LaCie and Philippe Starck have hooked up yet again for an iconic and smooth looking combo of aluminum, what could pass for mercury (not the planet) and an ultra-fast USB 3.0 connection.

The LaCie Starck Mobile USB 3.0 is backward compatible with USB 2.0 – simply connect it into any PC or Mac for a seamless plug-and-play experience.

Encased in 2mm of sturdy aluminum, the LaCie Starck Mobile USB 3.0 is one the most resistant choices for consumer hard drives on the market. The aluminum offers resilience from blunders, improved heat dissipation, and is fully recyclable.

The LaCie Starck Mobile Drive USB 3.0 at 320gb priced at $69.99 and the 500gb at $109.99.

[ Links: Philippe Starck Mobile Drive USB 3.0 ]

As rumors had suggested, T-Mobile this week is launching faster HSPA+ upgrades in 24 new markets, including Austin, Baltimore, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee and many other large markets (hit their release for the full list). With these new launches, T-Mobile says they now offer the faster service in fifty markets nationwide, reaching roughly 85 million Americans. The service is theoretically capable of 21 Mbps downstream, but users should see speeds somewhere closer to 10 Mbps. T-Mobile hopes to reach about 185 million subscribers with the faster technology by the end of the year. T-Mobile today also unveiled their new, swiveling and HSPA+ ready webConnect Rocket 2.0 USB Laptop Stick.

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The naming of the Adesso bluetooth enabled mouse, iMouse S100, is rather dubious but cool given that Adesso isn’t the famous company named after the fruit and has a CEO with the first name of “Steve” - I think it’s awesome. But it looks to be a rather capable bluetooth enabled mouse that doesn’t seem to cramp up your hand like the Magic Mouse does since that mouse is just so low-profile. I like my mice to fit into my hand, slightly cupped.

The Adesso Bluetooth mini optical scroll mouse allows you break away from your notebook’s touch pad and experience reliable, receiver-free wireless connection with a range distance of 30 feet.

• Transceiver-free wireless connection to a Bluetooth-enabled PC
• On/Off button to extend battery life
• Auto-sleep function
• Optical technology
• 1000DPI for dynamic resolution

Ideal for the laptop user that wants to carry only a mouse, a laptop and no dongle. Just make sure your laptop or PC is bluetooth enabled first. Retails for about $30.

[ Links: Adesso, Adesso iMouse S100 ]

HP has shown their smartbook Compaq Airlife 100, featuring 10.1-in touchscreen display, a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a 16GB SSD, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, SD card slot, webcam, full Qwerty keyboard, Android OS.

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Lenovo announced the industry’s first hybrid PC for consumers, the IdeaPad U1 hybrid notebook, a groundbreaking concept and new genre in PC form factors. The IdeaPad U1′s unique design is engineered to provide consumers with two PCs in one device – each with its own processor and operating system – that work together and independently as either a clamshell laptop or a multitouch slate tablet.

The IdeaPad U1′s fashionable scarlet red exterior has a footprint just smaller than a piece of paper and is paired with an equally impressive 3.8 pound thin and light design. With its unique detach-and-converge form factor, users can easily remove the screen to instantly switch from clamshell mode into a multitouch slate tablet. When the IdeaPad U1 is in its traditional clamshell form, the system boasts an 11.6-inch HD LED screen and runs Windows 7. When the 1.6 pound, multitouch screen is removed, it becomes an independent slate tablet with a powerful ARM processor, running Lenovo’s customized Skylight operating system.

Leveraging the benefits of both CPU, the two devices can synchronize to work as one with the ability to share battery power, 3G wireless, data and documents. In this way, the base laptop system can serve as a hub and docking station and the slate tablet as a mobile device. The two PCs have been engineered to work together and independently through Lenovo’s Hybrid Switch technology that enables seamless toggling between the two processors. For instance, users can surf the Web in laptop mode and then continue from the same point without interruption if they detach to tablet mode.

The IdeaPad U1′s laptop and tablet modes each support more than five hours of 3G Web browsing and 60 hours of 3G standby. In addition, the U1 comes with integrated video camera and two stereo speakers with integrated microphone with echo cancellation make this the ideal PC for users who need flexibility but do not want to compromise features or functionality.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U1 hybrid notebook will be available June 1, 2010 with an estimated retail price of for under $1000.

