DRS Technologies intros ARMOR line of fully rugged notebooks

Just yesterday Dell introduced its first truly tough notebook computer and today we have ARMOR from ruggedness major DRS. The ARMOR line up include two machines — the 12.1″ C12 Convertible Notebook and the 10.4″ X10 Tablet (pictured above). “DRS has extensive experience developing systems that meet and exceed military requirements and survive extremely harsh environments around the globe. Whether it’s a soldier in need of mission-critical information in the desert or a utility worker in need of automation in the field, ARMOR rugged mobile computing devices survive the rough conditions they face on a daily basis,” said Michael J. Sheehan, president of DRS Technologies’ Tactical Computing strategic business unit.

This new line of rugged mobile computers offers data protection technology, “anywhere” connectivity and sunlight readable display options, making these computers the ideal solution for industrial and government customers interested in ensuring situational awareness, protecting valuable data and/or increasing worker efficiency.

Housed in a specially designed aluminum DuraCase chassis with ShutOut sealing technology, the ARMOR X10 Tablet meets IP 66 level protection from dust, dirt, water and other damaging elements while still offering no-flap input connections and hot-swappable battery access without the need for tools.

Features (ARMOR X10)

1.2 GHz Intel Core Duo Processor U2500
up to 2GB DDR2 RAM
80GB HDD or 8GB/16GB SSD
10.4-inch sunlight readable, transmissive LCD (XGA: 1024 x 768)
a/b/g Wireless
Windows XP Tablet PC

Features (ARMOR C12)

1.2 GHz (ULV) Intel Core Solo Processor U1400
up to 2GB DDR2 RAM
60GB HDD
12.1-inch sunlight-readable LCD (XGA: 1024 x 768)
full-size 84-key keyboard with backlight
Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC or Linux
802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi

[C12]
[X10]

Source : PCLaunches

ASUS Eee PC goes 9″

Asus’ priced possession just got bigger. At CeBIT, ASUS upgraded its Eee PC with a bigger screen and better flash storage. The Eee PC 900 features 1G of memory, larger storage of up to 12GB, and wider 8.9-inch screens. It costs 399 Euro ($609), and will be available in summer this year.

Source : PCLaunches

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Asus shows off new lineup of Eee PC add-ons

Most interesting is the Ai Guru U1 VoIP phone. It plugs in with USB, and in addition to letting you make calls to all your broke-ass friends, you can also use it to browse and listen to music stored on the Eee PC. Next up is the Eee AP, which acts as a 802.11g wireless access point and little else — think AirPort Express minus the sexy. The USB “3.5G HSDPA Card” is just as straightforward, with GSM900 / 1800 / 1900 and WCDMA2100 / 1900 / 850, and download speeds up to 3.6Mbps. The slim DVD-RW drive and the totally generic headsets aren’t spicing things up either, which you can probably tell is par for the course here. There’s no word on price or availability for any of these yet, but we’re guessing none of them will break the bank — they sure don’t look it.

Source : Engadget

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The Cuso PC S600 is not the UMPC of your dreams… or a UMPC

Enter the Cuso PC S600 “UMPC,” your ticket to near-constant ridicule from friends and family. Sure, you’d think with specs like the blazing 266MHz ARM CPU, 1GB or 4GB of flash memory, 802.11b WiFi, miniSD support, playback of MP3, WMA, ASF, WAV, OGG, AAC, APE, AVI, WMV, DIVX, H.264, ASF, and 3GP files (um, with the freeware app TCPMP), and all kinds of Windows CE-powered document handling (TXT, DOC, XLS, PDF, PPT, PPS) you’d be all set, but we don’t think it’s that simple. There’s something about that cheap looking plastic casing, stereo speakers, and totally out of line use of the term UMPC that tell us this probably isn’t much more than a glorified PMP. On the bright side, we’re thinking this isn’t going to break any banks, though we’ve got no word on price or release date.

Source : Engadget

Modbook upgraded, now up to 2.4GHz, 160GB

Bummer to everyone who just got their Modbook, what, two months ago? As with the inevitable tide of technology, Axiotron just upgraded the line, bumping the specs to 2.1 or 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo configs with 120 or 160GB drives. The price on the base model stays the same ($2,290), but the new 2.4GHz config will run you $2,480.

