Acer Aspire ‘Gemstone Blue’ series details

Here’s a little more information about Acer’s new Gemstone Blue notebook series. First up, there are two models; the Aspire 8920G and the Aspire 6920G. Both feature an Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo processor and Vista Ultimate or Home Premium and up to 4GB of DDR2 667MHz memory, depending on your tastes. Both also have an integrated webcam, fingerprint reader, draft-N wireless, Bluetooth, CineDash media controller (see above photo) and Acer Arcade Deluxe software for all your media files.

The 6920G can handle a 320GB hard drive, 1X Blu-ray Super Multi double-layer drive, and your choice of a 16-inch LCD screen at 1920×1080 or 1366×768. Graphics are handled courtesy of an NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS with 512MB of dedicated video RAM that can also grab up to 768MB of system RAM. The notebook weighs 7.7 pounds with the standard battery attached.

The 8920G can handle two hard drives of up to 320GB each, 2X Blu-ray Super Multi double-layer drive, and comes with an 18.4-inch LCD running at full HD (1920×1080). You can opt for the same GeForce 9500M GS graphics or bump it up to the 9650M. Video RAM is the same as the 6920G. The notebook weighs nine pounds with the standard battery. Nine pounds, I said.

Both will be available in about a month with pricing starting at $900 and topping out at under $2000 depending on your configuration

HP Mini 1000 Price Cut

Hewlett-Packard has announced that they are cutting the price of its Mini 1000 netbook by $40 which went live yesterday.

With the price cut, it means you can now pick one of these up for $359.99 with features such as a 8.9-inch display running on a Intel Atom N270 processor. It comes equipped with 1GB of RAM, an 8GB solid state drive, all for use on Windows XP Home.

If this little mini netbook sounds right for you, then it might be an ideal gift for someone this Christmas. Keep the price cuts coming please HP. Read the link below for more details.

HP TX2513CL Dual Core 12.1 inch Tablet PC

If you find that a standard size laptop is just too large and that a netbook is still on the small size, then the HP TX2513CL might be the perfect compromise. This dual core tablet PC has a 12.1 inch screen size, which will offer you the best of both worlds.

At the heart of the Hewlett Packard TX2513CL is the AMD Turion X2 RM-70 Dual-Core Mobile Processor, with a speed of 2.0GHz and a 1MB L2 cache. The tablet PC has 3GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive and an ATI Radeon HD 3200 video card.

The 12.1” Convertible Display has an Integrated Touch-screen as well as Brightview. Other features include LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD±R/RW, Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n, Integrated Altec Lansing speakers, and much more. The HP TX2513CL Dual Core 12.1 inch Tablet PC is currently the on offer from Woot, and cost just $649.99

CrunchDeals: Acer Aspire One netbook for $309.99

Another day, another deal on a netbook. Today it’s the Acer Aspire One, which Buy.com has for just $309.99 – that’s cheap! You’ll get a 1.6 GHz Atom processor, 512MB of RAM, 8GB solid state drive, 8.9-inch 1024×600 screen, built-in webcam, and the Linpus Linux Lite operating system. The whole thing weighs just 2.19 pounds.

HP, Dell, Toshiba Recall Sony Laptop Batteries Again

Three of the biggest laptop computer makers are recalling certain batteries because of a risk they may overheat and catch fire. Sony made the batteries and the recall mirrors -- yet appears a lot smaller than -- a similar one that occurred two years ago.

This time, around 100,000 batteries are affected, a fraction of the 9.6 million [m] recalled in 2006. Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Toshiba have already issued recalls for the batteries that were used in their products and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said "consumers should stop using recalled products immediately."

The batteries in question were manufactured between October 2004 and June 2005 and to date there have been about 40 incidents reportedly globally of overheating, Sony said Friday.

Most of the incidents are believed to be due to manufacturing line adjustments made during the period that may have affected some batteries, Sony said. Additionally some may have been due to raw material flaws.

Of the 100,000 batteries affected, around 35,000 were used in laptops shipped in the U.S. By far the greatest number, about 32,000, were shipped with HP laptops.

The maker said it is recalling batteries that have a barcode label beginning with A0, L0, L1 or GC that were shipped with HP Pavilion dv1000, dv8000 and zd8000 models; with Compaq Presario v2000 and v2400 machines and with HP Compaq nc6110, nc6120, nc6140, nc6220, nc6230,nx4800, nx4820, nx6110, nx6120 and nx9600 computers.

Toshiba's U.S. recall covers around 3,000 Satellite A70/A75, P30/P5, M30X/M35X and M50/M55 laptops and Tecra A3, A5 and S2 computers.

Dell is recalling battery model OU091 in Latitude 110L and Inspiron 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150 and 5160 computers.

Consumers who believe they have batteries that have been recalled should stop using the batteries and check with their PC vendor.

An additional 2,000 batteries were shipped in the Japanese market and the remaining 63,000 went to consumers in other regions, including Europe and Asia. Recall notices for machines shipped in these other regions are expected to be issued shortly.

