Here’s another way to protect your laptop, a clear neoprene sleeve with a cushion cell lining for padding. Being clear, you also don’t need to remove your laptop when going through airport security checkpoints.
The neoprene is water resistant and the air cushion lining provides shock and impact protection.
Buy now!
Prices: start at $19.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Today, Dell released the Adamo, a thin and lightweight notebook that also comes with a higher than usual amount of style, at least from the Dell ranks.
The Adamo which comes in 2 colors (Onyx and Pearl (black & white)) seems to fall into the MacBook Air category of notebooks. At 4lbs and a claimed industry thinnest 0.65″ (16.4mm) profile, there’s no question that it does.
Other notable features for the Adamo include almost a 5 hour runtime and scalloped keys (they’re concave) on the backlit full sized keyboard.
Interestingly, the Adamo, unlike most other Dell systems isn’t highly configurable. It comes in just 1 of 2 specs.
Tech spec include:
You can purchase your Adamo right now on the Dell site, although it won’t ship for a week or so.
Price: $1999 or $2699
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Qualcomm’s Gobi platform will let you access multiple carriers’ wireless data services. With Gobi, you won’t need to have separate cards and/or built-in chips in your notebook to get online.
Qualcomm is already partnering with Sony to put Gobi chips into Vaio P notebooks. Currently, Gobi will work at speeds up to 5.7Mbps which is not shabby at all.
The big question is whether or not carriers like Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, etc will start offering pay as you go or smaller window plans as opposed to the monthly plans that you find today that typically also come with yearly lock-in agreements.
If Gobi gets into enough netbooks, then it should pressure the carriers to do just that.
Hyperspace by Phoenix Technologies Ltd (the BIOS folks) was represented at Digital Experience and the Geeks received a demo. Hyperspace provides instant-on/instant-off capabilities to use a limited number of “purpose-driven” applications including immediate access to the Internet (web browser), calendar, e-mail and a couple extra small apps.
“Stop waiting for Windows to boot or worrying about finding the best wireless connection. Instant-on computing with HyperSpace transforms the mobile experience by providing cell phone-like connectivity, ease-of-use and efficiency for key applications,†said Woody Hobbs, president and CEO of Phoenix Technologies. “In less than a few seconds, you’re up and running – browsing the Internet, emailing, instant messaging, and using other important applications. There’s no more waiting for Windows to boot or worrying about finding the best wireless connection. And by utilizing the power of virtualization technology, HyperSpace can run side-by-side with Windows Vista® on certain systems, making your computer far more power efficient, secure and frustration-free.â€
Besides providing instant-on/instant-off computing, Hyperspace provides smart connectivity that activates the best network source (wired then wireless), longer battery life of 25%-35%, security due to a private operating system and applications can only be updated or added if approved and owner or audited by Phoenix and Phoenix mentions uptime as an additional benefit in case Vista fails.
The HyperSpace instant-on/instant-off experience for the consumer is immediately available for download in two versions at www.hyperspace.com. HyperSpace Hybridâ„¢ is available for $59.95 annual license or $149.95 for three years and allows the user to toggle back and forth between the two operating system environments reducing batter consumption by more than 25% when in the HyperSpace environment. HyperSpace Dualâ„¢ is available at $39.95 annual license or $99.95 for three years and is designed for both Windows Vista and Windows XP systems that do not have virtualization enabled at the chipset level by Intel and AMD. The difference between Dual and Hybrid is that Dual user can only being in one environment at a time (either Windows or HyperSpace).
While interesting if you want to be on the web within 10 seconds of boot, the Geeks have opted not to install this software…
Considering the number of sub-$500 products there are in this category, it’s no wonder that these are still on people’s wishlists given the faltering economy. The 2 biggest splashes this year arguably came from Apple with their new MacBook and the brand-new MacBook Air, but Dell also joined the still hot mini-laptop/netbook field with their Inspiron Mini 9 and 12, and other makers improved upon their existing minis or jumped on the bandwagon as well.
We also liked the HP tx2z which is a tablet notebook with multi-touch. Here are some ideas and prices on a few of these laptops/notebooks/netbooks.
Apple MacBook Pro (unibody Aluminum case, 17″ TFT LCD, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6GHz 4GB 320GB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT) – $3200
Apple MacBook Air (2nd gen. 13″ LCD, 1.6Hz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, 120GB Serial ATA hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card) – $1700
Dell Inspiron Mini 9 (Glossy 8.9″ LED screen, Intel® Atom Processor® N270 1.6GHz,Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950,Wireless 802.11g Mini Card, Win XP Home, 512MB DDR2 SDRAM, 8GB SSD) – $399.
Dell Insprion Mini 12 (Intel®Atom®Processor Z530 1.6GHz, Windows® Vista Home, 40GB PATA Hard Drive, 12.1″ widescreen TrueLife® Display (1280×800), Intel®Graphics Media Accelerator 500, 1GB DDR2 SDRAM, Wireless 802.11g Mini Card, Bluetooth 2.1, Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam) – $599.
Dell Studio Laptops – starting around $1250
Asus Eee PCs – starting at $249!
HP tx2z tablet notebook – starting at $1150
Vaio CR Series – starting at $799
