Toshiba’s just announced a couple new lappies — and a whole host of refreshes — in anticipation of the Windows 7 launch later this month. The big news here is definitely the touchscreen models: The Satellite U505 (due out November 1) is a 13.3-inch, 5 lb device with an MSRP of $1,049.99, while the Satellite M505 (street date October 22) has 14.4-inches of real estate and an MSRP of $949.99. Both come with the touch-ready LifeSpace software package that includes Bulletin Board (some sort of organizer with to-do lists, calendars and the like), and ReelTime, which apparently “helps you find files based on when they were opened using a visual history.” Tosh is promising to ship Windows 7 devices with minimal software running in the background — which is important if you want to retain performance increases that the new OS might provide over Vista.
Also included in this batch of lappies are new Satellite A500s (optional Blu-ray, Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Turion II Ultra CPU, discrete graphics options, a 16-inch HD Edge-to-Edge display on select models, starts at $589.99), Satellite L500 Series (displays ranging from 14 to 17.3-inch, Turion II and Athlon II CPU, hard drives up to 500GB, starting prices range from $504.99 to $579.99), Satellite P500 Series (18.4-inch HD TruBrite display, Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Turion II processors, Blu-ray in some models, starting at $799.99), Satellite L500 Series (up to 17.3-inch display, up to 500GB HDD, and various processor options, starting at $504.99), the Qosmio X505 with an 18.4-inch display and optional 64GB SSD / 320GB HDD dual-drive configuration priced at $1,899.99, and finally the mini NB205, a 10.1-inch netbook with a nine hour battery life, up to 250GB HDD, and five fabulous finishes including Sable Brown, Frost White, Indigo Blue, Posh Pink and Onyx Black (starting at $399.99). PR after the break.
Read – The new Satellite U500 Series Read – The new Satellite M500 Series Read – The new Satellite A500 Series Read – The new Satellite P500 Series Read – The new Satellite L500 Series Read – The new Qosmio X500 Series Read – The new mini NB200 Series
Michael Dell has definitely provided us with a few token quotes before, but his latest spurts over at a Silicon Valley dinner sponsored by the Churchill Club are amongst the best. For starters, he didn’t hesitate to exclaim that “a fair amount of customers” have been unhappy with the small screens and weak innards found in netbooks, which is definitely a perplexing comment to make when you’re making ends meet (at least in part) by moving Minis. Of course, it sounds like the honest-to-goodness truth, but we digress. The money quote came when asked about Windows 7, as he noted that if “you get the latest processor technology and you get Windows 7 and Office 2010, you will love your PC again; we actually have not been able to say that for a long time.” We’re not trying to read too deeply between the lines, but that definitely sounds like a gentle jab at Vista, does it not? Hit the read link for the full schpeel.
And with that, Acer jumps into the touchscreen laptop waters. Due out on the ever-so-popular October 22nd along with Windows 7 is the Aspire 5738PG laptop, with support for two fingers at once pinching, flicking and double touching their way across the OS, or if you’d prefer, it’s also got a numeric keyboard and multi-gesture touchpad. Housed inside is an Intel Core 2 Duo with ATI Radeon HD 4570, a 15.6-inch LED-backlit screen with 1366 x 768 resolution, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, HDMI out, four USB 2.0 in, 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N. Starting price is $799.99, which from what we’ve seen isn’t too bad of a deal. Press release after the break.
Of all Microsoft’sadvertisingmoves, this certainly falls in more clever side of the spectrum. Redmond et al. have announced they’ll be “sponsoring” a November 8th variety special on Fox, “Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show.” The episode’ll be a mix of live-action musical performance and animated shorts with the usual celebrity cameos you’ve come to expect. This show will be commercial free, so long as you don’t count all the Windows 7 that’ll somehow be integrated — and that’s the most interesting mystery of all, how Microsoft will get its brand recognition without too many jabs from showrunner Seth McFarlane and company. If you don’t recall the last time McFarlane teamed up with a big company to enliven its image, check out video from “Burger King presents Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy,” a venture also done in tandem with one of the ad agencies responsible for this new deal, Crispin, Porter & Bogusky. It’s just after the break.
Update: As commenter Zebb reminded us, Bill Gates pulled off a cameo in Frasier “answering caller questions” about Windows XP. We couldn’t help but add it to the post just below, jump to the 2:20 mark for the relevant scene.
More details have finally surfaced on the intriguing Nokia Booklet 3G, Nokia’s first foray into the competitive netbook space. Nokia is partnering with AT&T to sell the gorgeous machine for $299 with a 2-year contract, starting Oct. 22. The Booklet 3G will be available exclusively at Best Buy stores through the holiday retail season.
Unfortunately, a 2-year contract with AT&T for its 3G data services costs $60 a month. That doesn’t really make $299 a very good deal, since the total cost ($299 + [$60 x 24 months]) with the data services is $1,739. The average consumer might do better to purchase the unit for $599 and buy a wireless card or cellular modem.
