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Just in time for the Windows 7 invasion, Toshiba has announced a new line of slim laptops, dubbed the T100 series. With Intel ultra-low-voltage processors (or ULV), the 13.3-inch T135 and 11.6-inch T115 are both less than one inch thick, have LED displays, and multi-touch touchpads.

Like other recent Toshiba laptops, they have the useful sleep-and-charge feature, which lets you use a USB port to charge iPods and other devices, even when the system is asleep or off.

Here are some basic specs for the two new models, and stay tuned for a full review of the 13-inch T135, currently undergoing testing in the CNET Labs. Both will be available starting October 22.

Toshiba Satellite T135, starting at $599

The 13-inch T135

(Credit: Toshiba)

• 13.3-inch diagonal widescreen HD TruBrite LED Backlit display
• Windows 7 Home Premium operating system
• Intel Pentium SU4100 processor or Intel Pentium SU2700 processor
• DDR3 RAM, upgradeable to 8GB
• Starting at 250GB (5400 RPM) HDD
• 802.11b/g/n wireless and 10/100 Ethernet
• Bluetooth V2.1 + EDR (available on select models)
• Toshiba Hard Drive Impact Sensor
• Touch Pad with Multi-touch Control
• 3.88 lbs.
• 6-cell battery
• eSATA/USB combo port with USB Sleep-and-Charge
• HDMI port
• Built-in Webcam with Toshiba Face Recognition, stereo speakers and microphone
• 5-in-1 Memory Card Reader Slot

Toshiba Satellite T115, starting at $449

The 11.6-inch T115

(Credit: Toshiba)

• 11.6-inch diagonal widescreen HD TruBrite LED Backlit display
• Windows 7 Home Premium operating system
• Intel Pentium processor SU4100 or Intel Celeron processor 7435
• Starting at 250GB (5400 RPM) HDD7
• 802.11b/g/n wireless8 10/100 Ethernet
• Toshiba Hard Drive Impact Sensor
• Touch Pad with Multi-touch Control
• 3.49 lbs.
• 6-cell battery
• eSATA/USB combo port with USB Sleep-and-Charge
• HDMI port
• Built-in Webcam with Toshiba Face Recognition, stereo speakers and microphone
• 5-in-1 Memory Card Reader Slot

EF 100mm f2.8 L IS USM

(Credit: Canon)

With Canon's announcement of the new Hybrid IS EF 100mm f2.8 L Macro IS USM lens, Canon has made two firsts: it's the first EF lens to offer Canon's new Hybrid IS technology, and also the first EOS macro lens to offer Image Stabilization. The new Hybrid IS system features up to four stops of correction of camera shake. Low friction ceramic balls support the lens elements to allow for smoother movements when correcting for camera during macro shooting, which requires very subtle corrections.

Besides being the first new Hybrid IS lens it is also the first EOS macro lens to offer Image Stabilization at all. Allowing for many great close-up shots to be taken without a tripod, superb for nature photographers where carrying a tripod is not always easy or convenient.

The new L series professional-grade lens features dust and weather seals, as all L series lenses do. It has a nine-blade, circular aperture for a pleasing bokeh, or background blur in photos taken with a wide aperture. There are ultralow dispersion (UD) lens elements to correct color and minimize chromatic aberrations. Super Spectra coating for improved contrast and reducing glare and lens flare. A high-speed USM autofocus motor for fast, silent AF. Specific to it's macro design is a three position focus limiter switch to tailor the focus range to shooting conditions.

There are several accessories supported by the 100mm Macro IS, such as the Tripod Mount D, Macro Lite adapter 67, Lens Hood ET-73, and the EF12 II and the EF25 II extension tubes.

The EF 100mm f2.8 L Macro IS USM lens with be available in September 2009 for about $1,050.

Apple QuickTake 100

Recently Apple has been shaking up the digital imaging space. There are persistent rumors that the upcoming line of iPods, probably coming in September, will have a camera and/or camcorder features. Indeed the iPhone is quickly becoming the "camera" of choice for photos on Flickr, and some are speculating that video-shooting iPhones (and possibly iPods) could hurt the Flip Mino and it's kind. Of course what many forget is that Apple isn't a newcomer to the camera market. In fact, the company released one of the first consumer digital cameras a decade and a half ago: the Apple QuickTake 100.

Codenamed project Venus, the Apple QuickTake 100 was launched at the Tokyo Mac World in February 1994, and available that May for $749. It was made jointly with Eastman Kodak and built by Chinon Industries. Kodak's self-branded version had already been on the market for over a year. Fully automatic and sold as an easy-to-use digital camera for consumers, one of the first available.

