April 2009

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Fujitsu Unveils M2010 Netbook line; The First Impression is Good!

M2010 Netbook line is the second netbook range from Fujitsu after LOOX M netbook was released in Japan earlier this month.

The new Fujitsu M2010 targets business users.

The Fujitsu M2010 with four stylish colours - Diamond Black, Fiery Red, Ivory White and Salsa Purple measures just 25.8 by 18.9 cm and weighs only slightly over 1kg slips effortlessly into any handbag.

M2010 is packed with the full ThinkFree Mobile Office Suite where you will have the power to edit and create essential documents, spreadsheets and slides at your fingertips.

M2010 netbook sports 10.1-inch WSVGA screen with back-light LED Glare technology for a clear viewing experience whether you are indoors or outdoors, featuring 16:9 ratio and an excellent 1024 by 576 pixels resolution, and a 200 nits brightness and 400:1 Contrast Ratio.

So watching your favourite movie or video-conferencing while on-the-go can now be such sheer visual indulgence with the M2010.

Boosted by the Intel Atom processor 1.6GHz N270 and 1.66 GHz N280 and the Intel 945 GSE Chipset with a huge 160GB Hard Disk and a 1GB RAM of DDR2 and 533MHz, the M2010 delivers processing speed and capacity as you like it.

It provides ultimate connectivity, Bluetooth v2.1 for effortless file transfers or sync calendar with your mobile phone, a built-in 1.3 mega pixel web camera with digital microphone and stereo speakers for excellent video conferencing.

The netbook will be available soon! The netbook will apparently cost about $650!

Engadget Chinese could have its hands on this netbook that has just been launched in Hong Kong.

The folk there think that although the upgrade is not too much compared to previous versin 9-in M1010, it is totally a pretty good netbook. Especially, it is with Super Multi-Layer and Fujitsu 2.4G wireless mouse bundle. However, they are not verysatisfied from the keyboard. They think it is yet a bit small although the upgraded netbook is bigger than the predecessor.

Engadgrt reports that:

You will apparently get a bundled DVD burner and wireless mouse with it, which makes the nearly $650 price tag at least a tad more reasonable.

What do you think? Do you agree with Engadget?

Other features include:

Wireless: 802.11b / g,

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition

Ports: 3USB 2.0; VGA; RJ45; Audio-in; Audio-Out

-5.6-in Fujitsu LifeBook U820 Mini Tablet Hands on

-Fujitsu LifeBook N7010 First Impression: Two Displays, Blu-Ray and a lot more
-Fujitsu LifeBook N7010 Laptop with two Display in Video

-Fujitsu Announced Multi-color LifeBook U2010: A 5.6-in Tablet-convertible UMPC

Aspire D150 vs. D250: The Identical Netbooks with Different Names?

Acer Aspire one D250 is a new netbook has just been launched in Japan and its only difference with Aspire D150 comes in CPU. Acer Aspire D250 has the same feature set of D150 except its processor that is the new Atom N280 featuring 1.66GHz clock speed.

Now everybody expects that this new Atom N280 arranges a better performance and longer battery life for D250.

I have already mentioned the ultimate result of pitting Atom N270 and N280 in different tests in the following entry:

Atom N270 vs. Atom N280/ Apt Buying Netbook Powered with N280?

Interesting thing is that PC Watch has reviewed and compared these two netbooks and practically has concluded the same think that I mentioned in that entry:

The slight improved performance result of Atom N280 used in D250 is insignificant and the battery runtime goes longer only for 4 minutes compared to what N270 causes in Aspire D150!

Aspire D150 and D250 are sold for the same price in Japan and it is reasonable.

Via: portable monkey

Now You Can Pre-order Red or Blue MSI Wind U123 at Amazon

MSI Wind U123-002US for Americans is available for preorder at Amazon. You can pre-order the Red one or Blue one with price tag of $350 plus FREE with Super Saver Shipping.

The netbooks are powered with slightly faster 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1 GB of RAM, and 160GB HDD.

Each netbook sports 10.2-Inch 1024x600 LCD Panel, Webcam 1.3M, Exclusive MSI EasyFace (Face Identification software) inside.

They are also equipped with 802.11n Wi-Fi, 6-cell battery standard and Windows XP Home OS.

-Wind U100 PLUS Netbook and MSI X340 Slim Laptop Released Soon

-MSI to Expose Wind U110, U115, U120 & Affordable 13.3-in U300 at CES 09

-The Best Laptops of 2008 (list Round up)

- 10 Cool Pink Laptops and 5 Laptop Bags for Valentine’s Day

The SpursEngine chip In Qosmio G50 Laptop Trims the Web Video

Qosmio laptops are the Toshiba’s flagship laptops and Qosmio G50 stand on the top of this range.