We really enjoyed getting our hands on the Booklet 3G at CTIA and think it warrants a much closer look. It has an aluminum chassis and a 10-inch screen with 1280-by-720 resolution, weighs 2.76 pounds, and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. The Booklet 3G also offers Wi-Fi, 3G connectivity, GPS, a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom processor, a 120GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, and supposed 12-hour battery life.
Look out for a full review of the slick machine later this month from laptop analyst Cisco Cheng at PCMag.com.
If you’ve heard that the next Engadget Show will be featuring a live, one-on-one interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (on the Windows 7 launch day, no less) — you’ve heard correctly. Additionally, our good friend Bit Shifter will be there providing chiptune jams, and Paris and Outpt will be on hand for some brain searing visual art. And of course, the editors of the site will sit down for a roundtable discussion of the week in news. If you’d like to join us for the live taping, you can — just check out the info below. If you can’t make it in the flesh, don’t worry. We’ll be livestreaming on the day-of, and we’ll also have a full, edited version of the Show available just a few days later for download via the site, iTunes, or the Zune Marketplace.
The Show will take place at the Times Center, part of The New York Times Building in the heart of New York City at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues. Tickets are — as always — free to anyone who would like to attend, but seating is limited, and tickets will be first come, first served… so get there early! Here’s all the info you need:
There is no admission fee — tickets are completely free
The event is all ages
Ticketing will begin at the Times Center at 12:30PM on Thursday, October 22nd, and the show begins at 2PM
You cannot collect tickets for friends or family — anyone who would like to come must be present to get a ticket
Seating capacity in the Times Center is about 340, and once we’re full, we’re full
If you’re a member of the media who wishes to attend, please contact us at: engadgetshowmedia [at] engadget [dot] com, and we’ll try to accommodate you. All other non-media questions can be sent to: engadgetshow [at] engadget [dot] com.
If you can’t make it to the live event, we’ll have a stream here on Engadget (provided by USTREAM) which coincides with the taping. Just tune your browser to Engadget at 2PM on the 22nd to catch it. You can also hit USTREAM proper, where the Show will be featured.
Subscribe to the Show:
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V). [Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V). [RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.
Toshiba’s beastly Dynabook was last updated in April, but at the time, Toshiba was still walking around with its chin up and refusing to integrate Blu-ray technology into its products. Now, however, the 18.4-inch Qosmio G60 (Dynabook MX in overseas markets) is finally bringing together a Cell-based SpursEngine HD video co-processor with a Blu-ray drive, ensuring oodles of movie watching bliss for those mettlesome enough to lug this thing around. Other specs include a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo P8700 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M GPU, 500GB hard drive, 4GB of RAM, twin TV tuners, Windows 7 Home Premium and a 1080p panel. If all goes well, it’ll ship next month (at least in Japan) for around ¥220,000 ($2,457), though your guess is as good as ours on a US release.
Not that there’s any shortage of choice in the touchscreen all-in-one space, but Fujitsu seems keen on covering all the bases with its latest product unveiling. The headline F series (pictured) will be powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 processor, which represents 2.53GHz of ultra-efficient and plenty capable laptop hardware, and 4GB of RAM. Machines can be had in 23- or 20-inch varieties, with respective resolutions of 1920 x 1080 and 1600 x 900. There’s also the MT series of 12.1-inch convertible tablets, which come with WACOM functionality and up to an SU9400 Intel CPU. Perhaps the most esoteric new offerings, however, are the NF/ER (laptops) and F/ER (desktops), which combine the hip new multitouch skills with specially designed keyboard and mouse inputs, as well as a support hotline, all in the name of getting the older generation in on the computing craze. Video lies after the break, or check out the Akihabara News link below for a full gallery of images.
It’s totally not Q3 anymore, but Acer is finally fulfilling its promise to ship an Android-powered netbook, a pre-order page showing up on Amazon offering a reconfigured Aspire One D250. However, the company is apparently a little unsure of its open source OS offerings, so it’s throwing Windows on there as well. Your $349 will get you a dual-booting machine with good ‘ol XP taking up the other partition — a good thing, that, because Android in this application has been said to be half-baked at best. Meanwhile, Acer is also showing off a version of the D250 running Windows 7, which is set to hit Japan next week. Hopefully a Win7/Android super combo will soon be on offer as well, which sounds a bit more tasty than WinXP/Android.
The HP TouchSmart 600 is sort of like a girl I “dated” in fourth grade. I can’t say I loved her, but I can say that I really, really liked her a lot. But the TouchSmart never wore braces.
Price
Starts at $1,050 on October 22nd. $1600 as tested.
Our Configuration
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13GHz, 4GB DDR3 RAM, slot-load Blu-ray player/DVD burner, NVIDIA GeForce GT230M with 1GB dedicated RAM, 23-inch 1080P multitouch display, and a slew of inputs, including 6 USB, a card reader, coax, S-Video, HDMI, audio and composite.
