Articles tagged with: laptops

That's according to Toshiba President, Shozo Saito, who's promised that within three years 25% of new laptops will use solid state drives. Of course, that'll require a big leap in capacity and a significant dip in price. Well, check and check. Old Saito's not only revealed that Toshiba will soon be launching a 512GB SSD, but he also believes that prices will fall by 40-50% every twelve months. By our calculations that could see a £2000 128GB SSD coming in at under £250 by 2011. Should give us just enough time to save up.

[PCLaunches ]

There's an article at ComputerWorld titled "10 things we hate about laptops" that's all about the shortcomings of current laptop technology. Since it's Friday and there's not much else to write about, we thought we'd take a few minutes to go though the long, whiny list of stupid complaints and rebuff them one by one.

DigiTimes over in Taiwan is reporting that Asus president Jerry Shen has announced plans to release a 10in Asus Eee. Following on from the just-released Eee PC 900 (pictured) it's promised later this year.

While the 900's 8.9in screen fitted neatly into the same shell as the original 700, a 10in display would require a whole new form factor. That's already prompted Eee fans to start hoping for an improved, larger keyboard and perhaps a few other goodies squeezed inside.

Meanwhile there's more in the article about Eee shortages. It states that problems getting enough batteries has meant that Asus has only been able to meet 40% of demand in Europe - but says "a complete recovery" is expected by July.

Whether your laptop is fresh from the box or a few years old, to get the most from it you need to treat it with a little care and attention. A new laptop that's set up properly from the start will run smoothly for years, but older models that are starting to show their age can be given a new lease of life with a few simple tweaks. So, if you want to wring more from your battery or simply cut the time Windows takes to load, you'll find the advice you need right here.

A total of 56 laptops were stolen from government departments in 2007, according to answers put to ministers in the House of Commons. 

11 laptops were stolen from local government departments in 2007, according to Department for Communities and Local Government and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Parmjit Dhanda. Worth around £800 each, the laptops were all encrypted to CESG standards – unlike the three completely unencrypted MoD laptops that have been stolen since 2005.

HM Revenue and Customs, on the other hand, reported 45 of its laptops stolen between 1 January and 28 November 2007 – 16 went missing during a break-in at an HMRC office.

In a written answer to a question put to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 4 December 2007, Financial Secretary for HM Treasury Jane Kennedy stated the cost of replacement HMRC laptops was approximately £43,000, but would not comment on what data the laptops contained.

[They Work For You]

Acer launched its new Aspire Gemstone Blue laptops earlier today, with two new ranges comprising eight different models, all based on Intel’s new 45nm ‘Penryn’ Core 2 Duo processor.

Best classed as desktop replacements, the new Aspire 6920 and 8920 have 16in and 18.4in screens, respectively, and there’s a choice 1366 x 768 or 1920 x 1080 screen resolutions. The screen resolution of the 8920 exactly matches that of HD video and Blu-ray drives are available on models throughout the range.

Alienware's already launched the super-powerful 15.4in Area-51 m15x, now big brother's arrived in the US. The 17in Area-51 m17x is a desktop replacing, gaming and hi-def video editing behemoth with a giant 1920x1200 display that'll screen 1080p movies with room to spare.

“You’re acquired!”. We can’t help wondering if that’s the little joke Rupert Murdoch muttered to himself, shortly after wresting Amstrad from Alan Sugar. Of course, the sale of Amstrad comes as no surprise — these days the firm makes little else other than digital TV set-top boxes, and Sky is pretty much its only customer. Looked at another way, thanks to The Apprentice, Alan Sugar is a bigger star now than his company could ever again hope to be. However, things weren’t always so marginal for Amstrad.

Asus has formally announced the Eee PC ultra-portable in the UK. The first model to go on sale will be the Eee PC 4G - it will be available from 12th November for £219 inc VAT, in both 'pearl white' and 'galaxy black'. The RM version -- the miniBook -- goes on sale tomorrow for £199 + VAT (educational buyers don't pay VAT).

If you fancy a little hands-on time with the Eee PC, it will be on show at the Asus stand at this weekend's What HiFi Sound & Vision/Best of Stuff Show at Novotel London West in Hammersmith (2nd - 4th November).

We now have a review model of the Eee PC in the office, so there'll be a full review online in the next day or so. In the meantime, if there's anything specific you'd like to know about it, leave a message in the comments.

[Asus]

Related: Hands-on with the RM miniBook

Asus has an Eee PC with a 9in (1024 x 600) screen on show at the CeBIT show this week. It’s rumoured to be called the Eee PC 900 and will cost €399 (around £300) for a 12Gb model (presumably SSD) when it goes on sale later this year. There’s an Asus press conference later today – more news then.

[via Endgadget]