Beginning May 20, students going back to school can get a steal on an Xbox 360 when they buy a qualifying Windows PC for $699 or more. I say a steal because, you’ll feel like your stealing since the 4GB Xbox 360 is free.

That’s right! Get a free Xbox 360 with a band new PC for back-to-school.

Microsoft offered his promotion last year and it they will repeat the offer this year. In the United States you must buy a $699 PC, while in Canada you’ll get a free Xbox with a $599 Windows PC.

Outlets offering the deal in the United States include the following:

• Best Buy
• Dell
• Fry’s Electronics
• HP
• Microsoft Stores
• NewEgg

Canadian buyers can shop at:

• Best Buy
• Dell
• Future Shop
• Staples
• The Source

Many students will either start or return to college this summer and fall. A new notebook and an Xbox 360 will come in handy.

Use the computer for all those papers and projects. Get on the Xbox to play some games or use one of the many video apps, like Netflix or Hulu to watch TV and movies over the campus network. You can hook them up and play movies, videos, music and slide shows streamed from your computer. Maybe your dorm room will serve as the hub of fun and entertainment on your floor.

You’ll have to wait tilt he 20th to see which computers qualify for the deal at the various sites. The HP Envy Sleekbook 4t-1000 might offer a great option at $699.99 from HP directly. Its one of those new and thin 14″ models that offers some decent specs in a smaller form factor. Since you have the Xbox for gaming, you don’t necessarily need a powerhouse machine to carry to class and work on the papers you’ll write in the library.

The Toshiba Portege Ultrabook also might quality at $799.99 over at Best Buy. It offers a 13.3 display along with a 128GB SSD. it should provide enough battery life to get through your day and enough power for your basic student activities.

If you’re not satisfied with just Xbox gaming, then Dell’s Alienware M14x Gaming Laptop might show up on the list at nearly $1100. They build these for power with Core i5 or i7 processors at least 6GB of RAM. You also get at least 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with Optimus graphics powering a 14″ display. If you’re wiling to pay extra you can get 1600×900 resolution display. Dell recently refreshed the processor on these to offer the latest greatest.

You’ll find plenty of options at the above retailers, so check with them Sunday to see what you can get. For further details see the Windows Team Blog.

Students Get a Free Xbox 360 with $699 Notebook Purchase is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

The new ThinkPad X1 Carbon takes the design of the ThinkPad X1, which we loved, and bumps the screen up to a mainstream 14-inch. The X1 Carbon might possibly be the best business notebook we’ve seen so far as it addresses many of the tradeoffs users must typically make when trading in a typical business notebook.

The ThinkPad X1 should be standard issue in corporate America. No, the X1 won’t fit everybody’s needs, but it will make everyone from road warriors to conference room jockeys very happy. The 14″ display means there’s not much to give up when downsizing from a bulkier business notebook such as the ThinkPad T400.

The ThinkPad Carbon X1 has several creature comforts baked in that make it more user friendly, without giving up its ThinkPad pedigree.

Read: ThinkPad X1 Review

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon has about the same footprint as the original ThinkPad X1, which has a 13.3″ display. One thing we really like is that the new X1 Carbon has an anti-glare display like the rest of the ThinkPad lineup. The display has a resolution of 1600×900 pixels, which means users can edit two documents side by side. A 720p webcam that tracks the user is at the top of the display. The keyboard is backlit, making it easier to use in the dark.

We got to take an early look at the ThinkPad X1 Carbon at a Lenovo event in San Francisco last week. Weighing in at almost exactly three pounds, the ThinkPad Carbon X1 feels even lighter than it looks. Part of the reason for that is that Lenovo built its internal rollcage out of Carbon, hence the product’s name.

The new ThinkPad X1 Carbon includes the new 3rd Generation Intel Core family of processors with better power management and enhanced integrated Intel graphics. Lenovo hasn’t provided official battery life numbers yet, but company representatives said it will last longer than the original X1 on a single charge. That’s important considering users can’t slap an extended battery on this notebook as they can with most ThinkPads. One very nice feature is that the X1 Carbon’s battery can go from zero to 80% in just 30 minutes. That means all you need to do is plug in during a coffe break at a cafe or while waiting for your connecting flight and you’re good to go.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon isn’t as thin as the MacBook Air or consumer UltraBooks, but it is a world apart from what most business people lug around.

