Toshiba has doubled the capacity of hard drives available to laptop owners by introducing the MK2035GSS.

Before this hard drive, laptop owners maxed out at 100gb of hard drive space. But this little 2.5″ baby is just what the on-the-road media junkie needs, with enough room for plenty of music, movies, and pictures.

The biggest drawback to this hard drive is its cripplingly slow spin rate — 4200 rpm. That’s unacceptable for anyone who wants decent performance out of their laptop. The trade off with this Toshiba drive is access speed for capacity.

I’ll take a 100gb 7200 rpm drive over a 200gb 4200 rpm any day.

Via: [Ubergizmo]

Dell announced that all new XPS laptop models will be shipping with Skype pre installed as part of an audio/video communications package.

The package also includes a webcam, microphone, and headphones.

Skype really understands their target market. They’re going after the college student market which is tech saavy enough to use Skype (afterall, anyone buying an XPS laptop really loves their video games and graphic editing).

Bundling with Dell is an easy way to get their product in front of their target market.

At the upper echelon of gaming laptops, it stops becoming all about style and portability and starts becoming all about power.

Case in point: the new Dell XPS M2010.

It’s got it all:

• Core Duo Processor
• Up to 4GB of RAM (yes, you must fill all 4GB if you call yourself a true laptop gamer)
• 20.1″ Widescreen
• 8 Speakers, and a subwoofer (yes, we’re still talking about laptops — not media center PCs)
• RAID harddrive so you can keep backups of your BF2 game saves

Honestly, this thing is a hybrid ‘Desk/lap’-top. The pictures of the XPS M2010 beast are stunning.

Dell is really pushing boundaries and they might’ve created a brand new class of laptops: portable home-theatre notebooks

Oh, and it’ll cost you $3,500 USD.

UPDATE: Cnet has a review of the M2010 rating it a 7.3/10 and citing the obvious:

Absurdly expensive; TV tuner and some other A/V connections aren’t built in; too heavy to be truly portable.

Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Samsung and Sanyo are just a few of the notebook makers that are prototyping next generation Laptop battery solutions.

Instead of Lithium Ion batteries, these companies are hoping that Methanol is going to be powering laptops in 2010 and beyond.

Benefits of Fuel Cell Powered Laptops:

• Longer battery life - Toshiba is claiming that their fuel cell model can crank out 10 hours of uninterupted use!
• Environmentally friendly - Breaking down lithium ion hurts the environment. Methanol cartridges on the other hand can be refilled and don’t have to be thrown out

Drawbacks of Fuel Cell batteries:

• *click*, *whirrr*, *bubble* - These new batteries make sounds when starting up that might remind you of a 10th grade science experiment.
• High costs - The cells aren’t commercially ready for the average consumer to be able to afford. Lithium Ion is still cheaper.
• Bulky - These batteries are bulky and oddly shaped. Needless to say, Scientists don’t have ‘aesthetics’ at the top of their priority list right now.

It’ll be a while before you can custom order a new Dell laptop with the fuel cell option. But that isn’t stopping the competition from finding cheaper and better ways to power notebooks.

BBC News Report: Fuel cells in Laptops

Engadget is reporting that WidowPC claims to have manufactured the world’s first dual core laptop:

The spec sheet for this monster 11.3-pound rig reads like a gamer’s wish list (please excuse us while we catch our breath): AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ (other options are available as well), 17-inch widescreen 1900 x 1200 WUXGA+ SuperBrite LCD, nVidia 7800 GTX graphics card with PCI-Express, up to 2GB of 400 MHz dual channel DDR RAM, dual SATA drives for as much as 240GB of storage, dual optical drive bays for optional dual-layer DVD burners, 7-in-1 memory card reader, optional TV tuner with remote, front panel LCD with media controls, built-in webcam, 2 FireWire ports, 4 USB 2.0 ports, serial port, infrared port, parallel port, external keyboard/mouse port, DVI, S-Video in and out, audio in/out, digital audio out, and 802.11a/b/g.

