May 8th, 2008
New Dell Inspiron consumer laptops leaked! (hint: thin)
Those tricky people over at Engadget have gotten their digital hands on the next crop of Dell Inspirons, and it’s safe to say that thin is in.
The Dell Inspiron 1435, 1535 and 1735 mid-range consumer laptops seem to share the same basic design and have, as Dell likes to say is its calling card, a wealth of customization options both aesthetic and technical. All three laptops taper in thickness from 1-inch to 1.5 inches. Notable specs are as follows:
- Slot-loading drives, with a Blu-ray option;
- Core 2 Duo T5850 2.16GHz processors;
- 3G across the lineup.
The ‘Gadg reports that the 1435 isn’t due until October, but the 1735 is coming on June 9 and the 1535 on May 26th. All I know is, as a PC user, I can’t wait to find something to replace my getting-long-in-the-tooth 700m.
Stay tuned.
May 7th, 2008
HDTVs: How black is black?
An announcement comes today by way of Pioneer, maker of the ever-popular Kuro HDTV line, saying that its new Kuro sets are five times blacker than the Kuro line on the market today (which we reviewed as the TV with the deepest blacks out there).
So wait — does that mean they’re selling us mere gray?
It’s generally known that the sharpest television images come from the highest ratio of contrast — black to white, all else equal. And Pioneer’s known for it’s tricks: at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, the company demonstrated a prototype plasma set that, when turned black, was literally invisible in a dark room.
But how black is black?
“The black level itself is beyond measurement,” according to Russ Johnston, Pioneer’s executive vice president of marketing and product planning, by way of the New York Times Bits blog. He added, “some of it is subjective and some of it is calculation.”
Here’s where Bits‘ Eric Taub makes a great point:
No one denies Pioneer’s superior ability to create plasma TVs with deep, rich blacks. But trying to compare one television manufacturer’s claim of high contrast ratios to another’s cannot be done by looking at numbers.
The problem, according to Peter Putman, president of ROAM Consulting, a video engineering firm, is that different manufacturers use different methods to do the measuring. One company he knows measures the contrast ratio of a plasma screen before it is covered with the standard anti-glare glass and an electronic shield, both of which reduce contrast.
Nor is the ratio of black to white the only criterion. The number of shades of gray — how the light transitions from off to on –is also very important. If the gray scale is small, a man who runs into the shadows will disappear, rather than looking like a dimly lit figure in a dark area.
At the other extreme, LCD displays, which are known for their very bright images compared to plasma, often “crush” the white end of the scale, so that if a white rabbit walks across the snow, all you see is snow.
Naturally, a bright room (like that of a convention) with a ton of ambient light changes the whole game: if you take contrast measurements there, the formerly high contrast ratio of an image will decrease.
So how, exactly, does one determine the blackest TV set on the market?
The most reliable and mobile method is to use the old-fashioned way: your eyes. Test a super-dark DVD — Batman Begins comes to mind, the Times says, and I agree — and let ‘er rip.
May 6th, 2008
‘In 2008, Vista will make mobile internet fun.’ (UPDATED)
…that’s what HTC head Peter Chou said this morning after introducing the Diamond Touch, a slick piece of smartphone that exudes all the right iPhone notes. The one-touch phone, of course, is worth talking about:
- Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional with Qualcomm MSM 7201A 528MHz processor
- WCDMA / HSPA: 900/2100MHz. HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA
- 802.11 b/g WiFi
- Integrated GPS receiver
- Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
- 2.8-inch VGA touch screen
- 4 GB Internal Storage, 256 MB flash, 192 MB RAM
- 3.2 megapixel camera
- 900 mAh battery
- Size: 102 x 51 x 11.33mm
- Weight: 110 g
…according to my esteemed blogging colleague the Mobile Gadgeteer. And naturally, if I didn’t want an iPhone but wanted the next-gen abilities of the device, I’d certainly consider this one.
But what I really want to know is: does Vista really have a strong future in mobile? Chou’s quote, above, struck me as odd. Tell us, of course, in TalkBack.
UPDATE, May 7, 2008, 1:19PM: A spokesperson for HTC e-mailed me and said her script from the event does not correspond with Chou’s quote above, which was originally reported by Addy Dugdale at Gizmodo and reprinted here. She says Chou said: “I see 2008 as a year that we take a big step forward in making the mobile Internet actually useable and fun.”
May 5th, 2008
Peripherals: This keyboard may outlast you.
…at least that’s what Mike Yamamoto at CNET’s Crave blog thinks, who has discovered a peripheral that’s almost indestructible. You know, in a reasonable way.
