LG XF1 500GB Multimedia HDD

The LG XF1 is a 500 GB "Multimedia HDD" that packs a HDMI-out for quick media playback, and has a slick looking design to boot.

However, the XF1 looks geared towards the mainstream consumer crowd, as it only plays back video at 1080i, and fails to support the h.264 or MKV standards. It does, however, support the AVI, Xvid and MPEG family of codecs, along with all the major audio ones. Price and availability are yet to be announced.

Laptop Monitors

With heavy hitters like Dell, IBM, and Toshiba making laptop computers for less and less these days, is it any wonder that more and more of the populous is making the switch to computers that move just as fast as their users?

The perks of finding a good deal on a laptop are especially evident in these down trodden economic times, but like so many things… all good things must come to an end.

Not in the way of good deals, but rather sooner or later computers begin to wear down, especially with the creation of LCD monitors.

Users that find themselves particularly lucky can sometimes get as long as eight years out of their monitors before requiring repair, however those that aren’t as fortunate sometimes get as little as two years out of their machines before needing maintenance.

In steps the replacement LCD screen.

Starting at just $149.99, replacements can be a far better economic value for consumers than buying a new computer outright, and this can extend the life of a users machine, to maximize utility.

Using part number: B154EW01 as your reference you can access nearly three dozen top name replacement screens for most major brands including Toshiba, Compaq, Gateway, and Samsung.

Visit any major maker of laptops and compare the savings to that of new computer Sony, HP, or Dell.

Even on low end models the money saved can easily extend into the $300-400 range, making consumers all the smarter for making a thrifty buy.

Most availability is limited to 15.4 inch screens, but that is also one of the most commonly produced sizes for laptop monitors.

So unless you’ve made it a point to buy an especially large screen, or an especially small one, the fit and the savings should work perfectly.

Things to consider before making a purchase: it is ideal, and in many cases necessary to buy the replacement that is specific to your computer, so make sure you have the right make i.e. Dell, Samsung, Compaq, etc… and then the model number such as NX4000, M35, C1300D, and the screen size.

There is a good likelihood that the screen you need will fit many models, and this helps keep your replacement costs down. Many of the aforementioned Web sites can help you select your make and model if you don’t already know it.

In addition each of the replacements you can get here are new and come with their own one year warranty, so there is no need to worry about the very thing that made you buy a replacement in the first place.

About The Author

Jack Edmund is a blogger for the laptop battery and accessories retailer PriorityElectronics.com. His interests include kayaking, bird watching, and technology.

USB 3.0 vs FireWire 3200

This is a guest article from laptopical.com a site dedicated to laptop reviews. Check out their special section about cheap laptops next time you’re thinking of making a laptop purchase.

The first update to the USB specification in eight years has arrived in the form of USB 3.0, and it’s all everyone is talking about. And given that it boasts a tenfold transfer speed increase, why shouldn’t they? Unfortunately, many of those reporting are quick to call it the death of FireWire 800, but don’t mention that the FireWire people have an update of their own to brag about in the form of FireWire 3200. Both standards have already been ratified and both have a lot going for them. So which specification should you choose?

With a possible transfer rate of 4.8Gbps (gigabits per second), USB 3.0 is theoretically the much faster specification. The designers have also gone to lengths to improve the power efficiency as well as power output, meaning you will be able to plug it into your computers with less of a power draw (especially important for laptops) as well as be able to charge devices faster and power more devices solely through USB. They have also ensured that USB 3.0 is backwards compatible with old version of USB. Although your USB 2.0 hardware will never achieve USB 3.0 speeds, you can still at least use the same cables and devices without changing anything.

FireWire 3200 promises a lower transfer rate of 3.2 Gbps, but boats that its P2P architecture will deliver 97% of the theoretical rate, a number that is much higher that the master/slave architecture of USB is expected to produce. As a result, it’s possible that in real world usage FireWire may actually be faster, regardless of the fact that it isn’t on paper. As far as power output, despite the improvements made by USB, FireWire still maintains an edge. It can produce more power and will therefore be more capable when it comes to charging items or running them directly. The designers have also made FireWire 3200 backwards compatible with FireWire 800, and as an added bonus you can plug a FireWire 3200 cable/device into your old FireWire 800 port and still get the full transfer rate of 3.2 Gbps.

