Liberty Corner Computing Company

Archive for December, 2009

THE oversized tote may have been the fashion must-have of years gone by, but handbags are shrinking in size thanks, in part, to multipurpose gadgets such as iPhones.

Instead of lugging around giant custom bags bursting at the seams with mobile phones, MP3 players and in some cases a laptop computer, women are increasingly turning to smaller shopping bags, stylists and retailers say.

A UK study found the average woman’s handbag weighed 1.5kg last year - half the 3.5kg they were carrying two years ago.

University student Martyna Wiencierz, 20, tries to stick to smaller customized bags and said the advent of iPhones had made this “so much easier”.

Seagate earlier this week announced a new thin, low-end hard disk drive which the company hopes will spur the creation of a new class of thin laptops. At 7mm thick, the 2.5-inch Momentus Thin drive is 25 percent slimmer than other hard disk drives in its class, yet spins at a healthy 5,400 rpm and comes with a SATA 2.0 3Gbps interface. These specifications allow the drive to compete well against standard 9.5mm height 2.5-inch laptop drives when it comes to performance and power efficiency.

While slim, the retention of a 2.5-inch form factor allows the Momentus Thin drive to “provide the lowest-cost storage for netbooks and thin laptops” wrote Seagate in a written statement, comparing it favorably against much more expensive solid state drives as well as 1.8-inch hard drives. The drive is scheduled to ship to resellers in January, though no suggested retail price was announced by Seagate.

Just after introducing X600 Pro laptop a couple of days back, MSI has added yet another X-Slim model X350 notebook to its lineup. Along the lines of Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) processors, the newly introduced MSI X350 features Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and up to 500GB storage, reported HotHardware. Pricing and availability details were not disclosed.

The ultraportable X350 notebook that weighs 1.5kg including the battery and measures less than one inch thin. Like a step up higher version of the existing X340 model, the new X350 boasts of CULV Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 2GB 667MHz DDR2 RAM and up to 500GB storage. With 13.4-inch LED Backlight display, the X350 offers 1366×768 pixel resolution support enabling users to watch HD movies in 16:9 aspect ratio.

Portrayed as a luxury class notebook, MSI boasts of using Magnesium alloy and added glossy effect through its Color-Film Print technology. The chassis of X350 has been designed using lozenge-motif etching technology that gives sparkling diamond pattern effect. Along with that, MSI adds a chiclet keyboard to make it look sleek, trendy and luxurious.

Other features in X350 and X340 practically remain the same - Intel GMA 4500MHD, Wi-Fi (b/g/n), Bluetooth, a built-in 1.3 megapixel web cam, 2 HD audio speakers, HDMI out, two USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet Port, D-Sub port, and 4/8 cell battery pack.

MSI claims that California modular company users can achieve 9-hours of battery life on X350 with its lithium-polymer battery when used with Eco technology mode. Pressing the Eco key offers user to choose between five different modes - word processing, watching video content, gaming, presentations and Turbo battery for power saving. Of course, MSI count’s on the Intel’s CULV processor.

We assume this new notebook will be shown at the upcoming CES 2010 convention.