Notebook News: Upgradeable Graphics Cards, VAIO A on Sale, Dell Sales, NBR Bluetooth Poll

Upgradeable Notebook Graphics Cards Specs from NVidia

Nvidia, a leading designer of graphics chips, announced Monday that it has widespread support from the major manufacturers of notebooks for its proposed PCI Express Module (MXM) specification that it hopes will help for notebook users to soon be able to swap out old graphics cards for new ones as easily as those using desktop computers do today.

Currentlyupgrading graphics on a notebookis basicallynot an option. Because of this some people still continue to stay away from buying a laptop computer. With the new PCI Express technology from Intel and NVidias proposed MXM graphics standard, adding a new graphics card should become possible.

MXM details three module formats, each designed to meet the demands and operating envelopes of the key notebook market segments. MXM I is geared toward thin'n'light laptops, MXM II to mainstream machines and MXM III is intended for desktop replacements.

Each sub-spec. defines its own power and heat dissipation parameters to allow cards within each category to be swapped out for a similarly specced unit.

Sony VAIO A Series Up for Sale at SonyStyle.com

The Sony VAIO A Series of notebooks were announced by Sony last week, and this week we see they're finally on sale! You can buy one of these 17" multimedia widescreen notebooks from SonyStyle.com. We'll keep an eye out for reviews, CNet.com has posted a first take already and we will think about reviewing this model ourselves.

Dell keeps on rolling with Notebook sales - 39% Sales Increase from Last Year

Dell gained even more of the notebook marketshare in the U.S. for the most recent quarter of sales. Dells revenue for the period ending 30 April was $11.5bn, up 21% from the same period the previous year and slightly more than the $11.4bn expected by industry analysts. Notebook shipments rose 39% from the previous year, the growth experienced by Dell was larger than any other company that sells notebooks

NotebookReview.com Visitors Mildly Care About Bluetooth in their Laptops

Bluetooth is a wireless standard that allows us to pair together mobile devices, so for instance if I have a bluetooth enabled printer and notebook near each other, without having to be directly aligned as Infrared wireless makes you do, I can send a print job to the printer from my notebook. I was a sceptic, I thought the average joewould not care too muchabout having Bluetooth in their laptop computer, but half the people seemed to be interested and some just felt they'd sleep better at night...or at least be able to brag that their notebook has Bluetooth built-in even if they never intend to use it! Here's the poll results for what people said to the following question:

Bluetooth is a form of short range wireless that is integrated in some notebooks to communicate with Printers, PDAs, Cell Phones and various other devices. Assume you're purchasing a notebook, what are your thoughts on getting a notebook with integrated Bluetooth?

Definitely a must have feature, I will use it with a Bluetooth printer or other device	[26%]
If a notebook has it I might be tempted to invest in Bluetooth peripherals	[23%]
If a notebook has it I doubt I would use it, but nice to know it is available	[37%]
If a notebook has it I would be mad that I might be paying for this feature	[9%]
I do not understand what Bluetooth is nor do I care to find out	[5%]

CompuTex Taipei 2004

One of the largest computer shows in the world will be taking placing in Taipei Taiwan in a little over 2 weeks. Nearly every manufacturer of computers in the world will be there. We'll let you know of any news to come out of Taiwan during this show, after all, it is the birthplace of most every notebook in the world so expect to see or hear something cool!

More from DigiTimes.com