Tech Blog News Tech

A little more than a year after the launch of the MacBook Air

Among the features that won't make it into the next version are a journaling file system--a feature that keeps track of changes in the operating system to make recovering from crashes faster and easier. Windows NT and most commercial versions of Unix have that feature, and Torvalds said at least two development efforts are under way to bring it to Linux.

Lithium sulfur batteries can store much more energy than lithium ion models. However,HP laptop batteries built using that technology only last as long as 60 recharge cycles, said Mark Jost, vice president of marketing at Sion Power. Sion hopes to extend the recharge cycles of lithium sulfur to the standards set by lithium ion, but the Tucson, Ariz., company does not expect to begin production of lithium sulfur batteries until the first half of 2008, he said.

One display design being considered is a flat, flexible printed display developed at MIT's Media Lab. Negroponte said the technology can be used to produce displays that cost roughly 10 cents per square inch. "The target is $12 for a 12-inch display with near-zero power consumption," he said.

Bob Moore, senior marketing manager for Gateway, said the 14.1-inch display will become standard for all of the company's notebooks sometime next year.

Dell did make a few compromises, however. To keep the Pentium III-M chip cool, it added a heat pipe and fan to vent heat from the chip. Dell also removed the parallel port, a device used to attach a printer, meaning users must print via a network, connect via a docking station or use a universal serial bus printer.

Also, the OLPC people talk about Windows compatibility-- Windows XP, at least-- and it's unlikely there will be any Windows XP-compatible hardware platform capable of achieving a 1W average power consumption figure in 2010... never mind the 1/4W or less that would be available to the processor and chipset with two LCDs running (even without the backlight).

Often, the flaw is the price. A big part of the appeal of the original Asus EEE was the low price. HP is perhaps the biggest offender here, their Mini-Note 2133 KR948UT came out at $949 and just had its price reduced to $789.

It's the just-announced Fujitsu LifeBook P7230, an update of the LifeBook P7120 we reviewed almost a year ago. The new ultraportable retains the light weight and the built-in optical drive we loved about its predecessor but adds such appealing features as LED backlights for its 10.6-inch display and an optional built-in Webcam. You can also choose either a black or a white version to match your aesthetic scheme.

Like the company itself, the XFR's second-gen improvements on the device are incremental and in some cases, slightly experimental. The E6400 XFR is the name of what used to be the Latitude XFR D630. The laptop gets an internal tuneup, boasting better processing power (Intel Core2Duo), discrete graphics enabled by better cooling. The new XFR also keeps most of its original features: touch screen, a solid-state drive, mobile broadband, GPS, and long battery life. In this case, Dell says an additional battery pack will keep the laptop battery going for up to 13 hours.

Looks like the holidays have come early for cheap-laptop hunters: Today Gateway announced a 15.4-inch notebook that will cost just $699 through December 28. At that price, the NX570X comes stocked with a 1.6GHz Intel Core Duo T2050 processor; 512MB of swift 667MHz RAM; an 80GB, 5,400rpm hard drive; integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics; and a CD burner. That's not exactly a mind-blowing configuration, but it is quite respectable, considering most laptops in the sub-$800 range cheap out with generations-old components and missing features.

A little more than a year after the launch of the MacBook Air, a new luxury laptop has arrived from Dell. This calls for another look at the notebook versus Netbook argument, the computer equivalent of bourgeoisie versus proletariat. In this case, Air versus Aspire; Adamo versus Eee.

The XO-2 could be based on some cellphone-like chipset, but that would sacrifice Windows XP compatibility. And if there is an XP-capable low-power chipset on the market by 2010, it's likely that it will also be used in more traditional laptops and mobile Internet devices. Similarly, the technology behind the XO-1's LCD is likely to be more widely used in the next few years. In other words, the XO-2 isn't likely to gain any meaningful advantage in this respect over competing platforms.

Ultraportables also generally have less area to squeeze a HP PAVILION DV1600 BATTERY, leading to smaller batteries and reduced portable power time. Dell reports 3 to 3.5 hours of battery life for the new C400. An optional lithium-ion polymer battery plate that attaches to the bottom of the C400 extends battery life.

Both the 13.3-inch screens and the 14.1-inch screens use XGA LCDs that allow the screen to display a larger viewable area. For example, a spreadsheet user will be able to see more columns on the XGA screen because of the finer resolution.

Another feature that won't arrive is the support for Intel's upcoming 64-bit ?Merced? chip, which won't be ready in time for 2.4. "The Merced port is apparently going really well," he said, though he's not among the people who have signed Intel's nondisclosure agreement to gain access to the inner workings of the chip.