Panasonic has upgraded their Toughbook 52 series of semi-rugged notebooks. And like you may know, these aren’t much competition for the usual crop of 15.4 inch laptops. But when it comes to surviving in hospitals or braving the battlefield, they are unparalleled.
VentureBeat has a hot, hot scoop on Intel planning Android notebooks. Could they know something we don’t, namely that Intel, a stalwart chip manufacturer, might have gone crazy and started designing and selling netbooks?
Perfect! Now you can go camping and not worry about recharging your notebook in the great outdoors. The YoGen MaxT produces enough juice when in use to power produce 50-60 Watts which is enough to keep your notebook running. All you need to do is push on the self-returning foot pedal to generate the power. Plus, an internal bank of AA keeps the power flowing while you give your leg a rest. The whole device folds up for easy traveling too. Hippies and treehuggers must check out the video of it in action after the break.
I’ve been exchanging e-mails with HP for the better part of the day and we have the final word on the supposed Mini 1100 series with an ExpressCard slot. It doesn’t exist and it was mistake made by the Web team. This is straight from horse’s mouth, people.
Earlier today we got a bit of face time with HP’s 13-pound prototype laptop dubbed Firefly. This large monstrosity packs a heap of goods like an Intel quad-core proc, secondary screen, dual graphics cards and ‘5.1 sound’. The Firefly has four speakers plus a subwoofer that is placed under the wrist rest. Strange, I know. Sound quality was pretty good but the bass coming out of the wrist rest was weird.
This thing just popped up on the radar yesterday, and I really liked the look of it. I saw it at the HP booth at Unveiled, and thought I’d take a quick video. They do a really good job of keeping the lighting nice and dim in the ballroom, so it should be blurry and orangey. Couple extra pictures, too.
NEC Japan today announced the LL7750 [JP], a new notebook in the LaVie L series, that goes on sale in Japan at the end of this month (price: $1,950). A release outside Nippon is possible but not yet confirmed.
If you ever wanted a small and powerful (and expensive) laptop that is not a Mac, here is your chance to get one. The Biblo Loox R has a 12.1″ screen, Intel Core 2 Duo processor with low energy consumption, 128GB SSD, 2GB RAM, Bluetooth, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and an optical drive. Oh and I almost forgot: 12 hours of battery life.
The little power horse costs $3000 and can only be purchased in Japan at the moment. But hey, it is almost small and light (1.27kg) as a netbook.
[Via HWSW [HU]]
First NEC’s model, then Onkyo’s and now it’s time for Epson to release a Hello Kitty laptop [JP]. The devices are only available in Japan, where they will be exclusively sold online starting December 10.
The Hello Kitty notebook is based on Epson’s Endeavor NJ2150. Buyers can choose between a combo model ($1,200) and a so-called super-multi version ($1,500). Both versions are available in two different designs.
Onkyo Japan today announced the Sotec C1 Hello Kitty (C101K3W) [JP], a netbook designed for fans of the famous cartoon cat from Sanrio. Unlike other Hello Kitty PCs, this model has been modified not only design- but also hardware-wise (see the picture above).
The Hello Kitty C1 features an Atom N270 CPU (1.60 GHZ), 1GB of RAM, a 120GB HDD, a 10.1″ TFT display (resolution: 1,024×600), a web cam, a QWERTY keyboard (layout: Japanese/US) and three USB 2.0 ports. Windows XP (SP 3) and a Hello Kitty wallpaper are pre-installed.
HP has done a pretty good job with their line of convertible tablets thus far and today they announced the latest addition that incorporates multi-touch two-finger control, the TouchSmart tx2. The only caveat, however, is that the multi-touch functionality works within the HP MediaSmart suite of applications (like on the TouchSmart desktops), which isn’t really a caveat now that I think about it. It’s not like Apple is doing anything with their multi-touch technology on a notebook form factor, yet.
The TouchSmart tx2’s multi-touch screen can be attributed to an embedded N-trig digitizer (video after the jump). With a WXGA 12.1-inch screen the tx2 can handle up to 8GB or RAM with storage ranging from 160 to a 500GB 5400 RPM SATA drive and an AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core proc (2.0GHz up to 2.4GHz). What I really liked about the tx2 other than the multi-touch stuff was the textured trackpad. I don’t know why but I did.
Full specs after the jump.
Editor’s Note: This is not the ‘first’ multi-touch notebook as Captain Fantastic points out. The Dell Latitude XT was the first to be announced with the N-trig digitizer, but the tx2 is aimed at the general consumer whereas the LXT is a business oriented notebook. Apologies for the confusion.
The general consensus around the CG water cooler is that companies will be launching really craptacular products today, but Fujitsu is doing quite the opposite with three new laptops and we like it.