The machine weighs in at a large 11.3 pounds, enough to break your back if you try to travel with it on your back for more than 100 paces.

PC Mag delivers a roundup of 4 cheap laptops:

Dell Inspiron 6000
Sony VAIO VGN FJ180
HP Compaq Presario V2000Z
Averatec AV3715-EH1

The Dell, HP, and Averatec notebooks come in at under $1,000, but the Sony is $1,600, not exactly cheap. My personal pick out of those 4 laptops would be the Dell unit. 15.4″ screen and a Media Center OS. PC Mag also gives the Dell 6000 top marks:

Dell’s Inspiron 6000 is a repeat favorite of ours in the cheap laptops category. With a 15.4-inch widescreen, Media Center Edition OS, strong performance, and a price tag under $1000, it’s hard to go wrong with this system.

Nicholas Negroponte brings the $100 to reality. Here’s a link roundup of all the news and commentary surrounding the recent events:

• BBC News - UN debut for $100 laptop
• The $100 Laptop - Don’t get carried away
• Problems with the $100 laptop
• Negroponte Wired Interview
• Does Africa really need the $100 Laptop?
• $100 Laptop FAQ

Trackitback, which calls itself as a lost and found service, is esentially in the business of insuring laptops (and other gadgetry) against theft.

Here’s their official pitch:

Trackitback is a 24/7 Lost & Found Service for portable items. In today’s world, almost everyone owns a cell phone, camera, notebook, MP3 player or other valuable item. And the more gadgets we have, the more likely we are to misplace them. Unfortunately only 5% of lost items are ever returned to their rightful owners due to a lack of identification and convenient return process. Until now!

I think that it’s a half-assed attempt at laptop insurance. Disclaimer: I have never used their service, but I do have half-a-brain to understand how it works.

The label you buy is actually the premium you pay you avoid a small probability of loss in the future. So in case your laptop gets lost, there’s a label attached promising the finder of your laptop a reward if they call a phone number and turn it in.

The company is betting on the fact that there are more folks who worry (willing to buy insurance) than there are honest people in the world (who have to be paid a reward). It’s a crude way of doing business, but you can say that about the insurance industry in general (insurance/warranty premiums are always greater than the expected payouts — that’s how they make money).

The fact that their in business means piece-of-mind is worth something to people. Maybe a sticker on the side of your iMac helps you sleep better at night. For you folks, Trackitback is at your service.

UPDATE: Trackitback’s President, Jason Wagner, just commented gave me the some stats about the rate of recovery:

We have a recovery rate of over 80% and actual clients to prove it.

I was probably a bit too critical with this post. Just like I said, I’ve never tried the service before. So thanks for clarifying the facts, Jason.

There was a long piece in the WSJ today on the race to build the $100 laptop:

A novel plan to develop a $100 laptop computer for distribution to millions of schoolchildren in developing countries has caught the interest of governments and the attention of computer-industry heavyweights.

I follow this type of news closely for two reasons:

1. I’m interested in seeing the rapid evolution of technology. 3 years ago they said that the $1,000 laptop wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Boy were they wrong.
2. Computer access should be available to all. I don’t want to sound preachy here, but I think we’re all better off if we can give children across the world access to a computer and an Internet connection.

The article goes onto to say that heavyweights like Microsoft, Dell, Apple, and Intel are all pushing for the initiative. And what’s more interesting is that the bottom line isn’t really of concern to these companies.

Sure, everyone’s out to make a buck, but Dell would barely make a profit on a $100 laptop. MP3 players sell for more money than that. We’re close to reaching that $100 price point. Hopefully lots of deserving people will be able to benefit once we get there.

LaptopLogic.com has a killer guide on building your laptop from scratch.

This basic guide is to show you how to put one together using several components such as the CPU, hard drive, RAM, and Wi-Fi card.

They took an MSI barebone laptop and whipped up a powerhouse gaming machine. It’s nice to see that laptop builds are finally seeing some end-user customization.