Another widescreen notebook

It looks like Apple hit another nerve with end users' tastes (I mean that in a good way). After Apple released its widescreen notebook earlier this year, PC notebook vendors followed suit with some widescreen notebooks of their own (HP announced one a few weeks ago).

The latest notebook is from Toshiba, which last week announced the Satellite P25-S507, a 17-inch-display widescreen (1,440 by 900 pixels) laptop. The P25-S507 includes built-in silver Harman Kardon stereo speakers, a built-in DVD-R/RW combination drive, integrated 802.11a/b wireless connectivity and an NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 graphics card.

The notebook includes an Intel Pentium 4 processor with hyperthreading technology, speeds up to 2.8 GHz, 512M bytes of RAM (upgradeable to 2G bytes), a 60G-byte hard drive, integrated 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet and V.92 modem, and four USB 2.0 ports. The P25-S507 starts at about $2,100 and is available at Toshiba's Web site.

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It looks like Apple hit another nerve with end users' tastes (I mean that in a good way). After Apple released its widescreen notebook earlier this year, PC notebook vendors followed suit with some widescreen notebooks of their own (HP announced one a few weeks ago).

The latest notebook is from Toshiba, which last week announced the Satellite P25-S507, a 17-inch-display widescreen (1,440 by 900 pixels) laptop. The P25-S507 includes built-in silver Harman Kardon stereo speakers, a built-in DVD-R/RW combination drive, integrated 802.11a/b wireless connectivity and an NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 graphics card.

The notebook includes an Intel Pentium 4 processor with hyperthreading technology, speeds up to 2.8 GHz, 512M bytes of RAM (upgradeable to 2G bytes), a 60G-byte hard drive, integrated 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet and V.92 modem, and four USB 2.0 ports. The P25-S507 starts at about $2,100 and is available at Toshiba's Web site.

More wireless gear

As I wait for my USB-enabled 802.11g adapter (coming soon, I hope), companies such as Netgear are releasing other adapter form factors. The company last week launched an 802.11g wireless Ethernet bridge and a PCI adapter.

The WGE101 Wireless Ethernet Bridge ($130) lets Ethernet-enabled devices (including non-computer devices such as game console, personal video recorder or stereo equipment) connect wirelessly to an 802.11g network (or to an 802.11b network, but at slower speeds). The Ethernet bridge also can be connected to one of Netgear's other Ethernet switches (the FS605), letting multiple Ethernet devices connect to the network without requiring additional wireless adapters. The WG311 Wireless PCI Adapter ($90) installs on a desktop computer to give the computer access to an 802.11b or 802.11g network.

Both devices support 40-, 64- and 128-bit Wired Equivalent Privacy encryption, and the WG311 supports VPN pass-through and dynamic rate shifting, Netgear says.

SMC ships cable modem

While end users might not care about cable modems (they get whatever the cable company gives them), they might be interested in this news. SMC Networks recently launched a new cable modem (the EZ Connect SMC8004CM) that has both an Ethernet port and a USB port for quick connections. The cable modem lets a user connect his cable line to the box, and then connect a computer via Ethernet and a second one via the USB port. In addition, users can take the Ethernet port and connect to another hub or router to create a larger network.

The SMC8004CM is DOCSIS1.1-certified, but also has DOCSIS 2.0 capabilities built in, which means it will be "ready for the future," SMC says. The box is aimed mainly at cable broadband providers and will cost less than $50, SMC says. For more information, visit the SMC Web site.

Set your Phaser on 'Advance'

IOGear last week launched a new, trigger-style wireless mouse that includes an integrated laser pointer and a thumb-operated trackball. The $50 Phaser is aimed at PowerPoint users, who now can walk around a room and advance the next slide by pushing the Phaser's "trigger," which acts as the left-click function. The Phaser comes with a USB adapter that connects to a user's computer. The adapter connects wirelessly via radio frequency to the Phaser and has a range of about 50 feet, IOGear says. Go to the IOGear Web site for more details.