Toshiba didn’t want Samsung to get all the aclaim with its 1.8 inch 160GB HDD, so they went out and made a 320GB 2.5 inch drive. Yes, that would be the largest 2.5 inch drive, so essentially, Toshiba matched Samsung (short-lasting) record for record. What’s even niftier about the MK3252GSX drive is that, unlike its closest competitor, Fujitsu’s 300GB, it runs at 5400RPM rather than 4200RPM. Other specs include an 8MB buffer, 12ms average seek time, and a 3Gbps SATA interface. It’s also very thin, at only 9.5mm tall. No word on pricing, but they should start showing up in notebooks near you around November.

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.

Now, personally, I wonder a bit at the usefulness of a USB wireless broadband solution. I see the entire purpose of solutions such as Verizon’s implementation of EV-DO to be portable, meaning either integrated in a notebook or at worse add via PC Card or ExpressCard.

Obviously, though, Verizon disagrees, as they’re pretty darn close to releasing their Sierra Wireless AirCard 595U USB modem. It’ll have a dock, a removable battery for added power when necessary, and all that, but it’ll still be something hanging off the back (or front or side or whatever) of your notebook as you’re sitting in Starbucks sipping latte. I suppose they’re entitled to sell whatever they want, in this case for $179 after rebate and two-year contract.

I just love power, especially when packaged in mobile forms.That goes for cars, motorcycles, and, of course, notebooks. The XtremeNotebook Xtreme 917V (wihch is a bit to type) provides some serious power for a low, low starting price of $2,399. The specs:

• 17-inch display
• Core 2 Quad processor
• dual nVidia Geforce Go 7950 GTX graphics processors
• Up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM
• Multicard reader
• Dual-layer DVD writer (no HD?)
• Up to three 250GB hard drives (four spindles? wow!)
• Optional TV tuner
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Wi-Fi
• Standard ports
• 12-cell batter that still manages only about 60 minutes

Sounds like a monster. Go get one, oh rich ones.

Let me say that, even though I’m a sucker for ultraportable notebooks, and I think the Sony Vaio TZ18GN is a nifty machine with some nice specs:

• 11.1-inch LCD
• 32GB SSD
• Core 2 Duo
• 1GB RAM
• 2.5lbs

I still feel that $4,300 is a lot to pay for a notebook that’s not some sort of crazy beefed-up 21-inch monster desktop gaming replacement rig. And the striking thing to me is that the SSD option adds "only" $700, which means that the standard HDD version of this puppy is $3,600 if my math doesn’t fail me. And that’s a lot, as well. And, yes, of course, Sony’s not really asking for $billions.