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notebooks

Ubuntu on an Acer notebook--in Singapore

This deal isn't necessarily practical unless you plan on swinging by Memory World in Singapore relatively soon, but the electronics seller is advertising an exclusive Acer Aspire notebook preloaded with Ubuntu for about $660 ($999 Singapore dollars). (Link courtesy of SingpaporeHardwareZone.com)

But even for those of us non-locals, it's definitely interesting. It makes us wonder if Acer might be considering Ubuntu as a preinstalled option for U.S. customers too. Company spokeswoman Alison Williams said, "For now, Acer America (U.S., Canada, etc.) has no plans for Ubuntu on our Aspire or TravelMate PC lines." … Read more

Battery maker for electric cars retools

Valence Technology won't go it alone.

The company, which is angling to sell lithium ion battery markets to vehicle makers, has signed a licensing deal with Lishen Battery Stock Co. to help it gets its batteries quicker to market, said CEO Bob Kanode in a recent interview with News.com

Under the deal, Valence will sell its lithium powder to Lishen. Lishen in turn make battery cells out of the material and sell them back to Valence. Valence will then take the cells and make battery packs that it will sell for use in electric cars, military vehicles or … Read more

Another helping of Ubuntu for Dell

Dell's showing Linux a little more love this week.

Two more of Dell's consumer PCs now can be preloaded with the Ubuntu version of the open-source operating system, the company announced Wednesday. The Inspiron 1420N notebook and Inspiron 530N desktop can be ordered with Ubuntu 7.04, bringing the company's Linux-based offerings to five. Last month, Dell said the E520n desktop, E1505n notebook and XPS 410n desktop would come with Ubuntu.

Dell says the new offerings are again in response to customer feedback. The Round Rock, Texas, company has attempted to engage better with customers in recent … Read more

Gateway recalls notebook batteries

Gateway is recalling 14,000 lithium-ion notebook batteries, the company said Tuesday.

The announcement comes after four reports of Gateway notebooks overheating over the last few years. One of the incidents caused "minor property damage," according to Gateway. The batteries in question are used in two models of its notebooks, the 400VTX and 450ROG, sold in the U.S. between May and August 2003.

"The root cause of this battery failure became apparent as the batteries aged and performed repetitive recharging cycles. After an in-depth analysis of the four reported incidents, Gateway took proactive measures to launch … Read more

Why you should pay attention to product recalls

Here's a good rule of thumb: when a product is recalled for, say, bursting into flames, take the time to get the replacement.

A Toshiba laptop containing a recalled Sony battery caught fire and burned a desk in Great Britain last month, Toshiba said today. The laptop maker asked Sony to investigate the incident, and a short circuit in the battery pack was deemed the culprit. Toshiba says it will reach out to customers to ensure they are aware of the potential danger of continuing use of recalled batteries. A list of 28 models of affected laptop will be … Read more

Notebook shipments push PC market growth

Stronger-than-expected notebook shipments in the beginning of the year should push the overall growth of the PC market higher than previously anticipated, according to market research firm iSuppli.

The worldwide PC industry is expected to reach 264 million units in 2007, up 11.2 percent from 239 million units shipped last year, according to iSuppli. The previous estimate was 10.7 percent growth for the year.

The firm, which periodically issues forecasts for a variety of markets, said Monday that shipments of notebook PCs in the first quarter of 2007 were up 23 percent, 3 percent higher than previously anticipated. … Read more

Notebook PCs for the accident-prone

Mobile computing can be a haphazard business, and new notebooks from General Dynamics and Panasonic give their owners permission to drop them (from a reasonable distance) as often as they like.

General Dynamics' GoBook MR-1 claims to be the smallest fully rugged ultramobile PC, and it may very well be. It weighs 2 pounds, and is about the size of a small jewelry box. It was made to have all the same features and capabilities of the full-size GoBook XR-1 but in a more compact form factor. That means four wireless connections: Wireless LAN, Bluetooth, GPS, and Wireless Wide Area … Read more

Zoho Notebook ate my homework

Zoho released its Notebook service today, better rounding off its suite of Web-based productivity tools. Zoho Notebook (more here) is really more like a scrapbook than a notebook. You can add spreadsheets and word processing files from your Zoho folders. Even more fun is Zoho's capacity to hold songs and video--as well as Web pages and RSS feeds--from a hard drive or from around the Internet.

The capability to share your stuff with other people makes Notebook a potentially cool tool for group projects at school or work. Chatting with other users in addition to recording and playing audio … Read more

Dell confirms rumors, will build tablet PC

Dell confirmed Friday that it will sell a tablet PC before the end of year.

Jeff Clarke, senior vice president and general manager of Dell's business product group, made the announcement in a short video posted to the company's Direct2Dell blog.

"I'm here to end much speculation in the industry about our plans in the tablet marketplace," says a casually attired Clarke, while holding the tablet. The device will be a Latitude tablet PC designed specifically for the education, health care and corporate markets, he said.

On the video, Clarke gives a brief demo and … Read more