Toshiba Portégé R500 gets another wireless option

There is a steady stream of new, Windows-based, ultra-portable notebooks making the rounds these days. Fujitsu launched its 2.2 pound LifeBook P1620 on Friday and Lenovo's 13.3", 2.5 pound X300 was also leaked to the web.

Toshiba is now throwing its weight behind the idea of lightweight notebooks with a 3G update to its Portégé R500 notebook. Toshiba also claims that its R500 is the thinnest and lightest notebook on the market: it is just 25.5mm thick and weighs only 1.7 pounds.

The addition of HSDPA support makes the R500 a worthwhile companion to any mobile warrior. The notebook is available in two versions: The R500-11J and the R500-11I.

Both notebooks feature a 1.2Ghz Intel ULV Core 2 Duo U7600 processor, Intel 945GMS Express chipset, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, 12.1" (1280x800) LED-backlit display, 2GB of DDR2 memory, GbE, 802.11a/g/n, and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.

The two differ in storage options and weight. The 1.7 pound R500-11J comes equipped with a 64GB solid-state disk (SSD) and no optical drive. The 2.2 pound R500-11I uses a traditional 120GB, 5400 RPM HDD and an ultra-slim Super-Multi DVD burner.

Those willing to take a look at the Portégé R500 Series will have to fork over some big bucks if they decide to take the plunge. The R500-11I will retail for an estimated $3,000 USD. Stepping up to the R500-11J with the 64GB SSD will boost the price to $3,658 USD.

Source from DailyTech

Lenovo readies an ultra-light notebook of its own

It seems quite convenient that just days after the launch of the MacBook Air that a new lightweight notebook from Lenovo finds itself leaked onto the web. We're not ones to sweep such items under the rug, so here's the skinny on Lenovo's latest and greatest.

According to Gizmodo, the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 uses a Merom-based 2.0GHz "Dual Core Hybrid LV" processor with a 12W thermal envelope. The hybrid nature of the processor could mean that it is related to the special processor that Apple worked with Intel to develop for the MacBook Air.

The ThinkPad X300 features a 13.3", 1440x900 LED backlit display, two DIMM slots for a maximum of 4GB of DDR2 memory, fingerprint reader, touchpad and trackpoint inputs, webcam, and a full-size keyboard.

When it comes to connectivity, Lenovo throws in everything but the kitchen sink. Physical connections include three USB 2.0 ports, three internal PCI-E slots and GbE. Lenovo covers the entire wireless spectrum with Bluetooth, 802.11n, Verizon EV-DO Rev A, Cingular HSDPA and WiMAX options.

Surprisingly, Lenovo lists just one internal storage option for the ThinkPad X300: a 64GB solid state disk (SSD). There is no mention of a HDD, but surely there will be one available, otherwise the X300 will start off as an extremely expensive notebook. For those looking for optical storage, Lenovo hasn't forgotten about you and they do in fact include a DVD burner onboard.

Most importantly, Lenovo managed to pack all of these features into a 12.5" x 9" x 0.73" - 0.92" frame that weighs 2.5 pounds. The 2.5 pound weight is likely calculated with a 3-cell battery. Lenovo lists an upper limit of 3.17 pounds which probably takes into account a 6-cell or 9-cell battery.

We don't have any information with regards to pricing or availability, but stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

Source from DailyTech

New Mac Pro, Xserve employ eight cores to beef up performance

Choosing not to wait until its own Macworld event next week, Apple today introduced during the middle of CES the new Mac Pro with two of Intel’s new 45 nanometer quad-core Xeon processors and a new system architecture that the company boasts is twice the performance of its predecessor.

“The new Mac Pro is the fastest Mac we’ve ever made,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With 3.2 GHz 8-core Xeon processing, a 1600 MHz front side bus and 800 MHz memory, the new Mac Pro uses the fastest Intel Xeon architecture on the market.”

On the graphics side, the new Mac Pro comes equipped standard with the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256MB of video memory. Those opting for other graphic options can upgrade using the Mac Pro’s standard PCI Express 2.0 graphics slot. Apple said that it would offer NVIDIA video cards as options in the near future.

With a starting price at a suggested retail price of $2,799, the Mac Pro isn’t just for any casual yuppie. Apple calls the new Mac Pro its “most expandable Mac ever” with four internal hard drive bays with direct-attach, cable-free installation of four 1TB Serial ATA hard drives and support for two SuperDrives – making it ideal for film and video editing applications.

For $2,799, the user will get two 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD and a SuperDrive. The price quickly increases with upgrades to 3.0 or 3.2 GHz processors, more RAM, additional hard drives, RAID cards, SuperDrives and NVIDIA graphics.

Along with the new Mac Pro, Apple also announced the new Xserve, a similarly equipped 1U rack-optimized server also with two quad-core Intel Xeon processors. The 3.0 GHz model is priced at $2,999.

“With the latest Intel processors and no client access licenses, Xserve offers unbeatable server performance and value for under $3,000,” said Schiller. “Xserve’s power, storage and Leopard Server make it ideal for supporting Mac clients and mixed platform workgroups.”

Source From DailyTech