Back-to-School (and Business??) with a $299 Laptop?

How do they do this? A $299 laptop? Just in time for a flat-ish economic recovery (uh, hey man, it's not really a recovery) and the kids heading back to high school, upper Forms, college and university, WalMart is flogging a $298 Compaq laptop and Best Buy was flogging a $299 Acer. Why, you ask, and how good/useful/reliable could they possibly be? A fine question, we reply. Our answer is a resounding, "NUH-UH!" We've actually tried the Celeron-underpowered, slow-ish cheap-o laptops and found them, um, somewhat wanting. The keyboards, while larger than the slightly zippier Netbooks that are all the rage right now (but way too small and unresponsive for extended typing), are merely a larger version of the generally sucky Netbook and cheap laptop mushboards - fine for surfing and email, but awful for note-taking, report writing and other important education-like stuff and work. The three best and most reasonably priced school and small business laptops we've seen (and, more important, tried) in the more quality-realistic price range of US$600-$1200 will take the bumps & bangs of daily use, speed everything along, ease some of the stress of long hours of typing, and provide a a screen that won't burn your eyes out during hours of concentration, and with even a slight amount of care will continue to work just fine for the next couple of school years. Beat the rush at Amazon.com. They're the Compaq Presario CQ60Z, the Toshiba E105-S1602 (everybody's best buy it seems) along with the superb Toshiba L300, the Apple MacBook Pro, and last but not least the Dell Vostro 1500. Why wait? Stick a crowbar in your wallet and lever out enough cash to buy the kid a decent laptop. It's got to be done and, believe us, we share your pain.

Apple To Announce New Hardware Next Week

According to several sites, Apple is due to announce at least one new laptop at another of its Town Hall unveilings. Rumors are that it will be a sub $1000 device, with some folks guessing that it may even be as low as $800.

Toshiba Announce Four New Portégé Models

Toshiba Canada unveiled four new Portégés; the ultrathin Portégé R600, which has a Core 2 Duo CPU, 2.14-pound shell, a nine hour battery life; The Portégé A600 which has almost the same specs, but also has a GMA X4500 graphics controller; the Portégé M750- a Tablet PC which features their excellent twisty screen and finally the Tecra R10, which features a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo SP9400, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, a 200GB 7,200 RPM hard drive and the NVIDIA Quadro NVS 150M GPU.

ASUS N50 Includes Built-in Air Ionizer...

The ASUS N Series appear to have some excellent features. All models include Express Gate, ASUS's Super Hybrid Engine power management and their SmartLogon facial recognition system. The N50 is the only ASUS offering a built in "Air Ionizer. The ASUS N Series N10: Designed for optimized mobility, the ASUS N10 is perfect for individuals constantly on the move. Sporting a 10.2" monitor, the N10 delivers a multi-sensory experience with a NVIDIA GeForce 9300M graphics card and Intel Atom processor. N20: Built for heavy usage, the ASUS N20 comes with a 12.1" monitor and up to 12 hours* of battery life. Equipped with an Altec Lansing sound system that provides excellent sound clarity, plus a highly efficient eSATA hard disk drive housed in a dust and moisture-resistant enclosure, the N20 is a versatile road performer for business and personal entertainment. N80: Designed specifically for business executives and professionals in mind, the ASUS N80 comes with a 14.1" display powered by a standalone NVIDIA GeForce 9 Series graphics card with up to 1 GB of VRAM, complemented by Dolby Surround decoding to deliver impressive sound quality that is sure to impress in any business or personal situation. N50: The ASUS N50 is truly the pinnacle of mobile computing, designed for intuitive control and user-friendliness. A multimedia touchpad serves as a responsive point of control as well as an intuitive and convenient multimedia control unit, complete with backlit buttons, for instantaneous multimedia enjoyment. Another unique feature of the N50 is its built-in Air Ionizer that not only helps clean the air around the user of allergens and germs, but also promotes air-flow and circulation.

HP Launches New Laptops & Displays

HP launched a few new products at SIGGRAPH today. Firstly a few new laptops in the form of the 17" EliteBook 8730w and 15.4" EliteBook 8530w and 8530p. The 8730 features a 17-inch DreamColor display, a quad-core Intel CPU, 8GB of RAM and NVIDIA's 1GB Quadro FX graphics card. The EliteBook 8530w and 8530p, feature 8GB of RAM, a Core 2 Duo chip (the 8530w supports an optional quad-core chip) and HP's brushed anodized aluminum DuraCase. HP also announced 22 and 24 inch displays. The 22-inch LP2275w lights up 92 percent of the NTSC color gamut across its 1680 x 1050 pixels, whilst the new 24-inch LP2475w puts 102 percent across its 1920 x 1200 pixels. Both displays feature 1000:1 contrast ratios, extra-bright panels and adjustable stands. The LP2275w will be avaialble immediately, while the LP247w will come next month. Retail pricing will be between $459 and $649 respectively.

