OCZ has unveiled their latest 15”Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Gaming Notebook based on the Intel Centrino 2 platform. The laptop offers enthusiasts and gamers options to perfect their own mobile powerhouse for their own applications.

Featuring the Intel Centrino 2 platform, the 15.4-inch, 1280x800 notebooks OCZ DIY notebook comes equipped with ATI Raedon HD3650 GPU with 512MB of dedicated memory and DirectX 10.1 compatibility.

User-definable options include up to 8GB of DDR2 memory, along with a choice of hard drives ranging from 80 to 500GB at 5400/7200RPM. There is also a choice of optical drives between a dual-layer DVD drive and Blu-Ray player.

The rest of the specs include HD surround sound, A4-sized keyboard with a Vista key and a 6-cell battery.

OCZ is offering one year of warranty for the notebook, as well as LCD and the battery.

Link: OCZ Technology

Apple has introduced a new line of MacBook made with a new manufacturing process. The seamless enclosure is carved from a single piece of aluminum.

The new MacBook family redefines notebook design while dramatically lowering the entry price for advanced notebook features, including all-metal enclosures, pro-performance notebook graphics, brilliant instant-on LED-backlit displays, and new large, glass Multi-Touch trackpads.

Inside the new MacBook is a powerful Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at speeds up to 2.4GHz. MacBook also boasts an increased 1066MHz frontside bus and next-generation 1066MHz DDR3 memory. The NVIDIA GeForce 9400M brings up to five times faster, discrete-level graphics performance to MacBook.

The MacBook keyboard is solid, responsive, and comfortable. An illuminated keyboard now comes standard on the 2.4GHz MacBook model. The new trackpad doubles as a button - just press down anywhere and consider it clicked.

The entire MacBook family meets stringent Energy Star 4.0, EPEAT Gold, and RoHS environmental standards.

The new 13-inch MacBook starts from $1,299.

Link: Apple

Computer builder Zepto has claimed to offer the "world's fastest" 14-inch notebook, dubbed Nox A14.

The Nox comes with a superior simplistic design and all aluminum connectors combined with a soft touch material for an optimal and comfortable feeling of the notebook surface.

Nox A14 is powered by Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P9500, up to 8GB DDR2 RAM, 500GB HDD or 128GB SSD, NVIDIA Geforce 9600M GT graphic card with 512MB dedicated memory and Blu-ray drive. It comes with a 14.1-inch screen with WXGA+ resolution.

The keyboard offers control for features like power modes, night LED, volume, BT/Wireless, Media player, Touchpad on/off, web camera. The Zepto Nox features a fingerprint reader as a perfect security solution for your Windows login. A two-megapixel webcam is integrated by default, as are Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi.

The Zepto Nox A14 is currently available in the Europe and the UK for a starting price of £827 (or roughly $1,400).

Link: Electronista

ASUS now brings the Eee PC S101, an exquisitely designed netbook for fashion forward individuals.

Weighing a mere 1 kg and svelter than most fashion magazines at just 1.8 cm, Eee PC S101 enables users to carry themselves with effortless grace. It features a 10.2” wide active matrix LED-backlit display. It has Intel Atom processor at its core. The Eee PC S101 supports 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and also features three USB ports, Ethernet and a 4-in-1 reader for SD Card, MMC, Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro Flash disks.

Asus claims a Long Five-hour Battery Life with Super Hybrid Engine. The Eee PC S101 is available with either Microsoft Windows or GNU Linux. The XP model has 1GB memory and 16GB of Flash storage in place of a hard drive, while the Linux version has 2GB memory and 32GB or 64GB of storage.

Eee PC S101 is available in three gorgeous colors - Brown, Champagne or Graphite.

Link: Asus

Specifically designed with gamers in mind, ASUS has introduced the world's first Intel quad core gaming notebook - the G71.

Powered by the new Intel Core 2 Extreme processor QX9300, the G71 sports a 17” Crystal Shine high brightness display with a quick response time of 8 ms and NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GT GDDR3 512 MB graphics card. The G71 can be equipped with up to 4GB of memory and 1TB of storage, via dual 500GB disks.

Direct Console 2.0 allows users to select from three processor speed settings depending on their mode of usage. A secondary display, called Direct Messenger, displays email notifications, instant messages, battery reserves and system loadings in real-time even during a game in progress. Programmable lighting chassis of the G71 provides the user a pyrotechnic-like ambience while in the game.