To be honest, the jump from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 is impressive. But it’s important to remember that if it’s more impressive than the jump from FireWire 800 to FireWire 3200, it’s only because USB had that much more ground to make up. Despite all the gains of the new USB, FireWire still maintains a technical edge in power management, hardware compatibility, and potentially even the actual transfer rate. With all this going for it, why would anyone choose USB? The answer reminds me a lot of the difference between Apple, which has long endorsed FireWire, and Microsoft, whose machines have long supported USB. And the reason is that USB is less expensive, more available, and perfectly functional. USB 3.0 will make things easier for the vast majority of the computing world which relies on it to transfer data, but it is important to note that FireWire 3200 is impressive too. Even though Apple may have seemed to take a step away when it failed to include FireWire in the new MacBook, for the right people and the right tasks, FireWire can and should still be the specification of choice.

HP Touchsmart IQ816 brings Bigger Screen, Blu-ray drive

HP's Touchsmart all-in-one, was a pretty good PC, and now it got a few more additions that sweeten the deal. The new features that the Touchsmart IQ816 will come with are a 25.5-inch LCD, Blu-ray drive and VESA wall mount capability.

Among other features, there's a drive bay for HP's Pocket Drive line of portable hard drives, an NVIDIA GeForce 9600M video card. There's also this multi-color light that illuminates the space under the computer for the keyboard. Apart from that, the technical specifications and the touchscreen technology remain the same.

The Touchsmart IQ804 will also be available. The only difference between the two will be that the IQ804 will not come with the Blu-ray drive and NVIDIA 9600M.

The Touchsmart IQ816 will cost around $2100 and will ship on October 12, while the IQ804 will weigh at $1900 and will be available on September 21.

Linksys WRT610N Dual N-Band Wireless Router

Linksys' Dual-N Band Wireless Router just became official, giving users simultaneous 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands so 802.11N users and 802.11G users can coexist without N users having to use the crowded 2.4GHz space. Also, since it's dual N-band, two N users can connect (one to each frequency) without interfering with the other. It's styled in Linksys' new form factor, which helps emphasize that Linksys is more for consumers (especially compared to their parent company Cisco).

The Price: $199 MSRP.

Dell XPS 730 H2C

The Dell XPS 730 H2C is Dell's highest-performing consumer PC ever. It comes with the usual gaming rig accoutrements: lighted windowed case, hulking chassis, overclocked quad-core processor, latest technology, and dual-card graphics. Since each ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 card has two GPUs on it, this is really a quad-GPU gaming leviathan. At this price level, however, only high-end gamers with deep pockets need apply. It yielded some of the better gaming performance I've seen lately, but for the time being you're really buying a system with future-proofing built in. You can get this thing for $6,629 direct.

Dell XPS M1530: Newcomer in the XPS series

After the XPS M1330 and XPS M1730, Dell has brought out the XPS M1530 to expand it's XPS range. The Dell XPS M1530 maintains the same metallic finish and stylish chassis that made the M1330 so adorable. The system is optimal for workaholics who bind themselves to their work place and for home theater fanatics who fancy things like luxury hardware.

The M1530 can be considered as a desktop replacement while still being light enough for short trips at 6.2 pounds—and that's with a nine-cell, 85-Wh battery. With a standard six-cell battery reducing the system's weight to 5.9 pounds, it becomes less of a burden. The XPS M1530 is sleek and is available in three colors: Tuxedo Black, Alpine White, and Crimson Red.

Unlike the XPS M1330, the M1530 doesn't provide you with an option for an LED screen. (LED options will be available early this year). The benefits of LEDs include slimmer profiles and long-lived battery life. The fluorescent lighting in the M1530's screen adds to the overall thickness of the system; it doesn't, however, take anything away from its brightness or quality of the viewing experience. It offers you a resolution of 1,440-by-900.

