News

article placeholder

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...

Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Edition: Netbook for Fashionistas

vivienne_tam_box_09Okay ladies, the HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam edition is definitely something worth checking out. HP worked with top designer Vivienne Tam to make the Mini 1000 netbook look less geek and more chic. HP's done a great job of making a small notebook that any fashionista would be happy to tote around.

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. ...

Poor Spore Performance on Your New Notebook

Spore, the popular "casual" game from EA, has received as much sales and fanfare as it has controversy from its DRM policies. Spore sold 1M copies and 25M creations were created in its first 2 weeks so no one questions its popularity. But, does anyone question the quality of the visual experience between different notebook technologies? They should, as there are big differences that could really impact their enjoyment. One would expect that today on modern notebooks these differences wouldn't exist but they definitely do.

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.
article placeholder

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.

Does Macworld need Apple?

For over 20 years Apple fanboys and enthusiasts have congregated to an annual event known as Macworld Expo. As a lover of Apple products myself, I have attended the expo the last two years and will be sharing my experience at Macworld 2009 here at Notebooks.com. You may have heard that Apple recently announced that Macworld Expo 2009 would be their last. Apple does not organize the event so this does not mean it will be canceled, but without them does that mean that expo is done for? Will fanboys weep in the streets the first full week of January each year? Not anytime soon.
article placeholder

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.
article placeholder

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.
article placeholder

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.