The left side of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon has a single USB 2.0 port and wireless on/off switch. Towards the rear of the left side is the power adapter port. It is rectangular in shape since the notebook is too thin to accomodate the standard ThinkPad power adapter, which features a round connector.

The right side of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon has a Kensignton lock slot, USB 3.0 port, DisplayPort, audio jack and SD card reader.

The rear of the notebook has a SIM slot for 3G and 4G connectivity. Lenovo and its partners will offer users the option of paying per session, which means users won’t have to sign up for long contracts. This is a very nice feature since most people don’t have an ongoing need and bosses aren’t too keen on approving such contracts for people that only travel occasionally.

ThinkPad X1 Carbon: 14 inch Ultrabook for Business is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

Acer’s new Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 is the first ultrabook to hit the US with discrete graphics on board. Acer and NVIDIA tout it as the first “true ultrabook” thanks to the power under the hood. But with a 15.6-inch display, will most consumers really place it in that category?

The screen size coupled with the inclusion of an optical drive means that most will compare this laptop with other mainstream machines. And with an expected price of around $999, buyers on a budget will want a notebook that can do more than just the basics.

Can the Ultra M3 live up to those expectations? Read our full review to find out.

Who is the Timeline Ultra M3 for?

Consumers who like the ultrabook form factor but need a larger screen size will appreciate the real-estate that 15.6-inches offers. Users who need a machine that can handle resource-intense tasks — such as master multitasking or editing images and video — with speed and efficiency can count on the power of discrete graphics. Shoppers looking for a machine that can handle most popular games but don’t want or need a rig exclusively for that purpose will be impressed by the power of Nvidia’s newest GPU. Students who need a laptop they can carry to class and get them through both finals and downtime. Anyone who needs a laptop that is portable and powerful in equal measure.

Design

The Ultra M3 definitely earns the ultrabook moniker with its slim frame and light weight. Though saying “it’s light for a 15-inch laptop” may seem like faint praise, it’s a pretty big deal for users who just can’t get real work done on 13-inch machines yet don’t want to give up on portability. At 4.5 pounds this Ultra M3 is the same weight as the 13-inch MacBook Pro and just slightly heavier than the 4.4 pound, 14-inch HP Pavilion dm4.

Many ultrabooks are razor thin for the sake of razor thinness and in the process sacrifice important ports. The Ultra M3 is only 0.78 inches thin with a 14.75 x 10.0 inch footprint. This size allows for an optical drive, found on the left, as well as an SD card slot, three USB ports (one of them USB 3.0), HDMI and Ethernet.

My only complaint is that everything except the optical drive and the card slot are on the back of the laptop, so they’re less convenient to get at when plugging in flash drives, peripherals and the like.

Aesthetically, this notebook is simple but well-designed and attractive in a black tie kind of way. Acer kept it basic with an all-black paint job with the exception of slate grey around the keys.

The power button is on the front edge and slightly wkward to press

Keyboard and Touchpad

Like most ultrabooks the M3 sports an island-style keyboar with flat keys. Since it’s a 15-inch rig users also get a full-size number pad on the right. The keys have decent travel but are a little small, which is odd since there’s plenty of room for more surface area. Due to this and the minimal travel I often missed letters when typing, especially when going fast.

The lack of backlighting is disappointing, especially for a premium laptop, but not a dealbreaker for everyone.

The large clickpad is problematic, but what else is new with PC clickpads? On the Ultra M3 I most noticed issues when trying to perform tasks that took precision, such as selecting text.

The touchpad also doesn’t deal well with one finger resting on the surface while the other moves around. The bottom corners are stiff, which won’t be a problem for people trained to tap to click and will annoy people who prefer mouse buttons.

Display

The 15.6-inch display impressed me with bright, rich colors and deep blacks. Since the surface is glossy it doesn’t do well in the sun, but the viewing angles are good. At extreme angles you’ll encounter color distortion, but within a normal range things look as they should.

