The military always gets the cool things first because they’re the first to pay big bucks (from our tax dollars), but just like Velcro, freeze-dried ice cream and everything else for sale on late-night infomercials, we will eventually be able to buy it.

The latest gadget to be developed for the military and now to be offered to the rest of us is Estari’s dual touch-screen laptop, the 2-VU. You can use the two 15-inch touch screen displays in tandem, one to work on and the other to display your work at the same time. When a stylus or your finger won’t do, call up a keyboard graphic on one screen and watch your words appear on the second display.

This patented piece of double vision operates from a 1.83GHx Intel Dual Core processor, has 1 GB of RAM and can be …

ASUS has announced its new line of notebooks, the ASUS A8Jr. The new line is notable for the inclusion of ATI’s Mobility Radeon X2300. The X2300 is one of the first mobile video cards to have DirectX 10 support.

According to ASUS:

“There is an ever-increasing demand for higher graphic processing power and crisper graphics for entertainment and applications alike,” says David Cummings, director of marketing, Graphics Products Group, AMD. “Our answer to that demand is the X2300 GPU. This GPU utilizes patented technology to increase processing power and provide the user with smooth, realistic hi-resolution graphics.”

The ASUS A8Jr will at least be able to power Windows Vista even with the full Aero glass interface enabled.

Specs:
- Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology
- Intel® Core™2 Duo Processors T7600/T7400/ T7200/T5600/T5500
- Mobile Intel® 945PM Express Chipset
- Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network …

Sharp has recently updated its Mebius line of notebook computers with three new basic designs into 5 models which all include the new Windows Vista OS from Microsoft, among a few other nice hardware upgrades.

The Mebius PC-WT70S features a Turion 64 X2 processor (1.60GHz), up to 2GB of memory, 100GB HDD and 1,280Ã-800 resolution on a 15.4 inch screen. A lithium ion battery give it up to 1.2 hours of run time and the highest end version has dimensions of 360Ã-258Ã-36.7mm and weighs approximately 2.6kg.

The Mebius PC-WE40S/WE50S, a smaller sibling, sports an AMD Sempron 3200+ (1.60GHz) processor, half the memory at 512MB, an 80GB HDD and the 15.4 inch display. The battery time for this model is pretty similar to it’s bigger sibling with 1.3 hours of run time with the same dimensions and weight.

The Mebius PC-CH40S/CS50S has …

Earlier this week Slippery Brick reported on the XO laptop and the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization, stating reports that the company planned on making the XO laptop commercially available for as little as $100 USD. According to Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the OLPC, making the XO laptops available to the public is not in the plans for this year, but may be in the future.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you couldn’t buy one on Ebay from a kid in Uruguay for under $100, but it does mean that OLPC is not planning on selling you one, at least not any time real soon.

“Contrary to recent reports, One Laptop per Child is not planning a consumer version of its current XO laptop, designed for …

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Initiative unveiled it’s XO laptop, the initiatives first industrial prototype at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

The laptop is designed to be used with very little power, and can run on less than three watts to browse the internet and only one watt to display an electronic book, compared to the 40 watts necessary to power a typical laptop. The XO Laptop from OLPC has a battery charger built into the machine that runs by pulling a cord to recharge the battery. “Power was obviously our main concern,” said Michalis Bletsas, OLPC’s chief connectivity officer, at the unveiling in Las Vegas.

Network connections happen wirelessly through a new “mesh” technology that will connect to any other XO laptop within 600 meters, or any mesh network within range. The screens come in color …

SanDisk announced today the launch of a 32 gigabyte, 1.8″ solid state drive as a drop-in replacement for existing notebook drives.

The new replacement drive uses non-volatile memory instead of a spinning disk and mechanical head to read and write data. Due to this, the SanDisk drive can offer very competitive read and write speeds without having to spin-up or seek files, with a fraction of the power consumption of a traditional hard drive with moving parts. Lower power consumption can be an important factor for those using notebooks on the road in order to increase battery life.

“This is an important milestone for SanDisk in our relentless quest to create new large-scale markets for flash storage solutions for consumers in the personal computing space,” said Eli Harari, SanDisk CEO. “The 32-gigabyte SSD that we are announcing today represents the fifth generation …

The ThinkPad X60 Tablet is a convertible tablet PC with two new screen choices and an innovative dynamic screen rotation feature. The X60’s design improvements focus on improving the traditional tablet features like navigational tools, sensory features, and the pen.

The ThinkPad X60 Tablet screen has a standard 170 degree viewing angle and offers 2 new screen features – MultiView and MultiTouch. The 12-inch MultiView indoor/outdoor, anti-reflective/anti-glare display makes the screen much more viewable in various environments while the MultiTouch feature allows you to move the cursor with your finger or a pen.

The X60 Tablets come equipped with an Active Rotate function which immediately orients the screen to the user, regardless of the direction it turns. A new navigational dial lets users move easily in four directions, and remaps keys so “up” is always “up” as the user …

Show up to your next office meeting with this bad boy and get some serious respect. This is the NotePAC Dual Core from Kontron, the latest addition to the NotePAC family of ultra-rugged notebook computers and the first to feature Intel Core Duo T2300 processors and the Intel 945GM chipset.

The NotePAC is designed for extreme environments; a magnesium alloy housing protects shock-mounted components that can withstand a 3 food-drop. A hard disk heater offers operating temperatures down to -20°C and is your best bet to accommodate your computing needs in these extreme conditions. The target market for the NotePAC is defense, field service, utilities, industry and public services, or anyone who needs a VERY rugged notebook.

