ASUS has gone and made its super svelte Eee PC X101 official with a dedicated product page live on its site. We’d already gotten our hands-on with the crimson-colored ultraportable, but now there’s a whole list of specs to flesh out this 920g wonder.

The MeeGo-running netbook’s rocking a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 display, 1.33 GHz Intel Atom N435 (or N455) processor, 8GB SSD, Bluetooth, WiFi, SDHC card support and USB 2.0. Oh, and did we mention this 17.6 millimeter thin beauty comes in three shades of awesome? That’s right, when this $199 netbook finally hits retailers’ shelves you can also snag it in white and brown.

SOURCE via Asus

When you head to Apple’s online store to configure your MacBook Air, you’ll find options to increase processor speed or SSD capacity — depending on the model you select, of course. There’s no mention of flash drive speed, however, though it’s now clear that not all SSDs are created equal at Apple — not only when it comes to capacity, but also performance.

Jonathan over at TLD discovered a fairly significant discrepancy when benchmarking both MacBook Air models over the weekend. The 128GB Samsung SSD in his 11-inch Air was able to achieve 246 MB/s write and 264 MB/s read speeds. When he switched to the 13-inch model, however, speeds dropped to 156 MB/s and 208 MB/s, respectively, using that notebook’s 128GB Toshiba SSD.

Over at Engadget, they compared speeds on two generations of 13-inch models, and have also confirmed Jonathan’s findings. During their tests, the 256GB Samsung drive in our older model achieved 214 MB/s write and 251 MB/s read speeds, while the 128GB Toshiba drive in the new MacBook Air scored 184 MB/s and 203 MB/s during write and read tests, respectively.

This many not be a very noticeable issue for most MacBook Air owners, but still it’s an interesting find that their performances varies.

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Do you notice anything above? New MacBook Air, new Mac Mini, and the Mac OS X Lion screen. But there’s also something missing. Looks like Apple may have dropped one important product from its store during today’s new product rush. It seems as if there may indeed be some meat to those recent rumors that the company is doing away with its white plastic piece of laptop goodness — at the very least, the thing is nowhere to be seen in its current online lineup. Apple has confirmed that the MacBook has, in fact, been discontinued. However, while the notebook will be discontinued for individual consumers, Apple will continue to make it available to educational institutions. Is the MacBook Air overshadowing its elder sibling, or is Apple up to something else?

I’ve to admit, the Apple MacBook Air is indeed a perfect ultraportable notebook, but what about Mac OS X? Some may, but some won’t agree. Anyway, does it hurt your brain to look at the picture above? That’d be Chromium OS — running on a MacBook Air! Pretty much the definition of “worlds colliding,” this feat is brought to you by Hexxeh, whose most recent mind-warping project put Chrome on an iPad. The platform-mixing maestro says in this case everything works except Bluetooth, owing to a lack of support. But hearty souls who seek to follow in his footsteps, take heed: there’s no dual-boot option, and you will lose OS X — so perhaps this is a job for your now outdated model. Click the source link for 14 easy steps to turning your svelte laptop into Frankenstein’s monster. And oh yeah, that thing behind on the left, that’s a Chrome pillow. Jelly?

SOURCE via hexxeh

Finally, the highly anticipated update for the MacBook Air has arrived. No ARM processors, no new looks, just some speed bumps, Disney bolts, and trendy backlit keyboard. But that’s good, because that’s what we like about the MacBook Air. Oh yeah, Lion’s tagging along this time!

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If you think the picture above is photoshopped, then you’re very wrong. That insane laptop is real, and really comes with dual-monitor. After first appearing in September of 2009, GScreen went missing, until 2010 where it made a short appearance again. Now, however, it seems that the company is ready to show their dual-screen laptop to the world, for real.

The first run of SpaceBooks is now up for pre-order, with each one offering a pair of 17.3-inch displays that boast a 1920 x 1080 screen resolution. Each panel slides out horizontally (think wings, but on a laptop), and creates quite the spacious area for creative professionals to immerse themselves in.