The M1530 is one of the first notebooks ever to sport a slot-loading (not a tray-ejecting) Blu-ray burner. With all the Blu-ray movies popping up lately, the 15.4-inch widescreen is more than capable of accommodating a decent high-definition experience. This system has three USB ports and a single Firewire post. There's also an HDMI-out port that'll let you run a cable over to a larger display, so you can view your Blu-ray content n your big-screen HDTV. You'll need to purchase a separate HDMI cable, though. The 2-megapixel webcam grants you good face time with friends and family.

The M1530's energy swallowing levels won't earn it an Energy Star sticker in the near time, but the system's raw horsepower seems to be quite notable. This notebook comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2 GHz) processor and 2GB of RAM. The XPS M1530 loads Windows Vista Home Premium.

Undifferentiated from the M1330, the M1530 loads discrete graphics for high-definition enthusiasts who are also part-time gamers. The bundled nVidia GeForce 8600M GT is a tier higher than the nVidia GeForce 8400M GS found on the XPS M1330. Both sets have nVidia's PureVideo engine, which offers hardware decoding for high-definition playback and cranks up frame rates when playing the latest 3D games.

Priced at $2,174, the Dell XPS M1530 is the newcomer in the XPS series, featuring a 15.4-inch widescreen, awesome performance scores, and one of the first ever slot-loading Blu-ray burners. It's design elements and raw horsepower make it a great choice for guys who are seeking to replace their desktops.

HP LP3065 - the 30-inch LCD

HP's 30-inch LCD monitor, the LP3065, shows impressive image quality. It sports a nice design and unique features that set it apart. Like other 30-inch displays, it's pricey, but it might be worth it if your work demands lots of screen real estate.

The LP3065 performed well in text and graphics tests, showing extremely sharp text in both a Microsoft Word document and an Excel spreadsheet. Black text on a white background was quite easy to read, even at very small font sizes. However, because of the display's high resolution of 2560 by 1600, icons and text can appear rather small. You can remedy this by increasing the font display size in Windows.

Colors on the LP3065 look bright and lively, both in photographs and on a screen of a Web site. Again, its high resolution helps the display excel at showing fine detail.

With three DVI ports, the LP3065 is more versatile than other displays--it can be hooked up to several PCs at once using a digital connection, which is a nice extra. All of the ports are dual-link DVI, so they all require a dual-graphics card setup. If you don't already have such a graphics card, you'll have to shell out for one to accommodate this monitor.

The LP3065 lacks an on-screen display (OSD) for adjusting the image--because no components yet exist that support its high resolution. HP states that future versions of the LP3065 will include an OSD. The only adjustment you can make is to brightness--several buttons on the front of the unit dial brightness up or down.

The monitor has a nice streamlined design, with a thin black bezel and a silver stand. It can tilt and swivel, but not pivot. It's also height-adjustable and wall-mountable.

But the LP3065 costs $1699, which is quite a bit for a display. Granted, you do get excellent image quality and lots of room to spread out in, and if you crave viewing detail in your photos and documents, the LP3065 might be worth the splurge.

Fastest-Ever Mac Pro launched by Apple

Apple has launched its fastest-ever professional Macs, introducing re-vamped versions of the Mac Pro and Xserve.

Available immediately, the new Mac Pro's offer eight processor cores and a new system architecture that the company claims offers "up to twice the performance of its predecessor". The new professional desktop Macs use two of Intel's brand-new 45-nanometer Quad-Core Xeon processors running at up to 3.2GHz.

These new Macs also offer much-improved graphics and up to 4TB of internal storage for creative professionals, with listed price starting at just £1,749 (including VAT).

"The new Mac Pro is the fastest Mac we've ever made," said Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. "With 3.2GHz 8-core Xeon processing, a 1,600MHz front side bus and 800MHz memory, the new Mac Pro uses the fastest Intel Xeon architecture on the market."

The new Mac Pro features the latest Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400 series processors based on state-of-the-art 45nm Intel Core microarchitecture running up to 3.2GHz, each with 12MB of L2 cache per processor. These systems host a new high-bandwidth hardware architecture, dual-independent 1,600MHz front side buses and up to a whopping 32GB of 800MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM memory. All told, Apple promises the new Mac Pro's achieves a 61 per cent increase in memory throughput.

