News Bits: Asus Lambo Notebook, Wal Mart Eco-Friendly Laptop, AOL Dial-Up Increase

Asus Prices Up Lamborghini Laptop

On February 23<SUP>rd</SUP>, Asus gave more hints on what is inside its new Lamborghini-branded notebook, which was announced in January. For starters, it will be based on the Centrino Duo platform, with "more than 1GB of memory", and a 120GB hard drive.

There will be two models, one in yellow, one black. The "VX1" will feature a 15" display, yet weigh less than "most" 14" notebooks on the market. The Lamborghini notebook is expected to be priced between 1,599 and 1,799 British Pounds ($2,800 to $3,150 USD). Ouch!

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Environmental-Friendly Notebook by Wal-Mart and Toshiba

February 22<SUP>nd</SUP> Wal-Mart and Toshiba have combined efforts to produce a notebook that will be "RoHS-compliant" (Restriction on Hazardous Substance). RoHS is a European Parliament measure, which restricts using certain hazardous substances in electrical/electronic devices.

Although the United States has no law similar to RoHS, Wal-Mart is hoping that by complying with the Parliament measure, PC manufacturers would be encouraged to not use substances such as lead, mercury, and candium in their products. After July 2006, Wal-Mart will only sell RoHS-compliant computers.

The first RoHS laptop is a Toshiba Satellite A55-S1064 with the following specifications:

• 1.6GHz Intel Celeron M processor
• 512MB DDR2 memory
• 15" Trubrite display
• Atheros 802.11b/g Wireless LAN
• 40GB Hard Drive
• CDRW/DVD Combo drive

Price? Less than $700.

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AOL Raises Dial-Up Prices to Encourage Migration to Broadband

AOL is the number one provider of dial-up internet access in the United States. Although DSL keeps getting cheaper, it still has yet to match dial-up, and often the low prices for DSL are promotional only.

"We're doing this because a majority of AOL members will be able to get high-speed connections and access to the AOL service for this new price." spokeswoman Anne Bentely said Tuesday. "Hopefully it's an encouragement for them to get high-speed connections."

AOL is definitely taking risks here, as about 75% of its customers are still on dial-up. But why take the risk? Dial-up isn't exactly cheap to maintain, incorporating a number of factors.

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Dell's PC Shipments Expected to Grow 20 - 25% in 2006

Based on order volumes with notebook contract makers in Taiwan, estimates are for 14-million Dell PCs (includes notebooks and desktops) to be produced this year. That's a 20 - 25% increase over 2005.

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No More Second-Hand Electronics in Japan

Beginning on April 1<SUP>st</SUP>, 2006, the Japanese government is iniating a new plan to rid the world of terrorism no more selling of second-hand electronics. All electronics manufactuered prior to 2001 will not be able to be sold on the second-hand market. The government's logic isn't exactly clear in this, but "apparently it is concerned that a second hand gadget could be turned into a weapon in the right hands and banning their sale will stop this." Or, perhaps there is another reason?

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The World's Biggest Windows Error

[img]http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/9653.jpg[/img][br][/br]([URL=http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/9652.jpg]view large image[/URL]) [p]This past weekend in Times Square, New York, the world's largest Windows crash occured. A two-storey electronic bilboard froze and a giant Windows error showed up. It appears the whole thing was caused by a DirectX error! [p][URL=http://theinquirer.net/?article=29832]Read More . . .[/URL] [/p][/p]

 

Just to let you know, the Japan article is linked wrong. The link sends you to the previous AOL article. You've got the same link on the page twice.

I've already laughed at the Direct X error so there's not much I can say. Boy do I hate those error messages.

And I think AOL is acting foolish here. This move to force their customers to DSL is going to backfire and make them lose more people than they'll gain. They don't seem to understand the fact that some people are scared of the complications of moving over to high-speed. What's going to happen is a lot of people will see the price increase and jump ship like I did so long ago. There are providers that take you to the same internet for much MUCH cheaper than AOL and with less advertisements. So their customers will switch to places like NetZero and People PC, not DSL AOL. If you're going to pay more for internet, why not go the whole way and buy cable internet? Comcast is advertising like crazy for that while I don't really see any AOL commercials any more. Bad move AOL. You don't tell the customer/market what to do. You cater to what it wants.

 

I agree, AOL is foolish. 70% of their customers on dial-up, and raising the price?

With NetZero and all these dial-up companies offering dial-up for $9.99/mo or $14.00, why would you pay for AOL?

EDIT:Thanks, fixed the link

 

...That yellow is ugly. <<; I hate yellow cars, any type. It doesn't look fast, it looks cheap. -- Waits for Thwaping. -- But black is nice.

I'm going to make the prediction that Dell who seems to do stuff with Ford sometimes eventually does a Mustang or something simular (Saleen?) branded notebook. Then again, they have the XPS.

Maybe Toshiba and Walmart should paint that echo-lappy green.

Aol never ceases to amaze me with they're bad ideas. Its one after another. That will work about as well as they're attempt to rescue the Cartoon Network from the damage there parent company did. It will only drive people away from AOL. Really, I wonder how long it will be before the people in the Arts and Entertainment member created section will be the only ones left.

 

geeeeeeeez thats a lot of $$$..

I know theyre built on the v6j, with the 7400, but there better be a graphical update of some sort...

 

I believe it will have the x1600 instead of the 7400 on the V6j, which kinda raises eyebrows

 

yea justin was talking about that on the ASUS forums and he said that theyve been working with it for a long time and blah blah blah..point being said he was reluctant to promise or even hint at the x1600 being there..but one can hope right?

