College Community Schools hosted an information session Tuesday to explain why every high school student needs a laptop computer. The school district wants to give every ninth through 12th grader a school-issued laptop.

The plan is to order around 1,400 11-inch Macbook Air laptops. College Community has been studying the concept for three years.  They now say that the new technology is essential for student learning. “We’re looking for our kids to be engaged differently,” said College Community ITS Director Craig Barnum.  “We’re looking to our staff to teach differently, and we realize it’s not going to happen overnight, but we’re ready to have the conversation and do that.”

Parents that attended the informational meeting say they’re excited to see the district treat technology as an asset to student learning. “That’s what they’re going to be giving the students,” said Micki Crispin, a parent with three students in the district.  “There are websites out there we don’t even know exist that will benefit them.”

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Lenovo Tuesday officially announced its new portfolio of business-friendly ThinkPad laptops, IdeaPad Ultrabooks, and IdeaPad multimedia laptops. Come June, it'll be raining Lenovo ThinkPads and IdeaPads.

We got a peek at many of these refreshed laptops--except for the ThinkPad X1 Carbon--earlier this year at CES, but now Lenovo has revealed pricing and other details.

The new line has been refreshed not just to include the latest Intel Ivy Bridge processors, but with other significant improvements as well. For example, the new ThinkPad X, T, and L series laptops will feature optional HD+ (1600 by 900 pixel resolution) displays. The new multimedia IdeaPad Y series laptops will offer the latest Nvidia Kepler graphics. And the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Ultrabook has been bumped up in screen size from 13 inches to 14 inches, with a new 1600 by 900 pixel resolution.

These new models also sport Lenovo's revamped keyboard. The new keyboard is more attractive than the ThinkPad keyboards of yore, and is designed to be more precise. Starting prices range from $399 for the IdeaPad G Series to $1529 for the ThinkPad W530 mobile workstation.

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It’s time for the 3rd Generation Intel Core update to Lenovo’s line of ThinkPad laptops including their T, X, L, and W series, these including software updates as well. What we’re dealing with here in this update is a series of upgrades for each of the unique series with one common strain between the lot of them: Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors bumping them all up to ultra powerful. Have a peek at how Lenovo is bringing the heat across the board with their ThinkPad series all across the board.

The X-series ThinkPad notebook has always been a high productivity set of tools made to work in non-traditional workspaces, made also for the mobile user who needs the added bump of Mil-Spec testing which the whole X-series has to feel fabulous about. The upgrade here with Ivy Bridge also includes 2 new SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports, a brand new keyboard, a bump up to Dolby Advanced Audio, a new software suite you’ll know well as ThinkPad Enhanced Experience 3.0, and more. You’ll also get a brand new Mini-DisplayPort, a backlit keyboard option, an added set of dual vents for cooler and quieter processing, and Polycon as well as Face Tracking for video conferencing.

 

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SHANGHAI: Hewlett-Packard (HP) has expanded its portfolio with more than 30 new products, specifically engineered to meet the design, security, reliability and performance needs of users. The announcement was made at the Global Influencer Summit 2012 at the Shanghai Expo Centre on Wednesday.

Among the new products is the HP’s EliteBook Folio 9470m that will be made available this October. Measuring just 19mm thin and weighing just over 1.63 kg, this 14-inch offers enterprise docking capabilities and security features, and boots up very quickly from sleep mode.

Other products include the HP EliteBook p-series notebooks that are designed to withstand vibration, dust, altitude, temperature and drops. The new series features the HP EliteBook 2170p, the lightest HP business notebook, which will be priced at $1,399 and is expected to be released in July. HP’s ProBook series price ranges start from $799 and are expected to be available in June. The company also unveiled HP Pavilion notebook PCs that include enhanced features and reflect the company’s new Mosaic design approach. This notebook will be priced starting from $749 and will be made available this summer. New desktops, commercial displays and software solutions were also unveiled at the two-day summit that will end today.

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Prior to Dell announcing that their series of Alienware laptops would be getting an upgrade to Ivy Bridge, there was a brief moment where the Alienware laptops were refreshed with Sandy Bridge still on board. If you haven’t been following the news, you might have accidentally gone to Dell’s website and plonked down a ton of cash on a laptop only to find out that they have since been upgraded.

We’re sure that there are probably a ton of Alienware customers out there in this situation but fret not; Dell has announced that Alienware laptops that have not been shipped from their warehouse will be upgraded to a “comparably-priced” Ivy Bridge processor for free! We’re sure that this will probably delay your laptop further but hey, an upgrade to the latest Intel processor and for free? We’re finding it very, very hard to complain! Pop on over to Dell’s website for the details.

