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Details have been leaked of the latest gaming laptop from Alienware, the Alienware M17X Gaming Laptop which wasn’t scheduled to be released for another four days.

From the specifications, the Alienware M17X Gaming Laptop certainly looks like it is going to be a serious piece of kit, with dual 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M GPU’s and a Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor.

On top of that the Alienware M17X will come with up to 8GB of 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, and the choice of either a 1TB 7200-rpm HDD or a 512GB DDD, as well as a nine cell battery, firewire, 4 USB 2.0 ports, eSATA, 802.11n WiFi and an 8-in-1 card reader.

The Alienware M17X also features an GeForce 9400M G1 GPU which can be used instead of the dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M GPU’s when you want to save on battery usage.

The Alienware M17X Gaming Laptop will go on sale shortly, with prices starting at $1,799.

When your first handset looks set to rack up close to twelve months of delay, you may as well announce a few more. That seems to be the attitude at Garmin-ASUS, who are conveniently forgetting all about their much-postponed nuvifone G60 and instead are talking about their upcoming Android smartphone, set to arrive by the end of Q1 2010.

Garmin - who have been a member of Google’s Open Handset Alliance since December 2008 - were initially tipped to be offering an Android device sometime this year. While company executives now say that the phone “could come a bit earlier” than the end of March 2010, it doesn’t seem likely to beat that timescale by a full three months, especially given Garmin-ASUS’ ongoing issues.

The duo have declined to comment on how much the Android smartphone might cost. However they have confirmed that the GPS will be used for geotagging photos and for offering other location-based services.

I confess, I’ve been hearing Vincent and Ewdi wax lyrical about the Verizon and Sprint versions of the MiFi portable personal hotspot, and going green with envy. Happily we’re finally hearing details regarding the GSM HSPA version of the device, the Novatel Wireless MiFi 2352, and while there’s still no sign of European carrier confirmation it’s already showing up at importer Mobilx.

Thanks to the new information, we now know that the MiFi 2352 supports triband HSDPA/HSUPA (900/1900/2100MHz) and quadband GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900MHz), with support for up to 7.2Mbps downlink and 5.76Mbps uplink speeds (network depending). As with the CDMA EVDO Rev.A versions, it supports WiFi b/g with WEP, WPA and WPA2 security, and can handle up to five simultaneous clients.

It also offers GPS, as with the Sprint version of the MiFi, and measures 62 x 98 x 15.3mm while weighing just 81g. Interestingly, it has a microSDHC card slot - happy with up to 16GB cards - that can be accessed by any of the WiFi clients, basically turning the 2352 into a mini-NAS.

Mobilx currently have the MiFi 2352 listed for $259 before taxes, unlocked, and with the first stock expected on June 20th.

Fujitsu have announced their M2010 netbook, a 10.1-inch Intel Atom N270-based ultraportable with up to 2GB of RAM, standard Bluetooth and a claimed 50-second start-up into Windows XP Home. The company is aiming the M2010 at the educational market, with what’s said to be a more durable build to cope with kids.
According to Fujitsu, the M2010 has “three USB ports rather than the standard two ports”, which seems a bit inaccurate to us as most netbooks we’ve ever written about also have three. Still, it’s obviously getting tough differentiating your netbook from the rest of the crowd, so we’ll give the M2010 a little kudos for its digital microphone.

Otherwise it’s business as usual, and the $449 price-tag for a 1GB machine with 3-cell battery (good for 2.5hrs runtime) looks more than we’d want to spend. You can pick up a 6-cell battery for a whopping $129, and it and the M2010 are available to order now.

Could someone please ping NEC and remind them that we’re drowning in Tegra, Ion and Snapdragon loveliness at Computex and Intel’s Atom N270 simple won’t cut it any more? NEC have announced a new netbook series, the LaVie Light BL300, using the N280 processor and a choice of HDD or SSD.

The BL300 range - comprising the BL300, BL310 and BL350 - all have a 10.1-inch LCD, with 1,024 x 600 resolution and a webcam, together with WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. They measure between 27.5 and 29.8mm in thickness, and are available in glossy white, red or black.

