NEC is back on the scene with a clutch of new products, including a pair of all-in-ones, some notebooks and a color for the frame Lavie Light. Standing in stark contrast to the new Viewsonic all-in-ones, the two additions to the Star Line Value pack a little heat, Intel Core and AMD Athlon processors, generous portions of memory and storage facilities and features such as Blu-ray and digital TV tuner, which are sure to entertain and titillate. The new notebooks Lavie run the gamut from 13.3-to 16-inches, with a Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon processors. In addition to the usual storage and memory options, the 13.3-inch model that sports a LED can be configured by the user to either the time or a line of text. Last but not least, fans of Netbook the boxy LaVie Light have a few more color options – apart from the original black or white, they are pink and blue thrown in the mix.

We do not have much to go, but a machine, the VAIO GS only appeared in the FCC database, along with the usual nasty gub’ment photos. Doing some very rough back-of-the-napkin calculations, it looks like it is Sony’s answer to the Dell Mini 12 – 11 cm wide 12ish with a 4:3-inch screen. We also see an optional integrated optical drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, three USB ports, a PC Card slot (which is what it is selected – let us hope that it really Express Card), a Memory Stick slot, Ethernet and modem ports, and VGA output. We recommend that the optical drive, said the Netbook-ish battery hinge placement, but nothing explains how ugly this thing is – let us hope that the downgrading in the kind of VAIO P comes with a corresponding downgrade in the price. A few more photos after the break.

This could be an updated US-bound version of the Japan-VAIO G until 2006 – when things have not changed too much, are you looking for in a two-pound machine with a 12 ,1-inch display. We’ll see – the exterior is a little different, and we do not believe the market is right for the VAIO G original $ 2000 pricetag.

Intel’s latest and greatest PC Classmate Convertible swung by the FCC end of November, and now it is time for the general population to their paws on one. M x26 A Technology has just announced that she is currently the so-called Touch Wizard for sale to anyone who’s interested in, and is packaged in a 1.6 GHz Atom CPU, 1GB RAM, 60GB hard drive, an 8, 9-inch touch screen, Windows XP Home, 1.3 megapixel camera, Ethernet, WiFi and a 4-cell battery that last for about 3.3 hours. Optionally, you can downgrade to a 30 GB hard drive, add in a 6-cell Li-Ion (for 5 hours of life) and for Linux on WinXP.

Hewlett-Packard, MTV, and AMD a joint announcement that they have decided on a winner for its Engine Room Notebook Design Contest. The award went to Hisako Sakihama, a 27-year-old designer from Japan. As the winner, his design will be the template for the new HP Artist Edition Notebook PC. The Limited Edition notebook comes with the AMD Turion X2 Ultra notebook platform.

When the contest was announced, the company received an overwhelming response. More than 17,000 samples were used for the test in the engine room Notebook Design Contest. The motive was a landscape drawing of the sea and sky in Okinawa.

Regional finalists were from regional creative minds at MTV, art directors at Goodbye, Silverstein x26 Partners, and industrial design manager at HP. The users were then able to focus on the Engine Room website and vote on their favorite design. More than 62,000 votes were cast for the various market participants. You can view all the finalists and the winners at the MTV Engine Room website.