ASUS, which reshaped the notebook industry with innovations such as the use of genuine Moso bamboo paneling on notebooks, today showcased two new finishes that do much more than just beautify its products: Satin-brushed Aluminum and NeoWood. The Satin-brushed Aluminum finish, produced through Non-conductive Vapor Metallization (NCVM) technology, not only infuses treated surfaces with an elegant satin-brushed pattern, it provides scratch resistance, enhances the structural strength of the notebook, and improved wireless and Bluetooth performance.

The NeoWood finishing technique, which produces a high-strength wood grain veneer that looks and feels like real wood, is a first for the consumer electronics industry. It delivers all the benefits of real wood, including premium looks and natural tactility, while maintaining a level of resilience that far surpasses that of regular wood.

We got a good look at the new Colossus SSD from OCZ today. It is a 3.5 inch version, which is available with up to an one TB capacity. It combines two identical SSDs in a RAID 0 array with up to 256MB/s read and write performance and a hefty price tag.

Lenovo today announced the IdeaPad S12, the company's first 12-inch netbook. The new netbook takes the best in connectivity, style and entertainment features in Lenovo's other netbooks and brings users the next level in netbook computing with improved usability and performance. These enhancements include a 12.1-inch screen, a 100 percent full-size keyboard and new graphics options with the NVIDIA ION platform.

"We've heard from consumers loud and clear about the need for affordable and extremely portable computing devices, and we've responded by introducing our third netbook with a completely new form factor, making mini-computing more usable and redefining value in today's market," said Dion Weisler, vice president, Business Operations, Idea Product Group, Lenovo. "We are pioneering new territory in the developing netbook arena by being the first vendor to give customers high quality video and entertainment capabilities in a netbook with optional NVIDIA ION graphics."

Important, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, in cooperation with HP, are starting recall of the Lithium-Ion batteries used in some Hewlett-Packard and Compaq notebook computers, due to fire hazard. Around 70 000 batteries are reported as dangerous, due to overheating and rupture problems, that may cause fire. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. Models that can contain a recalled battery include:

• HP Pavilion: dv2000, dv2500, dv2700, dv6000, dv6500, dv6700, dv9000, dv9500, dv9700
• Compaq Presario: A900, C700, F700, V3000, V3500, V3700, V6000, V6500, V6700
• HP: G6000, G7000
• HP Compaq: 6720s

Intel has everything going its way when it comes to mobile computing, and the processors it sells that power notebooks and netbooks across every segment of the market. Intel uses the common classification of portable computers (consumer segment), using sizes and form-factors to differentiate mainstream notebooks, performance notebooks, ultra-thin notebooks, "larger" sub-notebooks (netbooks), and common entry-level netbooks. To cater to each of these, Intel made things easier by coming up with platforms (sets of processor and chipset combinations), a market approach both Intel and AMD have been using recently.

Starting with mainstream, and performance notebooks (traditionally above 14-inches in size, above US $1200 in price), Intel has the Calpella platform, that marks the entry of Nehalem architecture to the mobile scene. This is slated for 3Q 2009. Intel will simultaneously lower the prices of its current Montevina platform, to let inventories digest. Major hardware manufacturers are preparing their "launch-vehicles" for the Calpella platform, which will make it in time for Q3 2009.

Dell has substantially extended the amount of art available for its Studio notebooks, according to the company's official press release posted yesterday. More than 120 additional art choices are now at your disposal, waiting to be applied to any of Dell's popular Studio 15 and Studio 17 laptops. The artist names that stay behind the new arts are Deanne Cheuk, Maya Hayuk, Jason Holley, TWEEQIM (the design studio made up of husband and wife team miQ and Thuy3), Thailand native Korakrit Arunanondchai, Filth (the nom de guerre of designer and artist Lucas Irwin), painter Robert Hargrave, Peter Stevens, Keith Warner and OBVLN. To make your choice easier, Dell has categorized the art by theme: classic designs, artists, patterns, colors and (PRODUCT) RED. The company will offer the full line of new designs in the US only for now. More info here.

HP today unveils a new brand of affordable notebook PCs that merge business functionality with sophisticated design to stand out from the crowd. The ProBook series joins HP's EliteBook series with a total of five new notebook models which incorporate a choice of merlot or glossy noir finishes, and feature high-definition (HD) LED backlit wide displays ranging from 14-inch to 17.3-inch diagonal sizes. The cheapest offering starts at $529. Please read the full story for more information.

