Nokia is seriously contemplating entering the notebook market, according to research firm DisplaySearch. A blog entry by analyst John Jacobs quotes Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo as saying in an interview with Finnish national broadcaster YLE that the company is "looking very actively" at the possibility.
Along with much of the rest of the economy, the PC industry will be singing the blues this year, with worldwide shipments declining to 275 million units -- or almost 12 percent -- from 2008, according to a new Gartner report.
Facebook introduced a new terms of service page Wednesday in its official blog, but a spokesman said there are no new rules for users to follow.
Will Apple really slap a lawsuit on Palm the minute the Palm Pre starts shipping as a Sprint smartphone later this year? Apple's posturing has lots of people thinking so. The reason: Apple's newly awarded patent for multi-touch technology, which also drives the interface for the Palm Pre. Just when it began to look like Palm had finally produced an iPhone killer, Apple has conveniently found a way to shut down the whole show.
Netbook. Subnotebook. Mini-notebook. Mini-laptop. Mini. Why so many names for the same low-powered laptop with 10-inch screen and no optical drive?
Netbooks are more than a fad, and fill an important niche in the market for consumer PCs, according to a Forrester Research report. However, the report warned that manufacturers were confusing consumers with "dangerous" branding strategies.
With its wavy-pinstripe imprint and glossy-black accents, the dv2500t carries forward the designer HP Pavilion look. Polished to an almost pearlescent sheen, the touchpad looks more like a minor work of art than a pointing device. Improvements include a move up to the Intel Santa Rosa processor family and some tweaks to the ports to introduce more high-definition capabilities. But the screen is still more reflective than most, and there's almost no point in choosing the standard six-cell battery, since its life is so short.
With lively performance, a fairly light weight, and several popular features, the Lenovo 3000 N200 would be a good business notebook, but its mediocre battery life won't please frequent travellers.
The Fujitsu LifeBook T4220 is designed to weather outside use better than your typical convertible tablet. It has a nice keyboard and performs well, too, all at a competitive price.
A classic ThinkPad, the R61 is full of nice features you don't usually find in a laptop, such as the ThinkLight, an LED that illuminates the keyboard. The R61's 14.1-inch screen and 5.8-pound weight make it an ideal travel companion, too. For a work-oriented notebook decked out with all the trimmings, this model is hard to beat.
The Asus U1F-1P016E is a true ultraportable that weighs 2.7 pounds and tapers in the front of the case to a thin five-eighths of an inch tall. A lustrous black lid and real leather palm rest add to its appeal. So what's not to like? The speed and keyboard layout are so-so, the optical drive isn't built in, and the US$2199 price (as of 6/6/07) is high.
The Fujitsu LifeBook A6010 takes the load off your shoulders. It weighs just 6 pounds, making it the lightest 15.4-incher in our current all-purpose test group. I also loved the keyboard, but not the four-cell battery, which lasted 1 hour, 32 minutes -- less than half as long as the batteries of most other notebooks.
The generously equipped Acer TravelMate 8200 packs a 120GB hard drive, a unique built-in Web cam, and both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Its ExpressCard/34 slot accepts the small form factor, 34mm, though not the larger 54mm next-generation plug-in card. A SmartCard reader provides an extra layer of security.
HP's new flagship business portable has a 17-inch WXGA screen and weighs 3.35kg, so it ranks among the lightest notebooks in its category. If no other surface is available, the HP Compaq nx9420 feels perfectly comfortable perched on your lap, huge screen and all.
When I think of racing, I think of ear-bleeding engine noise and fiery multicar pileups. Maybe that's why I initially steered clear of the Acer Ferrari 4000 with its black-checkered lid and "EAARRRrrrrrooom!" startup sound. (Acer said you can turn this off in Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices, Sounds.) But beneath its novelty exterior, this all-purpose notebook is well equipped, starting with AMD's cutting-edge 64-bit mobile CPU, the Turion 64.
