LG X300 Ultraslim Netbook
There’s no denying the fact that ‘slim is attractive’. At CES 2010, LG enticed audience with their latest ultra-slim, ultraportable – the LG X300 Netbook. This device is just 17.6mm thick and can easily slip into a manila envelope (watch the video below).
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The X300 sports an 11.6″ screen which stretches end-to-end, giving it a bezel-less look. The lid has a uniform Braille-like pattern. At 970g, it makes for easy mobility too. The keyboard seems well laid out, with space between the keys. The trackpad is looks unique with a border-less design, except for the lighting that marks it’s corners. Stylish craftsmanship indeed! |
| On the inside, this workstation will have the Intel Menlow 2GHz processor driving it. A 2GB RAM will be present too. Instead of a hard drive, a solid state drive will be packed within. This ultra-thin laptop will be equipped with SRS TruSurround HD sound. Thus, there’s focus on entertainment as well. Provision for an embedded 3G mobile broadband chipset is also expected to be present. |  |
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Being slender, the LG X300 laptop is short of ports on the sides. However, on the rear edge, there are 2 USB ports, a card reader, a headphone jack and another port which is apparently called “EX-Port”. A 1.3Mp web camera is integrated within as well. |
The LG X300 Superslim Laptop is supposed to offer a battery life of 7 hours. It is expected to step into markets this month. However, pricing is still unknown.
Images via Engadget and Pocket-lint
Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 Netbook
The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 netbook is another upgraded variant of the Lenovo IdeaPad S10, like the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3T, but without a swivel touchscreen. The new versions of the IdeaPad S10 feature Intel’s Pine Trail platform and the Windows 7 Operating system.
The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 is a 10.1″ screen netbook with a high definition resolution, LED backlight and a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. The Intel Atom N470 1.83GHz processor or the N450 1.66GHz processor is employed in this mini laptop. The Intel GMA 3150 graphics is integrated within. A maximum of 2GB RAM can be housed in this workstation. The hard drive that ships with it is a 320GB capacity one.
WiFi and wired Ethernet are both supported for internet connectivity. Bluetooth compliance is offered as well. There are 3 USB ports, a VGA output, a microphone jack, a headphone jack and a 5-in-1 card reader are present in this workstation. A 0.3MP web-camera is as well available for video chats.
These constitute the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 specifications.
For the battery of this device, you can opt for a 4-cell or an 8-cell one. Despite using the Pine Trail platform, the battery life is pretty low – 3.5 hours is quoted for the former, while 7 hours is quoted for the latter.
The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 netbook price is supposed to be £279.
Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3T Touchscreen Netbook
The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3T Netbook is the renovated version of the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 netbook, with the addition of a swivel touchscreen and the Intel Pine Trail platform. An attractive looking device, the S10-3T, can definitely make your heart go out to it.
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This convertible netbook has a 10.1″ capacitive multi-touch screen display, with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. The introduction of the Pine Trail processor, the Intel Atom N450 with a clock speed of 1.66GHz makes for power consumption and hence longer battery life than the predecessor model. A 1GB DDR2 RAM is housed within. The hard drive has a capacity of 250GB. The netbook ships with the Windows 7 Starter edition. The Intel GMA 3150 graphics processor is employed for handling visual signals. |
| This touchscreen netbook is also reported to support WiFi, Bluetooth, 2 USB ports, a VGA port and a 6-in-1 memory card. A 1.3MP web camera is integrated within for video chats and calls.
The price of the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3T Touchscreen Tablet Netbook is £399. |
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Dell Alienware M11x Netbook – Ardent Gamers Get Set to GO
Racer Tornado could see no sky….no earth…nothing else in sight, but the track of the bike race ahead…. It was the rocky terrain race.
Three… The referee had started the countdown. The silence was broken by the jerked acceleration noises of the bikes.
Two… Tornado’s grip over the accelerator tightened.
One and go… Vrrrrrroooooooooooooooommmmmmmm….. Off sped the bikes raising a storm of dust…
The track slowly started getting rockier… Tornado was ripping along the path at 120 mph. From the side of his eyes, he could see another racer speeding beside him. Tightening his frown, he accelerated his bike a little more. He sped along the track that twisted and turned between the hills and mountains.
Dark under-bridges, splashy and bumpy stretches and sharp bends passed by. And then came the 70-degree-downhill path. “Yoohoooooooooo!!!” Off he sped down the slope, his body violently shaking as the bike jerked along the rock-infested path. Gripping his handle-bar tighter and balancing on the footrest, Tornado felt that passion… that mad adrenalin rush… the pleasure of slicing through the powerful wind that strongly opposed him.
The terrain was flat again… On one of the skidding paths, 2 bikers sped past him. One of them giving him a violent beating with a stick… It was Sharpshooter, the racer who was known for his devilish tricks on the tracks. Between his clenched teeth Tornado whispered, “I’ll get you.”
