• Fast
• Surprisingly light weight
• nicely designed and set up

Cons:

• Short battery life
• Large size
• Runs hot

Price as reviewed: $4,423

While BFG is new to selling complete computer systems, they aren’t new to high performance gaming. BFG has been producing performance PC hardware for many years, and just this year got into building their own systems. The Deimos was launched at the end of October, and is intended to compete with other gaming laptop lines, such as Alienware’s M17x.

Does it compete? In a word, yes. In some ways, the Deimos surpasses the M17x. For example, when I reviewed the M17x, I had some issues with the biometric security system. Using your laptop’s webcam as a security device is a clever concept — if only it worked consistently. On the Deimos, however, everything worked perfectly out of the box. Performance is comparable. Battery life is about the same. What’s gone is the obvious “I spent $4500 on this computer!” factor that you get with the little alien head on the lid.

Let’s get down to it. Here are the specs on the system I reviewed:

Monitor: 18.4 inch, 1920×1080 resolution
Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 2.53GHz
Memory: 2x 4GB PC3 8500 (1066 MHz) DDR3 (8GB total)
Graphics: 2x GeForce GTX 280M 1GB (SLI)
Optical Drive: Dual Layer Blu-Ray Disc Reader (BD-ROM, DVD/RW, CD-RW)
HDD 1: Seagate Momentus 500GB 7200 RPM SATA II
HDD 2: Seagate Momentus 500GB 7200 RPM SATA II
LAN: Realtek RTL-WLAN 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth: Internal Bluetooth v2.1
Sound: Realtek ALC883 8-Channel Azalia HD Audio
Video Camera: Bison built-in USB 2 MP Camera
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium – 64-bit Edition

Performance: As you can expect from this configuration, the machine is fast. I ran some benchmarks using Far Cry 2, which averaged a framerate of 54.26 at 1920×1080, Direct3D 10, and Overall Quality set to “Ultra High.” 3DMark Vantage reported 11,799, which is a very close comparison to the M17x at 11,904. Of course, if you’ve read my reviews before, you’ll know I’m not huge on reporting numbers; I prefer to talk about the feel of the system. And basically, the Deimos is a great computer. I’m very much into the gaming, and that’s what’s important to me when I’m using a system. The Deimos is fast, plays games really really well (42 FPS in Dalaran, settings maxed, for you World of Warcraft people) and is surprisingly light for the amount of hardware that’s jammed in there. The system has DVI and HDMI out, and a total of four USB ports (two on the left, two on the right). The back is reserved for cooling vents and the power cord. One thing to be aware of: don’t expect to be able to overclock this machine using the BIOS. The BIOS on this system is functional, yet bare bones. There are no options for overclocking at all.

Controls: The keyboard took some getting used to; the keys aren’t exactly a style that I’d normally prefer, coming from the netbook school rather then a standard keyboard. And the numeric keypad is a hot mess. It’s pretty much impossible to touch type using the number pad because everything is jammed together with the arrow keys and the standard keyboard. There’s more then enough room that they could have provided a little space between the two and made it a bit more user-friendly. There is also a series of “G-keys” down the left side. These are customizable macro keys are much like what is used on the Logitech G-Series keyboards. These too, work as intended, however they do take up quite a bit of real estate on the left side of the keyboard area.

The trackpad (centered, and highlighted with LED light) works as expected, with no major issues. The left and right button (there’s only one, and you click on either side) responds well, and doesn’t feel mushy or too stiff. There is a fingerprint reader centered in the button, which provides biometric login options.

Appearance: Aesthetically, it’s a little bright. Where it’s nowhere near as gaudy as an Alienware system, it does have a touch sensitive strip across the top, and all the icons are lit from beneath with LEDs.The touch activated icons turn on the webcam, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth hardware. You can also control the volume, or activate your web browser or media player. The LEDs in the case (shining out the front and back) and the lid can change color, however the process is less than intuitive. The case is also extremely shiny, and regrettably shows fingerprints incredibly well. BFG is aware of this, even to the point of including a large microfiber cloth for wiping it down. Overall, compared to the Alienware, the Deimos is almost tasteful.

