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Notice any similarities between the Hewlett-Packard Voodoo Envy and its thin rivals, the Apple MacBook Air or ThinkPad X300? Yes, they're all very thin. But look inside and you'll see more common features.

To deliver reasonable processing power at low power the Voodoo Envy opted for the same special low-power processors used in the Air: the Intel SP7700 and SP7500.

You won't find these processors listed on Intel's processor pricing page. They were designed originally for the MacBook Air and use a special 22mm x 22mm package and have a thermal envelope of only 20 watts at 1.8GHz and 1.6GHz. Typically, Intel processors running at those speeds have a TDP (Thermal Design Power) of 35 watts.

Correction: The ThinkPad X300 uses an Intel SL7100 not an SP processor. It comes in the same small package as the SP processors but runs at a lower clock speed--1.2GHz--and uses less power: 12 watts versus the SP's 20 watts.

HP Voodoo Envy

(Credit: Voodoo)

Interestingly, these processors are older 65-nanometer "Merom" processors--not the newest 45-nanometer Penryn generation. But there are updates on the way, according to Intel. "You can expect to see later this year a 45nm small form factor Montevina," an Intel representative said.

"Montevina" Centrino 2 processors coming out later this year will include low-power models such as the SL9400 and SU9400, running at 1.86GHz and 1.4GHz with a TDP of 17W and 10W respectively. One processor, the SU3300, will have a TDP of 5.5W.

New versions of the SP "small form factor" processors are also expected later this year. Future versions of the Envy and Air will likely use these Montevina processors.

This isn't where the silicon similarities end. The Envy, like the Air and X300, uses Intel X3100 integrated graphics and offers either a 64GB solid state drive or 80GB hard disk drive (4200RPM), just like the Air.

Finally, though not related to silicon, all three notebooks have a similar form factor: 13.3 inches. All in all, making for strikingly similar designs in many ways.

The MacBook Air, IdeaPad U110, and ThinkPad X300 are the three hottest ultraportables out there. They all sport unique styling outside. And Intel blue inside.

The IdeaPad U110, like other ultraportables, uses an Intel low-voltage processor

(Credit: Lenovo)

Styling and design are now so crucial in notebooks that when a model arrives in pink the color change alone is news.

Ditto for the styling imperative for some of the sveltest, lightest, and most impressive of notebooks: the Air, X300, and just-released U110.

Scratch the surface (or lift up the keyboard in this case), however, and you'll find that their unique exteriors house similar Intel core electronics.

Does this have anything to do with nefarious strong-arm tactics on Intel's part? Or just that AMD and Nvidia don't have competitive offerings in this space? The evidence points pretty convincingly to the latter.

Graphics--an increasingly important differentiator in any computer--is the same across all three notebooks: Intel X3100 integrated graphics. No Nvidia option here. No AMD-ATI. Intel across the board. The reason for this is strictly practical. For heat and power consumption purposes, these ultrasmall designs cannot accommodate an extra graphics processor. (It should be noted also that Nvidia and AMD-ATI integrated graphics are typically not used in ultra-low-power designs.)

The processors are all Intel too with some differences. Again, a practical consideration since AMD doesn't offer ultra-low-power x86 processors with relatively high performance.

The newest 11-inch U110 IdeaPad has gone with the Intel Core 2 Duo L7500 processor. It runs at 1.60GHz and integrates 4MB of cache. The low-voltage L7500 has a thermal envelope (referred to as Thermal Design Power or TDP) of only 17 watts. Much lower than the typical 35-watt Intel mobile processor. AMD mobile processors have similar above-30-watt thermal envelopes.

The 13.3-inch ThinkPad X300 uses the Core 2 Duo SL7100 LV chip running at 1.2GHz. This is a 60 percent package "shrink" of Intel's original Core 2 Duo design and draws a mere 12 watts. Why the shrink? These variants consume less power compared to larger counterparts, giving laptops longer battery life.

The Mermon package shrink featured in the X300 debuted with great fanfare in the MacBook Air. The Air uses 1.6- and 1.8-GHz versions of this Intel chip with a 20-watt TDP.

