Verbatim has announced its plans to release a new 500 GB portable hard drive for later this year. Aside from carrying some of the more standard features of the SmartDisk line, this new drive will also carry a reasonable price tag. Details are available in the full article.

OWC has added a 500 GB model to their Mercury On-The-Go series of portable hard drives. This new hard drive sports quite a number of features that any PC user on the go will definitely appreciate. To find out what this product has to offer you, head on over to the full article for more information.

Toshiba recently unveiled two new additions to the ever-growing Portage R500 sub-notebook family, the R500-12P and the R500-12Q. The latest laptops boast of packing 128 GB of solid-state storage. Find out more on these in the full article.

  

The Apple Summer Mac product conference is already rolling hot with Steve Jobs manning the show. As expected, his keynote address is filled with surprising unveiling of new Apple projects and the "everybody saw this coming" types. Tab this one under the second category - as predicted and whispered around various boards the past few weeks, Apple is giving us brand new iMacs.

Sporting a retroish look, the sleek new iMacs are made of aluminum and glass. It comes in 20- and 24-inched versions, each equipped with the usual but impressive specs such as up to  2.4GHz Core 2 Extreme processor, up to 4GB of memory, ATI Radeon HD graphics card, up to 1TB of hard drive storage. 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.0 built-in. There's also the usual compliment of ports like USB 2.0, Firewire 400/800, a slot loading SuperDrive, iSight camera etc.

What's also worth noting is that the oft-rumored new keyboard for the iMacs turns out to be true, with Steve Jobs himself confirming it. Boasting of large spacing and flat keys, Apple seems to be aiming to give the iMac users the laptop feel while typing. iMac purists seem to be a bit skeptic with the move, but let's all wait and see what happens. The 20-inch iMac goes for US$ 1,199 each (add three hundred bucks more for a processor and graphics enhancements), while the 24-inch monster demands US$ 1,799 per unit.

You gotta love rumors confirmed. Mac OS Rumors started combing the grapevine and all their sources clean of whatever juice they could squeeze out, until they were able to confirm that the "MacBook Thin" (a) exists, and (b) has specs that (c) would probably make the "Thin" "the fastest, most feature-rich ultraportable laptop on the market". Probably because it's a Pro in a smaller package.

Here are the specs that Mac OS Rumors were, so far, able to confirm from American and Southeast Asian sources. Start drooling.

• "Macbook Thin" -- spec-wise, primarily a variant of the Pro family but will probably be branded as separate from the standard *or* Pro MacBook families. Shipping name is unconfirmed.
• 12-inch widescreen display, 1280x800 resolution.
• 2.16 or 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors
• 1GB of DDR2-667 memory standard. Max. capacity 3GB.
• Standard "Pro" ports: USB2, Firewire 400 & 800, Gigabit Ethernet, Digital/Analog Audio minijack I/O ports.
• ExpressCard expansion slot (believed to be /34 type)
• Similar storage to "Pro": 2.5in SATA HDDs at 120GB & up, 'Combo' or 'Super' optical drive.
• ATi Radeon Mobility X1600 or nVIDIA GeForce GO 7600 graphics systems with 256MB of VRAM.
• Mini-DVI display connector with full second display capabilities
• Of course, Built-in iSight, stereo microphone, Airport Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.
• Battery life is expected to be "best in class" at about 6.5 hours real-world, some reports have suggested up to 8 hours is possible.

Final speculation has the "Thin", or whatever they're going to call it, shipping within ten weeks, announced in six. What keeps this speculation iffy is the fact that the upcoming MacWorld Expo is so packed with other high-profile items - such as iTV and the iPhone - that were the "Thin" announced there, it could easily get lost in the shuffle. Not that it won't be noticed by a lot of people who'd love to get a MacBook in smaller dimensions.

Here to finally splash some color onto the black and white dominated laptop world is Samsung Q40. Sashaying into the market with utterly feminine wiles - both in function and form - this ultra portable notebook is powered by an Intel 1.2 GHz Core Solo processor with 512 MB of RAM.

Ready to battle it out head on with its macho counterparts, this lady is armed with a 60 GBh hard drive, external DVD re-writer and Wireless connectivity. The 128 MB Intel Integrated graphics support its 12.1" Widescreen SuperClear Display.

Q40 has also been accessorized further with Bluetooth, 2 x USB and 1 x Firewire. And with its Lithium Ion battery, there is most certainly enough time for primping as it lasts for a good three hours.Windows XP Professional and Norton Anti Virus have also been thrown in to ensure that this hot chic is no bimbo.

Surprisingly weighing in at only 1.15kg (2.53 pounds),and is about just an inch thick, this newcomer surely will turn heads! If you're interested in this beauty, you better be ready to dish out $ 2460.

NEC seems to be willing to stick it out to the competition as they have just released their new set Turion 64 X2 laptop goodies, which will be part of their LaVie line of laptops. To go right down to the nitty-gritty of these machines, they are equipped with 15.4-inch 1,280 x 800 displays, ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 integrated graphics, and dual-layer DVD burning across the board.

Of course there's also the usual Firewire, four USB 2.0 ports, a PC card slot, multi-card reader, gigabit Ethernet and 802.11a/b/g WiFi in NEC's latest producrs. They will come in two choices, if you have some dough to spare, you could get the LaVie L line which will cost you ¥210,000 or roughly $1,819 USD. It will have 100GB HDD, 768MB of RAM (2GB max) and WMCE '05, powered by an AirTV external TV tuner.

Too expensive? Then maybe you oughta consider the entry level LaVie G type L option, a build-type order affair that will cost you ¥125,000 or $1,082. These babies will be available in Japan starting August 11, no word on availability and sale date elsewhere.

If you think these features sounds good and the price tag ain't that high, then prepare for the downside of these contraptions. If you're the type who travels with your laptop, you might get a little disappointed with the Lavie laptops because their battery life willl only cover you for roughly 2 hours -- and for an almost 7-pound laptop, that might be quite a turnoff for you. But then again, you will be the best judge of that.

German computer-maker Medion is offering something good for the budget-conscious and cheapskates. The company is prepping the release of their laptop - The MIM 2220 - to British buyers. This thingamajig is a 1.7GHz Intel Pentium M 735A processor, which is far from top of the line or cream of the crop, but better than the Celeron you might expect to see in low-end laptops.

It will come with a 15.4 inch WXGA display, a dual layer DVD burner, 802.11g Wi-Fi, 256MB of DDR 2 SDRAM (which you can upgrade to 1GB), and a 40GB hard drive. Other highlights include a trio of USB ports, Firewire connector, 10/100Mbps Ethernet, TV-out and Windows XP Media Center Edition. That’s a long list of nice but so-so features, but this baby's saving grace is its price tag - the whole thing only costs about $730.

Aside from that when this one hits the shelves come August 1, it will have another feature which will help it stand out from the cheap laptops section. You can upload a picture of your choice to the Medion website and the photo will be printed onto the cover of your machine, so you get a completely unique and personalized machine. That feature costs an extra $80, though. But look on the bright side, if you're tired of using the MIM 2220, you can send it as a postcard or something.