Hasta La Gadget!

Dell Vice President of Sales and Marketing Michael Tatelman started off the company’s 2010 CES press conference by saying, “Today is going to be all about mobility and new technology.” Supporting this point are Dell’s new 11-inch laptop, the Alienware M11X, and a 5-inch Android tablet.

The Alienware M11X is what some would define as a mobile gaming laptop, with its 11-inch display and weight of about 4.8 pounds, but it offers all the parts to make it a semi-fine gaming computer. It runs on the Nvidia GeForce GT 335M GPU and uses Intel’s new Ultra Low Voltage processor. On top of all this, Tatelman says, the machine can run Crysis and Call of Duty with all the settings on high. The battery, according to Dell, will run for about 6 hours. The M11X will retail for under $1,000.

PCMag laptop analyst Cisco Cheng had the chance to catch a glimpse of the concept tablet Tatelman showed off. The given specs were few, being more of a tease. What we know: It runs on the Android OS and has a 5-inch display.

To read the full CES story, go here.

Updated. JetBlue now says they’ve returned Live TV and entertainment to all of their flights. Wow, things change fast.

Original post. New security regulations put in place after last week’s terrorist incident aboard a Northwest Airlines jet are going to make flying into the US difficult, boring and unpleasant, at least for a little while.

First, the good news: both Virgin America and Southwest confirmed that new regulations don’t seem to affect domestic US flights. So laptops, Live TV and other distractions are still A-OK if you’re flying within the USA.

The problem comes for folks flying into the USA from elsewhere. According to rules quoted on Gizmodo, you can’t hold anything in your lap or access your carry-on bags for the last hour of a flight, and any in-flight communications equipment, including live TV and Internet, must be turned off for the entire duration of the flight. Airlines have so far interpreted this to mean that you can read an analog book, but not use a laptop during that final hour. It’s unclear whether this prohibits iPods or other gadgets that could be stored in a pocket rather than a lap.

But wait! It gets worse! JetBlue confirmed to me this morning that because they can’t unravel their Live TV system from the rest of their in-flight entertainment, they’re turning off all in-flight entertainment on flights from foreign countries into the US. That means no movies for the whole flight (although you can use your laptop, except for the final hour). They’re working on a solution to allow for movies on flights into the US, they said.

JetBlue only flies relatively short international routes, mostly to and from the Caribbean. We haven’t heard details from any longer-haul carriers who don’t have live TV integrated into their entertainment systems.

Fortunately, reliable airline analyst Chris Elliott says that several of the security bulletins involved expire on January 1, which means that this draconian regime may be short-lived.

For a full guide to the new security regulations – independent of gadgets – check out Frommers.com.

Acer on Tuesday introduced its new TravelMate Timeline series of ultra-thin notebooks intended for business customers.

The three versions of the device – the 8571, 8471, and 8371 – include 6-cell batteries that promise up to eight hours of power when the Acer PowerSmart Manager enabled.

The main difference between the three notebooks is screen size – users can select a 13.3- inch, 14.1-inch, or 15.6-inch screen. There is also the option to select 3GB or 4GB of RAM, a 1.3GHz or 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and a 320GB or 250GB hard drive.

All the machines come with 32-bit Windows 7 Professional pre-installed, though Acer will also include a Windows XP Professional CD as well.