Panasonic announce new Core i5 and i7 laptops

The new Core i5 and Core i7 mobile CPUs are already finding their way into some products. Panasonic has announced that the Japanese version of the Toughbook laptops, known there as Lets Note, will be getting some speedy new Nehalem-based processors. The new rugged offerings will come in four flavours.

The S9, N9, and F9 will have a Core i5-520M CPU. Screen sizes range from 12.1 inches (S9 and F9) up to the 14.1 inch screen on the F9. This screen will probably look quite nice with a resolution of 1440 x 900. The real gem here is the R9 model which will have a Core i7-620M, 250GB HDD, and 2GB of DDR3 RAM crammed into a chassis the size of a netbook. A 10.1 inch screen with that kind of power makes for a desirable ultraportable computer.

A Japanese launch is scheduled for February 17th. No word yet whether these new laptops will find their way here.

Notebook Improvements For 2009

The laptop world is currently being swept away by a wave of low-cost netbooks. Critics and reviewers alike are raving about the little brother of the the larger traditional notebooks, and the consumer it seems cannot get enough, with demand for the smaller versions continuing to grow.

So what is the notebook sector doing about the competition from its cheaper, minature laptops rival?

Netbooks, whilst ideal for children, students or businessmen on the go, is not necessarily to everyones tastes or needs, so for those still requiring a more traditional laptop it is interesting to see just what new specifications are on offer this year.

Notebooks are progressing with time, with each new model attempting not only to outdo it’s rivals but also the previous models supplied by their own company. The specifications are becoming more extravagant to meet the growing expectations of laptop enthusiasts, and in some cases, so are the retail asking prices! 

Until fairly recently standard hard disks with capacities of 250GB or 320GB were the norm but, amongst the current models 500GB is becoming more common with most manufacturers offering that choice including Panasonic, Samsung and Asus. Several machines have SSD drives as a main system drive alongside a normal disk for storage. 

Whilst the price of the machines at the top end of the market may have increased, the features included have improved dramatically. HDMI ports and eSATA sockets were rarely seen in the laptops of yesteryear but now theyíre so common that it’s unusual when they arenít included. Hardcore gaming addicts will not be disappointed with the improvements neither. Graphics hardware has seen an improvement in notebooks with plenty of machines equipped with ATI chips, including the Alienware M17 which was the First laptop with explosive ATI CrossFireX graphics.

Features like Blu-ray drives were rarely seen, but are now common on any laptop with a screen large enough to handle HD resolutions.

DisplayPort outputs are now also more prominent. The Apple MacBook Air and Pro now including Mini DisplayPort instead of Mini DVI of previous models.

Performance and innovations from notebooks of today and tommorow continue to grow as quickly as some of the price range, but whilst the smaller netbooks are currently in fashion for some, the steady demand for better and better netbook laptops remains for others.

Anti-theft software closes the net on laptop thieves

Laptop theft is on the increase and figures from the Federal bureau of Intelligence estimates losses due to laptop theft in the US alone cost companies more than $6.7 million dollars in 2005. The Computer Security Institute found the average theft of a laptop to cost a company £60,000.

The computer industry and associated security sector are constantly coming up with new anti theft gadgets, devices and software to combat the growing trend in laptop theft.

Security analysts reveal that laptops connect to the Internet soon after they’ve been stolen, and some security software is able to track the location of the laptop, enabling the owner to call the police to catch the thief and retrieve the laptop.

The software is hidden and stays on the system even if the thief tries to wipe the hard drive. The US makers of Laptop Lojack say they can locate a laptop within minutes and they get three out of every four back.

The way it works is we put a piece of software in the computer and that software is programmed to call home, home being out monitoring center, on a daily basis, said Affect Strategies Rich Cohen.

We engage with local law enforcement to get an understanding of where the computer is calling from. They go after the bad guys and we get it back, Cohen explained. Whilst that software is only currently available on the US market, Absolute Software’s ComputraceOne is available for UK laptop owners.

The software connects the company’s monitoring centre to a machine every 15 minutes if it is reported stolen, enabling police to locate stolen laptops that access the Internet

A laptop’s information is only tracked in the event of a theft and the software can only be disabled by the specialised team at Absolute Software, this is the case for all well known brands of laptops for example panasonic, toshiba, sony and samsung. Police and laptop owners hope the growing number of security measures will increase conviction rates among criminals, providing a future deterrent and eventual reduction in laptop thefts.