News Bits: Schools Laptop Programs Dropped, More HP Santa Rosa Notebooks, Asus Santa Rosa Notebooks

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Some schools drop laptops after seeing no progress

Schools began investing in laptops over ten years ago after recommendations from groups who saw laptops as part of the 21st century classroom. States including Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania and South Dakota helped buy laptops for thousands of students statewide. While many school administrators have said that laptops in the classroom have motivated students to learn, it is not clear whether one-to-one computing has helped to improve academic performance. The laptop programs are still new and not very widespread.

The Texas Center for Educational Research found that there was no overall difference on test scores between 21 middle schools who received laptops in 2004 and 21 who didn't. An education professor at the University of California, Mark Warschauer, also found that there was no evidence to conclude that laptop sincreased state test scores. The professor still supports the laptop programs because it takes time for teachers to learn the technology and integrate it into their lesson plans. Mr. Warschauer said “If the goal is to get kids up to basic standard levels, then maybe laptops are not the tool. But if the goal is to create the George Lucas and Steve Jobs of the future, then laptops are extremely useful.”

Read More (NYTimes.com)

 

Apple confirms LED-based notebooks, will adopt panels from Taiwan

Apple has recently confirmed its plans to launch Macs with LED backlighting technology in 2007. The notebooks will use components from AU Optronics (AUO), Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO), Coretronic, and Kenmos Technology.

Shipments of 13.3-inch and 15.4-inch panels from AUO and CMO will begin in Q2 or Q3 of this year. Notebooks will account for 39.5% market share of the LED backlighting applications by 2010, up from 4.9% in 2007 according to Displaybank.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)

 

More HP Santa Rosa laptops leaked

Last week it was revealed that the Pavilion line of consumer notebook would be refreshed with Santa Rosa, and in the past few days the rest of the HP Santa Rosa lineup has been leaked on the web. Here's a rundown of what's coming from HP and that will be using the Santa Rosa platform

Business Compaq notebooks:

• HP Compaq 6710b - 15.4&quot; business notebook
• HP Compaq 6510b - 14.1&quot; business notebook
• HP Compaq 2510p - 12.1&quot; ultraportable
• HP Compaq 2710p - 12.1&quot; notebook to Tablet PC convertible
• HP Compaq 6910p - 14.1&quot; screen business notebook
• HP Compaq 8710p - 17&quot; screen business notebook
• HP Compaq 8710w - 17&quot; screen business workstation
• HP Compaq 8510w - 15.4&quot; screen business workstation
• HP Compaq 8510p - 15.4&quot; screen business notebook

Consumer Pavilion notebooks:

• HP Pavilion HDX - 20&quot; screen gaming notebook
• HP Pavilion dv2000t - 14.1&quot; screen notebook
• HP Pavilion dv9000t - 17&quot; screen notebook
• HP Pavilion dv6000t - 15.4&quot; screen notebook

The most interesting of the consumer notebooks is the HDX that promises to be quite a beast of a gaming notebook. Check out the pictures of this upcoming HDX below:

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Source Notebook Italia

Discuss the HP HDX in our forums

Samsung launches Q1 Ultra UMPC at $799

Samsung today officially announced the Q1 Ultra Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC). It will be available with two processors, a 600MHz Intel A100 and an 800MHz Intel A110. The Q1 has a claimed minimum battery life of 4.5 hours with the standard battery. The UMPC includes 802.11a/b/g and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR connectivity.

The screen is backlit by LEDs with 300 nits of brightness and has a resolution of 1024x600. Other features of the Q1 include VGA out, a 300k webcam, and a split QWERTY keyboard. Optional features include a 3.5G HSDPA cellular modem, docking station, GPS navigation, extended battery (6- and 8-cells available), and external double-layer DVD burner.

The entry-level model will retail for a reasonable $799, with top end models hitting $1,999. It will be available from a wide range of resellers, such as Best Buy.

Below are pictures from a Samsung event that took place today in New York to kick off the sale of this device in the U.S.