Similarities between ultraportables extend beyond Intel to storage options too. The Air, X300, and U110 all offer either 4200RPM hard disk drive options or 64GB solid state drives. The 4200RPM drives in the U110 and Air can be real performance bottlenecks if a user pushes the usage envelope. The X300 only comes with a solid state drive.

The solid state drives, while expensive, have proved to be able performers, even bettering high-end hard disk drives in some benchmarks.

ThinkPad X300's solid-state drive beats fast hard drives.

(Credit: Lenovo)

Solid-state drives continue to outperform hard-disk drives in tests, providing some consolation for the high price.

The X300 ThinkPad, which starts at $2,900, is one of the hottest--and most expensive--notebooks on the market now. The Apple MacBook Air is another. They both come with solid-state drives (SSDs) that perform better than standard magnetic hard-disk drives. And the X300's outpaces a 7200rpm hard drive by a long shot, according to review site Hot Hardware.

In a test, the X300's SSD "performed 2.75 times faster than the Dell XPS M1730 running dual 7200rpm drives," the review said. That's not all. "The X300's performance was nearly 4.9x faster than the Asus U6S" with a 5400rpm 160GB hard drive.

Lenovo puts it this way: "Faster boot and application load times, extra durability, and longer battery life." You can add stratospherically higher unit price, but the price impediment will diminish over the next 12 months.

SSDs are based on flash memory chip technology and have no moving parts. Hard drives, in contrast, use read-write heads that hover over spinning platters to access and record data. With no moving parts, SSDs avoid both the risk of mechanical failure and the mechanical delays of hard drives. Therefore, SSDs are generally faster and more reliable.

Gizmodo got its hands on what appears to be a photo and detailed specs on Lenovo's lineup of new ThinkPad laptops.

See the photo here.

Looks like the X300 will get some company.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

It looks as though both the T- and R-series of Lenovo laptops will be updated this fall, and even more interesting, the first laptop to come standard with a solid-state drive, super-slim X300, will be part of a larger family of notebooks, including an 12-inch X200, 14-inch X400, and 15-inch X500.

Apparently, there will also be a new notebook series introduced, the W-series, intended as a workstation replacement.

Gizmodo does appear to be hedging a bit, calling the information "unconfirmed."

Google's terms of service, while ignored by the vast majority of users, contain a pretty shocking clause: Under 18's are not permitted to use any of Google's Web properties. That's right, kids--no search, YouTube, Gmail, news, or images.

Under 18s wishing to watch YouTube videos of skateboarding dogs, or perform research for a school project will have to go elsewhere--Ask.com or Microsoft's Live.com search, perhaps. The message from Mountain View seems clear: We don't want your (underage) business.

Google's terms of service, thick with legalese, state that:

"You may not use ... Google's products, software, services and web sites ... and may not accept the Terms if ... you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with Google.

The problem with this, of course, is that all 50 states in the United States require that someone be at least 18 years old to form a binding contract. As for what happens when a person under 18 attempts to agree to a click-through contract, the jury is still out on that one.

When contacted about the matter, a Google spokesperson initially told me that "users need to be at least 13 years old to use Gmail."

However, when I pointed out that the language in the company's terms of service contradicted her statement, she clarified her remarks, stating that: "We require users to be able to form a legally binding contract in order to use our services. The actual age required to form a legally binding contract may differ based on jurisdiction."

When I asked what the company would do if it found out that someone under 18 were using search, or Gmail, the spokesperson told me:

"We're not in a position to verify the age or legal status of any user, given the tremendous number of users accessing Google services. That said, when we become aware of a user who is violating our Terms of Service, including not being of proper age to accept the Terms of Service, we take appropriate action, which could include the termination of the user's Google Account."

After first seeing Google's no-kids policy in the company's terms of service, any rational person would assume that it's just standard legalese that all companies are required to include. However, it turns out that Google's dot-com competition is far more kid friendly.

