The original UMID mbook M1 is a mixed bag of results. On one hand it’s a very pocketable Windows XP clamshell with a 4.8-inch touchscreen, but the battery life and computing power isn’t that great. Well, I’m checking out the new mbook BZ right now and it seems that the BZ model addresses one of those issues while offering a few new tricks. Read More
Vizio announced the 1080p LED XVT line way back in June of ‘09 and they are just now starting to ship. These are the sets that come with that oh-so-awesome QWERTY remote to work the TV’s collection of Internet apps. It’s too bad that most owners will still need a cable or satellite box because this TV line is nearly an all-in-one solution for home entertainment.
From Mass Effect 2, “Customer Service. Sweeping up the store. Carefully explaining things to the technologically illiterate. It’s stunning how many people think light moves faster through expensive fiber optic cables than it does through cheap ones.” [via Consumerist]
Rumors are swirling that Apple *might* lower the iPad’s price shortly after launch in the same way that the iPhone’s price dropped a couple months after its launch. This would only be if consumers aren’t buying into the iPad hype and sales fall short of expectation. But does a lower iPad price make the tablet any more desirable to you? Like, let’s say, the base model is only $350 and the 3G model instead takes the $499 price point. Is that price drop enough to compensate for the lackluster specs and capabilities? Sound off in the poll and comments below.
Read More
Sit back, relax, and enjoy this extensive HD video tour of International Space Station. You better enjoy the ISS while you can. There’s a good chance it’s going to crash into Planet Earth within the next couple of years because of budget issues unless the ESA can save it.
The Olympus E-PL1 budget micro four thirds camera launched last week but Amazon already has it available for pre-order. On one hand this pre-order will ensure you’re one of the first kids at school with the new toy, but that’s not going to be until next month away so you may wanna hold on to your $600 a bit longer. Something a bit more tantalizing might come along.
Short Version: It’s an external USB hard drive for your Mac. It’s white. Read More
It’s probably a safe bet that nearly every retailer and consumer electronic manufacturer forms a committee with the sole purpose of exploiting Valentine’s Day. We’ve already seen the Nook Valentine’s Day edition today and now it’s TomTom’s turn with the red EASE GPS unit. Because nothing says love like a cheap personal navigator. I kid, I kid.
The YouTube video looks good to us, but then again, it’s not like Canon would show off the new T2i with a bad sample video. Now, how about a full resolution 1080p video?
The Nook has seen its fair share of delays but Barnes & Noble is now saying that it will be available online and in the majority of stores mid-week — just in time for Valentine’s Day, guys! That’s actually right on schedule according to the timetable the bookseller set back in December. But please, unless your spouse has specifically asked for an ebook reader, don’t give him or her a Nook or Kindle this Sunday. Read More
Canon knows how to make quality cameras and these latest pocket cams clearly show that off. The PowerShot SX210 IS leads the charge with a 14.1 MP sensor, 14x optical zoom, and a 720p video capture mode. Of course Canon’s loaded with a image stabilizer and DIGIC 4 processor to ensure the pics produced are worthy of the Canon name. $349 this March. Read More
So, yeah, the site was down for quite a while. We don’t know what happened. Maybe someone forgot to feed the hamster that keeps our server’s power supply running. Who knows. At least we’re back up for the moment so enjoy it while you can.
The story here is that someone secretly affixed a GPS tracker on a Google Street View camera car and you can follow the car’s progress using Google Maps while it’s photographing the streets of Berlin. Sort of ironic, isn’t? But either the car seems to be stopped or Google caught wind of the stalkers because I haven’t seen any progress the last few minutes. Or maybe they’re eating. Either way, click through for the live Google Map.
Most hardware manufacturers are finally rolling out USB 3.0 devices. We’ve seen motherboards, hubs, hard drives, and notebooks all rocking the new and improved USB standard. It’s clearly the future of USB with backwards compatibility, dramatically faster speeds and full-duplex data transfers. That’s great, but it’s still not faster than eSATA right now.
B&N has started rolling out firmware v1.2 for the Nook. Early reports indicate that pages load noticeably faster and the touchscreen screen interface is a bit more responsive. Unfortunately there isn’t a way to force the update. You just going to have to wait until your Nook says there’s an update available.
Update Barnes and Noble just sent us the following statement…
Most Blu-ray players are resting comfortably well north of the $100 mark, but not this Magnavox. It’s only $78 and it really does play Blu-ray movies. However, there’s a bunch that it can’t do, because, well, it’s only $78.
Vinyl records are making a comeback. Yeah, in the world of instant music downloads and portable music, a lot of music fans are falling in love with vinyl – again. Make found a fantastic five minute video showing the process Gotta Groove Records employs. It really seems like a relatively simple process, requiring only a few machines. Click through to watch the video and gain a bit of respect for the music lovers whose passion brings us vinyl records.
Just watch and enjoy the Japanese pop music.
Oh how we love the Internet. This review of the now-classic Frogger was first published in issue number 24 of Compute! in 1983. It’s a fantastic look back to the simple times when Atari ruled the gaming world.
Corning Inc. is betting that big that LCD’s popularity will exploded over in China. It recently announced plans to build a $400 million to $700 million glass-melting plant within China under the forecast that the country will see a 70% growth in the LCD TV market. Corning probably knows what its doing, too. After all, the company is responsible for 60% of the world’s LCD glass.
Toyota just starting rolling out accelerator fixes to its dealers. The fix itself doesn’t actually seem as hard as Autoblog and Aol Autos found out at LaFontaine Toyota in Dearborn, Michigan. (Fun Fact: Ford’s HQ is in Dearborn) The process is just popping out the pedal and figuring out what size shim needs to be inserted into the recalled pedal. After that, a system diagnostic is run and the customer drives away. Hopefully the Prius’s brake software issue is just a quick fix, too.
Here’s the thing, my father-in-law is a hard-working UPS driver. He defines blue-collar. After a long day driving around in a brown truck and wearing a brown jumpsuit in the freezing Michigan winter, he wants nothing more than to come home and enjoy a random sports game — sometimes live, sometimes a re-broadcast. But the damn TV guide keeps ruining the fun for him. Look at that pic and tell me what’s wrong.
How come Japan always gets all the fun toys? Like this JXD V3. It can play most modern roms along with nearly every video and audio format. One look at it and you know that it will bring you some serious geek cred in your computer science classes. Thank goodness it’s available for worldwide shipping. Read More
I can think of so many valid reasons why you need this massive 10 rack HP datacenter: Folding@home, downloading torrents, compiling your homemade videos, backing up your precious ROMs and so on. Just stick it in the backyard and you’ll be good to go. What’s that? $600k only gets you the enclosure and not the blade servers? Oh, well. Maybe you don’t need it after all.
