Mark Best

As longtime Netbook fans, we’ve been well aware of the platform’s limitations, from choppy video playback to a total lack of gaming ability. These sticking points have kept many people from …

Toshiba Satellite T135-S1300: single-core CPU inside.

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Sarah Tew/CNET)

We have a bit of a beef with a trend that’s currently happening in full-size (by that we mean 13-inch and above) thin-and-light laptops, the machines that as of late have shaved thickness at the expense of optical drives

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Netbooks continue to soar in sales at the expense of the venerable notebook, according to a new report from DisplaySearch.

Revenues for Netbooks, or mini-notebooks, rose to $3 billion in the second quarter of the year, a leap of 264 percent over the second quarter of 2008, according to the new “Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report” released Thursday. With those gains, Netbooks now enjoy an 11.7 percent share of the portable PC market.

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DisplaySearch

Though traditional notebooks still command an 89 percent slice of the market, their second quarter sales fell to $23.2 billion, a 14 percent decline from the second quarter of 2008.

Measuring 2009′s second quarter against the prior year’s quarter, sales fell in all subcategories of the portable PC market, including ultraportables and desktop replacements, the report noted. PCs in the 13-inch to 16-inch range managed to eke out a gain, but only measured against the first quarter of 2009.

The low prices of Netbooks appeal to consumers looking for a second PC and to those in emerging markets who don’t need the rich and costly features of a large laptop. The market has also been buoyed by cable and telecommunications providers who have doled out Netbooks to customers who sign up for lengthy contracts.

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In September, Intel showed off Light Peak as if it were the latest hot idea out of the labs. But the fiber-optic communication technology could well be coming to a computer near you next year, rather than in some distant sci-fi future.

A Taiwanese optical networking company, Foci Fiber Optic Communication, is well along the path of selling Light Peak cables and other fiber-optic components.

“We plan to have our pilot run ready by the end of November 2009, and ready to be in mass production in the beginning of year 2010,” said Janpu Hou, the company’s vice president of business development.

Foci is not some no-name manufacturer of commodity gear, either. The company supplied the optical networking components used in the Light Peak demonstrations at the Intel Developer Forum in September.

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Originally posted at Deep Tech

A quick sneak peek at Dell's new Adamo design.

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Sarah Tew/CNET

At a press conference to show off new licensed laptop lid designs from Major League Baseball and nail polish brand OPI, Dell teased the audience with a brief peek at the new design for its …

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Sony

One is an affordable HD laptop with an optional Blu-ray drive, the other is a carbon-fiber lightweight feather of a notebook with a price that’s far from budget. Together, they comprise Sony’s Vaio newcomers that are ready to launch along with Windows 7.

Let’s start …

Kohjinsha's transforming dual-display notebook.

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Scott Ard/CNET

CHIBA, Japan–This otherwise run-of-the-mill laptop from local PC purveyor Kohjinsha has not one, but two widescreen displays.

One of the 10.1-inch screens actually slides behind the other, so it’s able to be closed like a normal laptop. When they slideout they form an admittedly odd-looking, but useful dual display setup.

Also inside the laptop: a 1.6 Ghz AMD Athlon Neo-MV40, 4GB of memory, Bluetooth, a TV tuner, and a biometric fingerprint reader. The OS will be Windows 7 Home Premium, graphics are DirectX 10 compatible, and the whole thing weighs about 4 pounds. More photos of the sliding screens in action after the jump….

Originally posted at Circuit Breaker

WD debuts new e-labels

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Western Digital

Western Digital just announced their newly redesigned line of external desktop and mobile storage drives, all flaunting a customizable “e-label” that gives users a clear description of their contents. The new My Book Studio, My Passport Elite, and My Book Elite also deliver …

While Microsoft didn’t have anything new to announce at its first annual Open House in New York on Tuesday, it spent a lot of money turning the huge New York Armory into …

Episode 52 of the Digital City, where we talk about the latest Apple tablet rumors, dissect Kindles on campus, bemoan the use of single-core CPUs in 13-inch laptops, and worry about NYC’s

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Originally posted at Digital City Podcast