What Recession? Razer’s $2800 Blade Gaming Laptop Sells Out In 30 Minutes

For months we’ve been waiting on Razer’s Blade notebook, a $2800, 17-inch beast that we weren’t sure whether to laud or mock. It’s just that it’s kind of a strange thing to see making a big debut when people are more cautious than usual with their money, and PC gaming (as ever) is being declared dead. But after our hands-on at CES, we were convinced that it was at the very least impressive and well-built, and apparently enough other people thought so that Razer sold out almost immediately.

Now, the actual number sold isn’t mentioned, but Razer isn’t a small company and they were going all-out with this thing at CES. But we’ve seen devices launch to sales of dozens, so a strong response to a launch like this is definitely good news.

The company shared the news on their Facebook page, and urges prospective buyers to sign up for a notification email list. Hopefully that $2800 won’t burn a hole in your pocket in the meantime.

Personally, I’m more excited about their plans to disconnect the touchscreen and LCD keys from the laptop, making a customizable piece of hardware you can use with your existing PC. I’m not really down with the small-screen gaming and I like my keyboards a little meatier, so the Blade isn’t for me — but I do have gear envy when I see all those future toys on the side.

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Secret Windows 8 Weapon: Kinect Built Into Your Laptop

The Windows release of Kinect is coming up in a couple days, but for most people that won’t be a major event: the Kinect they have is sitting on their TV or in a drawer, waiting to be taken out for an impromptu Dance Central 2 party. Of the 10 million Kinects out there, the only ones connected to computers are the ones being fiddled with by the various hackers and students making science projects out the things.

But according to the Daily, Microsoft is hoping to remedy this particular situation by building Kinect sensors right into your laptops. TechCrunch alum Matt Hickey got to handle a pair of prototypes, which were confirmed to be official, not just one of the many experiments that hide within Microsoft’s various lairs.

Unfortunately the laptops were not ready for their debut and no pictures seem to have been permitted. But they are described as netbook-like, with a number of smaller sensors instead of a webcam, and what could be an IR LED at the bottom of the screen.

The inclusion of depth-sensing cameras on a laptop is an interesting idea, and if they can drive the price of the sensor array down, it might become a standard feature. Microsoft has clearly also been focusing on miniaturizing the Kinect hardware, as the bulky original would seem somewhat out of place on a petite netbook. Whether this smaller sensor set has the same capabilities as the larger isn’t clear and wasn’t discussed.

A smaller Kinect would also suggest that Microsoft’s next console, rumored to have Kinect built in, is nearing readiness. While many gaming industry insiders have discounted the idea that the next generation of consoles will be announced this year, the rumor mill says otherwise.

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Acer Dual-Screen Laptop Leaked

This is a pretty insane-looking machine. Of course, they’re not the first to try it; Toshiba’s Libretto W100 is already out there, but dual 7-inch displays aren’t the same as a full-size laptop like this. Can this design possibly work at this form factor? I though the Courier idea worked mainly because it was small enough that using like a laptop wasn’t possible. But we’re looking at two 15″ displays on this Acer beast, bizarrely with trackpad emulated as well.

[via Electronista]

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Citrix targets laptop security with new virtualization software

Citrix’s next version of XenDesktop will automatically encrypt corporate data on employee-owned laptops and include a bare-metal client hypervisor.

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Google Using Acer “ZGA” Laptop To Test Chrome OS Internally?

We’re expecting a slew of Chrome OS devices over the next few months — HTC is supposed to have a tablet cooking, and we’ve heard a few ideas about what the first Chrome OS laptop would be — and Acer has always figured prominently. These reports seem to re-confirm Acer’s role.

Apparently some bug report tickets have featured an Acer “ZGA” device, which seems to be a laptop with an Atom N455 processor, 8GB of SSD storage, a webcam, and a Synaptics touchpad. While I doubt it’s Google’s Chrome OS device itself, it probably is more or less feature-complete, and we can expect something with similar specs once Chrome OS hits the streets.

It’s more or less what we expected: Atom processor, limited local storage, traditional interface. We’ll keep you updated.

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Jimmy Kimmel Live crippled by power outage, saved by laptop webcam (watch it tonight)

So it’s an hour before the curtain rises (I mean, if there was a curtain) and the power goes out at the Jimmy Kimmel Live taping and broadcast center. The show is still lit and the studio audience is good to go… but they can’t tape it.

Pop quiz, hot shot: how do you record a whole show with no equipment? Answer: pull out your MacBook.

Yes indeed, the sprightly mind of Mr. Kimmel went straight to the built-in webcam on his laptop, which he promptly had brought out to his desk. And then he recorded the whole thing. At 640×480, on his laptop.

All I have to say is it’s a good thing the lighting was still working, because those iSights aren’t so good in the dark. It’s on tonight! Go watch it!

[via Gizmodo]

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Toshiba’s Dynabook Qosmio V65 is a high-end laptop, Blu-ray player and DTV in one

Toshiba in Japan announced [JP] a new Qosmio laptop today, the Dynabook Qosmio V65. The main selling point of the device (of all Qosmios, in fact) is the “multi-media” capability: Toshiba promises that the laptop produces high-quality images, thanks to the SpursEngine coprocessor (that Toshiba has been using in its CELL TV and Qosmio laptops since 2008), LED backlight, and the 15.6-inch “Clear SuperView LED” HD TFT screen with 1,366×768 resolution.

Here are the other specs:

• Blu-ray drive
• digital TV tuner
• Intel Core i5-450M CPU (2.40GHz)
• 4GB RAM (8GB max.)
• 500GB HDD
• built-in harman/kardon stereo speakers
• four USB ports, HDMI interface
• Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
• 0.3MP CMOS web cam
• Windows 7 Home Premium (32/64bit) as the OS

Toshiba is planning to sell the Dynabook Qosmio V65 in Japan from June 17 (price: $1,960). Expect the device to hit other markets soon, too.

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