It is interesting to note that the Deimos is a re-branded Sager notebook. Further research showed that were you to go online and order a system with the same configuration, you’d save yourself $100. Despite this fact, I’d still purchase this computer from BFG, due to their excellent record on customer service. From a value standpoint, compared to the Alienware M17x, I’d still choose the BFG Deimos. For around the same price (the M17x, configured the same costs $4,399, $24 less), the Alienware laptop has a smaller screen, weighs twice as much, and a profile that screams “steal me!”. That’s not to say the Deimos is the ideal commuter laptop — it is quite large. But it lacks the ostentatious nature of the M17x.

Final thoughts: I wholeheartedly recommend the BFG Deimos. It’s a fine machine, and doesn’t try to be more then that. I’ve found it to be more then sufficient as a desktop replacement, both for work and play. Yes, the price is high, but if you are buying a performance laptop, you have the budget for it and you probably don’t really care about how much it costs; you want the best. I will admit that I’m not a huge fan of the keyboard, but it was a simple thing to plug an external keyboard in when I was sitting at my desk. The keyboard was just fine for casual use, but perhaps it’s not for the business user.

Acer’s new 18.4-inch AS8940G-6865 is a desktop replacement. And by “desktop replacement” I mean that you could attach four legs to it and use it as your desk. It’s big, is what I’m trying to say. Don’t actually attach legs to it, but I guess take with you the impression that this is a large laptop. Also, it’s powerful, so keep that in mind as well.

The machine boasts a newfangled quad-core Intel Core i7 CPU 720QM at 1.6GHz, an 18.4-inch LCD at 1920×1080 resolution, 4GB of DDR3 memory, an NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M GPU with 1GB of dedicated DDR3 video RAM, 500GB SATA hard drive, Blu-ray/DVD burner combo drive, 8-cell battery, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

There’s also five USB ports, an HDMI port, eSATA port, card reader, webcam, VGA output, Dolby audio, draft-N wireless, “touch-capacitive media control interface,” and a travel weight of more than 10 pounds.

Pricing starts at $1350 – Newegg seems to be first out of the gate to sell the machine.

Full press release:

New Acer Aspire Notebook PC Maximizes Performance with New Intel Core i7 Quad-Core Processor and Windows 7 Technology

New Aspire AS8940G-6865 Notebook with 18.4-inch Display Delivers Intensive Gaming, Entertainment and Multimedia Performance

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Acer America today introduced the Acer Aspire AS8940G-6865 notebook PC, featuring the new Intel® Core™ i7 Quad-Core 720QM processor and Windows® 7 Home Premium. This mobile processor delivers extremely fast performance for the most demanding applications such as playing games and editing digital photos and videos.

Designed for entertainment and multimedia enthusiasts, the Aspire AS8940G-6865 offers superior performance, innovative features and advanced technology for mobile users. This new notebook boasts a large 18.4-inch widescreen HD display for extraordinary visual quality, advanced NVIDIA graphics, Blu-ray technology, a high-quality audio system, a large hard drive and ample memory, making it a mobile powerhouse. The addition of Windows 7 to this new notebook provides users with a new level of performance, simplicity and ease of use.

The Aspire AS8940G with the Intel Core i7 processor delivers a breakthrough in PC performance, allowing users to multitask between applications quicker and enjoy faster performance overall. The new processor features Intel Turbo Boost Technology⁽³⁾, which accelerates processor clock speed up to 75 percent to match a user’s workload⁽⁴⁾ demands, giving more power when it is needed the most. Intel Hyper-Threading Technology⁽⁵⁾ allows applications to work better in parallel, making multitasking quick and easy.

