PC Makers bring the Shizzle. Apple yawns.

While the netbook category continues to broaden and now develop new spin-offs, Apple continues to twiddle its thumbs. In an age where Apple is all about consumer electronics more so than professional production solutions (i.e. just one) this type of decision just doesn’t make sense.

However they confirmed their stance during their July 21st 3rd quarter fiscal conference call pretty much laid rumors to rest with some pretty strong language.

The “Pro” Laptop… Has Arrived.

It’s one thing for small boutique electronic shops to build “gaming” laptops that feature some serious horsepower (and usually some honkin’ big external power supplies to match.)

But now Lenovo has taken the ThinkPad to the next level with the W700. This is big in two ways- first, Lenovo already has an “in” with every major corporation that already uses ThinkPad laptops, secondly, the sheer mass of common parts makes this a cost-effective evolution for them.

This laptop is what any “Pro” laptop ought to be- built from the ground up to kick some computing arse.

Illuminating Laptops – still the missing feature.

An interesting image on CrunchGear shows a new Lenovo Laptop with a halogen bulb clamped above to illuminate the black keys. This is because it’s really hard to see a black laptop in a dark room. The people selling the laptop at CES realized that, so they clamped a light to the top of the screen so people can see the keyboard. But why haven’t manufacturers realized it?

Open letter to Steve Jobs. Re: Mac Mini Pro.

Dear Steve,

The MacBook Air is cute. The iMacs are cute.
The Mini is cute. iPods, cute again.
But the Mac Pro is an expensive behemoth.

You see, I’m one of those “Pros” that you target your $1300 software to…
I’m not looking for “cute.” Nor am I looking to get screwed.
So, I’d like you to make a Mac Mini Pro.

MacBook Air. Lacking in a few key “areas.”

I was really hoping for big iPod Touch… a Mac Touch?
But Air is better for Axiotron’s ModBook, as expensive as it is. It’s a true pressure sensitive touch screen, but it lacks multi-touch.

As for the Air? It’s a bit rarefied.
My distance from San Francisco may have kept me out of Jobs’ “reality distortion field” so that I could hear his “amazing” and “unbelievable” but I wasn’t taken in.

There are several few key points where the MacBook Air misses…

Panasonic’s 9.5mm Blue-ray burner- wither slot load?

In yet another case why slot-load drives which continue to be used by a few laptop manufacturers despite their notable problems– you can’t easily eject a bad disk, you can’t read optical disks from camcorders, you can’t read business card disks, loading and ejecting mechanisms die, yadda, yadda, yadda…

Panasonic takes Blu-ray burning from 12.7mm to the 9.5mm thinness that UMPCs just love…