Mac 101: Battery not charging? Recalibration may be the answer

If your MacBook (any model) is not charging to 100%, it may need to be recalibrated. Apple explains how to do this, but basically it comes down to three steps:

  1. Fully charge your MacBook (and leave it charged for about 2 hours)
  2. Fully drain your MacBook (by using it on battery until it turns off)
  3. Fully recharge your MacBook again.

That should help the battery indicator recalibrate so that it shows the correct information. If it doesn't, you might need to reset the System Management Controller (SMC), but in most case I've found that a simple recalibration will work.

[Source: To read the full article visit Tuaw]

Fujitsu making laptops from unwanted CDs and DVDs

Back in our day, we used to listen to music on shiny plastic discs with lasers, not any of your new-fangled Zunes and what not. That was back when bands had sensible names, like the Dave Clark Five. These days, however, CDs and DVDs are remnants of a simpler time, a time before these kids were playing their Lady Gagas on their Rio Carbons. Fujitsu will be putting those outdated media formats to work again, with a recycling program that uses the material to build shiny new notebooks, starting with the Lifebook P772/E enterprise laptop, with more models to follow. According to the company, the new program is set to reduce the use of new plastic by 10 tons a year and slice C02 emissions by around 15 percent. More information on the program can be found after the break. Now please get off our lawn.

[Source: Engadget]

Tests Find OS X Mountain Lion May Significantly Degrade Notebook Battery Life

Ars Technica has been doing some testing after reports emerged that some Mountain Lion early adopters were experiencing degraded battery life after upgrading to OS X 10.8. A 46-page thread with nearly 700 replies has been growing over the past several weeks on the Apple Support Forums.

Ars writer Chris Foresman, after extended testing, discovered that the battery life of his Retina MacBook Pro review unit dropped 38% from its previous 8-hours. He was unable to narrow down blame for the battery loss to any particular bit of software or system process.

Our own testing revealed similar (and significant) drops in battery runtime after installing Mountain Lion. In previous tests, we were able to regularly achieve just over 8 hours of use by relying solely on our Retina MacBook Pro's integrated Intel HD4000 GPU. Performing the same "real-world" test using the same software applications and usage pattern, we never got the Retina MacBook Pro to run for more than a few minutes past 5 hours after a full charge.

Typically, the quad-core processor wasn't taxed beyond 5 percent capacity, except for occasional 10-20 percent spikes when loading webpages, reading or writing files, or other activities. Unexpected file system or network access, or less efficient use of the GPU, could cause additional power drain without showing significant CPU use.

One poster on Apple's support forums claims a company support representative told him that "an update will be issued via the [Mac App Store] as soon as they can work a fix."

[Source: MacRumors]

Lenovo's ultra-thin X1 Carbon ultrabook will be available August 21st, starts at $1,399

Lenovo's known for making good laptops much more than it's known for making attractivelaptops, but when the company announced the ThinkPad X1 Carbon in May it seemed to have checked both boxes. Now the company's revealed when you'll actually be able to get an X1 Carbon into your hands: August 21st. The 14-inch, three-pound ultrabook is all of 18mm thick at its thickest point, and will come in several different configurations ranging from $1,399 to $1,849. The base price gets you a 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U processor and a 128GB SSD, and you get more storage and more processing power as you move up the price tiers (there's also a 3G option available in all but the base model).

Every model comes with 4GB of RAM, a 14-inch, 1600 x 900 display, Lenovo's excellent ThinkPad Precision keyboard, and Intel's Integrated graphics. The X1 Carbon also features Lenovo's nifty Rapid Charge feature, which can fill 80 percent of the battery in 30 minutes. We liked what we saw from the svelte ultrabook when it was first announced, and though its price is certainly premium the X1 Carbon appears to fit its billing.

[Source: The Verge]

Newest HP ultrabook shipment delays

Hewlett-Packard is having a tough time fulfilling orders for its newest high-end ultrabook.That would be the Envy Spectre XT, a 13-inch, three-pound, sub-0.7-inch-thick laptop sporting a mostly metal design and Intel's newest "Ivy Bridge" processors.The model, announced in early May, had been expected to ship as early as June 8 but orders have been backlogged."HP Envy SpectreXT orders are taking longer to fulfill than HP expected," an HP spokesperson told CNET. "We are contacting all customers who have placed orders to provide updated expected delivery dates."

[Source: To read the full article visit CNET News]

Taiwan market: Lenovo announces new ultrabook with carbon-fiber chassis

Lenovo has announced its latest ultrabook – ThinkPad X1 Carbon – in Taiwan, adopting a carbon-fiber reinforced plastic chassis to strengthen its sturdiness, while reducing thickness.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon features a weight of 1.36kg, a thickness of 1.88cm at its thinnest place and a 14-inch panel.

