HDMI port, and perhaps most exciting of all, built-in Wireless USB. You can hit up the Read link for more info and instructions on how to order.
Acer finally gets sucked into Sony battery recall
You've got to hand it to Acer for holding strong while lesser manufacturers folded in the face of cries over "consumer safety," but the Taiwanese giant has finally caved and issued a voluntary recall of about 27,000 Sony-made laptop batteries over eight months after Dell pulled back the first four million,and half a year following its initial consultations with Sony. Affected models include a slew of TravelMate and Aspire notebooks sold between May 2004 and November 2006, so Acer owners should hit the Read link to match up serial numbers -- and then shutdown immediately in favor of AC power if they do happen to sport one of the explosion-prone packs. As usual, the company will replace your battery for free as long as you visit the proper site or dial the toll-free blah blah blah...can we finally put this meme to bed already?
HP releases no-frills HP 510 notebook
Not everyone is down with latest and greatest hardware -- or they just can't afford it -- and it's definitely not the dual-core-and-SLI crowd HP is targeting with its new HP 510 laptop. The 15-incher features just about what you'd expect from a $565 notebook computer, so specs like 'Celeron M.' 'integrated graphics,' and '1GB max RAM' should come as little surprise. You're still getting all the basics here, though, including a 60GB hard drive, b/g WiFi, a passable WXGA resolution and 512MB of RAM, and a DVD combo drive. Not one we'd show off to the ladies or anything, but it'll get the job done, and it's available immediately. [Via PC Launches]
BenQ Joybook R42: first laptop without RAM and a hard drive?
So we're all for brevity when it comes to press releases, but you'd think that if BenQ actually wanted people to buy its new Joybook R42, it would at least advertise such nontrivial features as the machine's RAM, hard drive capacity, or -- and this is a biggie -- the darn thing's screen size and resolution. We can only assume that all of the company's writers have been locked up in this insider trading nastiness, because how else to explain a three paragraph release that wastes two-thirds of the space extolling the virtues of the "sophisticated" cooling system and "vibrant" display whose measurements shall not be spoken? Despite BenQ's stinginess with the deets, we can extrapolate from past models that the R42 features a 14.1-inch LCD, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, dual-layer DVD burner, probably 1GB of RAM, maybe 160GB of storage max, and -- the only thing we learned from the crummy PR -- some variety of Core 2 Duo processor with Via integrated graphics. As for price and release date? Ha, that's rich; right now BenQ execs are probably more worried about posting bail than getting this into your hands.Update: No, we're not complete idiots: that specifications table really did show up after this post was published. The big news, however, is that our initial guesses were almost right on the money; the only extra info we've gleaned is that the screen resolution is 1,280 x 800 and your hard drive options max out at 120GB, not 160GB.[Via PC Launches]
Everex's StepNote VA7500J: another cheap Vista laptop
If you're looking for a Vista laptop on the cheap, but Everex's $500 StepNote VA4101M actually slides in under your budget, the company has released a new model with all the upgrades that $70 can buy. Specs on the StepNote VA7500J are almost identical to its recent sibling, including a 15.4-inch, WXGA display, 512MB of RAM, a 60GB hard drive, integrated graphics, and 802.11b/g. In fact, the only difference between the two units seems to be the CPU, with the 4101M rocking a 1.46GHz Centrino M while the 7500J sports a 1.5GHz VIA C7-M. Not much else to say about this bargain basement notebook, other than the fact that's it's only available in Japan for a cool 69,800 yen ($570).
BenQ gifts Joybooks with Vista
Having decided that it would be marketplace suicide to continue offering an all-XP lineup while the rest of its competitors were loading their machines up with Vista, BenQ has joined a growing list of manufacturers in adding Microsoft's brand new OS to a trio of its Joybook laptops. As with most of the other Vista upgrades we've seen, specs on the R55V, S73V, and S31V remain almost identical to those on the models' non-"V"-labeled counterparts (the R55, S73 (pictured), and S31, respectively). To wit, you're still getting a Core 2 Duo processor and NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 graphics on the 15.4-inch R55V, while the 14.1-inch S73V maintains its predecessor's dual core chip and ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 video card. As you might expect, nothing much has changed with the 13.3-inch Joybook S31V either; it's still a Centrino Duo-based system featuring a 1.3 megapixel webcam and SRS TruSurround XT audio. Expect these models to hit foreign shelves sometime within the next few weeks (along with Vista itself, of course) for perhaps a slight premium over the older, dustier XP-powered notebooks.