The disappointment comes in the resolution: 1366 x 768 pixels. While you might be able to convince me that this res is acceptable for a 13-inch display, on a 15-inch one it borders on sad. A screen this size should be at least 1400 x 900, even if this is just an ultrabook.

Performance and Battery Life

Acer packed the Ultra M3 with speedy components, so it’s no surprise that it performs well. A 1.7-GHZ Intel Core i7-2637M processor drives this ultrabook, backed by 4GB of RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD). And, as I mentioned before, Nvidia’s GeForce GT 640M graphics card backed by 1GB of dedicated VRAM. Though the Intel processor is an ultra-low voltage model, most users will get the same performance out of this as mainstream laptops with Core i5 CPUs.

In my time with the Ultra M3 I multitasked like mad, regularly switching between up to 40 tabs each in FireFox and Chrome with Photoshop Elements, Microsoft Word, Skype and Digsby running as well. Normally the massive FireFox tabbing is enough to make a computer groan since the browser is such a resource hog, but this ultrabook didn’t sweat.

The SSD is also very fast, which helps when copying files, opening programs (usually less than 5 seconds), and booting or resuming from sleep. Acer’s Instant Connect promises to get you on the Internet in 2.5 seconds after waking, and in my experience that rang true whenever connecting to known networks.

With Wi-Fi on and the screen brightness set to 40%, I ran the LAPTOP Magazine Battery Test, which surfs constantly until the battery dies. The Ultra M3 lasted 7 hours and 20 minutes under these conditions, which is 40 minutes shy of the promised 8 hours. In my time using this machine I was able to get up to 10 hours out of it with Wi-Fi on for between 4 and 5 hours and the screen set at 25% brightness.

This impressive battery life is possible even with discrete graphics because the ultrabook has Nvidia’s Optimus technology inside which switches to the graphics card automatically only when needed, allowing the integrated graphics to take over and save power.

Bottom line: you can leave the A/C adapter at home most of the time, which means less weight in your bag.

Graphics, Gaming and Multimedia Performance

The Nvidia GeForce GT 640M graphics card inside is built on the company’s Kepler architecture, which means that it’s powerful, but efficient. The efficiency is key to the Ultra M3′s good battery life, the power is important for consumers who want an ultrabook that can do everything.

The graphics card not only makes playing resource-intensive games like Battlefield 3 and Batman: Arkham City possible, but also means that users can edit images with a program like Photoshop and video with a program like Premiere or PowerDirector without having to wait for the computer to catch up. When exporting a 720p 30fps 5 minute video to MPEG 4, Adobe Premiere Elements completed the export in under 5 minutes with quality set high. While using Photoshop Elements I noted that I was able to crunch, add filters and do edits on even large image files in just a few seconds instead of having to wait.

Though hardcore gamers won’t find the Ultra M3 suitable for their everyday needs, this ultrabook does have great gaming chops. Players will see well over 100fps on average-intensity games like World of Warcraft and between 50 and 70fps on more graphics-intense games like Battlefield 3. Even super resource hogging games are playable, though with those you’re getting into needing a gaming rig, anyway.

With all this power, playing HD videos well is a given. Thanks to the Dolby speakers and the large display, watching movies is a great experience. Just as with games, I didn’t note any pixilation, hitching or anything to mar my enjoyment.

Price and Availability

Acer hasn’t announced the final US price for the Ultra M3, though it should be available on Amazon.com and NewEgg.com within the next two weeks. Without knowing the price, it’s hard to determine whether this ultrabook is worth buying. Since it’s an ultrabook, most predict a price around $999.

The Bottom Line

The Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 may not fit into most people’s pre-conceptions about what an ultrabook is (or isn’t). But even if you think of it as a thin and light mainstream laptop, it still holds up pretty well when compared to systems like the Sony VAIO SE, Dell XPS 14z and the HP Envy 15. You get enough power for both typical usage and more intense, specialized tasks in a package light enough to carry around everywhere, should you need to.

