Todays & Tomorrows Technology

How can you make your external USB Blu-ray drive better than everyone elses? Well, you could make it a Blu-ray burner, give it a range of connections and make it super-cheap, or you could go the ASUS way and put a great big light-up blue X on the side.
According to ASUS, the SBC-04B1S-U’s “elegant stand design and high glossy appearance represents its high feel of science and technology”, which is perhaps stretching the limits of what a basic USB Blu-ray reader can be described as. They also provide a dedicated app for adjusting the light-up X’s brightness, meaning you can have it set to different levels when reading or writing different media.

Baseline specs are 4.8x maximum Blu-ray disc reading, 8x DVD burning and 24x CD burning. It connects via USB 2.0 and is compatible with Windows but not OS X; no word on exactly how much that big flashing X will set you back, though.

As well as the somewhat VAIO-esque Mini 5101 netbook they announced this morning, HP have also got a new ProBook full-sized notebook for you to consider. The HP ProBook 4310s has a 13.3-inch display and the same styling as the rest of the S-series the company announced back in April; there’s also optional Gobi WWAN mobile broadband, DDR3 memory and a full-sized keyboard.
Under the hood, there’s a choice of Intel Celeron CPUs up to 1.9GHz, or Core 2 Duo CPUs up to 2.8GHz. RAM is up to 8GB, while storage is either up to 500GB of 5,400rpm HDD or 500GB of 7,200rpm HDD; you also get a choice of DVD burner or Blu-ray optical drives.

In addition to the optional WWAN there’s WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 and gigabit ethernet, and you can also specify a standard modem if you’re feeling retro. Ports include three USB 2.0, HDMI, audio in/out, an ExpressCard 34 slot and an SD/MMC card slot. There’s a 2-megapixel webcam and microphone array.

Graphics are courtesy of either Intel’s GMA 4500MHD chipset or ATI’s Mobility Radeon HD 4330 with 512MB of its own memory. Other options include a fingerprint reader and a choice of XP, Vista or Linux OS. The HP ProBook 4310s is expected to arrive on July 20th, priced from $799.

Acer have announced new 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch notebooks, the Aspire Gemstone Blue range, priced from just $479.99. The 15.6-inch AS5536 has a 16:9 display, AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.1GHz dual-core CPU, 3GB of RAM and ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics, together with a 320GB hard-drive, DVD burner and WiFi b/g/n.

As for the AS7735Z, that has a 17.3-inch 16:9 display, Intel Pentium T4200 2.0GHz processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and Intel’s GMA 4500MHD graphics. There’s also a 250GB hard-drive, DVD burner and WiFi b/g/n. Both machines have a webcam, multi-format card reader, and a multitouch capable trackpad.

The Acer Aspire AS5536 is available now, priced from $479.99, while the AS7735Z is also on sale now, priced from $599.99. As of the end of the month, they’ll be joined by the Acer Aspire Gemstone Blue AS5739G, with a 15.6-inch display, Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 2.1GHz processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT130M graphics with 1GB of discrete memory and a Blu-ray drive. It also has a 250GB hard-drive, fingerprint reader, WiFi a/b/g/n and the multitouch trackpad; it’ll be priced from $749.99.

New blu-ray players pop up everyday it seems, but we’ve yet to see one that’s dropped below the $100 mark. But now it seems we’re in luck with the latest Curtis Mathes offering, the CMMBX130.
Offered by Meijer, this new Blu-ray player can play 1080p Blu-ray discs and can even upscale regular ol’ DVDs. Outputs include an optical digital audio, composite and HDMI 1.3.

Other specs include a 24-bit 192kHz audio converter, a BroadCom 7440 processor and an 11-bit 108MHz digital-to-analog convertor. It also has an Ethernet jack for downloading firmware updates. The price for this Blu-ray player is currently just $99.

Sony have announced a new VAIO laptop, the NW-series, packing a 15.5-inch WXGA XBRITE display, 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 processor and an optional Blu-ray drive. The Sony VAIO NW is also being priced competitively: the standard model is $800, while adding Blu-ray to that is just $80 more.
Other specifications include an optional ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics card, standard webcam and chiclet keyboard. Connectivity includes three USB 2.0 ports, an ExpressCard slot, SD and Memory Stick card slots, and HDMI; there’s also a dedicated “display off” button to switch off the VAIO’s screen when using an external monitor, and an instant-on mode for speedy internet access without booting into Windows Vista.

WiFi a/b/g/n, a 400GB hard-drive and up to 4GB of DDR2 memory are on offer, while battery life ranges from a paltry 1.5hrs with the standard pack and up to 5.5hrs with the extra-chunky pack. The NW-series will be available in white, grey and brown, complete with a strangely textured lid finish, chiclet keyboard and translucent trackpad. It’ll go on sale this month.