DigitMemo.com

Dell’s first entry into the Tablet PC market will command big bucks

Nearly seven months after the Latitude XT was first shown to the world, Dell is finally making its first Tablet PC available to consumers. Dell says that its new 3.53-pound Latitude XT is a ground-breaking device and is among the thinnest and lightest in its class.

The 12.1″ Latitude XT has both pen and capacitive touch technology. Capacitive touch allows users to manipulate items on the screen without the need to apply pressure directly to the display.

Click for more on Dell Announces $2,499 Latitude XT Tablet PC »

The first tablet by top enterprise PC maker Dell could be a step toward bringing tablets from their traditional markets into the mainstream.

After an article appeared on the Engadget Web site Dec. 6, a Dell spokesperson confirmed that the PC vendor will unveil its new tablet offering—the Latitude XT—at a Dec. 11 event.

In May, Dell first revealed through its Direct2Dell blog that it would offer a convertible tablet PC by year’s end that would be geared for the enterprise and several vertical markets, including health care and education.

Click for more on Dell Tablet News Leaks Out »

Even though the 4GB version of Asus’ elfin Eee PC isn’t exactly easy to get hold of, some system sellers have started taking advance orders for the as-yet-unreleased 8GB model.

Set be available in both white and black versions, the 8GB solid-state disk Eee PC comes with 1GB of DDR 2 memory - double that installed in the 4GB model.

Like that machine, the 8GB incarnation has 802.11b/g Wi-Fi; three USB ports; a 10/100Mb/s Ethernet port; a 7in, 800 x 480 display; and a 900MHz Intel Celeron M ULV processor underclocked to 630MHz.

Here in the UK, one reseller, Clove, is offering the 8GB Eee PC on pre-order for £304.32 - around £84 more than the average price of the 4GB model. The unit is due sometime in Q1 2008.

Click for more on Sellers price up 8GB Eee PC »

AnandTech reviews ASUS’s much talked-about Eee PC

The “Eee” in Eee PC is an acronym of sorts, because computer people love those. “Easy to Learn, Easy to Work, Easy to Play”; “Excellent Internet Experience”; “Excellent On-the-Go”. Look at the ASUS Eee webpages, and you will find a preponderance of the use of words starting with “E” used to describe the Eee PC. One acronym you won’t see used is UMPC, but while the Eee PC is certainly different from your typical UMPC - it lacks the touch sensitive stylus interface and it runs Linux by default - it can certainly fulfill the same niche if necessary, with some caveats. Considering it costs half as much as the cheapest UMPCs, anyone looking for such a device should give the Eee PC some consideration.

Click for more on ASUS Eee PC: Laptop, UMPC, or Something Else? »

ASUS to bring more to the table with the Eee PC 8G

ASUS’ new Eee PC 4G is undoubtedly a hit with consumers and reviewers. The device is small, lightweight and performs quite well despite its aging processor and chipset.

The Eee PC 4G, however, hasn’t been without its criticisms. Many consumers have pointed to the device’s limited 4GB solid-state disk (SSD). That problem can be mostly alleviated, however, with the addition of a high-capacity SD or SDHC card to be used as secondary storage.

Click for more on 8GB, 10" ASUS Eee PC Slated for 2008 »

The oft-rumoured Apple Tablet PC is actually very real, and on its way soon.

CNET claims to have spoken to an anonymous tipster at Asus who claims to be working with Apple to produce the tablet. ‘We’re guessing it’ll be based on Intel Core architecture, a tweaked version of Leopard, and have all the multi-touch, CoverFlow goodness we’ve seen in the iPhone and iPod touch.

Click for more on Asus Insider Claims Apple Tablet Is Real »

ASUS’ original “$199 laptop” debuts at nearly $300 on Nov 1

One of the more anticipated pieces of technology to hit the market, the ASUS Eee PC, has been the subject of many articles on news sites. NotebookReview has managed to snag a slide from a presentation showing the U.S. price points for the Eee 2G Surf, 4G Surf, and 4G models. None of them are the original, much-touted $199; in fact, the price for the model originally flaunted by ASUS is no less than double that at $399.

Click for more on ASUS Sets U.S. Price Points for Eee PC 701 2G/4G Models »

Nokia today rolled out a new Internet tablet, which has evolved into a portable entertainment platform that comes with a slide-out keyboard and a GPS receiver.

The new N810 is not quite what we would call a revolution, but it is a solid improvement over the preceding N770 and N800 tablet PCs and pretty much represents what Palm’s recently scrapped Foleo companion device should have been.

Click for more on Nokia upgrades its Internet tablet »

NotebookReview.com have put together a very useful guide on the pros and cons of Solid State Drive storage

I thought I would put this guide together to help the NotebookReview.com community as SSDs (Solid State Drives) are coming upon us so quickly and the interest seems to be going through the roof. Since my first article ‘Comparing SSD Performance to Mechanical SSD Performance in a Dell Laptop’ and consequently, my follow up to that ‘Showdown at Big Sky — Sandisk 32GB SSD Vs. Seagate 160GB 7200RPM HD’, the interest in the SSD has become overwhelming with respect to messages I’ve received from people, questions and advise given.

Instead of continuing to answer all of those questions individually, this guide is an attempt to answer basic questions about SSD that people have.

Click for more on An Introductory Guide to SSD Storage »

Tests show some clear benefits–but other results were inconclusive.

When they were introduced a couple of years ago, hybrid hard drives seemed enticing. Pairing a standard hard drive with a flash component sounded like a good way to deliver on the theoretical performance boosts that flash can offer while still providing the long-standing price, capacity, and performance benefits of hard disks.

We looked at Seagate’s Momentus 5400 PSD drive, announced today, and Samsung’s SpinPoint MH80 drive, released this summer. Both models are 2.5-inch, 160GB notebook drives with 256MB of nonvolatile flash memory cache on board. The hard-drive industry concentrated on introducing the new technology in laptop drives because notebooks would be more likely to reap the benefits that hybrid tech promises, including faster boot time and power savings.

Click for more on Tested: New Hybrid Hard Drives From Samsung and Seagate »