Lenovo's continued rising shipments are starting to gain the company advantages over component purchasing as well as its channel marketing. Meanwhile, the company has also been aggressively establishing new plants in countries such as Japan and Brazil, and is reportedly planning to set up plants in Germany, a country that has a rather high employee salary rate, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

The sources noted that Lenovo is expecting to further enhance its manufacturing quality through better management and is hoping to achieve similar results to Apple, which also adopts strict quality controls over its products. With ODMs to start seeing more purchasing restrictions from Lenovo, figuring out a way to respond to the vendor's requests will become a new lesson for the ODMs

[Source: DIGITIMES]

HP ENVY 14 Spectre Ultrabook Launched

This January, those with an eye for design should prepare to be haunted by the beauty of the HP ENVY 14 Spectre Ultrabook experience – with new jaw-dropping unparalleled use of glass and stunning performance. 
Designed for those that expect the extraordinary, this statement in quality blends together materials on an ultrabook and captures today’s emerging spirit of entrepreneurship, collaboration and strong visual identity.
 “Sleek, midnight black glass on the outside and stark contrast silver on the inside make Spectre extraordinary, defying conventional notebook design,” said Louis Perrin, director, consumer products, Personal Systems Group, HP EMEA. “We chose the name for our first ENVY Ultrabook to evoke mystery and to satisfy those who expect the unexpected.”
Breathtaking engineering and design
One of HP’s most advanced notebooks, the HP ENVY 14 Spectre is 20 millimeters thin and weighs in at just 1.8kg(1). Beautiful yet tough it features lightweight, scratch resistant glass on the lid, display, palmrest and HP ImagePad, a material largely recognised for its use on the screens of smartphones, portable media players and LCD displays.
Featuring the latest advances in display engineering and chassis design, the HP Spectre fits a full 35.56 cm (14”) screen inside a 33.78cm (13.3”) body. It sounds impossible, but looks incredible allowing creatives to stretch content across a phenomenal high-definition (HD) (2) HP Radiance display producing higher resolution, richer colour, better brightness and wider viewing angles than traditional notebook displays.
 
An intelligent HP Radiance Backlit keyboard, using individual LEDs dedicated to each keycap, senses a person’s presence, lighting up when they’re near and dimming down when they’re not – a bright and brilliant idea only from HP that adds greatly to the aesthetic experience.
 
Astonishing Sound
The HP ENVY 14 Spectre creates a sound heaven thanks to the matching audio-grade speaker mesh and Beats Audio™, an exclusive, high-performance technology developed by HP and Beats by Dr. Dre. Its front-positioned speaker system provides pure, unrestrained sound. Whilst the ultrabook boasts an aluminum analog volume dial, giving the Spectre an interesting retro twist, and external sound on/off button, providing precise volume control, even with the lid closed. 
 
Built-in HP Wireless Audio turns any home into a stage by streaming music to multiple speakers. Uncompressed audio can be streamed to up to four external devices or directly to any KleerNet-compatible device.
Uncompromising performance
Blazingly fast, the HP ENVY 14 Spectre is powered by the latest Intel® Core™ processors(3) featuring Intel Rapid Start Technology, 128 gigabyte (GB) of Solid State Drive (SSD) (4) storage and 9 hours of battery life.(5) Eliminating the need for external dongles, the HP Spectre features an array of input and output options, including Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, HDMI and Mini Displayport. In addition, the HP ImagePad provides precise multifinger touch navigation and the HP TrueVision HD(1) Webcam provides brighter, cleaner HD images.
It offers a performance-tuned software image, full versions of Adobe Photoshop® and Premiere Element and two years of preinstalled Norton™ Internet Security. A world-class design also deserves world-class service, so the notebook comes with a premium phone line for technical support that is dedicated exclusively to HP ENVY users.
Pricing and availability
The HP ENVY 14 Spectre notebook PC is expected to be available at end of March with a starting price of £1,199-(6) through selective distribution in UK.

Vizio to take on Laptop & PC Desktop Market

CES 2012 is just about to kick off and along with the slew of preview announcements comes details of Vizio and their range of laptop and desktop PCs. They certainly do look superb. They includes 24-inch & 27-inch all-in-one desktop PC's and some ultra thin laptops that will certainly take on the likes of the MacBook Air when it domes to design. Check out the superb article & gallery pics over on Engadget here. [source: Engadget]