“This new Aspire notebook offers multimedia enthusiasts the ultimate in mobile entertainment – cinematic quality sound and visuals, an industry-leading feature set, and the performance to handle demanding digital media,” said Preeta Anil, Product Manager, Notebooks for Acer America. “The addition of Intel’s new Core i7 processor further boosts the power and performance of the Aspire AS8940G for games, movies, videos and more.”

Superior Technology for Mobile Cinema and Gaming

For the ultimate cinematic experience, the Aspire AS8940G-6865 features cutting-edge visual and sound technology. This new notebook includes an 18.4-inch full HD widescreen CineCrystal™ LED backlit display with a 1920×1080 resolution that exhibits true HDTV with a 16:9 aspect ratio in a new edge-to-edge design that’s perfect for widescreen movies. The certified Dolby Home Theater® Audio Enhancement technology combined with the Acer CineSurround sound system with five built-in speakers and the Acer Tuba CineBass booster bring clear tones and deep bass beats for incredible entertainment.

Users can enjoy the clarity and precision of Blu-ray Disc™ high definition technology for watching Blu-ray movies in extraordinary detail as well as burn CDs and DVDs of music, photos and files. The NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 250M graphics maximize the gaming experience by providing intense computing power. Additionally, the 1GB of dedicated video memory allows buffering capacity for seamless graphics and visuals.

Further enhancing the multimedia experience, Acer’s Touch-Capacitive Media Control Interface allows consumers to quickly and easily control their entertainment choices, including media playback and volume levels. The Aspire AS8940G also comes equipped with a FineTip keyboard with backlight, making it more user friendly when watching movies or listening to music in a dark environment.

Mobile Performance and Connectivity

Additional popular technologies allow customers to stay connected and be productive while on the go. The integrated media card reader, DVD burner and 500GB of hard drive storage enable customers to quickly and easily view, download, store and share their digital media content. Additionally, the Aspire AS8940G offers users further flexibility and expandability with an extra eSATA hard drive port.

The Acer Crystal Eye™ webcam delivers smooth video streaming and high quality images for online chats and business video conferences, even in low-light situations. The built-in digital microphone conveys superior voice quality, keeping background noise levels low and minimizing echoes.

Consumers can connect via 802.11a/b/g Draft-N with expanded wireless features, and all models include Gigabit Ethernet for a fast wired connection.

Pricing/Configurations/Availability

The Acer Aspire AS8940G-6865 notebook will be available for U.S. customers at leading retailers this holiday season. A sample configuration follows.

Acer Aspire AS8940G-6865

• Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 720QM (1.60GHz, 6MB L3 Cache, 1333MHz FSB)
• 18.4″ Full HD Widescreen CineCrystal™ LED-backlit Display
  (1920×1080 Resolution, 16:9 Aspect Ratio)
• 4GB DDR3 Dual-Channel 1066MHz Memory
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 250M with 1GB dedicated DDR3 VRAM
• 500GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive ⁽¹⁾
• 4X Blu-ray Disc^™/DVD SuperMulti Double-Layer Drive
• Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader
• Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 5100 802.11a//bg/Draft-N Wi-Fi CERTIFIED®
• Acer Crystal Eye™ Integrated Webcam
• Touch-Capacitive Media Control Interface
• 5 USB 2.0 Ports, 1 HDMI Port, 1 eSATA Port
• 8-cell Li-Ion Battery (4800mAh)
• Dolby Home Theater® Audio Enhancement
• Acer CineSurround Sound System (5 built-in speakers)
• Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• MSRP $1,349.99

Oh, right, 3D laptops. I almost forgot. If you like 3D so much that you want to have it with you wherever you go, then 3D laptops may or may not soon be all the rage. No need to wait, though, as Acer’s 15.6-inch Aspire 5738DG will be available this week.

