laptop and notebook

We first caught sight of the Asus Eee Keyboard at CES, we were excited by the innovative new form factor. We knew it was a concept that was still months away, but we didn’t expect it to be the victim of repeated delays that put it on the verge of vaporware.

Fortunately for Asus, journalists have gone hands on with prototypes and prerelease versions. The real question is when these will finally hit consumers. According to Engadget, the Eee Keyboard has been delayed once again, now holding an April release window.

Word of the new April release date came from Asus chairman Jonney Shih during a post-press event Q&A session. While the chairman has previously promised dates that have come and gone, hopefully this one will be the one to finally stick.

IBM unions Alliance @ IBM said Tuesday, IBM laid off another 1,700 employees, most of which the United States government departments, staff, and this number may also continue to increase. Alliance @ IBM had disclosed yesterday, IBM has laid off nearly 500 employees, but since then the organization has received more separation documents.

Alliance @ IBM National Leader Lee Conrad (Lee Conrad), said, IBM job cuts this week’s upcoming activities and spread across multiple departments across the United States. He said: “We are moving from IBM, where employees received a report that said it is training a replacement overseas, he puts being laid off.” Conrad said last year, IBM has been cut in the United States and Canada of 10.4 million employees.

According to a source familiar with the matter said, IBM laid off this year’s expenditures are likely to remain in the past two years, within the same range. According to IBM with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) annual report show that last year IBM layoffs related activities with global spending 4.74 billion U.S. dollars in 2008 compared with 737 million U.S. dollars.

In the past four quarters, IBM’s sales have dropped by three quarters of all, this situation has prompted the company to part of the work carried out on overseas markets. The sources declined to be named, said most of the restructuring costs this year, IBM will come from Europe and Asia.

IBM spokesman Doug Shelton (Doug Shelton) said yesterday: “We are continuing to re-skilled and integrated corporate structure to meet the changing needs of customers.” He said today declined to comment further.

As of December 31 last year, until, IBM’s global workforce of 399,409 people, which means that the number of job cuts in its workforce, the proportion of less than 1%.

Apple announced that it would from May 2006 to December 2007 a very small part of the sale of MacBook notebook computers free of charge to replace the hard disk, but the company has not formally announced a product recall.

Apple said that if the MacBook notebook computer’s hard drive problems, and repairs have been carried out, Apple will compensate for maintenance costs.

The company also announced the launch of “extended maintenance plan,” part of the problem to extend the warranty period of MacBook notebook computers.

The notebook computer’s hard drive problem is very easy to find: computer can not run, if the user attempts to restart, the screen will appear with a blinking question mark folder icon.

Apple’s Web site said: “This plan will involve MacBook models available from three years from the date of purchase maintenance services. Apple will continue to assess the maintenance of data, and further extended to provide the necessary service.”

However, Apple made no mention of a user due to a computer hard drive failure resulting in data loss compensation.

Apple has once again brought a new crisis in consumer electronics.

Jobs bring new again, Apple fans waiting, each time, Steve Jobs holding the hands of the product have been given Steve Jobs’s innovative spirit, giving people unlimited reverie, but this time not the same.

iPad appearance is a Tablet PC, just belongs to notebook category. However, it is extremely light weight, use the iPhone (mobile Internet) operating system, from the perspective of these characteristics, iPad seem to be in smart phones, e-books between the reader and the Internet present.

“From the features, product design, software and content terms, iPad fulfill all the promises,” iSuppli’s senior vice president of DaleFord said, “It is only 499 U.S. dollars initial price of the product even beyond expectations. However, due to iPad across multiple product areas, and its actual usage patterns have not yet been verified, it may be several quarters in the ship, we will know whether the product will revolutionize the industry, the impact of science and technology. ”

This suspicion is not without reason, the screen can be rotated, you can pen-based tablet PCs are nothing new, Dell, Lenovo, Acer Yang had already introduced such a computer, but not yet caused any reaction.

Today, only because it is Apple’s name?

Yes, if the iPod, iPhone, past record of any reference to meaning, consumers may still find their lives very difficult to leave the iPad.

However, such rules of the game is being broken.

Prior to the iPhone, people are concentrated in demand for mobile phone calls, send text messages, take pictures, listen to music, these “hard” indicators. Starting from the iPhone, people began to realize: the phone is now able to have so many day games and various related applications.