ASUS today launched the P30A business notebook, an everyday business companion designed for professionals who desire portability, dependability, data security and long battery life. A recipient of the Red Dot (Germany) Design Award, the P30A is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor for extensive multitasking, and features a suite of technological innovations designed to provide effortless computing to business professionals everywhere. It boasts a magnesium alloy construction for strength and ShockShield for data protection. Business users will also appreciate ASUS Xpress Charge, which allows them to charge their ASUS P30A to 90% of its battery life in 90 minutes. With ASUS Smart Assist, users can access a wealth of troubleshooting resources through 'live' interactive chat or e-mail correspondences with ASUS technical support.

Lian-Li Industrial Co. Ltd has launched the NC-09 Notebook cooler pad. The brushed all aluminum black anodized structure has a huge 220mm 5V silent DC Fan with a blue LED and a large steel mesh which allows extra air-flow under the notebook. The Notebook Cooler has dual USB connectors with one mini USB power connector which can accept either a notebook power source, or a Universal 5V USB Cellphone charger. In addition there is a on/off switch to facilitate ease of use. The mini USB provides power to the fan and other USB connectors (Fan uses 300MA only).

The NC-09 cooler has a three level height adjustment, or alternatively the smooth base panel can conveniently be placed on a flat sur face or on one's lap. The NC-09 is perfect for High End notebooks, since Aluminum is four times more effective than steel to transfer and dissipate heat. The NC-09 has been designed for 12.1"/14"/15"/17" notebooks. For more details on features for the NC-09 please go to the Lian-Li website.

MSI announces X340 in X-Slim Series. The concept for the bottom framing of the X340 originated from the lightness of the feather as well as its elegance and richness, further freeing our notebook from the traditional grimness.

The most unique features of the X340 has to be that it is only 6 mm at its thinnest, 19.8 mm at its widest, and the entire notebook is only weights 1.3 kilograms added with the battery! Making the X340 the world's lightest and slimmest 13" notebook.

ASUS today announced its plans to equip its notebooks with Intel Anti-Theft Technology, in an effort to help customers address the growing theft of notebooks. In the commercial world where businesses operate with the strictest level of confidentiality, and where notebooks belonging to highly mobile business professionals are likely to contain confidential company or personal information, the theft of vital information may be costly. ASUS addresses this concern with its new P Series notebooks, which are equipped with Intel Anti-theft PC Protection Technology. This new technology provides users with the ability to send a "poison pill" remotely, rendering the notebook inoperable by comprehensively shutting it down. As such, the risk resulting from a stolen or lost notebook is eliminated. Once the notebook has been recovered, a local passphrase or recovery token can be used to reactivate the notebook.

Being on the forefront of technology adoption as far as its graphics products go, AMD will have a notebook platform with DirectX 11 compliant integrated GPUs ready by 2011, reveal company slides sourced by Expreview. The iGPU will be part of the company's "Accelerated Processing Unit" (APU) design approach to the PC's central processing. The APU draws parallels with Intel's upcoming processor designs where the CPU package holds both the CPU and northbridge dice in a multichip-module. One of the first AMD APUs, codenamed "Llano" will be part of the company's "Sabine" mobile platform. Typically consisting of the CPU, a DDR3 memory controller, a northbridge with integrated graphics processor, and the PCI-Express root complex, APU eliminates discrete northbridge from board design.

Slated for 2011, the Llano APU comes out at a time when DirectX 11 is expected to be an established API. The iGPU will also pack UVD 3.0, a next generation hardware-accelerated video decoder by AMD. It will be built on the 32 nm manufacturing process by AMD's foundry partner(s). It features up to 4 x86 processing cores, an iGPU, a memory controller supporting DDR3-1600 memory, 128-bit floating-point execution units (present even with current generation Phenom processors), and a BGA design with a low-TDP package. Llano will be accompanied by the SB9xxM series southbridge. This chip would make for most of the board's nucleated machinery apart from the APU. It will integrate the "DAC" (we interpret audio DAC), USB 3.0 hubs with 16 ports, a 6-port SATA controller, and clock-generator.

Smoothcreations, a leading manufacturer of Custom PC gaming systems, desktop workstations, and Laptops, introduced today, in collaboration with BFG, are proud to announce the Smoothcreations "The Redeemer" Notebook. The Redeemer is a x58 Mobile desktop solution with Intel Core i7 Desktop processor.
Stop showing up to LAN parties with gaming rigs that look like they were all bought at the same store. Turn heads, and then shred them with The Redeemer. The first kick ass full size chassis with performance PC from Smooth Creations.

