Sony has introduced a new line of thin and lightweight Vaio CR notebooks. The notebooks are available in five fashion colors – sangria, cosmopolitan, dove, indigo and black – with a weight of 5.5 pounds (with a standard battery) and are portable enough to take just about anywhere, according to the company. The PCs adopt Intel Centrino Duo processor technology.The Vaio CR notebooks are equipped with a 14.1-inch widescreen display, built-in 802.11n wireless LAN and pre-installed Windows Vista Home Premium operating system (Windows Vista Business edition is optionally available), noted Sony.The notebooks also include an S-video port, allowing them to connect to a compatible television set to watch DVDs or play games on a bigger screen. They also have a built-in digital camera and microphone for quick photos and participation in live video chats, pointed out the company.Sony Vaio CR notebooks will be available at the end of June starting at US$1,350, added the company.Sony Vaio CR is available in five fashion colors – sangria, cosmopolitan, dove, indigo and blackPhoto: Company

Seagate has announced that it has begun worldwide volume shipments of what it claims is the industry's first 250GB-per-disc, 3.5-inch disc drive on the strength of second-generation perpendicular magnetic recording technology.The company says its one-disc Barracuda hard drive has an industry-leading data density of 180Gb per square inch and sets new benchmarks for power consumption, acoustics and performance for Seagate desktop PC hard drives. Low power consumption reduces operating temperatures, crucial in ensuring high reliability and a long drive life, added Seagate.The Seagate Barracuda 3.5-inch 7200.10 desktop drive is built with a SATA 3Gb/s interface and will serve as the foundation for Seagate's 1-terabyte desktop, enterprise, consumer electronics and external hard drives, noted the company.

Formosa21 a developer and manufacturer of human interface products and technologies, announced a new series of remote controls for Windows Vista Media Center Edition PCs at Computex 2007.The company's series of remote controls is certified by Microsoft for users to control MCE platform PCs or notebooks and is designed to be used with Microsoft Windows Vista Media Center Edition (MCE), according to the company.With the new remote controls, users can easily connect with a computer through a small USB dongle with a built-in transceiver, noted Formoas21. The transceiver can learn the protocol of the remote control of another device, such as a set-top box, and after learning of the protocol the MCE remote controller can control the set-top box directly, according to the company.Formosa21's has a display in Computex Taipei 2007 in Hall 2, booth number E022/023.Formosa21's remote control for Windows Vista MCE PCsPhoto: Company

Inventec Multimedia & Telecom, which goes by the trade name of Importek, produces multimedia products ranging from high-definition TV modules to micro camera units to VoIP phones. Though people may be more familiar with Inventec Electronics or Inventec Appliances, the makers of notable products such as Hewlett-Packard (HP) notebooks and Okwap phones, many may not have heard of the Importek subsidiary of the Inventec Group.However, the company plays a major role in the IT industry, with the company's main product lines including HDTV modules, VoIP phone products and micro camera units (MCUs). The company's HDTV modules are incorporated by LCD TV makers in Korea, China and Taiwan, but the company especially targets the Japan market, with some sources estimating that the company has about 5% of the module market in Japan.Although first-tier TV makers in Japan, including Sony and Toshiba, produce their own HDTV modules, many second tier makers outsources their production to dedicated makers. However, because Japan uses a different digital TV standard (ISDB-T) than most other global markets, and because it is difficult to develop products for the ISDB-T platform, most module makers shy away from the Japan market, with Importek probably being the top ISDB-T module maker from Taiwan in the market there.According to industry sources, Importek's HDTV modules can be found in LCD TVs from Taiwanese makers Jean, Ya Hsin Industrial and Teco.Importek ISDB-T HDTV ModulePhoto: Company

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) is showcasing its 945GCT-M motherboard which features data recovery technology built into the BIOS.The 945GCT-M adopts the Intel Core 2 Duo processor with FSB up to 1066MHz, Intel GMA 950 graphics and the 945GC chipset, noted ECS.The 945GCT-M has data recovery technology built in its BIOS, users do not need to rely on software or hard drive recovery functions. If a hard drive stops functioning, the motherboard can still boot into the BIOS to open up previously saved images to recover data, said ECS.ECS will adopt the technology into its new Intel 3 (Bearlake) series motherboards in the near future, added the sources.System adopts ECS 945GCT-M motherboardPhoto: Yen Ting Chen, Digitimes

Taiwan's world-class overclocking expert Coolaler came just short of recording a world record overclock during a live demonstration at Computex Taipei 2007. The show was held at the booth of enthusiast hardware news and reviews site TweakTown. During the demonstration, Coolaler used liquid nitrogen to cool a dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 CPU to below -100-degrees C while he overclocked the system to reach a CPU speed of 5.44GHz. The standard clock speed of this CPU is 3GHz and the current record overclock is 5.52GHz, which was set by Coolaler.Using a Gigabyte GA-P35T-DQ6 motherboard which is based on the new Intel Bearlake chipset and some new DDR3 memory from Corsair, Coolaler was able to push the memory to 1500MHz DDR while the system FSB reached 605MHz with a 9x multiplier. After achieving the ultra-high overclock Coolaler ran a series of benchmarks on the system which also included a pair of Gigabyte Radeon HD 2900 XT series graphics cards. In 3DMark01 the system achieved a score of over 86000, and it completed the SuperPI benchmark in 9.6 seconds. An overclocked system cooled with LN2Photo: TweakTown

