notebooks

So you pulled that cramped old 40GB hard drive out of your notebook and replaced it with 160GB of storage goodness. Ever wonder what you should do with the leftover drive? Simple: stick it in an enclosure and use it as a portable USB hard drive.

You supply the drive; Meritline.com has an enclosure for just $10.99 shipped (after entering coupon code HW1971413OFF, which expires 1/25). It's compatible with all 2.5-inch IDE and SATA drives, and it includes both IDE and SATA external interfaces (cables, too). You also get a carrying case and a little … Read more

Call me crazy, but I don't understand why anyone would buy the much-ballyhooed Asus Eee PC for $399 when they could get a full-fledged notebook for just a few bucks more. Case in point: eCost has the HP Presario F579WM for $465. Granted, it's an HP-recertified model, one that weighs three times as much as the Asus, but it's also much, much better equipped for everyday computing.

In addition to its dual-core AMD Athlon processor, the 6.6-pound Presario comes with 1GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive, a super-multi-DVD burner, and a 15.4-inch screen. In … Read more

Singapore isn't just known for its chili crabs and cheap electronics--and it will soon be known for making notebooks too. Homegrown company Axioo has provided a sneak peek to journalists of a lineup of laptops and the 12.1-inch notebook pictured here. While not much was disclosed in the way of specs, a company representative did reveal that the machine would be categorized under its TFJ series. Unlike the colorful Axioo Zetta TEN and TEC laptops, the TFJ machine will be offered only in white.

Based on the prototype unit displayed, the notebook appears to be powered by a … Read more

On Tuesday, we wrote that the 1998 Mitsubishi Pedion was the thinnest notebook ever.

On Thursday, we learned that isn't the case, thanks to Jorge Pullin, at the Horace Hearne Jr. Institute for Theoretical Physics at Louisiana State University.

Back in the first years of the decade, Sharp released the Muramasas. Measuring 0.54 inch thick, the Actius MM10 Muramasa notebook, which hit shelves in 2003, came with a 1GHz Crusoe processor from Transmeta, 256MB of memory, a 15GB hard drive and a built-in Wi-Fi module. It ran 2.5 hours on a regular battery, and cost $1,499. … Read more

Welcome, Gateway!

So, you're doing the colored/crazy-designed notebook thing now, huh? Yeah, so is, well, everyone else.

It's pretty well-established now that the masses see their computer as an extension of their personalities. First, it was the brightly hued notebook trend that all the top-tier PC makers were latching on to, including Gateway. Now as a laptop vendor, it seems you have to offer some artsy-looking version of a standard notebook to even get noticed anymore. (With the exception of Apple, which garners plenty of attention with its commitment to minimalism.)

Cases in point: Sony, which already … Read more

In August, Lenovo announced that Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 would be available on ThinkPads in the fourth quarter of 2007. Though that didn't happen, Lenovo finally released details Tuesday.

Novell SLED 10 will be available on the ThinkPad T61 and ThinkPad R61 with Intel Centrino processors. Operating system features include the Firefox Web browser, RealPlayer, Macromedia Flash Player, OpenOffice, and more.

Lenovo says it will provide customer support for the hardware and the operating system, while Novell will be responsible for updates. The lowest-end model will be $949, and both models are available beginning Tuesday.

Next month ThinkPads … Read more

If you bought a budget-level notebook within the past year, chances are good it came with Windows Vista and 1GB of RAM--a poor combination to say the least. Vista needs at least 2GB to operate efficiently, especially on notebooks with integrated graphics processors (which borrow RAM from the rest of the system).

Newegg.com has a Transcend 2GB PC2 5300 notebook memory module for $26.99 (after a $10 mail-in rebate). Shipping will run you $4.99.

You'll need to make sure, of course, that your system can accommodate this kind of module (it's a pretty standard size … Read more

LAS VEGAS--This PC is made out of corn. And no, you cannot eat it.

It's actually the third generation of the Biblo PC from Fujitsu, which showed off the laptop at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The inside is a normal PC, but the outside casing is made out of material that's 50 percent plant-based materials, and 50 percent regular plastics. To make it, they take regular ears of corn, process it down to corn starch, and turn that into a polymer alloy. Fujitsu says it cuts down on carbon dioxide emissions during the manufacturing process … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Acer and Gateway don't have a whole lot of news here at CES--aside from a few new gaming desktops and a laptop--but it is new that they are here as one. Their combined logos were everywhere in their displays.

The transition since Acer's purchase of Gateway late last year for $710 million is nearly complete, the company says. The same person--Rudi Schmidleithner--now runs both Gateway and Acer's American business unit.

While Acer declined to give many details about the coming year, it did hint that it's going to be a busy one. While … Read more