Toshiba NB100

Toshiba NB100: the latest machine to cash in on the netbook craze.

Price $699

Toshiba is the latest of the big names seeking to cash in on the netbook craze. These tiny, lightweight and low-cost laptops may lack the CD-DVD drive and muscle of a fully featured notebook but they're more than enough for the web, email and basic software such as Microsoft Word.

This makes them an ideal companion to a desktop PC or even a larger notebook. The most serious compromise is the screen and keyboard.

In the screen department, Toshiba's NB100 settles on a 23-centimetre (nine-inch) panel that is sharp enough to avoid squintvision, although, like most netbook and notebook screens, it's easily washed out under too much ambient light.

The keyboard is where things come unstuck. Netbook keyboards are small enough to begin with because they have to fit into a fairly small footprint but the NB100's keys are smaller and more finicky than any similar-sized netbook. This is one that demands careful and precise (read slow) typing. Ditto for the trackpad and its mouse buttons, which are also skimpier than they should be.

Nor does this netbook's overall design make a statement, unless it's "I heart the '80s". In style, shape and colour, the chunky little NB100 looks like a pint-sized relic of the days before someone decided computers were allowed to look good.

The NB100's specifications are identical to most netbooks. Intel's pocket-rocket Atom processor runs the show with 1GB of memory, a 120GB hard drive, plus wireless networking, a memory-card reader and a low-grade webcam. The familiar face of Windows XP ensures the NB100 will run most programs from your main PC.

As with many netbooks, however, battery life can be the biggest disappointment: the NB100 will struggle to get past three hours of word processing and wireless internet usage.

Even allowing for Toshiba's $100 rebate, we suggest an Asus Eee PC, Acer's Aspire One or Dell's Inspiron Mini 9. They are all better buys in almost every respect.

Review: MiBook is cheap, colorful e-book reader

The MiBook e-book reader from Photoco Inc. shows 'cookbooks' of instructional video clips in New York.

Electronic books are the persistent wallflowers of the gadget world. Consumers have snubbed them again and again in favor of a 500-year-old technology: ink printed on paper.

Mindful of the dominance of paper, devices for reading electronic books so far have focused on providing an experience that's as close to traditional books as possible. But there is one that takes a completely different tack, so different that it brings into question the definition of "book."

This is the MiBook (pronounced "my book"), a book-sized white slab with a 7-inch color screen. Its "books" are memory chips with instructional videos. There are books available on cooking, home projects, gardening and child care.

For instance, the "Amazing Party Food" book shows the steps to making 150 different dishes, including a raspberry souffle, accompanied by voiceover from the MiBook's speakers. After each step, the video pauses, waiting for you to hit a button and go on to the next one.

Is it still a book if it's a chip with videos on it? That depends on your viewpoint. But it's quite possible to consider it a book if it does what a book used to do.

The MiBook, from Ohio-based startup Photoco Inc., is also considerably cheaper than Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle or Sony Inc.'s Reader, which start at $300. The list price for the MiBook is $120, but it's available for as little as $75 online, including two books. Extra books are $20 each.

The MiBook lacks the single greatest feature of the Kindle, which is wireless access to Amazon's e-book store, for near instant buying gratification. But both the Kindle and the Reader are limited by their "electronic ink" screen technology. It consumes very little power, but it can't show colors, and doesn't even do a good job of showing photos in shades of gray. Video is out of the question, because the display is very slow to update.

The MiBook uses a very conventional liquid-crystal display. Since it uses much more power than electronic ink, the MiBook is designed to be used at home, connected to a power supply. It has a fold-out stand, so it can be placed upright on a kitchen counter, and comes with a small remote.

But it also has a rechargeable battery, so it can be used untethered. Curiously, though, there's no indicator to tell you how much juice is left in the battery, or when it's fully charged. The manufacturer says the MiBook can show video for two hours on a charge, and cursory tests support that.

The books are Secure Digital memory cards, used in digital cameras and other gadgets. The slot on the MiBook will accept SD cards with pictures, music, text and homemade videos on them, meaning it can double as a digital picture frame and music player, or even, yes, as a regular e-book reader.

Sadly, the MiBook fails to fulfill its potential here, because its screen is of poor quality. Nothing looks really sharp, and it flickers. This doesn't matter so much when showing video — the screen is certainly no worse than an old tube TV set — but the idea of reading a novel or even a short story on it is unappealing. Family pictures don't look very good either.

Still, we can't dismiss the MiBook, particularly at $75. Despite its lack of buzz, it's certainly the most interesting e-book reader to come out since the Kindle, which is now out of stock thanks to an endorsement by Oprah, and unavailable until next year. The MiBook could be a good gift for someone who wants easy-to-follow directions for cooking or home projects.