As previously reported, you’ll need to use special glasses but – BUT! – even standard 2D stuff can be converted to 3D. How is this possible? Glad you asked:

“The notebook features a 15.6-inch Acer CineCrystal HD display coated with a special 3D film which clings to the panel pixel by pixel, enabling the LCD technology to deliver a 3D image. Users slip on a pair of included 3D polarizer eyeglasses, which filter 2D images to 3D, and enjoy eye-popping, true cinematic high def playback of movies, video and games. Customers can use the TriDef Media Player for playback of videos and photos in 3D, while the TriDef Ignition tool to enables 2D to 3D conversion for games and applications supporting DirectX 9 and above.”

Other features include the following:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 CPU at 2.2GHz
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 15.6-inch LED-backlit 3D screen at 1366×768 resolution
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 with 512MB of RAM (expandable to 2304MB via system memory sharing)
• 4GB DDR2 RAM
• 320GB hard drive (5400RPM)
• Card reader, b/g/n Wi-Fi, DVD burner, webcam, four USB ports
• Six-cell battery, system weighs 6.16 pounds

Starting MSRP of $780, it’ll (likely) be available starting tomorrow.

[Full press release]

Here’s a quick look at the new MacBook. Look for a full review later this evening.

Special thanks to cameraman/editor DanielBru.

We’ll have more on this little gem this week but I present to you the HP Envy 13, the first netbook notebook (HP is citing the heavy-duty Core 2 Duo processor in there) I’d actually consider buying. It hit 2813 on Geekbench, lasted about three hours on one charge, and is smaller and lighter than a MacBook. Best of all it runs Windows 7 Professional like a champ and has HP’s instant-on technology for quick media and communications applications. Hot, hot stuff. Click through for a gallery and expect a review on Friday.

Oh my God is that the HP Pavilion dv3, complete with a fancy touchscreen? Oh my God it is! And is that the Engadget watermark? Oh my God it is! Man those guys are crazy!

So some upcoming HP product material “leaked” (things don’t “leak” without a reason), and featured rather prominently is the HP Pavilion dv3. I’m hesitant to call it a netbook because its screen is much too large for the typical netbook definition. Yet HP applies the “Your digital world in your hands!” tag line, which leads me to believe it will be marketed as such.

In any event, the specs are right there for all to see. Considering I haven’t used an HP device since probably 1998, I can’t exactly predict how HP’s fans will react. A simple yea or nay will suffice.

Also leaked in the product materials: the HP Pavilion dm1 and Pavilion dv8.

I guess HP has come a long way since 1998!

Deftly dodging the netbook moniker, Toshiba has announced its line of Satellite T100 ultra low voltage machines. They’ll be available on October 22nd with 11.6-inch or 13.3-inch displays and over nine hours of battery life.

The Satellite T115 will have an 11.6-inch HD display and will be priced starting at $450.

Other features include:

• Windows 7 Home Premium
• Intel SU4100 CPU or Celeron 743 CPU
• DDR3 RAM (no word on size yet)
• Hard drive starting at 250GB (5400RPM)
• Multi-touch trackpad
• Starting at 3.49 pounds
• Six-cell battery for up to nine hours of battery life
• HDMI out

And the Satellite T135 will have a 13.3-inch HD display and will start at $600. Features are the same as the T115 except that the T135 will sport an Intel SU4100 or SU2700 CPU (no Celeron option), will feature built-in Bluetooth, and will weigh 3.88 pounds.

Toshiba Satellite T100 Laptop Computers [Toshiba.com]

Here are the specs on the version that they sent us for review:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad QX9300 2.53 GHz (that’s the 12mb cache version)
OS: Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Video Card: Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M, 2GB running SLI
LCD: 17-inch WideUXGA 1920×1200 (at 1200p)
Memory: 4GB dual channel DDR3
Hard drive: 1TB total (2x 500GB 7,200 RPM Raid 0)
Optical drive: Slot-load dual layer Blu-ray combo with DVD writer

As you can see, it’s a very strong machine. Yes, you pay for this level of performance, but if you want something that will give you the hardware-level edge over your competition, this is the machine to do it. But the hardware is only half the story. This machine has the looks to impress as well. Alienware built the case out of anodized black aluminum, which makes it feel like one hell of a sturdy unit. They also added some new touch controls across the top of the keyboard, in addition to the typical indicator lights. The touch strip allows you to eject the optical media, turn the volume up and down, turn off the wifi, and activate or deactivate the “Command Center” (more on that later) and the discrete graphics mode. This is rather handy, and except for some obvious exceptions, standard on most laptops nowadays.

