The absence of any official Android hardware isn’t stopping geeks from getting Google’s smartphone operating system running on a range of other handsets. We’ve already seen Android running on the Nokia N810 (we’ve installed it on an N800 too, but were so unimpressed that we haven’t bothered mentioning it) and now it’s been installed on an HTC Titan PPC-6800 (note: not the TyTN).

Frankly we'd be lost without the Google Maps app on our mobile - no really - and now there's another option for our cartographic queries. Yell has packaged up its Yell.com mobile site into a handy downloadable app with mapping and business search.

Like Google's offering, it has directions, names, numbers and addresses for businesses, public buildings, services and attractions, with direct dialling from within the app itself. Yell also adds the option to save business details to the phone's contact list and pass the info on to others with a simple text.

Yell.com Mobile Maps is available on 90 handsets at launch - sadly our Treo 500v isn't one of them - but more versions are promised. Send the word 'mobile' to 80248 to bag a free copy, or visit yellmobile.com.

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We were expecting a raft of laptop updates following the release of Intel's new Centrino 2 . Acer has two new models, Sony has four. Raising the stakes just a tad is Lenovo, with 13 new Centrino 2 releases. Talk about overkill.

The baker's dozen breaks down as four new IdeaPads, a trio of small-to-medium business ThinkPads, called the SL-series, and a further six ThinkPads of the R, T, X and W variety. Read through for more.

Think Apple’s iPhone 3G is over-priced at £99? Then save yourself £12 by building your own.

If you head on over to AppleInsider today, you’ll find a detailed breakdown of the manufacturers, parts and costs of the various hardware elements that form an iPhone 3G; with the raw facts and figures coming from research outfit iSuppli. Just buy all those bits and a tube of glue, stick them together and bingo – your own, home-made iPhone for just £87. It won't be tied to an 18-month O2 contract, either.

New Centrino 2 equipped laptops are coming thick and fast. Two of the first to hit the UK will be this pair from Acer. The 15.4in TravelMate 5730 and 17in TravelMate 7730 both get the new chip and all the battery life and other benefits it brings.

The business orientated 5730 comes with up to 2GB of dual-channel DDRII memory and the option of either the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470/HD 3650 or nVidia GeForce 9300M GS to replace the standard integrated graphics. It can also be specced with HSDPA mobile broadband.

PC World has kindly sent us an Advent 4211 for review – we say ‘kindly’ as we gather that these netbooks are in short supply at the moment and we’re sure PC World would much rather sell any boxes it can get its hands on than ferry them to journalists for review. And to make matters worse, we’re not even going to review the Advent 4211.

Why not? Because we’ve already reviewed it in the guise of the Wind U100 – yes, the Advent 4211 is nothing more than a rebadged MSI Wind netbook. Which is where things get interesting…

Is it really ten years since we caressed that first magnesium-clad Vaio PCG-505? Ah, how time flies. But enough of this misty eyed nostalgia, Sony has four new machines for us to cuddle up to - and all powered by Intel's spangly new Centrino 2 processors.

First up is the new Z-series - 13.1in of super-strong "advanced carbon fibre" with up to 1600x900 resolution and the option of a 128MB SSD. Its special party trick is the inclusion of two graphics options - a power hungry NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS chip for when 3D performance is needed and battery sipping Intel Integrated graphics for when you're browsing the web or checking out spreadsheets. By switching mid-task the Z's battery life can be extended to over five hours. Read on for details and pics of the other three.

A couple of weeks back, Tom’s Hardware published an article with the headline "The SSD Power Consumption Hoax : Flash SSDs Don’t Improve Your Notebook Battery Runtime – They Reduce It".

The report’s conclusion, if you couldn’t guess from the headline, is that the new wave of solid-state drives are battery hogs that are simply not as power efficient as the hard disks that they are apparently destined one day to usurp in the notebook storage market.

One of the report’s crossheads asked: "Could Tom’s Hardware be wrong?". The unequivocal answer came: "No, our results are definitely correct."

So it must’ve really pained the Tom’s Hardware team to today admit that, in fact, they were wrong. Read their explanation after the cut.

While the Eee PC 901 is stalling with supply issues, Dell is said to be all set to launch its own Eee rival, the Dell E.

As well as sharing the fifth letter of the alphabet, the E looks to have a very similar spec list to the Asus - but a much lower price. Digitimes reports that $299 will get you a trio of USB ports, an obligatory Intel Atom processor, an 8.9in 1024x600 display and a webcam.

Intel has at last got around to launching its overdue Centrino 2 mobile platform, with a line-up of five Core 2 Duo chips. At the same time, the chip firm has announced that it will introduce a further eight ‘ultra-low voltage’ processors within the next 90 days, along with its first quad-core chips designed specifically for laptops.

And frankly, that’s about as exciting as this particular bit of processor news gets. Not very exciting, is it? But if you fancy a few more brain-aching stats about Intel’s latest wireless mobile wheeze, feel free to click the Read more link below.