Lenovo this week rolled out an extremely thin notebook PC which is described as being lightweight and fully functional. The Lenovo ThinkPad X300 is priced at around $2,800 starting.

DRS Tactical Systems announced today a line of portable computers which could probably just as easily survive in military situations as well as your backyard. It is called the Armor line and it consists of the C12 convertible notebook and the X10 tablet PC.

Today Apple released a much anticipated upgrade to the MacBook and the MacBook Pro, bringing new faster processors, a mult-touch track pad and the same old physical look that they had before. The most significant update is that both the MacBook and the MacBook Pro got new Intel Penryn processing chips along with a few other changes to the notebooks; some good, some not so good.

Business and education technology company Tangent has begun selling through computer manufacturer Asus a mini-notebook computer. It is called the Tangent ePC and pricing starts at around $300.

The Tangent ePC, which looks like it will sport the Asus logo on the cover, comes in a variety of colors and incorporates a seven-inch screen. Dimensions are on the small size, with the four models in this line up measuring 8.86- x 6.3 x 0.79-inches and weighing just over two pounds. These are not laptops designed for heavy business use but rather casual applications like Web browsing and word processing.

Toshiba is updating its line of X205-SLI gaming notebooks with some models offering the new Intel 45mm processors, the company said yesterday. These new models include the Satellite X205-SLI2, priced at around $2,000, and the around $2,500 X205-SLI4.

Toshiba’s new laptops, beside the new Intel processors, feature Nvidia’s SLI graphics with dual Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics processing units and dual hard drives offering a total of 320GB of ample storage space.

Toshiba announced a new pre-configured laptop today which makes use of the new Intel Penryn mobile processor. It is called the Toshiba Satellite U305-S2816 and it prices at around $1,350.

The Toshiba Satellite U305-S2816 is one of Toshiba’s first laptops to feature the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor T8100. Besides the new Intel inside, it also incorporates 2048MB of memory, a 250GB hard disk drive, a starting weight of 4.6 pounds and features a 13.3-inch diagonal widescreen display.

“And then the skies parted, the angels sang, the birds twittered and down from Apple Heaven floated the MacBook Air.”

Yes…if you hadn’t guessed it…Apple just announced the MacBook Air is now shipping. It also put out word that the expected Apple TV update to let you rent HD movies is “not quite finished.” It should be available in another week or so.

“And all were happy in the Apple World.”

Let’s say you pulled that old 40GB hard drive out of your notebook and replaced it with 160GB of storage. Ever wish you could do something else with the leftover drive, instead of throwing it away? Now you can. Just stick it in an enclosure and turn it into a portable USB hard drive.

Meritline.com has an enclosure for just $10.99 shipped (after entering coupon code HW1971413OFF, which expires 1/25). It’s compatible with all 2.5-inch IDE and SATA drives, and includes both IDE and SATA external interfaces (with cables). You also get a carrying case and a little screwdriver so you can open and close the enclosure. The drive itself is powered entirely by the interface, so you don’t have to use an AC adapter. Best of all you’re recycling and not throwing the old drive away and crapping up the environment.

Gateway, a recent subsidiary of Acer, felt they had done so well with the the colorful notebooks that they had released last fall that today they are announcing some more colors for the M-Series and T-Series lineup of PC notebooks. The M Series has the larger display of the two with 15.4-inches and previously came in Garnet Red and Pacific Blue. Today Gateway adds Merlot and Silver to the colors along with a design called Arctic Bloom.

The T-Series has a 14.1-inch display and will be limited to two additional colors getting the new turquoise Arctic Bloom design along with Silver. Gateway uses what they call an InFuse process to get the notebooks to show a high-gloss, stylish metallic finish and add some personality to your portable PC.

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has announced they are launching OLPC America and will be offering Nicholas Negroponte’s “$100 laptop” to needy students here in the United States. Negroponte stated the reasoning for launching the laptops, which were originally intended for children in developing nations, in the U.S. is party due to building “critical mass” and getting some more momentum and production volume going. He also said the goal was to proved education for U.S. children, communication with kids in other countries. “To have the United Sates be the only country that’s not in the OLPC agenda would be kind of ridiculous,” Negroponte said.

The OLPC has been in the news quite a bit over this past year. The original goal was to provide a $100 laptop for children in poor, developing countries, helping their education, communication and understanding of current technologies. The program has met a number of “bumps” along the way, mostly with the production numbers. In order to obtain a $100 price tag Negroponte needed to have large orders of the XO laptop, targeting the governments of many developing countries. To date the orders from these countries have been limited and have kept the price well above the $100 mark. The OLPC has also be working with partners such as Microsoft with rumors of a dual-boot system that would be able to run Windows which has not yet come to fruition. They also had partnered with Intel on development of the XO, in which Intel has recently withdrawn.

If you were on Alienware’s newsletter list you might have gotten notice last night that the company has quietly made the new m15x gaming notebooks available for order. The new Area-51’s come have a few configurations in the lineup with the tow higher-end ones available now for $2099 and $2699.

The m15x is a 15.4-inch widescreen notebook with the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor and the NVIDIA GeForce 8800m GTX. You can get up to 4GB of DDR2 memory, dual HDD and high-def video and audio. They also feature Command Center and a Stealth Mode power management. There is also a $1499 model that is listed on the site but not available for order quite yet. As NotebookReview points out, the $2100 model looks to be a pretty decent deal with the Core 2 Duo processor, quality graphics card, fast HDD and 2GB of memory.

A product announcement has surfaced which doesn’t look related to CES - how interesting. This is from a company called Electrovaya and it is unveilng the Scribbler SC4000. It’s a new Windows Tablet PC which comes Windows Vista pre-installed.

The Electrovaya Scribbler SC4000 is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and sports a 12.1-inch press sensitive touchscreen. It is powered by a Lithium Ion battery, weighs around 3.3 pounds and measures less than 1 inch thick.

The Aspire 7720-6844 notebook includes amazing system performance and responsiveness. Features via Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processor technology, a 250 GB hard disk drive and an integrated Super-Multi drive. Comes with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium operating system and has an eight-cell lithium ion battery for hours of reliable computing power.

The Aspire 7720-6844 notebook PC sports a nice glossy 17-inch widescreen display with CrystalBrite technology for a superior contrast ratio and intense color features. For added high-definition enjoyment, it’s equipped with Dolby Home Theater, for surround sound. You also get video conference functionality via an integrated Acer Crystal Eye webcam.

Hewlett Packard is showing off at CES this week several new consumer focused laptops as it reveals its 2008 product line up. One of these is the HP Pavilion HDX series Entertainment Notebook PC, priced at around $2,000 or so, depending upon configuration.

The HP Pavilion HDX series Entertainment Notebook PC offers 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS video graphics and the latest Intel Core 2 Extreme and Intel Core 2 Duo processor technologies. You can outfit this laptop with Blu-ray and HD DVD playback and enjoy HD video on the notebook’s 20.1-inch diagonal WUXGA XHD Ultra Brightview display.

Fujitsu has unveiled at CES one sexy looking ultra portable notebook PC for the on the go ground. The new Fujitsu LifeBook P8010 is set to price at around $1,700.

The Fujitsu LifeBook P8010 sports a 12.1-inch LED widescreen display housed in a glossy black cover. Under the hood you’ll find a typical Intel Core 2 Duo processor, dual layer multi-format DVD-RW and integrated Intel PRO/Wireless Network Connection wireless LAN with dual diversity antennas. The P8010 is small, with overall dimensions of 11.2 inches x 8.26 inches x 1.37 inches.