In theory, iPhone can be achieved visit www pages, but the traditional wired Internet access can not be applied mechanically moved to the phone, but also, 3,5-inch screen, still limit the integrity of the web page rendering, clever Jobs cleverly set up on the AppStore , “iPhone10 million applications can do almost anything.” iPhone in the advertisement boasts Road, these applications designed specifically for the iPhone, even though three years ago, iPhone is not a multiplicity of species, without changing the performance, but also to an increasing number of consumers willing to draw a good circle in Apple games , recreational pay. It now appears that the iPhone greatly reduced arcade sophisticated trend.

But along with wireless Internet matures, Jobs set up the closed rules are being challenged, bear the brunt of the challenger from Google, “i-Phone no real keyboard … … can not run multiple applications at the same time … … can not shoot 500 megapixel photos … … … … does not allow opening up and development is not interchangeable battery, “Google said in the advertisement, and at the end states,” iPhone can not do any thing, Android have done it. ”

In relation to Apple’s closed, Google is free and open to attract large crowds, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said: “An-droid manufacturers using the number of really imminent explosive growth.”

Shenzhen mimic those highly talented cottage manufacturers crazy, and if the wireless Internet to everyone with open arms, why should we crowded in the AppStore a small world? No matter what Apple has developed products, these cottage manufacturers can keep pace with rapidly within 3 months.

The iPad is breaking its own restrictions on the small screen, 10-inch screen is the mainstream of the Internet in this configuration, it can always log on www to find anything you wanted, where there are 100,000 more than just applications.

Apple wanted to use iPad to inspire a new user behavior and the new usage patterns in order to try and create a new market, but we can see is likely to iPad and professional markets, where many existing products to compete, such as e-books , Tablet PC, and PMP/MP3 player.

Despite the future, because of the ubiquitous network, people need to jump between screens of different sizes, but the iPad would like a computer, cell phone, as a people’s “necessary”?

The iPad simple lines behind the technology of today’s Steve Jobs control, aesthetic vision, and marketing can be able to shine again?

Credit Suisse analyst Jonathan Chaplin (Jonathan Chaplin) Thursday, said Apple may not give up this year, with AT & T’s exclusive cooperation agreement.

Apple and AT & T’s iPhone exclusive cooperation agreement is expected to expire in June this year, the industry generally believe that Apple will be the end of an exclusive partnership and cooperation with Verizon.

However, Chaplin said Thursday, Apple continues to work with AT & T this year, the possibility of cooperation as high as 75%. This means that at least 2010 years, Apple has not been possible hand Verizon.

Chaplin said: “There is no definitive evidence that Apple and AT & T’s exclusive co-operation agreement will expire this year, this possibility is 50%. In addition, AT & T requested the possibility of renewal of 25%.”

Chaplin believed that if it continues to cooperate with the AT & T exclusive, in 2010 in the North American smart phone market, Apple’s share of 26% from 2009 down to 23%.

Chaplin is expected, Verizon is expected to get iPhone in mid-2011 mid-term contract.

As speculation over an Apple tablet laptop battery reaches a crescendo before the January 27 event, analysts offer their insights into what will power the device–or devices, as the case may be.

Richard Doherty, director of technology consulting firm Envisioneering Group, believes that multiple tablets and/or a Macbook with touch-screen features will emerge. So, what’s inside depends on the device. “Anything that’s not a Mac touchscreen, will be an ARM processor,” according to Doherty, who said he believes that Apple, sooner or later, will also bring out a MacBook that has tablet-like features, in addition to tablets.

U.K.-based ARM supplies a basic chip 338794-001 design to a number of chip suppliers including Samsung (which Apple currently uses), Qualcomm, Marvell, Texas Instruments, and Nvidia that then employ the design in their own system-on-a-chip (SOC).

Doherty says Apple is targeting a multi-core ARM processor for the tablet. To date, most ARM-based designs have used a single “application” processing core. The extra processing oomph from a multi-core chip could be used for handling video-related tasks while the user simultaneously works on another task, he said.

Though it’s not clear to Doherty what Apple will use in the first version of a tablet, he says Apple is eventually going multi-core. “Before the year is out, Apple will have the most powerful, lowest-cost SOC in the industry. There’s nothing that I can see from ARM licensees or Intel that could challenge the power-per-watt, the power-per-buck, the power-per-cubic-millimeter of size. Apple is going to have quite a performance, battery efficiency and cost advantage over the competition,” he said, referring to Apple’s 361742-001 own chip design based on technology that stems from its acquisition of PA Semi.