Canadian lawsuit pegs Dell for knowingly selling defective laptops
Sure, it's a new year, but it's the same ole problems for Dell. Yet again the Texas powerhouse is facing a lawsuit claiming that the company knowingly and willingly sold laptops to loyal buyers even though they were defective, and this time it's coming from our northerly neighbors. A group of Canucks who purchased toasty Dell lappies have slapped some legal action on Dell through the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, and the filing claims that "Dell was negligent in designing the computers and sold them even though the company knew of the problems." The models in question reportedly include the 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150 and 5160 models of the Inspiron, and rather than focusing on batteries that erupted in their laps, it claims that the "notebooks suffer from design defects that cause premature failure of the motherboard due to overheating just after the one-year warranty expires." As expected, a Dell spokesperson didn't have a comment on the pending suit, but we're sure it'll be a bit more diligent to show up in court than in previous scenarios.[Via Inquirer]
Switched On: The $100 laptop challenge, eBay-style
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: This was a big year for the $100 notebook computer, a concept popularized by the One Laptop Per Child organization for developing economies. However, not all $100 PCs are targeted toward the needy. During Black Friday, one retailer offered a $100 Compaq laptop after rebates and a Vonage VoIP phone subscription. But what can Benny get you in a portable computer if you're not buying educational aids in the millions or lining up at storefronts mere hours after polishing off the pumpkin pie? Finding the answer would require acute knowledge of the technology market, keen insight into seller psychology, and about seven solid minutes of online research at the internet's garage sale, eBay. Here were the demanding ground rules. To keep the experience as close as possible to a retail purchase, the notebook had to have a "Buy It Now" price of $100 or less. It had to be functional upon delivery (no "parts" PCs), including a hard drive and AC adapter, and had to be able to run a "modern" consumer operating system (Winodws XP or Mac OS X) with, at most, a RAM upgrade. For PCs, I used a Pentium III or Celeron as a rough proxy for this capability. Let's see how I did.
Foxconn to build more Apple Notebooks
MacNN reports that Hon Hai Precision Industry (aka "Foxconn Electronics") has won a new contract with Apple to produce a line of Mac notebooks. The actual notebook line in question is still unclear. MacNN notes that the company will ship about 3.2 million notebooks in 2007, of which the Apple order only makes up a part. If the name of this manufacturing company sounds familiar, it's probably because of our recent story about Foxconn reportedly winning the iPhone handset contact. Foxconn has also built has had contracts to build has had TUAW stories about having possibly having had contracts to possibly build in a theoretical way only Mac Minis, Powerbooks and iBook G4s for Apple in the past.
Toshiba serves up a Merom-powered Satellite P100 configuration
What a time to be alive for the discriminating gamer: not only has next-gen console madness begun sweeping the country prior to the PS3 and Wii launches, even PC manufacturers are dropping some impressive hardware, with Toshiba offering up a Merom-powered version of its Satellite P100 hot on the heels of Dell's quad-core XPS 710 desktop. Besides a dual-core 2.0GHz T7200 CPU, the 17-inch P100-ST9742 also brings a 1,680 x 1,050 resolution, top-of-the-line NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GTX graphics, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 100GB, 7,200RPM hard drive, 5-in-1 card reader, DVD SuperDuperMulti drive, and three-flavor WiFi plus Bluetooth. On the connection tip, this 7.1-pound machine delivers four USB 2.0 ports along with RGB, S-video, DVI, FireWire, S/PDIF, and both PCMCIA and ExpressCard slots. Getting your frag on Toshiba-style will set you back $2,900, and for now, this system is available exclusively through the company's website.[Via The Inquirer]
Third time's a charm: OLPC notebook now called XO
Now we love hugs and kisses as much as the next guy -- wait, that didn't come out right -- but when it comes to naming computing devices that will be used by millions of children worldwide, we think that the esteemed Nicholas Negroponte could have come up with a better one for his beloved machine than "XO." Like CM1, for instance. Or 2B1. Oh wait, those names for the string-powered OLPC notebook have already been tried and discarded -- NickNeg may be a whiz at marketing "The Children's Machine" to developing countries, but it seems that he could still use a lesson or two in branding. For the third time in only two months, the product-formerly-known-as-the-hundred-dollar-laptop has undergone yet another name change, with Fortune's senior editor now referring to it as the XO -- a title so new, it hasn't even made it to the OLPC wiki page yet. No explanation is given as to why this device has undergone such an unusual number of rebrandings -- especially for a non-commercial product -- and we imagine that more than a few people are getting confused by the habitual changes in its specs and titles. Still, the major issue here is not what it's called but what it could be able to achieve -- well that, and avoiding anymore price hikes, because if these little wonders get much more expensive, Qadaffi and friends might be better off buying a Dell, dude.[Via OLPC News]
