The Taiwanese rumor-mongers at DigiTimes are reporting that the next-generation MacBook Pro laptops may be thinner than ever. Apple is reportedly able to shave a few milometers off the MacBook case because the company has decided to abandon optical disc drives for its MacBook line. DigiTimes tends to get its information from the companies that supply Apple and other computer makers with components….
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The Gigabyte S1080 is a 10 inch tablet with an Intel Atom N570 dual core processor and Windows 7 operating system. It’s been making the rounds since January, but the folks at Engadget caught up with Gigabyte at Computex this week and found out that the tablet is scheduled to ship in the US in June for about $700. The tablet comes…
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Remember when portable Blu-Ray drives were ridiculously expensive? Well the Plextor PX-B120U certainly isn’t going to come quite as cheap as a DVD drive, but this little Blu-Ray drive runs just $99.99. So now I guess they’re just kind of expensive. The drive also happens to be USB powered, which means you don’t need to carry around a power brick…
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The Apricorn Aegis NetDock is a USB docking station for netbooks and notebooks that offers three things that mini-laptops are often short on: extra hard drive space, an optical disc drive, and extra USB ports. The company first introduced the NetDock in March, but it’s now shipping, and the folks at Apricorn were kind enough to send me a demo…
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A few days ago we noted that the Gateway EC14D07u laptop was available for pre-order. Well, today it looks like at least one retailer has the laptop in stock. B&H is selling the Gateway EC14D for $629.99. This laptop’s claim to fame is the fact that while at first glance it looks like yet another 11.6 inch laptop with an…
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The E-NC10 is a Chinese netbook that bears a slight resemblance to the Samsung NC10. But only slight. While the Samsung NC10 has a 10 inch display and chromed edges, the E-NC10 is a larger model with an 11.6 inch display and plastic where the Samsung netbook’s chrome is located. But the E-NC10 has a few things that you don’t…
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Gateway has introduced one of the first 11.6 inch thin and light notebooks I’ve seen that has both an Intel CULV processor and a DVD burner. The Gateway EC14D features a dual core Intel Pentium SU4100 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 320GB hard drive. It packs an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display. And it has an 8X…
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If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past 2 years, it’s that I don’t often need an optical disc drive on a netbook. I mean sure, a USB disc drive comes in handy if I’m trying to install a new operating system or perform a system restore. But that’s really about it. And I’m guessing I do that sort…
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The Lite-On eTAU208 DVD/CD Writer is a portable disc drive that’s pretty handy for folks who like to travel light. Not only is the DVD burner barely any wider than an optical disc, it also weighs just 0.77 pounds. And it draws power from you’re computer’s USB port, which means there’s no extra power cable to lug around. The folks…
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Asus has a reputation for launching a new netbook model every other week for the past two years. While the pace seems to have slowed recently, the company is keeping the tradition alive with its Eee Box nettop computers. I’ve kind of lost count of how many Eee Box models are out there, but with the B201, B202, B204, B206,…
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With a growing number of mini-laptops packing NVIDIA ION graphics, it’s becoming more and more common to find notebooks that have no optical disc drives, but which are capable of handling Blu-Ray playback. The solution? You could rip your movies using another machine, but that takes ages. Or you could find a portable Blu-Ray drive that you can throw in…
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One of the things that’s set netbooks apart from fuller featured computers from day one is that most netbooks don’t have optical disc drives. They take up a lot of space, cost money, and add more breakable moving parts. With more and more software available in downloadable form and the preponderance of cheap USB flash drives and SD cards for…
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