The boost in street cred is due entirely to the fact that V12 Design has hooked up with an American firm called Estari to help with development. Estari, as you may know, is in the business of developing all sorts of dual screen computer things, including a 2-VU dual screen laptop from way back in 2007.

Today, in 2009, their web page has changed to reflect the news that they’ve teamed up with V12 Design to make a laptop that looks like what the OLPC XO-2 would look like if it mated with a Lambo.

But will this revolutionise the laptop, as Estari’s marketing suggests? Judging by the fact that many of you are probably reading this on a traditional laptop, coupled with the fact that Estari’s 2007 effort seems to have been lost sometime in 2007, I’m sceptical, at best.

[Notebook Italia via Engadget, Estari]

CNET seems to think this came from within Lenovo, but I’d think even the most tone-deaf marketing division would never to let this leave the screening room and fire whoever brought it to them.

In a way, it actually is kind of genius, but only if viewed as a reductio ad absurdum argument against sex in marketing. In the sequel, our fine protagonist will wake up, realise the last ad was all a dream and open up his dual screen, 500GB RAID, integrated tablet Lenovo W700ds to start looking up ways to kill himself. CNET will also call this an official Lenovo video. [CNET]

Of course there’s the secondary screen, clocking in at 10.6 inches and popping out of the side of the 17-inch screen. But there’s also the built-in Wacom digitiser. And the fingerprint scanner. It is, frankly, awesome. But the cost of said awesomeness is size: this thing is an absolute tank.

Weighing in at about 5kg, this is more desktop replacement than portable computer. Sure, you could carry it around with you, but expect back problems if you try to do it too often. Oh, and the battery life? Two hours. Er, yeah. But for people who are looking for a boatload of functionality (not to mention two screens) in a laptop, there are few peers to the W700ds out there.

The smaller computer and display can run on 12 hours and can handle emailing and contact needs, but isn’t removable yet, so you still need to haul around the main machine. Makes sense, since it shares the same battery as the big boy. Mark did mention that from what he saw last night when this was demoed, none of the trackpads worked very well, since it’s just a proto.

It’s definitely an interesting concept, since a trackpad that’s also a display saves room on the main screen for more important things like getting work done, and not dicking around. [Engadget]

LaptopMag has a full hands-on with a prototype unit, which should be on display at CES. They’re generally impressed, as for all the bold changes in form factor, this hunkering monstrosity still seems to retain its usability.

The secondary screen got mixed reviews. It’s sharp, at 800×480, but a bit too small for displaying such finely resolved text. The Voodoo’s multitouch trackpad has evolved, and it’s apparently lovely and the placement is a welcome change for occasional mouseless gaming.

The Firefly concept is not currently slated for production, but seeing as Voodoo and HP don’t currently have a desktop replacement notebook of this calibre, we’ll probably see something similar ship before too long. [LaptopMag via Electronista]

An interview with Valerio Cometti, the founder and managing director of V12 Design, confirmed that the upcoming version would support multitouch input and that a microphone would be built into the design for voice commands. Unfortunately, the image pictured above is the first gen version and no images of the current Canova design have been released. However, if they are on target with their prediction, we could have one in our hands by 2010. [V12 Design via Laptop Mag]

Now here’s how you rock dual monitors. This dual monitor setup from Korea is totally adaptable, able to be twisted and turned into any number of configurations. That’s a dual 15-incher setup, but there’s also a 17-inch model due shortly as well. Oh man, do I ever want one of those. Let’s bring these Stateside, Korea. Please?

[Aving via CrunchGear]