Source : Engadget

MSI develops world’s first anion notebook PR620

Looks like there’s no stopping for MSI on the “green” products front. The latest in their environment friendly initiative is a green concept notebook computer PR620, affectionately dubbed Anion Notebook. The MSI “Green Design” notebook features the release of high concentration anions for cleaning and purifying the air. So even when you are confined to a small area, you can still enjoy the benefits of clean air anywhere. Using the latest in technology, the MSI Anion Notebook Computer can release up to five hundred and fifty thousand ions/cc (50 cm from the air vent), which is more than if you were right next to mountains and beaches. It can also contain concentrated ozone lower than 0.02ppm. 

The notebook absorbs dust particles in the air to prevent inhaling into human body, eliminating all possible contact to disease. The PR620 also eliminate toxic gases in the air, destroying the “Silent Assisin”. According to the firm, the Anion removes all offensive and foreign smell in the air to bettering the living condition. Smoker-Free Quickly function eliminate all smog, dust, and second cigarette smoke in the air.

Source : PCLaunches

Penryn Chips finally land in Dell’s XPS M1730

We already saw Intel’s Penryn lineup invade Dell’s XPS M1330, but now folks gunning for its (much) larger sibling can finally get in on the new CPU action, too. That’s right folks, effectively immediately, prospective M1730 buyers can select a 2.4GHz T8300, 2.5GHz T9300, 2.6GHz T7800 or 2.8GHz X7900 to run the show. Ready to claim one for yourself? Follow the read link below.

[Via Laptoping]

Source : engadget

ASUS U6S ultraportable gets reviewed

ASUS certainly got our attention with its ultraportable U6S laptop, and it looks like it piqued the interest of the folks at HotHardware as well, who’ve now turned out a full review of the diminutive, leather-bound system. While they expectedly found a few shortcomings with laptop — namely, lackluster battery life (even for an ultraportable) — they found a lot more to like about it, including “excellent” performance, plenty of features (including HSDPA), low heat and noise, an always-welcome LED display, and “cool leather palm rests,” although that last bit is certainly a matter of taste.Best of all, that all comes at a relatively reasonable $1,650 price tag, which leads HotHardware to declare the U6S “one of the best values in the luxury notebook niche.”

Source : engadget

ECS Super 3G Sub-Notebook

ECS' G10IL

There’s not much to say about ECS’ 11in G10IL laptop other than the fact that it has built-in tri-band HSDPA and HSUPA ‘super 3G’ technology for downloads of up to 7.2Mb/s and 2Mb/s, respectively.

That’s one reason that helped it with the GSMA’s award for best pre-production mobile broadband notebook, but we snapped the laptop because we think it’s a looker.

OK, maybe there’s something of the MacBook about it, but it works for us. Feel the same way? Since the machine’s not actually out yet, our instinct is to wait around until Intel’s next major Centrino revamp, expected in May, for this boy to be launched properly.

What we can say is that the G10IL packs in a trio of USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet and a 56Kb/s modem. There’s a VGA connector too, but no optical drive. It’s almost certainly Wi-Fi enabled too and probably bundles Bluetooth as well.

That’s clearly a webcam up above the display. The odd indentation to the front left of the laptop is the power key.

Source : RegHardware.co.uk

Dell Latitude E-series Laptops leaked

If Engadget is to be believed then Dell is all set to announce a whole new notebook series under Latitude brand, with screen size ranging from 12-inch to 15.4-inch. In all there will be four laptops under E-series — 12″, 13.3″, 14.1″ and 15.4″. The latter two models are equipped with WXGA and WXGA+ LED backlit displays respectively. Additionally, the larger models comes with DisplayPort, eSATA, couple of USB ports, and PC or ExpressCard slots.

Source : Engadget

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Intel makes MacBook Air Processor available to all

The reduced-size 65nm Core 2 Duo designed by Intel and incorporated inside Apple’s super-slim MacBook Air is available for other computer makers to buy, the chip company confirmed last week.

No great surprise there – Intel’s in the business of selling as many chips as possible, not operating as Apple’s in-house silicon specialist – but the news hasn’t stopped commentators speculating that a raft of Air-alternatives will be hitting the market in the very near future.

Again, no surprise there. Wherever Apple’s innovation – whether it’s come up with idea itself or, more usually, taken an existing product and run with with it, as per the iPod, the iPhone and, now, the Air – takes it, lesser brands are wont to follow. So there will be more skinny laptops coming, whether Intel makes its physically cut-down CPU available to other customers or not.

Come May, Intel will have a raft of low-power, high-performance 45nm Core 2 Duo processors ready for laptop makers. And don’t forget ‘Silverthorne’, the 45nm ground-up-design UMPC chip that uses HyperThreading to boost performance while keeping the core count to one.

