Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Tablet and Solid State Drives
April 23, 2008
Not sure how long Lenovo has been offering this, but in addition to offering flash memory-based Solid State Drives (SSDs) on their 13.3-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X300s, they are also offering 64GB SSDs for their 12.1-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Tablets (non-widescreen), as well as some ThinkPad T61s.
These are not being offered on their non-Tablet ThinkPad X61.
The advantages they list:
- Faster boot times
- Faster application load times
- Lower power usage
- Less heat production
- Greater durability
- Quiet operation
Cost of those advantages: $1030 (USD) on top of the base price.
Read: Lenovo and Soild State Drives (US)
NEC LaVie J Series Available Soon, With Wireless USB
February 26, 2008
The NEC LaVie J Series should be available later this week.
It’s a 12.1″ widescreen, lightweight (under three pounds) ultraportable notebook with an Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 (1.2GHz, 2MB L2).
It’s unique in that it’s one of the first offerings with a Wireless USB hub (basically you have a wireless hub that you plug a USB mouse, printer, scanner, etc., into, and your notebook can automatically connect to the hub without any physical connections).
There are going to be three models:
- LJ750/LH - 2GB Memory, 160GB Hard Drive, 802.11a/b/g/n
- LJ730/LG - 1GB Memory, 80GB Hard Drive, 802.11a/b/g
- LJ700/LH
Akihabara News mentions that the low-end LJ700 does not come with Microsoft Office 2007, implying the other two do. These will probably only be available in Asia (at least under the NEC brand).
Dell Offers Wireless USB as XPS M1330 Option
February 11, 2008
In addition to adding Intel’s Penryn CPU to the XPS M1330 lineup, Dell has recently began offering the option to add built-in Wireless USB (for $150 USD extra of course). It appears this has been around for at least a month or longer.
The Wireless USB option comes with a Wireless USB hub made by Belkin, and is touted as:
“Get Easy & instant wireless connectivity to hard drives, printers, USB peripherals, media devices, and more.”
What this means, is that you would have a small USB hub device (similar to a normal wired USB hub you could pick up anywhere) that has a wireless transmitter. You would plug your USB devices into that hub (mouse, printer, etc.), and if you pick up an M1330 with this option, you would be able to access those devices without having to physically plug them (or the hub) into the M1330. It would work like the wireless port replicator for the Toshiba R400
If you are interested, you can view it at the Dell.com XPS M1330 page
Thanks to Carl B. and Engadget
Toshiba Ships UWB Wireless Port Replicator for Portege R400
July 26, 2007
Toshiba has announced that they are shipping the world’s first UWB Wireless Port Replicator. It’s going to be for the Toshiba Portege R400, an ultraportable “convertible” (can switch between a laptop or Tablet PC form factor) laptop.
Right now it’s limited to three models:
- R400-S4834 : $499.99 option
- R400-S4835 : $499.99 option
- R400-S4933 : At $3699, this model comes with the Toshiba Wireless UWB Port Replicator (as well as a USB DVD writer and a second 6-cell battery)
Basically, this is a full-blown port replicator, just wireless. That includes video as well (the external display would be connected to the port replicator, and the R400 would send the video signal through the wireless dock to the display). UWB - Ultra Wideband, does have its limits - it maybe fast enough to push video to the wireless port replicator, however you have to have the laptop within three feet of the port replicator, according to Yahoo News. Still, that’s a small price to pay for having something that convenient.
In addition to video, the wireless port replicator has:
- 4x USB 2.0
- Audio out
- Ethernet
- Kensington Security slot.
If you are looking to try out a UWB wireless, with only USB peripherals attached (printers, scanners, mice, etc.), you can check out the D-Link DUB 9240 for $120, which works up to 30 feet away and allows you to connect four USB devices to the wireless hub. You plug in a USB adapter to your laptop, which then makes a wireless connection to the DUB 9240. It doesn’t do video or ethernet or audio, but it also works on just about any current laptop with USB 2.0.
- Toshiba Direct
- Full Press Release : eMediaWire.com
- Yahoo News Story
- Via Laptoping.com
D-Link Announces UWB Wireless USB Kit (DUB-9240)
July 25, 2007
Gearlog has an interesting announcement/introduction from D-Link, their first Wireless USB hub. They are reporting that it’s set to retail for about $120. It’s not shipping yet though; all we know is that D-Link is shooting for sometime in the forth quarter of this year. This is one of the first wireless USB hubs to be rolling out, and at a very reasonable price.
This is fairly big news for those ultraportable owners who want to skip port replicators and who don’t want a bunch of USB devices plugged into their laptops - you plug the USB dongle (but it’s wireless!) into your laptop, and your printers, scanners, digital camera card readers, etc., into a hub, and without plugging any of those into your laptop, you have access to all of them.
It’s the D-Link DUB-9240 and you can find more details at the D-Link Dub-9240 website.
Quoting D-Link’s announcement/description:
The DUB-9240 Wireless USB Kit takes advantage of UWB radio technology to deliver fast wireless communication between your computer and USB peripheral devices. The DUB-9240 is designed for wirelessly connecting USB peripherals up to a 30-foot* range of your computer. It unties you from USB cables, enabling wireless connection of multiple devices for transmission of video, audio, and other high-bandwidth data. Additionally, a wireless frequency range of 3.4GHz to 4.5GHz is used to help avoid interference with other wireless devices such as Wi-Fi® networks, mobile phones, and cordless home phones.
The D-Link® Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Wireless USB Kit (DUB-9240) enables you to conveniently connect USB devices to your computer wirelessly up to a 30-foot range. Simply connect the Wireless USB Adapter (DUB-1210) to your computer and connect USB devices such as printers, cameras, and external hard drives to the 4-Port Wireless USB Hub (DUB-2240). Utilizing UWB radio technology, this kit is excellent for wirelessly streaming audio and video as well as transferring files from storage devices like USB flash drives or external hard drives.
