Intel has announced three new chips that are squarely aimed at reducing the energy consumption required to run it. Intel is so confident about their new products that the company is predicting laptops to run all day by 2013 based on a single charge or go on connected standby for almost 10 days.

The center of the energy efficiency claims of Intel lies on the Haswell processor, that will be shipped on 2013. This chip will be extending the energy efficiency claims further than any of Intel’s other products. The processor has been specially designed to allow for a Haswell-powered laptop to run for one full day on a single charge. The idle platform power will also be reduced by up to 20 times compared to current designs. Compare this to the Macbook Air that runs for seven hours on a single charge and has a 30 day regular standby.

For those who are confused about what connected standby is – this is a computer state wherein the display is turned off but the device is still connected to the network, which simply means the device is still connected and on, constantly updating email, social media and digital content.

It was only recently that I got exposed to having almost all devices in the house connected together. One laptop functions as a media server. We play music and videos via the laptop and use the HDTV as the monitor. It’s pretty handy, especially with other portable devices being used to access/control the laptop. It’s a pretty good setup, although not quite perfect: we still have kilometers and kilometers of wires.

While it probably won’t solve the entire problem of wires, the recently launched D-Link MainStage^TM for Intel® Wireless Display (DHD-131) just might make things better in any household that has a heavy ‘media consumption”. This WiDi device is a tiny non-descript gadget that will fit in the palm of your hand. If you look at the photo above, it is easy to see just how simple it looks. Honestly, my first thought when I saw it was that it reminded me of a smooth-edged monolith. ¹

This monolith-like gadget does not hold much in terms of mystery, though. What it does has pretty much been announced by D-Link and hyped up even. The MainStage^TM connects to an HDTV via an HDMI cable or an A/V cable. The device then connects to a wireless router, which can then be used to stream media from any laptop. Think 1080p. Think 5.1 surround sound.

With this setup, you have more freedom as to where you place your laptop. This is more practical for those who don’t have much living space and who may not have a dedicated laptop for media purposes; and even if you do have a dedicated laptop, the removal of one set of wires might very well be worth it. One thing’s for sure – the device is worth considering.

This gadget will set you back around USD130. It is currently available in the US and will be released in Canada next month. For those in other parts of the world, you can visit D-Link’s online store.

Via The Digital LIfestyle

1. The kind that was described in Arthur C. Clarke’s Space Odyssey

There was a time when I thought that 80 GB of hard drive space was more than enough to meet my needs. My good old netbook quickly ran out of space, though, and before I knew it, I found myself shopping around for a portable external drive. With every laptop change, the higher I went with regard to capacity. The need for more space is always there, though, and it seems that nothing but external hard drives will solve the issue. For sure, you have been in similar situations, and you’ll be thrilled to know that Samsung has recently launched a new hard drive for laptops with a whopping 1 terabyte capacity!

The new hard drive follows the industry standard for laptops – 9.5mm 2.5 in form factor, making it usable for practically any laptop. Dubbed Spinpoint M8, the hard drive not only boosts storage capacity, but it also lessens power consumption. Samsung says that it uses 8 percent less power – or thereabouts. More so, the performance of the hard drive is also 7 percent better than its counterparts.

If that is not enough to convince you (I don’t know, they got me at 1 TB), you might also want to know that Samsung makes use of the NoiseGuard technology, which will lessen that annoying sound that your hard drive may have when working hard. And in case you tend to drop your electronics, the Spinpoint M8′s chassis has been designed to improve shock protection.

Samsung is already producing the Spinpoint M8 and says that it will be available worldwide. In the US, the hard drive has been tagged at $129. Not bad at all!

Via

And then, there were the paper jams, and of course printer spooling – all of which happens when I’m in a hurry. What can I say? I consider myself a competent techie, but those printers can confound me really good.

Now I haven’t found the perfect printer for me to use with my laptop, but I’m rolling off a bunch of features that I want to see in future printers. Call it a wish list or a pipe dream.

• Portability – of course, with me running around everywhere and finding solace in whatever coffee shop I first walk into, it’s going to suck when I have to run home to get something printed when my destination is a couple of blocks away. It happened, and it sucks. I want something easy to carry around.
• Speed – I want a printer that spits out printed paper like there’s no tomorrow. I know, I know, printers today are way faster than the ones from the dot-matrix era, but it’s still not fast enough.
• Efficiency – I’ve complained about paper jams and printer spooling over in the first paragraph, and there really isn’t anything more I can add to this.

A few friends have recommended the latest Brother a3 printer, though. You can bet I am going to try that one out.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen new Intel Atom processors hitting the market, and now we have the new Intel Atom N450 and the Atom N470 processors. How do these new Atom chips match up to each other?

The Atom N450 is clocked at 1.66GHz while the Atom N470 at 1.83GHz, so it’s pretty obvious that the N470 will beat the N450 in so many respects. Or will it?

Netbooked.net put both processors on a benchmark test, and he found that even though the N470 has a higher clock speed, there isn’t that much of a difference between the two processors.

Check out Liliputing’s analysis of the test:

While the N470 clearly has a faster clock speed, it’s not that much faster than the N450. And so we probably shouldn’t be surprised that when Peter ran several benchmarks on the two computers, the scores weren’t very far apart at all. The Lenovo S10-3s scored slightly higher on most tests, but actually lagged a tiny bit in the graphics department.

The N470 gets a Windows Experience score of 2.5 compared with 2.3 for the N450. But that’s out of 7. Long story short, in real world settings you’re probably not going to notice any real difference between these two chips. Neither is going to make your computer fly, but both should be good enough for basic computing tasks such as web surfing, editing documents, or watching standard definition (or even 720p) video.

