Laptop News Blog

HTC UMPC Pics Hit the Web

Some photos of HTC's UMPC device have hit the Web.  Looks like this eagerly awaited ultra-mobile PC may be available as early as 2007. 

More pics are posted at PDAclub.

Sony Type G Vaio is World's Lightest Notebook

Sony Corporation is now selling the world's lightest notebook computer in Japan, aiming to boost sales among business users.

Sony's "type G" Vaio computer weighs in at only 898 grams, is the lightest laptop PC, and comes with a 12.1-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) screen and retails for about  220,000 yen ($1,881).

The "type G" models are not available overseas.

 

HP Forges Ahead as Leading Laptop Manufacturer

According to new research, HP is the leader in the world notebook market with 17.7% of the market share. 

DisplaySearch has announced that HP exceeded Dell's shipments by 50,000 units in the third quarter of 2006.   Dell moved into second place, with 17.5 per cent of the market.  Acer, Toshiba and Lenovo also made the top five laptop manufacturers.

Regional stats were different however, whith HP being the overall leader in Asia Pacific and Latin America, while Dell took the lead in North American sales.  In the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, Acer came out on top, even outpacing the total global market growth at 49 percent.

via theRegister

How To Save Your Laptop From a Spill

YahooTech has posted a nice 13 step process on how to save you laptop from a spill.  Being a daily coffee drinker at the laptop, I found this to be a worthwhile read.

Lenovo Incorporates Broadcom 54g(R) Technology in 3000 Line

Lenovo is currently incorporating Broadcom(R) 54g(R) technology into select models of the new Lenovo 3000 N100 and C100 notebook PCs. 54g is the industry's best-selling Wi-Fi(R) technology and as such will provide customers with reliable, high-perfomrance wireless connectivity. 

The Lenovo N100 notebooks are designed with mobile small-business professionals  in mind.  Their built-in 54g solutions provide robust connections to 802.11a/b/g networks, and select models of the N100 offer Broadcom Bluetooth(R) and Fast Ethernet technology. 

Lenovo is one of the first to ship PCs with Broadcom's PCI Express(R)-based Wi-Fi solutions incorporated, which includes the BCM4311, a highly-integrated 802.11a/g solution.

MORE 

AMD to Launch New Laptop Chip

AMD has announced it will offer a new chip for laptop computers and anticipates being able to supply one-third of the market for computer microprocessors by 2008,  further rivaling Intel Corp.'s dominance and market share.

The laptop chip is designed to help improve laptop battery life. The company expects to make the chip available in the middle of 2007.

Marty Seyer, vice president of AMD's commercial business, said the company has a target this year for 30 percent of the market for server chips, where AMD has made its biggest strides on Intel. 

Fuel Cells For Laptops Edge Closer to Marketplace

Recent technology in the development of fuel cells promises to eventually replace or at least supplement today's laptop batteries.

Fuel cells, instead of storing power, generate electricity by breaking down methanol via an electrochemical process. The cells can be recharged by topping them up with methanol from a cartridge.

Recently, Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Samsung and Sanyo, among others, have shown prototypes that suggest that the technology is just around the corner.

Toshiba began fuel cell development about four years ago. Three key areas that need work are size, noise and weight, prior to commercialisation. However the company aims to have a commercial version out in 2007, according to Tomoaki Arimura of Toshiba′s Methanol Fuel Cell Group.

source

Skype Software To Ship on Dell XPS Laptops

Dell's new XPS M1210 laptop is great for gaming and features a Core Duo T2600 (2.16Ghz) processor and up to 4 GB of DDR2 memory. It has a 12.1” widescreen display and a 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400. 

Dell struck a deal with Skype to bundle Skype’s software with this new notebook.

source

HP Unveils Laptops With Fingerprint ID System

                                                      

 

 

NEW DELHI: Hewlett-Packard India has unveiled new laptops with enhanced security features that include fingerprint identification system.

The new notebooks come with a lock mechanism grants access when their fingerprint matches the one already configured in the machine.

"The latest offerings will further strengthen the business notebook portfolio and come with a set of personalised features that will help users to protect their crucial data,'' HP India Vice-President, Ravi Swaminathan, said.

The new notebooks are priced between Rs. 80,000 and Rs. 1.20 lakh.

source

How To Clean Your Laptop

When ever I take my laptop outside to work,  I suddenly realize just how dirty it really is.  The dust and spots on the screen really show up when the sunlight hits them just right.  For this reason, I would recommend taking your laptop outside when you clean it, in order to do a thorough job.

First of all make sure you turn the laptop off prior to cleaning.  For cleaning the screen, LCD screen cleaners work best and can be bought at your local office supply store.  Lint-free dust cloths are great too!

For cleaning your keyboard, the best thing I have found is the tiny portable keyboard vacuums.  A little isopropyl alcohol and a damp sponge will do a nice job of sanitizing the keys as well, just be careful not to let any drip down into the laptop, and don't get any on the LCD screen.

Use these tips and your laptop won't need another cleaning for about a month.