July 3 - 7:55am EDT   PC maker ASUS on Thursday saw fit to introduce one of its first semi-ruggedized notebooks. The B51E's magnesium-alloy chassis is sturdy enough to survive potentially crushing pressures and is braced by rubber edges that both soften shocks and drops (up to almost 2.5 feet) and guard against dents; the keyboard itself is both spill-resistant on its own and includes a drainage path underneath to prevent liquids from seeping into core components. The system is one of ASUS' first to meet US military-grade standards for durability, the company says. [full story]

May 23 - 4:35pm EDT   Hypersonic PC, which started selling pre-assembled laptop computers late last year, has announced the launch of its Avenger AG2 notebook on Friday. The 12.1-inch display sports a 1280x800 resolution and the sub-notebook is available with Intel's new 45nm Penryn-era Core 2 Duo processor at up to 2.5GHz. The basic version of the Avenger uses a more modest but still quick 2.1GHz chip. [full story]

May 9 - 3:55pm EDT   Rounding out its week, Dell today has slipped in additional processor picks for its mid-sized XPS 420 tower. The system for the first time has Intel's recent 45 nanometer, Penryn-based Core 2 Quad chips and use either a 2.5GHz or 2.66GHz model as an upgrade to the 2.4GHz, 65 nanometer chip that starts out the line. The choices are the first four-core chips based on the cooler, faster architecture since the 3GHz Core 2 Extreme was introduced to the desktop. [full story]

May 2 - 3:35pm EDT   Apple's newest 24-inch iMac is an amazing computer, but is beginning to face tougher competition, writes PC Magazine in a new review. The $1,800 machine has been upgraded with one of Intel's new Penryn-edition Core 2 Duos, which use 45nm manufacturing; in theory this not only cools a system down, but reduces its power consumption. With options for a 3.06GHz CPU and a GeForce 8800 GS video card, the new iMac is claimed to be an extremely powerful computer, faster than some quad-core Windows PCs. [full story]

April 28 - 4:15pm EDT   The 3.06GHz processor and fellow chips in Apple's new iMacs are part of a special run of Intel's existing technology rather than an early introduction of Centrino 2 technology, Intel has confirmed with Electronista. Although the processors match the same core clock rates and 1,066MHz system bus speeds as those for the upcoming platform, the processors are now known to be unlisted speed grades that include special support for the faster bus speeds (up from 800MHz). [full story]

April 24 - 5:05pm EDT   An upgrade to the iMac desktop line could be available as early as next week, according to an apparent tip sent to Geeksugar. The woman-oriented technology site claims the refresh will keep similar price points but upgrade the processors and potentially hard drive space as well. The change would be the first since the aluminum design was first introduced in August of last year. [full story]

April 11 - 9:20am EDT   Gateway is finishing its week with a significant upgrade to its FX Edition gaming notebooks that brings its first mid-size models. Previously limited only to the 17-inch P series, the FX name is now attached to the M series with a new model that provides relatively quick performance at a smaller size. The M-6850FX is slightly slower than the base P series with a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo and uses the cooler-running Radeon HD 2600 to provide better-than-average 3D to a category often neglected by PC builders. It also leaves little necessary to upgrade with 3GB of memory and a 320GB hard drive as stock. Gateway sells the system at retail shops for $1,000. [full story]

April 8 - 9:20am EDT   In addition to re-revealing its new Satellite designs, Toshiba on Tuesday updated its Satellite X205 gaming notebook to take advantage of newer hardware. The 17-inch desktop replacement now draws on at least a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo from Intel's Penryn era that offers both extra speed as well as better battery life. It also includes at least 320GB of storage split across two drives, each of which spin at 7,200RPM: the speed provides desktop-like load times without sacrificing space, according to Toshiba. [full story]

March 31 - 8:20am EDT   Apple's new 15" MacBook Pro, based on Intel's latest Penryn processor, earned high marks from PC Magazine. In a recently published review, Editor Cisco Cheng took the new model for a test drive, benchmarking performance and feature enhancements. His conclusion - MacBook Pro is a winner. Cheng called it "one of the fastest laptops I've tested". That's high praise indeed, coming from a publication devoted to Windows PCs. [full story]

March 24 - 1:55pm EDT   Quickly following on the heels of its GeForce 9800 GX2 update, Alienware on Monday afternoon refreshed the Area-51 gaming tower to add Intel's 3.2GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9770 as its best processor option. The new speed eclipses the 3GHz limit set by the older system and also brings with it a faster 1.6GHz system bus; the extra bandwidth helps keep traffic going to all four cores and also more properly feeds the DDR3 memory. [full story]

March 21 - 5:20pm EDT   The Mac mini is supposedly getting an internal overhaul, rather than fading into nonexistence, as popular belief would indicate. According to AppleInsider, the miniature computer is to see the 45-nanometer Core 2 Duo chip, starting at 2.1GHz, with an 800MHz frontside buss and the Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor. This alleged update comes after almost a year of shipping the same model, without any major changes. [full story]

March 20 - 2:20pm EDT   Hewlett-Packard has broken from its usual emphasis on the US by introducing a new Pavilion notebook model first in Asia. The dv3000 series is the first modern home portable from HP to ship with a 13.3-inch screen and takes up a smaller footprint than the dv2000 as a result. The change also brings a new external SATA and USB hybrid port that offers expansion for fast external hard drives without compromising on size. [full story]

March 18 - 1:35pm EDT   The upcoming Nehalem processor design will not just be an upgrade to existing processors but a complete replacement for the Core architecture, Intel has explained as part of a press briefing. It will be built on the same 45 nanometer manufacturing process as today's Penryn architecture but is designed to be extremely scalable: in addition to scaling from as few as two cores per chip to as many as 8, Nehalem can be optimized to run efficiently in notebooks or at full speed for servers and workstations. [full story]

March 13 - 1:45pm EDT   Gateway on Thursday quietly updated two of its staple notebook lines with improved specs, including the addition of one model based on Intel's newer Penryn-era Core 2 Duo architecture. Both the M-151X and the M-151XL are now faster and hold more storage: at the top end, the M-151XL now brings a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo with the larger 3MB Level 2 cache and better battery life that come with the Penryn upgrade. It also comes shipped with 3GB of memory as well as a 250GB hard drive. The 256MB Mobility Radeon HD 2400 XT, HDMI output, and 802.11n also come intact from the earlier M-150. [full story]

March 10 - 1:05pm EDT   Hitachi and IBM are set to announce a partnership which will result in smaller, more efficient silicon chips, according to the New York Times. While many companies are only now making the switch to 45nm technology, as with Intel in the case of its Penryn processors, Hitachi and IBM say they are working on the next step, which involves research at the atomic level to produce 32 and even 22nm semiconductors. In some cases this may make components as little as a few atoms thick, approaching the physical limits of non-quantum computing. [full story]