The disappointing resolution is a big drawback for multimedia lovers and hard core gamers and the sub-par touchpad is a downer for everyone. But neither of these issues is enough to put me off the Ultra M3 completely.

While most ultrabooks make great companion laptops but won’t do as primary computers for power users, the Ultra M3 is good enough to be the only notebook you’ll need. However, until Acer finally releases the price, it’s hard to know if the whole package represents a good value.

Gallery

Specs

Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 Review – The First True Ultrabook? is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

The Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 has the distinction of having the longest laptop name ever and of being the first ultrabook to come to market with discrete graphics. Okay, maybe the name isn’t the longest ever, but the discrete graphics thing is no joke.

Intel’s integrated graphics are good enough for mainstream tasks and usage, but for intense tasks and power users, they don’t quite cut it. NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 640M GPU provides extra power, boosts performance, and promises to do so efficiently.

If you’re addicted to power the Ultra M3 probably looks really tempting. An ultrabook that’s as powerful as it is thin? Yes, please. I’m putting it to the test for our full review, but thought I’d let you in on my initial impressions.

Starting outside, the Ultra M3′s design is very simple, yet attractive. Acer is good at this. The all-black, matte chassis feels sturdy. I don’t have any worries about this bad boy coming apart or getting messed up by a few bumps.

This rig is bigger than your average ultrabook since it sports a 15.6-inch display. And for a notebooks of this size, the 4.5 pound weight is pretty impressive. Still, if you’re an ultimate mobility type you might eye the whole thing with suspicion. It’s fair to say that the Ultra M3 feels lighter than it looks and is impressive for a notebook with this display size.

To keep things skinny (the M3 tops out at 0.73 inches thick) Acer moved most ports to the back. The slim optical drive being the exception.

Once again we’re given a large clickpad that sent me running for an external mouse right away. I’m in the process of tweaking the settings now, but the more I use the touchpad the more angry I am at whoever is behind it.

The large 15-inch display offers a wide canvas for such activities, but it’s disappointing that you still only get a 1366 x 768 resolution.

On the performance side, I’ve only taxed the Ultra M3 with medium load programs so far to get a sense of how it runs for everyday tasks. So far I’m impressed with the notebook’s speed and battery life.

I used it off and on for 12 hours before needing to plug it in. All together it was probably about 7 hours put together. We’ll see how it does on our formal battery test.

My next step is to runs some batch processes via Photoshop, edit some videos with Premiere, then play Batman: Arkham City for several hours. For science.

What other tasks should I do to test the Aspire Timeline Ultra M3?

Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 Review: First Impressions is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

HP announced the launch of a stylish new special edition HP dm1 notebook created in partnership with Brazilian designer Alexandre Herchcovitch.

The Alexandre Herchcovitch Special Edition Notebook PC from HP joins earlier HP special notebooks from other designers like Chinese fashion designer Vivienne Tam and Dutch designer Tord Boontje.

The cover of the new Alexandre Herchcovitch themed dm1 will come with a scheme inspired by the designer’s fall and winter 2012 collection. It comes with …

…an intricate black lace pattern against an iridescent olive pearl color which envelopes the chassis, keyboard deck and keycaps for an increased visual “glow” effect and stunning design worthy of any catwalk.

The HP dm1 weighs only 3.5 pounds and packs an impressive 9.5 hour battery into the special edition ultra-portable notebook. The 11.6-inch screen and AMD processor will grace this little machine. it also comes with typical wireless networking (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi) and the typical ports (USB, HDMI, Ethernet and VGA). The notebook runs Windows 7 Home Premium. Like a lot of HP consumer notebooks you get Beats Audio as well.

Even the packaging carries the same designer’s style pattern. You may want to save the box of the little beauty.

Packed inside the pretty cover you receive a nice collection of bundled software. HP includes Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 and Premiere Elements 10. You also get the online game It Girl by Crowd Star a fashion design game.

Along with the dm1 HP offers a pair of accessories carrying matching style. They will offer a gold sleeve and mouse with the same design that covers the notebook.

You can’t run out to Best Buy to get this special edition computer. QVC has the exclusive deal selling the special HP dm1 for $629.95 in the US. Residents of Brazil, Mexico and Argentina can also buy the Herchcovitch dm1.

