News Bits: Dell Orders AMD Notebooks, Asus Unveils New Notebooks, If Laptops Were Banned on Flights

Dell puts in ~2 million orders of AMD-based notebooks and desktops

According to a report by Bank of America, Dell has ordered about 1.2 million desktops and 800,000 notebooks based on AMD processors. The report indicates that the machines should be arriving in late Q3/early Q4 this year.

Although AMD is getting a boost from Dell, their profit margins will be under pressure according to analysts. AMD is expected to post poor financial results due to a combination of increased price pressure from Dell, its large debt from the ATI acquisition, and expansion investments. In the long term, AMD should be making impressive progress.

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Asus rolls out Core 2 Duo F2, V1, and R1F notebooks

August 19<SUP>th</SUP> - Asus unveiled three new notebooks series with the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The notebooks have specifications as follows:

Asus V1 Notebook Series

• 15.4" widescreen display
• Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs from T5500 (1.67GHz) to T7600 (2.33GHz)
• ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB
• 80GB - 120GB hard drive, dual hard drive option available
• Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0
• ExpressCard slot, fingerprint reader
• Dimensions: 2.5 - 3.57cm thick, 2.7kg (with traveler drawer)

The F2 has similar specifications, but slightly different specs include:

Asus F2 Notebook Series

• 15" XGA or SXGA+ display
• Intel Core Solo to Core 2 Duo T7400 (2.16GHz) CPU
• ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 with 128MB
• 1.3 megapixel webcam
• Dimensions: 1.7 - 4cm thick, 2.7kg (w/ battery)

And finally, the R1F Tablet PC has similar specifications to the F2 and V1 for the most part:

• 13.3" WXGA
• 80-120GB hard drive
• ExpressCard slot, fingerprint reader
• Dimensions: 3.5cm thick, 1.98kg

There is no word on pricing or date of availability from retailers.

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Dell and Sony knew about battery flaws for some time

Both Dell and Sony knew about ten months ago that small metal particles had contaminated the Li-Ion batteries made by Sony, which caused them to fail or overheat. They decided to hold off issuing a recall until the flaws were linked to "catastrophic failures".

Since the two companies met in October, Sony changed its manufacturing process to minimize the presence/size of the particles in the batteries. They decided that a recall wasn't necessary because it wasn't clear whether or not the particles were dangerous. Other companies using Sony batteries are also apparently looking into recalls.

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If laptops were banned on flights...

According to a New York Times article, in a survey of 200 travel managers 2/3 said their company's employees would definitely travel less if laptops were bannedon flights. The other 1/3 of travel managers simply weren't sure if their employees would travel less or not. Travellers got a taste of this potential limiation two weeks ago during the heightened terrorist alerts on flights from Britain to the U.S. when business travelers were forced to put all electronics in their checked luggage, and essentially had nothing to do on the plane.

According to one businesstraveller named Greeley Kochwho flew from London to Chicago last week:

"They made me check my laptop and other electronics, I went to buy a book and was told I couldn't take a book on board....They said a weapon could be hidden in a hollowed-out book. It didn't seem to matter that a screener can easily flip through a book and see."

After his flight took off many hours late, Mr. Koch had the occasion there being nothing else to do to reflect on the fact that dozens of business travelers like himself were on this long-haul daytime flight, unable to get any work done.

With the recent battery explosions in laptops and greater concern with terrorists getting creative the NTSB is looking more closely at banning certain electronics on flights, that might include laptops. If the 2/3 number of people that would simply reconsider travelling at all is true, it could be a huge blow to the airline industry if laptops indeed were banned on flights.

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ATI releases driver update for Windows and Linux

ATI has released its Catalyst 6.8 driver package for both Windows and Linux. The Windows package aims at performance improvements, and the Linux package is supposed to add features and broaden hardware support.

According to ATI, the Catalyst 6.8 driver suite gives application-specific frame rate gains of 6.5% to 16% due to shader compiler and transform engine optimizations. 22-30% performance increases under Direct3D come from tweaks to the code's memory management routines. It mainly benefits cards with 256MB VRAM.

For Linux, the 6.8 drivers support two monitors running at different resolutions, and also remember the settings when the system shuts down. Support has been added for the Radeon Xpress 1200, 1250, and 1300 chipsets. The installer works with both 32- and 64-bit versions of the OS - no need for a platform-specific release.

Here's where to get your standard drivers.

And if you have a laptop, use the direct link to download your drivers (Windows).

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Uh wow, American Airline companies are hurting to terribly already as we all know...

 

I'm very curious to see what notebooks Dell puts those AMD processors in, my hunch is they're going to be budget notebooks with Semprons since they're playing it down a lot and probably don't want to rub it in Intel's face too hard (they've been buddy, buddy for some time with Intel). Only time will tell I guess.

 

Don't forget about the V1j's anti-spill keyboard, modular bay and docking system which makes quite interesting!

As for the airliner issue, wow, the concern for global security is massive and with the issues being so evident, as Niki mentioned, it's hurting them badly...