Apple QuickTake 100 photos

It had a binocular-style design, weighing 1 pound, with a 0.3 MP, 640x480 maximum resolution. Enough resolution to fill the screen on the 13-inch VGA monitors of the day. Power was from three AA batteries. The camera was only Mac-compatible, and connected to any Mac via a serial port. It was very easy to connect, a big deal at the time when most cameras used a SCSI connection (remember SCSI?). All you had to do was just plug it into a modem or printer port (no USB yet). The QuickTake 100 had 1MB of flash memory, no removable memory, it held 8 images at full resolution, or 32 images at 320x240.

All photos were 24-bit color, capitalizing on the Mac's ability to handle 24-bit color depth. There was no preview screen; images had to be downloaded to be viewed. Without a preview screen there was no way to delete individual images, only a Trash button that deleted everything. There was a monochrome LCD display for status information only.

An optical viewfinder was used for composing photos. No autofocus; the lens was fixed focus, with a range from 4 feet to infinity. The 8mm lens is equivalent to a 50mm lens on 35mm format. The lens was fixed-focus, so there was no zooming ability. Exposure was automatic. There was a built-in flash, a tripod socket on the bottom, and the camera was capable of shutter speeds from 1/30 to 1/175 of a second. A self-timer was also available.

Images were captured in either PICT or native QuickTake formats. The QuickTake 100 came with simple software, Apple QuickTake v1.0. Images could be cropped, rotated, and saved as either TIFF, PICT, or JPEG compressed. The camera couldn't be used with OSX, only System7 through OS9, due to the fact that they used a unique compression codec that is not part of modern versions of QuickTime. Also modern Macs lack an RS-232 serial port.

The Apple QuickTake 100 was followed up by the QuickTake 150 in 1995, which added Windows connectivity. Then the QuickTake 200 in 1996; that added autofocus, aperture controls, and removable memory. The QuickTake 200 was built by Fujifilm. The QuickTake line of cameras was discontinued in 1997 not long after Steve Jobs returned to Apple. He discontinued several of their non-core-market products at the same time, the QuickTake digital cameras, the Newton PDAs, and the LaserWriter printers. Shortly after the QuickTake's release, more photographic-oriented companies, such as Kodak, Fujifilm, Canon and Nikon, began to release digital cameras.

From a review in Digital Imaging Plus from March 1994, "The Apple QuickTake 100 is a simple but well-designed sexy product which is easy and fun to use. If it catches on, it will be the forerunner of a line of products which could change the way families take pictures." One can only wonder what might have happened had it stayed around.

Back at CES 2009, Vizio announced the VBR100--a $200 Blu-ray player, complete with Profile 2.0 compatibility, 7.1 analog outputs and an April release date. Well, the April release date didn't happen, but the rest of the details are still accurate and Vizio is now planning on releasing the VBR100 as a Wal-Mart exclusive, coming in July at an even lower price of $188.

Much has changed in the Blu-ray market since January, with ultrabudget $100 players showing up and most name-brand players featuring streaming Internet content from Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Video On-Demand. The VBR100 is still an interesting product, mostly because it's the cheapest player we've seen to offer 7.1 analog outputs. That's good news for anyone on a budget looking to get a few more years out of their non-HDMI AV receiver, as you'll be able to use the VBR100's 7.1 analog outputs to take advantage of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio at their full resolution.

For more information on getting into Blu-ray on a budget, check out our Blu-ray shopping tips.

(Source: TWICE via Engadget)

(Credit: CNET/Sarah Tew)

It seems Nikon has realized the Coolpix L100's lack of support for rechargeable NiMH batteries wasn't the greenest move (or maybe it was a secret plan all along). The digital camera manufacturer announced Tuesday an eventual firmware update to correct the situation.

I get the convenience of AA batteries in pocket cameras, but the L100 requires four of them and only supports alkaline and lithium-ion disposable batteries, approximately good for 350 and 900 shots, respectively. The NiMH option will get you around 600 shots before you need to charge up.

According to Nikon, the firmware update will be available in summer 2009, making this budget point-and-shoot megazoom a more attractive option. Of course, this doesn't improve its merely OK photo quality or the fact that you can't control ISO. But for some, that comes second to having a 15x zoom lens and AA batteries as a power source.

Being released simultaneously with the firmware update are a four pack of Nikon AA NiMH batteries (EN-MH2-B4) and a charger/battery combo set.

It's big enough to sound great, and cheap enough it's a no-brainer solution for lame sounding TVs.

(Credit: Zvox)

I get letters about this all the time.

They usually go something like this: "I'm no audiophile, but can you explain why all of the new, slim, pretty, thin HDTV's sound so bad? I bought a 46-inch Samsung LN46A850 for its great picture, but when I got it home, the sound was tinny. So I bought a sound bar but it had its own issues and I don't want to use multiple remotes. Any ideas?"