The battery life on most gaming laptops is pretty bad. Alienware has managed to avoid this issue for the most part by adding a discrete video card to the motherboard. What this means is that when you unplug the power from the machine, it automatically disables the dual Nvidia cards and switches you to the onboard video. This results in a significant hit to performance, but it also adds about an hour and a half to two hours worth of battery time. The bad thing is, if this happens on accident while you’re in-game, your framerate will drop to almost a standstill. You also have to be cautious not to accidentally hit the button on the touch strip that does the same thing. I spoke with Alienware, and they said that currently, there isn’t any way to disable that particular button.

The overall appearance on the M17x is outstanding. The aluminum case looks very nice, and gives the laptop an almost automotive feel. It does add to the weight, but honestly, this isn’t intended to be a portable laptop that you carry around everywhere. Alienware also went all out with the lighting. They’ve put LEDs under the keyboard, behind the speaker grill, and underneath the touch strip above the keyboard. The really fun part is that you can change the color of the LED’s from in the Command Center, and there are different zones which allow you to vary the color of the lights from one side of the keyboard to the other. Personally, I turned all the LEDs red while I played some L4D in the dark, which gave the whole experience a particularly creepy air.

The Good: Alienware’s M17x laptop is an extremely powerful gaming machine. It’ll run your favorite games with no hesitation, and then ask for more. The Nvidia chipset performs brilliantly, and makes even the newest games (I tried Batman: Arkham Asylum) an absolute dream to play. The full size keyboard also makes it a great laptop for schoolwork, or whatever else you might decide to use it for.

The Bad: There are a couple of things I wasn’t fond of. That touch button that disables the Nvidia cards is really a pain. The weight is also an issue. The thing weighs 13 pounds with the power adapter. But we already knew that it’s not a computer for road warriors. It’s also extremely expensive. The system we were sent to review has an MSRP of $3898. Is it worth it? Yes. And honestly, if you are looking at Alienware, you’re not expecting it to be cheap anyway. Also, it comes with Vista. If you wait a bit, though, 7 will probably be the default.

Bottom line: If money is no object, and you want a semi-portable machine that will provide you with destktop-level gaming performance, buy the M17x.

Update: Disaster! While taking pictures this morning for the review, the system quit booting. After multiple attempts, the recovery CD finally did work, but it was quite the hassle. I blame Vista, and think that waiting for Windows 7 (or installing Ubuntu, which would fly on this thing) would be the way to go.

The Averatec N3400 is an ultraportable notebook with a 13-inch screen, “aluminum-clad” shell, external DVD burner, and 3.8-pound body weight. Priced at $799, it’s got a lot to offer.

That price actually hovers around the relatively new category of ultra low-voltage machines, which aim to offer the long battery life and portability of netbooks with a little more power, bigger screens, and bigger keyboards.

Specs:

Averatec’s offering, however, is not a low-voltage notebook, although it might be able to get away with playing one on TV if the role called for it since it’s only an inch thick. Under the hood, there’s a full blown 35-watt dual-core Pentium T3400 CPU clocked at 2.16GHz – a far cry from the sub-10-watt CPUs found in netbooks and ultra low-voltage machines.

Other features include Windows Home Vista Premium, 3GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, external DVD burner, and a six-cell battery. The screen is 13.3 inches and has a 1280×800 resolution.

First Impressions:

You know what’s weird? I can’t quite explain it, but the notebook feels heavy even though it’s only 3.8 pounds. I weighed, weighed it, and weighed it again and every time: 3.8 pounds.