More than anything, multi-core balances processing power with power efficiency, Doherty said. Simply increasing the processor’s speed–typically measured in gigahertz–can quickly drain the battery. Multi-core “is the best way to stretch battery life,” he said.

Apple tablet silicon:
PA Semi application processor: ARM core but internal Apple design

Qualcomm: Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN): device always on

Broadcom: Bluetooth/Wi-Fi

(Source: Ashok Kumar, Northeast Securities)

Doherty believes that there are four Apple products in the pipeline. A touch-screen Mac, an “iPod Touch on steroids” for gaming (with a 5-inch-class screen), and “two different versions of media pads in the 7- to 9-inch (screen size) area,” he said.

And what about the near-term tablet expected on January 27? Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Northeast Securities, believes that initially the tablet will have a Samsung-made PA Semi ARM processor.

Kumar speculates that Apple Inspiron 1501 battery would continue to use Samsung as the chip’s manufacturer as it moves toward its own proprietary chip design. “The core development work will be done by PA Semi but the implementation will be done by Samsung in terms of fabbing (making) the product,” he said.

“Apple will have two different (offerings). Taking a page out of the Google book, one will be subsidized through a (telecommunications) carrier and the other one will be direct through their stores,” he said.

Hon Hai will do the final assembly of the tablet, according to Kumar.

HP laptop battery Enterprise Services today announced that it has received ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management certification for the service delivery components of the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI).

The certification verifies that key processes used to deliver NMCI are continually monitored and improved to support secure communication of mission-critical information. The certification applies to HP organizations and functions responsible for NMCI delivery such as solution development, end-user support as well as D5318,HD438 network operations and management.

The ISO 9001:2008 standard is a set of quality practices that ensures the use of effective processes that are consistently monitored and continually improved. As the industry standard for quality management systems, ISO 9001:2008 certification requires evaluation by an independent, accredited auditing body. Though not required by the Navy, HP obtained the ISO certification as a result of its commitment to provide more than 700,000 Navy and Marine Corps users quality non-stop access to their intranet.

The certification process required HP to implement an ISO-compliant quality management system that established a systematic approach to managing NMCI processes. BSi Management Systems, the third-party auditor, assessed processes for effectiveness as well as the team’s compliance with the established processes. The assessment focused on solution development, network monitoring, network event management, user request management, hardware installation, documentation and records management, problem prevention and correction with other quality management practices within HP’s NMCI service delivery organizations.

“Our focus on continued process improvement fosters increased consistency and efficiency, which enables the Navy and Marine Corps to have their lines of communications open across the world,” said Dennis Stolkey, senior vice president of U.S. Public Sector, HP Enterprise Services. “Obtaining ISO certification demonstrates HP’s commitment to deliver a high level of service to the KD186,GD761 Navy and Marine Corps today and in the future.”

Dell is offering Windows-Linux hybrid laptops that use both Intel and ARM processors. Though the user would never know it.

As pointed out in this EE Times report, entitled “Dell laptop battery has dragged the Linux-ARM Trojan horse inside the Wintel PC,” Dell is offering a processor-plus-OS subsystem separate from the main Windows-Intel system.

The goal is to give users instant access to e-mail without booting up the operating system and extend battery life by running Linux on a very low-power ARM processor. Basic ARM processor designs are licensed by U.K.-based ARM Holdings to companies like Samsung and Texas Instruments, which then manufacture the chip.

This ARM presentation slide indicates Linux is running on an ARM processor in Dell laptops.

(Credit: ARM)

Warren East, president and CEO of ARM, highlighted this subsystem while discussing the company’s 2008 financial results earlier this month. “(There are) interesting hybrid products where PCs are adopting ARM technology alongside Intel technology for functions such as the Internet and e-mail because that gives you much longer 6Y270,75UYF,C1295 battery life as a user,” East said during a 2008 earnings conference call.

Here’s Dell ad copy for its Latitude ON feature: “Dell Latitude ON, a new technology that will enable near-instant access to e-mail, calendar, attachments, contacts and the Web without booting into the system’s main operating system (OS)…on the Latitude E4200 and E4300, Dell Latitude ON uses a dedicated low-voltage sub-processor and OS that can enable multi-day battery life.”

Hewlett-Packard offers an application called Quick Look 2 (PDF) but this works differently than Dell’s system. HP describes it as giving the user “immediate access to information from your Microsoft Office Outlook program…by proactively capturing information and storing it outside your computer’s operating system.”