The BL300 has either a 160GB HDD or 16GB SSD, while the BL310 and BL350 seemingly have 160GB HDDs only. Battery life for the BL300/BL310 is roughly 4.2hrs, while the BL350 gets a bigger-capacity battery for up to 7.4hrs. One of the USB 2.0 ports on each machine remains powered even when the netbook is not in use, for charging external peripherals or PMPs.

Could someone please ping NEC and remind them that we’re drowning in Tegra, Ion and Snapdragon loveliness at Computex and Intel’s Atom N270 simple won’t cut it any more? NEC have announced a new netbook series, the LaVie Light BL300, using the N280 processor and a choice of HDD or SSD.

The BL300 range - comprising the BL300, BL310 and BL350 - all have a 10.1-inch LCD, with 1,024 x 600 resolution and a webcam, together with WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. They measure between 27.5 and 29.8mm in thickness, and are available in glossy white, red or black.

The BL300 has either a 160GB HDD or 16GB SSD, while the BL310 and BL350 seemingly have 160GB HDDs only. Battery life for the BL300/BL310 is roughly 4.2hrs, while the BL350 gets a bigger-capacity battery for up to 7.4hrs. One of the USB 2.0 ports on each machine remains powered even when the netbook is not in use, for charging external peripherals or PMPs.

Chinese OEM Tongfong and VIA have announced the latest Via Nano based ultraportable, the Tongfong S30A. A mere 33mm thick and tipping the scales at 1.4kg, the S30A has a 13.3-inch display, integrated DVD burner and 2GB of RAM; it uses the VIA 1.3GHz Nano U2250 processor together with the unified VIA VX800 MSP and discrete S3 Graphics Chrome 435 ULP graphics making for a HD-capable machine.

There’s also space for a 2.5-inch SATA hard-drive, WiFi b/g and 10/100 ethernet, plus a 4-in-1 card reader, ExpressCard slot, HDMI and VGA ports and two USB 2.0 ports. The standard battery is a six-cell pack, but it can be augmented by removing the DVD burner and slotting in an optional three-cell secondary battery.

Vista and XP Home versions will be available. We’re yet to hear exactly what sort of runtime you can expect from the Tongfong S30A thanks to all that low-power hardware and batteries stuffed into every nook and cranny, and nor do we have any pricing or specific availability.

Nokia have announced that their N97 flagship smartphone will go on sale worldwide this month. No word on pricing for any of the 75 countries that will soon be getting the 3.5-inch touchscreen handset, nor specific availability dates, but the UK will apparently get it on unlocked and SIM-free from Nokia themselves as of June 19th.

SIM-free, the N97 is priced at around £500; that will be followed by a June 26th launch on the various carriers in the UK, with no word on pricing but a clear possibility of picking up the N97 free with a sufficiently expensive tariff. The N97 is already available to preorder in the US, priced at around $455 after discounts.

Your money gets you a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, S60 5th Edition OS, WiFi, GPS, HSPA and of course that 3.5-inch resistive touchscreen. However we’re also wary of the potentially low-powered CPU Nokia have fitted the N97 with; we’ll have to wait for the final model to see if that undermines the smartphone.

Intel have announced three new Core 2 Duo processors, as well as an ultra-low voltage (ULV) chip and new GS40 Express Chipset. The three new Core 2 Duo chips are the T9900, P9700 and P8800, topping out at 3.06Ghz with 6MB of L2 cache and a 1,066MHz FSB.

As for the SU2700, that’s a Pentium ULV chip running at 1.3GHz, and will fall into Intel’s CULV range for thin and light ultraportables. It might just end up paired with the GS40 chipset, which Intel refer to as ”a value chipset”; based on the GS45, it includes the GMA 4500M graphics accelerator with up to 384MB of memory and a 400MHz GPU, integrated Blu-ray HD playback and native hardware HD video stream decoding, and HDMI outputs.

Intel also announced its new My WiFi technology, which allows any recent Intel-based WiFi notebook or netbook to connect to both a WLAN and up to eight WiFi PAN devices simultaneously. This allows for point-to-point WiFi printing, displaying and synchronizing, without breaking the main wireless network connection. My WiFi will be supported in Intel’s new WiFi Link 5000 Series, the company’s second-gen draft-n cards for Centrino 2 platforms.