The G71 incorporates several entertainment features like Altec Lansing speakers, 2.0 megapixel webcam and a dedicated game keyboard layout to give users a gaming experience like none other.

Link: Asus

Panasonic has announced major updates to its business-rugged notebook computer line with the introduction of the thin-and-light F8 and upgrades to the T8 and W8.

The F8, T8 and W8 all come with a Gobi 3G mobile broadband system that allows connection to high-speed mobile Internet services offered by leading network operators virtually anywhere in the world.

F8 is being called the world’s lightest 3G-ready notebook with a 14.1 inch wide display and an internal optical drive. Weighing 3.7 pounds, the Toughbook F8 has an integrated handle for maximum portability. With the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of RAM, bright widescreen LCD and a 160GB shock-mounted hard drive, the new F8 is the ideal tool for the road warrior who needs both an extremely portable and high performance PC.

The W8 is an Ultraportable Notebook with 12.1 inch screen and 7 hours battery life. The T8 is similar and is billed as a lightweight Tablet PC Alternative.

The 8 Series business-rugged products offer a range of embedded wireless options, including 802.11a/b/g/draft-n and Bluetooth 2.0.

The 8 Series Panasonic Toughbook notebooks will be available beginning in November 2008 with a price tag of $2,099 for the W8 and T8 and $2,499 for the F8.

Link: Panasonic

European electronics manufacturer Eltrinex has releases a 10.2-inch netbook, sporting a 320GB hard drive, which is not only larger than the hard drives you find in most netbooks, its larger than the hard drives you’ll find in most full sized laptops.

The Eltrinex MobilePC is equipped with a 1.6GHz VIA C7-M processor and 1GB of RAM, while Windows XP is the user interface. An external DVD-RW drive that connects via a USB is also part of the package. The notebook is equipped for a quick connection to the Internet thanks to a built in 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi module, an Ethernet jack and Bluetooth connectivity.

For expansion, buyers get just two USB ports, one of which will be occupied by the DVD-RW drive. A multi-format card reader is built into the chassis and a VGA output allows an external screen to be added. No battery life specifications are printed for the 2200mAh battery.

The 2.6lb Eltrinex MobilePC starts at an equivalent of about $700 in Europe, topping out at about $760.

Link: Electronista

 Eee lovers will be pleased to hear that Asus recently confirmed the Eee PC 904 HD will be hitting the high streets soon. In a recent press release, Asus revealed exclusively to PC Retail that the new Eee will be launched "in a matter of weeks" to the UK market. It will be the cheapest of the new models and will ship with the same chassis as the 1001 with a 8.9 inch screen - a good inch smaller than the flagship model. The good news is a full size keyboard. The bad news is that it will lose the swanky solid state drive found on other models for a conventional hard drive - hence the HD after it's name. Bet you were thinking Hi Def. Ha! This is afterall a cut down version of sorts for people wanting the Eee experience on a wee budget.

The price will be very tempting at around £250. No news on the rumoured 905 model. Lets hope we see some price drops on the older models to make way for the new.

Good days, if there ever were any, may be over for VIA. Their small sized platform, EPIA, will soon have a rival coming from no less than Intel itself.

The Atom processor doesn't come alone, it will do it accompanied by the i945G based chipset that will make their own Mini-ITX platform: Little Falls. Measuring only about 170mm x 170mm it will only have space for a single DDR2 memory slot and a couple of SATA ports. With an integrated graphics and a CPU that only requires 7.5W, in it's initial version, these systems will meet the demands for green computing.

We can expect products form ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI, at least. Let's hope they find their way down to the retail distribution channels; that would mean the market growing in that direction and better availability of VIA's EPIA than what we've seen in the past. Can you say "MacBook Air style barebones"?

Link: X-bit labs.

Without much fanfare, the new iteration of AMD's mobile platform was unveiled at Computex. There are few products built around it at this time, the ASUS F5Z and F8Tr laptops spring to mind, but after so much Montevina talk, AMD got ahead of Intel, even if it only was a couple of weeks before the chip giant launches their own mobile platform refresh.

Though Intel was to take the spotlight at Computex, with a strong Montevina showing, the "official" début (you never know what that means, nowadays) was supposed to take place somewhere and some place else.

As many will already suspect, the Turion Ultra it's nothing else than the commercial name for what it was previously known as the Puma platform; basically, a Griffin processor, a mobile version of the 780G (RS780M) and Mobility Radeon 3450, 3650 and 3850 graphics cards (for those than won't have enough with the integrated Mobility Radeon 3200).

Link: TG Daily.