Lenovo disputes reliable laptops survey results

Last week, we reported on the SquareTrade survey that hailed Asus and Toshiba as the most reliable laptops around, but Lenovo have taken serious umbrage and hit back with vengeance.

Lenovo didn’t come out too well in SquareTrade’s comparative analysis of laptop brands, with the company now attempting to discredit the research methodology.

SquareTrade looked at laptop reliability based on 30,000 laptops from various brands over a three year period, claiming that Lenovo’s notebooks were not as reliable as those manufactured by the likes of Asus, Apple, Toshiba, Dell, and Sony.

Ray Gorman, executive director of external communications at Lenovo, claims that the “total number claimed in this report is not a statistically significant sample for a study where no attempt is made to control key variables affecting repair rates, such as comparable machine types, end users, geography, and applications.”

He goes on to argue that SquareTrade “has a vested interested in showing scary failure rates as they have done here [as] they are in the business of selling after sale warranties,” adding that Lenovo’s internal data shows that its own laptop failure rates are “two-thirds lower than what is claimed in the Square Trade survey.”

“This study is full of holes, the method is flawed, the data is inaccurate, and the conclusion is wrong,” the Lenovo man adds.

Toshiba laptop trade-in scheme gets underway

Far-east tech giant Toshiba is looking to lure potential customers into buying one of its new Windows 7 laptops by stumping up £150 in cash for your old one.

In addition to a bit of cash heading your way, Toshiba is promising it’ll recycle your old machine, refurbishing it and reselling or disposing of it in an environmentally friendly way.

To qualify you have to first buy a new Toshiba laptop running Windows 7 and then head over to the dedicated Toshiba Trade-In website to register your details and input information about the old device.

Once the Trade-In procedure is complete, Toshiba will send the appropriate payment by cheque or Paypal within ten days.

The Toshiba Trade-In programme kicked off yesterday and will run until 31 January 2010 – so if you’re interested and you have old laptops lying around, this might be a good opportunity…

Toshiba strike touch-screen deal for laptops

Toshiba have struck a deal to integrate N-trig’s DuoSense technology into its Satellite U505 laptop which it has just introduced ahead of Microsoft’s launch of its Windows 7 operating system. N-trig did not disclose details about the deal but estimates are that it will be worth millions of dollars annually for the Israeli company because of the large number of laptops sold each year by the Japanese electronics company. N-trig CEO Amichai Ben-David said, “Toshiba’s clear vision for the consumer, combined with our strong multi-touch solution, significantly changes the way that consumers of all ages can now interact with their laptops. With our DuoSense solution, users now have a new range of options to interact directly with their computers, enabling them to play instruments and games, to schedule their daily calendar, or even finger-paint directly on the screen. We believe that this type of interaction will become the standard for all computers.”

Toshiba laptop release breathes life into gaming market

Toshiba have unveiled their new laptop relear – the Qosmio X500 Series, a new line of multimedia and gaming laptops that feature an Intel Core i7 processor, Windows 7 and Intel’s turbo boost technology.

Toshiba’s press statement is full of the obligatory praise-singing, so we’ll pull out the bits you want to hear. The Qosmio X500 comes with 18.4-inch diagonal widescreen display, DDR3 system memory, dual hard-drive configurations, as well as NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M graphics with 1GB of GDDR5 video memory. Some models come with an integrated Blu-ray drive.

Toshiba laptops have always faired well with gamers, and the company feels the new series will allow users to ‘rip through the latest 3D games at lightning-fast frame-rates’ and create HD video and audio faster and efficiently with smooth rendering and encoding.

Toshiba begins integrating Blu-Ray into laptop range

Toshiba, the once staunch defender of HD-DVD, has given in to the power of Blu-Ray and added the P500 to its Satellite laptops range.

The 18.4-inch machine has a 1920 x 1080p LCD display to appreciate the BD addition, as well as an HDMI REGZA link. But the cherry on the icing on the cake is that the Super Drive will also burn Blu-Rays and upgrade DVDs and any other video content to 1080p quality.

The machine runs on an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU with 4GB of DDR RAM and an HDD storage of up to 500GB. Being a true multimedia PC, there’s also NVIDIA graphics support too. In the way of connectivity, there’s three USB 2.0 ports plus an eSATA/USB too, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a 5-in-1 Bridge Media port, Express Card slot and even FireWire.

Plus, with built-in Harmon Kardon speakers, you’ve got yourself a pretty stunning machine. Well, once it’s released in October that is. Stay tuned for further info and Toshiba laptop deals.

Toshiba announces new Satellite laptop range for summer 2009

Toshiba Computer Systems Division today announces the European launch of its new Satellite consumer laptop series, featuring four models designed to deliver against a wide range of consumer demands.

Comprising four new models, the new Satellite range has been developed to offer personal computing solutions to different user segments – from the casual everyday user to those looking to manage and create their own multimedia. The range also sees the introduction of a new touchpad with Multi-Touch Control and a unique Eco function that offers users the ability to manually control – and thus reduce – the amount of energy used in day-to-day computing tasks.

Toshiba’s new Multi-Touch control pad, available on Satellite A500 and U500 models, allows users greater control over their PCs using just the trackpad. Reducing the reliance on conventional scrolling and hard keys, the Multi-Touch control pad provides the ability to use fingers to pinch, swipe or rotate using the trackpad alone, making the new Satellite models the most intuitive yet.

