When the Hybrid Dual Portable Computer was introduced two years ago, the premise was thus: mobile OS up front, Windows XP inside and about as pretty as a duck dipped in oil. Well, that duck has officially been scrubbed clean. The new shell is pretty sleek, is it not?

It’s not just aesthetics that have been tweaked, however. The unit now contains an Atom processor inside. The exact specifications of the Atom has yet to be revealed though.

Other than that, the specifications remain the same. It contains an e-book reader, PMP, netbook and even an in-car rear-view camera monitor. Oh yeah, it also makes phone calls.

No information has been released yet regarding price or availability. Let’s hope that scrubbed duck doesn’t cost it’s weight in gold.

Samsung laptops have made it to these shores disguised by other manufacturers, but the company’s Q310 model is the first unit to officially hit America. There are two versions of the model available. The Q310-34G offers a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo T5800 CPU and a 250 GB hard drive. The Q310-34P offers a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo P8400 CPU and a 320GB hard drive. Both models sport 3GB of DDR2 Ram, integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics card and a 13.3-inch display. Also, expect the usual DVD burner, webcam and WiFi bells and whistles.

The company promises more laptops for the USA in the future.Oh yeah, and just because this is the land of the free, doesn’t mean the laptops are free. The Q310-34P costs $1,049 and the Q310-34G costs $1,249.

The Tranquil PC SQA-5H home server drops today. Aside from coming with two or three friendly IT guys, this unit seems to have it all. The SQA-5H server has five hot-swappable drive bays, a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom 330 processor and 1 GB of ram that can be upgraded to 2 GB. It also comes with a quick system backup for transferring your stored data onto an external HDD. Oh yeah, there’s also a "Mode" button for quick capacity checks and an optional SQA-EX slave unit for an extra five bays of swappable fun. Phew. It doesn’t do your taxes for you though. Nothing in this world is perfect.

Word is, pricing will come out later today on their website. I’m going to buy one hundred and build an igloo to sleep inside of. The gentle hum of swappable bays just can’t be beat.

Intel is making news with reports that they are testing a chip which can effortlessly swap between WiFi, WiMAX, and DVB-H.

‘This kind of chip would allow equipment to access the WiFi network in the home, automatically handover to a WiMAX network when you leave the house and also access digital TV on the move, all through one chip.’

It also opens the door for a "Universal Radio" that blends CDMA, GSM and various other radio networks..

Take a Dell Latitude, slap on some military-grade protective materials, waterproof it, and design it for temperature extremes from -4F to 140F, and what do you have? The Augmentix XTG630, one tough notebook. The specs aren’t too shabby, either:

• 14.1 inch LCD
• Core 2 Duo processor
• Up to 4GB RAM
• Removable 80GB HDD plus 32GB SSD
• Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics
• Bluetooth 2.0
• 802.11 a/g/n (draft)
• EVDO or HSDPA
• All the ports any rugged type would need

It can function in 4-inches of rain an hour and 95% humidity, and take a fall from up to 3 feet. Makes me feel like a weak, frail being, because I certainly couldn’t handle some of that abuse.