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Lenovo makes wider display for ThinkPad power presenters
Lenovo announced the ThinkPad T60 widescreen notebook PC, the company’s first-ever 15.4-inch widescreen T Series notebook.
Starting at 5.1 pounds, the ThinkPad T60 widescreen display is shorter in height than a 15-inch ThinkPad T60 standard display. Lenovo said this size screen display will aid in evaluating spreadsheets and data on an airplane or in other travel situations. In addition to accommodating tight physical spaces, the 15.4-inch ThinkPad T60 widescreen WXGA display allows 30 per cent more data on the screen than either today’s current 14.1-inch or 15-inch ThinkPad T60 XGA displays.
The extra screen real estate also gives users four more columns for spreadsheets and improves multi-tasking with multiple windows side-by-side for easier online shopping, Web browsing, digital photography manipulation, video presentation development and DVD movie viewing, Lenovo added. A choice of Intel integrated graphics or ATI discrete graphics capabilities on an optional WSXGA+ screen are available.
The ThinkPad T60 widescreen also offers an embedded WLAN card based on 802.11n technology, Bluetooth Wireless Technology and Infrared. The ThinkPad T60 widescreen notebook comes loaded with Access Connections, a Technology designed to help users easily connect to the Internet through their service provider as they switch between wired and wireless networks.
The new notebook provides up to eight hours of battery life with a nine-cell battery (select models), and its form factor starts at 1.1-inch. The ThinkPad T60 widescreen notebook is equipped with the Intel Core 2 Duo processors, and customers will be ready for the next operating system with the option of Microsoft Windows Vista Capable or Vista Premium Ready models.
The airbag-like Active Protection System and a spill-resistant keyboard are part of the ThinkPad T60 widescreen’s durable system. The notebook also comes loaded with the latest Lenovo security tools, such as the Embedded Security System and an optional fingerprint reader, that help fight against unauthorized access to data. Prices for the ThinkPad T60 widescreen start at $1,499.
TalkSwitch adds to IP-PBX line
TalkSwitch announced two new additions to its line of PBX telephone systems. The 280VS and the 284VS are hybrid IP PBXs that accommodate two incoming telephone lines and provide eight local extensions that the user can configure as IP or analog, and 10 remote extensions. The 284VS also includes support for four VoIP trunks.
The VS series joins the existing series of TalkSwitch phone systems that includes the 24-CA, 48-CA and the VoIP-equipped 48-CVA. Customers can now choose from five different systems that provide a variety of incoming line and extension options.
VS products can be networked with each other, or with TalkSwitch 48-CA or 48-CVA units. They come with the recently announced TalkSwitch software version 4.0, so customers can configure local extensions to be either analog or IP, allowing them to customize the system to fit their needs.
The 280VS is priced at US$1095 and the 284VS is available for US$1395.
Iomega offers NAS products for SMBs
Iomega Corp. announced the next generation of its Iomega StorCenter network-attached storage (NAS) devices.
The Iomega StorCenter Pro NAS 250d Servers will soon be available worldwide in fourmodels ranging in capacity from 500GB to 1.5TB. All models feature the Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 operating system, optimized for file and print services across the network. Configuration is virtually automatic with Iomega’s Discovery Tool software, and the Microsoft Management Console provides a standard interface for network administration. While previous generations of Iomega StorCenter Pro NAS servers have used Microsoft technologies, the new Iomega StorCenter Pro NAS 250d servers are the first Iomega NAS servers offered with Windows Storage Server 2003 R2.
One of the new systems announced today, the StorCenter Pro NAS 250d 500GB server, also comes with a built-in Iomega REV 70GB drive for server backup and restore operations. The flagship product in today’s announcement is the Iomega StorCenter Pro NAS 250d 1.5TB Server with print capability. Like all 250d Server products announced today, it uses SATA-II hot-swappable hard drives. Three 500GB 7200-RPM hard drives provide a total capacity of 1.5TB, and hardware RAID options include RAID 5 (striping plus parity), RAID 0 (striping), and RAID 1 (mirroring). The 750GB model uses three 250GB drives and supports the same hardware RAID options.
Like the previous-generation 200d series, the 750GB and 1.5TB models in the 250d series feature dual Gigabit Ethernet connections with automatic load balancing and failover, and an external Ultra 320 SCSI connection. A faster Intel Celeron D 352 3.2 GHz processor replaces the previous generation’s Celeron 2.5 GHz processor, improving overall performance.
Iomega StorCenter Pro NAS 250d Servers provide broad support for Microsoft file and print services. File services with 500GB models include Active Directory, Encrypting File System (EFS), Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS), and SRM. Additional standard services with the 750GB and 1.5TB models include Distributed Files System (DFS-N and DFS-R), and File Server Resource Manager (FSRM). Print services for the 750GB and 1.5TB models include a five-printer licence (upgradable to unlimited printers) for Microsoft Print Server.
The StorCenter™ Pro 250d 500GB Server with REV Built-In is now available for US$1,999, as well as the StorCenter Pro 250d 500GB Server for US$1,399. The StorCenter Pro 250d 750GB Server with Print is expected to be available December 30, 2006, for US$2,799. The Iomega StorCenter Pro 250d 1.5TB Server with Print is also expected to be available December 30, 2006, for US$3,999.