Graphics processing power has been optimized by Apple's choice to deploy the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics card with 256MB of video memory. The Mac Pro also includes a new PCI Express 2.0 graphics slot that delivers up to double the bandwidth compared to the previous generation, and supports the latest generation of graphics cards from NVIDIA, such as the GeForce 8800 GT with 512MB of video memory, or Quadro FX 5600 with 1.5GB of video memory and a 3D stereo port for stereo-in-a-window applications.

With an eye to the needs of the most advanced video, 3D and scientific markets, these new Macs can support up to four graphics cards, meaning they can drive up to eight 30in displays at once.

Expandability options include four internal hard drive bays with direct-attach, cable-free installation of four 1TB Serial ATA hard drives, (4TB in total of internal storage) and support for two SuperDrives.

As an option, users can select 15,000rpm SAS drives that can deliver up to 250MB/s of RAID 5 disk I/O performance. Combined with SATA or SAS drives, using an optional Mac Pro RAID card offers excellent data protection and disk I/O performance on the Mac Pro. These Macs are equipped with five USB 2.0, two FireWire 400, two FireWire 800, optical and analogue audio in and out, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports and a headphone jack. Naturally, all new Mac Pro's ship with Apple's latest Leopard OS and the Apple Keyboard. The standard 8-core Mac Pro costs $2,799.

Features:

* Two 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors with dual-independent 1,600MHz front side buses;
* 2GB of 800MHz DDR2 ECC fully-buffered DIMM memory, expandable up to 32GB;
* ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256MB of GDDR3 memory;
* 320GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7,200rpm;
* 16X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
* two PCI Express 2.0 slots and two PCI Express slots;
* Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse.

In addition to the standard configuration, the Mac Pro offers numerous build-to-order options including: one 2.8GHz, two 3.0GHz, or two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors; up to 32GB of 800MHz DDR2 fully-buffered ECC memory; up to four 1TB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7,200rpm or up to four 300GB SAS drives running at 15,000rpm; Mac Pro RAID card; up to two 16x SuperDrives with double-layer support; NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 graphics cards; AirPort Extreme 802.11n; Apple USB Modem; Apple wireless Aluminum Keyboard; Apple wireless Mighty Mouse; and Mac OS X Server Leopard.

Read more ..

AG Neovo E-W19 19-Inch Wide-Screen LCD Monitor

The E-W19 comes with glossy NeoV Optical Glass, AG Neovo's specially hardened glass that resists cracks and scratches. It's also why the monitor costs $399 (as of December 10, 2007), substantially more than most other models on our 19-inch wide-screen monitor chart. For the price, you get impressive image quality but few physical adjustments.

The company touts NeoV Optical Glass as ideal for those who want to use the display in a public area, such as libraries and public kiosks. The E-W19's even more expensive sibling, the X-19, has the same optical glass but offers a few more connectivity options (such as S-Video) and a slick metal casing.

The E-W19 demonstrates a flair for both text and graphics. The monitor is nothing if not consistent, collecting impressive scores on many tests. Wonderfully readable text on office documents and Web pages should make for a happy office worker or surfer (or both). A good balance of colors and brightness meant that skin tones looked natural and objects such as fruit slices exhibited an enticing ripeness.

The E-W19 deliveres true-to-life colors with fairly natural skin tones and background shrubbery pleasingly saturated with green. The monitor revealed beautiful coppers, yellows, and oranges in a fall sunset scene. Velvet costumes were invitingly textured and overall suffused with a balanced color, particularly reds and dark blues.

Well-integrated speakers located at the bottom of the monitor have very fine vents that are hard to see except up close, making them look like part of the monitor rather than stuck-on parts. The speakers are adequate except for low-volume instances, e.g., whispered dialogue or classical music. In those cases, you'll have to strain to hear emanating sounds. These speakers would be useful for common office tasks, such as beeps and warnings from your PC, or e-mail alerts, but not for robust multimedia applications.

