Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Laptops

The EFF sure has set it sights high with its latest lawsuit, with it now teaming up with the Asian Law Caucus (ALC) to sue the Department of Homeland Security over laptop and gadget searches and other alleged infringements of civil liberties at U.S. borders. Specifically, the two groups are asking for the DHS to disclose its policies on questioning travelers on First Amendment-protected activities, including the photocopying of individuals’ papers, and the searching of laptops and other electronic devices. According to the EFF, that rather drastic move was prompted by the DHS’s failure to meet a 20-day time limit Congress had set for responding to public information requests. Needless to say, the DHS itself doesn’t seem to have a whole lot to say on the matter at the moment, and we’re guessing that situation won’t be changing anytime soon.

[Via The Register, image courtesy of WhiteHouse.gov]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

In a memo sent out today by Dell, the company has reassured us that even though AMD is disappearing rapidly from its online store, the company remains “committed” to AMD, and is just “in the process of redistributing its product mix” — whatever that means. But despite those euphemisms, consumers can only buy most Dell AMD systems through a retail store or over the phone. Dell pointed out that it has kept its Energy Star 4.0 Inspiron 531 consumer desktop available online, but most other AMD machines are now just for business customers or those strange creatures that use “phones” and “buildings” to buy things.

Read - Reg Hardware
Read - The Wall Street Journal

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Filed under: Features, Laptops

It was inevitable, Apple’s got a bit of a new laptop design direction in the MacBook Air, and nothing’s going to stand in the way of the hordes of MacBook Pro Photoshops to follow. This one here is from spicu, and we’re afraid it leaves some proportionality “to the imagination,” but it’s as good we’ve got so far. Think you can do superior? Submit yours to contests at engadget dawt com with “MBP mockup” in the subject and we’ll get a tiny gallery going. Optimists have Apple launching an update in February, and while that rumor might be a tad sketchy at the moment, there’s no better time than the present to make a bid for Photoshop greatness. Optometrists think you shouldn’t look at the personal screen so much. Oh, and there’s nothing up for grabs for the ideal mockup, only pride.

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Filed under: Laptops

Nothing much “official” at the moment, but Lenovo is prepping a laptop based on a low-voltage processor similar to that of the MacBook Air, which can only mean one thing: skinny laptop celebrity deathmatch. Lenovo’s X300 will run on a SL7100 chip, which is apparently a 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo that fits into the same form factor of the 1.6GHz / 1.8GHz chip options for the MacBook Air. However, Lenovo saw it fit to squeeze a DVD-RW drive inside this 13.3-inch laptop, along with 64GB of SSD, all for a “reasonable” price of $2,744 — at least, if Best Buy’s leaked spec sheet is to be believed. The screen is also WXGA+, which we’re assuming means 1440 x 900 instead of the 1280 x 800 MacBook Air. No word on a release date, but we hope it’s soon — that kid in Starbucks with the MacBook Air is giving us dirty looks.

[Via Electronista]

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Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

The forum jockeys riding NotebookReview have whipped themselves into a rightful tizzy over their new Area-51 m15x laptops. It seems that the first round of recipients received their swank gaming machines with that programmable edge lighting intact. The rest lost it completely without even a hint from Alienware and certainly without the consent of its paying customers. The situation then turned ugly when at least some owners complained only to be told by Alienware’s support that the power button was the 6th promised light zone, not the LCD edge. Now the good news. The light tubes are in there, but for whatever reason, a software patch must be applied to activate them. Crazy, right? The patch is available just beyond that read link.

[Via NotebookReview, thanks Richard H.]

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Designed by Benedetto Bufalino, this creative phone booth was created for the Lyon Light Festival in France. Click here for first picture in gallery.

With the advent of the mobile telephone, telephone booths lie unused. We rediscover this glass cage transformed into an aquarium, full of exotically coloured fish; an invitation to escape and travel

[via OhGizmo]

Via Techeblog

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At just 105.9 x 49.5 x 12.9 mm, the Samsung Soul features a 2.2-inch “Magical Touch” display, 5.0-megapixel camera with face detection, microSD card slot, HSDPA, and Bluetooth 2.0 / USB 2.0 connectivity. Continue reading for full spec sheet. Click here for first picture in gallery.

…touchpad display system that will morph the user interface, changing icons according to the application you are using. For example, in music mode playback controls will appear, but whilst sending an SMS these will be replaced with editing functions

[via Gizmodo - Akihabara]

Via Techeblog

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For the look of a traditional PC tower with an illuminating touch, check out the Carbon-Li. This creation features carbon fiber accents and plenty of LEDs. Click here for first picture in gallery.

Carbon-Li now resides with Point of View, at the company’s HQ in Eindhoven, Netherlands. There, it’s used as a demonstration and presentation rig at shows to help promote the company. When it’s not making its rounds at various retail and consumer shows, it’s used by PoV as a games testing rig - after all, it’s built with some of the best hardware on offer

[via Bit-Tech]

Via Techeblog

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GT provides us with a video preview of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, which is slated for release on April 17th in the US. Continue reading to watch. Click here for first picture in gallery.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue runs in full high definition at 1080p. Additionally, in conjunction with a robust offline experience, for the first time in the history of the franchise Gran Turismo 5 Prologue supports up to 16 players racing head-to-head online, complete with global leaderboards

Via Techeblog

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In this 3.5-pound device, a very normal looking knee brace conceals a mini generator that “harvests the energy of a person’s knee braking after taking a step.” Video after the break.

The current version of the knee brace is just a proof-of-concept; the team plans to make the device less bulky while still retaining its energy harvesting capabilities

[via Gizmodo]

Via Techeblog

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