Qosmio laptops are heavy multimedia computers and Toshiba tries to develop the graphics processing and as the result delivering better quality of its Qosmio laptops.

For this aim Toshiba has developed a secondary SpursEngine chip, based on the Cell Broadband Engine microprocessor which is used in PlayStation 3 console to sharpen or clean up the video.

(The difference of these two processors come two the number of cores they use. SpursEngine comprises four "Synergistic Processing Elements" cores, while Cell Broadband Engine contains SPE cores double than the SpursEngline.)

The SpursEngine chip on Qosmio G50 works alongside an Intel Core2 Duo processor. The chip now only cleans up the Flash video that is played through Internet Explorer. While in the previous version of Qosmio laptop the SpurEngine was only able to spruce the video playing back with DVD drive.

Computer World explains:

When the cursor is brought over a Web video window, like that on YouTube, a SpursEngine logo appears in the top, left corner. Clicking on the logo launches the video full screen with the SpursEngine processing engaged. It's possible to run the system with the left-hand half unprocessed and the right-hand half of the screen processed so a comparison can be made and the improvements seen.

According to this source, the chip brings a noticeable improvement: “Edges are sharper, colors are a little richer and brightness and contrast are adjusted so that black areas of screen appear black and not grey.”

The result of this technology may not be important for ordinary consumers. But surely it is important for the users need more professional multimedia laptops and are ready to pay ¥340,000 (US$3,420) for Qosmio G50.

The laptop features 2.66GHz Core2 Duo processor, a 640GB hard disk, 18.4-inch widescreen full HD LCD display, and dual digital TV tuners. This laptop was launched in Japan last week. It will be available in international market later.

- 17-inch Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q708 Quad Core Gaming Laptop Available for $4200

-Toshiba’s Qosmio X305-Q701 Gaming Laptop Available at Best Buy

-Toshiba introduces Qosmio G55, Qosmio X305 and Qosmio F55 Laptops

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Lenovo Constant Connect Available in USA for $150

In February, Lenovo announced providing a special facility for corporate users to keep their e-mail 24 hours access to them.

By the means of Lenovo Constant Connect, the user will be able to read its company emails of Lenovo ThinkPad in BlackBerry through Constant Connect ExpressCard which is a $150 accessory.

Users will not need to be worried about the Wi-Fi connection or the mobile broadband when they have Lenovo Constant Connect. For instance, the user just needs to type the email on ThinkPad notebook and sends it to Blackberry through Bluetooth. When he can not use the notebook, he will be able to send the email easily by blackberry. So the user will not need to think of the Wi-Fi or broadband access. The same way the user can send or read the email with the ThinkPad notebook when there is no access to Wi-Fi or broadband connectivity.

The good news is that now this service available from Lenovo’s Web site. It is also sold through Lenovo’s distribution partners in USA.

Source: laptop magazine

15.6-in HP ProBook 4510s (FM848UT) Laptop in First Two Reviews

HP EliteBook, rugged business laptops for enterprises are nice laptops but not budget-friendly ones. HP has offered ProBook Notebook PC series recently which have inherited more feature-set and configurations of EliteBook laptops to solve this problem for small businesses that are with tied budget.

Among all the HP ProBook laptops only 15.6-inch ProBook 4510s and 17.3-inch ProBook 4710s are available for order at HP website now and other models will be debuted some later.

Fortunately, PC Magazine and laptop Magazine both could have their hands on the same model of ProBook 4510s with the price tag of $700. They had their in-depth look to this laptop and write nice reviews about it. Here I am mentioning a rundown of these two reviews briefly. I recommend you to read each of the reviews to get more precise idea about HP ProBook laptop series.

PC Magazine could have its hands on 4510s ($700 direct) featuring glossy finish, Intel Core 2 Duo T6750 CPU, 2GB of RAM, Intel GMA 500MHD graphics, 250 GB HDD, Wireless-N, DVD burner and 2 MP Webcam.

P.M. thinks that the laptop “gives IT managers some fashionable yet affordable solutions to choose from”.

The editors have given the rating of 4 out 5 meaning “Very Good”.

(Pros):

-Nice budget-friendly price

- Impressive battery runtime

- Security software bundle (for businesses with no IT staff),

- Wide, bright screen that is very usable in a work environment.

- Stylish comfortable Island-like keyboard that Numeric keypad included.

- Performance is very acceptable for the price

- Generous in features

- Availability of HP's QuickLook 2 button to let the user enter to its email without booting the OS and HP Spare Key to retrieve the passwords

- 3G modems are available.