Sure, if you have the choice between a computer with an Intel Atom N450 and N470 processor, the N470 might offer a slight performance boost. But it’s probably not enough to justify paying much more for that computer.

I’m quite disappointed in the 2.5 and 2.7 Windows Experience Score for the processors. But then, we’re talking about netbooks here, and we don’t expect computing miracles in this market segment.

As much as I love lugging around a laptop everywhere so I can log on the net and work in the nearest coffee shop or anywhere else with wifi or 3G coverage. But there’s really one thing about laptops I don’t care for: the trackpad. I seriously don’t understand how trackpads can still suck at this point, when touchscreens, especially on the iPhone and iPad are really amazing.

Devin of CrunchGear has an interesting editorial on this issue:

It seems obvious. The trackpad is, after the keyboard, the object you interact with the most on any laptop. Wouldn’t laptop makers want this object to be largest, most responsive, most versatile thing they can make it? Yet on every PC laptop I review or test out, the trackpad is small, poorly placed, unresponsive, or all three. And the buttons, which should easy and satisfying to click, are often stubborn, squishy, or small. What the hell are they thinking?

Sure, with a little netbook you can’t expect it. But the question is not a netbook question (though to be fair, the reviews linked above are in the low-mid range). This is on otherwise-excellent laptops costing $1000-$2000 that we are finding tiny, low-quality trackpads. There are exceptions here and there, but a huge majority of the laptops out there are, in my opinion, shorting the buyer. When someone is buying a laptop that they are going to use as a primary computer, the savvy laptop-maker would do well to assure the consumer that the laptop is of the highest quality, and not cobbled together from whatever parts fit the bill. The trackpad is the first thing that most consumers will touch, and if they fall in love with one, their budget suddenly expands to allow that love to be requited.

So I’ve been using a little program called Scrybe that actually gives you a bit of two- and three-finger gestures for your trackpad. It gives me a bit of what it feels like to be on a Macbook thanks to the gestures, but the actual trackpad experience still is sucky. Yep, laptop manufacturers, please, think of the trackpads.

So, while everyone else is eagerly waiting for the release of Apple’s iPad, us who aren’t really convinced of the iPad’s abilities to walk on water or its promises to cure cancer are looking someplace else. Enter: Microsoft’s Courier. The Courier is being marketed as a “digital journal.” Instead of Windows 7, we’re seeing the Courier has the same software that runs Zune HD, Pink, and Windows Mobile 7 Series. It makes sense, really. The iPad uses iPhone OS because full Mac OS X will not work well for touch screen interfaces. And of course Windows 7, with all its touch-screen friendly glory, won’t even give the best user experience.

According to Engadget:

The interface appears to be pen-based and centered around drawing and writing, with built-in handwriting recognition and a corresponding web site that allows access to everything entered into the device in a blog-like format complete with comments. We’re also hearing that there will be a built-in camera, and there’s a headphone jack for media playback. Most interestingly, it looks like the Courier will also serve as Microsoft’s e-book device, with a dedicated ecosystem centered around reading.

Okay, I don’t expect this to kill the iPad – there’s seriously no way anyone can beat Apple right now – but look at the potential of the Courier. Check out the video below:

Okay, this device is pretty and all, and the UI is nothing short of amazing (and totally unexpected of Microsoft – I’m kind of used to seeing them churn out releases with drab interfaces) but if you’re wondering when this will come out, you have to wait a bit. Launch date is expected to be around “Q3 / Q4,” and there’s not pricing yet – I don’t expect this to go head-on with the iPad’s price.

What do you think? Would you choose this over the iPad? I know I would, but I’d like to hear your opinions.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X100e is one of the best netbooks out there at the moment. Come on, how could it be not good when it’s carrying the ThinkPad brand? The 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, AMD Neo MV-40 single core CPU, and AT Radeon HD 3200 graphics make it one of the best choices to get when shopping for a netbook.

But it looks like Lenovo’s got something else up their sleeve. According to rumors, they’re going to make a 10-inch ThinkPad that’s going to be rocking an Intel Atom processor. From Liliputing:

It looks like Lenovo is also planning to launch a smaller version of the laptop with a 10.1 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel display. An Intel Atom N450 Pine Trail processor option also appears to be on its way. It’s not spelled out specifically, but it’s likely that the Atom CPU will be tied to the smaller screen.

While a number of reviewers have given the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e high marks for its keyboard, build quality, and overall design, it gets pretty lousy battery life for a modern ultraportable. Swapping out the AMD CPU for a low power Atom processor could go a long way to address that.

Say what you want about the ThinkPad’s looks, but I think it looks pretty neat. Seriously considering the future 10-inch ThinkPad X100e as a possible netbook purchase if my laptop proves to be too big to carry around.

One of the things I envy the most about Macbook users would be the pretty neat MagSafe power adaptors. Aside from the fact that it’s much, much easier to plug and unplug your laptop, it also keeps your Macbook safe if someone trips on the cable. And have I mentioned the fact that it also reduces wear and tear damage? So yeah, that’s the one feature I really, really like about Macs.

Apparently, us PC users can get this feature too, but it requires us hacking our beloved laptops a little bit so we can get that coveted MagSafe connector for our Windows notebooks. The hack is also reversible, so if you’re planning to sell your laptop in the future, this hack won’t drive the price down.

A bit of a warning though: we’re still dealing with electricity here, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, I would advise you to not push through with this hack.

According to Lifehacker:

The mod isn’t very complicated but it does take a bit of patience as you search for just the right size magnets and nail for your particular laptop. Once you’ve found the right pieces however, the build itself is quick and makes your laptop safe from the computer-slaying feet of clumsy coffee shop patrons. Check out the link below for the detailed build guide along with plenty of tips.

Check out the tutorial on Instructables to see how to do this!