And so the onslaught on mobility began. Prices began falling, specs began climbing and we all clamoured to clear some desk space and put down a shiny new piece of laptopery, aimed at making the guy in the next cubicle, green with envy. We saw the screens improve from Passive matrix (if you remember those you’ve been around for a little too long) to Active Matrix. Stiffy drives were replaced by CD-Roms and later DVD-Ram-Dual-Layer-Multi-drives-with-Light-Scribe (whatever all that is). The innards of the laptop have also come a long way. From scaled down desktop hardware, to a new breed of processors made to run cooler and faster, use less power and save your pocket a few bucks, while saving the planet in one fell swoop.

But somewhere in the rush to make it better, we’ve mislaid the little details that make a laptop really functional. It doesn’t matter how big your hard drive is, or fast your processor is, or how crisp your screen is, or how many giga-thingys you have. What matters is how much you can accomplish with your laptop. Can you get your job done better?

After more than a decade in IT consulting, a question that has popped up too many times to count in business environments, has been that of having a keypad on a laptop. Sounds simple doesn’t it? But yet, no one has really gotten it right. Well, until now that is.

HP have launched their Probook 4520s. And, it HAS that beloved keypad. They’ve done it in a way that doesn’t compromise on the keyboard, or make the machine overly bulky. A normal sized 15.5″ laptop, with a full keyboard, AND a keypad.

I recently spent some time playing on one, and was very impressed with what HP have managed to conjure up with the 4520s. But that’s not all. This laptop packs a serious punch, and still takes your pocket into consideration.

You get a build in HSDPA device, Core i5 processor, 3GB of RAM, 320GB Hard Drive, and a stunning LED screen. Built into a really good looking machine, that manages to accommodate a full sized keyboard and keypad.

So if you’re in the market for a new laptop, and do any sort of number crunching, or even gaming, this laptop should be a serious consideration.

Well, it seems that team at OLPC has had a rethink, and possibly taken some advice, and come up with a new concept for a second run at this idea. The XO-3:

Nicholas Negroponte, project leader at OLPC, has announced a tie-up with Marvell, to design and produce the new model. It’s planned to show the design in January 2011, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Some of the specs being leaked so far: An ARM processor,a multilingual, multitouch-screen keyboard with haptic feedback, two cameras, high-quality video (Flash 10 and 1080p) and a version of Google’s Android operating system (Intitially, anyway. OLPC has their own, favoured custom OS). Apparently, the XO-3 tablet will use only 1 watt per hour, a huge improvement on the already frugal XO-1, at 5 watts per hour.

The standalone Ideapad as a tablet like device

Now here’s where the hybrid and impressive part comes into play. The IdeaPad can slot into a its notebook shell and be used as a fully functional notebook too, once you’ve “docked” the tablet into its notebook bay the operating system switches to Windows 7!

The IdeaPad U1 looks like any other notebook when closed

The slate (or tablet like device) when removed from the docking bay has 16gb of storage space which should sufficient for all the multimedia you’d want on the run. The standalone tablet will also have around 8 hours of battery life.

Have a look at some of the demo videos on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSen-_2scIA , this will link you up to some more to get a better idea regarding this handy and innovative piece of hardware.

The U1 Hybrid is set to be available towards the second half of this year and was one of the most impressive showcases at the 2010 CES.

As many of you will know by now, the latest idea brewing in the gaming world is that of 3D gaming; think of it like the time you watched Avatar in 3D. Well that’s basically the concept, except you would be playing games in 3D. It must be noted that bringing 3D gaming to a PC or notebook is not as simple as putting on a pair of 3D glasses and enjoying the awesome experience of being surrounded and encapsulated by your favourite game in a stunning 3D experience. As it stands NVidia’s “3D vision” technology has a list of pre-requisites including a 120hz HD monitor, an approved GPU with a dual-link DVI connection as well as a pair of battery powered 3D glasses with a USB IR emitter. Asus have successfully incorporated all of this in one impressive package, allowing you; the end user to enjoy 3D gaming in all its glory.

complete and ready for 3D gaming

The G51J’s specs are as follows:

1.6 ghz  Intel Core i7 processor

4 gb of DDR 3 memory

320gb hard drive

Nvidia GeForce GTX 260m graphics card

If you want to read up some more about this very impressive notebook, visit: http://promos.asus.com/US/PR_2009/G51J_Worlds_First_Notebook/Index.html for the more intricate details.

Nobody knows for sure whether 3D gaming will indeed be the next level for gamers, what we do know is that the Asus G51J is one of the most comprehensive package deals out there if you can’t wait to experience what true 3D gaming is all about.

The notebook weighs in at only 2.4kgs and boasts more than 8 hours battery life. As the notebook consumes less energy than most notebooks (around 40% less during normal use to be precise), the Aspire Timeline is considered an eco-friendly notebook and is very thin compared to most.

The Aspire Timeline series comes with displays up to 15.6” in HD  and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor; the notebook is also very portable in terms of dimensions. The Timeline is thin, light, eco friendly and very effective when it comes to energy consumption. With 8 hours plus battery life this notebook is a very attractive offering by Acer indeed.

Here is the full feature list:

• AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core L310 CPU at 1.2GHz
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 11.6-inch LED-backlit screen at 1366×768 resolution
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200 graphics
• 4GB DDR2 RAM
• 250GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive
• Card reader, Draft-N Wi-Fi, webcam
• Six cell battery good for up to five hours battery life

[via CrunchGear]

From what we know, it will be called the Nokia Booklet 3G. No guessing to what the 3G stands for, so you can expect built in mobile data in the form of a 3G/HSDPA connection. The Booklet also claims a battery life of 12 hours, 4 more than any other netbook on the market.

Nokia’s netbook will be a Windows based machine, most probably running Windows 7. It also sports a webcam, Atom processer (which gives it that amazing battery life), SD card reader, GPS, HD display and HDMI port.

We will have to wait until the 2nd of September to find out the exact specs, pricing and availability, but until then, check out some of the pics below.

The new Acer Aspire Timeline series of notebooks

The Apsire Timeline series is part of a rapidly growing trend in notebooks that are larger than netbooks, but cheaper and smaller than mainstream laptops. The Timeline series boasts around 8 hours of battery life, an extremely slim profile measuring 2.5cm and weighing between 1.6kg and 2.4kg. These range of notebooks are definitely for the on-the-go traveller who don’t want to lug around a large and heavy laptop with them.

The battery life comes from Acer including Intel’s Core™ 2 Duo ultra low voltage processors combined with a PowerSmart button at the top of the keyboard allowing you to extend battery life even further.

Along with its incredible battery life, the Timeline series includes all the bells and whistles one would expect from top of the range laptops namely a 5 in 1 card reader, 720p webcam, bluetooth, wireless (including the latest Draft-N specification), support for DDR3 ram as well as an integrated 3G connection.

Once we have word from our suppliers, I will update this post with details of availability within Incredible Connection and pricing. For now, head over to Acer’s websites for more info on the Aspire Timeline series.

Pictured below is the very first Macintosh – a real dinosaur in computer terms!

For those of you that are Steve Jobs fans, here is a video of him giving a demo of the first Macintosh in 1984.