My wife carries around a 5+ pound MacBook all day and when I had her pick up the Averatec, sure enough, she remarked that it felt heavier than it looked. And she couldn’t believe it was almost two pounds lighter than her MacBook. I pulled this same trick with every subsequent guest we had over in the ensuing weeks and they all echoed the same sentiments.

I can’t figure it out. The thing just looks and feels bigger than it ought to for some reason. But, again, it is indeed 3.8 pounds.

As for the body style, the brushed aluminum outer shell looks and feels really nice. Very classy, especially for $800. Once you open the thing up, you’ve got a traditional plasticky notebook, though – much more in line with an $800 price tag. There’s a big half-inch plastic bezel around the entire screen which I feel detracts from the overall style.

Performance:

Thanks to the ample RAM and the quick processor, the N3400 hums along quite nicely. I tested it with both the included version of Windows Vista Home Premium and then did a clean install of the Windows 7 Release Candidate since the machine comes with a free upgrade to Windows 7 that you can cash in on October 22nd. Vista felt snappy, Windows 7 felt snappier.

The Windows Experience Index under Windows 7 returned the following scores:

• Processor: 5.3
• Memory: 5.3
• Graphics: 3.6
• Gaming Graphics: 4.9
• Disk Data Transfer Rate: 5.1

So, a total score of 3.6 since Windows bases the overall score on the lowest subscore. Being that all the other scores are close to or above 5, though, you’ll see some decent power.

The Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics chip only shares up to 128MB of RAM, so you’re not going to be doing any serious gaming but it works fine for casual stuff. The machine handled every single type of video file I threw at it, including HD flash video in full screen, which is notoriously fickle, and various other HD video files all the way up to 1080p resolution even though there isn’t much point in going past 720p since the screen tops out at 1280×800.

As for battery life, it’s not great. You’ll get between 2 and 3 hours depending upon what you’re doing. Whenever I’d really tax the system with a bunch of auto-refreshing web pages and multiple open programs, I wouldn’t even get two hours. So don’t buy it thinking that you’ll be able to leave the AC adapter at home all day.

The trackpad is… um… interesting. You have eight icons surrounding the outside edges which can be activated to control stuff like opening your e-mail, media playback, and various assignable hotkeys. You use the trackpad like you normally would and then when you want to use these shortcut buttons, you tap the button in the upper right-hand corner once.

The problem is that when you use the trackpad to scroll vertically by sliding your finger down the right-hand side, it’s far too easy to accidentally activate the hotkeys. So you’ll be surfing a web page and then all of a sudden all these random programs will start popping open.

Good in theory (?), not good in practice. I turned that feature off in the Control Panel.

Other than that, the trackpad works just fine. There’s a single bar for the left and right mouse buttons which may otherwise turn people off, but only the far corners push downward so I never had problems with accidental button presses.

The keyboard is pretty good, too – ample surface area, nice springy keys, good layout. Nothing extraordinary but it certainly didn’t get in the way. I was able to type up a bunch of posts and e-mails without any problems whatsoever.

I ran into a really annoying problem with the Intel 5100AGN wireless card installed in this laptop: it’d just disconnect randomly from my wireless network. I searched around and noticed that a fair number of people were experiencing the same issues but I was able to get everything working correctly by using the actual Intel drivers instead of the drivers being used by Windows. I had the same problems in Vista and Windows 7, both of which were fixed by using the actual Intel software.

As for the screen, it’s decent though unspectacular. The 1280×800 resolution makes everything look nice and big and the screen gets relatively bright without washing out. It’s just like the rest of the machine – everything’s “pretty good” but not necessarily awesome. That’s actually a compliment considering that it costs $800 and is only an inch thick. There aren’t nearly as many compromises as you’d expect – the battery life is really the only big one.

