Laptops

Gaming laptop specialist WidowPC is gunning for Dell big time in an old-fashioned Texas shootout. Just a few miles down Interstate 35 from Dell's worldwide headquarters, Austin-based WidowPC just announced a new laptop that it claims is less expensive than comparable models from its gigantic competitor while performing just as well.

Fosfor Gadgets says the top-of-the-line Sting 517D features a 17-inch wide screen, Intel's latest Core 2 Duo Merom processor, up to 4GB of high-speed memory, a 200GB SATA hard drive, "the industry's fastest gaming video card" from Nvidia and "lifetime tech support from … Read more

We've seen red, green, brown and certainly pink, so why not just throw in the rest of the color wheel?

That, apparently, was the philosophy behind Sony's latest designs for their VAIO notebooks. Gizmodo gives us the lowdown: "The mid-range C-Series (starts at $1,150) gets Green/Red Storm, Angel, Blue Streaks, and Pink Swirl makeovers while the desktop replacement AR Series (starts at $2,270) gets Green Streaks and Orbit."

The old battleship gray is starting to look better and better all the time.

You may have seen something like this at a hotel or airport, but now it could be coming to your home (if you have an understanding spousal unit or significant other).

The Ronda Media Chair has a built-in computer with a router integrated into the frame and a power cord in the back. As Coolest Gadgets points out, no prices are available without asking the company directly.

The Ronda also includes optional creature comforts such as a matching two-seater bench or end table. If they can figure out a way to build in a coffee maker and a fridge, we'… Read more

It seems as if the $100 laptop (give or take a few bucks) has been discussed forever, but the first ones appear to have finally been built and shipped. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project says it has received its first 10 from Quanta, its Taiwanese manufacturing partner.

The project is still in a beta stage, as the first 10 "B1" laptops were hand-assembled before a larger 900-unit run, according to the OLPC Wiki. Pictures were also available on the project's news Web site.

The B1 laptops run Linux and come with AMD's Geode processor, … Read more

Expectations for the Tablet PC have fallen a bit in recent years, after the breathless predictions of the Tablet PC revolution from a few years ago. Only about 1 million tablets will be sold this year, out of more than 200 million overall PC sales.

Still, PC companies continue to offer doodlers and creative types a way to digitally capture their scribblings. Lenovo's got a new ThinkPad Tablet PC, the X60, that comes with a new display technology that is supposed to be easier to see under the glare from the sun.

The 12-inch screen also comes with what … Read more

Circuit City is celebrating the holiday season with price wars.

The retail chain will try to best Wal-Mart and Staples with a Compaq notebook for $299 after rebates, or $99 with rebates and a 12-month subscription to Vonage, according to Black Friday 2006. The bargain-hunting site posts scans of Sunday advertising inserts before they're delivered with newspapers.

Wal-Mart and Staples have come out with $398 and $399 Compaq laptops. The Circuit City notebook is similar, though it comes with a Celeron processor from Intel rather than a chip from Advanced Micro Devices. It also contains a drive that burns … Read more

If there's one thing every laptop junkie can always use, it's better posture. Yet conventional computer stands that adjust angles can go only so far.

For one thing, what do you do when you want to surf while lying on your back? So far as we know, no one has invented a suspension system that would lower your laptop from the ceiling a la Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 3.

But now there's finally some help for us, the terminally lazy: A gravity-defying laptop stand that goes by the classically butchered Japanese-English hybrid name of "Easy Desk Aluminum.&… Read more

Not feeling Denise Richards-style laptop rage? Not down for paying to promote a TLC show on your tech? Here's how to give your laptop some custom love thanks to Craft magazine's blog.

I'm dying to try this, but sadly, I don't think I'll be able to find any Sharpie color that will show up against my old-school black IBM laptop. White (read: Apple) laptop owners only need apply. (Did anyone else think they were hip enough, anyway?)

If you're curious about what an exploding laptop looks like, have we got a YouTube video for you. Since actually being on hand with a video camera at the exact moment a laptop battery decides to flame out is a one-in-a-million shot, the guys over at PCPitStop decided to deliberately overload a Li-ON battery pack to see what would happen.

The first cell blows out in a puff of smoke, blowing a hole in the wrist rest of this generic laptop. It takes a bit longer for the actual flames to break out, but once they do, it's … Read more