ultrabooks

Sony has jumped into the ultrabook business with the new Sony Vaio T series laptop, announced May 2 in Europe (with U.S. details forthcoming, we assume).

The initial specs, reported by CNET UK, include an Intel Core i3 CPU and a 1,366x768-pixel display.

The CPU is potentially problematic because it's the previous second-generation Intel Core i-series model (also known as Sandy Bridge), rather than one of the new third-generation chips (sometimes referred to as Ivy Bridge).

The high-end quad-core Ivy Bridge chips are available now, the more-mainstream dual-core Core i3 and i5 versions are expected imminently.

According … Read more

Intel's second wave of Ivy Bridge chips for ultrabooks are due by early June, when Computex gets under way, an industry source told CNET.

In the first week of June, consumers can expect to see a new wave of ultrabooks based on Intel's just-announced Ivy Bridge processor, according to the source, who is familiar with the plans of Intel and PC makers.

That's the time frame in which Intel is expected to roll out power-efficient versions of Ivy Bridge. Last week, Intel announced only high-performance, quad-core versions of the processor that typically goes into larger laptops, like … Read more

Every weekday afternoon, CNET Update delivers the top tech stories of the day. The show keeps a close eye on emerging trends, hot devices and new apps. And it's all in less than three minutes.

In today's show, Microsoft's got the hots for Nook, LG has its head in the cloud, and we're battling pigs in space! (space! space! space!):

Microsoft is investing $300 million in a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary that will handle digital and college business. With this investment, expect the Nook to become a stronger player against the Kindle and iPad.

A … Read more

The third generation of Core i-series CPUs has been benchmarked, written about, and discussed for months now, but PC makers could only sell them starting April 29.

Even then, only the very high-end models, the quad-core Core i7 chips, are currently available. The more mainstream dual-core Core i3 and Core i5 processors found in most laptops won't get updated until sometime in May or June (and then probably won't be physically available for some time after that).

A handful of hearty manufacturers have already put the high-end new Core i7 chips up on their sites, allowing you to … Read more

The XPS 13 ultrabook is selling well above expectations, a Dell executive told CNET this week, offering some hope for the new class of skinny laptops.

"We can't build enough of them at the moment," said Sam Burd, vice president of Dell's Consumer and SMB (small and medium business) product group, speaking about the higher-end laptop announced back in January.

"A little bit less than 3X the expected demand," he said. Burd declined to be more specific, saying Dell "never" discloses numbers.

Still, an upbeat statement about sales -- however nonspecific -- … Read more

The 11-inch gaming laptop is the textbook definition of a niche product. In fact, up until now, there's really only been one serious entry in that category, Dell's Alienware M11x. Origin (coincidentally co-founded by some former Alienware employees) is now getting into the game, with the EON11-S, which the company calls a "compact high-performance laptop."

Interestingly, this new model won't actually double the number of 11-inch gaming laptops available, as the Alienware model is being quietly discontinued. That's a shame, as we liked the M11x, even if it wasn't the most practical for … Read more

If the ultrabook devolves into a hodgepodge of pseudo-thin, conventional designs, the chances of success are not good.

This may -- or may not -- be on the verge of happening with designs like the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 and even the Hewlett-Packard Envy 14 Spectre.

Though it's been said before, it's worth repeating: a kind-of-thin, kind-of-light laptop ain't an ultrabook.

I've handled the Acer M3, which is being marketed as an ultrabook. Sorry, no way that's an ultrabook. And the HP Spectre? That's a wonderful design in many respects (Gorilla glass screen … Read more

Despite all the buzz about Intel's new third-generation Core i-series CPUs (also known by the code name Ivy Bridge), you can't actually buy a laptop with these new parts just yet. … Read more

Apple's CEO Tim Cook may have just thrown down the gauntlet to the Windows camp about nothing less than the future of portable computing.

Cook dismissed the idea of a hybrid MacBook-iPad device, during the company's second-quarter earnings conference call this afternoon. "You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not going be pleasing to the user," he said.

The toaster-refrigerator hyperbolic analogy aside, it just so happens that Intel has begun to push the Windows 8 laptop-tablet hybrid concept. And it has even built a demo unit to prove the … Read more