Conclusion:

The Averatec N3400 is a solid machine at a decent price. It looks nicer on the outside than most other $800 laptops and the 3.8-pound travel weight makes it easy to tote around (even if it mysteriously feels heavier than that somehow). Battery life leaves a bit to be desired, but what it lacks in longevity it makes up for in processing power.

All in all, not bad for $800 especially if you’re looking for something to potentially use as a primary computer but that won’t weigh you down when you’re on the go.

Averatec N3400 [ShopAveratec.com]

They can be treated as a single screen (e.g. “full-screen” video on one) or as one continuous surface (the “albums” in the video spill across multiple screens). To be honest, I’m not convinced of the utility of this particular model, but it’s mainly a proof of concept. They wanted to show that they’re working on integrating this kind of display matrix into their laptops, but not necessarily in this extreme manner.

What do you guys think of the dual-screen thing? The W700DS seems a little extreme, and the SpaceBook seems a lot extreme. If you really need that much display space, don’t you need the power of a desktop?

[via Crave and OLED-Display.net]

The machine itself carries a 90-day warranty and includes 1GB of RAM, 120GB hard drive, slot-loading DVD burner, web cam, Bluetooth, and Mac OS X 10.4 preinstalled.

Not too shabby for $600, eh? The deal’s good until the end of the month.

Apple MacBook [Geeks.com]

Logitech’s got a new lap board doodad on the market called the Portable Lapdesk N315. It’s a $30 accessory with a non-slip grip and slide-out mouse pad.

There I go again, putting all the pertinent details in the first paragraph with total disregard for how I’m going to fill out the rest of the post. Oh, it fits laptops up to 15.6 inches. And it’s washable.

The $30 price tag seems a little bit on the pricey side but you may be able to find it for less at various retailers. If you have a sweet apartment with a spiral staircase like the dude in the above photo, though, you’re probably not to worried about spending $30 on something like this.

Portable Lapdesk N315 [Logitech via OhGizmo!]

It’s laptops in space, people! What is there not to like?

That pic comes from this video, showing the STS-128 mission in action.

A veritable cornucopia of ultra-thin laptops is expected from the likes of Asus, Acer, and MSI in the near future. The computers will use Intel’s forthcoming low and ultra-low voltage Penryn CPUs, the Celeron 743 and the SU2300.

The low voltage, 45nm Celeron 743 will have a 1.2GHz clock speed with 1MB of L2 cache, and 800MHz frontside bus, a 6x multiplier, and will use up to 10 watts of power. The ultra-low voltage SU2300 will feature the same specs, except it’ll only use up to 5 watts. For comparison, the Atom chips found in many netbooks use no more than 2.5 watts of power but they have a slower frontside bus and only 512K of cache.

DigiTimes reports that Asus will be first out of the gate on September 7th with two ultra-thin notebooks, one using the Celeron chip and one using the SU2300. Those models will initially be available in Taiwan, China, and Europe, but I’d guess that something similar would eventually make its way to the US.

Acer and MSI are expected to push out similar models in the near future, although details are still pretty sparse at the moment.

Apparently it’s not okay to send West Virginia’s governor five free laptops. What a world! Governor Joe Manchin’s office got a nice four-pack of Compaq laptops earlier this month, followed a week later by a fifth machine from HP. The only problem was that nobody in his office ordered them or paid for them.

For safety reasons, the computers were never even turned on and the state police are now involved. Curiously, HP confirmed that the computers were ordered online but wouldn’t tell state officials who ordered them.

According to the West Virginia Gazette, “State Police will look into whether any other state agency has been charged for the equipment.” However, all five laptops were addressed directly to “Gov. Joe Manchin” at his office’s official address.

And then there’s the fact that officials in Vermont and Wyoming “received similar unsolicited orders,” according to Computerworld, which prompted the FBI to get involved. HP is now saying that it’s “aware that fraudulent state government orders recently have been placed for small amounts of HP equipment” and that “HP took prompt corrective action to address the fraudulent orders and is working with law enforcement personnel on a criminal investigation.”

