October 15, 2009
HP’s new ProBook Windows 7 business laptops have drain in keyboard that saves PC, not pants, from spills
ZD Net
Andrew Nusca writes about HP’s newly announced ProBook notebooks, complete with spill-resistant keyboards.
“The HP ProBook 6445b and ProBook 6545b are targeted at corporate customers ‘who want an affordable combination of business-critical and innovative features in a full-function notebook PC.’ That translates to up to eight hours and 15 minutes of battery life, as well as a wealth of wireless connectivity options. But the coolest darn feature of these laptops is a spill-resistant keyboard with a drain underneath the laptop. The ProBooks will be available in mid-November and start at $799.”
Toshiba announces touchscreen notebooks, netbooks for Windows 7 launch
Engadget
Joseph L. Flatley provides an overview of some of Toshiba’s new PC products coming out this month and the next.
“The big news here is definitely the touch-screen models: The Satellite U505 (due out November 1) is a 13.3-inch, 5 lb device with an MSRP of $1,049.99, while the Satellite M505 (street date October 22) has 14.4-inches of real estate and an MSRP of $949.99. Both come with the touch-ready LifeSpace software package that includes Bulletin Board (some sort of organizer with to-do lists, calendars and the like), and ReelTime, which apparently ‘helps you find files based on when they were opened using a visual history.’”
HP Pavilion dv8 gets official, complete with HP Long Life battery
Engadget
Donald Melanson writes about HP’s new Pavilion dv8 entertainment PC notebook.
“The new Pavilion dv8 ‘entertainment laptop’ … starts with a big 18.4-inch, full 1,920 x 1,080 screen, and continues along the high-end track with a Core i7 processor, 4GB of RAM (expandable to 8GB), dual 320GB hard drives, NVIDIA GeForce GT230 graphics with 1GB of RAM, a built-in TV tuner, and a Blu-ray drive. Of particular note, the laptop also comes standard with HP’s Long Life battery, which makes use of Boston Power’s Sonata cells and promises a lifespan three to five times better than traditional lithium-ion batteries.”