PC

• Asus Essentio CS5110

  April 9th, 2008 at 3:51:17 PM

   

  This computer sits at 200×290x80 millimeters in size; it only weighs about 3.4kg. It has HDMI out as well as 7.1 audio outputs, so you should be good to go to just plop this in with the rest of your home theater equipment. It has an S/PIDF out for the 7.1 audio and the HDMI comes from that “fully embedded discrete graphics card”. For cooling there is a 2-in-1 thermal module that insulates heat from the cooling fan. Using that cooling process the fan is able to work less keeping the sound output from system operation down to about 23.9dB when idling. So, basically its quiet enough, small enough, attractive enough, and presumably powerful enough to fit right into your home theater system, or act as a really quiet desktop PC, I’m just concerned by how disturbingly similar it is to the designs of the PS3.

   

  

   

   

• Asus Xonar DX soundcard

  March 2nd, 2008 at 11:48:27 AM

   

  Asus is well-known for a lot of things, their soundcards not among them, but that might be about to change. They just recently started manufacturing these little buggers, and I don’t know personally how they sound, but specs wise they seem fairly on par with most of Creative’s offerings. This new Xonar DX utilizes a PCIe card slot and outputs up to 7.1 channels and has a low signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 116dB. That means the SNR is 35 times cleaner than most, if not all, on-board/integrated audio solutions. As for the ever-popular Dolby technologies, its got’em too, here’s the list as follows: Dolby Digital Live, Dolby Headphone, Dolby Virtual Speaker, and Dolby Pro Logic IIx. No word on pricing or availability, but that will come when the card is officially announced at CeBIT.

   

  

   

   

• Corsair DHX technology has high memory speeds

  February 19th, 2008 at 1:28:43 PM

   

  Their new DHX or Dual-Path Heat Xchange technology has allowed them to bump up the speeds of their DDR2 and DDR3 memory. By the end of February they’ll be shipping two 4GB DDR2 kits with the technology, and later this year, 4 new DDR3 kits. The 2 DDR2 kits each have 2 sticks of 2GB each. The first kit is running at 1066MHz or PC2-8500 and the second is running at 1142MHz or PC2-9136. The DDR3 kits will have 2GB modules running at 2000MHz or PC3-16000. The DDR3 kits will be shipping by the end of this quarter and will be from Corsair’s DOMINATOR line. No word on price or availability right now.

   

  

   

   

• Audiophile Networked Media Center with HD and Blu-Ray Playback

  December 18th, 2007 at 1:06:34 PM

  The made ready home media center solution is getting quite popular these days with the predominant of Ipod, digital imagines, streaming video and media in a networked environment. Passive Technology presents the true meaning of one box solution with LifeStation hd. Packed with latest AV technology in a handcrafted passive cooling aluminum case, LifeStation not only provides you both HD-DVD and Blue-Ray playback; it also reprocesses all sources to full scale of 1080p output

   

  

   

   

• ASUS Eee PC most wanted gift

  November 24th, 2007 at 7:20:24 PM

   

  According to C-Net and the sales from Amazon, the ASUS Eee is the must have gadget of the year. Not the iPod Touch, not the iPhone, the Asus Eee. In fact, its pretty much sold out everywhere you go. Even school corporations are buying them for use in the classroom, which they are perfect for, they don’t have hardware that’s powerful enough to allow the teachers or the students to FUBAR things, but they have just enough hardware for it to act a lot like a portable thin client if you wanted.

  

   

   

• OCZ partners with NVIDIA to release SLI Certified memory

  October 13th, 2007 at 4:20:57 PM

   

  It’s a 4GB RAM kit with a pair of 2GB PC2 6400 DDR2 sticks of RAM. They also have NVIDIA EPP. EPP stands for Enhanced Performance Profiles and is built into the RAM chips so that they work far better with nVidia’s nForce SLI-based motherboards. They operate at a mere 800MHz which is kind of said with all the new chipsets offering an FSB of 1333MHz and GeIL offering up DDR3 modules that operate at the same speed. These chips work with 5-4-4 timing, and they are 4GB worth of Dual-Channel RAM so they will still perform pretty great. The nVidia logos on the side of each stick make them look pretty cool too, no work on availability or price, but I wouldn’t expect them to be cheap, mainly because its 4GB of DDR2.

   

  

   

   

• Seagate Momentus 5400 PSD

  October 8th, 2007 at 8:37:40 PM

   

  Hybrid hard drives from Seagate are all the new rage. So you can’t afford an SSD drive for your laptop and the power loss from a traditional HDD is killing your battery life, what can you do? Well Seagate has come up with a compromise, a hard drive that has some flash storage but the large majority of the storage is on a standard HDD. I think they could do a slight better job by adding about 4GB of high speed flash storage to a drive and allowing it to be addressed as a separate drive so you can install your OS on it, use it for ReadyBoost, or just assign it as the page file, but that’s just me. Seagate has been in this business a lot longer than I have so they probably know better what the market will support and what’s necessary and compatible with today’s hardware and software. But the 256MB that this system offers up is sufficient for now and should reduce power usage as well as speed up boot times.