It's not like you can fit snakes into a 14" or smaller laptop...

 

I like that V1. But I'm preeeeeeeetty sure I can't afford it.

 

Wow....the Asus looks great....too bad it doesnt have 14inch at the moment. Hmm....seems like every major laptop manufacturer is gonna incorporate the biometric fingerprint reader!

About the flight, i even heard you're not allowed to bring any drinks up to the plane cos they're afraid you're bringing liquid explosives!!

 

Lol, that's kinda a low for me to even go there but... Cori, if you took all the components out there are probably venomous snake species that could fit in a small laptop's chassis. =P

 

where can I get those ASUS?
Are there any official benchmark of this Merom compared to Yonad?

 

BIG mistake by Dell as far as I see it , they will have to price AMD notebooks very low , How its going to contribute to their profit margin ?

This move will hurt sales of Dells Intel based notebooks as well . If it was done before Core Duo it would make more sense but now AMD cpus value for money isn't as good as Intels . Unless AMD is selling them to Dell for practicly free ?

 

really, the new ASUS notebooks look fantastic. Thank god I didn't buy that SZ220. But where can I get the Asus notebooks?

 

Dell can not hide in shadows, when all others *are* using AMD CPU's. It had to happen sooner or later...

 

That is ENOUGH! I have HAD IT with these MUTHA****IN' SNAKES in these MUTHA****IN' LAPTOPS!

*ahem*

All joking aside, I think the airline security paranoia is just going way too far. The honest reality is that if someone really wants to take over a plane, they can. Liquid explosives can be smuggled in your stomach (or other places).

We've had years and years of laptops being potential weapons and I'm sorry, but until they've been used as one, I just don't see the point of banning them.

All this, of course, because Sony and Dell's QC was lax. That's probably the part of this that really irritates me. "The batteries might explode!" "Screw it, ship 'em out and we'll see what happens."

 

The Register takes a more light hearted look at the current security fears

That Asus looks nice though...now with fingerprint readers becoming more common...I wonder how many more years for retina scanners

 

New update for ATI! Nice...

6.5-16% framerate gains? WOW...

 

it'll be nice if DELL makes some 12'' Turion X2 NBs.

 

Many here are looking into ASUS laptops, please Visit the ASUS forum section here.

You'll see many resellers, plus a lot of information regarding ASUS laptops.

There are reviews here on many of the ASUS laptops too, just do a search.

As for 14" notebooks, that can compete the Toshiba P100, ASUS has the A8jm and W3J. Have a look at them.

For 15.4" ASUS has, V1J, S96j, Z96j, A6ja.

The list of laptops go on, there are laptops that may fit your needs.

 

Some people have speculated that Dell's B120/B130 line will be the ones to get AMD processors. These laptops are already low-priced, but they currently use older Pentium M processors which will not be available forever. If Semprons are cheaper than Core Solos, and I suspect they are since they are currently in laptops similar to those with Pentium M or even Celeron M chips, then it would make sense for Dell to use these AMD processors in this low-end laptop line.

 

will the new dell amds have decent integrated graphics Iam a lite gamer and my current notebook uses a gma900 which stinks? I would hope dell uses at least a xpress 200m or a 1150 would have my money, would dell maybe go with the geforce 6150 also?

 

Our company had been traveling a lot since we decided to do most of our production overseas. I did made a quite a lot of trips to various location last and this year, and in plane is where I do most of my works. If notebook were to be banned from plane, my co-workers and I will try everything to not fly. Flying itself is not fun but I wouldn't want to comeback and find more work being backed up. Co-worker of mine is flying to Guatemala tomorrow, first time since the last terror attempt, lets see how everything goes.

 

The new asus notebooks look kind of nice, but I hope there will still be another successor to the v6j, as these are dissappointing because they both have ATI graphics (I run linux) and if i understand correctly the F is thicker than the V, but the new V doesn't have SXGA resolution.

 

i'd definately buy the asus new ones.. too bad i live in canada, we probably won't seem them for another year..

 

I dont think its a "light hearted" look - its a very serious look at the feasibility of the supposed terror plot.

A couple of years ago, some bill was supposed to be introduced in California, about this dangerous chemical dihydrogen-monooxide (DHMO), which kills hundreds of people every year. They even hired a lawey who collected evidence in thier support.
Fortunately there was one person who had paid attention in high school, who objected before the bill was to be introduced - he indicated DHMO was just H20

True story, unfortunately

 

I really don't why someone can't bring aboard at least one bloody book onto the plane. All the screeners have to do is flip through the pages and bam, done. And all laptops are supposed to be screened by having the owners power them up. From what I've heard about the newer planes, each passenger will get there own tv screen in front of them with a wide selection of movies and shows to choose from. I know a few airlines that are starting to implement this...so it can't be all that bad a few years from now...I hope ._.

Oh and I've even heard some airliners are going to put power sockets by each seat onboard to supply portable electronic users with unlimited power. I don't know if they're going to hold their word to that, but here's hoping ^.^b