The Ultimate LAN party system: The Smooth Creations The Redeemer was designed to intimidate, perform and back up every piece of trash talk you fling at your gaming buddies. Plus, the best part of Reaper system was it's custom specs. Our builders worked closely with Gaming Graphics Guru BFG, Corsair Memory, and Intel to make this system - an ass kicking system that can deliver smoking benchmarks, immersive HD gaming effects. Design to perform, this system will be every game title's nightmare.

It looks like NVIDIA's attempts to let Tegra make it to bigger platforms are beginning to bear fruit. LaptopMag got its hands on one of the first mini-notebooks based on Tegra, a fully-integrated computing architecture that focuses on making more powerful and visual portable computing devices possible. The Tegra CPU core is based on the ARM11 architecture, working along with NVIDIA's own graphics processing, and system controlling technologies.

The model in use with the mini-notebook is Tegra 650, which runs at 750 MHz (core clock speed), supports hardware HD video decoding, an S-Video out, and USB. It supports DDR memory running at 200 MHz, and an IDE channel for a sold-state drive for primary storage. Apart from the IDE interface, Tegra has its own NAND-flash controller so small amounts of flash memory (up to 8 GB) could be embedded onto the main PCB. The mini-notebook features an OS that lets the user achieve all the tasks one would ask from this 90~200 Dollar mini-notebook. Windows CE and Linux are the likely candidates. The screenshot below is that of the Windows CE-based prototype that takes advantage of the 3D processing power of the core. Also pictured is the prototype system board by NVIDIA.

It's a strong week for MSI, today the company publicized the full specifications of the new Wind U123 and the X320 & X340 X-Slim notebooks. The new Wind model is MSI's first to offer a 3G solution and a TV Tuner. Both the X320 and X340 laptops are just new models that refresh MSI's current line-up of mobile offerings, the X320 will utilize an Intel CULV processor, while the X320 is to use the new Intel Atom Z530 1.6 GHz processor. Full specs of all three participants follow below.

MSI today launched the GX733 17-inch gaming laptop with the company's exclusive Turbo Drive Engine Technology. The GX733 uses the newest AMD Turion X2 Ultra dual-core mobile processor, a powerful ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 3D video card with 512 MB DDR3 RAM, up to 4 GB system RAM, and a lot more to draw attention. Find more information below.

Coolink today introduced the new LapChilla notebook cooler. Designed to combine quiet cooling with maximum flexibility, excellent ergonomics and high portability, the Lapchilla comes in handy regardless of whether you're working at your desk, on campus or in the metro - ideal for students, freelancers and everybody who doesn't want to do without proper notebook-cooling both in the office and on the road.

"Our new LapChilla doesn't only help to reduce your notebook's noise emission and the risk of heat-related failures, it also keeps your legs cool when using it on your lap", explains Timothy Chu, Coolink CEO. "Thanks to its big base area as well as the adjustable tilt angle that ensures optimal ergonomics in all working environments, the LapChilla doesn't only do great on your desk but on your lap as well."

You love your laptop. But you're worried about how hot it gets. And you don't like hunching over to use it. Logitech today introduced the Logitech Cooling Pad N100 and the Logitech Notebook Riser N110, which extend the company's line of notebook essentials that help make the laptop experience more comfortable around the home.

Gateway, a wholly owned subsidiary of Acer, today launched the Gateway P-7808u FX Edition notebook PC, the latest high-end notebook in the award-winning P-Series FX Edition line for gaming, entertainment and digital media.
The new Gateway P-7808u FX Edition notebook continues the highly acclaimed lines' goal of providing incredible performance and features at an incomparable value. As a desktop replacement notebook PC, the new Gateway P-7808u FX is ideal for mobile enthusiasts who want the latest in high-end technology, but still need to remain on a budget. This model has a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $1,799.99.

Although company officials decline to comment on the story, third party informers claim that ASUSTeK is considering consolidating its Eee PC and notebook departments to help increase efficiency and decrease the management costs for the two departments. With no official information to work with, details are sketchy, but at least we know something is going on. If not, you'll be the first to know.

Asustek Computer is considering consolidating its Eee PC and notebook departments to help increase efficiency and decrease the management costs for the two departments, according to market sources. The sources have noted that Asustek has already sent out documents of the merger plan to all related department personnel and will work out a schedule in the near future.
Asustek president Jerry Shen has declined to comment on the sources' claims.

