Laptop Thoughts: News & Reviews on Laptops, Netbooks, Slates, and More.

If you're a power user who has ever done overclocking, you've no doubt spent hours in your system BIOS tweaking settings and reminiscing on the early '90s when we were still using DOS. The computer BIOS hasn't significantly changed in well over a decade - some might say two decades - but, finally, the old BIOS as you knew it is dead. Long live UEFI!

"Those people are part of the UEFI Forum which is working on a replacement for BIOS, that screen you see when you first turn on your computer, which among other things should boot your computer into Windows in seconds rather than a minute and a half."

UEFI has been in the news before, and it still promises faster boot times, but this time it seems they are also promising commercial reality in the coming year. I welcome any way to speed up computer systems, but a large part of it seems focused on boot times. There is very little said about whether UEFI offers significant improvements recovering from sleep or hibernation mode, both of which I find people are using more frequently. The pipe dream that our desktop and notebook computers could one day offer instant access like what we see with our smartphones may still be a ways away.

"Sony has issued a software fix to prevent a recent batch of Vaio laptops from overheating. Over 500,000 new laptops could be affected by the problem, in what could well turn out to be a PR disaster for the consumer electronics giant."

Sony Vaio owners continue to be plagued by overheating problems. After the massive battery recall of 2006, estimated to have cost Sony $250 million, the latest problem impacts about a half million laptops. Sony has issued a software fix that updates the system BIOS. ( Link )