Mendelson Tiu

Fujitsu unveiled a notebook designed for travellers and professionals. The P770 uses the latest i7 processor from Intel, weighs 1.4 kg, and can last up to 6.5 hours.

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The LifeBook P770 has a magnesium cover, features a spill-resistant keyboard to protect the motherboard from accidental spills, and has 3D Shock Sensor which uses an advanced 3D accelerometer to protect against damage to the hard disk from vibrations and shocks.

In addition, the company said that the LifeBook P770 provides up to 6.5 hours of battery life with further extension of up to 1.5 times if the ECO button is utilised. Activating the ECO button instantly switches the P770 to a power saving mode for low power consumption tasks like simple Internet surfing or playing your favourite songs.

Te LifeBook P770 has a 12.1-inch bright SuperFine WXGA back-light LED screen with 300nits brightness and has an HDMI output connector that can be used to hook the notebook up to an HDTV.

Finally, the LifeBook P770 is equipped with a built-in 2.0 Mega Pixel camera and microphone for smooth and seamless communication through optimized Voice-Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) while on the move.

The Fujitsu LifeBook P770 is available now starting from $1899. A 3G model is also available for $3099. 

Leading consumer advocate organisation Choice has slagged off printer manufacturers and has accused them of selling inks at exorbitant prices.

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Tests with 13 multifunction printers showed the cost of ink could be extortionate. Choice says that if you printed five B+W pages, three colour pages and one photo every day for a year costed over three years one brand would cost $9436 to run.

And while you can buy cheaper genuine replacement cartridges overseas, you often can’t use them with the Australian-bought printer because the microchip attached to the ink cartridge must match the country.

“They do this to stop legal parallel importation (also known as grey importation). Another effect of the addition of a chip is that third party ink manufacturers have a much harder job competing,” says the report.

Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn said, “The printer manufacturers own the patents for the chips which means third party competitors can’t legally copy them. The competition is frozen out and consumers pay more.”

See choice.com.au for the full multifunction printer review and comparison.

Fujitsu has launched the M1010, a netbook that promises ‘true mobility’ for today’s Internet-savvy generation.

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Fujitsu PC Australia’s Country Director, Mr. Ivan Chan said, “Casual users who are looking for a constant personal companion that allows them ultimate connectivity and essential functionalities at a non-hefty price tag will find that the M1010 truly meets their needs for a richer, fuller user experience.”

Fujitsu has optioned the Fujitsu M1010 with a set of removable Color Lids in shades of Red, Pink, Bronze, Blue and Black. And if you have a favourite design or character, just use the bundled free transparent Color Lid to show off that special design.
 
The M1010 comes with a ThinkFree Mobile Office Suites that is compatible with Microsoft Office documents and offers value-adding services such as online storage (www.thinkfree.com).

According to Fujitsu, the ThinkFree Office software feature will help you work on your powerpoint presentations, spreadsheets or word documents just about anywhere, anytime and with a user interface you are familiar with.

The Fujitsu M1010 is available now with an RRP of $699.

See: au.fujitsu.com/pc

NEC wants to have a piece of the ultraportable PC pie with the launch of its new netbook.

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The N1100 comes built-in with 802.11b/g wireless LAN, Gigabit LAN, a 0.3-magapixel web camera, and an anti-glare LCD panel to reduce reflection.

The standard glide pad was replaced by NEC in favour of an “NX Pad” that claims to add gesture functions that ‘enable intuitive operations dramatically improving ease of operation.’ For example, moving two fingers apart of together on the pad magnifies or reduces the fonts of web pages, while pulling the finger away from the pad moves the mouse pointer to the edge of the screen.

NEC Computers Australasia’s Marketing Manager, Darren Brain said, “The launch of the NEC VERSA N1100 adds a new category to NEC’s extensive range of personal computing products, catering to a new segment of users with a new set of needs.  Users can now enjoy the total freedom of internet access and replying to emails on the move.  This is representative of our continuous dedication and commitment to the personal computer market.”