Mobinnova have announced one of the first NVIDIA Tegra-based smartbook/netbook/shrunken-laptops at Computex, the élan. With an 8.9-inch display capable of playing back 720p video, the élan weighs just 1.84lbs and measures a mere 0.8-inches thick, but still manages to pack in 3G and WiFi, 5-10 hours of continuous HD video playback or up to 24 days of audio playback (assuming the screen is turned off).

There’s obviously Tegra’s clever hardware Flash acceleration, which means full web access and speedy HD videos from YouTube and Hulu, together with a 3D GUI and webcam. Somehow, Mobinnova have managed to make all this fanless.

In addition to the élan there’s another Mobinnova Tegra device, the T8, which throws in a 10.1-inch touchscreen and GPS, plus HDMI and VGA outputs. According to the company these are just the first two of several Tegra-based netbooks set for launch; no word on pricing or availability yet, though.

We’ve known about the Toshiba NB200 netbooks for quite sometime now. They’ve been available in Japan and Europe. However, it seems a redesign of this netbook series will be heading to the U.S. for the first time under the name NB205.

This updated netbook will feature a chiclet keyboard as an option and have a standard six-cell battery. Another cool feature is a USB port that will actively charge external devices even when the netbook itself it’s powered up.

The design on this netbook is slimmer but still shares some specs with the original NB200 including 1GB RAM, a 1.66GHz Atom processor, Bluetooth and a 160GB hard drive. There will be several systems available including a base model, the NB205-210 in black for $350 and an upgraded version, the NB205-310 that adds the chiclet keyboard, and color options in pink, white, blue and brown for $400.

Well, isn’t this thing a sight to behold. One of the main marketing attributes of the Nintendo DSi is it’s svelte form factor and generally small frame. So, adding on the Nyko Zoom Case seems to be a bit counterintuitive. But hey, what do I know?

Apparently, this gizmo is meant to add on 8x zoom to the built-in 640 x 460 camera. So, I guess that’s pretty cool, but who on earth needs that much zoom power on their DSi. Is anyone trying to take good pictures with this thing?

It seems you can remove the lens from the Zoom Case. We don’t know any pricing or release date information just yet, but we’ll be sure to let you know when we do. Until then, we’ll just bask in the glory that is the photo of this very sizable accessory.

Belkin cranked out two new TuneBases today that are updated to suit the iPhone. The TuneBase Direct and the TuneBase FM work by taking the audio from your iPhone and having it play over your car stereo seamlessly and easily.

The devices also charge up your iPhone at the same time and hold it upright by means of a flexible neck. Music-listening is capable on both devices and you can take calls just by pressing a large button on the TuneBase itself.

The TuneBase Direct is the cheaper option at $69.99 and provides a 3.5mm port that you can use to connect it to your car’s auxiliary-in jack. The TuneBase FM costs slightly more at $89.99 and uses an FM channel to transmit your audio through your car’s sound system. You can get the Belkin TuneBase Direct early this month and the TuneBase FM in the middle of July.

Sometimes, it’s the small things in life that make all the difference. So, if you’ve been holding out on purchasing a Dell Studio XPS notebook, you might be pleased to hear the addition of one new detail: a brand new color option.

The 13-inch and 16-inch versions of this notebook now come with a Merlot Red color option. This is definitely a flashy upgrade from the single color choice of black prior to this new announcement.

It doesn’t cost any extra to have your notebook come in red. The color is distributed primarily on the lid, which is red, but the area near the hinge is also adorned in red leather to make for an interesting accent. You can get this slightly snazzier Dell Studio XPS notebook now.

Brando have unveiled a useful hard-drive adapter, which turns any 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch drive into both an external USB drive and a mediaplayer. Connecting to a TV or other display via HDMI, the SATA HDD Multi-Media Player Adapter can funnel up to 1080i resolution content through its own on-screen mediaplayer app.

Other ports include a USB 2.0 socket, for playing back media from USB memory sticks or transferring files between them and the hard-drive, plus an SD/SDHC card slot for doing the same thing with a memory card. Supported formats include MPEG, AVI, MP4, VOB,and DivX.

You probably wouldn’t want to use this as a permanent mediaplayer setup - I’d be a little worried about leaving so much of the hard-drive exposed - but for casually playing a file it looks like a winner. The Brando SATA HDD Multi-Media Player Adapter is available now, priced at $69 and complete with a remote control, USB cable and universal AC adapter.

