FEATURES STILL MISSING FROM MACBOOKS

An entire line of revamped MacBook laptops are waiting to be launched. They are feature-rich, but still lack in some areas. Here are a few features we would like to see in MacBooks.

Matte screens
Most laptop buyers love matte, non-glossy screens, but Apple MacBooks don’t have them. The MacBook Pro do offer a matte option, but that is in the form of an anti-glare coating add-on costing $50.

Blu-ray drives
Many notebooks in the price range of MacBook include Blu-ray by default, but MacBooks don’t have them. Since MacBook is multi-media friendly adding a Blu-ray drive will only add to its value.

Mobile broadband options
More and more people prefer to have a mobile broadband account connected to their laptop. The HP Mini 1151nr Netbook, for instance, comes with a built-in Verizon 3G. MacBooks don’t give this option.

HDMI outputs
Apple MacBook does come with a video connection of its choice – the Mini DisplayPort. It also offers some helpful adapters for other video connections like DVI and VGA. But still it is not possible to connect a new MacBook to an HDMI-equipped TV.

DELL XPS M1730 – STILL UNBEATABLE

Though we have seen an impressive line of laptops with cutting edge technologies, the Dell XPS M1730 still remains unbeatable in the gaming arena, both in price and performance. This is mostly due to the fantastic customizing options offered by Dell. The options are virtually limitless and the price invariably shoots up as you upgrade the basic version. The XPS M1730 packs a Core 2 Extreme X9000 mobile CPU running at 2.8GHz, 4GB DDR2 RAM, dual 320GB 7200RPM HDD, a pair of GeForce 8800M GTX cards in SLI, a USB ports for HDMI, S-Video, Firewire and Express Card , Bluetooth/WiFi and of course a webcam. You can take a step further and opt for a 3.4GHz processor, Blu-ray and WWAN too. The result of such a mix is mind blowing but this pack will weigh you down by almost 10.6lbs ruling out mobility. But this ensemble is aimed as a desktop replacement for extreme gaming and mobility doesn’t factor into it. If you still brave it out and decide to travel with it, you can opt for a 9 cell battery that will give you some life saving time. Moreover, you will have to dish out a whopping $4000 for this package which will vary depending on your specifications. But it will be money well spent as Dell XPS M1730 is the fastest and the most powerful gaming laptop that you will be able to find on the shelves for that price.

MSI WIND REVIEW – STILL BREEZES AROUND EVEN WITH VISTA ONBOARD

The world of net books are exploding every moment, But the extent of the high end operating system which means there is no chance, because the price would spike up, But the MSI Wind with the Vista loaded on board spells something different, read on to reveal more.

Design
Almost all mini laptop producers are shunning Windows Vista, and manufacturers are whirling towards Windows XP or Linux. Some say it is for the reason that the operating system is a reduced amount of bloat and more authority efficient, while others declare it is just cheaper to buy. In view of the fact that I have had the frame of mind that Vista only requires a few mild tweaks before it suffers like an enhanced XP, I decided to pull the elicit and load Vista onto our MSI Wind.

Performance
MSI doesn't officially shore up Windows Vista on the Wind, and has no drivers particularly labeled for occupy in Vista. When I 1st stacked Vista onto our Wind, I was a bit troubled since the wireless LAN and wired LAN were not functioning from the initiate. Devoid of a network association you are in actual fact out of luck, so this was a make or break state of affairs. I bowed to the MSI driver site and strong-willed to give the XP drivers an inoculation, and turns out they work with no or any problem. Same goes for the wired LAN and then card reader drivers which are ultimately pulled in via Windows Update once I had an internet connection.

The next stride was getting the Intel GMA 950 running, which was as uncomplicated as pulling a driver pack from the Intel site. Audio drivers labored from the beginning, so now the laptop was good to go. An additional Vista perk was the ceaseless "wireless connection" class windows which would not impede popping up in XP by no means came up while running Vista. Either the drivers worked superior, or Vista just suppresses those communications. I was extremely happy to not have to agreement with closing those maddening pop-up messages any longer.

I anticipated battery life to be similar, if not a bit inferior than XP. Vista has more things always working in the backdrop, the system utilizes more of its RAM, and Vista is overstuffed right? Much to my shock, battery life turned out to be relatively enhanced under Vista: almost 20% healthier than Windows XP under the identical conditions.

Conclusion
While Windows Vista avails a lot of bad press these days, it isn't for all time the nastiest operating system choice for laptops. In our speedy testing of Windows Vista on the MSI Wind, not only did it provide us a pleasant bump in presentation, but we also gained precious battery life. For a packed together sub notebook you actually can't request for more, particularly on the battery life front. For now I believe Vista is here to hang about on our MSI Wind.
Pros
+ Battery life Enhanced
+ Compact notebook capable of Vista
Cons
- Definite drop in graphics quality

Value For Money

Our Rating

ECS PREDICTS TO STILL GAIN MARKET SHARE

Like in the midst of all the men once in the running to be the ‘The Bachelorette’s new beau’, it takes an assortment right now to position out in the mini-notebook marketplace. How could it not? You encompass ASUS flooding the marketplace with loads of EEE PCs, and MSI’s Wind is the whole lot we could have desired in a net book for a critically reasonably priced price. But Taiwan-based companies like Gigabyte and ECS haven’t been deterred and are springing up with novel, ground-breaking means to hang about in the game.
We strut with ECS vice president of sales Henry Kwan who predicts his company’s G10IL entrance will bring incredible new ones to the market. Kwan shared that the G10IL will:

• Encompass EDGE, HSUPA, and HSPDA mobile broadband sustain. It will not possess WiMAX hold up, like the Everex Cloud Book Max.
• Come in 2 display-size variations: an 8.9-inch and a 10-inch. The 10-inch flaunt will be the most probable to hit the U.S. market.
• Be accessible in the U.S. starting in September. There will be an 8GB SSD variant sprinting on Linpus Lite 9.4 Linux and an 80GB hard drive variant running Windows XP. Pricing will begin at $399, but the least pricey systems will not comprise 3G options.
• Will be the 1st mini-notebook intended and marketed for business usage, not learning.

A WAR WITHIN - XP STILL OUTCLASSES VISTA

With relation to a statement from Evans Data Corporation, only 8 percent of developers are budding software for Vista. Approximately half (49%) are mounting software for XP, and even Linux enlargement surpasses Vista's at 13%. Vista sustains to fail to formulate evolution in business environments; most are clinging with Windows XP. Even though the numbers say the other way, Vista's circumstances is not as awful as that it seems. Most software printed for XP will also run on Vista; the 2 operating systems are commonly compatible with each other. Hardware shore up for Vista has greatly enhanced since its liberate over a year ago, and now more or less all hardware unconfined over the past quite a few years should labor with it.

FLAW IN GOOGLE’S SECURITY SPOTTED – IS GOOGLE STILL SPAM FREE?

Popular email service provider could probably be utilized as an open-relay head waiter for spam. In recent times, a Gmail protection flaw was exposed which would spin the fashionable email service into a fortunate thing for spammer evils. According to the sources, the Internet Security Research Team, running Google's SMTP service, a spammer assault could propel out thousands of emails devoid of any fear of recognition. The modus operandi bypasses current individuality fraud fortification mechanisms. The flaw hauls in it a grave risk to the Gmail email service, which has long shown off itself on high on security against spamming.