   

  

   

   

• Freecom USBCard is Credit Card-like Slim

  October 8th, 2007 at 10:45:08 AM

   

  Freecom’s USBCard is not the first USB drive we’ve seen in a credit card form factor, but somehow the USBCard is looking extra, extra skinny. Freecom claims that the USBcard is the world’s slimmest USB flash memory device, while we’re not sure that we believe them, we do like that you can slip it unobtrusively in to your wallet and that the USB connector clicks inside the card. The device also comes with password protection and encryption software. The USBcard is available in capacities ranging from 256MB to 4GB, with the 4GB version retailing for 69,99 EUR. del.icio.us:Freecom USBCard is Credit Card-like Slimdigg:Freecom USBCard is Credit Card-like Slimfurl:Freecom USBCard is Credit Card-like Slimreddit:Freecom USBCard is Credit Card-like Slimblogmarks:Freecom USBCard is Credit Card-like SlimY!:Freecom USBCard is Credit Card-like Slim

   

   

   

   

• What a Mac Nano?

  October 8th, 2007 at 10:34:39 AM

   

  We’ve heard rumors in the past about Apple killing off the Mac mini, however, Apple hasn’t actually made any moves in that direction thus far. Those rumors are making their rounds again, only this time there is mention of a successor to the tiniest of Macs. The rumors are indicating that by the end of October the Mac mini will be officially dead. To take its place will be the Mac nano. As the name suggests, this new Mac would be much smaller than the current mini. It would only be tall and wide enough to accommodate a hard drive and optical drive. It would be roughly 2/3 the hight of the mini. The end of October will be here before you know it, so we shouldn’t have long to wait before we know how much truth this rumor contains. We’ve been hearing about an ultraportable MacBook for ages without actually seeing anything, so I’m not putting a lot of faith behind this one.

   

  

   

   

• ASUS add WiFi-N, quick-boot Linux to P5E3 motherboard

  September 26th, 2007 at 10:36:57 PM

   

  In ye olden days your motherboard was made of cheese and was really just a place for the RAM to sleep; now you can’t move inside a computer without bumping into dual-channels, PCI-express slots and random little surface-mounted chips with their own tiny fans. ASUS have stepped up the game (if the game you’re playing is “build a complicated circuitboard”) with their P5E3 Deluxe WiFi-AP@n motherboard, which not only boasts such niceties as Intel’s X38 chipset, Dual PCI Express 2.0 x16 lanes and support for DDR3 1800MHz dual-channel memory, but integrated 802.11N wireless and embedded Linux. That last part is perhaps the most interesting; ASUS are calling it Express Gate, but it’s basically a fast-boot alternative that, in just five seconds, bypasses Windows and gives you a web-browser running in a custom Linux OS. They’re also proud of “third generation 8-phase power design” which apparently leads to 95-percent power efficiency compared to rivals; coupled with the hardware-based CPU current throttling (that can cut up to 58.6-percent of the CPU power when it recognises you’re not really using full capacity) it seems you can finally have a kick-ass motherboard without a kick-in-the-guts electricity bill.

   

  

   

   

• Sidekick to get streamlined MySpace app

  September 20th, 2007 at 7:22:59 PM

   

  If you’re driving yourself crazy counting down the hours until T-Mobile release the next-gen Sidekicks, then maybe you could do with the almighty distraction (and hunting ground for emo kids, new bands and any sexual predators that have managed to escape the regular security sweeps) of MySpace. Now that Helio no longer have the exclusive contract for the ridiculously popular social networking site on mobile handsets, apps have been springing up all over; T-Mobile may have taken a little longer than some rivals, but their implementation looks to be a good one.

   

  

   

   

• Sans Digital MN2L NAS sports iTunes support

  September 15th, 2007 at 7:45:46 PM

   

  There are 2 sata drive bays, an a Mac-like design to the device. On top of that there is USB 2.0 support and gigabit Ethernet with FTP support. Not too terribly big of a deal, but the iTunes support is what tops it all off. I gather that what it does is dupe iTunes into thinking it is actually another entire PC so iTunes will stream music from it. The diskless version of the MN2L is available right now for $299. They offer versions with various drives in them which drive up the price according to the drive(s) you have installed. It looks nice and all, but unless you are going to make use of the iTunes feature, $299 is a bit steep for an NAS with only two drive bays.

