Tech News and Reviews
Archive for January, 2010
Alienware’s M11x netbook gets a base price: $799
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Whoa, Nelly! We learned back at CES that Alienware‘s pretty-much-a-netbook would launch in the Spring for less than a grand, but now we know precisely what the base price will be: $799. The starting MSRP of the M11x was delivered courtesy of the company’s own website, but not in the most straightforward way. If you surf on over to the M11x microsite and view the source, you’ll notice the following blurb tucked within the code:
The Alienware M11x, with over 6.5 hours of battery life and weighing under 4.5 lbs. will start at an amazing $799! Leave it to the folks at Alienware to enable truly mobile performance gaming at an affordable price.
So, a polarizing (albeit vivacious) design, an 11.6-inch display, NVIDIA GT335M switchable graphics and a 6.5 hour battery, all for $799. Shall we sign you up, or what?
Gateway’s DVD-playin’ EC14D netbook spotted in the wild
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Gateway isn’t daring to call its ED14D a netbook — probably because of that built-in DVD optical drive — but there’s nothing outside of that to prove that it’s anything more. That said, it’s easily one of the most intriguing 11.6-inch machines out there, and while it’s not slated to ship for a few more days still, the crew over at Notebook Italia has managed to get their hands on one. Hit up the Source link if you’ve never seen a netbook with an optical drive before, and then hit this link while asking yourself where you were in January of 2009.
Pentax’s Optio I-10 point-and-shoot gets the hands-on treatment
0841 days
by Raymond.J
in Digital Cameras
Pentax managed to turn a few heads with its new batch of retro-styled point-and-shoots, and the folks at Pocket-lint have now already managed to get a hands-on with the top-end model of the lot: the Optio I-10. As you might expect, they seem to have been suitably impressed by the “cute and miniature” design, although they’re quick to point out that this is far from the “hybrid” camera it might appear to be In fact, they say it’s “very light,” which apparently prompted some folks they handed it to to question if it was “even a real camera.” Not exactly the most encouraging sign, but Pocket-lint is promising to say more once it’s had a chance to really put the camera through its paces.
Apple announces iWork for iPad
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Well, it looks like it’s not all just fun and games for Apple’s new iPad — the company has also just announced an edition of its iWork software suite for the device. That, of course, includes versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote that have been “completely reimagined for iPad,” which will be available individually for $9.99 apiece, and are are each basically what you’d expect from iPad versions of the desktop applications. It’s iWork you can touch, if you will.
Don’t miss our hands-on coverage!
The Apple iPad: starting at $499
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After nearly a decade of rumors and speculation, Apple’s finally unveiled the iPad. It’s a half-inch thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds, with a 9.7-inch capacitive touchscreen IPS LCD display, and it’s running a custom 1GHz Apple “A4″ chip developed by the P.A. Semi team, with a 10-hour battery life and a month of standby. It’ll come in 16, 32, and 64GB sizes, and it’s got the expected connectivity: very little. There’s a 30-pin Dock connector, a speaker, a microphone, Bluetooth, 802.11n WiFi and optional 3G, as well as an accelerometer and a compass. There’s also a keyboard dock, which connects underneath in the portrait orientation, support for up to 1024×768 VGA out and 480p composite out through new dock adapter cables, and a camera attachment kit that lets you import photos from your camera over USB or directly through an SD reader. The device is managed by iTunes, just like the iPhone — you sync everything over to your Mac. As expected, it can run iPhone apps — either pixel-for-pixel in a window, or pixel-doubled fullscreen — but developers can also target the new screen size using the updated iPhone OS SDK, which is available today.
iPad has optional keyboard dock, camera connection kit and Apple-designed case
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This whole time we’ve been wondering how we’ll really get any typing done on Apple’s new iPad, and at last we have the answer: an optional keyboard dock! No word on price yet, or whether this will be available at launch — we’d say “eat your heart out, netbooks” but we won’t, because they shouldn’t. In even better news, however, the device will also work with standard Bluetooth keyboards like Apple’s own wireless QWERTY slabs. Additionally, Apple will be selling a “camera connection kit” to allow you to plug your camera in over USB or use an SD card to import pictures. Finally, there’s an Apple-built case for the device that protects the screen, but also doubles as a stand in two different orientations.
iPad vs. iPhone: what does 3G cost you?
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With the announcement that the iPad would continue Apple’s often-rocky relationship with AT&T to serve up wide-area data, we wanted to know: exactly what does an iPad cost you over the course of a couple years? Granted, the iPad doesn’t support voice calling — nor does it require a contract, unlike the iPhone — but for anyone who uses an iPhone primarily for browsing and gaming, this could make for a serviceable alternative that saves money over the long term. Follow the break for the full rundown.
iPad or Kindle: will our wallets decide?
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In quite a few ways, Apple’s iPad and iBooks announcement today was a shot across the bow of Amazon’s Kindle. Sure, Apple played nice, even saying that Amazon has done a “great job of pioneering” the e-book space, but you can’t help but think that Apple thinks of itself as the evolution of the Kindle, not mere competition. Steve Jobs says that Apple is going to “stand on their shoulders,” and that doesn’t sound quite as benign as perhaps he meant it. So, how do the devices stack up, specifically as book consuming devices? Well, for starters, one of these things costs a whole lot more than the other… let’s break it down after the break.
Apple iPad’s user interface in pictures
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The Apple iPad won’t be out for another 60 long days for us mere mortals, so we’ve got our hands on its SDK — it’s the next best thing for now, as you can see in the gallery of screenshots below. Strangely, the emulator’s bezel is a tad thinner than the real thing, but we’ll get over it. Enjoy!
Dell Mini 10 with Broadcom Crystal HD Accelerator review
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Michael Dell may not be a fan of netbooks, but you wouldn’t know that from the newest Mini 10. Joining the current Mini 10v, Dell’s completely overhauled the chassis and added Intel’s new Pine Trail processor.But that’s not all: come February the little laptop will be available with Broadcom’s Crystal HD accelerator, which promises full HD playback on a high-res 1366 x 768 display. But does the $425 package rid us of our tireless complaints that Atom can’t handle HD, and does it rival netbooks based on NVIDIA’s Ion platform? And perhaps more importantly, can we count on the Mini 10 to be a valuable member of the growing Pine Trail netbook fraternity when it comes to battery life and ergonomics? Read on to find out!