Dell began shipping the Latitude ATG (All Terrain Grade) D620 today. This is the manufacturers first attempt at the rugged and tough style notebook market bringing it into direct competition with Panasonic’s Toughbook.

The ATG D620 features a super-bright 14 inch 500-nit LCD display with anti-reflective coating, an Intel Core 2 Duo dual-core processor, port covers, shock mounted hard drives, moisture and spill proof keyboards and a toughened outer shell.

The ATG is designed with premium wireless connectivity. It offers Wi-Fi productivity with dual-band Wi-Fi for connecting to any 802.11a,b,g or n network and a special Dell Wi-Fi Catcher that constantly scans for wireless hotspots and notifies you whenever it detects one. Plus, with the integrated mobile broadband capability, you can connect to work resources using national cellular networks.

Not bad indeed, it is available immediately starting at $2499.

Product Page [Dell]

PC maker OQO has refined and improved on their ultra-portable computer Model 01 with the new OQO Model 02.

Dubbed the “World Smallest Windows Vista capable PC” and packed with the same power as a normal PC, it measures 5.6 x 3.3x 1 inches (about a quarter sized A4 paper) and less than 1 lb. Encased in a magnesium alloy chassis, the model 02 is a standalone, handheld computer with shock mounted hard drive and drop detect technology.

Check out what else you’ll get in that tiny box:

- 1.5 Ghz VIA C7M processor
- VIA vX600 graphics chipset
- 1GB DDR2 533 mhz SDRAM memory
- 60 GB hard drive
- 58 key backlit thumb keyboard, track stick, and capacitive TouchScrollers?
- USB 2.0 port
Intergrated 802.11 a/b/g Wireless Lan
- Integrated Bluetooth 2.0
- VGA/ Ethernet capable
- removable lithium-ion polymer battery (estimate life 3-6 hours)
- embedded AES security encryption
- Windows XP (Vista Capable)

This certainly reconfirms the “small but mighty” notion. Bill Gates choose to showcase the OQO Model 02 in his keynote speech at the recent CES 2007 and it was also awarded 2007 Best of CES Award. Well deserved indeed!

Although it may be a little small for me, I am in awe at this product and am still wondering how they packed all that technology in something that small. Prices start at $1499 and is on sale now.

Product [OQO]

Axiotron, Inc. and Other World Computing have produced a portable tablet computer running Mac OSX for show at the Macworld Expo this week. The Modbook is a hardware modification of Apple’s Macbook, which Axiotron is marketing for $2,279 a piece.

“Each ModBook starts off as a MacBook Core 2 Duo but undergoes a surgical operation where its original display and keyboard are severed, then replaced with a new 13.3-inch Wacom pen enabled widescreen display set in a chrome-plated magnesium top shell.

The device runs the current version of Mac OS X and utilizes that software’s built-in Inkwell handwriting recognition. Meanwhile, the tablet retains all of the hardware features of the current Apple MacBook line, such as a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, an integrated camera and CD/DVD combo drive.”

Also included is Wacom Penabled hardware, the Macbook’s iSight camera and built-in Global Positioning System [the only portable Mac to have GPS]. The Modbook will be available in April to the USA and Canada through Other World Computing.

Read [AppleInsider] Product [Modbook]

The $100 laptop for children in developing countries has been an interesting journey. Kicking off this year, there is the XO machine using Novel software - a version of Linux - for the One Laptop Per Child project.

Through mass production, the computers should reach the $150 mark and will begin distribution in Thailand and Libya.

Read more

Ringing in the new year, Apple.com have put this little teaser on their website: “The first 30 years were just the beginning. Welcome to 2007.”

I’m touched by the greeting, but what does it mean?

Last time we had teasers like this from Apple was in 2002 which led up to the release of iPhoto and OSX, the flat panel iMac and the 14″ iBook only weeks after the teasers.

Is 2007 the year of the iPhone? iTV? A new OS? We’ll keep you updated.

Read [Apple]