Designed for the most violent (think frag, but taxes can apply, too) of computing, SteelSeries’ 7G professional gaming keyboard claims to be several times more durable than the one you’re using as you read this sentence.
How durable is durable, you ask? Somewhere in the ballpark of 50 million keystrokes, according to the company, courtesy of no-click mechanical switches that are plated in 18k gold. Add support for as many simultaneous key presses as there are keys on the keyboard, and you’re packing serious gaming heat.
The keyboard’s currently sold out — the equipment may be indestructible, but the supply isn’t — but it may run you roughly $200.
Tell us, readers: what would you like to use a keyboard like this for? (Post your imaginative responses in TalkBack.)
May 2nd, 2008
Weekend Gadget Guidance: Send a fax for free — digitally
If there’s one thing I cannot stand, it’s the fax machine.
In a world of e-mail and attachments and PDFs and perfect digital copies easily archived, the fax machine is a painfully archaic reminder that everyone hasn’t quite hopped on the digital bandwagon just yet.
Well, no more, folks: Drop.io, a fairly innovative file-sharing service, sends and receives faxes for free.
It works like this: to send a fax, upload a document to Drop.io. Enter the fax number and click “Fax.” Boom — no beeps to haunt you in your sleep.
On the receiving end, Drop.io will generate a cover sheet you then e-mail to the sender. As long as they use your cover page on the fax, it will end up in your Drop.io account as a PDF.
Now wait just a second, you say — this isn’t the first online faxing service. And you’d be right. But most of those free services impose certain limitations; say, restricting a send to two pages, or adding advertisements in the fax cover sheet, or lacking rich text support.
Drop.io supports Word documents, PDF files and even Excel spreadsheets. You can send an unlimited number of faxes without registration, there are no ads attached to the fax sheets and each fax document can have up to 20 pages. And, like most of the site, faxing services are free — no registration required. (Photo courtesy Digital Inspiration)
May 1st, 2008
Stream PC content to every HDTV in the house via coaxial cable
In a similar vein to yesterday’s post about wireless HDTVs, today’s news arrives with a media streamer by ZeeVee that plugs into one’s computer and sends on-screen content to every TV in the house over existing coaxial cable.
In effect, the unit, called the ZvBox, enables users to view any media from the Internet (streaming video, for example) right on their TV with no subscription fees or wireless dropouts. Users can also access any other computer application (Web browser, DVD software, and so forth) right from their set.
If you’re wondering how it’s all done, the ZvBox ports your computer desktop to every HDTV in your house by creating its own RF channel that can be picked up by the tuner in your TV. The rundown, courtesy Engadget:
- PC’s content piped through VGA, which is then sent through coaxial cabling to every TV in your home
- VGA pass-through ensures your PC monitor continues to operate normally
- Audio (including Dolby Digital 5.1) is inputted via USB
- No equipment is needed at the TV end for reception; all signals are received from the TV’s internal tuner
- Users can opt to view their unadulterated desktop
- Otherwise, the Zviewer lays out customizable launch icons to take you directly to Netflix, Hulu, ABC.com, YouTube, MOJO, KoldCast or any other destination you choose
- Users have total control of their PC from their television; watching back PVR recordings, playing DVDs, viewing photos, etc. is all possible
- ZvBox possesses no fan, thus there’s no noise
- ZvRemote controls volume / channels, has built-in touchpad for interfacing with PC
- Optional ZvKeyboard coming this summer (no price disclosed)
If you’re the kind of person that wants nothing to do with the church-and-state divide between your living room TV and the Web, this might be the device for you. The ZvBox is limited only by the amount of content accessible via the Web, your computer’s DVD player and your PC-based OTA TV tuner.
The box comes bundled with a wireless remote, and should see retail action in June for $499 (pre-orders only available at Amazon).
April 30th, 2008
Sharp to offer ultra-thin X-Series LCD TVs with wireless HD feed
Like big TVs? (Who doesn’t?)
How about without tangled up cables hanging out the back?
If you’ve ever seen the Sharp AQUOS X-series — just 1.35 inches deep and, according to Sharp, the world’s thinnest LCD televisions in production — then you know what dreams are made of (and what it feels like to have a “saliva malfunction”). Sharp managed the svelte shape of their HDTV series by throwing the tuner and connectivity in a separate box, which then needed only a single cable to connect.
Now, the 37-, 42- and 46-inch HD screens are free to run.
