Have Laptop Will Travel

Lenovo releases its first desktop PC in the US

Originally posted on July 1, 2008 @ 11:57 pm

While various electronics manufacturers are dipping their feet on the portable/laptop market pool, top laptop maker Lenovo is doing the opposite.

The company has released its first consumer PC in the US called the IdeaCentre k210 desktop PC. The new PC will be made available in newegg.com, J&R, Tiger Direct and B&H Photo/Video at a price point that starts at $379 after a mail-in rebate of $100.

Specs of the IdeaCentre will vary for each retailer as some will have the Lenovo Bright Eye camera, Veriface and Bright Vision software. This nifty gadget will allow users to log in securely by merely looking at the camera using facial recognition technology.

The K210 IdeaCentre will get a procies “up to” the Intel Core 2 Quad. It will have 3GB of memory, integrated Intel GMA 310 graphics and HDs that will range from 320 to 520GBs as well as a 16-in-1 card reader. A choice of DVD burner or Bluray player will be made available, too.
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Psystar ships Mac clones with Leopard OS backup

Originally posted on August 13, 2008 @ 10:56 pm

If you are threatened with a lawsuit if you go through with your plan, would you still do it? I bet a majority of answers will adhere closely to “Of course not! Are you crazy?!” But apparently, Psystar either didn’t get the memo or just has a pair of titanium balls for going through with its plan to release a series of Macintosh clones–and to top it off, it has begun including a copy of Leopard with its clones to address customer complaints of not having an OS backup with their purchases.

I think it’s a monumental screw-up for Psystar but then I’d love to see what their reasons are for actually going through this reckless move.

Transmeta to license Longrun to Nvidia

Originally posted on August 8, 2008 @ 6:20 pm

Transmeta has announced that it will license it LongRun technology to Nvidia corp.

The move will provide Nvidia with access to new technology that only requires low power.

Transmeta will be paid $25 million for a non exclusive license of Longrun. The agreement covers both LongRun and LongRun 2.

Nvidia will pay Transmeta $25 million for a non-exclusive license to the technology, which includes both the LongRun and LongRun2 technologies.

Transmeta has bowed out of the processor market and now exists solely to license its low-power technology to other companies.

next EEE model to offer 3G

Originally posted on July 4, 2008 @ 11:31 pm

ASUS is really milking the mega popular EEE line with more and more models coming down the pipeline.

The company has announced ANOTHER model of its EEE mini laptops that will come out later this year. This new model will come with built-in 3G as a way of competing with companies that are offering the feature in their ultraportables.

The new EEE model could be avaiable as early as September in Europe.

The proposed EEE model will basically have the same features as its rivals, that is, internal 3G modules for both HSDPA and HSUPA. There is speculation that these models may be made available with bundled 3G contracts from a service provider.

OLPC to start selling Xo laptops at Amazon.com

Originally posted on September 9, 2008 @ 12:00 am

The XO notebook that was developed by the One Laptop Per Child organization will now be sold through Amazon.com.

The OLPC’s original plan for their XO laptop was never to make it commercially available to developed countries. After all, the goal of the program is to allow kids in poor nations to gain access to electronic equipment like a laptop.

But the whole program model changed when the organization thought of selling the laptops to people for the price of two. One computer goes to the consumer and the other one goes to a poor child. The consumer, in effect, subsidizes the cost of donating a laptop to a child in a poor country. This was the start of OLPC’s Give One Get One program.

The move to sell at Amazon is just an extension of their program and for once this can really help increase the demand of the laptop and in effect increase the number of children that will benefit from the program.