At a distance, Tornado saw several flags fluttering in the breeze. It was the finish line. The 2 bikers were still ahead of him… “Gotta win”, he said to himself. Bending himself lower for better streamlining, and eyes fixed on the finish line, he mustered the power of every single muscle-cell in his arms and made a dash for the winning line. At 300m to the finish line, he overtook one of the bikes. One more to go. He was racing neck to neck with the other bike now. It was Sharpshooter. Just a 100m more. With a final stroke of acceleration, Tornado catapulted forward and sped past the finish line. His momentum was so high that he came to a halt only after 200m from the winning line. He took off his helmet. Yes! He had won by a fraction of a second. The crowd was cheering.
He closed eyes and basked in that victorious moment. When all of a sudden, some one was shaking him “Eddie. Take off those headphones, will you.”
Opening his eyes, Eddie woke up to the real world and realised that he was still sitting in the WiFi hotspot at his workplace.
“Don’t you want to go home? Or you still want to sit racing on your laptop?”, it was John, his colleague.
“Oh I never realise how time passes by when I’m playing on my Dell Alienware M11x.”, said Eddie.
“What’s so great about it?”, asked John who was a tech-savvy.
“It is one of the very few netbooks, with an 11.6″ screen but has the power of a 15″ laptop. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M does the graphics.”, Eddie always took pride in explaining about his M11x. Gaming laptops are usually power-packed and heavy. But this one is easily portable, and yet offers all the power one will need for high speed gaming and HD 720p video playback. It also has a HD resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels.
“NVIDIA graphics was used in that 3D movie, Avatar right?”, asked John who always kept a note of what’s happening in the technological world.
“Yes. NVIDIA graphics was used in that movie.”, replied Eddie, as they walked out of the office premises.
“Impressive. Tell me more about your netbook?” Give John a small slit about any technology or gadget and then you’ll see him dig out his path till he knows all about it.
“There’s an Intel dual core processor inside; up to 8GB DDR3 RAM; either a maximum of 500GB HDD or a 256GB SSD; runs Windows 7; there’s high definition 5.1 surround sound; FireWire; 3 USB ports; HDMI; 3-in-1 card reader; Bluetooth; and even a digital TV tuner. It weighs a little below 2kg.”
“That’s really good. I just leave my laptop at office. Too heavy to be carried around while travelling. What about battery life?” John was quite sure that a powerful device like the M11x would not last long on battery.
“For regular surfing and emailing, I get about 8 hours. High speed gaming and videos give me lesser. When not playing games, I switch over to the integrated graphics, which consumes lower power.”
“Great. And the price?”, John seemed highly impressed and interested to buy one.
“Got it for £749. Seems high. But for gamers on the move, it’s ideal. Planning to buy one?”
John gave a smile. It was a wicked kind of smile. “Yes I will Tornado. And when I do, Sharpshooter will beat you.”
Eddie smiled back. “Meet you on the tracks Sharpshooter.”
The two ardent gamers shook hands and parted ways.
Hercules eCafe EC-1000W Netbook
Anyone would definitely be interested in taking a second look at a sleek netbook sporting a soothing blue lid with a dark flora pattern on its side. The inside is a combination of white, black and silver. A neat chiclet keyboard and a sufficiently spacious trackpad look appealing too. Once you relish the aesthetics, you’d want to know more about the specs. A run down the specifications might make this device seem like just another netbook. But hold it. There’s something more to it than meets the eye, in this 10.1″, 1024 * 600 pixel-display device, the Hercules eCafe EC-1000W Netbook.
Managing contacts and emails has been given special attention in this netbook with the eCafe Email Center utility. People with more than one email addresses can have quick access to all mailboxes. Whenever a new email is received, there will be a pop-up to notify you. Each of the mailboxes can be configured with a unique colour for easy identification as well. Plus, all emails are stored in the eCafe. So you can access them even without internet connectivity.
Hop on to the internet either using wired Ethernet connection or WiFi. The eCafe also saves the various WiFi networks you use. So you can directly link to the web, when you’re at a particular WiFi hotspot.
The web camera that’s built into the Hersules netbook offers some nifty features for video calls and video conferences. 3x digital zoom and face tracking are supported. You can even click pictures and shoot videos and easily attach them to your mails, to send to friends. Easy uploading to social networks, blogs etc is allowed too. Photographs can be captured with a single shot or using a timer or in bursts. Making an effective presentation will thus be a breeze. The OpenOffice.org Version 3 also comes pre-loaded in this workstation.
New software can be downloaded using the eCafe Update Manager, whenever you want.
At the heart of this device you’ll find the Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor. There’s a 1GB RAM and a 250GB hard drive packed within. 50GB of online storage is offered too. The Windows 7 Starter edition comes pre-installed in this netbook.
