News Bits: Xtreme Notebooks Launches All-in-One, OLPC Reviewed, Orange Box Review

Growth of notebook shipments to slow in Q4

According to a DigiTimes report, the notebook shipments in Q4 of 2007 will only see a sequential growth of about 6 percent. Previous fourth quarter shipment growths over the last six years had a sequential increase of about 22 percent on average. On-year growth is also expected to slow down this year to 28 percent; the average over the past six years has been 39 percent.

XtremeNotebooks launches XN1 all-in-one PC

Image courtesy Engadget

XtremeNotebooks has launched its new XN1 all-in-one PC. It features a 22-inch widescreen display with a WSXGA+ (1680x1050) resolution that is capable of being an HDTV, a Core 2 Extreme processor, up to 2TB of hard drive space, an available Nvidia GeForce Go7600 256MB graphics card, and an HD DVD ROM drive. Other features include eSATA, an ExpressCard slot, and WiFi. The 22-inch version starts at $1,599 and the 19-inch version $1,489.

Read More (Engadget.com)

OLPC Laptop reviewed by New York Times

David Pogue of the New York Times got ahold of an OLPC laptop to review. He has a glowing take on this device, the video and review can be found here.

"Despite all the obstacles and doubters, O.L.P.C. has come up with a laptop that’s tough and simple enough for hot, humid, dusty locales; cool enough to keep young minds engaged, both at school and at home; and open, flexible and collaborative enough to support a million different teaching and learning styles."

Read the official "Orange Box" review

Forum member The Forerunner is writing an ongoing review of the Orange Box, a compilation of 5 games from Valve. It is available for pre-purchase from Steam right now for $45; the official release date is October 10. The games included in the box are Half Life 2, Half Life 2 Episode: 1, Half Life 2 Episode: 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.

Read the full review in the forums


Uruguay to buy 100,000 OLPC laptops

Uruguay has decided to purchase 100,000 OLPC XO laptops. The country is still spending more than the $100 apiece that they were supposed to go for, but has the option to buy another 50,000 at $199 per machine. Uruguay decided between the OLPC XO and the Intel Classmate PC and in the end of their testing, the OLPC won, with the less pricetag being one of the determining factors.

Read More (Engadget.com)


WaterField Designs debuts protective Apple keyboard sleeves

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Keyboard Travel Case

WaterField Designs debuted two new protective cases for the Apple wireless keyboard - the Keyboard Sleeve and the Keyboard Travel Case. The Keyboard Sleeve fits the keyboard only, while the Travel Case can carry the keyboard and several laptop accessories.

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Keyboard Sleeve

The Keyboard sleeve is available in two sizes - the short version is for the wireless keyboard, and the long for the wired. The sleeves are padded on the inside and made with a rubberized, non-slip material.

The Travel Case goes for $49, the Short Wireless Sleeve goes for $37, and the long for $39. The last-generation sleeve is still available for $29.

Full Press Release (www.SFBags.com)
Link to Product

New Betavoltaic batteries mean 30 years on a charge

In the next two to three years expect to see Betavoltaic batteries hit the market, which could allow notebook computers to run for 30 years on a single charge.

Read More (Laptoping.com)