Those who need to physically adjust the monitor a lot would do well to look at other options. The E-W19 only offers a tilt adjustment, a feature that allows you to move the display back to a respectable 25 degrees. AG Neovo's on-screen display (OSD) is a little difficult to use. Buttons aren't labeled clearly and they serve different functions within different menu contexts. The E-W19 offers presets for game, movie, graphic, and text.

Still, the AG Neovo E-W19 is a good-looking monitor with durable glass, and it offers top-notch display performance.

WindowPC releases Sting 517D2 Gaming Laptop

WindowPC, a leader in cutting-edge PC hardware, has announced the availability of its new gaming notebook PC, dubbed the Sting 517D2. It is based on Nvidia 8800M GTX DirectX.

Compatible with 10 video cards by NVIDIA, this latest gaming laptop is a first-of-its kind to feature NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800M GTX graphics processor. It is equipped with 512MB of DDR3 video memory, 96 stream processors and supports unsurpassed HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc picture clarity.

“The new GeForce 8800M GPUs allow gamers to have the ultimate gaming experience on a mobile platform,” maintained Joshua McClure, General Manager at WidowPC. “These new 8800M video cards are exactly what the doctor ordered to play Crysis at advanced levels of visual realism. We’re proud to be the first in North America to ship this incredible performance enhancer.”

NVIDIA’s new PowerMizer battery extending technology offers a best-in-class gaming experience. Sting 517D2 runs on Intel Core2 Duo CPU’s and sports a 17-inch WUXGA high definition display with Camera of 1920×1200 pixel resolution, up to 4GB of 667MHz DDR memory + 1GB of Intel Turbo Memory and up to 200GB of 7200RPM hard drive storage.

It also bundles Bluetooth, fingerprint reader and carry case.

Pricing starts at $2,799, the NVIDIA 8800M GTX Laptop - the Sting 517D2 is available for order and shipment now.

LG BH200 Blu-ray and HD DVD Player: Smooth but Slow

LG Electronics' highly anticipated second-generation Blu-ray and HD DVD video player is now shipping. The player does its job in properly decoding both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. But my early use of the player yields one initial, albeit significant, complaint: The player is pokey--at startup, when identifying whether you've inserted a Blu-ray or an HD DVD disc, when changing chapters, or when navigating disc menus.

The BH200 notably rights its predecessor the BH100's transgressions by fully implementing the HD DVD spec, which means you can properly and seamlessly view the fancy menus and extra content on an HD DVD disc. Furthermore, this player is the first to ship that supports the recently implemented Blu-ray Bonus View picture-in-picture functionality (part of what was once widely referenced as Blu-ray Profile 1.1).

According to LG, this player also has the hardware necessary to support Blu-ray's Internet-connected content, BD Live, when such content surfaces sometime next year. Not unexpectedly, though the player is what LG calls "BD Live-ready," it will require a firmware update in order to play BD Live content.

Although the $999 BH200 certainly busts down the barriers between Blu-ray and HD DVD, LG is charging a high premium for the convenience of having both formats in one box. That premium feels particularly high in a season still reeling from $99 HD DVD (granted, those models were only capable of 1080i, not 1080p output, as the BH200 is) and $350 Blu-ray Disc players. Already, Samsung has said its own dual-format player, due out this month, will be priced at $799. Given how volatile player prices have been lately, I won't be surprised to hear of a price drop on the BH200 soon after its introduction.

LG's Tim Alessi, director of product development, says the company is watching the pricing situation. "We still believe there's a convenience factor that will justify that premium. How much that premium will be remains to be seen."

Read more ..

Dell brings out World of Warcraft Edition XPS M1730 Notebook

A legendary alliance between Dell and Blizzard has resulted in a one-of-a-kind notebook designed to deliver the ultimate World of Warcraft experience.

With the new WoW-themes XPS, Dell attempts to lure a good share of World of Warcraft players across the globe.

Earlier today Dell unveiled the XPS M1730 World of Warcraft Edition laptops customized for members of both the Horde (the bad) and Alliance (the good) factions in the popular game. The $4,499 laptop is a mod of the popular XPS M1730 gaming laptop with customized lid and overall design.

