Xavier Lanier

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Apple Intros Notebook With No Keyboard…MacBook Wheel

I've blogged about Apple's crappy design choices before and the MacWorld rumor mill is predicting a that the new 17-inch MacBook Pro won't have a removable battery. I stumbled across this gem of a video produced by Onion News Network that pokes fun at how Apple trades functionality for form and simplicity.

HP Pavilion dv2 Introduced, Features AMD Yukon Platform

HP's introducing the first AMD Yukon-based ultraportable at CES this week. I got to spend some time with one and liked what I saw. Kevin Wentzel showed me a prototype of the dv2 in San Francisco a few weeks ago. Here are some videos and pics of the all new dv2.
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HP Intros HP Mini Note 2140

HP's introducing the Mini Note 2140, a business-ready netbook powered by Intel Atom technology. Designed for enterprise clients, the 2140 has many of the same f...

Freescale Entering the Netbook Market

Freescale is entering the netbook market with the iMX515 processor in an effot to deliver sub-$200 8.9-inch netbooks. Freescale is very optimistic about its cha...

ThinkPad W700ds: Workstation with Dual-Displays

w700ds_18Lenovo's officially announcing the ThinkPad W700ds workstation today and I look forward to spending some time with one at CES this week. The ThinkPad W700ds has a primary 17-inch display and a 10.6-inch display that pops out to the right to provide extra work space for power users like engineers and video editors.

Test iphone wp post

This is test blog post from my iPhone. Getting ready for CES 2009 and still figuring out which devices to carry. ...

New HP Home Servers Get Upgrade, Mac Functionality

mediasmart_1The HP MediaSmart Server ex485 and ex487 are now Mac compatible, which means they play nice with Time Machine, OSX's backup utility. The new MediaSmart Servers appear identical to the previous models on the outside, but they have larger hard drives, quadruple the RAM (2GB vs. 512MB) and an Intel Celeron processor.
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ZoomSystems: Ultimate Last-Minute Christmas Shop

ZoomSystems runs electronics vending machines for Best Buy , SonyStyle and other retailers at airports, resorts and other high-traffic locations. The stores never close, so if you can still buy an an iPod, PSP or digital camera if you land at your Christmas destination empty-handed.

Last Minute Gift Idea: Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 & Premiere Elements 7

photoshop_elements_7_premIt's Christmas Eve and if you're like me you still haven't finished your Christmas shopping. One gift I highly recommend for the photography buff in your family is Adobe's Photoshop Elements 7 & Premiere Elements 7 package. It's widely available at retail or you can buy and download it directly from Adobe.com.

Customizing a Notebook: Too Confusing for Non Geeks?

My friend Ashna came over yesterday because she needed help ordering a notebook. After weeks of talking about notebooks with myself and reading several reviews she settled on the HP Pavilion dv4. But when it came to pulling the trigger she was at a loss and asked me to walk her through the ordering process. After going throughthis process I've come to the conclusion that HP's ordering process is just too confusing for non-geeks.
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Last Minute Notebook Gift Guide

I've put together a gift guide for people who've waited until the last minute to buy a notebook for Christmas. The good news is there's plenty of places to buy a notebook in time to get it under your Christmas tree. One of the limitations is you'll have to choose from pre-configured systems and it's very rare to find highly-configured notebooks at retail. Several manufacturers are offering free express shipping so you can get your notebook by Christmas eve. If you've got a patient loved one it might be worth giving him/her a gift certificate as all of the major notebook manufacturers will be announcing new models at CES 2009 on January 7 ,2009. This means the current models will be even cheaper next month or they'll be able to get the a newer model.

Now That’s Magic: 13-Month Old Demos HP TouchSmart

Dennis Hodge, the winner of Notebooks.com's HP Magic Giveaway contest agreed to give two of the four PCs in the package to Oakland Children's Hospital and Research Center in memory of his stepfather and my nephew, both of whom lost their battles with blood cancers recently. Today my cousin, wife and I drove over to Oakland to setup the computers in the playroom reserved for patients under 11 that are undergoing chemotherapy and other cancer treatments.
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Data Recovery Service: Your Lost Data Is Almost Always Recoverable

We recently ran a contest on Notebooks.com asking readers to tell us their data loss horror stories. It can be absolutely devestating to lose precious photos or important documents due to hard drive failure or corruption, but the good news is that your data is almost always recoverable. I talked to Jim Reinert of Ontrack Data Recovery about what's possible and how much it'll cost to recover your data.

Dell Inspiron 1545 Coming Soon

Dell will formally introduce the Inspiron 1545 at CES 2009. The Inspiron 1545 will replace the 1525/1526 as Dell's mainstream consumer notebook. The biggest change is that the new Inspiron will use Intel's Montevina platform, which has dramatically better graphics performance.

Fresh Graphics Drivers Available Direct from NVIDIA

nvidia_logo_08NVIDIA's making it easier for its customers to get the most out of their notebooks by providing updated notebook graphics drivers at NVIDIA.com. If your notebooks' GPU has outdated drivers you won't be able to play video games at full throttle or take advantage of the latest software that uses GPU acceleration.
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Panasonic Toughbook Overview (video)

Kyp Walls, Panasonic's director of product management, gave an overview of the Toughbook brand and products. I've seen ToughBooks at trade shows and in use before, but it was great getting the full rundown from an expert.

Win a Lenovo S10 Netbook

We're partnering with Brad Linder of Liliputing.com to give away another Lenovo IdeaPad S10 netbook as part of our holiday giveaway. If you want to win your own netbook, head over to Liliputing for contest details.