Ahh, the beloved laptop. The gadget that lets you work on your own schedule - as long as you put your 50+ hours of work in first. And the gadget that lets you work wherever you want - as long as you stay inside. Taking work home might not seem like such a drag if you could work out on the back porch (margaritas are optional) and that's really the main consumer appeal of NEC's new Versa DayLite. As an added bonus for anti-Intel pundits, it also uses Transmeta's Crusoe processor. NEC says the Versa DayLite's new illuminated reflective display that lets you work outdoors in broad daylight and still provides the illumination necessary for use at night or indoors. Using a switch on the display panel, you can brighten the reflective display, or adjust the screen setting for indoor lighting levels. The Transmeta Crusoe processor has Code Morphing Software and LongRun Power Management capabilities to match system performance levels with application demands, which is said to lower power consumption and extend battery life. The Versa DayLite weighs 3.3 pounds, is 1.25"es thick, and uses an internal lithium polymer battery. NEC says the Versa DayLite can power everyday applications for 7.5 hours with the illumination turned off, and more than 4 hours with the illumination turned on at maximum screen brightness. A standard configuration of the notebook includes a Transmeta Crusoe 600MHz processor, illuminated reflective 10.4" TFT SVGA display, 128MB, 20GB hard drive, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional (ack), and external USB CD-ROM and diskette drives, for around $2,499. And yes, we know we don't usually cover systems, but this one's got both the Crusoe processor and the (hope it really works) indoor/outdoor display, so we thought you might want to hear about it.