Broadcom announced this week new media PC solutions for playback of high-definition (HD) video content across the widest range of PCs in the industry. By lowering CPU utilization, and integrating seamlessly into Microsoft Windows Vista and XP environments, Broadcom's media PC solutions enable mainstream PCs featuring integrated graphics to play back HD content from either a Blu-ray Disc (BD) or HD DVD, as well as from HD downloaded or broadcast content. The new Broadcom media PC solutions are available in three add-in card formats (including desktop PCI Express, PCI Express mini Card or ExpressCard 34), and as a chipset solution for PC motherboard applications. In-Stat predicts that the market for HD DVD and BD enabled PCs is expected to grow to 15 million by the end of 2008. Broadcom's media PC technology will be featured in the following booth locations at Computex Taipei 2007 from June 5-9, 2007. Broadcom booth (T101C, TICC:), Intel (T4VIP and T401, Hall 4 at TICC), AMD (TF1I and T105, Hall 4 at TICC), CyberLink (1024 and 1049 at Grand Hyatt) and Corel (1041 and 1042 at Grand Hyatt). Broadcom HD video boardPhoto: Company

Although women are all too often ignored by vendors in the IT industry, they still account for a sizable market segment, and perhaps realizing this, memory module makers including Apacer Technology (Booth: D126, D136, D225, D235, Hall 1) and Power Quotient International (PQI) (D330, D336, D429, D435, Hall 1) are offering more products at Computex Taipei 2007 that appeal to women.Apacer is marketing its USB flash drives not solely on density or software features, but also on design. Apacer's newly introduced Handy Steno AH125 is a key chain and card holder and, with its bright red color, the device appears to be targeting female users looking for a little liveliness in their IT products.Apacer is also in talks with leading brands that target female customers, such as luxury goods vendor Louis Vuitton (LV) and some cosmetics brands, in an attempt to find some market crossover for its IT products. Perhaps, LV can do for USB flash drives what the iPod did for digital music players.PQI is also showcasing several products that can be targeted to women. The memory module maker's 3mm-thick Card Drive series not only comes in densities up to 32GB, but OEMs can provide their own personal picture and patterns to target various market segments.The company is also showcasing its colorful Intelligent Drive i810 series, which features a surface plated with different colors, and is small enough to be used as an fashion accessory for a handset or key chain.According CK Chang, Apacer AVP from the company's digital application business unit, targeting women is not only about style. In the competitive digital music player segment, Apacer looks to appeal to women with its AU581 player, which comes in a metallic case and targets functionality and ease of use. However, the company still stresses the friendly price, Chang pointed out. And no matter who the product is designed for, it still needs to be backed by the technology, Chang added.Apacer Handy Steno AH125 USB drivePhoto: Esther Lam, Digitimes, June 2007PQI Card Drive U505Photo: Esther Lam, Digitimes, June 2007PQI Intelligent Drive i810Photo: Esther Lam, Digitimes, June 2007

This year at Computex Taipei 2007, software developer CyberLink (Grand Hyatt Taipei, suite 1024 and 1049) is highlighting its PowerCinema Mobile for handheld devices, a new version of the integrated media entertainment software PowerCinema. PowerCinema Mobile runs on the Windows Mobile operating system and consists of five major entertainment modules, including digital TV, FM radio, music, video, and photos.PowerCinema Mobile is designed for entertainment on the go. With the emergence of two mainstream sectors of digital media content – premium TV programs and user-generated content – PowerCinema Mobile provides a solution for enjoying both types of content on handheld devices.PowerCinema Mobile is based on CyberLink's key multimedia technologies. Designed to operate with touch screen panels on the latest handheld devices, the software features a highly graphical and interactive user interface. CyberLink PowerCinema Mobile features Application Feature Digital TV Supports multiple TV signals, including DVB-T, DVB-H, T-DMB and DAB Supports electronic program guides (EPGs) and full screen TV playback Enables personal video recording FM radio and music Receives FM radio programs Supports MP3 and WMA audio files Photos and Video Can display photos as 3D animated slideshows Plays slideshows and photos at full screen size Source: Company, compiled by Digitimes, June 2007

Compro Technology (Hall 2, E095, E095E) is showcasing its VideoMate V600 standalone TV tuner box at Computex Taipei 2007. The VideoMate V600 is a high-resolution standalone TV box supporting resolutions up to 1680×1050, 1600×1200 and 1440×900 for watching analog TV shows on CRT/LCD/PDP monitors.Free from driver/software installation and compatibility problems with computers, it can be simply connected to a monitor or projector with a TV cable/antenna feed, and users can watch TV on their monitors easily.The VideoMate V600 can also be used with widescreen LCD monitors in the 15- to 22-inch range, as well as standard 4:3/5:4 CRT/LCD and 16:9/16:10 widescreen LCD/PDP TVs. The device also features a 2D+3D Y/C separation and noise reduction chip with 3D motion adaptive deinterlacing for a sharper display image.Video input support for the device includes S-video, composite video, stereo audio, and component (Y, Cb, Cr) video input and users can connect the TV box with a DVD player, VCR, DV, or the latest games consoles for watching DVD movies or playing games.Compro VideoMate V600 TV tunerPhoto: Company