NEC VERSA N1100 Specifications

• Intel Atom processor N270 1.60GHz
• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2
• 8.9″ WSVGA display (1024 x 600) with Anti-Glare Coating
• Intel 945GSE Express Chipset
• 160GB SATA Hard Disk Drive (5400RPM)
• 1GB DDR2 RAM
• 2 Speakers (1W each)
• 3 USB 2.0 Ports
• Gigabit LAN and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi
• 3-in-1 Memory Card Reader (MS/SD/MMC)
• 0.3MP Webcam
• 3 Cell Li-Ion Battery

Availability and Pricing

The first model in the series becomes available for sale in Australia in the second half of November 2008 with an expected RRP of $749.

See: www.nec.com.au

The Scorpio Black hard drive from Western Digital comes with a couple of features to protect important data.

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WD’s vice president and general manager of mobile storage, Jim Morris said, “In today’s busy and on-the-go lifestyle, notebook systems play an increasingly pivotal role in the home office and are relied upon to efficiently run sophisticated applications. High performance, high-capacity hard drives are a key ingredient to notebooks as system manufacturers continue to add data-hungry features that allow users to fully benefit from the latest computing technologies.”

 WD Scorpio Black Exclusive Features:

IntelliSeek – IntelliSeek technology calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration. 

SecurePark – WD’s SecurePark parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long term reliability due to less head wear, and improved shock tolerance.

ShockGuard – WD’s ShockGuard technology protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks during shipping and handling and in daily operation.
 
Free-fall Sensor – As an added layer of protection, if the drive (or the system it’s in) is dropped while in use, WD’s free-fall sensor detects that the drive is falling and, in less than 200 milliseconds, parks the head off the disks to help prevent damage and data loss.

WhisperDrive – WD’s WhisperDrive technology combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms that result in one of the quietest 2.5-inch drives on the market.

Product Summary

Manufacturer: Western Digital
Product Name: WD Scorpio Black
320GB RRP: $319
250GB RRP: $259
160GB RRP: $189

See: www.westerndigital.com

Lenovo has announced four new ThinkPad PCs, the T410s, T410 and T510 laptops and the W510 mobile workstation that uses the new Intel Core dual-core processors.

Lenovo Australia and New Zealand Product and Marketing Director Chris Kelly said, “ThinkPad laptops are built for business with the performance, portability and wireless capabilities users need and the manageability, reliability and durability IT departments require. These latest enhancements in processing speed, battery life and wireless technologies will help users work faster and longer.”

The T410s provides a thin and light design with full performance for extremely mobile users, while the T410 and T510 are designed for full performance for mainstream business users. The high performance W510 mobile workstation fits the needs of professionals in data and graphics demanding fields.

The W510 has four memory slots for up to 16GB of DDR3 memory, supports an Intel Core i7 quad core processors,  and also offers the Nvidia Quadro FX  880M GPU with 1GB VRAMAs. It is also the first ThinkPad to offer USB 3.0, allowing users to transfer data 10x faster than USB 2.0. 

The W510 also comes with an optional multi finger touch screen.  Lenovo includes the SimpleTap application to help make navigating the touchscreen simple.  The W510 also has added an optional colour calibrator, first debuted in the ThinkPad W700 mobile workstation, to help ensure the most accurate colours on its high gamut full high definition screen.

The T410s is now available with Nvidia switchable graphics with 512 MB of VRAM so users can balance a visually intense graphics experience with energy efficiency and battery life.

The laptops are also certified under Lenovo’s Enhanced Experience program for Windows 7. This means they start up significantly faster than identical configuration, non optimised PCs. For example, on select Think PCs, Windows 7 starts up to 56 percent faster compared to running Windows XP or Vista and shuts down in as little as five seconds.

For added convenience, a powered USB port comes on all the new PCs and can be used to charge MP3 players, phones and other devices when the PC is on, on standby or off (if plugged in).