The problem is mostly caused by just how skinny these TVs are: There's no room for decent speakers. More than that, I'm sorry to say that sound quality isn't a priority for TV manufacturers, and they know that most buyers accept "good enough" sound. So there's no real demand from consumers to get better sound from TVs. And I guess the manufacturers assume anyone who really cares will spring for a better sound system.

My advice: Check out Zvox speakers; I've reviewed many over the years for CNET. The best bang for the buck model is the 315. It sounds great for $199, and since you can hook it up to the TV's audio outputs, you won't need to use a separate remote (that's also true for some other manufacturers' soundbars).

Consider the 315 only if your TV has a headphone jack--or if its audio output jacks can be set to "variable." Then you'll be able to control the 315's volume with your TV's remote (the 315 doesn't have its own remote).

To learn more about the 315 check out my CNET review.

(Credit: Pocketables)

Granted, a mobile phone that transforms into a clamshell minicomputer is not novel. The premium business handset, the Nokia Communicator, immediately comes to mind. However, the LonMID M100 device by NFS is possibly the first to sport an Intel Atom chipset under the hood.

The convertible tablet design, with dimensions of 6 inches by 3.5 inches by 1 inch, brings to mind PDA models like the Sony Clie PEG-UX50 and Dopod 900. But what's unique about the M100 is that a traditional mobile phone with numeric keyboard and a 2.4-inch panel is available on the top lid for quick SMS and phone calls.

The internal 4.8-inch screen has an 800x480-pixel resolution and is powered by an 800MHz Intel Atom Z500 processor with 512MB RAM and 4GB SSD storage. Other features include Bluetooth, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, a MicroSD card slot, and USB connectivity. The unit runs on the Midinux operating system (based on Red Flag Linux), which means you won't have to contend with long Windows bootup sequences.

The LonMID M100 is currently in the prototype stage and its actual launch date and price are not available at this time.

(Credit: Pocketables)

(Source: Crave Asia via Pocketables)

Samsung kicked off CTIA by announcing a WiMax touch-screen device. At an event at the swanky Wynn Encore Hotel, Sammy showed off the Mondi, which crams laptop- and Netbook-worthy features into a compact design.

The Mondi's 4.3-inch display dominates the Mondi's real estate, leaving room only for a camera lens and a couple of physical controls. Samsung promises that the Mondi will have a customizable interface with widgets that can be dragged around at will. The operating system is Windows Mobile 6.1.

The Mondi's slider design hides a full QWERTY keyboard, a navigation toggle, and an Internet Explorer browser shortcut. It doesn't offer a dedicated row of numeric keys, but a fair number of symbols are surfaced directly on the keyboard.

Samsung Mondi hands-on photos

Features are quite plentiful. Besides the WiMax Mobile Internet Access, you'll find Wi-Fi, GPS with support for Route 66 Navigation, Microsoft Outlook and Windows Mobile Office, 4GB of internal memory, Bluetooth, a 3-megapixel camera, a video player, messaging, and Push e-mail (POP3, IMAP, and SMTP), instant-messaging and a personal organizer. The Mondi does not have a cellular radio for making calls.

Clearwire will provide the WiMax service. We'll fill in Mondi's exact availability details as soon as the press conference is over. And of course, we'll have photos, video, and more specs.

There's continued talk of a $100 price drop on the 80GB version of the PlayStation 3.

(Credit: Sony)

Another week, another rumor that a PS3 price cut is right around the corner. This time the fuel comes from Janco Partners' Mike Hickey, who, according to the site gamesindustry.biz, said in his latest note to investors that Sony needs to chop $100 off the 80GB PS3's price to "restart unit velocity at retail" and that "recent channel checks indicate increased speculation for a PS3 price cut announcement from Sony in the next couple of days."

To cap things off, Hickey added more brutal commentary:

"If Sony does not cut the price of their console, we expect the continuation of languishing PS3 hardware sales and the potential for publishers to accelerate their reallocation of resources away from the PS3 console."

In the same article, there's also some bizarre speculation that Sony will put out a PS3 sans Blu-ray player. This seems a little off the wall, considering that you wouldn't be able to play most PS3 games on a PS3 that doesn't have a Blu-ray player. Plus, the PS3 is basically a Trojan horse for Blu-ray.

Maybe what this really means is that Sony is working on a PS3 version of the PS2 that could play downloadable PS3 games and be backward-compatible for PS2 titles. (OK, I'm kidding, but see if you can say that sentence fast five times in a row with perfect elocution).

When all is said and done, we do agree with Hickey and other so-called analysts who say Sony has to cut the PS3's price by $100 to jump-start sales (duh, right?).

But we've seen specials recently where the PS3 is already selling for less than $350, so in some sense, a soft price cut has been in effect, though a flat $300 is what people are waiting for. The question is whether we're days--or weeks--away from an official cut.

What do you guys think?