The most notable of the bunch is the 16-inch (16:9 LCD) LifeBook N7010 and its tiny 4-inch touch-screen that’s embedded just above the keyboard. Its primary function is to act as an app launcher, but you can drag and drop applications that need very little real estate such as DVD/CD controls or a picture viewer. A 2.26GHz Intel C2D proc, shock mounted HDD (up to 320GB), ATI Radeon HD 3470 graphics card and Blu-ray drive handle the basics. An HDMI port, integrated E-Sata port, Memory Stick/SD slot, 1.3-megapixel webcam, removable dust filter, spill-resistant keyboard, and gesture-enabled touchpad round out the features of this $1,499 (starting price) laptop that begins shipping next week.
This isn’t amazingly exciting but it’s still pretty cool. The H1 is a tablet PC for medical use and has a touchscreen and protected ports along the side. It is completely cleanable and has no nooks or crannies where blood or sputum can collect in high pressure situations. In fact, there’s a cool little program that you can start up that shows where you’ve already cleaned. It’s spill and strike resistant and includes an RFID card reader and built-in barcode scanner. More videos after the jump including a drop test.
No pricing or availability, but you probably won’t be buying a fleet of these unless you’re on staff at Seattle Grace.
UPDATE – Pricing:
I can’t help but compare Kata’s ‘digital rucksack’ to the Lowepro Fastpack I reviewed earlier this year. Its looks, features, and price are similar, but it all boils down to personal preference and what you’re looking to do with it. My initial reaction when the Kata made it into the office was that it was a cheap knockoff of the aforementioned Lowepro, but after a few weeks I’ve changed my mind.
As I mentioned before the Kata and Lowepro are very similar. However, the Kata is roughly 0.5 pounds lighter and offers a few extra features that the Lowerpro does not. But the Kata has thin walls all around I worry that my cameras and laptop will get damaged easier than they would in the Lowepro. Of course, I won’t be testing that theory anytime soon. Read More
You know that alleged cheap MacBook that is supposed to launch today? Yeah, there are reports that it isn’t a MacBook, but rather an updated Cinema Display with a DisplayPort input. The same rumors are stating that the entire Apple notebook lineup will not get any sort of price cuts today, rather receiving spec bumps and upgrades. Oh, and you have our word that this is the last Apple rumor/announcement/fanboy bait we will post before today’s 1 est / 10 pst Apple event. Pinky swear.
If you wanna ruin your Apple Notebook event with a couple of pre-show pic, hit the jump for two supposed pics of a coming MacBook Pro.
NEC today announced in Japan [JP] it has teamed up with Sanrio (the company behind the Hello Kitty brand) and French fashion designer Courrèges to develop a girls-only notebook for the Japanese market. The so-called “NEC LaVie G Hello Kitty Courrèges” will be available online and in selected Sanrio shops only [JP].
The Vista notebook will feature an AMD Athlon QL-60 processor (1.90GHz), a 13.3-inch WXGA screen (1280×800 resolution), a DVD drive, 2GB of main memory and a 160GB hard disk.
Starting out at $999.99, because that one cent makes a big difference, the 13.3-inch HP dv3500t notebook packs an Intel C2D (four to choose from: T5800 2.0GHz; P7350 2.0GHz; P8400 2.26GHz; T9400 2.53GHz), Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS graphics card, up to a 400GB HDD (smallest being 160GB) and a handful of other customizable features. You can also get the HD screen with LED backlighting. Not too shabby, me thinks.
Rehashing the idea set forth by all of those useless “Intel Inside” and “Designed for Windows XP” stickers that have been on laptops for years, 17 companies (including Asus, Dell, Microsoft, Lenovo, Toshiba, and 12 other heavy hitters) have banded together to bring out a new and equally useless “Mobile Broadband” sticker.
What the hell is the point of these badges? Sure – go ahead and stick them on the floor units to help people determine which product fits their needs. Hell, jam a few in the box for the folks who can’t remember what’s in the laptop they just bought – let them go all Lisa Frank on their own stuff. But stop friggin’ sticking extraneous branding all over my $2,000+ purchase.
What is that supposed to be, anyways? A cloud? Seagulls as drawn by a child? Being overly ambiguous with a logo design for the sake of trying to be clever just makes it worthless.
The powerhouse M6400 was announced last month and Dell is finally shipping the ‘laptop.’ This mobile workstation will put many desktop rigs to shame with a Core 2 Duo Quad Core Extreme, 16 GB of Ram, and up to 1TB of storage spread over two 500GB disks in a RAID setup. The 17-inch LED back-lit screen even features 100% of the RGB color gamut and potential buyers can configure a 1GB NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M graphics card to power it. All this leg burning laptop power can be yours starting at $2,599 but if all the options are selected, I got it up to $6,704. That’s a lot of cake.
