Laptops

Loose lips sinking the secret Santa Rosa ship

It's hard to keep a tech secret these days. Some would say impossible, thanks to the army of blogs on the Internet looking to grab eyeballs with any bit of leaked information or speculation they can find.

While the average consumer may not be as excited about the May 9 release of the first wave of laptops with Intel's Santa Rosa platform as one would be about, say, a new video game console, the torrent of leaked specs and models appearing online are interesting, even if just because it's information you're not supposed to know.

Otherwise … Read more

Leaked: New Sony laptops

As Lenovo can attest, it's tough to keep a secret in the Internet age. Today Sony joined the club of PC makers with leaked product plans, as forum posters at NotebookReview uncovered details of new Vaio laptops buried deep on Sony's European site.

The new models, reportedly due in July, will include the 11.1-inch ultraportable TZ11 (a follow-up to the existing TX series), the 13.3-inch SZ5, and two new models in the 15.4-inch FZ series. In addition to refreshing the systems with Intel's new Santa Rosa chipset and X3100 graphics, Sony will also be … Read more

Mac vs. PC: A fight to the death!

Hear ye! Hear ye! Before us we have two gallant fighters preparing to do bloody battle for our affections. In the orange corner we have Baron Vista, representing Windows' finest, and in the black corner is Count OS X, representing Apple.

That's right, we're doing Mac vs. PC, Crave UK-style: in tights. Gasp in fear as Vista approaches OS X, questions his parentage and slaps a heavy gauntlet across the Count's supple, moisturised face. Feel your heart race as OS X swings his sword with reckless abandon, and scream in desperation as Vista counters with a barrage … Read more

Lenovo's Olympic laptop

That didn't take long. Just yesterday, Lenovo hinted at a press conference that the "Cloud of Promise" design on its Olympic torch might be used on future computers. Now, only a day later, the first of them has appeared in the form of a laptop.

The "Xiang" notebook is reportedly the product of a partnership with gold medalist Liu Xiang, though not much else is known about it, including any specs. Coolest-Gadgets says it's just one of a line of products designed to promote Lenovo's partnership with the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, … Read more

Apple issues fix for notebook battery issues

Apple is advising all owners of MacBooks or MacBook Pros bought after February 2006 to download a software update that will help fix some battery issues.

The update, available through Software Update in the Apple menu or here on Apple's site, was released to correct some battery performance problems, such as shorter than usual battery life or problems charging the battery, according to a Web page on the support section of Apple's site.

But if that fix doesn't work, notebook users should contact Apple to have their battery replaced if they notice the following symptoms, cut and … Read more

Battle of the giraffe-necked laptops

As fond as we are of Philips designs, we're a bit curious about the origins of its new "Longneck" laptop. The photos we've seen look awfully similar to images of the "FlyBook VM" from Japan's Dialogue that were widely circulated last December.

But no matter. Philips has done what Dialogue didn't, which is offer the computer at a bearable price. With what seem to be comparable specs--an extendable 12.1-inch widescreen LCD, Intel Core Duo chip, 1GB of memory and a 100GB hard drive--for just under $1,700, according to Tech Digest. … Read more

Acer recalls 27,000 notebook batteries

The notebook battery recall isn't over yet.

Acer, the fast-growing Taiwanese PC maker, announced on Wednesday a voluntary recall of 27,000 lithium ion notebook batteries made by Sony. A danger exists that the batteries can short-circuit and burst into flames.

Millions of notebook batteries produced by Sony have been recalled since last year. Acer was one of the few major companies not impacted by the battery recall to date. Apple, Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba have all had to recall batteries.

The Acer TravelMate notebooks containing the batteries subject to the recall were sold from May 2004 through November … Read more

Nokia N800 Internet Tablet

As I sit in front of my computer, a torrent of dread washing over me as I think of my upcoming root canal, I think of what sort of thing I can buy myself to distract me from the approaching ouch. The answer, of course, is sleek mobile web surfing in the form of the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet! Supporting both WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity this little guy will be a grand companion as I lie in bed and think about how much I'd really like to eat a sandwich. The best part is that it's priced under $… Read more

Hitachi ships its terabyte drive

If you've got $399 and a burning need to story 1 terabyte of data, Hitachi has the drive for you.

The Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 hard drive from Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is now available at retailers like CDW for a suggested retail price of $399. The company announced the drive earlier.

Although hard drive makers compete in a difficult market that often results in losses for many companies, their engineers nonetheless move at a blistering pace. Hard drive capacity continues to double about every two years, which leads to higher capacity at lower prices.

How much is a terabyte? … Read more

Spotted: Lenovos with Centrino Pro

NotebookReview pointed us to spec lists for the refreshed ThinkPad T61 and ThinkPad R61, both of which will be built on the platform formerly known as Santa Rosa. The announcement is limited to new configurations for the Asia Pacific region, but we don't think it much of a stretch to assume we'll see similar Centrino Pro ThinkPads in the States.

One of the most intriguing features listed on the Lenovo page is the "Intel Turbo Memory 1GB hard drive for faster performance." We assume this is the official name for the Robson caching technology Intel demonstrated … Read more