Shipping any day now will be the mylo™ Personal Communicator from Sony. The device lets you, "connect up to WiFi hot spots, talk, and surf the Web without contracts," according to Sony's Web site.
The device uses LAN (Local Area Network) technology. You make phone calls using Skype®, which lets users make calls to other people on Skype and offers an inexpensive service for landline calls.
You can IM people using AOL, Yahoo or Google. There's a built-in 1.3MP camera, too.
The device is an MP3 player and plays video. You can download music that you've purchased from online music stores.
Mylo comes in either black or white.
It costs about $300 and can be purchased on Sony's Web site.
I've written a bit about the Lenovo IdeaPad U110 once before, but only briefly. I mentioned that it had an airbag so no worries if you drop the thing. The airbag isn't like one in a car that blows up and keeps the whole unit from breaking, it's "an air bag-like device that parks the hard drive to help protect data during a fall," according to laptopcom.
CNET has a video about the laptop and a review. They rate the computer an 8/10, saying that it has a gorgeous design, is lightweight (it weighs 2 1/2 lbs and has sharp screen resolution.
It costs about $2000. Batteries with the laptop are a challenge, though. They only last 1 1/2 to 2 hrs. Note, also that the DVD burner is external.
The computer has a 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo L7500 processor and runs on Windows Vista Home Premium.
Samsung's new flash drive SSD is the hot topic on the Internet lately. Unlike HDD (hard drives) the SSD has no moving parts so you won't hear the bump-and-grind that you hear when you have an HDD.
The SSD works as speeds much faster than an HDD. A 2.5-inch SSD can read at 100MB/sec while an HDD can read at only 59MB/sec. It can write at 80MB/sec, while an HDD can write at only 60MB/sec.
The SSD requires less than half the energy of an HDD. Your notebook will run longer on because a SSD doesn't use up as much power as an HDD.
It also doesn't get hot, the SSD, so it doesn't need a fan to keep it cool.
You can view a video about the SSD that includes a boot-up and vibration test
Last week Techgage.com reviewed the Hypersonic Avenger AG2 12" Notebook. They said they have good reason to be impressed. The computer comes in many configurations. They reviewed the Penryn-based Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 at 2.5GHz, which includes 6MB of L2 cache and an 800MHz FSB. They noted that Google Earth ran well on the machine, but didn't recommend it for heavy gaming.
The laptop comes in a variety of colors (see image to left). You can choose from white, pink, yellow, blue or metallic black.
Over at Hypersonic's site, they lament the Avenger series, saying, "You don't have to forfeit performance when you can get the best of both worlds with the ultra portable Avenger Series. These compact yet complex notebooks feature small display sizes and an ergonomic keyboard that doesn't sacrifice your comfort."
The laptop has a 1.3 MP Web cam and a card reader (now that's convenient).
Wired mag reviewed the Toshiba Satellite A305. "Toshiba A305 combines strong gaming performance with refined good looks," the review read. It even called the laptop "pretty." Now all of us would like a "pretty" laptop, wouldn't we?
On a more serious note, Toshiba has come up with a beautiful machine, which you have to clean up a lot (as in wiping off smudges off it).
It's a powerful machine coming with the following:
* Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium (32-bit)
* Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T8100
* 3GB PC5300 DDR2 667MHz SDRAM
* 320GB HDD (5400rpm)
* DVD-SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) with Labelflash™ drive
* Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965 AGN (802.11a/g/n)
At $1,150 not a bad deal! You can go to wize.com to read about other Toshiba Satellite machines.
You can get up to $200 off when you buy a Sony Viao PC with a Cybershot camera. Here's the deal--
1. Go to Sony.com
2. Choose a Viao PC. When you buy a Cybershot with a TZ or SZ notebook or a LT desktop, you get $200 off the notebook. When you buy a Cybershot with a CR or FZ notebook with a Cybershot, you get $100 off.
3. Choose the Cybershot digital camera.
The TZ is an ultraportable notebook and weighs only 2.6 lbs. All laptops and the desktop run on the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor.
The reviews for the 18.4-inch Acer Aspire 8920G, which has arrived in America, are coming in. CNET and Laptop Mag have come out with the skinny on the machine, which costs $2,599 (for the model that was reviewed at Laptopmag).
CNET The editors gave the laptop a 7.9/10 rating, saying that the new design is "a step in the right direction." They like the full-size keyboard and the Cinetouch media navigation.
Laptopmag The 4.5/5 rating praises the 1080p LCD panel and the True 5.1 speaker set-up. This review gives the "quick-specs" of the machine, which are:
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
RAM/Expandable to: 4GB/4GB
Hard Drive Size/Speed: 320GB/5,400 rpm
Optical Drive: 2X BD-ROM/DVD±RW DL
And let's not forget that this laptop comes with a TV tuner.
Processor speed freaks will be happy to know that the iMac is faster than ever. That's the big word when you arrive at apple.com these days.
They call it "Beauty. Brains. And now more brawn.
Apple iMacs run on Intel Core 2 Duo processors, which have advanced 45-nm process technology and 6MB of shared L2 cache.
Final Cut Pro will run 28% faster than it did on previous machines. Photoshop CS3 runs 22% faster.
With the new iMac, you also have the option to upgrade to a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS and 512MB of dedicated video memory.
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