Facebook's terms of service state:

"This Site is intended solely for users who are thirteen years of age or older, and users of the Site under 18 who are currently in high school or college."

What about MySpace?:

"By using the MySpace Services, you represent and warrant that ... you are 14 years of age or older."

As for Microsoft's Live.com search engine and Ask.com, their terms of service don't mention age at all.

To this outside observer, it seems a little bit strange that 13+ year-olds can use social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, where many users post their gender, sexuality, religion, and a large number of potentially embarrassing photos. Yet, those same teenagers are forbidden from conducting a Web search. Surely things should be the other way around.

Conflicting messages
Google is currently running a Doodle 4 Google contest, in which K-12 students take a shot at designing a Google company logo. The winner will receive $10,000 and their art will appear on Google's home page for a day.

When viewed in light of the "no kids here" policy in the terms of service, Google's school outreach seems rather strange. Ironically, the winner of the contest will be forbidden from viewing his or her artwork on the main Google page, unless a parent types in the URL for them.

This is hardly Joe Camel territory, but it is still very strange. Why has the company gone out of its way to write up a terms of service that bans kids, yet at the same time, is engaged in kid-friendly promotions? Why does the site include anti-kid legalese that none of its competitors has opted to include?

The answer, for now, will remain unknown. Google's PR people toe the company line, and its lawyers, well, remain lawyers.

Though the MacBook Air and ThinkPad X300 might be prettier and thinner, Toshiba's outdone them both in a crucial area.

Japan's Toshiba announced Monday that it had bumped the specs of its Dynabook SS RX to include a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD) as an option. That's twice the size of the Air and the X300, both of which come with a 64GB SSD. (Note: It's an option for the MacBook and standard on the ThinkPad.) So far, it appears it will be available only in Japan starting next month.

Toshiba upped the Dynabook SS RX's capacity with a 128GB SSD.

(Credit: Toshiba)

The 128GB SSD is an option, and the standard is an 80GB hard drive. Other specs include a 1.2-gigahertz Core 2 Duo U7600 processor and 2GB of memory. With the hard drive, Toshiba promises battery life of just over 6 hours, and with the flash drive, 12.5 hours.

Longer battery life is one of the principal benefits of using solid-state drives in PCs, as well as faster boot times, and because they lack the moving parts of traditional mechanical drives, less chance of losing data if you drop or bump the notebook. Also, they're lighter, thereby enabling notebook makers to slim their PC design down.

There's still a downside to SSDs. Price is the biggest one by far (an SSD option can double the price of a laptop with a traditional hard drive), but it also has the potential to wear out quicker than conventional drives.

Despite that, all the top hard drive makers are getting into the flash business. Samsung's vice president of memory marketing, Jim Elliot, said the company (currently ranked 4th in total hard drives shipped worldwide) expects the market share of solid-state memory to increase from 1 percent used in PCs today to 27 percent over the next three years.

The only reason I've opened Microsoft Outlook or any other desktop e-mail program in the last year is to test tips. Since I added my ISP account to my Gmail in-box, and moved my Outlook appointments to Google Calendar, I get all the information I need in my browser.

Now I'm getting ready to boot Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for their Web alternatives, but before I bail on Office entirely, I stuck a toe in the Web-apps water by using the free ThinkFree Online service irregularly over the past few weeks. So far, I haven't missed Word, Excel, or PowerPoint one bit. In fact, I appreciate the comparative simplicity of their Web counterparts, which have worked without a hitch--so far, at least.

ThinkFree Online is a Java-based service that provides 1GB of storage for your files, though individual files can't be larger than 10MB. You can upload .doc, .xls, and .ppt files to the site (it works with Office 2007's XML formats as well), work on them in an environment much like their native Office apps (though in a smaller window with text ads along the right margin), and return them to your desktop, where they open in the Office equivalent with all changes in place. There's also a limited-function, Ajax-based Quick Edit app for making fast, simple changes to files.

You can choose to keep your files private, or share them, either with a select group, or the world. In fact, easy collaboration is one of the great features of the service for workgroups. You can tag files for easy retrieval, but ThinkFree's search feature located the files I was looking for without having to attach tags to them.

