Sunday 25 April 2010

ASUS PL30JT to hit Europe next month

TechConnect Magazine - Asus to release PL30JT Calpella-based business notebook next month
Asus this week has announced the upcoming (European) introduction of the PL30JT-RO030X, a 13.3-inch business laptop that makes use of Intel's Calpella platform and supports Nvidia's Optimus graphics switching technology.

Weighting in 1.7kg, Asus' portable PC has a brushed aluminum palm rest, a multi-gesture touchpad, a 13.3-inch (1366x768) LED-backlit anti-glare display, and packs a 1.06 GHz Core i5-520UM processor, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, Intel integrated graphics backed by an Nvidia GeForce G310M with 1GB VRAM, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, a 5-in-1 card reader, a HDMI output, and an 8-cell battery.

The PL30JT-RO030X runs Windows 7 Professional and is set to hit stores next month priced at 999 Euro.



Tuesday 20 April 2010

Friday 16 April 2010

Toshiba Satellite T115 strikes gold @ www.amazon.com

One of the best-selling ultra-thin laptop in the market, the Toshiba Satellite T115, has reached #9 in the Amazon best-sellers list.



As of today (20100416), there are 18 members in the Toshiba Satelllite T100/T115/T135 Launchpad team. Apart from initial problems with the Realtek wireless drivers, it looks like people is happy using Linux on this laptop series.


Thursday 15 April 2010

Battery Life is in the eye of the beholder @ www.engadget.com

The advertised battery life for many laptops is usually not even close to what ends up being in reality. For example, Apple refreshed the MacBook Pro line and advertised 10 hours of battery life in the announcement. Now www.engadget.com has reviewed the laptop and it turns 10 hours in Apple's labs mean 5:18 in the real world, which is a mere 53 extra minutes more than the Sony VAIO Z.

MacBook Pro Core i7 review -- Engadget
Battery Life*

MacBook Pro 15 - 2010 (2.66GHz Core i7, NVIDIA GT 330M) 5:18
Sony VAIO Z (2.53GHz Core i5, NVIDIA GT 330M) 4:25
HP Envy 15 (1.6GHz Core i7-720QM, ATI HD 4830) 2:00


Tuesday 13 April 2010

New Macbook Pro 13-inch stays Core duo -- "seamless" hybrid graphics only for 15- and 17-inch models

It turns out the rumors were wrong, and there *is* an update MacBook Pro 13.3-inch model. It features a Core 2 Duo CPU and a 320M NVIDIA graphics card. For the 15- and 17-inch models, with i5/i7 core CPUs, Apple's press releases describes the hybrid graphics capabilities as:

"Apple's new automatic graphics switching technology that toggles seamlessly between powerful NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M and energy efficient Intel HD Graphics processors."

But again, that is only for the 15- and 17-inch models with the NVIDIA 330M cards.
So from the looks of it, the new Macbook Pro 13-inch will be competing for price/features with the low-end Sony Vaio Z model. The high-end Sony Vaio Z models, with newer Intel CPUs, powerful hybrid graphics GPUs and Quad-SSD options, remain unchallenged.
Also unchallenged in the sub-$1000 are going to be the powerful new U/UL lines from ASUS and the TimelineX series from Acer: ASUS UL30Vt, ASUS U30Jc, ASUS UL30Jt and Acer 3820TG.
ASUS remains king of the hill for battery life with the ~12 hours in UL30A models, and >10 hours for the hybrid models, like the UL30Vt and the yet-to-be-released UL30Jt.
Acer follows closely with more CPU and GPU power with the announced 3820TG, very competitive prices and decent battery life.

Apple Updates MacBook Pro Line
The 2.4 GHz, 13-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $1,199 (US), includes:

* 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1280 x 800 glossy display;
* 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB shared L2 cache;
* 1066 MHz front-side bus;
* 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 8GB;
* NVIDIA GeForce 320M integrated graphics;
* 250GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
* a slot-load 8X SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
* Mini DisplayPort (VGA, DVI and HDMI adapters sold separately);
* AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
* Gigabit Ethernet port;
* iSight® video camera;
* two USB 2.0 ports;
* one FireWire® 800 port (FireWire 400 compatible);
* SD card slot;
* combined headphone/line in (analog/digital);
* glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard;
* built-in, 63.5WHr lithium polymer battery; and
* 60 Watt MagSafe® Power Adapter.

The 2.66 GHz, 13-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $1,499 (US), includes:

* 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1280 x 800 glossy display;
* 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB shared L2 cache;
* 1066 MHz front-side bus;
* 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM, expandable to 8GB;
* NVIDIA GeForce 320M integrated graphics;
* 320GB serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
* a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
* Mini DisplayPort (VGA, DVI and HDMI adapters sold separately);
* AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
* Gigabit Ethernet port;
* iSight video camera;
* two USB 2.0 ports;
* one FireWire 800 port (FireWire 400 compatible);
* SD card slot;
* combined headphone/line in (analog/digital);
* glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard;
* built-in, 63.5WHr lithium polymer battery; and
* 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.


Sunday 11 April 2010

Apple will not update 13inch MacBook Pros this time @ www.macrumors.com

Macrumors has published a piece that indicates new product numbers for Macbook Pros are limited to the 15 inch and 17 inch models. These are meant to be updated next week, suposedly with new Intel Core i7 and i5 CPUs:
http://www.macrumors.com/2010/04/10/macbook-pro-updates-imminent-really-part-numbers-appear/ The 13inch model doesn't show up in the list. This probably means Apple hasn't been able to super-charge its 13inch Macbook Pro with a real discrete graphics card or a newer Intel CPU. Only ASUS seems to be able to design a ultrathin laptop with serious GPU oomph, with their U30Jc model, and the upcoming UL30Jt and PL30Jt laptops. Acer is behind, with an updated 3820TG model, featuring ATI's Mobility Radeon HD.

ASUS U30Jc skyrockets to Amazon bestsellers list @ www.amazon.com


Only a week after its release, the ASUS U30Jc has skyrocketed to the bestsellers list at Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-U30JC-A1-13-3-Inch-Laptop-Silver/dp/B0036ZEANO/ref=pd_ts_pc_16?ie=UTF8&s=pc


Friday 2 April 2010

Howto Touchpad Sony Vaio Z series 2010 and Linux

Inserting the kernel parameter:

i8042.nopnp

will make touchpad to work the Vaio Z 2010 (VPCZ11Z93), kernel version is 2.6.31-21.