It’s not just the small processor that’s made the Air possible. While that helps shrink the machine’s motherboard a little, Apple’s MacBook and MacBook Pro mobos aren’t exactly large as it is. Neither are many other laptop boards. What makes the Air possible is the willingness to drop the optical drive and to use a handheld music player-grade hard drive until solid-state disks become cheap enough to be offered as standard.

Incidentally, what the Air does have over its rivals – whether you like the machine or not – is the best casing. Compare it to similar PCs, such as Toshiba’s Portege R500, and while the Air is a smooth, solid product, thanks to its aluminium alloy shell, the R500 is clad in flexible plastic that’s all humps, bumps and air vents.

Still, while the Air is nicer looking, it’s clearly less functional – the R500 has plenty more ports and an integrated optical drive. Watch out for our full review of the Toshiba.

Source : RegHardware.co.uk

MacBook Air Dissected

Worried about changing the battery in a MacBook Air? Don’t – according to one tech site that’s taken the skinny machine to bits, opening the laptop up is “a surprisingly pleasant task”.

Cynics will, of course, say the 13.3in notebook that’s short on stature but big on hype should stay that way, but at least iFixIt’s disassembly shows how straightforward the process is and what’s inside the slimline shell.

Inside Apple’s MacBook Air
Image courtesy iFixIt.com

And there are some surprises, like the presence of a Silicon Image SIL1392CNU HDMI chip. The Air only has a proprietary mini-DVI port. However, there’s HDCP chippery on the motherboard too, pointing the way, perhaps, to future Airs with the ability to deliver protected hi-def content to HDTVs.

The touchpad’s controlled by a Broadcom BCM5974, the same part used by the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Sound is fed through a Realtek ALC885 audio codec. The Air’s 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi is mediated by Broadcom’s BCM4321KFBG chip.

The Air’s main circuit board
Image courtesy iFixIt.com

The Air’s 2GB of 667MHz DDR 2 memory is clearly soldered onto the main circuit board, as 16 1Gb chips, eight on one side of the board and the rest on the other. In the picture above, the two main chips are, left to right, the Core 2 Duo CPU and the Intel integrated northbridge chip, which has the GPU on board.

Taking the Air’s lid apart reveals the LED panel to be just 3mm thick fed by a single data and power cable from the motherboard.

But this is just a teaser – check out iFixIt’s step-by-step disassembly here.

Video Previews
• MacBook Air

Source : RegHardware.co.uk

Rock reveals graphics benchmark beating monster laptop

UK gaming notebook specialist Rock has rolled out what it claims is its most powerful graphics offering yet: a quad-core machine with a pair of Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX GPUs on board.

The Xtreme SL8 is a 17in machine – the screen resolution’s 1920 x 1200 – and is offered with a choice of 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6800 or 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad Q6700 – both desktop-class processors which sit on a 1066MHz frontside bus (FSB). Expect some severe cooling inside the SL8, then…

But with the top-end CPU and the two GPUs, this machine delivers a 3DMark06 score of “around 15,000”, the manufacturer claimed.

Rock’s Xtreme SL8: graphics powerhouse?

The machine’s DDR 2 memory – up to 4GB of it – runs at 800MHz, and you can configure the beast with up to 600GB of 7200rpm hard disk storage or 1TB of 5400rpm HDDs in RAID layout.

HD DVD fans take note: this boy has a drive that’ll read these discs. It’ll write all dual- and single-layer DVD formats too.

Gigabit Ethernet provides fast networking for LAN parties, but the SL8 has 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless links as well. If you’re tempted to use it away from the mains, the SL8 comes with a 6600mAh.

The Xtreme SL8 is due to go on sale by the middle of the month priced at between £2000 and £3500.

Related Reviews
• Rock Xtreme X770 laptop with Nvidia GeForce 8800M graphics

Source : RegHardware.co.uk

Use your laptop while standing with the help of Connect-A-Desk

Connect-A-Desk is a laptop desk that straps to the user and gives you the ability to type while walking or standing. Looks tempting? Actually this could be a good gadget for people who are constantly on the road. The ergonomically designed desk works with any size laptop, notebook, or tablet computer and easily fits into most computer bags. It is now available for $35.

Product Page

Source : PCLaunches

Apple MacBook Paper is thinner than MacBook Air

Can’t get your eyes off the super thin MacBook Air? Then you’ll definitely love MacBook Paper, which claims to be way thinner than Air.

