AlienWare, a manufacturer of computers and notebooks, has announced the release of a new addition to the Area-51 family of notebooks called the m15x. This laptop sports a 15.4-inch display and an NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX GPU. It is also capable of running with either the Intel Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Extreme mobile processors.

Want to know more about AlienWare's Area-15 m15x? Head on over to the full article.

NVIDIA, US based manufacturer of cutting edge graphic processing units (GPU), has recently came out with the GeForce 8800M GTX GPU. The 8800M is a revolutionary GPU that is geared for gaming grade notebooks and should set the standard for HD mobile gaming.

More details at the full article.

Alienware has announced that they have once again broken new ground with the shipment of the new Area-51 m9750 17-inch notebook.

The Area-51 m9750 is the first 17-inch notebook in the world that fuses the graphics capabilities of dual 512MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX graphics cards with NVIDIA SLI technology and Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors. Other features of the Area-51 m9750 include the following:

• Lightning-quick frame rates and standout image quality with dual NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX 512MB graphics cards with NVIDIA SLI technology.
• Multitasking to the max, thanks to the latest Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors, which deliver 20 percent higher performance than previous-generation Intel Core Duo processors.
• The ability to store massive amounts of content, including games, TV programming, movies and music on dual hard drives packing up to 500GB of storage space.
• An abundance of multimedia features, including an ultra-sharp 17" widescreen display with Clearview technology, an integrated webcam and an integrated TV tuner with full DVR functionality.
• Vivid Blu-ray Disc movie playback using NVIDIA PureVideo™ HD technology for 6x the detail of standard DVD movies.

The Area-51 m9750 17-inch notebook is now available for prices starting at US$ 2,099 at the Alienware website.

 

Alienware makes developers drool and accountants pat their pockets as the extreme gaming PC brand tout their latest Banzai runners catering to the people attending the 2007 Game Developers Conference. While these puppies were made to roll-over for developers, you can't quite shake off the feeling that the system would be a nasty addition to your computing collection.

Workstations, playstations; with quad-core Intel Xeons, Core 2 Duo Mobile, and AMD Opterons, the MJ-12 8550i, m5790, and MJ-12 8550a (resectively) all pack the multi-core powerhouse needed for creating games and playing them. Graphics are powered by FireGL and Quadro FX cards, with the Radeon X1900 for the laptop. Seeing CryEngine 2 on one of these is bound to be a visual tart. And what about those SAS drives? SATA never had it this good.

Of course, these things cost an arm, a leg and your noggin', so we guess you could always settle for the cheaper options. For more info, click the "Read" link below.

Give us a moment here: it's been two decades since the "bread box", and this announcement that a company loyal to the Commodore in name and spirit will bring the magic back just caught us by surprise. Wait, that was an understatement. We swear time stopped for five minutes. Really.

Commodore 64: was that a classic or what? Avid gamers should remember this platform as the first gaming computer ever - the big daddy-O device that spurred the game industry. We know only some of us are classic gamers at heart (okay so maybe only the older ones).

But even well established game publishers honor the C64. Just ask Rockstar Games about the opening sequence for their game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Commodore Gaming will be bringing back the "Commodore" name and brand to the computer market, with gaming PCs that may rival those of Dell's AlienWare line and VoodooPC's luxury gaming sets. This move is tied to honoring the single best-selling PC in the history of the computer industry, even while Commodore Business Machines, the original company, is no longer around to witness this moment.

 

While details haven't been revealed as to what the new Commodore will be sporting, Bala Keilmann, CEO of Commodore Gaming, did promise "very exciting aspects" of the new systems to be unveiled at the next CeBIT coming this March 15.

The Commodore 64 sold 22 million units since it was released in 1982, putting it as the only computer model to reach that level of sales in history. But shortly after the modern Amiga 4000 and 1200 in 1992, the joint companies of Amiga and Commodore went belly up in 1994.

If they pull this the way we think they are going to, the term classic gaming is going to need a whole new definition.

A few months back, we mentioned something about Phantom Entertainment's Phantom Lapboard. Just what in the world is it? The Lapboard integrates a wireless laser mouse and a wireless keyboard with programmable hotkeys, plugged into a platform which makes it desktop and laptop friendly. Plus, the keyboard can rotate left or right, so lefties and righties could find it a joy to use. This baby is blessed with an almost $130 price tag.