E Ink, the e-paper specialists behind the displays used in Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader, Sony’s Reader, the keyboard of the Samsung Alias 2 cellphone and various other devices, has been acquired by Prime View International (PVI). The deal, which valued E Ink at $215m, sees the e-paper IP and technology specialists now combined with the manufacturers of the panels themselves.

The combined company will continue to supply electrophoretic display technology, which accounts for more than 90-percent of e-paper displays; E Ink is the primary supplier of such technology. Meanwhile, PVI expects to release touchscreens and flexible e-paper, the latter said to reach the market later this year.

PVI has already acquired Philips Electronics’ e-paper business, back in 2005, and last year bought a controlling stake in the company responsible for producing the transistor backplanes used in e-paper technology. Presuming no regulatory or shareholder complications, the E Ink deal will be finalized at some point in Q4 2009.

Details of a new ASUS Eee PC have been snapped at Computex 2009, ahead of the netbook’s official debut which is expected tomorrow. The ASUS Eee PC 1101HA slots into the company’s Seashell range, but offers an 11.6-inch 1,366 x 768 display versus the 10-inch screen of the 1008HA. There’s also Intel’s Atom Z520 or Z530 processors paired with 1GB of RAM.

Other specifications include a 160GB hard-drive, three USB 2.0 ports and a multi-format memory card reader. Two 6-cell battery versions are promised, 2,200mAh and 2,800mAh, which are tipped to offer 9.5hrs and 11hrs runtime respectively. Connectivity includes WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and 10/100 ethernet, and there’s a 1.3-megapixel webcam in the bezel.

If it were us, we’d avoid the Z520 processor - which has given Acer such problems in their Aspire One 751 - and head straight to the Z530. You won’t get the top-end battery life suggested, but you’ll have a more usable system overall. No word on pricing, but we’ll hopefully hear more when the ASUS Eee PC 1101HA gets its official announcement later on in the week.

Panasonic have announced pricing and availability for their portable Blu-ray player, the DMP-B15. Complete with an 8.9-inch WSVGA LCD, HDMI output and BD Live support, the DMP-B15 also features Panasonic’s VIERA CAST internet access via an ethernet port; that means, as on the company’s standalone Blu-ray decks, you can access Amazon Video-on-Demand, YouTube, Picasa, Bloomberg and other online information.

Since the onboard screen isn’t really much use for Full HD content, the DMP-B15’s HDMI port can be used to output 1080p to a nearby display or projector. The internal rechargeable battery is good for 2.5hrs use, and there’s also HD Audio output for surround sound with an appropriate AV system.

Finally, an SD card slot allows photos to be viewed and HD video played back. The Panasonic DMP-B15 portable Blu-ray player will hit US shelves this month, with an MRSP of $799.95. There’ll also be an optional headrest mounting bracket, for in-car use.

That would be a distinct contrast to Amazon’s system, which is tailored to provide content to the company’s own Kindle ebook reader and Kindle applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. “Eventually, we hope to extend this functionality to retailers who embed Google Previews on their website” the search giant continued.

Google already operates an ebook service for out-of-copyright titles, and recently signed an agreement to provide them to users of Sony’s ebook Reader. The Google Book Search Project offers its titles for free, however.

Hot from the “hang on, why haven’t I seen that before?” department comes ARM’s video demo of what a Mobile Computer Concept should be. Based on ARM’s Cortex A9 processor with the ARM Mali 400 chipset providing graphics, the most obviously unfeasible part of the concept is the pull-out, flexible touchscreen.

The demo has become topical (again) what with the ARM-powered Qualcomm Smartbook platform, officially launched at Computex 2009 this week. Intended to slot in-between smartphones and netbooks, but offering various degrees of functionality from each, Smartbooks would package 3G WWAN connectivity, GPS and other wireless technologies with a usably-large display, all-day battery life and HD playback.

At the company’s Computex keynote this morning, ARM CEO Warren East described the current iteration of netbooks as actually offering too much power for what most users demand of them. Instead, Smartbooks would offer tailored power - suited to HD media playback and internet access - with lengthy battery life.