The World of Warcraft edition XPS M1730 also comes with illuminated speaker grills and faction specific honor badges, World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade and all major game patches, Golden Ticket for a custom FigurePrint of your actual in-game World of Warcraft character with your actual armor and weapons, World of Warcraft Beta Club Key Card with a key to future World of Warcraft beta tests, World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade Collector's Edition Account Upgrade Certificates, exclusive backgrounds & screensavers and truckloads of behind the scene stuff, novels, strategy guides and trading cards.

So, basically the WoW edition XPS M1730 is a dream come true for World of Warcraft fans who want to live the game.

The hardware specs are similar to what you'd expect from XPS M1730. The stock config has been beefed up to justify the premium $4,499 price tag somewhat. But those getting one of these won't really bother about it.

Samsung SyncMaster 305T

This 30-inch display has first-rate image quality overall, though colors look slightly dull in some photos.

The SyncMaster 305T performs well and shows sharp text and nuanced color. Jurors were impressed with the 305T's rendering of text in a Microsoft Word document, as well as in a screen of repeating E's and M's.

This SyncMaster has a smooth black bezel and a circular stand. It tilts and swivels smoothly, though it is not height-adjustable, and it does not pivot. It is wall-mountable.

The only control it has to adjust the screen is one for brightness--buttons on the front of the bezel increase and decrease the brightness of the display, and that's it. Currently no on-screen components are available to support the 305T's high resolution of 2560 by 1600, but Samsung states that future versions of this model should include an on-screen display for adjustments.

Two downstream USB ports reside on the back of the display. Samsung also includes a power-saver mode--this switches the monitor to a low-power status when it has not been in use for some time.

At $1800, this SyncMaster is certainly pricey, but it falls well within the range of what other 30-inch LCDs cost. If you seek a monitor on which to spread out and see lots of documents at once, the 305T would be a fine choice.

Dell Inspiron 531s

The slim Dell Inspiron 531s is a small-form-factor desktop that doesn't exact a price penalty for its size. It comes with a fairly powerful processor, 2GB of system memory (important in these Vista-oriented days) and discrete graphics. Oh, yeah, and it does all this for $499 (direct, with e-value code DDPMGX1). This is the system I would steer people toward if they are looking for a well-equipped, stylish budget desktop.

The "s" in 531s stands for small or slim. This means that the system is a lot thinner than the average mini tower desktop, at about 14 by 4 by 17 inches (HWD). Does this mean there is less expansion room in the system? Whereas that may have been true for older systems, the motherboard in the 531s has all the usual internal connectors, including two PCI card slots, a PCIe x1 and a PCIe x16 graphics card slot (occupied by an ATI Radeon HD 2400 card). The card slots are only half-height because of the slim desktop form factor, which limits some choices—but if you're buying a $500 PC, you're not likely to be looking to equip it with a $700 full-size graphics card, anyway. There's space for two additional system memory DIMMs, though most people will find the 2GB the system comes with to be plenty. (Many systems in the sub-$500 price range have only 1GB). The 531s includes a 160GB hard drive, which is average for systems at this price. But it comes with eight USB ports, which is exemplary for any system and exceptional in the category of small-form-factor PCs.

Dell took a couple of shortcuts, however, to get the 531s down to the low price it lists for. The most notable example is its choice to go with a Windows Vista Home Basic OS, which shaved off $30. (It did this $30 shave so that it could qualify as a sub-$500 PC for the purposes of this story.) If you can spare the cash, I recommend the upgrade to Home Premium later on, especially since Premium includes the MCE interface. As much as I hate to say it, I'd rather have the 2GB of RAM and the discrete graphics card over Vista Home Premium as a trade-off at the start.

The other $30 in cost savings was achieved by omitting a DVD burner in favor of a cheaper DVD/CD-RW combo drive. These days, with a lot of homebrew video and music going directly to the Web (for example, MySpace and YouTube), burned DVDs are becoming a relic of sorts. Using DVDs for backup is becoming as outdated as using floppy disks. Though DVDs are cheap, they are now unwieldy (40 DVD-Rs to back up this system if it's full), and hand-printed DVDs can easily get lost. I'm now recommending using external hard drives for backup. Searching and retrieving files is easier on external hard drives than hunting down "DVD 10/02/04-Disc 15." Still, these two omissions together do take some points away from the system, although I do think that this is a very good system in its class—it gets the Editors' Choice.

