Gadgets Blog News

Posted Mar 13th 2008 9:31AM by Darren MurphFiled under: Laptops Although HP has already stuffed Intel’s latest Core 2 Duo chips into its Pavilion lineup, now it appears that some of its business-minded units are also getting the Penryn treatment. As of now, the 2.1GHz T8100 is an available option on the 6720s and 6820s, while the 2.4GHz T8300 becomes available on the 6510b and 6710b. (Read the full post about ‘Penryn sweeps across HP Compaq business laptops’…)

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In case the other ipod Docks from Kenwood and Sony (ICF-ClipMK2) didn’t please your high standards, maybe the CBX-300 deserves a test. The latest Onkyo product is simple - it comes with a radio, CD player compatible with MP3 or WMA files, remote control, and obviously, an iPod Dock. The high price must be somehow related to the sound quality* and also the smooth and glossy design. *The 8cm OMF (Onkyo Micro Fibre) diaphragm speakers are mounted in separate enclosures inside the main chassis, and the Active Bass Control allows for decent bass response even at low volume levels. The Onkyo CBX-300 iPod Dock costs 229. (Read the full post about ‘Onkyo CBX-300: iPod Dock’…)

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Posted Mar 13th 2008 11:49AM by Joshua TopolskyFiled under: Handhelds As you’ve probably figured out from all the OLPC XO and Intel Classmate news we’ve hit, computers aimed at students are a pretty hot topic these days. A Chicago-based nonprofit called Innovations for Learning has joined the fray with a new $50 entry dubbed the Teachermate. The small PCs come equipped with a 2.5-inch LCD display, 512MB of RAM, an SD slot, and built-in microphone and speaker. The systems are being rolled out to a whopping 500 Chicago elementary schools over the next two years, with the aim of having a unit in the hands of every child. (Read the full post about ‘$50 Teachermate PC launched by Chicago nonprofit’…)

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TVs certainly have gotten better looking — at CES we saw huge flat screens that transformed into paintings, ones with “invisible” bezels or highly decorative bezels, meant to compliment the decor. Not to mention the ones that sank into pieces of furniture and completly disappeared, my personal favorites. This 20″ LCD HDTV from VIZIO caught my eye when it won the presigious RED DOT award for its elegant design. With a depth of 3.6“, the 20“ screen is ultra-slim and well suited for home offices, kitchens, bedrooms (dorms?), and smaller rooms. (Read the full post about ‘VIZIO - new HDTV’…)

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Posted Mar 13th 2008 7:15AM by Thomas RickerFiled under: Misc. gadgetsGulp. FCC chairman Kevin Martin is prepping for a big ol’ congressional probe this morning. Martin received a letter today warning that he is being investigated for, “management practices that may adversely affect the Commission’s ability to both discharge effectively its statutory duties and to guard against waste, fraud, and abuse.” Martin, you’ll recall, was recently accused of being in Verizon’s back pocket during its attempt to revise the 700MHz open-access rule. (Read the full post about ‘FCC chairman to get fat congressional probe’…)

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Posted Mar 13th 2008 9:10AM by Thomas RickerFiled under: Gaming, Handhelds See that? You’re looking at a picture of the printed circuit board for Pandora. Ok, it’s hardly a completed product. In fact, it’s chipless. Still, it’s a measurable step away from product vapor and one step closer to the $320 (damn dollar!) $330 GP2X gaming computer we’re expecting to land in March or April. [Thanks, Argor]Tags: gadgets, lcd, equipment, audio (Read the full post about ‘Pandora’s ultra-portable orders take-out PCB, forgets chips’…)

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General Electric has a new digital camera to tantalize the masses with, and this time their effort has resulted in a 12-megapixel camera which will be released on the HSN network this coming Saturday. it will retail for $199.99, and comes bundled with a black camera case and ArcSoft software package. You will be able to choose from silver and deep red colors, where the rear LCD measures 2.7″ with a 3x optical zoom lens and ISO 3200 sensitivity accompanying it. You will also be able to (hopefully) snap better shots with its blink detector and a smile detector. (Read the full post about ‘General Electric rolls out new digital camera’…)

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Posted Mar 13th 2008 6:27AM by Thomas RickerFiled under: Laptops What, you don’t read the official Transportation Security Administration blog? No worries, we’ve got your back on this one with the TSA’s official reaction to Michael Nygard’s missed flight as a result of its incredulous macbook air inspection. TSA agents are in fact trained to look for anomolies. So along come the MBA laptop. It’s new (thus, rarely seen), ridiculously thin, and lacks a mechanical hard drive and any visible ports. Requesting further inspection is exactly what Mr. Nygard should have expected. As surly and detached as TSA officers tend to be, in this case they were doing their job just as they were trained. (Read the full post about ‘TSA explains MacBook Air grounding: just doing its job’…)

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I can’t help but be awed by the svelte beauty of Acer’s latest laptop baby, the Gemstone Blue, aka Acer Aspire 6920, and while reading its technical specifications and features, I can’t help but wonder whether Acer has created a mobile computing machine or a mobile multimedia entertainment product? The Aspire 6920 breaks away from the laptop norm and moves towards the direction of the latest media consoles. From it’s 16-inch full HD 1920 x 1080 Cine Crystal TFT LCD to its DDR2 667MHz memory, you can easily ascertain that Acer is actually launching a portable multimedia machine rather than a business computing laptop. It has a touch-sensitive CineDash Media control which is said to respond quickly to the lightest contact. (Read the full post about ‘Acer launches the Gemstone Blue’…)

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USB Flash Drives are very handy when wanting to cart information around. The problem many face is keeping things in order. The SpaceStation is built by a company named Ultra and has 6 USB flash drive slots on the back of it. The SpaceStation is credit card sized and acts as a USB hub where 6 of their drives connect in to it. Each drive can store 2GB of data making a total of 12GB of storage on the SpaceStation being made available. Unfortunately the drives do not show up as one large drive, but rather, just show up as six individual drives. So you do not forget what is on each drive, a bunch of labels have been provided to label up the contents such as a “music” drive, “video” drive etc… The 12GB version costs $89.99 with a cheaper 6GB version running at $59.99. (Read the full post about ‘Ultra SpaceStation Flash Drive Hub’…)

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