- Very portable.

(Cons):

- Its glossy finish is fingerprint friendly!

- Frame seems hollow when you tap on it.

Benchmark result:

-MobileMark 2007 battery test: 4 hours and 36 minutes on 6-cell battery.

- The laptop gets GreenTech seal of approval from PCMag.

- P3 International Kill-A-Watt meter test: in sleep and shut down mode it consumes zero-watt

Laptop Magazine could have its hands on the same model with the same configuration. The folks of L.M. think that “HP’s entry-level brand for business users, its design is far from dull”.

(Pros)

- Polished design. The chassis has a mix of textures that makes it to look more stylish. And the availability of the merlot or red color for business line!

- Impressive battery life (4 hours and 31 minutes with 6—cell battery) with fast charging times

- Bright 16:9 display with matte finish provides good viewing angles

- Durable with useful security features

- Comfortable chiclet keyboard with number pad

- Ample ports and slots such as Four USB 2.0 ports, VGA and HDMI output, a 5-in-1 memory card reader and an ExpressCard/34

(Cons)

- The glossy finish is fingerprint-prone

-Awkward touch buttons

-No fingerprint reader for security

Benchmark results:

- PCMark Vantage Test: 2,784 meaning some below the average of the scores of mainstream notebooks

- Boot time test: 65 seconds with Vista business

- 3DMark 06 test: 831 meaning very weak gaming performance while the average score for main stream notebooks stand around 3000.

- The Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/b/g/n radio delivering better than the average

-HP EliteBook 6930p: The World’s First 14.1-in Laptop with 24 Hours Battery Life

-Display Comparison: Late MacBook Pro 15 vs. ThinkPad W700 vs. Mini 9 vs. ThinkPad T60

Business Style HP ProBook Budget Laptops Follow Apple Mac Pro

Having a budget-friendly business style laptop that put together portability, good feature set as well as comfort with "chiclet" keyboard and 16:9 ratio LED-backlit display, constant network connectivity, enough security measures and media options for entertainment is a big bless in this economic recession.

HP has noticed to this demand in the market and smartly tried to fill this hole. HP has introduced a new Laptop line up called HP ProBook s- series notebook targeting small business professionals who want stylish, affordable laptops.

The HP ProBook s Series laptop includes 14-inch ProBook 4410s (Intel-based)and 4415s (AMD-based) laptops, 15.6-inch ProBook 4510s (Intel) and 4515s (AMD)laptops and 17.3-inch ProBook 4710s (Intel) laptop.

All the laptops come equipped with "chiclet" keyboards like Apple MacBook and Sony laptops. The laptops also sport LED-backlit displays featuring 16:9 ratio and Drive Encryption for HP ProtectTools. They are ENERGY STAR qualified, and are EPEATSilver registered.

14-inch Intel-based ProBook 4410s laptop featuring a GMA 4500 graphics and AMD-based 4415s laptop featuring Mobility Radeon HD 4330 graphics come with HDMI port standard and a Bluetooth option.

These two laptops will be available until June.

15.6-inch Intel-based ProBook 4510s laptop and AMD-based 4515s laptop are equipped with bigger keyboard providing numeric keypads optional 3G connectivity and dedicated graphics.

The 4510s is available for order in HP website. The basic configuration starts from $530.

The high configuration (4510s Notebook PC FM849UT) with the price tag of $800 sports a 15.6-inch LED-backlit HD BrightView 1366 x 768 display, Core 2 Duo Processor T6570 (2.10 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 800 MHz FSB), 3GB of RAM (800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM), 320 GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD, a LightScribe DVD burner and GMA 4500 integrated graphics.

It features Intel 802.11a/b/g/draft n (up to 300 mbps data rate) Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, VGA webcam, Up to 5 hours battery runtime and HP 3D DriveGuard.

The 17.3-inch Intel-based ProBook 4710s sports a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo, 3GB of memory, a DVD rewriter and a 320GB hard disk.

It also features a Mobility Radeon HD 4330 for graphics, and a 1600x900 Display.

Sources: Electronista, HP

-HP Pavilion dv2 to Feature AMD Athlon Neo Processor

-HP DV6255 and HP DV 6265 Laptop computers: 15.4" Cheap Laptops with Core 2 Due and Vista

-10 Hours Battery Life by Mugen battery for HP Mini 2140/ Mini 2133

- The 10-in HP Mini 2140 Hands-on (Two Reviews)

-MSI Wind U120 under Test (vs. Samsung NC10 and HP Mini 2140)

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Skytone Alpha 680 Android Netbook in Video: Only Pretty Fast!

