Hardware bonanza dead ahead

If you love hardware, 2010 looks like it’s going to be a very amusing year. With the economic downturn becoming old news, computer manufacturers are betting that both consumers and businesses are now willing to splurge a little on a technology upgrade.
Sony Gulf has unveiled the latest range of VAIO notebooks — the VAIO CW-series, VAIO W-series, VAIO F-series, VAIO S-series and VAIO Y-series — targeting a wide spectrum of businesses and consumers interested in powerful mobility, with a bit of “green” added for good measure.
The VAIO W-series notebook features a number of environment-friendly elements in its design, production and packaging. For consumers who appreciate a green lifestyle, the W-series is a great choice with its use of recycled parts for the top cover, palm rest and the bottom cover, to demonstrate its eco-friendliness. Equipped with a 10.1-inch wide TFT color display, the W-series offers a comfortable viewing experience. It also comes with an Atom Processor N450, 320GB hard disk, and an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150. The W-series is available in two color options — a splendid dark blue or sparkling white.
Film fans will want to consider the VAIO F-series, a mobile high-def theater. With a 16.4-inch high-quality VAIO display offering full HD 1920x1080 resolution, F-series laptops handle all multimedia and entertainment needs with ease. Incorporating the latest Intel Core i7 processors, the VAIO F-series is top of the line, with a Blu-ray Disc writer, plus 8GB of DDR3 main memory to handle demanding HD video applications with ease. NVIDIA GeForce GT330M graphics combined with 1GB of GDDR3 VRAM with CUDA parallel architecture deliver detail-packed 3D graphics and Full HD video playback. The F-series also incorporates the latest Dolby Home Theater v3 that provides an exceptionally good audio and video experience. All the new VAIO models are coming into the market now.
Another notebook that’s designed to impress comes from Toshiba. On display at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, was Toshiba’s Qosmio F60. This is Toshiba’s slimmest multimedia computer, designed for those who want a high performing yet portable laptop with advanced features. Truly an entertainment powerhouse, it offers individuals the chance to really stand out from the crowd with its eye-catching design. The Qosmio F60 will be available in the Middle East during the first quarter of 2010.
“The slim design used to be a distinct attribute reserved for ultraportable laptops, however, Toshiba now brings this feature into the multimedia class devices,” said Santosh Varghese, regional GM, Computer Systems Division of Toshiba Gulf.
The Qosmio F60 measures only 29.1mm in thickness and weighs just 2.7 kg. For individuals with an eye for something a little different, the Qosmio F60 comes with a striking high-gloss red cover detailed in silver colored Qosmio lettering. This fashionable design is complemented by an elegant black interior. In terms of performance, the Qosmio F60 provides all the features which users look for in a multimedia laptop: a 15.6” TruBrite HD display with LED backlighting powered by a high performing graphics processing unit; a Blu-ray rewritable drive that also supports DVD media or a DVD-SuperMulti (DL); the Toshiba upconversion software Resolution+; an integrated analog and digital (DVB-T) Hybrid TV Tuner supporting the most popular TV broadcasting formats; an HD web camera, and high end Harman Kardon stereo speakers providing vibrant audio. While not promoted as a specifically “green” machine, the Toshiba Qosmio F60 is ENERGY STAR 5.0 qualified and offers an Eco utility which helps to reduce power consumption, and makes users aware of the power the laptop is using.
Before ending today, mention must be made of the latest offering from Apple — the iPad, a tablet computer. Just a half inch thick and weighing 1.5 pounds, the iPad has a 9.7-inch, LED-backlit display and includes 12 next-generation Multi-Touch applications. Every app works in both portrait and landscape mode, automatically animating between views as the user rotates the iPad in any direction. The iPad offers a Multi-Touch interface and a full-size “soft” or virtual keyboard. The device runs almost all the apps in Apple’s App Store including apps already purchased for an iPhone or iPod touch.
The iPad is powered by A4, Apple’s system-on-a-chip. Designed by Apple, the new A4 chip provides long battery life of up to 10 hours. Apple’s advanced chemistry and Adaptive Charging technology deliver up to 1,000 charge cycles without a significant decrease in battery capacity over a typical five year lifespan. The iPad comes in two versions — one with Wi-Fi and the other with both Wi-Fi and 3G. The iPad will be available in late March worldwide starting at $499 for the basic 16GB model and in April starting at $629 for the Wi-Fi + 3G 16 GB model. Manufacturers of powerful computers, such as Toshiba with its Qosmio F60 have little to fear from the iPad tablet device. However, research firm Strategy Analytics foresees that the iPad will cannibalize existing product categories of Netbooks, Smartbooks, E-Book Readers and Mobile Internet Devices. Apple will not be alone in the new tablet category, which Strategy Analytics forecasts to be worth over $11 billion in devices alone by 2014.
New converged mobile devices — which are larger than a smartphone and smaller than a notebook computer — will attract attention from consumers in all categories. Purchasers who were considering one of these devices will now reappraise the situation with the emergence of the iPad, which can perform many of the functions of the other products, while providing usability and multimedia entertainment. “Without a doubt each of the four categories will feel the impact of the iPad,” commented Peter King, director; Connected Home Devices service at Strategy Analytics, “However each product still has its own strength and will retain consumer loyalty from dedicated users. The iPad will appeal to those consumers who are mobile and have a further interest in books, music, games and location-based services, in contrast to the road-warrior who must carry all his data with him, or the dedicated book reader, who requires e-ink capability.”
Source: Arabnews