Combining Color Film Print Technology with ocean wave patterns in design, MSI VR430 incorporates a brand new aesthetic concept to the personal laptop computers. Moreover, VR430 features MSI exclusive ECO Engine, the outstanding and unique power saving function invented by MSI Notebook, as the power management function to extend the battery running time while performing different tasks. With attractive appearance and excellent computing capacity, VR430 is your perfect choice for a fancy but also powerful NB.

With 1280x800 high resolution, perfect length and width ratio for the 14.1" LCD monitor, VR430 can liven up your presentations and briefings at work with impressive and vivid colors. On the other hand, it is also capable of displaying DVD caliber images to enhance your viewing pleasures. What's more, slim design along with a weight of at most 2.2kg is much more portable in the market, making it the suitable choice for business consumers on the run. With built-in 1.3 mega pixel webcam and internal microphone, VR430 enables you to engage in real-time sharing and live-video, such as participating in videoconferencing in order to enhance your work efficiency. Additionally, VR430 has a 4-in-1 card reader and 3 well distributed USB 2.0 ports, facilitates connection with various types of computer peripherals. The VR430 is ideal for any environment, whether home, office, or school.

Micro Star International (MSI) on Tuesday announced the VX600 15.4-inch notebook. This portable device runs on an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, ATI Mobility Radeon HD3410 graphics, up to 4 GB memory, up to 320 GB HDD, and comes with a 15.4-inch (1280x800) LCD display. Full specs are listed below. In addition, the VX600 comes with an ECO Engine Power Management System, that allows switching between 5 different modes - Gaming mode, Movie mode, Presentation mode, Office mode, and Turbo Battery mode - with single touch of a button. No price or availability date were announced.

After the heated feedback of the M912 Series with swivel screens that were launched in 2008, GIGABYTE will demonstrate various 10.1-inch mobile PCs at the CeBIT 2009 held in Hannover according to public expectation. These include the Touch Note M1028 also equipped with the swivel screen, the Thin Note M1024 which is only 890 grams and 2cm thick, and the Booktop M1022 equipped with the exclusive docking station for turning the Booktop into a desktop. These models will again display GIGABYTE's excelling R&D power. Also, the new-generation Intel Centrino 2 notebook PCs with different screen sizes will be the focus at the present CeBIT. As one of the leading brands in notebook PCs, GIGABYTE will surely bring refreshing models to the public in 2009.

Touch Note M1028: With a fashionable and elegant appearance, the Touch Note M1028 has a golden coffee top cover of exquisite quality and a 10.1-inch LED backlight swivel screen. It is a combination of notebook and tablet PCs that delivers multiple application modes for convenience use. The two resolution options for this model include 1024x600 and 1366x768, which are the mainstreams of the market. In addition to the mobile features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Express Card slot. What is noteworthy is that the M1028 is equipped with a wide range of crafty designs from GIGABYTE. Besides the 92% full-scale keyboard with premium quality, the M1028 supports the embedded 3.5G (HSDPA) module for users to experience the wonder of mobile life.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced that Samsung has adopted the VIA Nano processor in the new Samsung NC20 mini-notebook.

Mobility is enhanced by 802.11b/g and Bluetooth wireless connectivity, and a six-cell battery that provides up to 6.5 hours of use independent of any power supply, while storage options include either a solid state disk or a SATA hard disk drive. Other features include an integrated 1.3 mega pixel digital motion camera, 3-in-1 memory card reader and three built-in USB ports.

SiS Group Company- LinkVast Technologies Inc. today announced the first generation solid-state drive (SSD) memory controllers - LVT820 and LVT815 which manage the latest solid-state memory devices and support external DRAM interfaces to meet the advanced SSD hard drive performance requirements. In addition to standard size of Hard Disk Drive in Desktop PC, LVT820 and LVT815 also can be applied in various forms and sizes for different devices for Notebook/Netbook PC, Embedded system and specific application system markets.

With SATAII interface design, the data transfer rate of LVT820 and LVT815 up to 3Gbps. They support 8 channels (64bit/64CE) and 4 channels (32bit/32CE) memory systems respectively for the flexible and diverse capacity SSD hard drive usage. By designing with the architecture of 16-bit ECC technology, that ensures data transfer accuracy and achieve the reliability and longevity to SSD hard drive with built-in the Advanced Dynamic & Static Wear Leveling technology supporting.