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Intel Sonoma UK Launch Party

Benny writes "Intel held it's UK Sonoma lauch party last night and TrustedReviews have some pictures up of the machines on display including new models from HP, Dell, Samsung, Sony and Asus to mention a few."

15 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Re:In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    And comparing Intel's financials to AMD's financials last quarter what do you think made better business sense

  2. I love this quote.... by GryphonTech · · Score: 1, Interesting
    Dell was showing off two new Latitude models, one standard size and one thin and light.
    So this means the standard is NOT thin and NOT light? Hmmm.... My Standard PowerBook is not only thin AND light but prolly faster than these laptops. And yeah, I thought this design style faded during the 90's. But hey, at least you can say these companies are NOT copying Apple......
  3. Re:Straight outta the 90's by WhyCause · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They're not ALL bad.

    If you go to the third page of photos, they have two shots of Samsung's entries (X25 and X50). I have the Gateway-branded version of an older model of these (X20, I believe), and I can tell you, it's pretty nice. Slim and light, bright screen, and with enough oomph to get the job done.

    Of the models shown, the Samsungs take the cake.

  4. Great, but what is it? by edisk1353 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is all well and good, but fundamentally, what is the difference between Sonoma and older versions of the Centrino chipset? It seems to me that Sonoma hasn't had much of a buzz up to now, and all this article says about it is that it's a"new Centrino platform". If this is just more of the same, I'm not interested . . . but if there's a real difference, could someone point to what that might be?

  5. Sonoma = California Wine Country by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sonoma = California Wine Country

    I guess it's a step up from the "Mad Dog" release of 2002. (Or the "Weasel Dust" release of 1999.)

  6. Re:Straight outta the 90's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The limit, I think, is right around the level of the Pana Let's Note Light. Sharp Mebius (the one that docks in a cradle and becomes an external hard disk) is pretty slick too, though underpowered with only a Crusoe in it.

    I saw some guy on the train with that Sony thumb-driven "laptop", but it just looked ridiculous. You might as well just get a PSP because you're not going to get any work done on the Sony anyway.

  7. Lack of scroll wheels? by jettoblack · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Anyone else notice that NONE of these laptops had visible scroll wheels or 3rd mouse buttons? I consider those to be absolutely essential, and it boggles my mind that so few laptops include them, even when you pretty much can't buy a new mouse without one.

    1. Re:Lack of scroll wheels? by Meetch · · Score: 3, Interesting
      "My" thinkpad uses the touchpad as the "mouse wheel" ... vertical AND horizontal. Lotsa fun! I rarely use the middle button that's provided. Not sure about with Linux, but (Windoze)...

      Just drag your finger along the right hand side for scroll up/down or along the bottom for left/right. Speed of drag affects speed of scroll, and if you lose contact while you're moving your finger, it stays scrolling at that speed.

      If you're in a touchpad only situation, no problem. If not, it can cause confusion - say you used it to set a scroll speed, and it finally scrolled all the way down to the bottom of a document and then you used a mouse to scroll back up to the top - the touchpad scroll pushes it back down again at the original speed. In any window that may happen to get focus. Potentially confusing 'til the penny drops. Fun for all the family!

    2. Re:Lack of scroll wheels? by warlock · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Synaptic's software for their touchpads is awesome. I don't need any mouse buttons at all with it, never mind a middle one.

      First of all, for scrolling, you define the width and height, of the vertical and horizontal scrolling area respectively, to your taste, and you simply lift your finger, put it at the right side and move it up and down to scroll the document, or at the bottom and move it left and right for horizontal scrolling.

      Tapping is a mouse click, as you allready now, but lifting your finger and tapping at one of the four courners can be a seperate action.

      My favorite combination is top left browse back, top right browse forward, botom left refresh bottom right middle click (so I can open a page in a new tab).

      Configure it correctly for your usage, and you'll soon get to the point that you're more efficient with the touchpad than with the mouse. A year or so ago I wouldn't even think that I'd be saying this, since I've only ever owened IBM and Toshiba laptops with a trackpoint, and I hated the touchpads, but I'm enligthened now.

  8. Re:That's Great But... by Tough+Love · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I want to know if instead of laptops these might bring about more small form factor computers. I want something the size of a mac mini, but I won't pay for a Mac, I like my operating systems Free and Light

    Makes run Linux. That said, I too would like to see both Intel and AMD get their heads out of their butts and start delivering these laptop chipsets for desktop and media machines. I've totally had it with the desktop chernobyl syndrome and will not buy another x86 until they do something about it.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  9. Re:Ugly, ugly, ugly by Monkelectric · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Pack mentality. Seriously. American corporations are afraid to deviate from what they think will be accepted by even a little. If you dont believe me, think about the bland *horrible* shit for fast food we cram in our faces every day.

    Burger King, Mc Donalds, Carls, Wendys, and 1000 other chains find some slightly different configuration of the SAME food elements, over and over, and over. Meat, bun, lettuce, fries, coke. These guys must come into work every morning and say "jesus h christ how are we gonna get people to buy the same old shit and get excited about it?"

    And the answer is their job is easy -- because we as consumers don't demand any creativity. We sit through the same tired special effects extravaganzas at the movies and we are convinced we enjoy it. Disney and Pixar make the same buddy movies over and over and over, and we applaud! Taco Bell crams rice beans and hot sauce into a different sized tortilla and we "run for the border."

    So theres your answer my friend, why make something outstanding when good enough is above average? Sony has this HORRIBLE cream and flourescent orange colored electronics line that looks like its right out of The 5th Elements, its god damned ugly but at least they're trying.

    --

    Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley

  10. If you want freedom, then get it. Don't suffer. by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I want something the size of a mac mini, but I won't pay for a Mac, I like my operating systems Free and Light.

    Then get Yellowdog and call it a day (admittedly not sure if it runs on the Mac mini yet but the hardware there is pretty standard so it should not be long if it's not there already).

    Why suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous PC design when you can have a really well designed fanless Linux box for less than you can cobble most mini-ITx designs together for?

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  11. Sonoma .. Zzzzzz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    Should Intel really have named a chip that sounds like the name for a sleeping pill?
    • 'Sonoma: The chip that puts you to sleep'
    • 'Sonoma: The chip thats always sleeping'
    or for that matter a hallucinogenic
  12. Centrino is pure marketing by Foo2rama · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I'm still a little peeved that people have not caught on to what centrinoi means. In order to have the centrino label you must

    1. Have the pentium M
    2. Have a designated intel chipset
    3. Have the intel wifi

    Basically all non techy consumers/buyers want are centrino laptops. At the launch of centrino everyone wanted the centrino models not the exact same non-centrino model without the intel wifi(some even went as far as to buy the centrinos knowing the intel solution was not a good match and bought pcmcia cards which was higher expense and from what I heard a support nightmare.) Even if the non-intel wifi solution was better for them. This is marginalizing other wifi solution providers. Sure Intel claims you get better power managment with there solution but what percentage of actual battery life does this provide.

    At least intel is taking it from behind now that they finally have to admit that mhz really means nothing when comparing different types of cpu's...

    --


    ---In a time of Chimpanzees I was a Monkey.
  13. Re:How PC mfgrs design equipment by jsares · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why do PC notebook manufactures think more buttons and more lights equals better experience?

    This is an area I would love for them to steal from Apple. Simple designs no damn lights. Elegance.