Wednesday, June 11, 2008

X300 vs Envy 133 vs MacBook Air... Fight!

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Suddenly the 13.3-inch ultra-portable market is looking a might bit crowded. At the same time, it's never looked better now that we have the choice of Lenovo's X300, Apple's MacBook Air, and Voodoo's just announced Envy 133. Decisions, decisions.

ThinkPad X300
Envy 133
MacBook Air
0.73 to 0.92-inches
0.70-inches
0.16 to 0.76-inches
2.9 to 3.1-pounds*
3.37-pounds 3 pounds
13.3-inch LED
13.3-inch LED
13.3-inch LED
1,440 x 900
1,280 x 800
1,280 x 800
Removable Battery
Removable Battery Not Removable
Ethernet External via USB adapter
3x USB 1x USB, 1x USB/eSATA 1x USB
DVD External External
1.2GHz Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo
GMA X3100 GMA X3100 GMA X3100
SSD only SSD only (?)
HDD or SSD
Vista Vista Vista or OS X
$2,700 to $3,000* $2,099 starting $1,800 to $3,100*
Business minded Instant on Voodoo IOS Cuts cake
*Depending upon configuration
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Blackberry OS 4.6 for 9000 / 9500 gets detailed

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/308813573/

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We had heard that the introduction of the BlackBerry Bold (9000) / Thunder (9500) could usher in the long-awaited BlackBerry OS 4.6, and now we're just about ready to believe it. A new listing over at Horizon Wireless Online details the forthcoming operating system, and notes that it will bring along richer browsing (which entails a whole host of improvements), click zooming with the trackball, Music Sync, an option to select Home screen grid size and support for continuous spell checking (among other things). Hey RIM, can we get that "richer browsing experience" on say, the Curve / Pearl?

[Thanks, Peter]
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Digifriends MID coming to US via Sprint / Nextwave

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Unfortunately, we've yet to hear if the Digifriends MID we toyed with at CES will be updated before launching in the US of A, but either way, you can bank on it coming. Reportedly, Peter Kim, the project supervisor at Digifriends USA, has informed Pocketables that the unit spotted in January will be arriving Stateside with "contracted sales through Sprint and NextWave." Pricing remains a mystery, but we're told to expect said unit to be available "very soon." The edge of our seat can barely take all of this pressure.
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WhiteKnightTwo scheduled to rollout in July, fly in September

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WhiteKnightTwo
While much of the attention surrounding Virgin Galactic's race to space tourism has surrounded its SpaceShipTwo, word has come that carrier ship WhiteKnightTwo will rollout in late July, and after some ground tests, take to the skies by September. With this rollout come some new details about the composite, twin-boom mothership, which Virgin Galactic is selling as an "open architecture" that they are clearly open to pimping for other applications. Says Prez Will Whitehorn, "WhiteKnightTwo is the world's most advanced payload carrier. It has the best fuel efficiency of any aircraft ever built in history. It is the world's first 100% carbon composite aircraft." They are even looking into using WhiteKnightTwo as a forest fire water bomber with its payload capacity. Nonetheless, we care because the giant ship that will carry rich people to space at $200,000 a pop is going to be flying by September. Press passes please?
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Researchers show off flexible, band-aid-sized tactile display

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We've seen tactile displays of all shapes and sizes, but none quite like this latest creation from a group of researchers at Korea's Sungkyunkwan University and the University of Nevada, which promises to be at your disposal whenever you need it. That's possible thanks to the electroactive polymer material the display is based on, which consists of eight layers of tiny actuator films that have been sprayed with electrodes in a specific pattern, allowing the skin to be stimulated without any additional electromechanical transmission. In addition to making it possible to wrap the display around your finger like a band-aid, that also makes the system extremely power efficient and, apparently, cost effective and easy to manufacture. As with other tactile displays, the researchers say this one could be especially useful as a braille display for the blind, although they don't see any shortage of other potential applications, with them foreseeing it being used in everything from virtual keyboards to tele-surgical gloves.
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