Filed under: HDTV, Laptops

Sony has a nice new line of upgraded AR series laptops on offer, with options for Blu-ray and CableCard in the mix. The main differences are pretty straightforward: The $1,700 AR630E sports the Blu-ray drive alone, the $2,400 AR660U does the CablecCard thing, and the $3,300 AR690U does both. The laptops run Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 and T7500 processors and Vista Home or Ultimate — the AR630E gets the short end of the stick in both cases. Other standard features include a 1.3 megapixel webcam, 1440 x 900 or 1920 x 1200 17-inch display, 8400M GT and 8600M GT NVIDIA graphics, dual 160GB SATA HDDs and HDMI out. All three models should be out around the 2nd of October.

[Thanks, William M]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Household

We’ve been inching closer to low(er) cost solar panels (for the mainstream public to enjoy) for some time now, and apparently, AVA Solar Inc. is just about ready to start cranking out units that “will cost less than $1-per watt by the end of next year.” The technology was reportedly developed by Colorado State University’s Professor W.S. Sampath, and production is slated to begin soon in a “200-megawatt factory” that could employ some 500 individuals. Of note, it was said that the “cost to the consumer could be as low as $2 per watt,” but even that figure purportedly rings up at about half the cost of current options.

[Via Slashdot, image courtesy of CSU]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Desktops

Earlier this year, Dell announced that it was readying an uber-cheap desktop for the Chinese market, but now the Round Rock powerhouse is hoping to claim a bit more of the growing space by selling “computers through the country’s biggest chain of electronics stores.” Reportedly, sales of its PCs will “start in 50 Gome Group stores next month and expand to more stores early next year,” and Dell made it known that the move was absolutely being made in an attempt to claim its “rightful share of the business” in this part of the globe. Of note, interested consumers can plan on seeing Dell’s XPS M1330 and Inspiron 1420 laptops on display alongside the XPS 720, Dimension 9200 and Inspiron 530 desktops, but it wasn’t stated whether or not those options would expand in due time.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Blaupunkt’s new stereo eschews old school discs for good ol’ SD cards.

Filed under: Displays

While Planar was all about snazzy projectors and enviable plasmas at CEDIA, the firm is branching out a bit with its latest displays. The transparent and segment electroluminescent (TASEL) displays join the firm’s family of EL displays and offer up the “added benefits of transparency and the ability to be cut or shaped.” The units can also be transparent or mirrored, boast a viewing angle of 179-degrees, and feature “instant on” response times of under one-millisecond. Currently, only samples of Planar’s TASEL displays are available, but hopefully these things will be going commercial real soon.

[Via LetsGoDigital]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!