Laptops Arena

Targus is taking care of your notebook’s security and brings you the new DEFCON Privacy Filters to protect sensitive information displayed on your screen and in the same time reducing glare for best ergonomics.

The filters fit all screen sizes, from 12.1-inch to 30-inch, standard or wide, preventing anyone from watching your monitor from an angle wider than 45 degrees.
You can find them on the official Target website at prices ranging from $47.99 to $279.99.

"With more laptops being used while on the go in planes, airports, coffee shops and other public places, there is the increased risk of vital information being stolen from your laptop screen," said Mike Kroll, director of product management-accessories at Targus. "Targus' new easy-to-use DEFCON Privacy Filter can protect you, your business and your sensitive information from the prying eyes of strangers."

<-125x125 Button - left->One of the companies presented at CES 2008 that brought products focused on your laptop needs, is Targus, which is not other than the inventor of the laptop case.
It announced a several new laptop accessories including mice, the HeatDefence Panel and a Portable Power Strip, but now we’ll focus on just one of them, which seemed to have more important and rare characteristics.

The HeatDefense is a notebook cooling system coming in a lightweight form factor that fits very well underneath your computer, on a desk, or even on your lap.
It maintains your laptop at a reasonable temperature, preventing the excessive heating, and it does it with the use of a new technology called HeatShift, which has a crystalline substance in it that absorbs the heat coming from the laptop, by melting into a gelish substance.

As your computer is maintained at an optimal temperature this will enhance its performance, and it doesn’t need to measure 12 inches or 17 inches.
The HeatDefence is designed to fit any type of portable computer. Its dimensions are of 13.35” x 11.85”.
You will see it in stores starting this spring, at a retail price of $30.00.

"With the ever-increasing speed of business and personal life, Targus is committed to enhancing the lives of road warriors, traveling professionals and laptop users alike while on-the-go," declared Mike Kroll, director of product management-accessories at Targus. "Targus' exciting new portable accessories offer these users simple and convenient solutions to maximize their productivity and efficiency while providing fast, flexible and reliable mobility."

Among the 16 new products described at CES 2008 by Intel, are the first 45 nm CPUs for Intel Centrino Processor Technology based notebooks.
The latest chips boost the computer’s speed and reduce the power requirements saving the battery’s life and in the same time helping the environment because they are halogen-free.

This series includes 32 notebooks, desktop PCs and server CPUs that come in smaller packages, measuring with 25% less than the previous CPU versions, this leading to sleeker and stylish laptops.

The five mobile CPUs deliver high performance and a longer battery life, with the new Intel Core micro architecture design and the Deep Power Down Technology, which lowers the processor’s power when you are not operating the notebook.

Intel added also HD DVD and Blu-ray support with the optional third-party decoder, a Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset and the wireless connection with support for 802.11n with Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N.
Intel HD Boost includes Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 4 and both are meant to speed up workloads including video encoding for HD and photo manipulation.

The latest Intel computers are able to deliver the best performance when running different digital media and the software simultaneously, but it’s also enhancing HD video and smoothing playback with the Intel Clear Video Technology.

Later this year, the company will deploy mobile WiMAX networks to help in delivering the highest speeds in the mobile connections.

AMD comes at CES 2008 with its new laptop platform codenamed Puma, in which we encounter the powerful combination of AMD’s latest GPU called ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 with the Turion Ultra notebook processor and with the AMD RS780 chipset. Puma is planned to be released in the second quarter of this year.

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 Series is the first Microsoft DirectX 10.1 GPU for notebooks, meant to bring the next-generation HD graphics for videos and games, via new lighting and rendering technologies that are enhancing the quality and realism of 3D games.
PCI Express 2.0 is in charge with providing faster throughput and increased system performance, and gamers can play Blu-ray and HD-DVD movies in full-HD 1080p resolution with the ATI Avivo HD Technology.
Now you can connect to the latest displays featuring DVI, HDMI and the latest DisplayPort on a notebook.

According to Alvin Chou, Senior Notebook Product Manager of ASUS, “The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3600 series turns graphic power up a notch in the ASUS M50 and the F8 notebook series. With the innovative graphics solutions from AMD, ASUS can deliver notebooks to the market that offer visual performance for high-definition movie playback plus HD gaming as well as great battery usage."

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 Series’ features are:

- Microsoft DirectX 10.1 support that delivers increased precision, better lighting and more advanced programmability;
- ATI PowerPlay Technology that delivers the perfect balance between performance and power to result in best performance requirements for extended battery life and superior performance-per-watt operation;
- Long Battery Life enabled by the advanced power management technology;
- Breakthrough Performance/Watt;
- PCI Express 2.0 that boosts 3D graphics performance keeping the best system performance;
- ATI Avivo HD Technology that’s responsible for the advanced video and display technologies, offering smooth video playback and pictures in HD format with extraordinary colors and sharpest images;
- ATI Avivo HD with the Unified Video Decoder that delivers full hardware acceleration of video decode for smooth playback of full 1080p content from HD DVD and Blu-ray movies.
- Integrated Digital Outputs that enables the HD content viewing on different types of devices such as HDMI with integrated Audio, DVI, and new DisplayPort;

The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 series and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3600 series are integrated in ASUS notebooks and you can expect the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 series to ship until this summer.

"ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 series from AMD showcases our technology leadership by delivering customers the most feature-rich family of notebook graphics solutions we've ever produced," declared Matt Skynner, vice president of marketing, Graphics Products Group, AMD. "ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 series delivers the absolute latest industry-standard technology breakthroughs for notebooks with Microsoft DirectX 10.1 and PCI Express 2.0 support. AMD is also the first company to offer integrated DisplayPort connectivity. These new mobile graphics give leading notebook manufacturers like ASUS the ability to create solutions with outstanding new features including next-generation quality, yet battery-efficient, visual experiences in notebooks."

Logitech has released a cool new product destined for those that own a laptop and need a USB hub.

The Premium 4-port USB hub is perfect for mobility, its ports allowing instant access to 4 devices at a time, such as cameras, music players or thumb drives, and high transfer speeds of up to 480 Mbps with its USB 2.0 technology.



The
USB hub is available at $29.99 and features individual port connection lights to show you the state of your connections at any time.