The first time you open a file in the service, it loads some information in your Java Virtual Machine, but subsequently files load at near-desktop speed. You have to make some concessions, such as the text ads, and your selection of fonts is limited. You can't be certain your macros, functions, and other Office customizations will work in the online apps. (I haven't needed any.) Also, a browser can't match the resolution of your desktop apps, but generally the transition from Office to ThinkFree is seamless.

Work on Office documents in the free ThinkFree Online service much like you do in their native apps.

(Credit: ThinkFree)

From the My Office page you get a snapshot of your files, as well as controls for creating, uploading, downloading, and syncing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Click the "Go to the file list" button near the bottom of the window to get a more detailed view of your files, as well as to share them, tag them, rename them, or perform other operations.

The ThinkFree Online Webtop lets you upload, download, and otherwise manage your files.

(Credit: ThinkFree)

If you need to work on your files while offline, you can upgrade to the Premium Edition of the service, which is free during the beta period (no indication of when that period may end). The Premium version also lets you sync files automatically in the background, and load files larger than 10MB, though you can't open these larger files in the online version. There's also the $50 ThinkFree Desktop version, though I use the free OpenOffice.org on my Ubuntu system, which provides all the Office compatibility I need.

Even though ThinkFree offers the ThinkFree Server version for enterprises, I can understand why large organizations would hesitate to abandon Office. First there's the support costs, since their help-desk staff is trained in Office apps. Then there are the many customizations large organizations have applied to the programs. But the biggest reason enterprises will likely stick with Office is the greater amount of control it gives them over file management. I'm sure it makes a lot of IT managers nervous to think about their organization's important documents residing outside of the Office system. (Just suggesting that people save their Outlook e-mail outside of the program raised some IT hackles.)

Google's online apps loom as another Office threat
Even with my reliance on Gmail and Google Calendar, I haven't been tempted to use Google Docs full time, in part because I'm happy with ThinkFree Online. On those occasions when I have tested Google's online apps, I've been pleased with their performance. But ThinkFree comes closer to matching the Office work environment, even with those darn ads. Still, with the expected arrival of online applications using the Google Gears API for offline access, it's difficult to ignore the potential Google's services could have for current Office users. Another factor that might change my mind is whether Google Apps become more tightly integrated with other services from the company. Right now there's not much tying them together besides a log-on ID.

Tomorrow: Customize the Open and Save dialog boxes in Vista and XP.

The latest incarnation of the ThinkPad makes its official debut Tuesday.

The X300 from Lenovo is, you may have heard, rather waiflike in size.

Something else that fits in a manila envelope.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Weighing in at just under 3 pounds and measuring less than three quarters of an inch at its skinniest point, the X300 has already been poked and prodded by plenty of tech reviewers.

CNET's own Michelle Thatcher called it her "new BFF" of ultraportables. See for yourself whether promises of 10-hour battery life, a 64GB solid-state drive, a variety of ports, and a starting price of $2,799 are charming enough to lure you in too.

Check out Michelle's full review here.

In August, Lenovo announced that Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 would be available on ThinkPads in the fourth quarter of 2007. Though that didn't happen, Lenovo finally released details Tuesday.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Novell SLED 10 will be available on the ThinkPad T61 and ThinkPad R61 with Intel Centrino processors. Operating system features include the Firefox Web browser, RealPlayer, Macromedia Flash Player, OpenOffice, and more.

Lenovo says it will provide customer support for the hardware and the operating system, while Novell will be responsible for updates. The lowest-end model will be $949, and both models are available beginning Tuesday.

Next month ThinkPads with Penryn chipsets from Intel will start shipping with Linux as well.

Linux has chiefly been popular on servers and more recently has made inroads in embedded computing devices such as phones, but it's never made much headway on desktop and laptop PCs. Nevertheless, Suse has long championed Linux on PCs, and Novell when it acquired the Linux seller four years ago.

CNET News.com's Stephen Shankland contributed to this report.