Sony’s issuing a recall for Vaio TZ laptops sold between May 2007 and July 2008: apparently there’s a risk of overheating leading to “abnormal heat deformation of the enclosure”—which sounds like a lot more than the usual knee-burn heat of a laptop. It’s not due to the battery, mind you, rather it seems like a manufacturing flaw related to the power connector and LCD frame. The news relates so far to just Japanese machines, with Sony offering free inspection and repair, but keep your eyes peeled for news of the problem in other countries. [PCWatch]
A laptop that smells good: yep—that’s the new idea Asus has had to try to delineate its products in the marketplace. And I don’t mean that “Mmmmm… new plastic gadget” sensation either, this is a full-on scent. Floral, Cologne, Ocean and Grass to be exact, though I’m not sure how many people will go for the “smells like your front lawn” option. The PCs have patterned lids too, in pink, blue, green and black as well as a white carbon-fibre wrist wrest, which is a boon for those of you who regularly wear out your wrist rest (wait… what?) Apart from these features, they’re pretty standard 13.3-inch screen laptops, running Core 2 Duo processors, with 320GB drives, and a fingerprint reader, and they’re available on pre-order from Amazon for US$1,299. Press release below.
Until 6AM September 9th, according to Dell’s own blog, if you buy a Studio 15, XPS M1530 or XPS M1330 machine from Dell, you can buy an Inspiron Mini 9 for a suitable mini price of US$99. It’s a mini bargain. AU: Not sure if this will follow through to the AU site, but I don’t think it will, somehow…
We’ve known Amazon and Sony’s VOD plans since they were in diapers, but today Amazon has introduced their promised instant-view capabilities to their Video on Demand service for both Macs and PCs, and rolled out a beta for Sony Bravia Link owners to start testing–allowing you to pair your TV with your Amazon account for instant purchases and rentals. Your purchases are also automatically added to “Your Video Library” for instant streams from any web browser. [Amazon]
The way Dell introduced the Inspiron Mini 9 was pretty inspired, so it’s almost been depressing watching the steady stream of leaks deflate it into a now familiar device, even though it’s only being released today. As leaked, inside is an Intel Atom Diamondville processor and it has a 1024×600 LED-backlit screen with 4, 8 and 16GB SSD options (plus you get 2GB free online storage at Box.Net) and about three hours of battery life. Only the Windows XP version is available now for US$399, in black or white—the US$349 Ubuntu flavour, along with the rest of the six-colour rainbow are a few weeks away. galleryPost('inspironmini9', 3, '');
All you outback Gizmodians out there longing for some smartphone love, your prayers have now been answered, with Telstra giving the Palm Treo Pro their blue tick of approval.
The blue tick is the stamp Telstra pops on phones that recommend the handset for rural coverage on the NextG network. The Treo Pro is the ninth handset in Telstra’s stable to be awarded the classification, and the first smartphone with the label.
So now our farmers, bush-bashers and outback neighbours can enjoy the wonders of Windows Mobile 6.1 where they live. Welcome to the club, boys and girls. Hope you enjoy your stay.
[Telstra]
The Gadget: Motorola’s universal wired portable speaker, the MOTOROKR EQ3.
If you thought the Acer Predator gaming desktop looked powerful, then you’ll love the design of Toshiba’s new Qosmio X300.
According to Toshiba, this is Toshiba’s “fastest and most powerful notebook to date”, and comes with the latest components, including an Intel Core 2 Duo processor T9400, two hard drives (200GB and 320GB), 4GB DDR3 RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX graphics card, Harman Kardon speakers and a heap of connections.
It naturally comes with Vista Ultimate, its 17-inch screen has a 1680 x 1050 resolution and it weighs in at 4.16kg.
There’s a heap more specs after the jump if you’re interested. Me, I just like to look at it. The $3,999 price tag isn’t cheap, but gosh-darnit that fire-engine red looks purty. Makes me want to go and buy a fast car.
The TiVo HD is a good, cheap alternative to the recently de-listed TiVo Series 3 for people who didn’t need all that much storage and all that many fancy features. But what if someone wants even more built-in storage than the 20 hours of HD that the TiVo HD provides? They’ve now got the TiVo HD XL.
Hackintosh machines are nothing new, but the guys over at APC have got a rough guide to troubleshooting the process of installing OS X onto an MSI Wind netbook.
You have to make some small sacrifices (like losing the headphone and microphone jacks) and if you want wireless you’ll need to open your Wind up, but for $700 bucks or so, this solution makes it one of the cheapest Mac options around. And while it’s not exactly legal in the eyes of Apple and their army of lawyers, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
[APC Mag]
