While HP mistakenly claims that its sparkly new (but previously rumored) TouchSmart tx2 is the world's first multi-touch consumer notebook, we're still decidedly stoked about this here convertible tablet. Boasting a 12.1-inch swivel display (LED-backlit) that's just dying to have your prints all over it, the tx2 will come loaded with Windows Vista, a bezel-mounted fingerprint reader, integrated webcam with microphone, Bluetooth / WiFi, stereo speakers, a 5-in-1 multicard reader and a LightScribe SuperMulti DVD burner. HP's also delivering the oh-so-stylish Reaction Imprint exterior, an AMD Turion X2 dual-core processor, the firm's own MediaSmart 2.0 software, a VGA output, Ethernet and at least one USB port from the looks of things. You're supposed to be able to add one of these to your digital shopping cart right now via HP's own webstore or Amazon.com, but both links currently lead to sections of the intarwebz you don't ever, ever want to see. Hold tight -- we've a feeling HP will be getting really official with this one momentarily. Check Laptop's hands-on with the unit in the video after the break.

Read - TouchSmart tx2 microsite
Read - Hands-on with TouchSmart tx2

We just got the official announcement of Celio's REDFLY C8N a few hours ago, and Laptop magazine's already had a chance to touch it and make a video! Their initial impressions? That $20 REDFLY Media Cable you have to buy to hook the C8N up to your phone is a tangled mess! This is exciting stuff, folks -- that is if you are just dying to shell out $299 for a buddy for your Windows Mobile device. Check out the terrifically brief video of the terminal after the break.

What if you took the REDFLY -- you know, that Foleo-like thing for Windows Mobile phones -- and cheapened it up a bit? Maybe knock the luxurious 8.3-inch display down to a more reasonable 7 inches, lose three hours of battery life, and add $30 to the asking price, for starters? That's the indecent proposal Celio has put together with its new C7 model, trading endurance and screen size for an eight-ounce drop in the original's two-pound frame. Not what you had in mind, you say? Okay, okay, try this, then: the C8N carries over the 8.3-inch display and adds a "REDFLY Media Port" for connecting an iPod, iPhone, Zune, digicam, or pretty much anything else with a composite TV-out for viewing on the 800 x 480 screen -- but the catch is that you'll also need the $20 "REDFLY Media Cable" (sorry, but that really does belong in quotes) to complete the package on top of the cost of the C8N itself. Either way, the new models are still dumb terminals that need juice from a WinMo-based device to function -- so yeah, if your Treo 750's looking a little lonely over there in the corner, the C7 and C8N should fill the bill nicely when they hit in the first week of December for $229 and $299, respectively.

Remember when Microsoft was hit with a lawsuit over its "Vista Capable" stickers? How about when the judge unsealed emails revealing that after a long battle to promote Vista's graphics-intensive Aero UI, it capitulated and lowered the requirements for the sticker so Intel could keep on selling its graphically-challenged (i.e., WDDM noncompliant) 915 chipset? Yeah, that was awesome. Connoisseurs of corporate drama should appreciate the latest development -- the judge has made public a second batch of emails revealing that MS execs were at odds about that decision. Senior VP Will Poole apparently made the call to appease Intel, but co-President of Platform & Services Jim Allchin (along with many others who had been fighting for the other side for months) was "beyond being upset," saying "this was totally mismanaged by Intel and Microsoft. What a mess." The mess he was referring to: an unhappy partner in HP, which had spent millions to meet the old standards... and presciently, the lawsuit we're watching now. Alright, maybe not so awesome for everyone.

Ah yes, one more item to tick off the yes it runs Crysis checklist: Fujitsu Siemens' GraphicBooster hooked up over PCI Express 2.0 to an AMILO Notebook Sa 3650. While ATI's XGP tech is pretty sweet, the Fujitsu Siemens GraphicsBooster implementation only works with the Sa 3650 laptop according to the spec sheet. Shame. For everyone else there's ASUS' ROG XG Station. Peep that 470% performance gain over the Sa 3650's Radeon HD3200 graphics in the video after the break.

[Thanks, Hero_p]

Man, you just can't win these days. So Apple offers up an energy-efficient, forward-thinking Mini DisplayPort on its latest MacBook / MacBook Pro, and now users that are still rocking displays sans HDCP-compliant HDMI / DVI ports are up fecal's creek without a paddle. Apparently select content in the iTunes Store is laced in HDCP, which isn't all that unexpected in and of itself; the problem comes in when you realize that the new unibody machines don't offer a VGA / VGA-to-component output, meaning that you have to connect it to an HDCP-compliant display if you want to see anything. We know, one word in particular keeps coming to mind to describe this fiasco: awesome.

