Colorware Makes MacBook Air Even Sleeker

MacBook Air owners can now spend even more cash on style thanks to ColorWare. The computer personalization company will paint your MacBook Air for $500 to $700 depending on how many surfaces you colorize.

ColorWare has 35 colors to choose from and will paint your MacBook Air solid. If you’re really tasteless creative you can paint your notebook’s lid, hinges, palm rest, mouse button, case bottom and Apple logo all different colors.

You can either send in your own MacBook Air to be painted or you can buy one new from ColorWare for $2,589 and up. There’s a 3-4 week turnaround on the custom paint jobs.

ColorWare will paint all of your non-MacBook Air notebooks and electronics as well. The company does an excellent job in colorizing components, but you’ve really got to LOVE the color you’re choosing because it’s not a cheap process and it’s nearly impossible to sell your notebook once it’s been so heavily customized.

Guide to the New MacBooks and MacBook Pros

Apple updated its MacBook and MacBook Pro lines with faster Intel processors and higher capacity hard drives. The MacBook Pros now feature a Multi-Touch trackpad and NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with up to 512MB of video memory. The 17-inch MacBook Pro can be ordered with a LED display for the first time.

Apple will continue to offer three MacBook, two 15.4-inch MacBook Pros and one 17-inch MacBook Pro retail configurations. All three notebooks can be customized at Apple’s online store.

If you’re considering switching from a Windows-based notebook to a MacBook for the first time remember that Apple’s a luxury brand and there is no budget MacBook. You may also miss some features which are standard on many PC notebooks that cost much less. None of the new MacBooks or MacBook Pros come with built-in card readers, docking ports, extended battery options or a remote control for example.

ModBook Demo

Notebooks.com first took a look at the ModBook, the first MacBook Tablet at MacWorld 2006. Veronica of Maholo Daily caught up with the CEO of Axiotron, the company behind the ModBook and some artistic-types who are already using the ModBook professionally.

The ModBook starts at $2,200 and the inventor admits the market for a Mac tablet is too small for Apple to go after directly.
Check out this video and you’ll see how a DJ, a photographer and a cartoonist use the ModBook.

ThinkPad X301: Thinnest ThinkPad Gets 128GB SSD

Lenovo’s introduced the ThinkPad X301, which is replacing the X300. The ThinkPad X301 is about 20% faster than the previous model and can be configured with a 128GB solid state drive, which is double the original storage capacity.

I’ve recommended the X300 to several friends and they all absolutely love their new ThinkPads. The ThinkPad X301’s improved performance and roomier drive just make it that much better.

The ThinkPad X301 is the thinest notebook on the market with an integrated optical drive.

If you’re considering buying an X300, wait a couple of weeks for the X301. I don’t have solid pricing info on X301’s the 128GB solid state drive, but strongly recommend getting it if your budget allows. 64GB isn’t a whole lot of room since you have to account for both the Windows operating system and recovery partition.

HP EliteBook 2530p Announced (video)

HP’s introduced the EliteBook 2530p, a thin and light 12-inch business notebook that can be configured with dual hard drives and either ULV or LV processors. I sat down with HP’s Kyle Thornton to take a close look at the 2530p last week.

The 2530p feels extremely solid and I really like some of the features HP’s loaded into this thing. At the top of the 12.1-inch LED display is a 2MP Webcam that can be used to scan business cards into Outlook.
One thing I liked about the 2530p is how its extended batteries fit at the rear of the notebook without raking the base of the notebook.

Like the rest of the EliteBook line, the 2530p has an ultradurable case that’s scratch resistant.

The EliteBook 2530p will start at $1599.

Toshiba Launches P4 Notebooks

Toshiba has released a new line of notebook computers with Intel's new mobile Pentium 4 chip.

The new consumer Satellite 5105 and Satellite Pro 6100 for mid-sized business customers will ship with 1.7GHz mobile Pentium 4 chips built on Intel's NetBurst architecture, said Masa Okumura, director of portables and worldwide product planning for Toshiba's Computer Systems group.

Toshiba will also use the chip in the Tecra 9100, aimed at corporate users.
The faster processors should help speed various multimedia applications such as streaming video and gaming. In addition, the Pentium 4 chip includes hyper-threading technology that can let one chip appear as two processors to the operating system, helping a PC-run numerous applications at once.

While the Pentium 4s do increase software performance, Okumura said that with normal usage battery life would be about 15 minutes to 30 minutes shorter with the new chips. Users should expect around two hours of battery life with normal usage.

The Satellite 5105 comes with a LCD touchpad call the cPad. Located on the main body near the keyboard, the cPad has a black and white display that allows users to launch applications such a calculator or clock and to input signatures.
Users can set their own grayscale pictures as the cPad's background and customize the control panel to run various programs, Okumura said.

The Satellite Pro 6100 is targeted at small and medium-sized businesses and touts 256M bytes of DDR SDRAM memory, a 40G byte hard drive and Nvidia's GeForce4 420 Go GPU. The notebook also includes built-in support for 802.11b and Bluetooth wireless technologies.

The Satellite Pro 6100 arrives in mid-March, starting at $2,399.The high-end Tecra 9100 also ships with 802.11b and Bluetooth support, along with 256M bytes of DDR SDRAM memory and 40G byte hard drive. The notebook starts at $2,829.

AMD Athlon XP for Notebooks

Extending its focus on the mobile computing market, AMD, the microprocessor major, has introduced its new Mobile AMD Athlon XP Processor.

The new processor is based on AMD's state-of-the-art 0.13 micron technology featuring AMD PowerNow, power management solution and QuantiSpeed architecture, that offers optimal performance of Windows XP operating system.
The new product is targeted at the notebook manufacturers. This new product has been evolved as a next generation processor incorporating the winning features of both Athlon XP and its earlier mobile processor Athlon 4 processor 1600+.

"Mobile AMD Athlon XP Processor is available in India. But we do not expect the Indian market to show great sales as there are very few notebook manufacturers in the market here. But if there are manufacturers who want to use this new product, it is available for them," said Rahul Singh, Senior Market Specialist, AMD India.

Sharp has already announced notebook PCs in Japan based on this processor, while Compaq has been using Athlon 4 processor 1600+ for it laptops.

The Mobile Athlon XP processors 1400+ and 1500+ are being shipped in the beginning of this quarter. While models 1600+ and 1700+ are expected by later this quarter.

This product is seen in direct competition to Intel's recently launched Mobile Pentium 4. According to some resellers in Delhi, AMD's Athlon processors for desktops have been seeing a good market response due to its pricing and speed, which they claim is nearly 20 times that of Pentium 4.

According to an IDC analyst, the launch of this mobile AMD Athlon XP processors will help AMD consolidate its position in the consumer market and will help thrust it into the mobile computing arena.