Laptops Arena

The One Laptop Per Child initiative is losing one of the most important partners, the Intel collaboration.

The project meant to offer one $100 laptop for each school child in development countries lost Intel because, as an Intel’s representative declared, "OLPC had asked Intel to end our support for non-OLPC platforms, including the Classmate PC, and to focus on the OLPC platform exclusively," a request impossible to satisfy by the company.

According to OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte, Intel was advertising the Classmate in prejudice of the XO laptop.

Travelstar 5K500 is the world’s first notebook HDD with 500GB storage measuring 2.5 inches and its coming from Hitachi.

Fitting perfectly with slim notebooks, gaming consoles and other high-end devices, the 2.5-inch HDD features a 3Gb/s S-ATA interface and 5400 rpm speed, with the option to add a Bulk Data Encryption for security.

Hitachi is releasing also the 400GB version, and two enhanced version under the name Travelstar E5K500, destined for intensive non-stop operations in lower transaction environments, and here are included network routers and blade servers.
Travelstar 5K500 HDD will be available in February and Travelstar E5K500 by the end of spring.

You can encounter dual 5K500 HDDs in ASUS M50 and ASUS M70 notebook models introduced by Asustek.

In Vietnam IT stores are selling a low-cost entry-level notebook model but destined for children, the Hacao Classmate PC.
It comes with Hacao Linux 2.16 Professional operating system pre-installed and built on the Intel Classmate notebook’s specifications.

The model meant to compete with the OLPC initiative is available at $340 which might seem expensive comparing with the OLPC’s price that’s half of that sum.
The nice part of the project is that the educational versions cost just $250.

Now let’s the Hacao Classmate PC’s internal configuration.
We have a notebook running with the ULP Celeron processor at 900MHz and with 400MHz FSB, while it integrates a RAM memory of 256MB and 1GB Flash local storage.



The LCD display measures 7 inches and is a WVGA type with 800x480 pixels resolution and the entire machine weights almost 1.4 Kg, measuring 245 x 196 x 44 mm.
Unfortunately the mesh network capability is not supported, so Hacao can’t be connected to the Internet together with other computers via a single wired device, but at least comes with Wi-Fi 802.11b/g support.

From the public statements coming from Hacao’s representatives since June when Hacao Linux 2.16 Professional was released, the distribution is available only in Vietnam.
The government chose this option because Windows XP is not well supported by Intel Classmate notebooks due to the hardware limitations, and the second reason was the reduced costs for using this operating system.

Well the winner is no other than the Lorado laptop that occupies the third place in our Top 10 Coolest Laptop Concepts.

Lorado concept is based on the Intel Mobile Metro notebook design, just that it comes in a smaller form, measuring just 0.7 inches thick (1.78 cm), weighting 2.2 pounds (0.99 kg) and having a 13.3-inch display, making it the thinnest laptop in the world.

The model looks good on the inside too, being powered by a Core 2 Duo processor and operating on the Intel's Santa Rosa platform.

Laptop Magazine awarded this concept considering it the most functional prototype with the biggest chances to enter in a mass production in the future.

Although it’s a modern design and maybe the most functional prototype, we’d prefer to see the Vaio Zoom Holographic Concept on the market.

Researchers at Stanford have managed to improve the Li-ion batteries making them capable to operate 10 times more.
For example, a battery that now lasts up to 2 hours in working time will operate for up to 20 hours.

These new batteries use Li-Ion and anodes with silicon nanowires, replacing the standard carbon.
According to Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, the researchers’ team leader, these batteries will be produced in mass very soon, due to the mature infrastructure behind the silicon.

Li-Ion batteries have a battery anode made from carbon and their life lasts until the electrical storage capacity is consumed, this depending on the amount of Lithium held in the battery’s anode, while the silicon has a higher capacity than carbon.

The drawback here is that as the silicon swells by absorbing positively charged lithium atoms during charging, and shrinks while in use, this affects the performance of the battery.
Cui’s solved this problem by using the nanotechnology.

The lithium is stored in a forest of tiny silicon nanowires with diameters of 1/1000 of the thickness of a sheet of paper, and as the nanowires inflate 4 times their normal size as they soak up lithium, they won’t fracture.

The systems that will implement this technology will include notebooks, iPods, mobile phones and video cameras.
You can read more here.