Dell Vostro 2510 Now Available

Dell have rolled out their Vostro 2510. Their new, slab like, 15.4-inch laptop comes in a two-tone black and red body, incorporates a slot-load drive and a cooling system that vents heat away from the bottom of the notebook. It uses current-generation Core 2 Duo processors, supports a slot-load Blu-ray burner, a minimum 1440x900 resolution display with a built-in webcam, a GeForce 8400M GS for video and a 160GB hard disk. you can increase the display to 1920x1200 and increase storage to 320GB. The laptop won't ship till mid-august but look for more goodies when it becomes available.

HP Announce New PCs and Laptops

HP unveiled their new generation of all-in-one PCs. The new HP TouchSmart family of PCs feature HP software designed specifically for touch control. A finger tapped or swept across the high-resolution screen delivers quick access to information, entertainment and social networks. Without using a keyboard or mouse, consumers can play music and create playlists, zoom in or out of photos, and quickly check the weather or watch TV. These all-in-one devices would appeal to folks who dont have a lot of room and who really want a lot less clutter. The Wireless mouse and keyboard only add to the minimal experience offered by the Touchsmart Series. The HP TouchSmart IQ504 PC and the TV-tuner equipped IQ506 PC are expected to start at $1,299 and $1499. HP also announce 16 new laptops, including the business-centric EliteBook premium series, which now arrives in a new slate of sizes and configurations. A new selection of Pavilion based Entertainment notebooks the dv4, dv5 and dv7 all of which feature with ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection. The are also some new HP Compaq Presarios, the CQ45, CQ40 and CQ50 which have a new look and feel and feature the new HP Imprint 2 surface finish. For more info follow this link.

Dell To Release Ultra Portable

Several Sites are reporting that Dell are rumoured to be producing an Ultra Portable in the same class as the new HP Mini-Note. This class of PC is not something for the power user but definitely has a place in lifestyle based computing products. The small form factor and decent computing power make the units ideal for the user who want to keep in touch without the compromise of using a mobile phone and its limited browser...

Apple MacBook Air's Compared

Ars Technica have produced an Article which compares the Macbook Air SSD with the MacBook Air HDD. The review/article raises some interesting questions about both variants and challenges the claims Apple are making about the units power longevity and the differences between SSD and HDD equipped tech. The 64GB SDD version can be had for and additional $1300 instead of the traditional 80GB ATA hard drive. Their SSD version also came a slightly faster processor which was running at 1.8 GHz instead of the base 1.66 GHz. Ars Technica concluded that the SDD version is just not worth bothering with yet. Oh and about the battery life, they figured it was about 2.5 hours instead of the promised 5 hours. I'd like to see some more reviews like this, to see if that figure's an anomaly, or par for the course...

Flybook VM

Flybook have released their latest "laptop", the Flybook VM which looks less like a laptop and more like workstation but shares the small form factor of Flybooks other products. The 12.1” VM notebook features an unusual extendable double-hinged arm on which the monitor can be slid up by 2.3” allowing it to be positions for a more optimal viewing experience. It looks like a nice piece of kit, but at $2699 it pales in both performance and features when compared to more established brands. Still, it does indeed look cool.

Dell Launch New & Cooler Laptops

Dell have taken a page out of Sony and Apples product design books, with the launch of several new models of Laptop. Their Top-of-the-Line XPS M1330 looks like a top class sleekly designed machine, and one worthy of the XPS moniker. It has clean lines, is relatively light (under four pounds), and with a magnesium shell and brushed aluminium accents, is a sexy piece of kit. It currently comes in three colors: Tuxedo Black, Pearl White, and Crimson Red. The M1330 has a starting price of $1,299. You can even get one of the first solid state hard drives in this baby. The SSD offered is available for a $600 premium and is only 32GB. The built-in video camera option is a free upgrade so look for it (thanks to Digital Trends for this tip). Other new models are their new Inspirons, which come in three sizes: the 14.1” 1420 , the 15.4” 1520/21 , and the massive 17" 1720/21 . The "21" postfix in the name indicates the model is AMD based. The XPS is definitely the most stylish of the new line and worth a look if you're a fan of Dell...

Intel Release Shots Of Ultra Thin Metro Laptop

Intel have released photos of their new 0.7" thick, 2.2 pound (1kg) Metro Laptop featuring an external e-ink display. It will give many a technophile the flutters if the unit is ever produced. The mock-ups of this proposed unit are worth a look. Visit this page at business week for several images.

Belkin Release Laptop@Home Range

Belkin have released a line of accessories for the Laptop user which would be right at home in your local Ikea. The Pushtop, Pockettop and Sleevetop are all soft accessories which according to Belkin, help ones experience of Laptop use around the home and on the go. Although they look nicely put together, until we can try them out. I can't comment on their ergonomics or how well they'll hold up. However, I can see californian lifeguards going for bright orange versions. Visit Belkins laptopathome pages for more images and info.