The NotePAC also offers a modular configuration to tailor to your application with two module bays for interfaces, drives or batteries. An optional expansion unit is available …

The HP Compaq nc6400 Notebook PC is the first notebook in the United States to feature built-in global mobile broadband capabilities. The nc6400 is brought to you through collaboration between HP and Cingular Wireless who look to take advantage of Cingular’s UMTS/HSDPA network, which is available currently in 145 major metropolitan areas including 65 of the top 100 largest cities in 33 states.

The new notebook comes with integrated Cingular Wireless UMTS/HSDPA-based technology which uses the Qualcomm MSM6280 chipset to support 3.6Mbps performance modes and tri-band UMTS frequency bands. Business users now have more areas to connect to corporate networks at broadband speeds and in the future, consumers may have the option to upgrade to Cingular Wireless’ 3G network by adding an HP Broadband Wireless Module as an upgrade.

Broadband access is limited to the Cingular Wireless network coverage area and will require the purchase of a …

Lenovo has released the ThinkPad T60, the first 15.4-inch widescreen in Lenovo’s T Series of notebook computers. According to Lenovo, the T60 weighs in at only 5.1 pounds, making it the lightest 15.4-inch widescreen notebook among the top five PC vendors.

Widescreen notebooks are becoming increasingly popular as users crave the extra screen real estate. The 15.4-inch widescreen WXGA display gives users up to 30 percent more data on the screen than the current 14.1-inch or 15-inch ThinkPad T60 XGA displays.

The ThinkPad T Series notebooks have five built-in communications options including: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, 56K V.923 modem, and Infrared port. RJ-45 and RJ-11 ports are standard on all models and high-speed Gigabit Ethernet connectivity is featured on select models. The built-in UltraConnect antenna supports IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g wireless technologies. The T60 and T60p models offer optional high speed WWAN broadband access.

The ThinkPad T60 …

The ST5111 and ST5112 Tablet PCs from Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation are ideal for project-based applications, as well as for mobile professionals in healthcare and field and sales force automation. The rough and tumble 3.5-pound ST5100 Tablet PCs are less than an inch thick and come with a durable magnesium-alloy lower housing and offer the latest Intel Core Duo Mobile Technology. The accelerometer-based hard disk drive with Fujitsu Shock Sensor system retracts the hard drive head if a sudden movement or vibration is detected, thus reducing the possibility of data loss.

The ST5111 Tablet PC features a 10.4-inch XGA TFT display that is ideal for outdoor viewing and direct sunlight conditions. The ST5112 Tablet PC has a slightly larger screen at 12.1 inches and features a transmissive indoor/outdoor XGA display with 160° wide viewing angles. Both models offer battery life up to 6 hours with …

ASUS has announced that they will be offering some new luxury computing options this holiday season with a new model in the leather-bound notebook series and a limited pink edition.

The new W6 Leather Collection has a 13.3-inch widescreen and comes with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors. The smaller S6 series, originally released in May, sports an 11.1″ screen and is now available in pink leather to match your pink RAZR.

Both notebooks come in Camel or Brown and are certain to make a fashion statement with the luxury computing set.

Press Release [ASUS]

Apple has just announced the release of it’s new line of Macbooks with the Intel Core 2 Duo Processors, giving the new versions up to 25% faster processing speeds than previous versions. To keep up with the faster processing, the new notebooks will also feature double the memory offering up to 2 GB and more storage than previous models making hard drives of up to 200 GB available for the heavy hauler.

The 64-bit processor architecture of the Intel Core 2 Duo allows it to handle data and process more decisions double time (64 bits versus 32 bits), giving the Macbook more processing power. Apple states that this additional processing speed equates to 6 times the performance over the iBook and 12-inch PowerBook. The Apple web site boasts the performance enhancement with the Core 2 Due by showing examples demonstrating a …

The feather-light LIFEBOOK P1610 Notebook may just be the perfect companion for the weary road-warrior looking to trade in their old clunky, heavy laptop for a newer, lighter model. The P1610 sports an innovative bi-directional hinge, and indoor/outdoor touch screen display making it a versatile, fully featured powerful notebook and an ultra light convertible Tablet PC in one unit.

Ultra light and weighing less than 1kg, the LIFEBOOK P1610 notebook offers the power and convenience of a notebook with the versatility to handle those unique applications that are best suited for a tablet PC. Rotate the 8.9 inch TFT display (1280 x 768) 360° to share your great ideas or flip it over to convert your notebook into a tablet PC and enjoy the full advantages of pen functionality. Other features of the P1610 incude:

The P1610 utilizes the latest Intel Core Solo …

If you are looking for the lightest notebook around, your search can probably end here with the Sony VAIO G. At just under 2 lbs, less than 11 inches wide and only 1 inch thick this thing is pretty small.

Although you are not going to have the fastest notebook on the planet, the feature set is really not too bad and lends the VAIO G to being fairly affordable at around $1800 USD (only available in Japan starting in December). This small laptop from Sony sports a 12.1 inch screen with resolution up to 1024×768 running from a 945GMS Express graphics card. You can get either a Core Solo or Celeron processor at 1.06GHz or 1.2 GHz, 1.5GB of memory and an optional 80GB hard drive.

The VAIO G from Sony supports wireless connectivity through 802.11 a/b/g WiFi and Bluetooth, …