Tech News and Reviews
Archive for April, 2010
Archos 7 Home Tablet up for pre-order, could ship first week of April
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The first week of April is going to be a good one for prospective tablet owners. If a certain highly talked-about slate isn’t to your liking, it seems that Archos 7 Home Tablet we spent some time with earlier this month will soon be making its debut as well. Both Redcoon.de (“usually ships in two weeks”) and Amazon.de (“soon”) have the 8GB model available for pre-order, for €180 and €200 (or about $240 and $270) respectively. Not the most stunning hardware, to be sure, but for less than $300 you can’t really complain. Hit the source link to see for yourself.
Updated: We heard from Archos and it plans to launch the the 7 Home Tablet here in the US at the end of April.
Toshiba K01 goes official as IS02 in Japan
0778 days
by Arlene.L
in Cellphones
Talk about a globetrotter. Toshiba’s K01 has made the journey from the American FCC to a Japanese carrier in the space of just one day. AU, part of the KDDI group and one of Japan’s big three network operators, has picked up the phone and promptly renamed it the IS02. Coming with a 1GHz Snapdragon core, a 4.1-inch capacitive touchscreen of the AMOLED variety, and that indispensable (for some) QWERTY keyboard, this WinMo 6.5 handset will be available to our Japanese comrades in the latter part of June this year. Given the long waiting times both for this and its brandmate, the IS01, we have to wonder what’s up with Japanese carriers. Have they developed an aversion to the cutting edge or what?
Dell Precision M4500 now shipping with $1,549 starting price
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With specs and prices easily reaching into the stratosphere, we weren’t quite sure where Dell’s new 15-inch Precision M4500 workstation would land — the 17-inch M6500 has a starting price of $1,799, but that’s only after $310 of “instant savings.” Well, it looks like we’re getting off (relatively) easy with the M4500, with a Core i5-520M 2.5GHz model running for $1,549 and still managing to pack in those NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M Graphics. Of course, we imagine you’ll quickly be running up that bill — 2GB of slow RAM, a 1366 x 768 LCD, and no WiFi just aren’t going to cut it — but with tempting options like a secondary 64GB SSD minicard drive and the ever-frivolous Precision ON, it’s not like we were sticking near that base price anyway. Expect to spec out something truly delicious in the $2,500+ range. Our biggest disappointment? Backlit keyboard is optional, something that’s standard even on the Vostro line these days.
Lenovo ThinkPad X100e review
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Ever since we first met Lenovo’s ThinkPad X100e at CES we’ve had it on a virtual pedestal as the perfect solution between a netbook and a larger 13- or 14-inch ULV ultraportable. That’s because in addition to carrying the renowned ThinkPad brand, its AMD Neo processor / ATI graphics combo promise more power than the typical Intel Atom N450-powered netbook, and with an 11.6-inch screen the chassis can accommodate a wider keyboard and touchpad. Sounds like the perfect mobile computer, right? Unfortunately, there are two things that hold the $549 X100e from being all we wanted it be. Thought we were going to give it up that easily? Pssh. Hit that read more link for the full review.
ASUS’s 20-inch ET2010 EeeTop models with Ion power detailed
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We’ve been hearing about the ET2010 model since CES, then got another glimpse at CeBIT a few weeks ago, and now the all-in-one machine is making its international debut — and ASUS has more than one to share with us. The five models range from the ET2010AG, with an AMD Athlon II processor, up to the ET2010PNT, with an Atom D510. All models have a 20-inch, 1600 x 900 displays, but only two of them sport multitouch. Storage ranges from 160GB to 500GB, 1 or 2GB of RAM is available, and graphics options include an integrated Intel GMA chipset, ATI’s Radeon HD 5470, or, most interestingly, Ion 2 graphics in the two Atom-powered options. All offer a DVD drive and all sport the same, wall-mountable and 1-inch thick design. What we don’t know is when these will be shipping or how much they’ll cost, but you’ll surely be the first to hear after we do.
Canon Rebel T2i / 550D receives plaudit-heavy reviews
0778 days
by Arlene.L
in Digital Cameras
We’ve seen plenty of the headline 1080p / 30fps video mode on the Rebel T2i, but what’s been missing till now are the equally comprehensive reviews of this new 18 megapixel shooter‘s other talents. Starting off with image quality — still the bread and butter of any DSLR — Camera Labs informs us that “the EOS 550D / T2i delivered images which were essentially the same as those from the EOS 7D,” describing them as highly detailed and exhibiting no greater noise than can be found on Nikon’s 12 megapixel competitors. An impressive feat, you will agree. Further appreciation is meted out for the newly improved LCD screen on the back, whose 3:2 ratio matches the sensor’s dimensions, but there’s also warning that the 7D retains a significant advantage in terms of ergonomics, weatherproofing, continuous burst mode, and autofocus. Even so, both reviews were happy to pin their “highly recommended” badges on the T2i, and you can discover the more nuanced reasons for doing so at the source links below.
Leica M9 hands-on; or, The Tao of Leica
0778 days
by Arlene.L
in Digital Cameras
For most amateur photographers, Leica’s legendary M System represents a virtually unobtainable holy grail, a line of cameras so unspeakably expensive, rare, and coveted that even having the opportunity to hold one — much less own one — is a somewhat unrealistic goal. Why is that, exactly? It’s a combination of things, really; sure, Leica’s brand cachet undoubtedly factors into it, but in reality, it’s much, much more than that. For our money, nothing demonstrates that better than a day or two with the M9, the company’s latest flagship rangefinder with an 18 megapixel CCD sensor sourced from Kodak.
And what, exactly, does it feel like to carry $11,695 worth of rangefinder body and lens around? Follow the break.
64GB Zune HD launching April 12th for $350, current models reduced $20
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Let’s just be nice and feign surprise, okay? Good. With that out of the way, Microsoft has announced a 64GB version of Zune HD, due out April 12th via the Zune online store (and later via other retailers) with a handful of color options and a strapping $349.99 price tag. Not to be outdone, the 16GB and 32GB will each receive a $20 cut on the MSRP, to $200 and $270, respectively — whatever Amazon and Newegg slash beyond that is up to them. It seems “as soon as possible” is the motto for when the price drop is taking place, so if your favorite online / brick-and-mortar retailer isn’t yet honoring the extra Andrew Jackson in your pocket, have patience. So now we’re left with a v4.5 firmware release date as the remaining piece in this puzzle, but Microsoft promises to solve that riddle wrapped in an enigma “in the coming days.” Right. Press release after the break.
ASUS Eee PC 1001PX has a thing for carbon-fiber, starts at $279
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We won’t detail our murderous wrath for glossy netbooks, but we will tell you that ASUS is on our good side today by striking the shiny lid on its newest 10-inch Eee PC 1001PX in exchange for a carbon fiber-like replacement. The little guy boasts the same specs as the budget Eee PC 1001P — an Intel Atom N450 CPU, 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive — and will be available in the US in May. And if you had any doubt that ASUS is after Acer’s throat in pricing, we’re told that the Windows 7 Starter model will be priced at an aggressive $299, while the XP version will only set you back a cool $279. In typical ASUS form, we’re hearing word of an Eee PC 1001PG that will fall into this same line, but will be equipped with 4G in most markets and possibly 3G and 4G stateside. Now, if only we had as much information about those brewing Eee Pads…