AMIMON, the semiconductor company, has developed a wireless technology that allows TVs to receive uncompressed HD video streams wirelessly. The company calls it WHDI technology, and it uses a video-modem approach to achieve a range of more than 100 feet (yes, through walls) and with latency of less than one millisecond. Of course, all in the name of eliminating that pesky audio/video cable between the TV panel and the separate tuner unit.
There will still be a “set-top box” of course, but now you can hide it somewhere out of view. The price for the technology is steep: $800. But unless you have yen in your wallet, your U.S. greenbacks are safe until the X-Series arrives in the States.
Naturally, the new technology starts at the top and works its way down — so here’s to a rapid trickle effect. (Image courtesy SlipperyBrick)
April 29th, 2008
More USB fun: Copy 60 USB drives simultaneously
The fine people at CNET’s Crave blog always find the strangest things, and this adds to our growing archive of wacky-but-useful USB devices.
The Virtual Console “USB Flash Drive Duplicator” can make digital copies of 60 — that’s right, as in six-oh — 1GB drives in just over 2 minutes. Do the math — that’s a maximum duplication speed of 5.6 MB per second per port, or 336 MB per second for the whole machine. According to Slippery Brick, this kind of performance makes it the fastest device of its kind. It’s a geek’s digital equivalent of high noon in the Wild West.
To boot, the duplicator can encrypt files with 128-bit AES encryption as they’re being duplicated and create a unique key for each one. If you have more than 60 friends that you want to share with, IP Multicast duplication can allow for control of multiple duplicators. And you could stack 100 of these machines before you hit the max.
Talk about the perfect device for IT, eh?
The machine retails for $7,999.00. Start savin’ yer pennies, cowboy.
April 28th, 2008
Intel releases 2.5 GHz, 45nm ‘Yorkfield’ Core 2 Quad processor
In today’s news, Intel has released a new sibling of the 45nm family of Core 2 Quad processors: the Q9300 “Yorkfield” processor, which comes in at 2.5 GHz with a 1333 MHz front side bus.
The new chip breaks down like this: You get a faster front side bus, lower operating temperatures, and new SSE4.1 instruction sets. On the other hand, the L2 cache has been halved (6MB vs. the 12MB of higher-end quad-core CPUs). The gentlemen over at the End User blog, a new Amazon.com gadgets blog by its employees, report that testing proves that the smaller L2 cache still doesn’t hold the Q9300 back from beating its predecessor, the 65nm 2.4 GHz Q6600.
That said, overclockers beware:
With a low multiplier (7.5), a solid overclocking motherboard will be required to reach a high FSB. Cooling is a whole other issue too, even with the Q9300’s lower thermal design power (TDP) rating of 95w, cooling 4 cores is still nothing to sneeze at, and superior cooling will also need to be an investment.
Other outlets have put the Penryn processor through the paces: PureOverclock.com versus the AMD Phenom 9850, ExtremeTech versus the Phenom, and PCStats versus the latest computer games. In the end, I’m sure intrepid users will find a way to squeeze every ounce out of the chip.
The Q9300 retails for roughly $300, minus an Alexander Hamilton or two. (If you’re more inclined to join Team AMD, check out fellow ZDNet.com blogger John Morris’ breakdown of their triple-core offerings.)
April 25th, 2008
Weekend Gadget Guidance: Save on shipping online purchases
Ah, the bane of a Toybox reader’s existence: online shipping costs.
You’ve narrowed down which gadget you want to buy, you’ve found the most inexpensive vendor that’s still trustworthy, you’ve put the item in your shopping cart and….wait, 12 bucks for shipping?! Highway murder!!
Sure wish I had something to put in that empty “promo code” box in the order form.
Well fear not, dear readers. This weekend’s dose of advice comes in the form of FreeShipping.org, an aptly-named Web site that aggregates all of those online coupons you’re looking for when you shop online.
“Why didn’t I think of that?” you ask. I can’t say for sure, but coupons to 600 stores are available on the site — including Best Buy, Target, Gap, Wal-Mart, Land’s End, Home Depot, Old Navy, Macy’s, Kohl’s…well, you get the idea.
And it’s all in the name of making sure that you, shiny toy lover, don’t spend hundreds on shipping over the course of the year. (The significant other is bound to be happier.)
What’s more, if you can’t find an appropriate coupon from there — the navigation’s easy, so it shouldn’t be too hard — you can check on FreeShippingOn.com, a similar site where there are coupons for Dell, Ritz Camera, NewEgg, even Apple. Naturally, the best course of action is to fire them both up in the name of saving money on your toys, no?
Happy toy hunting.
Andrew J. Nusca is an assistant editor for ZDNet.com. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Recent Entries
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