Micro PC

Filed under: Laptops

He’s already made nice with Microsoft, and it now seems that OLPC head Nicholas Negroponte is extending an olive branch of sorts to Intel as well, despite the all-out lambasting of the company he doled out only yesterday. According to Infoworld, Negroponte calls what happened with Intel “very unfortunate” and says that he hopes “there’s a way of rebuilding it in the future because there’s no interest in OLPC pushing Intel out.” In case you missed it, Intel up and left the OLPC board of directors last week after it claimed that OLPC insisted it give on cooperating with the competing Classmate PC if it wanted to stay in the OLPC fold. Negroponte, however, now says that the idea that OLPC is anti-competition is “ridiculous” and that it wants to “see as many laptops out there as possible and kids have the widest choice possible.” For it’s part, Intel says it’s willing to talk with OLPC, although it maintains that there are “differences” that they’ve so far unable to resolve.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Straight from the Lenovo booth at CES 2008, we bring you a hands-on overview of the rest of Lenovo’s new IdeaPad lineup. Is this really something that ThinkPad owners should get excited about?

Filed under: Laptops

We already knew Microsoft was at least toying around with putting Windows on the OLPC XO, but it looks like things have just gotten quite a bit more serious, with the OLPC folks now saying that they’re working “very closely” with Microsoft to develop a dual-boot Windows / Linux system for the laptop. What’s more, Nick Neg himself reportedly said that the version of Windows that’s now up and running on on the XO is “very fast” and “very, very successful.” There’s no word just yet as to when we might actually see such a system be released, however, but OLPC is apparently now talking with Microsoft and “possibly” the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation about putting the XO to use in some of the education programs Microsoft runs in developing countries, a possibility that Negroponte says is “really cooking at the moment.”

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: CES, Laptops

Well folks — it’s official. The Everex / Packard Bell / FIC Nanobook / Cloudbook / CE260 (phew) that we recently got some face time with is actually coming Stateside… to Wal-Mart. That’s right, the Eee crown-threatener will be available on January 25th of this year, featuring a 1.2GHz VIA C7-M CPU, 512MB of RAM, a 30GB hard drive, and a 800 x 480 display for the extra-affordable price of $399. The system will be sporting Everex’s gOS Rocket, the Google-ified version of Ubuntu which powers the company’s cheapo desktop. Watch your back, front, and sides, ASUS.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: CES, Features, Laptops

In honor of PC Mag’s 25th anniversary, HP commissioned ten well-known designers to spruce up one of four different laptop models (the Pavilions tx1000z, dv6500t, dv9500z, and HDX 9000 — a.k.a. The Dragon). These one-of-a-kind machines made their debut last night at the magazine’s rockin’ quarter-century celebration hosted at the MGM Grand’s Tabu Ultra Lounge — well, almost all of them did: apparently Applebottoms by Nelly wasn’t able to ship its unit out in time. The other nine notebooks from such names as James De La Vega and Paul Frank — which will be auctioned off after making a short PR tour — run the gamet from glitzy to understated to politically-minded. You can scope out the entire lineup in the gallery below, and catch the full listing of contributors by clicking the Read link.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The latest 7″ notebook on the market features the size, performance and energy efficiency needed to challenge larger laptops. Add to this tiny package the open source gOS operating system and you’ve got an impressive little machine. Let’s take a closer look.

Filed under: Laptops

As if OLPC’s Walter Bender hadn’t already dragged this breakup far enough through the mud, Nicholas Negroponte himself has weighed in on Intel’s departure, accusing the company of using underhand sales tactics to block OLPC sales and to win over OLPC customers to the Classmate PC. Nick says of Intel: “They were selling laptop with their brand on it directly to exactly the same people we were talking to. They would go in even after we had signed contracts and try to persuade government officials to scrap their contract and sign a contract with them instead. That’s not a partnership.” Apparently OLPC had six million dollars on the way from Intel before they scrapped the partnership, but Nick Neg had had enough. “Each time it happened they said they would correct their ways. It’s a little like cheating on your spouse, or alcoholism, or something you just can’t eventually fix and we had to finally part ways.” Intel sees it differently, of course. “I don’t want to get into specifics but we met every obligation that we were committed to,” said Intel’s Paul Otellini, who called Negroponte’s version of events “hogwash.” Intel’s version of the story states that OLPC wanted Intel to drop its non-XO projects, namely Classmate PC. This was obviously always an awkward union, given the respective organizations’ competing products, but you’d really hope for a bit more maturity in the breakup given the fact that this is all, you know, for the kids.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: CES, Laptops, Wearables

There are plenty of solar bags on the market which can squeeze some extra juice into your phone or handheld, or perhaps even trickle a charge into your laptop over a few days, but Voltaic is launching the first member of its lineup to fully charge a laptop with a day of sunlight. The “Generator” bag produces 14.7 watts from a single solar panel, but that’s only with a full day of sun, so we’re guessing you’ll end up getting much less of a laptop charge with a normal day of use. In addition to a laptop plug the bag includes adapters for phones, USB devices and a car charger, and there’s a battery inside the bag to improve the efficiency of the panel and to keep the juice flowing when you’re in the shade. It all sounds great, but the bad news here is the price: $599. Yeah, your money might be better spent on a few spares batteries, but if you’re going to be spending a week or so away from plugs, the Generator just might be the ticket.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

HP recently updated their popular notebook to Tablet PC convertible, the tx1000. Welcome the tx2000 Tablet PC. It has the same design as its predecessor, but now has an active digitizer and touchscreen. We were lucky enough to get our hands on one and bring you this first look review. I have to say I am quite impressed with this 12.1-inch tablet. We received a pre-production unit too and it’s still near perfect.

Filed under: CES, Laptops

Fujitsu’s forthcoming P8010 may not be ready to arrive at your doorstep, but that didn’t stop the outfit from bringing one along to CES. Granted, this one here is actually a pre-production unit, but we learned that the final version isn’t likely to change before it ships en masse to US customers in just a few weeks. Hit up the gallery below to see this lappie from all sorts of angles.

Permalink | Email this | Comments