laptops

Turns out this morning's news that Toshiba will be using AMD processors in up to 20 percent of its laptops in the United States and Europe--thus ending its exclusive association with Intel--wasn't exactly a planned announcement. When we caught up with our PR contact for Toshiba, he was scrambling to put together an official release and would only confirm the content of the news stories that had appeared thus far. He did mention, though, that the first Toshiba notebooks to see AMD processors would be in the company's Satellite line, and that we can expect to receive … Read more

CORONADO, Calif.--Say what you want about all the projects to bring low-cost PCs to the world, but at least someone's thinking of the children.

The Future in Review version of PCs-for-schools, Project Inkwell, tries not to get sucked into the increasingly competitive world of low-cost PC projects. Nick Negroponte of the One Laptop Per Child project recently traded blows with Intel Chairman Craig Barrett over who's more concerned about helping the poor, and who is simply looking for a new market.

"We think it should be a good business, we don't think there's anything … Read more

GelaSkins aren't new. In fact, I wrote about the ones made for the iPod a while back, and I had no trouble recommending them. And for the record, the Toxicity skin is still stuck on the house iPod to this date, over nine months later. Whether that's meant to be a testament to its stickiness quotient or my tolerance of the design, I'm not sure.

Anyway, GelaSkins recently released an array of stickers for Apple laptops, and although that's not exactly my department, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to dress up my iBook when … Read more

It's taken awhile, but Lenovo seems to have caught onto the whole limited-edition marketing trend, especially for luxury laptops. Only a few weeks after introducing its "Cloud of Promise" laptop commemorating the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese PC maker has gone live with a Web site that cryptically teases a "ThinkPad Reserve Edition."

Electronista notes that the site implies a leather casing, speculating that it will likely include features using the latest Santa Rosa technology, but no details have been confirmed. (What's the deal with leather these days, anyway?) It will be interesting to see … Read more

The rumored Vaio TZ that we previously reported on has arrived! Importer Dynamism.com has begun selling the Sony Vaio TZ90, the latest T series laptop currently shipping in Japan.

The TZ90 commemorates the launch of Sony's first ultraslim notebook, the Vaio 505, almost 10 years ago. That laptop sired a long line of tiny ultraportables , including the X505, T series, and TX series.

Back in the day, $2,000 would get you a 200MHz Pentium processor, 32MB of RAM, a 2.1GB hard drive, integrated modem, and external floppy. With the Vaio TZ90, you get considerably more, though … Read more

Qwest Wireless customers will soon be able to wirelessly surf the Net at 3G speeds on their laptops.

The company says it will offer its customers wireless broadband service using Sprint Nextel's evolution data optimized (EVDO) network. Qwest has been using the Sprint wireless network to provide nationwide coverage for its cellular subscribers since 2003. Now the carrier will be able to offer nationwide broadband wireless too.

Qwest Mobile Broadband customers can choose one of three plans based on the amount of data they will be uploading or downloading. Service plans start at $70 a month. The unlimited plan … Read more

Several sources are reporting that Dell's previously announced Linux-based PCs will be available Thursday, though Dell is keeping mum.

Blogger Jeremy Garcia says on his blog that a Dell employee e-mailed him to say that the Ubuntu Linux OS will be available pre-installed on the E520 model desktop, XPS 410 gaming desktop, and 1505 model laptop, starting Thursday.

Garcia doesn't name his source, and Dell is not talking. Spokesman Kent Cook said he could not confirm models, dates or availability of the forthcoming Ubuntu PCs. He did say that the release is still on track for the "… Read more

Most consumers don't pay much attention to laptop-cooling technologies, but laptop designers tend to live and die by their thermals. That's because users will notice if their laptop gets too hot or if fan noise keeps them from enjoying their favorite movie. Plus, high heat inside the case can hamper performance if the processor has to throttle back to avoid overheating.

So when Lenovo's designers were challenged to fit Intel's new platform into a more compact ThinkPad case without raising temperatures or increasing fan noise, they turned to nature for inspiration. Specifically, they studied owls, whose … Read more

Sunday night's 60 Minutes, usually a show at the tail end of the technology bell curve, weighed in on a surprisingly relevant topic--Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child initiative. If you've been following the MIT professor's story, you'll know he set out several years ago to develop a cheap laptop for children in third-world countries, featuring a low-power AMD chip, flash memory instead of a traditional hard drive, and even built-in Wi-Fi and a Webcam.

Closer to $175 than the originally projected $100, the systems are being rolled out in small test markets. We actually … Read more