Alexandre Herchcovitch Special Edition HP dm1 Unveiled is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Recently, NVIDIA announced their new mobile GPU for notebooks, the GeForce GT 640M with Kepler architecture. This graphics card will find its way into several laptops this year, but most notably it’s designed to go into ultrabooks.

As you saw in my hands-on with the Acer Timeline Ultra M3, it is possible to include discrete graphics that perform well in a thin, light form factor. Since NVIDIA’s Kepler chips are twice as power efficient as the previous generation, you can get great performance without sucking down battery or making a notobook too hot — key factors when dealing with ultrabooks.

Read: First Hands-On: Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 Ultrabook (Video)

Ever since the introduction of ultrabooks I’ve been waiting for this development to come along, so you can imagine my excitement. However, Chippy at Ultrabook News is the opposite of thrilled.

Calling all Ultrabook designers, manufacturers, OEMs. Putting discreet graphics in Ultrabooks is not going to help the Ultrabook and it may come back to bite you. Mainstream buyers don’t understand what it means, gamers aren’t interested, video editors use Apple rigs and that just leaves the niche market of mobile geeks that do a bit of gaming on the side, a big bunch of impressionable bloggers and anyone you can tease with marketing, advertising and a bunch of stickers.

Ouch.

I hope I don’t count as an impressionable blogger, though I will admit that the reason I want discrete graphics in an ultrabook is due to my own personal computing needs. Chippy is right that professional video editors mostly use MacBooks. Whenever I have to attend an event where I need to edit and upload videos fast I bring a MacBook Pro. However, a Pro is not the same as an Air, and while the Airs do all right with video editing, I wouldn’t call them fast.

Speedy video editing on the spot may not be a necessity for most people, even most professionals, but it’s my main criteria for wanting the discrete GPU. And I don’t think I’m completely alone in that.

Even if I am, Chippy appears to miss an important point about ultrabooks with good graphics chips. It’s not about pleasing one specific type of user, like a gamer or a video pro or mobile geeks. It’s about pleasing the much wider consumer base of people who need to get stuff done on their computers.

Call them power users or mobile professionals or whathaveyou, but there are a significant number of people that don’t just have a laptop for checking email, updating Twitter, and watching video. I push my laptop to its limits every day with my 40 tabs across two browsers plus an office program, email program, image editor and music player. Not everyone will have the same combination of programs, but my general use case is not atypical.

For people like me, a discrete GPU isn’t only useful when I need to edit a photo or video, it improves overall performance, too. This is even more important when you consider that the Intel CPUs inside ultrabooks are ultra low voltage models, meaning they aren’t as powerful as the versions found in normal notebooks.

With NVIDIA’s GPU the hope is that I can have my 40 tabs and 10 programs and not worry about lag or crashing. Is it so much to ask that I can have all of this in a 13-inch ultrabook?

I know I’m not the only one who wants a laptop that’s super thin and super light I can carry everywhere. The power users don’t even just include mobile professionals, but also students. And students are more likely to want a laptop they can take everywhere and do everything on, including play games at a decent framerate.

I don’t know how manufacturers plan to market ultrabooks with NVIDIA graphics — maybe they will target the gamers or the video editing pros and maybe those groups won’t be interested, as Chippy predicts. But I think that mainstream users won’t be that hard to reach if you just say to them that ultrabooks with discrete GPUs will outperform those that don’t.

More power, same form factor. Who wouldn’t want that? It goes to the idea that several manufacturers have already put forth: that ultrabooks will be the new mainstream notebooks within the next few years. And no one questions why mainstream buyers would want a discrete GPU in a regular laptop. I hope that soon it will be the same for ultrabooks.

Why Consumers Should Want Ultrabooks With Discrete Graphics is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

Apple pushed a new update to their iPhoto app, which brings some bug fixes, a fix for crashes on systems with many users and little else.

iPhoto lets users organize images, do simple edits and then share the images online or via print.

The update will fix a problem with using the program on a machine that includes more than one user account. iPhoto would crash on such systems. It also includes improvement to “overall stability” meaning minor bug fixes that affected few people.