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It's all about Ivy Bridge this month as practically every PC vendor will either be introducing new models or refreshing their existing lineup with these Intel Core-i processors. While we have already reviewed an HP Pavilion dv6 and are awaiting other models, we haven't yet heard from Fujitsu about its plans. However, an anonymous source recently sent us some candid shots of Fujitsu's upcoming Ivy Bridge laptops, including what appears to be an Ultrabook.

According to this article, the U772 weighs around 1.4kg with a magnesium chassis and is claimed to be the first Ultrabook with support for a port replicator dock, a desktop accessory commonly used in business environments. The U772 will be one of two Ultrabooks from Fujitsu--the UH572 seen here is the other.

Besides these Ultrabooks, Fujitsu appears to be updating most of its current models with the new Intel processors. We checked the company's Web site and found that Ivy Bridge processors are now listed among the options on laptops such as, the LifeBook LH532, which also sports a new Nvidia GeForce 620M graphics chip. If you're planning to get a Fujitsu laptop soon, you may wish to check if there's an Ivy Bridge-equipped model on the horizon. Fujitsu has yet to reveal when these laptops will be available in this region, but going by what we have seen, it should happen sooner rather than later.

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Samsung Electronics America Inc. which is a part of the Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. launches Series 7 Gaming Laptops for Gamers. Designed with feedback from passionate PC gamers in mind, the Series 7 Gamer features a 17.3 inch full HD LCD display, high quality Dolby Home Theater surround sound, rich NVIDIA Geforce graphics and a 3rd generation Intel Core i7 processor, as well as a unique dial that allows users to easily transition between four modes for maximum performance at all times.

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Dell on Monday released three new high-performance Alienware gaming laptops powered by Intel's third-generation Core processors, also known as Ivy Bridge. The new lineup includes 14-, 17.3-, and 18.4-inch notebooks featuring the latest mobile graphics from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

Along with the introduction of the new Alienware M14x, M17x, and M18x laptops, Dell announced a collaboration with Electronic Arts to implement Dell's AlienFX software and lighting control system in Battlefield 3, the computer maker said in a statement. Gamers playing Battlefield 3 on an Alienware rig will also have access to an exclusive Alienware Arena dog tag in the first-person shooter.

"Our customers want the most immersive gaming experience possible, and we've taken the all-powerful M14x, M17x, and M18x laptops and made them even better, delivering the latest technologies for almost every need," Alienware general manager Frank Azor said. "We've always offered the latest technology for the best gaming experience possible, and our enhanced lineup will let you 'pwn' any competitor and provide the sensory experience that we know you crave."

The Alienware M14x starts at $1,099, the M17x is priced at $1,499, and the M18x carries a price tag of $1,999. All three laptops are currently available for order on Dell.com and Alienware.

The M14x is available in a number of configurations. The standard setup uses a second-generation Sandy Bridge processor from Intel, the 2.5-GHz Core i5-2450M, but the laptop can also be configured with one of three Ivy Bridge chips—the 2.3-GHz Core i7-3610QM, 2.6-GHz Core i7-3720QM, or 2.7-GHz Core i7-3820QM. Discrete graphics options include Nvidia's GeForce GT 650M with either 1GB or 2GB of GDDR5 memory. The M14x can be kitted out with either a 750GB mechanical disk drive or a 512GB solid state drive (SSD), with standard-issue 6GB memory up to 16GB.

The M17x has CPU option for either the 2.3-GHz Core i7-3610QM, 2.6-GHz Core i7-3720QM, or 2.7-GHz Core i7-3820QM. The laptop's standard configuration uses Nvidia's GeForce GT 660M graphics processor, with options to upgrade to either the GeForce GT 675M or AMD's Radeon HD 7970M (all three discrete graphics options have 2GB of memory). The laptop can be configured with up to 32GB of memory, with 500GB and 1TB options for storage, as well as an option for a 512GB SSD.

The M18x can be configured with the same processor options as the M17x, plus Intel's 2.9-GHz Core i7-3920XM. The standard graphics option is the GeForce GT 660M, but choices also include the GeForce GT 675M, plus a dual-card option for GeForce GT 675M with Nvidia SLI or the Radeon HD 7970M with AMD CrossFireX (the AMD dual-card setup will be made available at a later date, according to Dell). Memory can be configured from 8GB to 32GB, a 500GB hard disk is standard, but a 750GB drive is also available, as are dual- and triple-drive options.

All three laptops run Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate and have integrated 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet NIC and Integrated Wireless-N with Bluetooth 4.0, plus an option for WiMax.

Audio comes courtesy of Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di HD 5.1 with THX TruStudio Pro Software (standard configuration) or a 2.1 Speaker configuration with Subwoofer Audio Powered by Klipsch. The M14x has a 1.3-megapixel HD Camera with dual digital microphones and two USB 3.0 ports, while the M17x and M18x have a 2.1-megapixel FullHD Camera with dual digital microphones and four USB 3.0 ports.