I love Google Search engine and I like Google chrome because, they are simple, handy, easy to use and pretty fast. Google Andriod is identical with last two Google’s products; it is simple easy to use and fast. For this reason I was so curious to see how Google Android OS which was made for mobile phones work on netbooks!

Well you can see the two videos after the break and experiment your first impression of this OS on a ARM- powered Skytone Alpha 680 netbook.

Well, unlike the nice impression that Google chrome had on me, I didn’t feel the same about Android running on a netbook.

Undoubtedly, the OS pretty fast. It is running on un-powered Skytone Alpha 680 netbook but it is much faster than any Windows-based netbook!

However, Android is an OS mobile phone on this netbook yet. It doesn’t act like an OS made for a computer. While watching the video, I just felt that I was watching the functionality of a smartphone with big 7-inch Touchscreen!

The big problem I felt immediately was that the presenter was able to run only one app. But on PC we need to run different apps at the same time.

In the end, I think the OS is not ready for netbooks yet but it has a bright future if like other Linux operating systems, it offers plenty of useful applications that computer users need to get.

This netbooks is priced at $250. Well yet this netbook is not cheap because, first of all Android is a free OS and the android on this netbook only provided very limited apps. This netbooks features only 7-inch display and ocmes with very short size 128MB of RAM, and 4GB of flash storage. Even the netbooks is as heavy as 1.5 lbs.

you can get a pretty 8.9-inch Acer Aspire One A150 running on windows with the price tag of $324.00 at Buy.com and operate standard computing like surfing, checking e-mail and using your SKype at the same time easily.

Well, Alpha 680 is not the only android-based netbook and surely at computex we will same many netbooks running on Android. At that time we can judge this OS better.

Via: Liliputing

-Google Challenging Microsoft & Intel with Android Netbooks?

-Freescale Adds Support for Android OS & 3G to its netbook ecosystem

-Nvidia and Google Jointly to Bring Open-source Android to Tegra

-ARM-based Netbook from Pegatron has 8hr Battery life & Decent Performance!

-$199 Lime PC Netbook with Freescale CPU Delivers a Decent Performance

-Read your e-mails of Lenovo ThinkPad in BlackBerry through Constant Connect ExpressCard

-iPhone vs BlackBerry: Who is the best?

10 Hours Battery Life by Mugen battery for HP Mini 2140/ Mini 2133

HP Mini 2140 – the laptop magazine’s editor’s choice, is among the fashionable sturdy netbooks in the market that tempts the business users. This netbook provides decent battery runtime with its standard 3-cell battery.

The default battery lasts for 3 up to 3.5 hours and the optional 6-cell battery lasts for about 7 hours.

Normally, consumers don’t need more than this. But they are the users who are most of the time on the go and need to have their portable laptops on for even 10 hours.

For this particular type of consumers, Mugen has made a special 7800mAh battery with the price tag of $163.95 for HP 2133 Mini-note. But the members of the MyHPMini forums have discovered that this battery can work with HP mini 2140 Mini-note too.

The battery can easily work up to 9-10 hours if you do the light tasks with the netbook and with a lot of stress it will last for 7 hours!

Although, thisbattery is expensive, it is a good alternative.

Source: Liliputing

-MSI Wind U120 under Test (vs. Samsung NC10 and HP Mini 2140): Better Design, Better Price, Less Battery life

- HP Mini 2140 Netbook Available now With SUSE Linux and HDD

- The Best Laptops of 2008 (list Round up)

Dual-Screen Netbook from Sharp Coming to USA for Sub-$1000

Netbooks are supposed to be cheap affordable and handy. However Sharp is bringing out a special netbook which is not cheap about $1000. So the netbook has to be handier than others in the market to be able to attract the consumers.

PC-NJ70A netbook comes with two LCD monitors: 10.1-inch (1024 x 600) main screen display and the small secondary screen located in the trackpad place. The small one is a 4-inch display that features 854 x 480 resolution and dynamical brightness. The user is able to do browsing files and running applications by it.

This pricey netbook features a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, 3 USB ports, VGA out, Ethernet, EEE 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and a memory card reader and 1.3 MP Camera.

The netbook seems to be expensive in terms of specs. If the company had added 3G as a standard feature to this netbook or had used Express Card slot rather than media card reader to give the alternative of using 3G through Express slot, the price would have been more acceptable.

This netbook is on its way to the US market. It is available for pre-order.

Do you think many American consumers will consider of this netbook as one of their choices?

Via: Laptop Magazine

-The Most Expensive Netbook: Adorned Acer Aspire One for $3000

-AT&T to be First Wireless Company to Sell Upcoming ARM Netbooks

-Toshiba NB200 Hands-on; Many Nvidia Ion Netbooks at Computex!