 

So the Lambo's going to be more expensive than the W2? Who in their right minds would buy such a thing?

 

Whoa! That Lambo is way overpriced IMO! I don't think that was a good move on Asus/Lambo's part - I've got to say at least the Ferarri wasn't this overpriced.

 

I hear they include a free car with every laptop sold!

 

Black is classy

 

Apparently I'm the only one that liked the yellow one...oh, well...maybe I like things differently. God, I wish I had seen that error, lol. I laughed my pants off when I read about it.

 

Hurray for environmental friendly laptops and boo to japan. No secondhand = more trash. Yellow looks totally cool, but i could probably paint it myself instead of paying for that.

 

It still looks cheap. All they do is just slap on a lamborghini logo on the high-grade plastic cover of a V6j and call it a day.

The V6j is much better in my opinion.

 

Asus lambos look sweeet
But yes, I'd rather have an Asus V6Va... maybe a V6J

 

I agree, the Asus is way overpriced. Sorry, I can't see spending much over $2,000 for a computer, especially a laptop. Yes, power is great, but there comes a point where the vulnerability to damage and theft outweighs the need to perform.

And Japan...stopping terrorists by stopping electronics second-hand sales? Oooookay. I would love to see how they came to that conclusion and specific examples prompting that decision. The only thing I've ever seen an old VCR do is eat a tape, not blow something up.

 

Yeah, it's a pretty silly idea, no offense to the Japanese Gov't.

Sounds like the electronics manufacturers want to sell new stuff . .

That Lamborghini laptop doesn't have anything that makes it worth $3K. I'd expect a 2.16GHz Duo, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, but even then. . .

 

nah. The W3J owns the V6J
(when they release it)

 

:rofl: Lamborghini is gonna compete with Ferrari in notebooks

and :rofl: to the windows error too.

 

Notice how the Lamborghini notebook is opposite of the Ferrari:

Std vs. Wide screens
AMD vs. Intel

And probably a few other differences.

 

Heh... I keep wondering why Acer and ASUS don't name them after Ferrari and Lambo models like Enzo vs. Mucielago in addition to they're usual model numbers. Having an Acer Ferrari is cool and all (I mean, making up for the fact one my never own a 400,000 dollar car... thats who's really buying these branded notebooks right?) But an Acer Ferrari Enzo (Maybe F350) or ASUS Lamborgini Muceilago sounds much hotter.

 

they would run out of names before long, and still have to use numbers. would have something like the Modena MkI, MkII, and probably MkIII before the car is replaced.

 

I'm guessing the name is patented/trademarked/etc. and all that legal stuff

 

First of all, i would like to say Hi to everyone, and yes i am new hear. Hope we get along with each other lol.

For the commetn on the Lambo laptop, I think for a Laptop that expensive is not worth it. For the price you pay for, you can build a elite desktop computer which indeed out perform the Lambo laptop anyday. For the Lambo laptop there isn't anything special, all ur doing is paying for the Stupid Badge they slaped on, and maybe so higher end quality of materials. Even so, there is no reason to pay that much for a laptop.

In addition, if i had money and i'm rich and like collecting laptops that have Valsue such As Acer 4005 Ferrari laptop and the V6j Lambo laptop. Them i would probably get it in Yellow.


Seriosuly whoever thinkgs Yellow is cheap looking, it aint. Black is a cheesy color. But everyone has there own preferences. And own style.

 

But if say ASUS is making Lambo branded laptops. Don't you think they should be able to bypass the trademarks? And if they only make one model each. They're are plenty of names. It could also be like rebody styling.

 

Appearently AOL's broadband customers are getting the price raise on them to. I got a email stating my aol membership is going up $7.

 

Ouch...Time to look for another broadband provider

 

Actually my boardband is threw Brighthouse. I only pay for aol membership. Not AOL's cable service. A little more then 25 dollars a month. Expensive. But I have silly reasons for keeping it around.

 

Now you have a good reason to ditch AOL

 

Only if these's a support group for addiction to roleplaying in AOL chatrooms. =D.

 

Lamborghini/Ferrari laptops begs and screams that they want to be stolen. Buying one is just asking for trouble... really....

 

Agreed, I rather have the Asus Badge on the laptop, and have it plainly Asus and without any distraction, that may lead to my laptop being stolen. LAmbo and Ferrari, due to there names, and build quality and the styling is too, abstract and to high end made, which atracts unwanted personelles. And leads to theft!

 

I agree on that to. Putting a lambo logo on your ASUS is like putting a bass system in your car. Attracts more attention and increases the odds of it getting stolen.

 

the new asus lambo laptops look great, although i prefer the black more. it's more classy. however, i do agree that it is way overpriced for the specs they're hinting. in canadian dollars, i think they would be about $2500 which is way too much. if the specs are out of the ordinary awesome, then maybe the price is justifiable (ie. 2 GB RAM, 160+ GB HD (perpendicular perphaps), really good GPU, etc.). if they can also include a kickass sleeve for it as well. that would be great. but if no to these specs and extras, they need to bring it down to $1500 or $1800.

 

the Ferrari and Lamborghini names are copyrighted as well. and since Ferrari sells the laptops on their site, I'm sure it is officially licensed. Since Ferrari only makes like 3 cars, and they have a refresh cycle of around 5 years, you would definitely have to dig into history for names for laptops, since they need to issue a new one every year or so.