   

  

   

   

• iPAQ Returns

  September 6th, 2007 at 11:41:59 PM

   

  Just when I had decided that nothing remotely interesting would ever appear under the HP banner again, they went and released a whole suite of devices. Other than the iPAQ 210 with its 4″ screen (is it just me, or does it kind of resemble the Axim x50?), I don’t really see anything trying to replicate what HP got right in the past, and of course it’s still early yet. But I must say that these newest designs seem to be a step in the right direction. What do you all think? Has the HP PDA gone the way of the dodo? Or are you willing to try another iPAQ?

   

  

   

   

   

• Wacom Intuos3 Special Edition

  September 6th, 2007 at 11:36:07 PM

   

  The Intuos3 Special Edition pen tablet will come in sizes of 6×8, 6×11 and 9×12. You’ll get to choose between the classic Wacom Pen or their Intuos3 Grip Pen, each is included in the box. Each also includes a “Professional Accessory Kit” which has a collection of different nibs and grips to customize your pen. These Intuos3 Special Edition tablets will set you back $370, $410 or $500 depending on the size you get and they will be released on September 27th.

   

  

   

   

• Brighton Net Microphone

  September 3rd, 2007 at 11:30:47 AM

   

  This microphone measures at 23×22mm and I am sure one of those dimensions is skewed by the length of the microphone’s male adapter. For those trying to pack light, this wonderful little gadget will add a mere four grams of weight. Sure, a microphone this small, and with its omni directional microphone could be used to spy, but no one would dare do something like that right? Besides, the Bright Net super mini-microphone is best suited for use with one of the many online voice chatting programs such as Skype.

   

  

   

   

• IronKey USB Drive - Cool Gadget!

  September 3rd, 2007 at 11:17:05 AM

   

  The Ironkey is by far one of the coolest flash drives I’ve ever seen. Looking at it doesn’t really give you the feeling of “coolest thing ever,” but remember, beauty is only skin deep. This military-grade drive is encrypted with the passwords stored in a separate hardware-encrypted area of the drive’s memory. It’s first locally encrypted with 256-bit AES with randomly generated keys encrypted with a SHA-256 hash. Then everything is encrypted again with 128-bit AES hardware encryption. If you don’t know what all of that stands for, it means that it’s going to be a bitch to hack. If someone is really determined, they could always pop the case off and access the memory chips. What about the old-fashioned method of just guessing someone’s password? That’s where it gets really fun. If you enter more than 10 incorrect passwords in a row, the encryption chip will actually self-destruct. That means no one’s getting into the memory, ever. Just don’t tell your friends that it’ll do this, or they’ll be eager to put that feature to the test.

   

  

   

   

• HP Virtus - New from HP!

  August 31st, 2007 at 1:29:51 PM

   

  Since HP acquired Voodoo we really haven’t seen anything exciting come out of it. HP is still selling the same old PCs, and Voodoo keeps doing what they’re good at. However, this new HP desktop looks like it may have some influence from the guys at Voodoo. The Virtus is for now, a mystery. This is such because we currently only have pictures and a name, no official specs. The most notable feature of this system is that it is sexy.

   

  

   

   

• 32GB SDHC cards from Toshiba

  August 22nd, 2007 at 7:46:43 PM

   

  Do you take a lot of pictures on your camera? We’re talking thousands of pictures between downloads. I’m guessing that you don’t, but that’s ok. I’m sure that you’ll find plenty of other uses for these massive SD cards from Toshiba. Toshiba just announced the launch of 16GB and 32GB “class 4” SDHC cards as well as an 8GB microSDHC card. You have to admit that Toshiba has really been stepping it up in the realm of storage. Yesterday they announced their 320GB 2.5” drives and 200GB 2.5” drives spinning at 7200RPM. You’re going to need to dig deep if you’re going to afford these new cards. You’re looking at paying around $700 for the 32GB, half that for the 16GB, and $175 for the 8GB microSDHC.

   

   

• Kingston's Practical MobileLite 9-in-1 Card Reader Package

  July 28th, 2007 at 11:33:32 AM

   

  When it comes to gadgets and accessories, we believe that if you can kill two birds with one stone successfully, then why not. Kingston has a MobileLite USB 2.0 9-in-1 Reader that comes bundled with either a 1GB or 2GB SD card. With the 1GB version retailing for $29.99. So there you have it - you get a useful portable USB 9 in 1 reader that supports the most popular card formats, and you get a SD card, so that the card reader ends up serving as a sort of USB key as well. We just love being practical. (Source: Laptop Magazine, August ‘07)

   

  

   

   

• USB drives and earbud covered in Swarovski crystals

  July 28th, 2007 at 11:26:12 AM

   

   

  If you simply must have something else covered in Swarovski crystals to go with your Pirate Watch, then you might check out the offspring of Phillips and Swarovski’s partnership.Their new line is called Active Crystals, and they feature a few different things ranging from earbuds to USB drives. As with anything that involves Swarovski crystals, they all look a bit over-the-top. I’m sure there are people out there that are just dying to see the latest thing coated in these crystals, so these are just for you.