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Lenovo’s thin and light ThinkPad X300 is an innovative laptop that will be perfect for many mobile PC users. But its file-storage capacity is low and its price tag is high.
Apple’s MacBook Air is a beautiful, amazingly thin computer, but one whose unusual trade-offs may turn off some frequent travelers. It’s impossible to convey in words just how pleasing and surprising this computer feels in the hand. But there’s a price for this laptop’s daring design: Apple had to give up some features road warriors consider standard in a subnotebook, and certain of these omissions are radical.
Two new Harmony remote controls help to reduce living room clutter by replacing multiple remotes and make it much easier to use an entertainment system.
Walt reviews Linux’s relatively slick Ubuntu variation and finds the alternative operating system too rough around the edges for the vast majority of computer users. (Video)
New laptops from Toshiba and Dell tackle the design challenge of being both small and powerful. Both machines are stylish and worked fine in the tests, but Walt finds flaws that might give a buyer pause.
Walt provides some tips for making laptop purchases. First, you may want to wait to get that new laptop until later this year or early in 2008. There are a number of interesting new hardware features coming.(Video)
LG’s new combo player can handle both new formats vying to replace DVDs — Blu-ray and HD-DVD. At $1,200, it’s only for videophiles with deep pockets, but Walt hopes it’s the start of a trend that will end the DVD format war.
Walt Mossberg offers a quick glossary of techno terms shoppers may encounter when looking for a computer, television, digital camera or cellphone this holiday season. (Video)
Samsung’s Q1, an Ultra Mobile PC that’s smaller than the smallest mainstream laptop, goes on sale next week, but the machine is so deeply flawed in key respects that it amounts to little more than a toy for techies.
Sony’s latest coup is an ultra-portable laptop series that manages to be both smaller and lighter than its predecessor while expanding screen size. An impressive design, Walt says, though the wireless capability has problems.
Microsoft Student is designed to help middle-school and high-school students to attack their homework efficiently. Walt says it can provide some aid, but is confusing and clumsy to use, and disappointing in some respects.
Edited by Walt and written by Katie Boehret, this is a guide to gadgets, web services and other consumer technologies.
Ethics Statement
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