Phantom Entertainment, formerly known as Infinium Labs and creator of one of 2005's top vaporware, Phantom Console, is still unable to shake off their dubious image. But it seems that the Sun is shining a bit on the company nowadays. Why is that? Apparently, Dell-owned Alienware has placed orders for the Phantom Lapboard which will be used for their Media Center PCs and PC gear product line.

According to Alienware Senior VP Frank Azor, "implementing the Phantom Wireless Lapboard as part of our Media Center solutions is an important extension of these key features, providing users with a convenient, flexible way to both work and have fun without being tied to a desk." As to how many Lapboards were ordered by Alienware, well, nobody knows. Your guesses are as good as ours.

Hopefully, the beleaguered company could fully take advantage of this opportunity. They should know that they are given something that most banged-up companies could only wish for, and that is a second chance.

  
 

Weird aliens come from space and thus, these poor guys are pretty much unwanted and feared. Not this alien though: Alienware, the company known for creating high performance-PCs and awesome-looking cases is equipping two notebooks, the Area-51 m5550 and the m3450, with the mega-powerful Intel Core 2 Duo processors. The Area m5550 is loaded with powerful graphics technology and HD Video. While its little bro, the m3450 is thin and lightweight, with Centrino Mobile Tech.

What does this mean? Doubled performance with more battery life, richer multimedia experience, and faster access to data. So if you're a lowly office worker, you'll amaze your boss with the way you do that report in fewer minutes than you used to. If you're a student, you can bring these with you and make student life more manageable.

Alienware is like a cool, tall glass of water under a hot Hawaiian sun. It's here to quench your speed and power thirst. Whether its playing games or turning your home movies into a masterpiece theatre-type of film, these Alienware notebooks will definitely get you what you need. The Area-51 Notebook series give more power than hard-core gamers and video/audiophiles require.

So, if an alien came to your door with this notebook, welcome him with open arms; Alienware has arrived.

Apologies for the Off-Topic post, but some things just need to be said. Hey, even WE need to rant sometimes! Excuse us while we vent...

For many of you, technology is your life. For those of us at QJ.NET, technology is also our work - but this bit of technology has been more work than we bargained for and has damn near driven us back to the 'ol pad of paper and abacus.

We like to keep up on the newest bits of computing, and from time to time, we have the chance to get our hands on some primo gear. So when AlienWare announced the availability of their monster laptop series, the Aurora mALX, we were first in line - literally. Order #1. Boasting to be one of the first 19" SLI notebooks, featuring a Dual 256MB NVidia GeForce Go 7900 GTX, can you blame us? So on May 9th we placed our order and tossed down the cash, foaming at the mouth in anticipation of the promised June 10th delivery.

A month later we're still sloshing around on a floor covered in drool, and have another month of crusty carpet to look forward to.

So what's the darn hold up? Beats us. According to our Order Status (seen right) we're stuck in the limbo known as "Phase 3", which seems to translate to "Thanks for your money, sucka." As weeks went by, we naturally got a bit curious. Multiple emails to AlienWare went unanswered, and only after a few phone calls did we start to get an inkling as to what was up.

According to the folks at AlienWare, we had to wait for their flagship notebook because they were trying to round up some parts. What parts, you might ask? Well, I'll tell you. Seems that they've been hyping up a product with fancy features without having any of that equipment actually ready for building. SLI Video Card? Nope. 19" LCD Display? Guess again. At least they have the case though, right? Wrong.

So what we have here is a case situation where AlienWare is selling a product which doesn't actually exist and that they are incapable of manufacturing. All the bells and whistles that make this notebook the bad-boy that it's supposed to be are MIA. And as an added kick to the throat, they weren't even going to bother telling us about it - despite the fact that "in the rare occurrence that a PC component is not readily available, you will be notified via email."

Oh, did I mention the $4,500 price tag? Apparently you don't always get what you pay for. And so we wait. Right now our ship date is slated for July 10th, a whole 2 months after the Aurora mALX went on sale, and the exact same shipping date you'd be quoted if you bought one today. We'll be sure to keep you updated on the status of this debacle as it unfolds...

...in the mean time, we'll be icing our asses, because it fees like AlienWare has given us a good old fashioned anal probing.

If you have a nightmare purchase story of your own, feel free to tell us about it in the comments - especially if you happen to be in the same predicament as we are. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program...

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Update #1: Here it is! The magical day has come and gone and now it's time to share with you the really-worth-it result all our frustration! So, without further ado...