The entry-level piece is being hawked for $2,395, which nets you a 2.66GHz Core i5-560M CPU, 4GB of DDR3 memory, NVIDIA’s GeForce GTS 250M (1GB), a 500GB HDD, DVD burner and a magnesium alloy frame. The pricier sibling is marked at $2,795, with that premium grabbing you a 1.73GHz Core i7-740QM, double the RAM and quadruple the bragging rights. Yes, those processors seemed to be NOT from the Sandy Bridge lineup. There’s no exact word on when these will ship out, but you’ll need to in-between time just to wrap your mind around the object you’re certainly still peering at above.

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Four months ago, Intel and Apple debut their awesomely fast Thunderbolt I/O with 10Gbps transfer speed, and boy, that four months sure pass by fast without any sound. The MacBook Pro and iMac lines have since been refreshed with the new inter-connect, but early adopters haven’t had much more than a fancy port to stare at.

Thankfully, Apple’s $49 T-bolt cable is finally available as your ticket to the 10Gbps superhighway. Apparently, it quietly hit Apple’s web store this morning along with some fresh Promise Pegasus RAID enclosures ($1k for 4TB up to $2K for 12TB) to support it.

All of the peripherals appear to be in stock and ready to ship; so if you’ve been eagerly waiting to make use of that extra port, now’s your chance.

SOURCE via Apple Insider

Sony has finally let their ultraslim VAIO Z laptop into the light, as they’ve unveiled this super slim laptop for the UK market. The specs reveal a 13.1-inch “ultramobile” notebook that comes in at under 1.2kg with a 2.7GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM, 1600×900 screen (the press release mentions an optional Full HD display) and sheet battery borrowed from the earlier VAIO S for up to 7 hours of computing.

Onboard it features only Intel’s HD Graphics 3000 solution but the VAIO Z beats other ultralights with its Power Media Dock, which contributes the power of an AMD Radeon 6650M GPU with 1GB of dedicated memory connected via Light Peak when more polygons have to be pushed. The dock sports one USB 3.0 hookup plus additional USB, VGA and HDMI ports, and a slot for either a DVD or Blu-ray drive.

There’s no word on price yet, but it is promised to ship by the end of July in Europe so if the full specs are appealing then you don’t have much time to save up. Pricing starts at £1,434 ($2,294) with a Core i5 CPU, 4GB of RAM and no PMD. The dock is a £400 ($640) option with no optical drive included, while upgrading to a 1080p 13.1-inch LCD is a mere £40 extra.

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HP’s Envy 14 is quite the looker of a laptop, with its etched aluminum skin beckoning you to explore the capabilities of the Sandy Bridge CPU that lies beneath. For those who prefer the murdered-out look, the HP Envy Beats Edition is the preferable PC, but until now it lacked the upgraded Intel innards of its showy stablemate. That’s right, Amazon’s offering a second-gen Intel Core i5-2410M chip clocked at 2.3 GHz to go with those dark Dr. Dre aesthetics you crave. The inky Envy with the big red “B” is priced at $1,050, some 50 bucks more than its equivalently-equipped cousin – yes, you’ll need to pay for the big red “B” letter, just like that white Apple logo.

SOURCE via Amazon

ASUS first made that handsome slab of magnesium alloy on the left available to the US back in December, and now the ultra-portable laptop will finally grace folks in the UK. If you’ll recall, the 13.3-inch U36′s stand out features include a svelte 19mm thickness, standard voltage i5 processor, NVIDIA Optimus graphics, and a USB 3.0 toggle (for an estimated 11.5 hour battery life). The hardware seems chunky now that we’ve played with the company’s UX21 ultrathin, but with a price of £699 (just over $1,200) it’s hard to complain much. If your palms are beginning to sweat in excitement, it’s available at Micro Anvika today in your choice of black or silver, and should be at Comet by the end of the month.

SOURCE via Asus