Taiwan computer maker Asus might have underestimated the local demand for its diminutive Eee PC, as the $499 laptop is now virtually sold out in Australia.

Neither Asus nor the exclusive retailer, Myer, will say how many units were sold, but an Asus spokeswoman said more stock would be shipped to Myer at the end of this week.

The Eee PC, Australia’s cheapest laptop, went on sale in Myer stores nationwide on Sunday and by close of business on Monday all the capital city stores were sold out. The Asus spokeswoman said other metro stores might have a small amount of stock left.

“The number of units has not yet been determined for the next shipment to Australia as there is a high demand for the product worldwide,” she said.

“Asus in Australia is trying to get as much allocation as possible from its headquarters.”
[Read more...]

These compact laptops hit the sweet spot, writes David Flynn.

The story of the breed of laptops known as sub-notebooks is a tale of divergent evolution. If you sent David Attenborough poking around the branches of the laptop’s family tree, he’d tell of how portable PCs split from their desktop cousins at the dawn of the 1980s and over the years grew smaller and lighter – but only to a point.

Having developed into the essentially modern form of the laptop in the early 1990s, they started adapting to fill an array of clearly defined niche needs. Some laptops remained true to their name and became the super-sized 43cm slabs favoured by gamers and multimedia professionals. Others shed bulk and features to become lightweight ultra-portables with a 30cm screen, from which descended the latest mutation of “ultra-mobiles” with screens no larger than 20cm across.

Sub-notebooks slid into the space between those oh-so-small ultra-portables and the massive middle ground occupied by the conventional notebook with its 39cm widescreen display. And while the earliest models cut their size by cutting corners, such as leaving out the CD drive and using low-performance processors, these days there’s nothing sub-par about a sub-notebook. [Read more...]

The Sager NP5791 is a top-of-the-line 17-inch high performance notebook based on the latest Intel Santa Rosa platform. It is designed for gaming and features the latest high-end Nvidia graphics cards.

Before I start the review I would like to give a special thanks to Donald Stratton of PowerNotebooks.com for giving us the opportunity to test this machine.

Our system has the following specifications:

* Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/4MB L2/800MHz FSB)
* 17-inch WUXGA (1920×1200) glossy display
* Nvidia GeForce 8700M-GT with 512MB GDDR3 memory
* 2GB DDR2-667 RAM
* 80GB 7200RPM SATA HDD
* 8X DVD+/-RW DL burner
* Intel 4965AGN wireless
* Integrated Bluetooth 2.0
* Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit
* 8-cell battery [Read more...]

Instead of calling the Fujitsu LifeBook U810 an ultraportable or ultramobile portable PC, Fujitsu calls it a mini-notebook, which might be more of a marketing term than a specific product category.

Fujitsu has taken a Windows PC (users can decide whether to have Vista or XP preinstalled) and shrunk it as much as possible so it can be carried around much more easily than a standard or an ultralight notebook. The convertible design lets the Fujitsu LifeBook U810 be used as a notebook (with a keyboard) or – by swiveling the screen – a tablet. It’s currently available in the US, and starts from only $1,000 (£500), which makes it well-priced indeed.

The little Fujitsu LifeBook U810 may weigh just 0.7kg, but it’s a heavyweight in terms of the features Fujitsu has packed into it, including Intel’s A110 processor (800MHz, 512KB of Layer 2 cache and a 400MHz front-side bus); 1GB of system memory; a 5.6in touchscreen with WSVGA resolution (1,024 by 600 pixels); a 40GB hard drive; integrated digital camera and Webcam (VGA resolution), wireless LAN (802.11a/b/g) and Bluetooth connectivity. An included dongle supports Ethernet connections and a VGA connection for an external monitor.

The Fujitsu LifeBook U810 includes a Compact Flash card slot and Secure Digital card slot for additional memory storage (or for transferring files), and has one USB 2.0 port for additional peripherals. Security features include an integrated fingerprint scanner, BIOS lock and support for the Trusted Platform Module. [Read more...]

A computer developed for the world’s poor children, dubbed ‘the $US100 ($A108) laptop,’ has reached a milestone: It is now selling for $US200 ($A217).
The One Laptop per Child Foundation, founded by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte, has started offering the lime-green-and-white machines in lots of 10,000 or more for $US200 apiece on its website.
Those laptops are for purchase by donors who designate where they are to be sent through a program recently launched by the foundation to help finance the product’s launch.
Two weeks ago, a foundation executive reiterated recent statements that it cost $US188 ($A204) to build the computer, up from its $US150 ($A162) price tag in February and an original $100 price.
It was unclear why the price of the machines in the donor program described on the OLPC website was above that $US188 cost, and the foundation declined to elaborate.
The laptops are scheduled to go into production next month at a factory in China, behind their original schedule and in quantities that are a fraction of Negroponte’s earlier projections.
It is unclear when the machines will be ready for customers, as the website said version 1.0 of the software that runs the machine will not be ready until December 7. [Read more...]

Ladies, gentleman, geeks, you can finally buy the cool Cybook’s Gen3 e-book reader. Bookeen decided to send it out in the wild, respecting its promises. The digital device is available online starting now, for a price tag around 350 bucks a pop. As expected, Bookeen web store is the only one to handle the sales of the e-book reader.

Just to make you
drool once again, I should remind you of the most important specs. It reveals a 6 inch Vizplex E Ink screen, revealing more contrast than the older E ink technology with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels. It also comes with a 2.5mm stereo headphone jack, a 64MB of storage capacity and an SD expansion card slot for an extra memory boost. Moreover, as it was expected, it also features a USB connectivity port, which is probably also used for recharging.

Its measures are also impressive, the e-book weighing about 6.13 ounces, which means it’s three ounces lighter than Sony’s new PRS-505 Reader. Moreover, it claims to have a battery life of about 8000 page flips between each charge, and the capability to receive RSSs feeds and eNews.
[Read more...]