News Bits: MSI GX600 Gaming Notebook, OS X Leopard Video, Beer Reward for Stolen Laptop

<!-- Generated by XStandard version 1.7.1.0 on 2007-10-21T01:55:52 -->

MSI GX600 gaming notebook now available

Image courtesy DigiTimes

MSI has announced that the GX600 gaming notebook it demonstrated in July is now available. The GX600 has a unique 'turbo' button that allows the Santa Rosa front side bus to be overclocked from the stock 800MHz to 920 - 960MHz, while the CPU and memory frequency will be increased at the same time. The GX600 features an Nvidia 8600M-GT graphics card.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)

 

New Zealand brewery offers free beer for life if their stolen laptop is returned

A New Zealand brewer is offering a lifetime supply of free beer in exchange for the return of a laptop stolen in a break-in. Croucher Brewing had a laptop stolen from their premises on October 15th that contained all of their financials, business contacts and label designs for new beers. This data was not backed up anywhere else. According to brewery co-owner Paul Croucher, &quot;We decided that if anyone does come into possession of the laptop we'll be happy to offer them a reward -- a dozen (bottles) of beer a month for the rest of their life. We'd love it back. We're at such a critical stage in our little business that every hit like that is quite big.&quot;

So far the laptop has not been recovered, but the business owners are confident that with such an offer the laptop will eventually be found. The moral of story is of course to always keep an eye on your laptop and to always backup critical business data. Oh, and drink in moderation.

Read More (CNBC.com)

See reward notice at CroucherBrewing.nz

SATA Stage Rack fits 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives

Image courtesy PCLaunches

The SATA Stage rack is a new external device that allows users to connect 2.5- or 3.5-inch hard drives to a PC without having to open the case. It works with Mac and Windows and retails for $47.

Read More (PCLaunches.com)
Product Link (GeekStuff4U.com)

OS X Leopard video walk-through posted

Apple has posted a video walk-through of the new OS X Leopard operating system. See the full video here.

Read More (Gizmodo.com)

 

Dell to ship Ubuntu 7.10 on laptops

Ubuntu 7.10 officially arrived on October 18th and Dell has promised to start shipping this version of Linux on laptops and desktops. According to Anne Camden from Dell, &quot;We will offer Ubuntu 7.10 preinstalled on our systems soon.&quot; No specific date is set yet for shipping PCs with the new Ubuntu because Dell needs to test the OS on all of their systems first.

Read More (PCMag.com)

Dell Ubuntu 7.10 Linux Wiki

A new type of spam - audio spam

A new type of spam email has emerged - mp3 audio spam. Email security firm Proofpoint based in Sunnyvale, CA, discovered the new spam this week. The messages only contained the MP3 clips measuring about 95kb, or the size of a cell phone ring tone. It is unclear what kind of impact the audio tones will have on spam's future.

Read More (NYTimes.com)

 

The OS X Leopard Guided Tour is really interesting, for sure. I watched over it the other day; Leopard looks really sleek and the new features look awesome. Can't wait for it to arrive (not getting it right away, waiting for possible bugs to be cleared out first).

 

I've heard MSI makes some of the worst laptops around, Anandtech reviewed one awhile ago and they had problems reassembling it. Sad thing was it was ment to be a barebones laptop. Cute chick in the picture though

The beer story is too funny, I'd love to find that laptop.

The hard drive in that picture looks way to unstable for normal use, if a raptor was in that thing I bet it'll vibrate itself out.

Glad to hear Dell is keeping to their word.

 

that SATA stage racks looks scary, wouldn't the HDD be exposed too much that way? the electronic PCB on the back of the drive is very sensitive u know.

i watch that video the other day also. that leopard video guy is scary, he's look a bit.... err.... feminine.. makes me somewhat feels ashame of owning a mac.

edit: audio spam?!?

 

Good to see Dell staying on top of things.

 

Personally I love the SATA Stage Rack fits 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives.

I have lots of hard drives lying around and I always have to open the case up, unscrew and swap the hard drive. I personally find it really annoying so the Stage Rack is just what I need.

I think the hard drive might run a little bit cooler too! ^^

 

Apple's guided tour people are always kinda weird . Like the iPod Touch guy. He had too much expression, it was awkward watching him talk while moving his arms around constantly.

The iPhone guy's kinda normal .

 

Why? Are you homophobic?

 

no. he just doesnt like products that are too feminine

the beer thing is hilarious! what an idiot for not backing his stuff up!

reminds me of this guy I knew in NZ who hacked a company's website there with a cheap PC. the company spent thousands on security and were downed by one simple fault hehe

 

Never heard about that anywhere...

I was actuually close to getting an MSI, but it was too much, $1500 for a Turion X2 and an X700. Much worse than the $1200 I paid for my current laptop (minus the extra 512MB RAM). But the idea of building my own notebook and making it mine was tantalizing. Not to mention they offered MXM in some of their models.

 

well... not really... but when the apple streotype their user to looks like a smug/snobish metrosexual/gay guy; that can't be good. but then again microsoft streotype them as being geeky, so, all is well i guess.. peace out

 

Strange times, when new notebooks need to be held by girls in bikinis so that guys would look at them and take a liking to the notebooks at the same time.

 

Way back when I built an athlon system, I chose an MSI motherboard. Big mistake, it was really unstable and could never get it to work right. Returned it and got an ASUS motherboard, was way better after that. While I don't know about their laptops, I don't trust anything from MSI since then.

 

The GX600 is actually a very interesting concept, if you look at it. Its got a very slim design, a 512MB (DDR2) 8600GT, dedicated number pad on the right of the keyboard (very rare on 15" notebooks), a Turbo overclock button similar to that of the Asus C90S (except implemented with a mobile processor - pretty cool trick, since the mobile cpus can't usually be overclocked outside of the Extreme series), and a 5.7lb weight - coming very close to the MBP, and undoubtedly the second lightest 15.4" notebook out there at the moment. I like it. The glossy plastic and flame paint job are kinda controversial (though I have no problems with them), but there is a matte black model available with essentially the same features and casing, just a different finish, called the MS-163A.

I'm still waiting to see when exactly they will show up on distributors sites.

 

Me too...the sooner the better. I think Xotic is planning on carrying them, and RKComputer tends to carry MSI models too.

The black-only version only has a WXGA screen. Supposedly the extreme-flame one will be higher res....if it's only WXGA, I might not be interested.

 

On the reviews I read, the GX600 had a WXGA+ screen. Hopefully they will make it an option for WSXGA as well, but either is good I think.