santa

The Santa Rosa shuffle

Every major PC manufacturer is announcing a lineup of new laptops this morning. These systems are all part of Intel's new Santa Rosa platform, which to the laptop-buying public means they'll have either a Centrino Pro or Centrino Duo sticker on them somewhere.

Our colleague Michelle Thatcher will go into further detail on the Santa Rosa specs later today, but for the most part, it involves having one of several new mobile Intel CPUs (From the T7000-series), support for Wireless N networking, Intel's new 965 chipset, and some additional onboard memory--Intel calls it Turbo Memory--for faster booting. … Read more

Just announced: HP Pavilion dv9500t

Exactly which new laptops will debut with Intel's Santa Rosa platform may be the worst-kept secret in the tech world. Which is why it brings us some relief to report that at least one of the systems to be built on Santa Rosa has officially been announced.

At a morning event in Shanghai (that's evening here, thanks to the curvature of the Earth), HP revealed the Pavilion dv9500t, a follow-up to the desktop replacement dv9000 series. Aside from the new components, the dv9500t is very similar to its predecessor, with only a few small tweaks to the feature … Read more

The HP HDX: a laptop in name only

Weighing an amazing 15.5 pounds and sporting a desktop-sized 20-inch LCD, the HP Pavilion HDX is truly a laptop in name only. This semi-portable home theater system has a Media Center remote that docks right next to the full-size keyboard, an HDMI output, and an optional HD DVD drive.

We first got a glimpse of the massive HP Pavilion HDX system back at CES 2007 and have been eagerly waiting for a review unit ever since. Some system highlights include:

20.1" WSXGA+ Ultra BrightView wide-screen display Four Altec Lansing speakers plus a built-in HP Triple Bass Reflex … Read more

Santa Rosa laptop leaks keep on coming

Details on pretty much every high-profile laptop featuring Intel's equally high-profile new Santa Rosa platform (otherwise known as Centrino Pro or Centrino Duo) are now freely available somewhere or other on this virtual playground we call the Internet.

Originally, dozens of new systems were going to be announced the morning of May 9. While those announcements, and their requisite press releases, will still happen, just about every last cat is already out of the bag.

We previously clued you into leaks about systems from HP, Sony, and Lenovo, and over the last few days a new flood of information … Read more

Santa Rosa: Hands on with the new Centrino

Good news, laptop fans: Crave UK has gotten a Santa Rosa laptop, and we've been putting it through its paces for the last few days. What is it? Why should you care? Read on to find out!

Santa Rosa is the code name for the latest iteration of Intel's Centrino platform. It's been in development for several years now under the codename Santa Rosa, but will be known as Centrino Duo in consumer laptops, or as Centrino Pro for business machines.

Nerdy as it may sound, this is a pretty big deal. The original Centrino platform very … Read more

Loose lips sinking the secret Santa Rosa ship

It's hard to keep a tech secret these days. Some would say impossible, thanks to the army of blogs on the Internet looking to grab eyeballs with any bit of leaked information or speculation they can find.

While the average consumer may not be as excited about the May 9 release of the first wave of laptops with Intel's Santa Rosa platform as one would be about, say, a new video game console, the torrent of leaked specs and models appearing online are interesting, even if just because it's information you're not supposed to know.

Otherwise … Read more

Leaked: New Sony laptops

As Lenovo can attest, it's tough to keep a secret in the Internet age. Today Sony joined the club of PC makers with leaked product plans, as forum posters at NotebookReview uncovered details of new Vaio laptops buried deep on Sony's European site.

The new models, reportedly due in July, will include the 11.1-inch ultraportable TZ11 (a follow-up to the existing TX series), the 13.3-inch SZ5, and two new models in the 15.4-inch FZ series. In addition to refreshing the systems with Intel's new Santa Rosa chipset and X3100 graphics, Sony will also be … Read more

Because your surfboard needs LEDs

We've been somewhat critical of LED market saturation lately, and we're not apologizing for it either. But just to show that we're not totally unreasonable, we wholeheartedly endorse the idea behind "The Light Wave Surfboard" from Santa Cruz Light Wells.

Perhaps it's our California roots, but we're partial to anything that combines technology and surfing. And as Gizmodo notes, the Light Wave does just that, with battery-operated LEDs everywhere--running along the side, on the back and in a headlamp on the front "giving you just enough light to tell whether that … Read more