Filed under: Laptops

Apple is up to its old tricks again: filing crazy patent requests for wild devices like the process is going out of style. This time, the boys and girls in Cupertino have really delivered a doozy: a wide touchpad for a portable computer. Okay, honestly, it does seem to be just a very large trackpad with some “multi-touch” capabilities. The pad would take up some of the space where you typically rest your hands when typing, though according to the patent documents, the system would be smart enough to distinguish between desired input and accidental movement. Clearly, this kind of technology puts Apple one step closer to its ultimate goal of really, really huge touchpads.

[Via PC Joint]

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Filed under: Laptops

It’s not all that long ago that Sony bumped its VAIO FZ laptops into Santa Rosa territory, but it seems that the company is planning to expand the line even further, with Notebook Italia today getting word of a pair of new FZ2 series laptops. As with its current FZ offerings, these new laptops will each pack 15.4-inch WXGA displays, but they get an upgrade in the processor department to your choice of Core 2 Duo T7250 or T7500, along with NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GT graphics on the higher-end of the two, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and your choice of Blu-ray or DVD combo drives. No word on a release date just yet, it seems, but they’ll apparently set you back $1,299 or $1,399 depending on the configuration.

[Thanks, Laura]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

It looks like Intel has come to the realization that its product naming scheme has gotten a little out of hand and, as Ars Technica reports, it’s now taking some measures to simplify things a bit. Apparently, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, and Core 2 Solo will all simply be known as “Core 2″ starting on January 1st, 2008 (presumably with some other means to differentiate then), and Intel Viiv Processor Technology and Intel vPro Processor Technology will henceforth be known as Intel Core 2 Duo Processor with Viiv (or vPro). Further on down the line, Pentium D and Pentium Dual-Core will both be shortened to just “Pentium,” while the server-centric Itanium 2 gets demoted to plain old “Itanium.” According to Ars, Core 2 Extreme, Celeron, and Xeon will all stay as they are. Simple, right?

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Filed under: Desktops, Features, Laptops

We know we don’t normally do our How would you change feature in the middle of the week — nor do we ever do it about software — but since Tuesday we’ve been absolutely inundated with unhappy iMovie ‘08 customers who want back many of the the more robust features of previous versions. Chief among them, iMovie could seriously use themes, chapter markers, a timeline view, track-volume editing / fading, and the list goes on. So tell us, what would you change about it? Go nuts in comments, we hear Apple reads the site every once in a while.

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Filed under: Laptops, Storage

Fujitsu keeps pumping out the hard drive innovation — this time the company is planning to ship a 1.2TB 2.5-inch hard drive by 2010. The company is planning on leveraging a new perpendicular recording method that allows researchers to create “ideally ‘ordered’ alumina nanohole patterns for isolated bit-by-bit recording on a large disk area” to accomplish the feat, which sounds pretty intense to us. Of course, by 2010 we’ll all probably be rocking at least a petabyte or two of desktop storage, but it’s still fun to dream.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

In the good-old-days, if a corporation felt it had been infringed upon or held back in some way, a team of lawyers, some damning evidence, and an attitude of righteous fury would be combined to get some “justice,” and that would be that. But times have changed, and nowadays things tend to get a little more personal — especially when it comes to Intel and AMD. The latest round of jabs traded between the two chip-makers comes from the beleaguered AMD camp, which has launched an entire website (using the unsubtle name “Break Free”) dedicated to smack-talking Intel and its business practices. In particular, the site excitedly covers the recent antitrust charges brought against the company by the European Commission, and reiterates the popular AMD claim that Intel stifles competition and innovation by monopolizing the market. The website also details how the diabolical chip-manufacturer steals babies in the night, was responsible for the JFK assassination, and spits in your food when you’re not looking.

[Via EETimes]

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Filed under: Laptops

The Asus U3, which we told you about back in the hot and humid days of July, has gotten its official announcement from the company — and it looks pretty sweet. The Santa Rosa-based, 13.3-inch laptop still rocks a Core 2 Duo processor (in T7500, T7300, T7100, T5450, T5250, CM540), a Nvidia GeForce G8400M G External graphics chipset, up to 2.5GB of RAM, and a 160GB SATA hard drive. In the communications department, the U3 packs 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.0, but apparently the GPS we mentioned will be offered as an option along with 3G connectivity and turbo memory. The system also includes a slew of ports, like eSATA, HDMI, GPS RF in, USB, Firewire, VGA/D-Sub, and TV out, plus rocks a built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam and fingerprint reader. Luckily for you fashion plates, Asus has stuck with the leather-bound hand rests and “piano black” exterior, all wrapped up in a magnesium aluminum alloy, which the company thinks is perfect for “metropolitan professionals.” The laptop is rumored to be available in September for around $2000.

[Via Laptoping]

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Filed under: Laptops

In celebration of the “one-year-out mark for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games,” Lenovo has just announced that it will be conducting a series of back-to-back, week-long auctions to gift high bidders with its svelte Olympic-themed machine. Beginning on February 8, 2008, a “Cloud of Promise” laptop will be available for bidding each week leading up to the Olympic Games, and a number of them will even be “autographed by athlete ambassadors.” Reportedly, “100-percent” of the proceeds will be distributed through the Lenovo Hope Fund to select philanthropies, including Right to Play, and the auctions will take place at the currently unavailable www.lenovohopefundauctions.com website.

[Via TechDigest]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Whispers that Redmond certainly can’t be pleased about hearing are beginning to gain traction all over the ‘net, as more and more individuals claim that they have Vista’s Service Pack 1 pre-beta in their possession. Reportedly, the 6001.16549 build “sounds like it’s the real deal,” and could be the version that Microsoft has been “trickling out to more and more testers over the past few weeks.” Of course, we aren’t likely to hear anything one way or another from Microsoft, as the last tidbit that was let loose by it contained the phrase “not anytime soon.” But as proven by the Vista Performance and Reliability Pack that just recently found its way into public hands before its intended release date, there’s always a chance for leaks. So, dear readers, have any of you stumbled upon a pre-release version of the much-anticipated update?

[Via ZDNet, thanks Mark]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Packard Bell may not have the most illustrious of histories, but that hasn’t stopped the company from attracting a number of potential suitors over the years. Now it seems that two more companies are eying the old school brand, although both seem to be far from a done deal. The first, and apparently further along of the two, is Lenovo, which has announced that it’s entered a “Memorandum of Understanding” with an unnamed “independent third party” to purchase the PC maker. According to Reuters, Lenovo would use Packard Bell to give a boost to its European business. The other company in the mix is Acer which, as Reuters reports, said in April that it was planning to buy a PC company in three to five months. Recent speculation, however, has pegged Packard Bell as Acer’s target, although it has yet to get as official as Lenovo with its intent.

Read - Reuters, “PC makers Lenovo, Acer eyeing Packard Bell: report”
Read - Press release, “Lenovo Announces Memorandum of Understanding to Acquire Packard Bell”

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