The new range also offers advanced tools that allow users to monitor and manage energy consumption. All models feature Toshiba’s Eco utility management system – a tool that allows users to reduce the amount of energy being used while the PC is in operation. Users can easily monitor their power usage, thanks to an easy-to-use graphical tool that allows the user to control the power consumption while the PC is running tasks.

Details of all four new Toshiba Satellite ranges can be found at uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com

Toshiba Computer Systems Division today announces the European launch of its new Satellite consumer laptop series, featuring four models designed to deliver against a wide range of consumer demands.

Comprising four new models, the new Satellite range has been developed to offer personal computing solutions to different user segments – from the casual everyday user to those looking to manage and create their own multimedia. The range also sees the introduction of a new touchpad with Multi-Touch Control and a unique Eco function that offers users the ability to manually control – and thus reduce – the amount of energy used in day-to-day computing tasks. Toshiba’s new Multi-Touch control pad, available on Satellite A500 and U500 models, allows users greater control over their PCs using just the trackpad. Reducing the reliance on conventional scrolling and hard keys, the Multi-Touch control pad provides the ability to use fingers to pinch, swipe or rotate using the trackpad alone, making the new Satellite models the most intuitive yet. The new range also offers advanced tools that allow users to monitor and manage energy consumption. All models feature Toshiba’s Eco utility management system – a tool that allows users to reduce the amount of energy being used while the PC is in operation. Users can easily monitor their power usage, thanks to an easy-to-use graphical tool that allows the user to control the power consumption while the PC is running tasks.

Toshiba Computer Systems Division today announces the European launch of its new Satellite consumer laptop series, featuring four models designed to deliver against a wide range of consumer demands.

Comprising four new models, the new Satellite range has been developed to offer personal computing solutions to different user segments – from the casual everyday user to those looking to manage and create their own multimedia. The range also sees the introduction of a new touchpad with Multi-Touch Control and a unique Eco function that offers users the ability to manually control – and thus reduce – the amount of energy used in day-to-day computing tasks. Toshiba’s new Multi-Touch control pad, available on Satellite A500 and U500 models, allows users greater control over their PCs using just the trackpad. Reducing the reliance on conventional scrolling and hard keys, the Multi-Touch control pad provides the ability to use fingers to pinch, swipe or rotate using the trackpad alone, making the new Satellite models the most intuitive yet. The new range also offers advanced tools that allow users to monitor and manage energy consumption. All models feature Toshiba’s Eco utility management system – a tool that allows users to reduce the amount of energy being used while the PC is in operation. Users can easily monitor their power usage, thanks to an easy-to-use graphical tool that allows the user to control the power consumption while the PC is running tasks.

Google Announces Partners For Chrome OS

Following Google’s announcement of plans to unveil their new operating system, Google Chrome, they have now released more details – specifically which brand partners will be involved.

Acer,  ASUS,  Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and Toshiba are on the list of notebook manufacturers that Google will be working with. The glaring omission is Dell, whilst MSI, who have been heavily involved in the netbook space for the last year, are also missing. Sony are also nowhere to be seen as of yet.

Google is also working with Freescale, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments all which make ARM processors for the emerging class of smartbooks.

It’s anticipated there will be more partner announcements in the next couple of months.

Toshiba Mini NB200 Joins The Mini Laptop Army

Toshiba have announced the release of it’s very own small soldier to join the growing army of mini laptops on the market. The Toshiba NB200 is the companies latest venture into the mini notebook market and is the successor to the NB100 which made it’s debut last September.

This Latest mini laptop is an ideal companion looking for consumers looking for a PC which combines reliability, functionality, with style and panache. Complete with a striking new ultra thin design, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition as standard, and a near full-size keyboard this laptop provides stiff competition for it’s rivals. 

Available in brown, black, white and pink, Toshiba provides a colour option to suit almost any taste. The Mini NB200 features 10.1in widescreen TruBrite LED backlight display (1024×600) perfect for browsing the internet.

Consumers can pick the specifications to meet their laptop requirements with a choice of 1.6GHz IntelÆ AtomÆ Processor N270, or the new, more powerful Intel N280 AtomÆ Processor, with a clock speed of 1.66GHz. The standard three cell battery has a life of up to four hours, but an upgraded six cell battery also available delivers an impressive nine-hour life from a single charge.  Both models also feature the IntelÆ 945GSE graphics chipset, which provide ample power for internet browsing, emailing, running basic PC applications and enjoying digital media.

HDD protection Integrated Hard Disk Drive (HDD) storage of 160GB provides extensive storage space, whilst the 3D-accelerometer monitoring system protects the HDD from the falls, shocks and vibrations inevitable when on the move. 

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) allows easy internet connection, whilst the integrated 0.3MP webcam provides an option for online video and teleconferencing whilst on your travels. Three integrated USB 2.0 slots are also included featuring including one which incorporates Toshibaís innovative Sleep-and-Charge technology, allowing users to charge mobile phones and mp3 players, when the mini NB200 is turned off.  The new Toshiba mini NB200 laptop is also ENERGY STARÆ 5.0 ready . 

The Mini NB200 is available from May 2009, with prices starting from £319.

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.