Yearning for color on laptops

ZDNet mentions that more and more people are customizing their laptops through changing the laptop’s outer case, whether it’s an option from the manufacturer (such as getting a different LCD backing/cover for the Dell 700M) or a third party that disassembles the laptop and paints the casing.

Review: Itronix Hummer IX600 (PC Magazine)

PC Magazine has published a review by Cisco Cheng , of the Itronix Hummer IX 600 “ruggedized laptop”. The Hummer has a 12.1-inch non-widescreen display, and is powered by a regular Pentium M. It does weigh in at over six pounds, however it’s meant to be used in the outdoors or in environments where it might get banged around a bit. A touchscreen option is available.

A few of PC Magazine’s thoughts:

The system is ideal if you’re out in the field all day (think construction workers, architects, park rangers, field scientists, and so on)….

The Hummer laptop managed to last 3 hours 10 minutes on our battery life test, which is not as long as the Acer notebook’s 3:43 and not even close to the Panasonic Toughbook’s 6:17.

Full Review

CNET’s Updated Notebook Buying Guide

CNET Asia has updated their Notebook Buying Guide to reflect changes concerning the recent release of the Intel Core Duo, as well as Apple’s move to Intel.

Added: Flybook (Transmeta) and Flybook V3

We’ve added information about the following two laptops from Dialogue Technology:

Flybook (Transmeta/Crusoe CPU based) - This is being phased out.

Flybook V3 - It launches this month, and is a major update to the Flybook line, sporting a 1.1GHz Intel Penitum M Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) CPU.

Both of these are “convertibles”, i.e. tablet notebooks (with fully functioning, physical keyboard). Both have an 8.9-inch widescreen touch screen.

Although we don’t have a lot of information about the V3 just yet, it’s shaping up to be a very interesting machine - a direct rival to Fujitsu’s P1510D.

Turn your 12″ iBook into a PowerBook 12″ Killer

HardMac/MacBidouille has an interesting article out, step-by-step to turn your iBook12″ into a PowerBook12″-killer, that takes you through bumping your iBook up - SuperDrive, upgraded Harddrive (faster, larger capacity), and Bluetooth (on older iBooks).

Do understand that it probably voids all kinds of warranties, and involves you physically taking your iBook apart - not recommended for the faint of heart.

Article: Squeezing More Life Out of Your Notebook’s Battery Part II (MobilityGuru)

Part II of the “Squeezing More Life Out of Your Notebook’s Battery ” series by the people at MobilityGuru is now available.

Today’s Article:

Now, we walk you through 20 practical user scenarios to show how usage characteristics can have a marked influence on battery life. We also list 10 things you can do to prolong your notebook’s battery life.

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