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Lenovo U110 Hands-On and Overview
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Lenovo U110: The Sexy Little Laptop That Could? (Video)
We were lucky to get a couple of days to play around with the sexy, new Lenovo U110 ultraportable laptop. It's only 2.3 pounds and, as you can see, small enough to fit into the teeniest of backpacks. It's also one of the slickest looking notebooks we've ever laid our eyes or hands on, with oversized keys that make typing surprisingly smooth (for such a small laptop).
Handling-wise, it's not fair for us to say, since we had access only to a pre-production unit, but with up to 3-gigabytes (GB) of RAM available, the U110 has the potential to be the little computer than could....
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The World's Littlest Laptops (Video)
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Dell Goes Sexy With New All-in-One Computer
"Give in to the power of the tea," the male model, Hansel, whispered as he seduced the overcome reporter in the epic comedy, Zoolander. That's what we thought of as we entered Armani/Casa, an ultra-hip interior design locale in SoHo where fashionistas shop for their postmodern couches and Eastern-influenced coffee tables. It wasn't a home makeover mission that brought us to Never Neverland, however, as we were there to preview Dell's XPS One, the newest all-in-one home computer, which came out on November 19th and is the latest entry in the growing area of stylish, all-in-one computers.
Picking our way through the hotly attired models and Dell executives that dotted the sleek Armani/Casa homescape, we began to understand the nature of this particular computing beast... Home computing is undergoing a transformation in character, style or that je ne sais quoi these days, and the XPS One is Dell's attempt to get sexy. And make no mistake, the folks at Dell will sell their stock to Apple before letting the competition's Gateway One and the Sony Vaio L Series overshadow their own product's libido.
All black, the machine is comprised of a 20-inch, high-definition widescreen monitor that houses the computer itself, with just one cable to plug in. The only other components are a wireless mouse and an old-school infrared wireless keyboard that triumphs over the inconsistent Bluetooth keyboards from former XPS models. In addition, the XPS boasts a built-in TV tuner, whereas most PC models of this size and type, including the Gateway One, have an external tuner or none at all, like the Sony Vaio L Series.
A couple of things that we really liked were the motion sensors that, when triggered, light up the media keys and a half-circle of blue light that illuminates the slot-loading drive on the lower, right hand corner of the monitor. We also dug the great speakers that come stock with every XPS as well as the option to include a Blu-ray drive (as long as you're willing to pay more). While the cheapest XPS One goes for $1,499, the version with all of the bells and whistles maxes out at $2,399.
Overall, this computer seems to have the it sexy factor that Dell wanted to develop. Whether you're an artiste whose closet includes clothing in black or black, or just a regular consumer looking for a home computer that looks smokin' and futuristic while doing it all without the complications, this is the all-in-one product for you.
The only downside is that the models we saw at Armani/Casa are not offered with the XPS at this time.
Gallery: Dell XPS One
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Mac Leopard Out Tomorrow, and the Reviews Are Positive
Microsoft likes to make Windows users wait for releases. It's usually a good three to five year drought between one version of its operating system to the next, with a bunch of free updates released along the way. Apple, on the other hand, likes to drop nearly annual updates of its current operating system called OS X. Each new release brings some new suite of updates and features and sells for about $130. OS X version 10.5, codenamed Leopard, supercedes last year's Tiger release, and should be hitting stores tomorrow. That means reviews are hitting the wire today, and most seem to think that the update is $130 well spent.Most reviews focus on the biggest new addition, Time Machine, which enables you to easily and automatically back your Mac up to an external hard drive, then use the software to recover lost files by seeing how your machine looked at virtually any time.
Edward C. Baig, who reviewed Leopard for at 'USA Today' says "recovering lost files is -- thanks to beautiful special effects -- like flying back in time." He also likes the new Back to My Mac remote desktop feature, which lets you connect to one Mac Leopard machine from any other Mac Leopard machine ... at least in theory. He did find a few occurrences where the machines wouldn't connect, however.
David Pogue from the 'New York Times' also likes Time Machine, saying: "When you connect the second drive, Leopard asks if you want to use it for Time Machine. If you click O.K., that's it. One click - that's got to be the shortest setup of any backup system in history." However, he doesn't dig the new transparent menus, which can be difficult to read when appearing over text.
Walt Mossberg from 'Wall Street Journal' echoes the complaints about transparent menus, and in his review compares Leopard quite favorably to Vista when it comes to compatibility:
"In fact, every piece of software and hardware I tried on two Leopard-equipped Macs -- a loaned laptop from Apple and my own upgraded iMac -- worked fine, exhibiting none of the compatibility problems that continue to plague Vista. My old Hewlett-Packard inkjet printer, for which Vista lacks the proper software, worked instantly in Leopard, even over the network. And, unlike with Vista, it was able to print on both sides of the page. I popped my old Verizon cellphone modem card into the test Leopard laptop and it worked, too, with no software installation or tweaking."So, the reports are good, and the only question is whether it's worth the $130 entry point. If you're the type who is lax about backing up your files, photos, music, movies, and the like, then yes, you should run out and buy Leopard tomorrow and sleep a little better at night knowing that your iTunes collection is safe. Otherwise, the upgrades here seem somewhat minor, and you're probably safe holding off until Apple's next feline-themed OS X release, which we expect, oh, sometime next year.
From USA Today, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal
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