With a better screen and some attention to the battery issue, the MiBook could have a better shot. With a color screen, it will never have the battery life of the "serious" e-book readers, but it would last for some hours of reading around the house or on the commute. And is it too much to ask for Wi-Fi? That would open it up to book downloads from the Internet, and let it work as an Internet radio player. Oh, and keep the price under $100. Please, Santa. I'll expect it in your bag next year.

HDX, a notebook computer or a portable TV?

Back in the mid 1980s, IBM, Toshiba, NEC and a few other makers of IBM-compatible PCs began selling portable computers with a hinged display that people could carry with them from place to place in their bags.

That was when we became familiar with the term “laptop”.

A laptop computer was much larger than an A4-size writing pad. It was quite heavy, too.

The term notebook was coined later around the time a U.S. brand called Zeos started being advertised in computer magazines. Notebooks were supposed to be portable computers that had been reduced in size to fit into a briefcase.

At that time, despite their large size, laptops had quite teeny-weeny screens. In addition, they were all monochrome LCDs. (Remember that those were the days when the user interface was text-based).

We were all quite happy we could use a laptop as a glorified typewriter replacement — all that was required was MS or PC DOS and WordPerfect and a box of 5.25-inch or 3.5-inch floppy diskettes.

In those days, few could envision watching live TV for many hours at a stretch on one of those laptop computers. But, today, it is no longer a dream; you can watch TV broadcasts the whole day in your office cubicle as if you were relaxing in your own living room.

The premium HDX16 has a built-in TV tuner, a sharp 16-inch display and plenty of high-end components. Despite its size and capability, it weighs only 3.2 kilograms.

Courtesy of Hewlett-Packard (HP) Indonesia, I had three weeks to enjoy a brand new HP HDX16, a premium notebook that could keep you captivated for months.

I reported in this column a couple of weeks ago that HP now pays really serious attention to the style element of its notebooks in an effort to make them stand out in the crowd. The HDX16 is as impressive in the list of its technical specs as in its beauty. It has many of the upper-caste components, making its US$2,199 price tag fairly reasonable.

Here is a list of the critical components: Intel Centrino 2 platform with a Core 2 Duo T9400 processor running at 2.53 GHz; 4 GB of DDR2 memory; 320 GHz hard disk spinning at 5400 revolutions per minute (RPM); a 16-inch BrightView Infinity widescreen LCD; a Blu-Ray ROM; Wi-Fi a/g/n and Bluetooth; lots of lighted touch buttons; and a pair of Altec Lansing speakers with HP Triple Bass subwoofer.

The processor has 6 MB of L2 cache memory. Of course, to match the hardware, HP, not surprisingly, has chosen Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium.

With such top-notch components under the hood, it is not surprising that this notebook performs with flying colors. Although, given its focus on digital entertainment, it may not be the best machine for games or heavy-duty movie editing, but it is certainly close enough.

The specs on the box also list that the notebook has an integrated DVB-T/analog TV tuner. I could not test the DVB-T, but the analog tuner using the included antenna produced reasonable display quality.

There is a cable connector for TV cable reception, too, which raises display sharpness and color quality significantly. HP also throws in two remote controls — one for the notebook and the other for the Media control.

The keyboard is extremely close to my ideal: Each of the caps is covered with a chrome-like layer. HP has chosen the right material to ice the keycaps so that they do not get smudged as quickly as the “piano-like” keycaps. The separate numeric keypad on the right has keys that are narrower than the main keyboard, but they are still as usable.

Of course there is an integrated Webcam, too.

HP uses NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with a 512 MB dedicated memory for the graphics subsystem. By default, the characters on the screen are comfortably large (even for me).
If HP had wanted to equip it with the latest technologies, it would have to include a 7200 RPM hard disk and DDR3 memory instead of the 5400 RPM and DDR2. However, as it is now, this notebook is already among the top-end units.

HP has also added a very thoughtful feature to the standard touchpad: Right above the panel there is a button to deactivate the pointing device. You must know how frustrating it is to have the pointer jumping all over the place as you inadvertently touch the pad. I think this toggle button should be made standard on every touchpad.

Strangely, despite its size and long list of features, the HDX16 is not as heavy as you might have guessed. HP managed to pack everything in a notebook weighing only 3.2 kilograms.
The HDX16 has a bigger sibling, the HDX18, which has an 18-inch display, and a whopping $2,999 price tag. Unfortunately, I did not have the detailed specs, and I do not know whether it will be available here, either.

A rather serious complaint that I have is that the chromed touchpad panel itself is not slippery enough to let the fingertips glide smoothly over it.

A glossy finish is very smudge-friendly, as you already know. The good thing is that the graphic artwork printed on the notebook’s body and cover, as well as its gray color, tones down the marks left by oily hands.

It’s too bad though that HP put the audio port on the front side; an area where the plugs are vulnerable to accidental elbow action.

Still, this is one of the notebooks that managed to make me feel sad as I said goodbye to it and put it back in its box for the courier to pick up.