Laptops

A very portable holiday season

If there's anything I hate more than the mole people who are, even now, planning our destruction, it's laptops of shoulder-breaking proportions. That's why I've decided to ask Santa (Hi Mom!) for something in the ultraportable range. The Sony VAIO VGN-TXN15P/W is the king of the ultraportable laptops, with a bevy of features and an amazing battery life to boot. If, however, you're looking for something a bit more stylish, the Acer Ferrari 1004WTMi might be right up your alley. It's an excellent combination of speed and style that manages to avoid being … Read more

Superthin MacBook in the works?

Could this be the headliner at next month's MacWorld? Or perhaps share the stage with an iPhone or an iTV? The volume is increasing about the rumored return of a 12-inch Apple laptop, the likes of which have not been seen since the now-defunct 12-inch PowerBook. This time around, Apple's version of an ultraportable laptop, which Mac OS Rumors is calling the "MacBook Thin," reportedly will feature a 12-inch wide-screen display and similar specs as current MacBook Pro models, including Core 2 Duo processors, 667MHz DDR2 memory, 120GB (or bigger) hard drive, and ATI Radeon Mobility … Read more

Laptop cases: a dialectic

We nearly plunged into despair upon seeing the fuzzy new laptop covers from Lapstyle. We wouldn't go as far as Gizmodo did in calling the heat-retaining cases the "stupidest accessory ever," but many would likely agree that tacky is probably a polite way to describe these mukluks for computers.

Then we spotted these beautiful handmade laptop sleeves on the site Etsy and our faith was quickly restored. They're tastefully yet playfully designed in subtle floral, striped and paisley fabrics--a perfect antidote to the screaming fluorescent shag carpet that sprouts from the Lapstyle bags.

LG's hippie laptop

Laptops aren't the most serious of energy hogs. (Oink, oink.) But LG Electronics, the Korean company that's made everything from the Chocolate phone to the Swarovski-studded fridge, is hoping to make them even more power-efficient. Treehugger posted recently about the e-Book, which is powered by a biofuel cell and uses organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) instead of an LCD screen. Oh, and it's pretty enough that it was nominated for a Red Dot Award this year.

But if this thing ever hits the market, I bet it'll have one biohazard of a price tag.

Blu-Ray comes to Dell laptop

Traveling movie buffs can now watch the slate of Blu-Ray high-definition movies on a Dell laptop, for a pretty penny.

Dell announced the availability of a Blu-Ray drive for its M1710 laptop Monday. The most expensive version of that laptop--checking in at $3,699--is the only one that features the drive, which allows users to watch HD movies or burn discs with up to 50GBs of data.

Dell's horse in the Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD standards battle is clear, as the company is a founding member of the Blu-Ray Association, along with companies like Sony, Apple, Disney and Panasonic. Some … Read more

HP and Cingular bring you the Internet

Years from now, your children will laugh about how you had to "stay in range" of a Wi-Fi signal in order to stay connected to the Internet when you were young.

The Hewlett-Packard's Compaq nc6400, with integrated UMTS/HSDPA connectivity, marks another step toward that inevitability.

The laptop has built-in WWAN (wireless wide-area network) connectivity that enables users to connect to the Internet via cell phone tower instead of only WLAN (wireless local-area network, or "regular Wi-Fi"). It connects via WLAN also, but you no longer need to get upset when the independent cafe you … Read more

Laptop may save posture, not money

You're a road warrior, and your laptop is getting dangerously close to becoming your best friend. But this relationship is giving you neck and shoulder pains, and you're not going to take it lying down anymore.

That's why your head will undoubtedly be turned (albeit creakily) by the "FlyBook VM" from Tokyo-based Dialogue. This lightweight laptop (3.6 pounds) is beautifully designed with a 12.1-inch that can be raised or lowered to your line of vision by a telescoping arm. We too were seduced by the sleek form and practical functionality of this digital … Read more

Lenovo stretches its screens

Lenovo did the math. On Tuesday, the company expanded the number of ThinkPad models featuring a 15.4-inch widescreen to match rival products for the road-warrior crowd.

Lenovo stretched the T60 display, making it shorter in height than its 15-inch T60 XGA sibling. As a result, it can accommodate up to 30 percent more movie images, uh, data on the screen. Lenovo also boasts that the shorter screen gives greater clearance on the airplane when the passenger seated in front of you suddenly reclines.

The T60 widescreen also features a WXGA display, Intel Core 2 Duo processors and a range … Read more

Austria meets Taiwan for luxury laptop

It's not often that you see a product pitched as "the fusion of Austrian beauty and Taiwanese innovation." On second thought, make that never. But it's a surprisingly accurate description of MSI's new Crystal Collection of laptops.

Unlike other jewel-laden computers, MSI's maiden Crystal model M677 seems to pay as much attention to its function as its form. Laptoping.com provides the details: "It incorporates 15.4-inch widescreen, AMD Turion 64 X2 processor, up to 2GB of DDR2 memory, 5400rpm hard drive and a DVD burner. MSI Crystal M677 is equipped with NVIDIA … Read more