The 531s comes across as more powerful and sleeker than similar systems such as the eMachines T5234 and Compaq Presario SR5130NX. The 531s lacks the others' DVD burner, but it has discrete graphics and more system memory, hence better performance. It's less likely to seem slow a year or two down the road.

A very good choice for the budget-conscious PC buyer, the Dell Inspiron 531s proves that you don't need a big, honking tower to get a decent computer. It will even do 3D, which is a stumbling block for systems in this price range. Budget an extra $60 if DVD burning and Vista Premium are must-haves, but as is, the Inspiron 531s I tested is worthy of our Editors' Choice.

Read more ..

Samsung ML-1630 and SCX-4500: Printers that bring sexy back

Finally it's been done. Somebody's made printers that don't look rubbish! We'd begun to think it was a lost cause, but mad props to Samsung -- its new luxury printers look absolutely flippin' stunning.

The ML-1630 mono laser (pictured top) and SCX-4500 all-in-one (pictured bottom) are similar in shape to a DVD player or component hi-fi system, and are finished in the same glossy piano-black veneer as Samsung's TVs.

They also have blue touch-sensitive buttons and a sexy LED-style display. These show letters and numbers made of oversize circular dots -- a bit like on the Samsung YP-K3 MP3 player.

Unfortunately, they only print in black and white, and despite that, their print speed is limited to just 16 pages per minute. Samsung says a colour-enabled version would have to be twice as thick, ruining the overall aesthetic.

All this raises the question: in a market that's dominated by feature-packed, low-cost boxes, who's going to buy such a slow, and probably pricey printer -- even if it is good looking? Us, you fools! And so should you, unless you have an unhealthy obsession with beige.

The ML-1630 will be priced at US$199 while the SCX-4500 will be priced at US$299 .

Read More ..

HP unveils Blackbird - High end Gaming PC

Hewlett Packard (HP) has announced the new range of high end desktops, specially made for the purpose of gaming.

The new gaming PCs are named Blackbird and they are developed by the company using the expertise gained from the acquisition of VoodooPC.

The Blackbird has a stylish look and it is designed in a way that its parts can be removed or added without tools. For example Hard drives snap into a pull-out tray, saving your time on cables and screws.

Blackbird has an all metal finish. The rig will have options like liquid, cooling, or silent cooling for either CPU or GPU, or both. The system will be fully overclockable through the BIOS.

HP’s Blackbird range of machines features 1.1-kilowatt power supply and a liquid cooling system. Besides, they are available with both Intel as well as AMD processors and depending upon the configuration, the price of the desktops range between $2,500 (approx Rs. 1,01,965) and $7,100 (approx Rs. 2,89,580).

Read More ..

USB 3.0 brings optical connection in 2008

Intel and others plan to release a new version of the ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus technology in the first half of 2008, a revamp the chipmaker said will make data transfer rates more than 10 times as fast by adding fiber-optic links alongside the traditional copper wires.

Intel is working fellow USB 3.0 Promoters Group members Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, NEC and NXP Semiconductors to release the USB 3.0 specification in the first half of 2008, said Pat Gelsinger, general manager of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group, in a speech here at the Intel Developer Forum.

In an interview after the speech, Gelsinger said there's typically a one- to two-year lag between the release of the specification and the availability of the technology, so USB 3.0 products should likely arrive in 2009 or 2010. A prototype shown at the speech is working now, and USB 3.0 will have optical and copper connections "from day one," he added.

The current USB 2.0 version has a top data-transfer rate of 480 megabits per second, so a tenfold increase would be 4.8 gigabits per second. Many devices don't need that much capacity, but some can use more, including hard drives, flash card readers and optical drives such as DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD. The fastest flash card readers today use IEEE 1394 "FireWire" connections that top out at 800 megabits per second.

In addition, USB 3.0 will offer greater energy efficiency, Gelsinger said. It will be backward compatible, so current USB 2.0 devices will be able to plug into USB 3.0 ports.

Read More ..