Samsung’s M55 laptop has already been tricked out with Blu-ray and HD DVD players, but the company doesn’t seem to have run out of HD goodies just yet, now adding an HD DVD burner to its lineup of portable high def offerings. Apart from that notable addition, the laptop also comes loaded with a Core 2 Duo T7200 processor in place of the earlier model’s T2500, along with 2GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive, a GeForce 7600 graphics card with 256MB of VRAM and, of course, that same big 1920×1200 17-inch display. As you can no doubt guess, all that largess comes at quite a cost, with the laptop setting you back the local equivalent of $3,200. Competing for those HD dollars is Toshiba’s recently announced HD DVD burner-equipped Qosmio G30 laptop, which PC World reports went on sale in Japan over the weekend, demanding an equally pricey $3,085.

Read – Akihabara News, Samsung M55
Read – PC World, Toshiba Qosmio G30

From engadget

NVIDIA may be best known for its consumer-level graphics cards, which are impressive enough in their own right, but the company of course also caters to some users even more demanding than gamers (rare as they are), who look to be in for a treat with its latest high-end offerings. According to NVIDIA, its new QuadroFX 4600 and QuadroFX 5600 graphics cards represent the company’s biggest generational leap evar, bringing hereto unheard of GPU power and up to 1.5GB of frame buffers to tasks like automotive design, medical imaging, scientific research, and visual effects. If that’s not enough, you can also double ‘em up for some SLI action. Of course, the cards also come with some equally jaw-dropping price tags, with the QuadroFX 5600 demanding a cool $3,000 and the slightly lower-powered QuadroFX 4600 a comparative bargain at an even $2,000.

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AOpen’s miniPC has come a long way since their first-gen crack at a miniature PC. The new MP945-VDR miniPC Duo builds upon the MP945-VXR platform by slamming the Vista OS, dual-channel DDR2 memory (4GB max), 6x USB 2.0 ports, and a beefier power supply into an all black chassis. Otherwise, nothing else has changed — choice of Core 2 Duo procs, DVI and S/PDIF digital out, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g WiFi(optional), Bluetooth (optional), integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics, a mini PCI slot, DVD±RW optical drive, and choice of 2.5-inch SATA disk — which isn’t a bad thing.

[Via Impress]
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from engadget

TabletKiosk sure does love its slate PCs, and we’re especially liking this new Sahara i440D. It’s not exactly for the power users in the house, with an Intel Celeron M ULV 423 processor at the helm, but it makes up for that with its diminutive 0.98-inch thickness and 3.3 pound carrying weight. There’s also room for up to 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM, so while your apps might be a bit on the sluggish side, at least you can run lots of them. Up front there’s a 12.1-inch XGA screen with a 179 degree viewing angle, but where the i440D really shines is with its connectivity, including Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, two USB 2.0 ports, firewire, eSATA, gigabit Ethernet, a PCMCIA slot and cradle connector. There’s also a fingerprint reader and room for a 6-cell battery. No optical drive or keyboard, of course, but the fancy screen can switch between being a pressure-sensitive digitizer and a resistive touch screen, so your fingers can at least keep busy leaving prints all over display. Configurations start at $1,795 for the i412T with 512MB of RAM, a 60GB HDD and Windows XP Professional and ramp up to the $2,295 i440D with 1GB of RAM, an 80GB HDD and Vista Business. Pre-loaded Linux is also an option. TabletKiosk should start shipping these in March.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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from engadget

So, Vistagami isn’t really your thing, and that Pepper Pad line never really caught your eye. Beijing Peace East Technology Development, Inc. is taking another shot your UMPC dollar with its new H9 7-incher. BPETD is calling this one the “world’s first” Linux UMPC, and while we assume Pepper might take issue with that statement, there’s no denying that this one would look quite at home among a lineup of Origami units. Unfortunately, a Linux OS isn’t the only difference between the H9 and its Windows-based counterparts. Under the hood there’s a mere 520MHz Intel PXA270 processor, 20GB HDD, 64MB ROM and 128MB of SDRAM, though connectivity is decidedly spiffier, with GPS, WiFi, GPRS / CDMA, PCMCIA and SD card support. The 7-inch touchscreen runs at a respectable 800 x 480, and the usual accouterments of headphone jack, microphone and built-in speakers are included. The OS purports to feature all those snazzy functions you might need from such a handheld, but from the looks of things it isn’t incredibly polished. Of course, we have no idea if we’ll be even seeing this thing outside its native China anyways, or how much it might cost were it to make it to these shores.

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Good news to UMPC-lovin’ Verizon users in the house, OQO’s Model 02 is heading your way. We already knew it was sporting Sprint EV-DO when we saw the cute little slider at CES, and it’s not like there’s much of a swap involved, but we’re sure plenty of VZW users will be pleased to learn that they don’t need to jump ship to get wireless data on this thing. However, as nice as the addition of Verizon might be, along with that announcement last week of a Vista edition of 02, what we really want OQO to start working on is shipping these things out the door — 6-8 weeks seems like such an eternity.

[Thanks, Alan S]
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from engadget

LG‘s having a good bit of success with their Vista models so far, namely that Z1 that had people talking at CES, and now they’ve sobered up a bit with the boring but solid PS-S720K. The 15.4-inch (1680 x 1050) laptop runs Vista Home Premium and a Core 2 Duo T7200 processor, along with 256MB of ATI Mobility Radeon X1700 graphics, 1GB of RAM, 160GB of SATA HDD, 5-in-1 card reader and a super-multi DVD burner. To keep things humming on the entertainment end, there’s also SRS WOW 5.1 HD surround sound, but otherwise not a lot of frills. At 1.5-inches thick and weighing and 6.17 pounds, it’s no ultraportable either, and that $2,730-ish equivalent Korean pricetag is a tad bit steep, but all that Aero juice might just be too good to pass up.

[Via Akihabara News]
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from eengadget