The Hercules eCafe ec-1000W 10″ Netbook is blessed with a decent set of connectors too. 3 USB ports, a VGA connector, a headphone jack, a microphone jack and a 4-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, SDHC and MS). A6-cell battery powers this workstation up. Price-wise, it does surpass the other netbooks by a considerable amount – £329.
Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX Laptop gets a Touchscreen Refresh
Toshiba have announced the launch of their new laptop, the Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX with a 13.3″ multi-touch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels.
This new workstation has some really interesting specs too. The Intel Core i3-330 processor which has a clock speed of 2.13GHz is integrated within. A maximum of 4GB DDR3 RAM can be configured in this laptop. The hard drive can have up to 320GB of storage space. Windows 7 will be pre-loaded on this notebook.
A new tool called Toshiba LifeSpace will feature on this device. There’s supposed to be a utility called Bulletin Board, which lets you create thumb-nail shortcuts. Another utility called ReelTime allows quick searching if files.
Other features include Bluetooth, 2 USB ports, an eSATA/USB combo port, a high definition web camera with microphone, a 5-in-1 Bridge Media slot, an HDMI port, a DVD super-multi drive, WiFi and Gigabit LAN.
The price of the Toshiba Satellite U500-1EX Touchscreen Notebook is £649.
Acer Aspire One 532H Netbook
If portability and affordability is on your mind, then the Acer Aspire One 532H Netbook is one device that you can shortlist. It is a step-up from the Acer Aspire One 531 that hit markets last year. The Intel Pine Trail processor platform is featured in this netbook. Thus you can expect a decent battery life, to last you a good number of hours away from the mains.
There’s nothing that’s breath-taking in the specifications of this netbook. Not that it is a bad device. But the features are pretty mundane, something you’d expect from a regular netbook.
The screen presents a diagonal measure of 10.1 inches and a resolution of 1024×600 pixels. Graphics is handled by the Intel GMA 3150 GPU. As aforementioned, the Pine Trail Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz processor is integrated within this device. A 1GB RAM stores active applications on the netbook. The Windows 7 Starter edition forms the software base.
Social networking via the internet has become very popular these days. You can access all your favourite networks, share photographs, videos and keep friends posted on all your latest life’s happenings. There is an Acer Crystal Eye webcam built into this workstation too for video calls. Emailing and instant messaging, browsing the internet for official work, catching up on the latest news and downloading videos and music can all be done as well. When at home you may use your fixed broadband connection. And when outdoors, you can either get hold of a WiFi hotspot or a mobile broadband connection for more travelling flexibility.
You’ll have to subscribe for a mobile broadband dongle, which can be plugged into any one of the 3 USB 2.0 ports housed in this netbook. If you wish to use an external monitor for viewing the content of this netbook, you can use the VGA port for linking the 2 together. A multi-in-1 card reader helps in memory expansion. You can even export or import files using the cards. Headphone and microphone jacks are present in this device as well. Bluetooth enables using wireless peripherals with the netbook, like a Bluetooth mouse.
When it comes to looks, the Acer Aspire One 532H 10″ Netbook is a charmer with its garnet red lid and black interiors. It might also be available with blue and white coloured lids. It claims to deliver a runtime life of 8 hours. The approximate price of this device is £290.
NVIDIA Tegra 2 Tablets to Rule Mobile Computing this Year?
CES 2010 saw the unveiling of the 2nd generation of NVIDIA’s mobile computation platform – the NVIDIA Tegra 2. A few tablets that had this chipset at their hearts, were demo’d as well. This new platform is supposed to deliver 4 times the performance than the first generation of NVIDIA Tegra platform.
One of the most striking quality of this chipset is its support for 3D touchscreen interface. Sounds like gaming might be taken to a whole new level, with 3D action. NVIDIA graphics were used in the making of the 3D fiction “Avatar”. And this movie is supposed to be one of the best 3D graphics film made till date.
Tablets integrated with the NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset, will offer high definition 1080p video playback. It offers compatibility with the Adobe Flash player 10.1.
Battery life is another area where the new NVIDIA chipset is supposed to excel. The power consumption is said to be lower than the previous generation platform. And hence better battery life can be expected. The Tegra 2 is quoted to deliver 16 hours of HD video playback and 140 hours of music, after a single charge.
When compared to smartphones, its not only the screen sizes and resolution that have received a boost, but also speed of processing and performance. Screen sizes are supposed to range from 5 to 15 inches. The resolution offered is said to be 4 to 8 times that of the smartphones. The ARM Cortex A9 dual core processor which can have a clock speed of up to 1GHz is employed in the NVIDIA chipset. There are also supposed to be 8 independent processors, handling web browsing, high-def video encoding & decoding and mobile 3D gaming.