The Eee PC 901 has always been the sweet spot model in ASUS's alphabet soup of a netbook line, and the 901GO launched today in France makes it even more desirable with a larger 8700mAh battery and a faster 16GB SSD capable of 50MB/s writes and 87MB/s reads. Of course, you can get the same 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and 8.9-inch screen in the 900A for $280, so the new 901GO's €399 ($505) pricetag seems perhaps a bit much, but the cutting edge ain't a cheap place to live, kids.

[Via Electronista]

[Via Impress]

You know the drill: for $399 you buy one OLPC XO laptop and a second is sent to a child somewhere in the developing world. Same deal as last year only now with the help of Amazon's powerful retail reach. Devices begin shipping in about 30 days -- a bit longer outside the US. Naturally you can also just gift the $199 laptop direct to a kid of OLPC's choosing. About the quickest way to become a donor short of meeting a hotel stranger in possession of roofies and a bathtub full of ice.

[Via PC World]

Read -- US site (live)
Read -- UK site for rest of world (limbo)

Okay, so maybe Samsung isn't entirely new to the laptop game here in the USA, but for its first line of self-branded lappies, the Q310 ultraportable didn't fare half bad in its first review. Critics over at Laptop Mag found the design of the 13.3-incher to be "handsome," the performance "smooth" and the endurance to be satisfactory enough. It also pointed out that the glossy display wasn't incredibly distracting as with other machines we've personally reviewed, and while they had a tough time finding anything major to harsh on, they couldn't help but point out that the $949 ThinkPad SL300 was likely a better value. 'Course, if money ain't a thang, you're probably safe to make a purchase here.

It was inevitable, really -- now that ARM processors are bound for netbooks and the like, it follows logic that ARM would tag team with Canonical to bring along Ubuntu support. The two firms have collaborated in order to "bring the full Ubuntu Desktop operating system to the ARMv7 processor architecture (targeting the Cortex-A8 and Cortex -A9 in particular) to address demand from device manufacturers." They even go out of their way to assert that this is all about bringing Ubuntu to "new netbooks and hybrid computers," though we're still hopeful that the OS will find its way into even more diminutive ARM-powered devices in the future. Sadly, you'll have to wait until April of 2009 to see the fruits of this so-very-special relationship.

[Via CNET]

You know good and well you were instantly jealous of the multi-finger gesture support announced for those minty fresh new Mac laptops, and if you're finally ready to ditch that envy you've been harboring and just get even, have a look. Without even resorting to gangsterism, users of pre-October 2008 Apple laptops can get the four-finger Exposé and Application Switching working -- all's that required is the install disc from a unibody MacBook, a little tweak of the registry and a pinch of patience. We can't say for sure how far back this hack will go (we're guessing your PowerBook G3 is out of luck), but we do know that it works just fine with a January '08 MacBook Air. Give it a go if you're a risk taker, but don't blame us if your atoms start to melt.

[Via MacRumors]

When we first laid eyes upon the slick box pictured above, we were struck with an eerie feeling of déjà vu. Now, it all makes sense. After receiving an all-but-completely-dead MacBook, one particular modder decided to rip the motherboard out, break out the soldering iron, throw in a few replacement parts and shove everything into a Macally G-S350SUA aluminum hard drive enclosure. Wanna know why? Because he had a peek at this -- a Mac Pro Mini mod that popped up here in March. Talk about taking inspiration and improving upon it.

[Via Hack-A-Day]

It seemed earlier this week that AMD's new Conesus chips would take on Intel's dominant Atom platform in the netbook market, but it sounds like that was just wishful thinking -- according to CEO Dirk Meyer, the chipmaker is "ignoring the netbook platform" in favor machines "above that form factor." AMD says that it's seeing high return rates on netbooks, a phenomenon it's chalking up to an unsatisfactory user experience on smaller machines. Of course, that doesn't quite jive with the sales numbers being posted by Acer, ASUS, and HP -- and although return rates are indeed higher for Linux machines than for XP, we're puzzled as to why AMD cares about anything other than raw chip sales to OEMs, since we were under the impression that that's how AMD makes money. Of course, really smart companies don't just sell what people want, they convince people to want what they sell, and that seems to be AMD's tactic: it says that the higher-powered, dual-core Conesus with ATI RS780M graphics will deliver a full-featured user experience that more people will spring for, even if it's in a slightly larger package. We'll see if this strategy plays in the market -- while we'd love to see a machine like the Inspiron Mini 12 with some real horsepower in it, it's hard to argue with a $280 Atom-based Eee.