Source : PCLaunches

Dell brings Linux to XPS M1330

Dell today continued its releases with word of its first notebook outside of the Inspiron 1420 to carry Linux. The XPS M1330n is the first high-performance system from the PC maker to come with Ubuntu instead of Windows and adds features that have previously been off-limits to earlier systems running the OS, including the option of a 64GB solid-state drive, a 320GB rotating disk, as well as a display with a webcam and an LED-backlit display. DVD playback support is already installed rather than requiring an add-on software pack, Dell adds.The system is initially available in Europe starting with France, Germany, Spain, and the UK; in the latter country, the stock M1330n will sell for £599 ($1,167) after tax with a 1.66GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB of memory, a 120GB hard drive, and Intel’s GMA X3100 for integrated graphics; up to a 2.2GHz processor, 4GB of memory, and a 128MB GeForce 8400M GS video chipset will be available. A US release is planned for next week.

Source : Electronista

Inventec working on 7-A and 5-D UMPCs

It seems Inventec is working on two ultra portable PCs, the 7-A and 5-D. According to UnwiredView, both of them participated in IF Product Design Award 2008 competition and received the awards. You would also like to know that as per competition rules, the displayed gizmos should go into mass production this year.

No word on exact configuration, but you can expect Intel Menlow platform, 45-nm 800 MHz-1.33 GHz Silverthone CPU, Poulsbo US15 chipset, 1-2 GB of RAM and 30-60 GB HDD.

Source : Unwired View

Troll Touch ships touchscreen iMacs

Sure, it’s not the real thing, but those of you aching for a taste of Steve’s “research project” touch Macs can now order up the latest and greatest iMacs retrofitted with touchscreens from Troll Touch. The company’s been putting its PSRT touchscreens on all sorts of displays for years, and much like the ModBook, the tech pretty much just works. Pricing for the new iMacs starts at $2499 for the base 2.0GHz 20-inch model and runs up to $3899 for the 2.8GHz 24-inch Core 2 Extreme, while those of you who want to upgrade your existing machines can get in on the action for $1099 (20 inch) or $1599 (24 inch).

Source : engadget

Dell XPS M1730 – World Of Warcraft Edition

Dell is announcing the XPS M1730 World of Warcraft Edition. However, this isn’t just any XPS M1730 series notebook with a WoW Edition badge slapped on. Dell, in collaboration with Blizzard, took a loaded XPS M1730 and gave it a serious makeover. Two different lid designs are available for Horde and Alliance players.

Dell XPS M1730 WoW Edition (Horde)

In addition to the redesigned chassis, the World of Warcraft Edition XPS M1730 also comes with a World of Warcraft backpack full of goodies including retail copies of both WoW and the Burning Crusade, the official WoW audio soundtrack, World of Warcraft and Burning Crusade paperback novels, strategy guides, and a behind the scenes DVD titled “The Making of WoW”.

If that isn’t enough WoW for you, customers will also receive a Quest Envelope in the mail which ships separately from the system. Inside you’ll find an upgrade certificate that allows you to upgrade your account to a “Collectors Edition Account” giving you the same privileges as owners of the Collectors Edition version of WoW, including the special in-game pet. The Quest Envelope also contains a Golden Ticket from FigurePrints that allows your in-game WoW character to be made into a custom figurine for free. That’s not all, the last item included in the Quest Envelope will surely make all of your guild members turn green with envy. You will receive an official Blizzard key card with five keys that can be used to gain access to beta tests for future WoW games!

All of this doesn’t come cheaply and the XPS M1730 World of Warcraft Edition will set you back $4,499. Of course, with all of this exclusive WoW content, it’s easy to forget that you also get a high-end gaming notebook packed with the latest hardware. Not familiar with the XPS M1730? Don’t worry, we have a in-depth review on the way so keep your eyes open.

Source: HotHardware

Dell introduces XPS M1530 Notebook

Dell announced the XPS M1530, a sleek and stylish 15.4-inch notebook featuring the same award-winning design and features introduced by the highly acclaimed XPS M1330 earlier this year. The Dell XPS M1530 is loaded with premium features, like built in webcam and fingerprint reader, and design accents like touch-sensitive multi-media buttons, brushed aluminum accents and a choice of sophisticated colors.

With a starting weight of just under six pounds and featuring a trim 1-inch profile, the elegant Dell XPS M1530 delivers a rich mobile experience. Standard features include a high definition widescreen 15.4-inch display, slot-load optical drive, DirectX 10 capable graphics, sophisticated touch sensitive media buttons, and HDMI support. Customers can also personalize their systems with a choice of three colors: standard Tuxedo Black, and optional Crimson Red and Alpine White.

The Dell XPS M1530 includes standard Wi-Fi wireless networking, and optional Bluetooth wireless and mobile broadband with a choice of wireless carriers. The Dell XPS M1530 is available at a starting Price of $999.

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