My laptop is one year old but I'm open to presents with ten hour batteries! It probably doesn't have any CD/DVD drive and only one USB but I think I could manage. Hint hint...

Gateway Inc. unveiled a new notebook computer with 10 hours or more of battery life.

The Irvine, Calif., company said Thursday the M460 notebook, weighing in at less than six pounds for the lightest model, provides four to seven hours of battery life on a single charge with one lithium battery.

A modular "hot-swap bay" allows the addition of a second six-cell battery which, when used with a 12-cell primary battery, delivers the 10 hours or more of power. The laptop is less than 1 1/2 inches thick, and comes with either a 15.4-inch or 15-inch display, the company said.

Prices start at around $900 for a machine with an Intel Celeron-M processor, 256 megabytes of memory and a 40-gigabyte hard drive.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-10-05 1303ET