HP launched its enhanced TouchSmart portfolio with updated software and multi-touch systems today.

Its new multi-touch consumer computer range includes the HP TouchSmart300 All-in-One Desktop PC, HP TouchSmart600 All-in-One Desktop PC and an enhanced HP TouchSmart tx2 Notebook PC.

HP also now offers a choice of 20 or 23-inch diagonal widescreen consumer TouchSmart Desktop PCs. Each features an all-in-one design integrating a high-definition widescreen display with a multi-touch enabled screen.

Sony has unveiled what it says is the world’s lightest notebook - at least among models with a 10-inch or larger screen.

The VAIO X Series weighs 665g, and measures 13.9 mm fully flat, about the width of a mobile phone. Sony claims the battery will last for up to to 6.5 hours of continuous use (or 16.5 hours with a an extended battery option which doubles as a stand)

A second overheating scare has hit notebooks with Sony-made batteries.

Sony announced today it is supporting a voluntary recall of 100,000 Dell, HP and Toshiba notebooks around the world. The models in question all feature Sony's 2.15Ah Lithium Ion battery. Ironically, Sony's own brand of notebook, the Vaio, is unaffected in the latest scare.

Recently, NBR road-tested Dell's $799 Inspiron Mini 9. This Lilliputian laptop's compact size amazed, but in the end it was just fractionally too small to allow touch-typing.

Enter Dell's Inspiron Mini 12, announced today and available worldwide from mid-November.

Mac-heads rejoice: the rumours are all true. Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled his company’s much-anticipated new MacBook line today, consisting of 13-inch and 15-inch models up to $NZ800 cheaper than their predecessors. Features include:

• No more cheesy plastic trim. A new “unibody” design that sees each of the notebooks cast from a single piece of aluminium. As well looking sleek, Jobs says the unibody makes the MacBooks thinner, tougher, and greener to manufacture.

Lenovo has refreshed its “X” series of ultramobile Thinkpads with the standard X200, built with speedy specs; the X200s, a spiffier, superlight version of the X200, and a touch-screen take called the X200 Tablet – the first ever Tablet with a screen that swings both ways.

ThinkPad X200