Lenovo looks set to launch its upcoming ThinkPad X100e netbook on January 5th 2010, which isn’t all that far off. Apparently it’s been designed as an entry level ultra portable. While there aren’t any official specs just yet, folks online are guessing that it will sport a 12.1-inch display, ATI Radeon HD 3410 graphics chip, 1.6GHz Athlon Neo processor or Intel’s Centrino 2 ULV processor, 3GB of DDR2 RAM and also 320GB or storage space. Of course, these aren’t official, so take it with a large grain of salt.

I had to scratch my eyes a couple of times, but NVIDIA has built a parody website called intelsinsides.com (yes it's been confirmed that Nvidia owns the site). I don't think that Intel will laugh, but I wonder how they will react to that. Who’s next? Qualcomm? Marvell? Broadcom? AMD?

Shenzhen ought to be pretty famous by now for rolling out clones of the most popular consumer electronics these days, where the latest among them would be the HP 2133 Mini-note. This model gets a larger 12" display, although it will still run on the same Intel Atom platform, featuring 1GB RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, Wi-Fi N connectivity (!), a trio of USB ports, VGA output and a 3-cell battery. It will retail for approximately $250 after conversion.

The MOTO group has its very own Android 2.0 MID in development, where this 5" device is now ready to rock developers' worlds. Underneath the chassis, one will find a TI OMA3430 CPU alongside a nifty 5" OLED capacitive touchscreen display on the outside. Apart from that, more budget-oriented folks can also settle for the same MID, albeit with a LCD display instead. Features on this MID include an 8-megapixel camera, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity alongside an optional 3G module. The MOTO group isn't going to rest on their laurels though, and are working on 3.5" and 10" devices that ought to hit the market sometime next year.

Word has it that the NVIDIA's Tegra 2 mobile processor could probably double the performance of its predecessor when it rolls out next year, thanks to the switch to the newer ARM9 architecture. Assuming it combines well with the graphics core, the updated Tegra 2 could be a force to be reckoned with. As it is, current Tegra chips are already capable of 720p HD video playback, while untapped variants can already handle 1080p with aplomb. Guess mobile devices are going to get a whole lot more exciting in time to come.

SSD's are nice, but that doesn't mean they're immune to problems. Last month Intel released a bugging firmware update tool for its 34nm X25-M SSD. Unfortunately the software was pulled the next day because a number of Windows 7 users running a 64-bit version of the OS complained that the software bricked the SSDs. Intel is classifying this issue as high priority, and are asking folks with affected drives to send the drives directly back to Intel. Apparently the firmware update (02HA) itself is fine, just that the firmware upgrade tool was buggy. Ouch.

It seems that NVIDIA's CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang isn't too surprised over the allegations by New York's attorney general that Intel has illegally tried to maintain its monopoly.; That being said, he reminds us that NVIDIA have far superior products to Intel, and that people are busy buying their graphics processors. NVIDIA is in a rather uncomfortable position, as it's locked in a legal battle with Intel, preventing NVIDIA from making chipsets from Intel's Core i series of chips. Has Intel been maintaining its monopoly via illegal means? What do you think?

Microsoft executives are smiling from one end to the other as Windows 7 has broken the company's sales records where an initial operating system launch is concerned. Early sales have been branded as "fantastic", where it generated more revenue in its first 10 days compared to all other Windows versions in the past within the same timeframe. There was no specific revenue or unit numbers to report on though.

Google has announced its latest product known as Google Dashboard, where it will allow you to have an overview of all of your Google profiles at a glance, including Gmail, Google Calendar, web history, YouTube and even the type of cellphones which are being synchronized with your account. In addition, you can even check out how many people have actually contacted your Google Voice number over time. With such a vast amount of information about one being held by Google, does this fact scare you, or you couldn't care less?

Mac OS X can be quite the choosy partner, but that doesn't mean it is always a pain to hook up non-Apple devices to it. Nova Media from Germany has rolled out its FoneSync software which will sync your Samsung cellphone with Mac OS X via an easy to use interface. ForeSync supports models such as the M8800 Pixon, M8910, S5230, S5600, S7220, S7350, S8000 and S8300 currently, where it will retail for 19.90 Euros, while us living across the Atlantic have it good at $19.95.

Lenovo is going to try something very different this time round in order to bring some semblance of normalcy. How so? First time Lenovo users will realize that their notebook's Fn and Ctrl keys have been inverted for no good reason, and it does take some getting used to if you have been using other notebooks for quite some time already. Well, Lenovo decided they ought to do something about this by unveiling a new BIOS option on future ThinkPad models that allow you to virtually swap the functionality of both keys to restore law and order in Keyboardland. Too bad this applies only to new ThinkPads and there won't be a retro update.

Asus has announced that they will be delaying their recently announced Smartbook from the first quarter to the second of next year. While they did not give any reason for the delay, we are also kept in the dark concerning the availability of the Smartbook on UK shores as well. There is also no word on the kind of processor used within alongside the operating system, but an Asus representative did mention that Android is an option.

Dell just announced that its Dell Adamo XPS, a laptop that is only 9.99mm (4/10") thin, will ship this month. The laptop that used to be shown behind closed doors as a "prototype" will now make its debut as a product for this holiday season. You've seen the leaks, the photos, the teasers, and now you're finally getting the real price: Adamo XPS starts at $1799.

Dell has gone through a lot of trouble to design an ultralight that is thinner than the Macbook Air, its direct competitor and the incumbent in this category. The Adamo XPS is indeed thinner, but it has a similar weight (3lbs or so) to the Air. On the other hand, the Air has a faster CPU and graphics processor, plus a longer battery life (Apple claims 5hrs, while Dell claims 2h30 with the standard battery). The Adamo XPS can receive a bigger battery, but I haven't seen what it looks like and I can't imagine that it would be a good thing for the slim line of this laptop. The Adamo XPS has 4GB of memory, versus only 2GB for the Air, and memory can make a big difference, depending on what you do.