The cheapest VAIO laptop yet

The VAIO NR popped its head up in Germany a few weeks ago. Now Sony has announced its new budget laptop will make its US debut next month. With a starting price of US$750, it undercuts Sony's current budget model, the VAIO N, by a hefty US$200. Despite its low price, Sony didn't skimp on design, outfitting the 15.4-inch, 2.81kg with a textured chassis it describes as "fabric-like" and "pleasing to the eye and cool to the touch". You'll have your choice of three colors, which Sony calls wenge, silk and granite, and everyone else calls brown, white and silver.

Sony lists four VAIO NR configurations. An Intel Core 2 Duo processor is offered on the highest-end config, the NR160, but the other three units, the NR110, NR120, and NR140, use lower-end Pentium Dual Core processors that operate on a 533MHz frontside bus. The entry-level VAIO NR110 model features a Pentium Dual Core T2310 CPU, 1GB of memory, a surprisingly roomy 120GB hard drive, Intel GMA X3100 graphics, b/g Wi-Fi, and a DVD burner. It all adds up to a good value, but we'd want another gigabyte of memory to ensure a pleasant experience with Vista Home Premium.

When contacted, Sony Singapore told CNET Asia the units will be available but did not commit on when they will arrive.

This post originally appeared in CNET Crave.

Another virtually similar BenQ camera

Dear BenQ,

If you must know, the fall season of camera launches is over. So how come the new cameras? Or more precisely, how many more are there still to come?

Besides its very marginal improvements (8-megapixel vs 7-megapixel; SDHC support), the C840 is virtually the same as the C740i and the C640 before that, right down to the dimensions and the weight. But then again, based on the specs comparison, it's probably a good call to announce it when things are quiet on the camera front.

Yours,
Unimpressed reviewer

     

Self-regenerating tires

Self-driving cars, self-parking, self-repairing paint… and now self-healing tires? Gee, who needs a mechanic after this? Michelin says it uses manufacturing techniques which mold the tread of the XDA5 in three dimensions. What that means to us commuting plebs is the tire features a tread that somehow regenerates itself as it wears off. If we dumb this down further, the tread sorta acts like an onion. As the tire wears, the tread reveals new grooves and tread blocks within. Once again, technology aping nature.

Unfortunately, this isn't multi-layered, so you'll not be getting immortal treads that last forever. Just a touted 30 percent extension in tread life over the standard ones.

No word on whether these will roll out to passenger cars, when or, yikes, what the bill will cost you for getting into the high-tech groove. What we'd love is for somebody to come up with Transformer-type cars, souped-up convertibles which can morph from boring family saloons into a choice of fast car like an Aston Martin DB5 or 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 for the weekend. Yeah!

Heads up from InventorSpot.com; source AutoChannel

New Dopod slider spotted in China

China-based tech site IT168.com has the deets on the new Dopod C750. This is apparently a rebadged HTC product and is a Windows Mobile 6 Standard smart phone.

While not supported by the accompanying images, the Chinese-language site reports that Dopod is readying a version of the C750 with a VGA display. This will be available in November in China. The slide-out keypad found on the C750 has a layout similar to the BlackBerry Pearl's SureType keyboard. This QWERTY arrangement puts two letters on one key, thereby halving the number of buttons needed to include the whole English alphabet.

HTC has taken over most of Dopod's operations in Asia. The brand still exists in China and the Taiwanese manufacturer's products like the Touch bear the Dopod brand there.

Credit: IT168.com (via Engadget Mobile)

Sharp rolls out nine Blu-ray recorders

We have been hearing news about the upcoming HD recorders. Now it seems Sharp has jumped the gun with not one, but nine Blu-ray models! The Japan-only lineup (ouch!) includes a top-of-the-line 1TB hard drive model and an assortment of disc-only equivalents in contrasting hues.

Collectively branded under its Aquos family, the BD-HDW20, BD-HDW15, BD-AV1 and BD-AV10 all feature dual HD tuners, DVD/CD backward-compatibility and the new Aquos Fami-Link or HDMI-CEC.

The hard drive-enabled HDW-series also supports film-centric 1080p24 HDMI for judder-free movie playback. However, this lacks 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray support, relying on the onboard 500GB/1TB storage for up to 127 hours of HD recordings.

The AV-series, on the other hand, is designed for greater ease of use, targeted for the VCR upgraders. It has one-touch recording and playback, as well as a disc meter which provides one-glance updates on available disc space.

No pricing details were available at press time.

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