-Samsung N110/ N120 Netbooks in USA/ Dell Mini 10 with New Options

-HP dv3t Laptop to Push Performance Starting at $800 to come in May

Monday, April 27, 2009

Top 5 Security Suites of 2009

Every year we feel more threats from Cyber criminals because every year they just produce new but more advanced malware, spyware, viruses and spams and add to the previous ones.

The same way Security vendors keep update their Suites and go for use new ways of protection. So, being updated with the good security suites is very important if you care of protecting your PC and data from modern and new threats.

However, along the advantages that Security suites provide for the users, slowing down the computers while boot up, file operations even the ordinary ones, installing process; unzipping files specially large groups, downloading mail etc is a big issue that makes every computer user annoyed. Users love protection but they don’t like interruption that is a why they are I always interested for the latest CPUs, faster and bigger memories and hard drives.

The security vendors have been trying their best to improve their Suites in terms of timing of operation (faster and improved functionality) and also appearance- having better visual effect and more simple main windows to be smoother, less confusing and easily-read for the users.

PC Magazine has done several important tests and rated 12 Security Suites individually such as Firewall, antivirus, antispyware, and performance and has counted the overall score for each Suite as well. For in-depth look I recommend you to read the entire article. Here I am just mentioning top 5 Security Suites out of the 12 ones were evaluated there.

1- Norton Internet Security 2009; (3-pack, $69.99 direct)

This Security Suite is PC Magazine’s Editor’s choice for 2009. It is the best application in terms of firewall, antivirus, and antispyware. Of course it archived the best rating (4.5 out of 5) for overall performance, as well.

2- Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2009; (3-pack, $69.95 direct)

This Suite has impressive rating (5 out of 5) too and in each test stays just one step behind Norton.

3- ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 2009; ($49.95 direct; 3-pack, $69.95)

This Suite get the same rating of 4 out of 5 like Micro, but with two big difference. In Firewall test it scores 5 out 5 like Norton but in performance test it is weaker than both above (2.5 out of 5).

4- BitDefender Internet Security 2009; ($69.95 direct; 3-pack, $79.95)

With the result of 3.5 out of 5 for overall performance, it records tits highest score for Antivirus test (4 out of 5). It scores the performance test 2.5 out of 5 similar to ZoneAlarm. It version of 2009 comes with “a ton of new features—online backup and remote configuration”.

5- Kaspersky Internet Security 2009; (3-pack, $79.95 direct)

Although it has the rating of 3.5 out of 5 for overall performance, it has impressive scores of 4 for each Antivirus and antispyware test and score of 4.5 for Firewall. Even for performance test it scores 3. This suite is weak in terms of antispam, privacy and parental control. In booting, unzipping files it doesn’t slow down the operation so much but, slows browsing by 64 percent!

Updated:

PC World has presented its top 9 Security Suites for 2009 too. Here I am just mentioning the top 5 of the list here:

1- Symantec Norton Internet Security 2009

2- BitDefender Internet Security 2009

3- Panda Internet Security 2009

4- McAfee Internet Security Suite 2009

5- Avira Premium Security Suite 8.2

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Intel’ to Bring CULV to Heap up the market of Low-cost Laptops!

Low-cost laptops are new-opened category in the crowded market of PC industry that was set up by AMD’s Athlon Neo processor which has been used in 12-in HP dv2 laptop.

Low-cost laptops are the budget ultra-thin laptops delivering better performance than netbooks and stay behind the standard ultra portable laptops. They are powered with new budget energy-efficient processors like Neo CPU or upcoming Intel’s CULV processor to enhance battery runtime meanwhile more powerful that Atom or VIA processors used in netbooks.

Intel’s upcoming CULV (consumer ultra-low-voltage) processor is a 22mm single-core chip based on Intel's mainstream Core 2 architecture but unlike these mainstream processors that consume 25W of power, CULV will only consumes 5.5W - slightly more than Atom CPU.

This is good news because the luxurious laptops like Mac Air or Dell Adamo will cut their price since they will be able to use this Intel’s processor. MSI X-slim 340 is an ultra-thin laptop to be powered by CULV processor. MSI has claimed that it is world’s lightest and slimmest 13-inch notebook and I should add that it is going to be the cheapest one in its own category too. According to Cnet, this laptop was launched in Japan last week and the higher-end version starts at around $1,000.

Lenovo is also considering making a ThinkPad low-cost laptop with Intel’s CULV processor.

By Intel’s CULV processor and AMD’s Neo processor the prices the laptops based on them will fall between $700 and $1300.