The new laptops also improve the typing experience with larger Escape and Delete keys. Since Lenovo found users hit the Delete and Escape keys up to 700 times a week on average, the sizes of these keys have been increased starting with the T400s laptop.

Lenovo is also offering a new nine cell slice battery on the T410, T510 and W510 laptops for up to 21 hours of battery life. The laptops also offer optional 3G connectivity leveraging EV-DO and HSPA wireless networks with Qualcomm Gobi 2000 technology.

The ThinkPad T410s, T410, T510 and W510 laptops are available now, with pricing for models starting approximately at $2399 for the T410s, $2499 for the T410, $2349 for the T510 and $3999 for the W510.

BenQ has unveiled the world’s first Full HD range of displays. The T2200HD, E2200HD, M2200HD, E2400HD and M2400HD are the world’s first native Full HD 1080p16:9 LCD monitors featuring 100 percent mapping to 1080p content.

With the release of these three 22″ (21.5″ viewable) and two 24″ 16:9 models BenQ is able to offer a traditional LCD Monitor that provides Full HD 1080p resolution and aspect ratio.  Spreading across BenQ’s T, E and M Series LCD displays, the new models will debut later in September, offering value performance and extreme multimedia capability.

With 100% dot-for-dot matching to Full HD materials, BenQ’s new 16:9 large screens deliver 1080p content such as Blu-ray movies and PS3 games without distortion, blur or the need for resizing.  Viewable area is likewise optimized as black bars are totally eliminated.  

BenQ Australia’s Managing Director, Phil Newton said, “Once again we are leading the world with lifestyle design and convergent display technologies. The new HD series of LCD monitors provide Full HD viewing capability and merges it perfectly with traditional and future computing and video platforms. Our upcoming Full HD lineup, in sleek LCD form, makes 1080p viewing luxury a convenient possibility for all aspects of daily life, reaffirming our core competency in display innovation and our relentless pursuit of bringing enjoyment and quality to life through seamless merging of work and play.”

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The E2200HD and E2400HD

The T2200HD represents the most cost effective 22″ (21.5 viewable) ever produced with Full HD 1080p native resolution. The T2200HD has a 5ms response time, 10,000:1 DCR (Dynamic Contrast Ratio), D-Sub VGA and DVI (HDCP) inputs

E2200HD & E2400HD

The E2200HD and E2400HD deliver uncompromised visual enjoyment of high definition content with a native Full HD 1080p display. The 10,000:1 DCR and 300nit brightness render dark details in razor-sharp clarity along with a rich, vibrant display of 16.7M colors. Senseye+photo instantly optimizes viewing for all home and office applications, while gaming and video are enhanced by integrated speakers, headphone jack, and a fast 2ms response time.  Additionally the E2200HD & E2400HD features include HDMI, DVI-D (both with HDCP), D-Sub for VGA, 2ms GTG response time and Windows Vista Premium Certification. 

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M2400HD and M2200HD Full HD monitors

Both the M2200HD 22″ (21.5″ viewable) and the M2400HD 24″ offer native Full HD 1080p for the ultimate home multimedia experience.  Internet chatting is made possible with a 2.0M webcam, integrated speakers, and microphone.  Future-proof HDMI and DVI-D (both with HDCP) deliver easy connection to HD gaming consoles, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes and a 3 port USB Hub makes interconnectivity seamless.

Gamers and movie fans are catered for with a headphone jack, D-Sub, and super-smooth picture quality via the fast 2ms GTG response time.  Senseye+photo Human Vision Technology, a proprietary digital image enhancement engine, additionally fine-tunes depth, clarity, and boldness with five preset modes – Standard, Dynamic, Photo, Movie and sRGB.  Exceptional dark detail definition is afforded by a high 10,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio, which automatically adjusts the display’s backlight to optimize light levels for every scene.

The 22″ and 24″ range of 16:9 1080p Full HD LCD displays will be available throughout Australia in late September.

See: www.benq.com.au