Apple recently pushed a major update of iPhoto to make it compatible with iOS 5.1 and iCloud. It also let users delete images from their iCloud Photostream.

The new iPhoto 9.2.3 will show up in Software Update on your Mac. Click on the Apple Menu and choose Software Update. Let it search for updates and then check the iPhoto update if it isn’t already. Click on Install at the bottom.

If you haven’t already, you might see an update for Safari and Thunderbolt on some Macs. These showed up in recent weeks.

The new beta version of Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will move this updating feature to the Mac App Store. If you installed Mountain Lion, open the Mac App Store and click on the Updates tab to find it.

If you want, you can download the update directly from Apple’s site. You might want to do this if you plan to apply the 200+MB update to more than one machine alleviating the need to download it many times.

See Apple’s update release notes below:

About iPhoto 9.2.3

• Improves overall stability
• Addresses an issue that could cause iPhoto to quit unexpectedly on systems with multiple user accounts

Included in Versions 9.2 to 9.2.2

• Photos can now be deleted from Photo Stream
• Addresses compatibility with iCloud and iOS 5
• Left and right swipe gestures can now be used to navigate between photos in Magnify (1-up) view
• Previously imported photos are now displayed in a separate section of the Import window
• Book/calendar themes and card categories can now be selected using a pop-up menu in the carousel view
• Resolves an issue that could cause some pages of books to print incorrectly
• Rebuilding a library now correctly preserves saved slideshows and books

The update is recommended for all users of iPhoto ’11.

Apple Updates iPhoto to Fix Multi-User Crash is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

As you may have read, I spent last weekend with an HP EliteBook, an extended battery, and a challenge to use it for 32 hours without plugging in. That may seem like a pretty lofty goal for a laptop, but as you can see from the pictures below, the machine had some pretty serious battery action going on.

(Read: HP 32 Hour Battery Challenge – How Long Can This EliteBook Last?)

The one sticking out of the back is a 9 cell, as is the one attached to the bottom. Have you ever thought about what’s inside those battery packs? I always wondered if the cells referred to were actual cylinders like a Duracell AA or similar.

The truth is not too far off size and shape-wise, but the cells found in laptop batteries are far more powerful.

During my trip I got the chance to learn about batteries from Dr. John Wozniak, HP’s battery guru. He explained why you won’t see a laptop shipping with anything larger than a 9-cell battery these days, why bigger batteries last longer, and how many cells you’ll need to get to 32 hours.

Here’s the extended battery pack as it shipped to me (and any other consumer):

Here’s what it looks like inside:

As you see, there are pink cylinders inside — those are the cells — stacked 3 x 3. Each cell is a little bigger than a standard AA battery. The cells you see here are the current industry standard and have a 3.0 amp-hours/3000 mAh capacity. In comparison, standard Alkaline AA batteries have a 1800 – 2600 mAh capacity.

Just a few years ago these cylindrical cells were only 2.2 amp-hours, so you needed a 12-cell battery to get the same longevity. Though battery technology hasn’t seen a lot of innovation recently, engineers have found ways to pack more power into individual cells, so laptops can last longer with fewer of them.

However, there are still regulatory limits to the number of watt hours manufacturers can put into a single battery pack. They have to stick to 100 watt hours or less. A standard 9-cell today is about 89.9 watt hours, so you won’t see a new laptop with anything bigger than that. If you do, that means the individual cells aren’t as powerful.

The configuration on the EliteBook HP sent me — two 9-cell packs — gets it to almost 200 watt hours when together, which translates into a lot of battery life.

Larger cell batteries also have another advantage: they last longer, overall. According to Dr. Wozniak, the faster cells discharge, the faster they degrade over time. With a 9-cell stacked in the configuration you see above, the charge is split through three stacks, which is much easier on the cells. Users will get more than a year out of this pack before losing longevity.

The cylinder type in the EliteBook and the extended battery isn’t the only kind or shape of battery cell HP and other companies use. However, it Is the least expensive. Once you get into thinner cells — which I’ll talk about in my next post — the price goes up.