The big question now is: what, if anything, is on those laptops? Some believe it could be malware or viruses intended to gain access to government networks. Security consultant Steve Santorelli told Computerworld, “What is a netbook? $700? You send five of them; you’re dropping three grand, and say you get into the Congressional e-mail system. How valuable would that be?”

The bigger question: where is this guy shopping for $700 netbooks?

A bit of a corollary to yesterday’s story of an ACLU lawsuit designed to ascertain more information about laptop border searches. The Obama Administration has put a whole bunch of new restrictions on the practice, some of which may placate the “don’t search me” brigade.

It’s like this: from now on, supervisors must be present during any and all searches of your personal electronic devices. No more worrying about Entry Level Employee making a mess of things, then. Even more importantly, while Customs can still seize your laptop and look through it for whatever reason (even if they’re not suspicious of anything), they will have to delete within seven days any and all records, including copied data, of the search. So if Customs made a copy of your laptop’s “Private Data, Do Not Look” folder, well, it will have to be deleted.

Why someone wouldn’t just encrypt their data, or have sensitive information on a separate partition or whatever, I don’t know. It can’t be too hard to outsmart the guys at the border.

Also, lawyers have to be contacted if Customs want to look through medical records, legal documents or a journalists’ notes.

But again, the mere fact that I have to surrender my laptop is silly to begin with. I don’t recall that happening when I was traveling throughout the European Union last year.

A step in the right direction.

The gScreen Spacebook has two displays that slide out to form one large one; the displays are 15.4 inches each, so let’s apply the old Pythagorean theorem to find that root (15.4²+15.4²) = a 21.8-inch display. Is that right? (no, it’s not.) Actually the two 15.4-inch diagonal screens combine to make a 24-inch 1.78:1 screen. Would be nice for watching widescreen movies except for that big bar in the middle.

There will be larger and smaller versions; I can actually see the draw in a slightly more compact version of this sucker. That is, if they can keep the weight down. They’ll be releasing the things in Q4 of this year; you should be able to buy on on Amazon in a couple months. We’ll let you know.

[via Gizmodo]

The ACLU doesn’t like that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection can search through all your electronic personal effects—laptops, including all the data therein—so it has filed a lawsuit to back up an earlier Freedom of Information request asking, essentially, “what gives?” Is it reasonable for Customs to search you at the border? Sure. But is it reasonable for Customs to search you, then take away your laptop, hold onto it for an indeterminate length of time, all the while rifling through your browser history, photo directory, etc? Are they afraid of my exploding plain text files or something?

Never mind the holes in the logic of Customs. “Let’s search their laptops as they’re entering the country, make sure they don’t have dangerous and/or terrorist-related materials on their laptop.” Why would a terrorist, if he were so inclined, locally store all sorts of damaging material as he’s crossing the border? Why wouldn’t he, say, cross the border clean as a whistle, go to Best Buy, buy a cheap computer, then connect to TerroristNet from the comfort of his hotel room? (TerroristNet could, of course, be something as common as Google Docs, so let’s ban/search everyone’s account there, too.)

Then, of course, you’ve got the “but you have nothing to hide, why should you care?” Because I’d like to pretend that, as an American citizen, I shouldn’t have to surrender my MacBook when returning from EVIL VENEZUELA (where I have family, thank you very much), and wait for Some Guy to “approve” my browser history, make sure I don’t have anything suspicious on there. If I were up to no good abroad, you can be sure that I’d have wiped the drive clean before heading to the airport. It’s just common sense.

Excellent choice, sir.

Specs are decent, if unspectacular but, hey — cheap notebook:

• AMD Athlon 64 1.6GHz CPU
• 2GB of RAM
• 160GB hard drive
• 15.6-inch WXGA screen
• 8X DVD burner
• Vista Home Basic
• Six-cell battery
• Weighs six pounds

eMachines E625-5776 [Buy.com]