What’s New
This is the third generation TouchSmart. The two-point, IR-based multitouch PC remains thematically unchanged, but the combination of hardware and software is finally gelling. The new stuff includes:
• Windows 7 • HDMI-in • Updated TouchSmart UI • Custom Hulu, Netflix, Twitter and Absurdly Cool Recipe Book Apps • HD Tuning (not CableCard) • Fully customizable LED under-lighting • Tilting webcam
The Hardware
You’ll recognize the body design as almost unchanged from the last generation, but that’s not necessarily a strike against the TouchSmart. While the body is mostly plastic, the high gloss black is unoffensive, and good for making screen colors pop like an HDTV. A majority of the TV-style input set is cleverly hidden behind a panel, should you prefer the seamless look.
As for that screen, it’s as good as any low to mid-tier LCD HDTV, but its multitouch is not quite perfect. If you pace your movements, it’s about 95% accurate at tracking your fingers. If you don’t, that number drops to 85%. And should the system be strained with a lot of multimedia tasking, the touch only gets worse. But I make this all sound a lot worse than it is. No, the screen isn’t as accurate/wonderful as capacitive tech, but it’s a lot better than resistive.
The wireless low profile keyboard and mouse are both understated and completely functional. And a decent remote gives the whole package that home theater feel for when you need to do a little IR blasting.
Audio dribbles through a soundbar sits under the screen. The quality is passable for television, but there’s potential here for improvement—the highs are tinny and there’s not real bass. Music lovers will want standalone speakers (which is too bad, because everything else is great.)
But again, I almost hate saying bad things about the build because what the TouchSmart does right is sooo cool: the software.
The Littlest Media Mogul
If you just want to multitouch your way through Windows 7, the TouchSmart allows that. But to really take advantage of the system, you’ll want to use the TouchSmart interface and the wonderful, custom apps. Sure, you can mess with photos, take hand-drawn notes and watch video clips, but here’s the more notable stuff. (Check out the video above to see some of these apps in motion.)
Netflix I couldn’t enjoy the Netflix interface more. Flick through your library, click a movie and just wait for the server to stream it. It’s probably the slickest Netflix skin I’ve seen to date.
Ambient Lighting It’s technically a series of LEDs under the monitor, but Ambient Lighting makes its way into the apps section since you can choose from the entire spectrum of colors through a touch interface. The glowing effect, while a tad cheesy, is incredible customizable.
Twitter Tweetie is my client of choice on Mac. Most all of the advanced functionality is duplicated here. And if you really want to, you can type on the onscreen keyboard. It works, but I’ll take the real thing, thanks.
Live TV/DVR It’s easy to get mixed up in the submenus and the software is obviously resource intensive, but otherwise, you’re working with a fully-functional HD DVR (sitting on top the core of WMC, as I understand it). Flicking through programming guides is surprisingly natural.
Hulu Stuck in an update loop, I couldn’t test Hulu. Given the quality of HP’s other bundled apps, especially Netflix, I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Music The music app is super smart because it incorporates MP3s, Pandora and Rhapsody into, well, not exactly one interface but at least one basic app. Browsing albums is smooth in a Cover-Flow-like spread. Pandora is a bit disappointing in that most of the UI is spent on the Pandora logo. But it works.
Recipe Box Despite the failings during my tech demo above, this little app is embarrassingly fun. Through a built-in browser, you can rip any recipe containing “directions” and “ingredients” from almost any webpage. With one button, the recipe appears in your own book, formatted like everything else in your collection. Now, should you have your hands full, the system supports voice commands to read you the recipe. It didn’t work in my demo video, but even when it did, the system fulfilled all the stereotypes of poor voice commands and text-to-speech. Still, Recipe Box is a clever way to bring an all-in-one into the kitchen.
The one downfall here is that HP has designed TouchSmart to run all of the bundled apps at once. You’re truly multitasking, and that means stacking HDTV, Hulu, Netflix, photo editing, a browser, Twitter, and even more video playback. The system generally handles itself admirably, but the TV tuning definitely tips the scales on occasion (just watch the video for interface stutters). If I were to use the system as my DVR on a regular basis, I’d probably cut down the fat on HP’s apps and buy myself some resources.
Another point to mention is that, while you can customize HP’s dock with any apps you like, those not designed by HP (say, Microsoft Word) will merely link you to the full app in Windows. So you can’t work on a term paper in the fancy media interface, but then again, you probably don’t want to.
Oh, and for some reason, the back button within apps often brings you back to the same information in a different view than you started with. That’s a perfect candidate for a patch if I’ve ever seen one.
Like, Not Love
I want to love the TouchSmart 600, but I just really, really like it a lot. The functionality is all there; no one can question the full media suite of apps, like Netflix, Hulu, and Twitter, let alone the full Windows 7 OS sitting right behind HP’s optional software. It’s the light performance hiccups coupled with a less than 100% touch interface that stop me from screaming at the top of my lungs, “YOU SHOULD BUY THIS RIGHT NOW OR GIVE UP ON LIFE COMPLETELY.”
But maybe you should buy the TouchSmart 600 right now. Other than Sony’s upcoming Vaio L, there’s no all-in-one quite like this on the market. Coupled with a netbook, you’d have portability and an entire media center at your disposal. The combo, for something like a dorm room or small apartment, would be unquestionably wonderful.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
Versatile media platform
Imperfect, but decent multitouch
Speakers sound pretty lousy