Oh! Gizmo

By Luke Anderson

Going to the airport is always a hassle. I don’t care how prepared you are, it’s always a pain. Going through security is always the worst, having to take off your shoes, take out your laptop and even getting those wonderful random searches through your luggage. At least one company is working on making one of those annoyances a thing of the past.

Skooba Design is working with the TSA on creating a laptop bag that is “checkpoint friendly.” These particular laptop bags will be allowed through the checkpoints, with laptops still inside. These will simply unfold on the belt, allowing screeners to see the laptop just as well as if it were resting in a separate bin. This should definitely help to speed up the lines, provided that the idea actually catches on.

[ Skooba Design ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Evan Ackerman

Were you up at 12:01 AM checking the MSI website with an itchy credit card like I was? No? Well, good. You saved yourself some beauty sleep. Although you can pre-order an MSI Wind subnotebook right now, it’s not going to ship until June 27 (which, incidentally, is the same day Wall-E comes out). It’s also not going to ship with the 6-cell 5.5 hour battery, which for me, is one of the things that makes it so appealing. Instead, you’ll get a 3-cell battery and a slightly cheaper price. Super, super lame.

It looks like 6-cell models should start showing up in July, but there’s no firm date so don’t get your hopes up (I’m getting my hopes up anyway). If you’re looking for someone to blame, try LG Chem… Since their battery factory burned down laptop batts have been harder for manufacturers to come by, but production should be restored by Q3 of this year.

Update: looks like it’s sold out. Meh, oh well. Who wants a 3-cell version anyway.

[ MSI ]

By Evan Ackerman

Straight from Computex comes some specs on Asus’ response to the sudden deluge of competitively featured and priced subnotebooks from the likes of MSI and HP. The Eee 1000 is a souped-up Eee 900/1, with a larger case to accomodate a 10″ screen (same 1024×600 resolution, I think) and nearly fullsize (92%) keyboard. You’ll be able to buy it with Windows XP if you want, and even with a conventional 80gb HD. The biggest news is that the battery life is supposedly over 7 hours and it includes 802.11n WiFi.

It sounds great, but there are two problems, in my opinion. The first is conceptual: at over 10″ and 3 pounds, the Eee 1000 is approaching the edge of ultraportability, and is moving away from one of the most appealing features of the Eee 701… Tinyness. The second problem is practical: the suggested price is somewhere around $650, which (again) is departing from of the greatest things about he original Eee. $500 seems to be the magic number, and paying an extra 30% for about another hour of battery life and 802.11n in a larger package (compared to the MSI Wind, specifically) just doesn’t seem worth it to me.

VIA [ Engadget ]

By Luke Anderson

If you’re looking for an ultraportable laptop, you have plenty of options to choose from. The latest of those being the Wind from MSI. It packs a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 80GB of storage 1GB of RAM, a 10-inch (1024×600) display and Windows XP Home. All for just $499.

I have to say that this looks mighty tempting. I’ve been looking for something a little more portable than the laptop I have now, and this one seems to fit just about everything I need. It also includes features like 802.11b/g, Bluetooth and a webcam. Battery life is expected to be right around 5.5 hours.

You’ll be able to get your hands on one starting June 16th directly from MSI. Also, if Linux is your thing, you can wait until July and get one without the Windows tax for $399.

VIA [ MSI ]

By Evan Ackerman

If you can’t afford a Panasonic Toughbook or a General Dynamics GoBook but you find yourself trying to be productive in wet and dirty environments, you might want to consider dropping 20 bucks on this glorified Ziploc bag from Thanko. The bag, which looks to be generally laptop-shaped (thereby differentiating from the far cheaper and most likely heavily patented Ziploc), slips over your entire computer and seals at the bottom, protecting most of your computer from inclement weather, rogue sandstorms, wayward bird droppings, or angry children throwing ice cream cake.

The cover isn’t completely waterproof, as there are vent holes at the back to keep your computer from baking itself, so it will most likely not respond well to submergence. But for you klutzy or adventurous laptop users, it could be $20 well spent.

[ Thanko (Translated) ] VIA [ Technabob ]

By Evan Ackerman

I do a lot of moaning about lack of desktop real estate when it comes to computers, but even I can’t fathom the purpose of this Xentex Flip-Pad Voyager “laptop.” It looks like somebody hacked it down the middle with a machete, and the entire laptop does in fact fold in half (twice) to make it slightly more portable. The eye-catching feature is, of course, the dual 13.3″ (1024 x 768) screens, one of which rotates completely around so that you can… Uh… Give a presentation? Or something? While the 12 pound weight and 20″ width are a bit of a turn-off, the huge size allows for a disgustingly large and spacious keyboard, as well as a high resolution trackpad that works as a drawing tablet with the included stylus.

The Xentex Flip-Pad Voyager dates from late 2002 or early 2003, when it was available with an Athalon 4 (remember those?) up to 1.6GHz, 512mb of RAM, and ports up the wazoo, for a decidedly corporate $5000. The version currently on eBay is only about half as fast (and it needs some work), but the bidding is currently well under $1000, so if you’d like a bizarre new computer to play with, this could be your big chance.

[ eBay ] VIA [ Engadget ]

By Evan Ackerman

If the Asus Eee 700 just a little bit out of your price range at $300, have a look at the Bestlink Alpha 400. It costs only $250, or if you’re willing to buy a hundred of ‘em, only $180. At under $200, the Bestlink Alpha 400 is practically disposable. So what do you get for that? No surprises: it’s pretty bleak. It comes with a 400mHz CPU with 128mb of RAM, 1 or 2 gigs of memory, an SD slot and USB ports, and a 7″ 800×400 screen. It will, of course, be running some flavor Linux.

This is pretty seriously bare bones, but if you commit to a laptop that is only for email/internet, paying under $200 (I have no doubt that they’ll be showing up online for that much) is appealing. Personally, I can’t survive on that, and I just have to have a little more. I’ll be paying nearly three times as much for that little bit extra in the form of the MSI Wind next month… Is it worth it? I really don’t know yet, I guess we’ll see.

[ Bestlink ] VIA [ Engadget ]

By Luke Anderson

I always thought that the OLPC project was a wonderful idea. I don’t know what I would be like today without technology in my life as a youth. I can’t even imagine what it would be like for a kid to have almost no access to technology of any sort. Sure, the project didn’t quite keep things under $100, but still,I think they did a great job. But what about version 2.0?

Here are some shots of what the team is working towards for the second iteration of the device. It really seems too good to be true. First, you’ve got two screens, both of which are touchscreens, then the fact that it will only consume a mere 1 watt of power. That seems a bit far-fetched, but its the $75 price tag that really gets me. We’ll check back in 2010 and see how this thing looks.

VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Luke Anderson

When I take my laptop somewhere, I usually just toss it in my backpack (it’s meant to tote around laptops). It isn’t particularly stylish, but it gets the job done. If you’re looking for something that stands out a little more than the average laptop case, this one might be for you.

I can bet that if you walk around with one of these, you aren’t going to run into many people with the same one. Of course you’re probably going to get a lot of strange looks, since it is rather strange. I can’t say it is something I’d ever be caught dead using, but I’m sure that someone out there will just love it. There’s not much to tell about it that a picture can’t say. We do know that it’s made from vinyl and will be available at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair this weekend. No word on pricing.

[ 25togo ] VIA [ Doobybrain ]