LG will soon sell another series of laptop with hybrid HDD technology in Korea. This time, it’s a 13.3-inch E300-AP75K model, featuring an Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz) processor, a WXGA Fine Bright display, a 2GB of main memory, a DVD SuperMulti burner, an integrated 1.3MP webcam module, a HDMI output, WiFI connectivity, and an ATI Radeon X1250 graphics engine with shared memory. As for the hybrid hard drive, you would get a 160GB of Hybrid HDD, along with a 256MB of Flash memory. And since Windows Vista is the only operating system which fully supports hybrid HDD technology, you can expect this 1.3kg notebook to be loaded with Vista. If interested, €1200 is all you have to pay to purchase one of these.

If you wonder, what is Hybrid HDD anyway? Well, it’s a type of large-buffer computer hard disk drive which is way different than standard hard drives in that it employs a large buffer (up to 1 GB) of non-volatile flash memory to cache data during normal use. By primarily using this large buffer for non-volatile data storage, the platters of the hard drive are at rest almost all of the time, instead of constantly spinning as they are in current hard drives. The benefits include faster speed, decreased power consumption, improved reliability, and a faster boot process.

Measures 61 x 90 x 135mm and weighs 435g, “DZ-HS300A” is the latest camcorder from Hitachi. What make this 1/6-inch CCD camcorder special is that it can record the video in either DVD or its built-in 8G hard drive (up to 3 hours in fine-quality mode). It can also dub the movie from the HDD directly to DVD at 1.5x speed with no PC require.

Other features packed inside this DZ-HS300A Hybrid Camcorder include a 25x optical zoom lens, a 2.7-inch widescreen LCD display with 16:9 aspect ratio, USB 2.0 interface, extra sensory protection drop-proofing system, and 1-second quick start from standby mode. Price will be set at around 699,000 (KRW).

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Here goes, one of the most anticipated product this year, the hybrid Blu-Ray and HD-DVD player from LG Electronics, Super Multi Blue Player (model number: BH100). Scheduled to hit the U.S market in the first quarter of this year, this world’s first dual-format high-definition media player offers the ability to play both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs, eliminating the need of separate units for each format. Old media, such as standard DVD and CD, are supported as well. Still not much detail on the specs, but the player seems to be equipped with a 50GB onboard hard drive. It will be retailed for around $1,199.

“We’ve developed the Super Multi Blue Player to end the confusion caused by the current competition between Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. Customers are no longer forced to choose between the two formats,” said Dr. Hee Gook Lee, president and chief technology officer of LG Electronics.

LG also plans to release GGW-H10N, a Blu-Ray and HD-DVD disc for PC, in the Q1 2007.

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LG has finally gave official announcement regarding its hybrid video player. The model name or brand has not revealed yet, but this cool player will be able to play both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray high-definition video formats. And yes, this would be the first one in the world. So forget about buying a separate player for each media and simply wait for this dual-format disc player from LG to arrive in U.S store in early 2007.

If you plan to attend the upcoming CES 2007 in Las Vegas (January 8-11), be sure to give a visit to LG’s booth and watch the hybrid dual-format player in action.

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Here’s another product you can find at the CES 2007 trade show next week. From Eclipse Solar Gear, this one is a Hybrid Notebook Case, a case for your laptop that comes with an integrated solar charger, an auxiliary battery, and even a built-in thermal cooling solution. The company claimed that the battery can deliver extra juice for laptop and other portable devices, such as cell phones, GPS, or digital audio players. Wow, pretty cool, isn’t it?

The Hybrid Notebook Case will be available in various different sizes and fabrications, including aluminum and water-resistant molded designs.

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The Prius will be priced in China at 288,000 Chinese yuan ($ 35,500). With China’s booming economy the demand for four wheelers has never been more. China is the second largest emitter of Green house gases after the United States.

Toyota plans to start accepting orders over the Internet in advance from December 16, 2005, and has set a sales target of 3,000 units for 2006.

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The FHI system uses a thin 10-kW motor in combination with the 2.0-liter 16-valve twin-scroll turbo engine currently used in the Subaru Legacy to create the Turbo Parallel Hybrid (TPH) powertrain.

The combination of the motor generator and Subaru’s Boxer turbo engine, which is adopting the Miller cycle in this application, creates a motor-assist hybrid (similar in concept to the first generation of Honda IMA) that FHI hopes will provide the performance of the current 2.0 Legacy GT (turbo) while delivering a 20% improvement in fuel consumption.

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M70 hybrid PC notebook is equipped with Pentium M770 (2.13GHz) processor, 1GB of DDR 533MHz RAM, and 100GB HDD. The screen itself is 19″ WSXGA+ (1680×1050) and compatible with HDTV. The laptop supports Wireless LAN as well.

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“We want to launch hybrid cars in China as early as possible,” Atsuyoshi Hyogo, a Honda executive director in charge of the Chinese market, said in a press briefing. The carmaker is considering selling the Civic Hybrid sedan in the rapidly growing economy in Asia.

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The gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, like the new Civic, are hardly profitable so far, and tend to weigh on overall fleet margins. Not just for Honda, but also applied to their other competitors, like Toyota. But according to a spokeswoman, more than half of the orders for the gasoline-only Civic were for the higher-end 1.8GL version, boding well for profitability.

The Civic itself is Honda’s best-selling car after the Accord, and the auto maker is counting on the improved gasoline and hybrid systems to reignite flagging sales of the model.

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