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Asus have launched some new gaming laptops powered by the latest and greatest components from Intel and nVidia. These 17” screen laptops will contain killer combinations of Ivy bridge i7 processors and nVidia GTX 660/670 discrete graphics, accompanied by lots of RAM, HD screens, fast hard disks and Blu-ray (except for the one smaller 15” model with DVD-RW drive; the Asus G55VW). Check the table below or on the Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) 2012 G series website.

The spec is indeed impressive, utilising the Core i7-3610QM quad core processor in every one of the new ROG line. The lowest specified machine has 12Gb of RAM and a GeForce GTX 660M (Kepler 28nm) with a 2Gb GDDR5 frame buffer. The highest specified machine boasts 16Gb of RAM, Blu-Ray writer, 17” 3D screen, 750Gb HDD combined with 256Gb SSD with a GeForce GTX 670M (Fermi 40nm) graphics card combined with 3Gb of GDDR5.

As an added bonus, compared to last year’s G74 models the G75s are about 15 per cent lighter. The two models equipped with the GTX 660M should benefit from running longer and cooler thanks to their Kepler graphics cores. Graphics performance is also lower for the GTX 660M over the GTX 670M of course.

A Notebook Review forum member in the USA has already got their hands on a retail Asus ROG G75VW equipped with the GeForce GTX 660M and has published lots of details and benchmarks for interested folks to peruse. Since he got the model without an SSD it seems like the limiting factor on this laptop’s general performance is the HDD speed. His system scored a 3DMark Vantage result of 11627 3DMarks. Also he found the system consumed an average 36W but demanding apps, like 3D mark, pushed this up to 86W.

An earlier pre-launch review of a G75, but equipped with the Fermi core GeForce GTX 670 card, is here. In comparison to the benchmarks already mentioned, this G75 has a big boost in hard drive performance thanks to the 256Gb SSD installed alongside the conventional 750Gb hard disk. The graphics also show better performance with 12728 points scored in 3D Mark Vantage. (but the machine requiring 127W of power with 3DMark running). Don’t expect much time away from a power outlet.

Prices in the US range from approx $1300 to $2000. In the UK a G75VW is listed at £1,727 inc VAT but is ordered upon request, quite expensive right now. I’m also not sure exactly which G75 is listed on the UK site because the spec doesn’t match any on the Asus site precisely.

Finally here’s something else to consider, to tempt you, from the Asus marketing department; “Like its predecessor, the new ROG G Series notebook design was inspired by sharp polygonal shapes, with inspiration from the US Navy's Sea Shadow stealth ship and modern day aircraft carriers.”

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MSI announced the 17.3-inch GT70 and 15.6-inch GT60 gaming laptops, featuring the Intel HM77 Chipset, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M graphics processing unit (GPU), Killer E2200 Game Networking, Steel Series backlit keyboard, and more. Designed with the serious gamer in mind, both notebooks provide ample power.

The GT70 comes with 17.3-inches of Full HD anti-reflective display to maximize visual experience under all lighting conditions, a Steel Series full color backlit programmable keyboard with 1000 customizable color combinations, amplified gold plated audio connections for crisper sounds, 12 GB of DDR3 for superb speed, and more. For gamers looking for even more power, the GT70 is also available with 16 GB of DDR3, BD Burner, and MSI's Super RAID 0 configuration, a unique combination of 128GB (2*64GB) of SSD RAID 0 and 750GB at 7200RPM for unprecedented storage capacity.

With similar power but more mobility, the 15.6-inch GT60 also comes equipped with Full HD Non Reflection Display and an array of performance focused components, including dual HDD's in RAID 0 for a combined storage space of 1TB, 12 GB DDR3 memory and more.

Features of both models:
NVIDIA GeForce GT670M -- Latest generation GPU immerses audiences in superb graphics without the need to sacrifice performance and speed
Intel HM77 Chipset -- Maximize all your gaming performance with the latest generation of Intel chipset featuring Core i7 processors
Killer E2200 Game Networking -- High-performance, Gigabit Ethernet tuned for gaming, HD video and high-quality streaming audio
Audio Boost -- Gold flashed audio connectors combine with an AMP produces high fidelity sounds directly into the headset
Dynaudio Speakers with THX Surround Sound -- Professional quality speakers with built-in sub-woofer to accurately reproduce THX's TruStudio Pro sound experience
Steel Series Full Color Backlit Programmable Keyboard -- Accurately responds to 10 simultaneous key actions with over 1,000 color combinations for a powerful and customizable experience in your hands
MSI's Exclusive Turbo Drive Engine (TDE) Technology: Provides an instant boost in graphics performance to accelerate video decoding
MSI Cooler Boost Technology -- Increases airflow at the touch of a button to stay cool in the heat of the battle

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