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Asus introduces two new Santa Rosa laptops

Images courtesy Notebook Italia

Notebook Italia has leaked two new Santa Rosa-based gaming notebooks from Asus, the G1S and the G2S. Both include Windows Vista Home Premium and will ship later this month.

The G1S is a 15.4-inch widescreen model weighing in at 6.8 pounds with an 8-cell battery. It has the following specifications:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/4MB L2/800MHz FSB)
• 15.4-inch WSXGA+ screen
• Nvidia GeForce 8600M 256MB graphics
• 2GB DDR2-667 RAM
• 160GB 5400RPM SATA HDD
• DVD Super Multi drive
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• Intel 4965AGN wireless

Pricing is listed at 1700 Euros, or about US$2,306.

The G2S is the larger laptop, featuring a 17-inch display. Specifications are the same as the G1S, the differences being in the hard drive (200GB SATA drive) and screen (17-inch WUXGA). The G2S is priced at 1900 Euros, about US$2,577.

Read More (DailyTech.com)

Asus forum discussion for Asus G1S and G2S

 

Damn that HDX is amazing...

=O

 

a 15.4" with a x1900? interesting....also interesting that they didn't move up to a dx10

 

That HP HDX is extremely impressive! I just hope they put a great gaming GPU in there instead of a lousy one like Toshiba has done with their Qosimo lineup. More power is always better. =) Well, as long as the pricetag isn't outrageous.

And laptops don't help students get smarter? Well who didn't see that one coming...it's not like it's rocket science. Laptops in classrooms were supposed to be the way of the future so that students would use ebooks and turn in assignments electronically. Unfortunately, the book companies don't want to play along since revenue was being lost and students who turned things in late could just blame a malfunction on the problem. That, and we all know what they were really doing with those laptops. Yeah, I'm looking at you people that sit in the back of the classroom and play WoW or just chat the whole time.

 

I've got a funny feeling that 15.4" laptop with a X1900 is a typo...even the HP workstation model lists that, and the X1900 is certainly not a workstation card.

HP's thinner notebooks have never been too friendly with high performance cards anyway...they're too hot (yes, even mine is pretty toasty)!

 

they say the new ones weigh 7 lb....perhaps they put in a bulkier cooling system?

and go away greg. you're supposed to be on vacation!

 

I say we take his computer away!

 

Actually, mine doesn't overly concern me. It gets warm, but I wouldn't say its anything that would unduly concern me. But I do think X1900 is a typo

 

How much do you guys think that HP HDX will actually cost? I hope it doesn't cost a bomb...

 

I love how its so big they managed to fit a TV remote into it. I would honestly rather have one of the all-in-one desktops instead, like the Apple iMac ( ) or the Sony LS. Much much cheaper, although they are less integrated than this.

 

Um...

There is no technological barrier to making notebooks bigger.

They can make a notebook with a 60 inch hdtv display.

There arent enough people whove never used a laptop before to make a market for this.

 

Well, there is when they want to make the notebook smaller. I really hope to see a 12.1inch laptop with a midrange gpu like the 8600s...

 

Sorry bud, unlikely to happen any time soon. If it did, it would be so bulky that it would defeat the purpose of it being a 12" and they might as well just give it a bigger screen (like a 14"). Look how thick the XPS M1210 is, and it's only got a 7400...

 

That's why i said there were engineering problems with it...

 

may be it's a kind of nvidia marketting,i never seen a laptop with Ati 9800/9800 pro but 9700 was available in the past ...

i ask myself how much does it cost ???

 

I say between 2500 - 3500 with loaded options.

 

There was actually one laptop that had a Mobility Radeon 9800 - the orignal Dell XPS 15.4" with a Pentium 4. It had 256MB of dedicated memory and was in a class of its own at the time. Of course the Go6800 came out shortly after it did and took back the performance crown.

 

uh huh.. So how good is the santa rose goin to be ne ways?

 

12" widescreen convertible sounds interesting.. I can't wait, if it's not a toy & lighter than the 4lbs 12" widescreen toy convertible HP currently makes.

The current convertible laptops I've seen are pretty heavy, at least the ones with the high-power CPUs.

...Oh well, I could always just go for a D430.