Some of the NVIDIA Tegra 2 tablets that were revealed during CES 2010, Las Vegas, are the Asus tablet concept, the Wistron tablet, the Notion Ink tablet concept, the Viewsonic Alice 2 tablet. We’ll keep you posted about the release and pricing of these tablets. With the NVIDIA Tegra 2 tablets offering plenty on specs, will the Apple iPad be able to stand up against tough competition? Pricing of all the tablets will play a significant role in deciding this.
This YouTube video below shows the NVIDIA press conference at CES 2010.
Apple’s Magic Mouse
The Apple Magic Mouse is a highly innovative gadget which accomplishes plenty more, apart from the regular tasks of an average mouse. First of all, the style and design of this Magic Mouse is like none other. Glossy pearl white in colour with the Apple logo adorning it, this device looks highly appealing to the eye. Secondly, it incorporates a totally new technical design and offers a new method of operating.
There is however, dull news. This mouse is supposed to work only with Mac computers and laptops running the Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later. It can be linked to the PCs via Bluetooth. Hence other laptops from the various manufacturers cannot use this device.
Unlike a regular mouse, which presents buttons at top, for right and left clicks, the Magic Mouse is itself the button. There are no explicit right and left click buttons. Hence, this Apple Mouse has a seamless design. Therefore you can click anywhere on it. The top right corner however, presents the right click functionality, while the rest of the mouse behaves like the regular left click area.
The top portion of the mouse integrates multi-touch capability. A user can scroll up & down and sideways, by using normal finger gestures. Plus, swiping with 2 fingers allows flipping through images, music files and web pages.
The Apple Magic mouse is supposed to be highly precise in recognising what the user wants to do. It is said to be capable of sensing when the user is relaxing his hand and when he touches for operating on the screen. The Magic mouse can be customised to be used for left-handed people as well. Magnifying and reducing page size can be done too, by swiping the finger up and down respectively, by holding down the “Ctrl” key on the keyboard.
Thus, the Apple Magic Multi-Touch Mouse is a highly innovative and novel idea from Apple. It does seem ergonomic too, with its compact design and gesture-friendly operations. The price of this gadget is £56, approximately.
Sony Vaio E Series Laptops
The Sony Vaio E Series Laptops have been designed by Sony for delivering stylish, entertainment focussed workstations at affordable prices. Sony Vaio products have often been one level above the rest of the crowd, when it came to pricing. But, they’ve also had something out of the ordinary to offer. So we really wonder what price tags the E Series laptops will come affixed with. Their specification-set is nonetheless very impressive.
These systems are all Windows 7 based. They are internally powered by the Intel Core i5 dual core 2.26GHz processor or the Intel Core i3 dual core 2.13GHz processor. The maximum RAM capacity supported is 8GB. The standard models ship in 3GB and 4GB RAM configurations. Most of the models have a 500GB hard drive. There are 320GB hard drive models available too. The high-end versions have a Blu-Ray drive built into them. These drives play CDs and DVDs as well. The standard models come with a CD/DVD drive built into them. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD graphics has been employed in most of the models. Some of the low end models incorporate the Intel HD graphics.
The screen size of the E series laptops is 15.5″ diagonally. Select models offer full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, while the rest of them present a 1366 x 768 pixels HD resolution. Plus there are stereo speakers with Dolby Home Theater v3, integrated in these laptops. Hence the E-series work-horses can form the core of your entertainment life. Watch movies on the laptops or use the HDMI port to connect to a big TV, either LCD or plasma, for a better viewing experience.
Not just entertainment, you can as well use the Sony Vaio E series notebooks for accomplishing all your internet tasks, like surfing, emailing, getting to know what’s up with your buddies using social networks, instant messaging, video chatting using the 0.3MP Motion Eye digital web camera and more. Both WiFi and wired Gigabit LAN are supported for this.
Connecting to peripherals can be done via the ample connectors available aboard these laptops. There are 3 USB 2.0 ports along with an eSATA-USB combo port for speedy file transfers with other devices. A VGA port is present for hooking to an external monitor. The Memory Stick slot and an SD card slot are both available for memory expansion. An ExpressCard slot is present as well. Finally, the standard headphone and microphone jacks are housed too. Bluetooth allows wireless linking with compatible gadgets.
One special feature that needs special mention is the presence of the 3 quick access buttons above the keys on the keyboard. The “Assist” button helps you with troubleshooting, when faced with problems while working on the laptop. The “Web” button lets you launch the web browser directly even before the OS boots up, for quick internet access. The “Vaio” button launches Sony’s own Media Gallery software for helping you create home movies.
Like any other Sony Vaio Laptop, it goes without saying that the E Series Workstations are sleek and attractive. They’ll sport 3 different attires – black, white and brown. They are expected to be available during March 2010, in the UK.