Dell's XPS M1710 notebook gets overclockable Core 2 Duo
One of the fastest portable gaming rigs on the planet is about to get even faster. Along with the two LCD TVs and 20-inch LCD monitor we already brought you, Dell will also be introducing a new version of the 17.1-inch XPS M1710 laptop at DigitalLife later today, its first tweak to this lineup since swallowing up VoodooPC. Whereas the first generation M1710 featured a Core Duo processor and GeForce Go 7900 graphics, the new model will sport your choice of Core 2 Duo T7600G or T7200 CPUs and 512MB GeForce Go 7950 GTX or 256MB GeForce Go 7900 GS cards from nVIDIA. If you go with the higher-end, $3,498 configuration, Dell is also throwing in the ability to overclock the dual-core processor on your own -- just as it did with the XPS 700 desktop. Both the pricier and $2,299 "budget" configs will also rock a brand new feature that will be sure to delight modding and disco enthusiasts alike: XPS LightFX technology that lets you sync up the systems' 16-color lights to whatever game you're playing or music you're listening to. With a blazing processor, powerful graphics chipset, WUXGA resolution, and a bunch of blinking LEDs, the new M1710 sounds like it could very well consume every last minute of your free time -- say goodbye to sunlight and fresh air for good.
CPSC: Sony recall will include laptop batteries only
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.
More Acer Ferrari laptops: the 1005WTMi and 5005WLHi
We never really expected Acer's Ferrari lineup of notebooks to sell all that well, but once again we've been proven wrong, as the company has apparently sold enough of these overpriced machines to warrant spec bumps for both the 1000 and 5000 series. First up is the revamped 12.1-inch 1005WTMi, which packs a pretty decent feature set for a 3.6-pound ultraportable, including a 2.0GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 processor, ATI Mobility Radeon X1150 graphics with 512MB of VRAM, a full 2GB of DDR2 RAM, 160GB worth of HDD capacity, and of course, Bluetooth 2.0 and three-flavor WiFi standard. As for the 15.4-inch, WSXGA+ 5005WLHi (pictured), you're getting the same CPU, RAM, and HDD configurations as the 1005, but video is handled by a 256MB ATI X1600 chipset; the real draw, though, is the new HD DVD drive, which is backed by an HDMI port for outputting those high-def vids to a bigger screen. No word yet on pricing or availability, though if past Ferrari-themed laptops have taught us anything, you'll be paying a pretty penny for that carbon fiber case and snazzy galloping horse logo. Keep reading to check out the 1005, but really, once you've seen one of these notebooks you've basically seen them all...
HP's Compaq business notebooks get the Merom touch
Oh, how we love new processor releases. Just when you think that you have every last spec-bumped PC covered, along comes HP with Core 2 Duo options for nearly all of its business-oriented Compaq notebooks. As we've seen almost all of these models before, you're probably quite familiar with their features, so we'll gloss over those and instead concentrate on the five new CPUs available to each machine. Starting at the low end we have the 15.4-inch nx7400 series, which along with the previous Celeron M, Core Solo, and Core Duo configurations, now offers you a choice of the 1.66GHz T5500, 1.83GHz T5600, 2.0GHz T7200, 2.16GHz T7400, or 2.33GHz T7600 flavors of Merom. Next up are the nx6320 and nc6320 members of the 6300 series, which retain their respective 14.1-inch and 15-inch screens, but add the same Core 2 Duo options as the nx7400. Then we have the 14.1-inch widescreen nc6400, which used to only offer Core Solo and Duo processors, and now (guess what?) gives you all the Merom you can handle. A little higher up on the food chain are the 17-inch nx9420 (pictured) and 15.4-inch nx8420 and nc8430 notebooks, once highlighted by their 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 GPUs, and now best known for their Core 2 Duo configurability. Finally, the last machines to get the Merom bump are the 4400 series, a set of 12.1-inch ultraportables that ship as either regular notebooks or convertible tablets. That's all for now folks, but like a bad penny, these re-speced laptops promise to keep turning up no matter how hard we will the deluge to end.[Via MobileMag]
Velocity Micro's Merom-powered NoteMagix L80
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]
