Sony’s expensive VAIO Z Series is enough to send anyone weak at the knees, but today sees an equally slender stablemate vying for our affections. The VAIO T Series is Sony’s very first Ultrabook.

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It’s not often the torture testing behind the latest laptops is laid bare for the world to see but, at HP’s Global Influencers Summit in Shanghai, the firm showed off a selection of its toughest testing kit — as well as some impressive statistics about the stresses and strains its devices experience during the design process.

“All of our EliteBook products are put through military spec 810G testing,” explained Carol Hess, HP’s vice president for worldwide commercial PC marketing. That includes the new EliteBook Folio, and that means an extremely strenuous workout for a humble notebook. She said HP uses eight of the 810G standards benchmarks,  including tests that measure for heat, cold, humidity and dust resistance as well as a laptop’s ability to handle vibrations and drops. “We drop [laptops] about 30 inches from a table, 26 times on each side of the unit.” Read more

I’m encouraged by reports that Microsoft has been working to improve multi-monitor support in the Release Preview of Windows 8. Admittedly, the information emerged in a rather strange way: it was published on Tuesday night on the MSDN “Building Windows 8” blog, then rapidly removed again for reasons unknown. But there’s no reason to doubt the details – after all, they came from an impeccable source, namely Microsoft’s Mark Yalovsky.

I’m encouraged by this, not because I think multi-monitor support was an area that urgently needed improvement. I’m using the Consumer Preview with two monitors right now, and frankly it’s not causing me any trouble.

Rather, I’m heartened because the now-deleted post presented the changes as a direct response to “vocal and clear” feedback from users. This implies that, as Microsoft continues to refine and develop Windows 8, it’s listening to the buzz around the Consumer Preview, and tacking accordingly. And this raises the possibility that it might also be listening to feedback regarding the Metro Start screen on desktop systems. Read more

If you’ve been reading the newspaper headlines yesterday and today, you could be forgiven for thinking that TalkTalk has suddenly taken strident measures to block online pornography from children’s sensitive eyes.

The Sunday Times dramatically describes the ISP as having “broken ranks” with its fellow ISPs by offering “all its 4m subscribers a blanket opt-out for pornography sites” and forcing all existing users — rather than only new customers — to say whether or not they want the service (I’ll leave it to you whether that’s opting in or opting out). “TalkTalk is offering parents protection for every computer, games console or e-reader accessing the internet via the family broadband connection.”

Following the Times’ lead, Channel 4 proclaims: “TalkTalk now plans to question all of its 4.2m customers, forcing them to choose whether to use settings that would block information on computers, mobile phones, games consoles and e-readers.”

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Pop quiz, hotshot. Of all the visitors to this website in the month of writing, what percentage arrived using 1,920 x 1,080, Full HD screens? Make yourself a cuppa and have a think, we’ll come back to the answer later.

In the meantime, you’ll no doubt have noticed we reviewed the new iPad last month. As is customary, it attracted all sorts of negative reports at launch, from teardowns showing it’s the most tightly sealed, least recyclable iPad yet, right up to Daily Mail hysteria about it burning people’s hands. But there’s one feature no-one in their right mind was criticising: the screen.

Love or hate Apple’s methods, few can deny that its products drive technological progress. When Apple first introduced the Retina display on the iPhone 4, minds were set racing as to where this would eventually take us: if high-pixel-density displays were viable on a mobile phone, with Apple’s huge economies of scale, how long before they’d spread upwards? Read more

HP’s Global Influencers Summit in Shanghai has been dominated by Ultrabooks – and, of course, Sleekbooks – but the firm’s fourth new laptop is one of the most intriguing.

It’s the Elitebook Folio 9470m, and HP hopes that on release in October it’ll entice high-flying executives with its combination of corporate features and attractive design.

For starters, there’s TPM, Intel vPro and a range of HP software, including a customisable BIOS – handy for IT managers who want to restrict access to certain parts of the software or, indeed, lock out meddling employees entirely. HP will also install its ProtectTools software suite alongside Windows 7 Professional, and a fingerprint reader is also an optional extra. Read more

Normally an all-in-one printer wouldn’t draw crowds, but HP’s latest – the OfficeJet 150 – is a little different. While it offers the print, copy and scan functions you’d expect from a multifunction machine, this one is barely a foot wide – and weighs only 3kg.

HP is billing the OfficeJet 150 as a portable all-in-one for busy business folk and, while it’s certainly not as light or mobile as the average laptop or tablet, we can easily see it being kept on the back seat of a car or in a backpack.

The clever design sees the paper tray folds up from the top of the machine, and beneath that lies a horizontal panel that, once lifted and locked into place, reveals a small colour touchscreen LCD. Read more

HP has added to its laptop range with a pair of devices that straddle the line between Ultrabooks and traditional laptops.

They’re both Envy branded models, with the smaller Envy 4 boasting a 14in screen and the larger Envy 6 including a 15.6in panel. On the outside, at least, both devices just about provide the dimensions we’re used to seeing from Ultrabooks: the smaller of the two is 20mm thick and weighs in at 1.8kg, with the latter barely any thicker and only a little heavier.

It’s on the inside where HP has made most of its changes. The Envy 4 and 6 Ultrabooks include Intel processors, but the model we’ve sampled deployed a Core i3-2367M – a relatively modest chip and, crucially, a Sandy rather than Ivy Bridge part. HP assured us that Ivy Bridge models will also be available. Read more

HP has unveiled its latest range of Ultrabooks at its Global Influencer Summit in Shanghai.

Leading the charge is the Spectre XT, which slots into the firm’s offering just beneath the Envy 14 Spectre, and it makes an excellent first impression. It’s only 15mm thick and weighs 1.4kg, which brings it into line with the best Ultrabooks around, including the Dell XPS 13 and Asus ZenBoook UX31 – and that also means it’s almost half a kilo lighter than the original Spectre.

There’s no denying the Spectre XT is a good-looking laptop. The lid and wrist-rest are both constructed from brushed metal, the screen is surrounded by a slick black bezel, and the base is red to signify the inclusion of Beats audio. Read more

Only one smartphone is capable of generating the sort of publicity the iPhone can right now, and that’s Samsung’s Galaxy S III. That phone was unveiled at a glitzy launch event at London’s Earls Court Exhibition Centre.

Anyone hoping for a groundbreaking step forward in terms of its hardware, however, might be disappointed. There are no great surprises.

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