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Where are all the really expensive laptops?

Not too many years ago, any laptop $999 or less was considered a budget machine, and spending between $1,000 and $2,000 was the standard buy-in for constructive computing. Starting around the same time as low-cost Netbooks came onto the scene, laptop prices across the board took a dive, and today's mainstream user can easily get away with spending less than $700 for a fully functional midsize laptop, or just a few dollars more to add high-end extras like Blu-ray or discrete graphics.

What this means is that one of the hardest things to find right now is … Read more

Sony shows 3D laptop due in 2011

BERLIN--In 2011, Sony plans to join the small set of companies that offers laptops that can display 3D video and games at 1080p resolution.

The company showed off prototypes of a forthcoming Vaio laptop at the IFA electronics show here Wednesday, models that come with a "3D" button and active-shutter glasses to separate what the right and left eyes see.

"3D Vaios will debut next spring," Howard Stringer, Sony's chief executive, said in a press conference touting 3D technology and Sony's commitment to it. Sony also touted other 3D products and content at the show.

The protoypes shown at IFA use "frame-sequential" technology that rapidly cycles the full screen between left-eye and right-eye views, with blank screens in between each to reduce the "crosstalk" that can reduce 3D image quality.

That means the laptop must be able to display video at 240 frames per second to keep up with a 3D rate of 60 frames per second. Sony wouldn't reveal whose graphics chip is used in the system. Sony's also cautioned that the ultimate products may be different from the prototypes it showed. … Read more

High-end back-to-school retail laptops: The big guns

Though budget and surprisingly affordable laptops are all the rage lately, there are still quite a few high-end models out there that aren't exactly cheap. Even so, many of these "high-end" laptops offer far more for the money than ever before, making for potentially compelling buys for people looking for big screens and superpowered processors offering desktop-replacement-level performance.

Our high-end laptops from this year's 2010 back-to-school retail roundup are actually a pretty affordable bunch, including an $829 Toshiba Portege R705-P25 that offers an executive feel for less than the white Apple MacBook. In fact, only one of these laptops breaks $1,000: the $1,349 Sony Vaio F126FM/B. In fact, the two Vaio models here are virtually identical, designwise. The more-expensive version has a faster CPU and better graphics card, but the $999 Vaio F12A may be a better overall deal, offering a big screen, Blu-ray, and mainstream/casual gaming graphics for $350 less than its big brother.

Editors' note: See our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

Back-to-school media-friendly laptops: Blu-ray, Intel Wireless Display

Blu-ray, Intel Wireless Display, HDMI--there are a lot of ways laptops can make themselves killer TV-friendly media machines. In fact, for a reasonable price, there are a lot of options out there. Between Blu-ray playback and wireless streaming of online video, it's easier than ever to get your laptop to effortlessly play nicely with a big-screen HDTV. The trick is knowing which machines have these features. While Blu-ray laptops are often heavily plastered with stickers, Intel's Wireless Display technology is often invisible, and sometimes not even mentioned as a feature at all.

For your convenience, we've rounded up notable media laptops from our back-to-school 2010 retail laptop guide, focusing on the features in each. We've also noted whether these laptops have discrete graphics for gaming (it's not always a given). Whether or not they're gaming friendly, they're all well suited for video. Our roundup came up with several laptops from Sony and Toshiba, including a Sony Vaio EA24FM/W that offers an affordable Blu-ray/Wi-Di one-two punch for $799.

Note: we've seen some other compelling Blu-ray and Wi-Di laptops recently, including the Gateway NV5933u, but our list below focuses on retail configurations from our recent guide.

Editors' note: See our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

This week in Crave: The flipping-out edition

This week brought us invisibility cloaks, pooping robots, and lots of free phones. We all like free stuff, right?

• Rumor alert! T-Mobile might get the iPhone before Verizon.

• If free bumpers won't make iPhone complainers feel better, Samsung UK is trying free Galaxy S phones.

• Not to be outdone, Microsoft is giving its staff Windows Phone 7s. Windows Phones 7? Window Phones 7s?

• Microsoft also prices the neat Kinect Xbox accessory at $149.

• Yet more invisibility cloak technology: Will it be the salvation of perverted eighth graders everywhere?

• We ask you: Do you still buy music CDs in 2010? … Read more

3D camcorders for consumers

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Lenovo confirms that it is working to release LePad, an iPad competitor, sometime this year Yahoo begins to integrate Microsoft Bing into search results Samsung updates the DualView camera with a front-facing screen Ford launches the 2011 Explorer on Facebook Google Earth and Google Maps get more-detailed boundaries Panasonic plans a new line of 3D camcorders for consumers Sony and Intel help students build a rocket to launch into space

Students to launch rocket with Vaio laptops

Sony has taken eight promising high school students from across America, given them Vaio laptops, and challenged them to use the devices to build and launch a rocket. Sounds pretty cool, but why did Sony do this?

To answer a question that had never occurred to me until the press release hit my inbox: Can Vaio laptops (which, Sony reminds us, feature Intel processors) launch a rocket? Considering analog devices of 1960s could, we're betting on the "yes" end of the spectrum. But it's still fun to watch.

Intel i5-powered Z series Vaios were used to analyze the performance of the rocket, using simulations and virtual-reality models, before the real one was even built. In fact, the computers were used for "CAD, aerodynamic simulation, computational fluid dynamics, dispersion analysis, Monte Carlo simulation...and calculations for dispersion analysis, gas dynamics, aerodynamic stability, dynamic stability, structural loading, thermal heat transfer flux, fin flutter stability and much, much more." I'm guessing that means Rocketville on Facebook, too.

In addition, an i7-equipped F series will be used in the control room when the projectile is (hopefully) launched on Thursday in Nevada as per the plan. We're not sure what role the laptops have in actually launching the thing, though. A couple of weeks ago I launched many rockets with a Zippo. … Read more