Have Laptop Will Travel

PrimePC releases two juiced up laptops

Originally posted on November 9, 2007 @ 7:31 pm

When we talk about notebooks and laptops the usual brands come to mind — Asus, Acer, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Sony, Dell — but there are a lot of other laptop manufacturers out there that also deserve some attention from consumers.

Take for example, PrimePC, a laptop manufacturer that is producing some very good quality notebooks. The company recently released a couple of new models that could capture the interest of laptop warriors. It’s first model, the Prime Note Dominium Series I which is equipped with an IntelR Core2Duo T7250 and an nVidia GeForce 8400M GS 256mb graphics chip. This model is a firm entrant into the gaming laptop market.

On the other hand the Prime Note Chronos Series is built more for heavy application usage, gaming and multi tasking. It has an IntelR Core2Duo processor and an nVidia GeForce 8600M GT 512MB graphics chip.

The units feature a 15.4 inch widescreen that brings vivid life to graphics. The basic package also includes a LAN port, a card reader and a copy of Windows XP Home Edition.

WinXP SP3 can slow Vista adoption

Originally posted on February 20, 2008 @ 10:22 pm

With the release of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, there is speculation that it will further slow down the public’s adoption of Microsoft’s new Windows Vista.

The new Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2 was released last Feb. 19 without much fanfare, maybe as a way to not really give too much of the public’s attention to XP at this point when the company is still trying to sell the advantages of upgrading to the Vista OS. The problem is that with SP3, XP has become more stable and reliable and with a larger installed base, this will make it doubly hard for Microsoft to encourage people to go with vista, which is still considered as having many quirks and instabilities. SP3’s introduction has basically brought a Catch 22 situation for Microsoft. And the company’s decision to stop supporting XP in the near future will only further alienate its customers.

AMD’s new procies delayed to 2008

Originally posted on December 18, 2007 @ 11:18 pm

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., did not have a good year. The chipmaker has seen some very stiff competition lately from rival Intel and this has resulted in Intel gaining some lost ground what with the success of its Core2Duo processors and the inability of AMD to bring new processors to rival Intel’s offering.

AMD has been touting that its new procies will bring the company back in the fight but it recently announced that shipment of both its Barcelona and Phenom chips will be delayed to the first quarter of 2008. This is another stumbling block for AMD but according to AMD Chief Operating Oficer Dirk Meyer, he aims to bring the company back into profit in 2008.

The company is banking on the impending availability of its quad core procies to bring AMD back and increase its market share. As an AMD faithful, I am hoping that Meyer does deliver on his promise.

Macbook Air’s battery problem?

Originally posted on February 21, 2008 @ 11:12 pm

If there’s one thing about notebook specs that you always have to take with a grain of salt are battery capacities. If you believe that batteries will really run through the stated number of hours claimed by the manufacturer you will almost always end up disappointed. Even the venerable Apple brand is not immune from these lofty claims. When Steve Jobs unveiled the Macbook Air, he claimed that it has a a 5 hour battery life. This most probably meant that the actual battery life is closer to 4 or 4 and a half hours when used in the real world.

But there has been a growing number of claims on various forums that some Macbook Air users are actually experiencing a dismal two hour battery life on their new gadgets. And to top it off, it takes 8 to 10 hours to fully charge the battery. This and other battery issues are being aired in various forums and even in Apple.com’s discussion boards.

Have any of you guys bought a Macbook Air lately? Share your experiences with your battery here.

Is anyone else having similar problems? Is your Air’s battery working fine? Let us know in Comments.

Nigerian sues OLPC for patent infringement

Originally posted on November 29, 2007 @ 11:40 pm

The One Laptop per Child initiative may be helping many children all over the world with its goals but that doesn’t mean that they are going to be immune from any kind of legal action.

The OLPC was recently sued by a company based in Nigeria over what is seen as an infringement of a keyboard design that has a Nigerian patent.

The company, Lagos Analysis Corp., through its CEO and founder Ade Oyegbola, filed charges against OLPC in Nigeria. The claim also includes reverse engineering the software codes that are needed in order to power it.

Nigeria is actually one of the countries that is testing the OLPC. According to an article published by the Wall Street Journal, it’s efforts are being undermined by the supposedly more successful Classmate PC that is the product of an Intel-Microsoft collaboration.

Let’s see how this develops. I for one am a bit skeptical about this. Nigeria is a lovely country but I also know it as the source of all those email scams that ask you for money in exchange for “millions” of dollars.