...nah, I'm just joshing ya. You didn't really expect it to get here 3 months after ordering, did you? That's crazy talk! Apparently there is no escaping the limbo of Phase 3, cause we're still there. As if being stuck there wasn't enough, they insist on taunting us with phrases like "Payment has been received" (thanks for rubbing our nose in it) and "the order is now in queue for production." Excuse me, but we ARE the queue! First in line! Remember?

As you can see the saga isn't even close to being over. Hopefully we'll have another update for you before August 10th.

Continuing the chronicles of our laptop purchasing misadventures, (the first part of this tawdry tale can be read here) comes this next chapter in the saga, complete with a twistier plot and a happy ending (but not really). Alternative titles for this blog post included, "AlienWhere: All Your Cash Are Belong To Us" and,  "AlienWhere: I'm Gonna Git You Sucka!"

For those not in the know, here's the lowdown. We love things that go vroom here at QJ, and so we plunked down some cold hard cash (of the digital variety) in order to secure a sweet, sweet, oh so sexy AlienWare laptop, and not just any laptop, we wanted the monster, the Aurora mALX. I might mention that we were pretty darn chuffed at being Order #1 in the queue as well, we sat down and waited patiently for the June 10th delivery date to arrive. Two weeks after the due date and $4,500 later, and we're still sitting in that chair, ankle deep in a pool of QJ bloggers' collective saliva (seriously, it's a little icky in here).

So we did the only thing any rational geek would do, we ordered another uber laptop, but this time we made sure to steer well away from They Who Shall Not Be Named (Alienware). Buying expensive toys on the interweb can be a risky thing (as we've since found out) but there are tools that can help guide you. A quick search on resellerratings.com turned up a neat site called Xtremenotebooks.com, it helped that they offered "Legendary Prices On Products That Rock," and they had the resellerratings to back up the bold claim, so we took a chance.

Present day: While our Alienware laptop is still stuck in "Phase 3: Oblivion", we're humming along to the sweet sounds of the Nova 988W. Not only did they get this piece of kit to us in just a few days with zero delays, they also fixed a small issue we had with the CD drive and replaced it immediately, with FedEx overnight delivery to boot!

Specs please? Sure thing, here's the rundown, it's got a 19" High Contrast Glossy Wide Angle WSXGA+ LCD, perfect for ogling life size boobies productivity, an AMD Turion™ 64 ML-40 with up to 2048MB Dual Channel DDR PC3200 400MHz RAM,  NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7800 GTX GeForce™ Go DUAL SLI 16X PCI-E with 256MB GDDR3 RAM and an SATA150 7200RPM HDD 8x Dual Layer DVD±R/RW. Oh yeah, it's also got a built in 4-in1 Card Reader, a Digital Web Camera and 5.1 Surround sound with subwoofer, a Built in Mini PCI Wireless 802.11G (54 Mbps)and Bluetooth for high speed net access to the aforementioned boobies productivity and of course a Built-In Avermedia TV Tuner w/Remote Control, so we can watch the boobies productivity on local TV without having to... lean forward... and... push the buttons?

In other words, we're darn happy - thanks for the fantastic service, XtremeNotebooks! So you see some fairy tales have happy endings, and if we ever see the fruits of that missing $4,500, it'll be an even happier ending, but for now it's enough that we can start mopping up that stagnant pool of drool in the office.

With the memories of the 2006 Winter Olympics fresh in mind, here comes Lenovo's latest, which I'm pretty sure their first Laptop to bear the Coca-Cola badge. This Lenovo F20 special edition Coca-Cola laptop has been produced with the famous Olympic 5 rings on the front in celebration of the future 2008 Beijing Olympics. Ideally, the Laptop is in Coca-Cola red, much like Acer's Ferrari range. Specs you say? Here you go:

• Intel M778 processor, 1.66GHz
• Intel 915GMS chipset with GMA900 display chip
• 12.1 inch wide screen monitor
• 512MB DDR2 memory
• 80GB hard disk
• External Combo drive
• WiFi, Bluetooth, 56K modem, and 100Mbps ethernet port
• Build in 1.5W stereo speaker
• 3 USB ports, 1 IEEE1394 port
• All-in-one memory card reader
• Dual batteries for 8.5 hours usage
• Weight: 1.4KG

The F20 special edition is priced at around $1650, and will come with the well-respected Lenovo customer service and quality. The release date is yet to be announced but is expected to coincide with the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Those that have the money might be thinking about ordering both the Lenovo F20 and the Alienware Aurora mALX - you could have a race to see which one gets delivered first!