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MSI has unveiled Intel’s next-generation Atom platform based netbook Wind U135, which is expected to be launched next year. The new version of Atom processors, codenamed Pine Trail, will consume 20 percent lesser power than its predecessor. And it consists of a new processor and a low-power Intel chipset N450 that allows integration of graphics into the CPU, thereby enabling improved performance and smaller form factor. Adopting a 10-inch LED backlit display with 1024 x 600 resolution, the MSI Wind U135 features 3.5G WiMAX support, chiclet keyboard and anti-slip design coated with color film. Coming in Trendy Blue and Cherry Red, the Wind U135 will be available in Korea market in January, 2010.

No words on pricing yet.

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Intel Corporation has made its beta version of the Intel Atom Developer Program Software Development Kit (SDK) available for Microsoft Windows and Moblin operating systems developers. The kit helps software companies and individuals design and submit applications for Intel-based netbooks to ultimately sell at stores opening next year. Unveiled at the Intel Developer Forum in September, the Intel Atom Developer Program is designed for independent software vendors (ISVs) and software developers to create innovative applications and/or components for netbooks. The program provides tools, SDKs and community resources to develop new apps or port existing apps to Atom-based devices, including netbooks, which are forecast to reach more than 50 million units sold by end of 2009.

The Beta version of the SDK is now available for both Microsoft Windows (C and C++) and Moblin (C) operating systems. With the Beta SDK, developers can submit their applications for validation and, once validated, begin to take advantage of the program’s revenue-generating opportunities in 2010. Intel is offering incentives for developers to begin submitting applications by offering a chance to win big prizes including a smart car or vacation package.

Developers can download the beta version of the SDK today and learn more about the program, application programming interfaces (APIs), validation process, application store framework and developer contests at appdeveloper.intel.com.

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Macally [ site here ] has launched its bamboo-made laptop cooler EcoFan Pro. Equipped with two built-in USB fans, the EcoFan Pro is designed for up to 17-inch laptops.

It looks a lot like a picnic table to me. Suggested price is $39.99.

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Dell Precision M6500 tops the Dell series by high-end hardware as well as its prices. Surely it will be wallet-crushing amount; however it is not announced yet. Taking into consideration M6400 with Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme costs start at $2,149; the new M6500 with Core i7-920XM will be even more.

M6500 has a 17-inch screen and 1920 x 1200 resolution with LED backlight and pretty odd resolution for HD devices with 16:10 ratio. The customers can choose to equip their notebook with either ATI FirePro M7740 or NVIDIA QUADRO FX 3800M graphics chips. Besides, it supports up to 3 hard drives with RAID configurations. Core i7 supports up to 16 GB of 1,333MHz of DDR3 memory.

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ASUS has launched its 3D gaming notebook PC G51J 3D in the Korean market, equipped with Nvidia 3D Vision technology, 120Hz LED LCD panel and GeForce GTX260M GPU. It is powered by Intel’s latest Core i7 720QM processor, 4GB of RAM, 1TB HDD, Windows 7 64 bit OS and 1GB GeForce GTX260M graphics.

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Acer Korea [ site here ] has launched its new netbook ‘Ferrari One’ based on AMD’s second generation ultra-thin platform, Congo.

Adopting a 11.6-inch CrystalBrite LED-backlit LCD monitor at 16:9 aspect ratio, the Ferrari One is powered by AMD Athlon 64×2 L310 Dual Core processor, 2GB DDR2 800MHz memory, M780G chipset, ATi Radeon HD 3200 graphics, 320GB HDD and Windows 7 OS.

It comes with a Ferrari inspired design now available in the Korea. Sorta a oxymoron though… netbook and Ferrari. One is fast, the other… you get it.

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ASUS held a press conference to announce its Windows 7 based ultra-slim notebook PC UL Series and fifth-generation netbook Eee PC Touch for the Korean market.

Boasting up to 12 hours of battery life thanks to the company’s exclusive EPU (Energy Processing Unit) system and 5600mAh 8-cell battery pack, the UL Series is powered by Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 CULV processor.

Adopting an 8-inch swiveling multi-touch screen and Windows 7 Home Premium OS, the Eee PC Touch features Intel’s Atom Z series CPU, 32GB SSD and remains lightweight at 0.9kg.

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