A question for the road warriors out there: which is more important to you when on business trips — extra long battery life, a laptop that’s as light as possible, or a laptop that’s as thin as possible?

Inside A 32 Hour Notebook Battery With HP Battery Guru Dr. John Wozniak is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without plugging in your laptop? 6 hours? 8? 10? Long battery life is at the top of almost every mobile tech user’s wish list. The more mobile you are, the less you want to worry about A/C adapters and finding an outlet.

While most people are happy with “all-day” power — which means a battery that can last around 7 continuous hours — what if you could go a whole 32 hours without having to plug in?

Today and tomorrow I’m taking part in HP’s 32 hour battery challenge. The company provided me with an HP EliteBook 8640p and an extra battery pack to see me through the next day and a half. Can this laptop really last this long?

Given the size of the extended battery, I truly hope so. Normally I go for ultraportables that prioritize light weight and skinny profiles. But it’s rare for a notebook like that to last more than 8 or 9 hours. If this kind of robust battery life is your number one priority, you’re going to have to deal with bulk.

At least you can ditch the weight of the power brick.

Aside from the battery itself, I’m running on the HP Optimized power settings which has the screen brightness just under 40% and a slew of other tweaks from the Windows 7 norm. None of these settings compromise my experience with Windows. I still have Aero glass and such. If you have to cut an operating system down to bare bones to save battery, someone is doing something wrong.

Currently I’m in the midst of hour 2 and my battery is only down to 93%. I’ll update you on my progress through today and tomorrow. You can also follow me on Twitter @ktbradford and everyone else involved in the challenge at the hashtag #HP32Hrs.

HP 32 Hour Battery Challenge – How Long Can This EliteBook Last? is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

If the design of the Novero Solana netbook/tablet looks familiar, it is. The last time I saw something like this was the Dell Inspiron Duo. Back then the design struck me as a good idea, but in practice the Duo didn’t live up to its promise.

That doesn’t mean the same fate awaits the Solana, but the $699 asking price is a concern. It might be hard to convince consumers to pay that much for a netbook, even if it does have some impressive specs.

The system runs on a dual-core Intel Atom processor and 2GB of RAM (twice as much as one usually gets) plus an SSD instead of a hard drive, raising the potential for a snappy machine. The Solana comes with Windows 7 Home Premium (not Starter) and Android 2.3 Gingerbread that users will be able to switch between “with a push of a button.”

Users will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 easily since the Solana has the specs for it. I’m disappointed that the 9.7-inch touchscreen only has a 1024 x 768 resolution, but that’s the minimum required for full screen Metro apps.

In addition to WiFi and Bluetooth the Solana also has a configuration with an HSPA+ 3G modem for mobile broadband.

As laptop/tablet hybrids go, I am a fan of this solution for dealing with the screen. The Lenovo Yoga is still a favorite, but swinging the screen around in this manner just seems like more fun. Plus, it covers the keyboard so I don’t have to worry about it.

As Dana Wollman of Engadget points out, the 4:3 aspect ratio on the display makes the overall system a little on the awkward side, size-wise. Plus, the hinge mechanism isn’t as smooth as it could be.

On the software side, I’m also none too excited to see Gingerbread instead of Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich in the Android half of things. I’m willing to deal with it for smaller devices like phones or 4-inch PMPs, but on a tablet-size device I want my tablet operating system.

The other issue is apps. Right now the Solana doesn’t have access to the official Android Market, thought he company is working on that. Still, not all Android apps can run in an x86 (Intel/AMD) environment, being specifically for ARM chips. This may change in the next few months, especially if manufacturers launch a bunch of dual Windows 8/Android machines. Until then finding apps that work may be a crapshoot (sound familiar?).

The good news is that the hardware doesn’t seem like it will be a problem. Wollman reported snappy performance on the pre-production model she saw at Mobile World Congress, both for Windows and Android.

Novero expects to launch at the beginning of the second quarter (April or so) in the US and Europe. The standard configuration with a 64GB SSD will cost 500€/$699 according to their press release.

$699 Novero Solana Hybrid Netbook/Tablet Coming To U.S. In April is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.