Announced: Sony VAIO VGN-SZ90

Sony (Japan) has announced a new ultraportable, the Sony VAIO VGN-SZ90, based on Intel’s new Duo Core CPU platform (1.66GHz – 2.16GHz). The VGN-SZ90 has a 13.3-inch widescreen display. It also features hard disk shock protection, and a carbon fiber chassis (more on that in a moment). This model is available for the Japanese market only, at this time.

Installing Software Without an Optical Drive

James Radcliffe has written an article, Installing Software Without an Optical Drive for Tablet PC Talk that, while it’s about Tablet PCs, applies equally to those smaller ultraportables that don’t have optical drives built-in. This could be of some use to those travelling, and who, for whatever reason, find themselves without some kind of optical drive. He covers three key areas – sharing over a network, external optical drives, and using a disk image.

Review: Seagate’s 160GB Perpindicular Recording HDD (LaptopLogic.com)

A week ago, I ran an article about the new 160GB harddrives from Seagate that uses perpindicular recording technology. Among the benefits/additions to this harddrive – better performance, higher capacity, and improved shock protection.

LaptopLogic.com has now gotten their hands on one and posted a review, giving it an overall 4/5. They have good things to say about it, and mention that the price point will be at current market prices once it is widely available for a period of time.

Review: Averatec 1050 (IT Reviews)

IT Reviews has a new review up of the Averatec 1050. The Averatec 1050 is an Ultra Low Voltage Pentium M – powered ultraportable notebook with a 10.6-inch widescreen display. The 1050’s strong points include its size and battery life, but its hardware is starting to get a little dated (although for the price it’s still an extremly good deal).