As a notebook aficionado, you know how pleased I was to hear about the new Seagate 160 GB notebook hard drive. Now, it's emerged that Acer and Asustek Computer may launch notebooks that include the drive some time soon. The two companies are in talks with Seagate Taiwan over using the devices in their new laptop systems. The new HDD runs at 5,400 RPM and has a 4,200-rpm power efficiency mode to extend battery life.

Daven Chiang, Seagate general manager and director of Sales & Marketing for Taiwan, noted that designs for mainstream 2.5-inch HDDs in 2006 will be developed to feature perpendicular recording capability and a serial ATA (SATA) interface. Meanwhile, 2.5-inch HDDs with 100-120GB of capacity will overtake 60-80GB ones as the mainstream segment in 2006, according to Chiang.