The newest crop of notebooks and Netbooks are not just leaking but beginning to flood out of reseller sites. The latest: a Costco Canada posting of an upcoming Dell Inspiron laptop based on Intel’s Core i3 processor.

At the Consumer Electronics Show, which starts on Thursday, PC makers will debut laptops using Intel’s freshly minted Core i3 processor, as was previously reported. Core i series processors are based on Intel’s Nehalem microarchitecture. The Core i3 is the first Nehalem chip targeted at mainstream and lower-cost laptops Inspiron E1705 battery.

The Dell offering, at least as posted at Costco, is a bit more expensive than other leaked models from Gateway or Hewlett-Packard, so we’ll have to see how pricing shakes out in the coming the weeks. And note that Costco lists the Intel processor as the “future Core i3 processor,” and further states that “all orders will ship the week of January 17, 2010.”

Dell Inspiron as listed by Costco:
Processor: Core i3

Display: 15.6″ TFT

Memory: 4096MB

Hard disk drive: 320GB 7200rpm

Optical drive: DVDRW

Operating system: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Video card: Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator HD

Price listed by Costco: $1,029.99 Canadian dollars or about U.S.$983.

A tablet or slate computer from Apple was basically all anyone wanted to talk about, and it’s not even a confirmed product yet. As a result, Lady Gaga might be the only thing that was actually at CES 2010 that could even be described as generating large-scale buzz.

We can partly blame both Apple laptop battery and Google for this. Google sucked all the air out of the Las Vegas Convention Center Tuesday, two days before this whole show even got started, thanks to its introduction of the Nexus One phone and accompanying online retail platform for it.

But Apple’s specter has once again haunted the show it doesn’t even attend. It seems the whole PC and consumer electronics industry is waiting with bated breath to find out if Steve Jobs’ infamous tablet/slate PC Inspiron E1405 battery really will come to fruition. We’ll find out on either January 26 or 27–reports are conflicting right now–when Apple is allegedly planning a big announcement to be held in San Francisco.

Speculation regarding such a tablet, which is believed to be a 10- or 11-inch touch-screen device with wireless connectivity and a price tag under $1,000, has been building for more than a year. And perhaps not coincidentally, a flood of news that it might be coming sometime in the early part of this year rushed out in the weeks just prior to this year’s CES. It peaked on Monday, two days before the show’s start, when The Wall Street Journal reported that the tablet, or slate, might begin shipping in March. And you could see its effects the instant the tech world started gathering in the desert for this year’s show.

You could see it in Microsoft’s keynote, where Steve Ballmer revealed a tablet from Hewlett-Packard. HP’s been making tablets for years. Why one of them was suddenly thrust into the spotlight makes more sense when you put it in context: Apple Inspiron E1505 battery might be doing a tablet, therefore there’s going to be a consumer market for it. And everyone seems to want a piece of it.

You could see it at Dell’s press conference too. Besides an announcement that their Mini 3i smartphone would be coming to AT&T, Dell’s biggest news was that they, too, might do a tablet. Vice President of Marketing Michael Tatelman held up a concept prototype device with a 5-inch touch screen, running Android software, and showed a video rendering of what the device, tentatively called the Mini5, might be able to do someday, should they actually go ahead and manufacture the thing. There may or may not be more where that came from, Tatelman cryptically told the gathering of reporters Thursday morning.

“You can imagine that there are other form factors and other screen sizes we’re working on in our labs,” he said. But, he followed it up with, “I can’t commit whether we’ll ever bring it to market or not.”

“Then why show it?” is the natural question. Likely answer: because if Apple does one, they want to be ready to respond with their own model, and of course like any company prototype, they want to show that they’re innovative and forward-thinking.

You could see it in reporters’ questions for executives. At a discussion with Sony’s chairman and CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, the third question following a discussion about 3D TVs was where an Apple A1175，A1185，A1189，M8403 tablet fit into the PC and smartphone ecosystem.

Even in the months leading up to CES, an Apple tablet was top of mind. In September an Archos exec, who was introducing an Android-based tablet of its own, told CNET they’d be glad to be in the same category as Apple because customers will follow: “We’d love Apple to be in this…they will create a market.”

This, if you’ll recall, isn’t the first time Apple’s managed to do this. When MacWorld Expo was held during the same week in January as CES 2007, Steve Jobs stood on a stage in San Francisco and introduced the iPhone. People in Vegas talked about little else tech-related that whole week.

This time, however, might be an even bigger feat. This time, Apple’s managed to turn the attention of the entire tech world away from tech’s biggest stage without actually doing or saying anything.