Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category
Monday, February 18th, 2008 | Posted in Hardware | No Comments »
There was a lot of fuss around the new MacBook presented at the recent Apple keynote, but I’m still considering the pros and cons. Sure it’s slim ( 0.76-inch at its thickest ) and it has a nice 13.3-inch, widescreen display. But it’s not dubbed “air” for nothing. The new MacBook relies heavily on its 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 connections. Not only it doesn’t have an UTP network port but it also lacks an optical unit ( to solve this Apple found a way to use another computer’s optical drive via wireless connection ).
For the $1,799 you pay for the base model you’ll get a 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo chip, 2 GB of RAM and a 80 GB HDD. On the other hand the high-end version has a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo and instead of the classic hard drive it has a 64GB SSD, but those small upgrades come for an amazing $3,098.
And yes the battery lasts five hours but you can’t just change it with a full one when it gets discharged. So the new MacBook is extremely slim and good looking, but it does have its drawbacks. You can buy one if you want to look good and be trendy, but I’d still look for another option for my work laptop.
Monday, February 18th, 2008 | Posted in Hardware | No Comments »
For a moment there HD DVD seemed to be the future Now, many people are not so sure anymore. But big manufacturers such as Microsoft already produced hardware based on the hi-def standard and have to face the consequences. As a result the external USB 2.0 HD DVD player add-on for Xbox360 suffered a $50 downgrade from $179.99 to $129.99. It’s a bit cheaper now and it also works with a PC.
The price-cut and the 5 free HD DVDs offer say now’s the time if you always wanted to upgrade your Xbox.
When Google announced Android, everybody was overexcited with the news and started dreaming (again) of a Google Phone.
For the moment rumors have it, that HTC will be responsible with creating the terminal, and of new, it seems Samsung wants to put out the market its very own Google Phone early 2009.
If all goes according to the plan, the terminal will be cheap, the main revenue source being the integrated ads. Besides the “Google Phone” was supposed to incorporate a GPS module and a Linux kernel. For the moment all that’s just rumor and the end-product might be quite different.
What’s certain is that Google will produce mobile terminals in the near future, and I don’t expect Google to fail in any way, given all the material support and brainpower the search engine giant can offer.
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 | Posted in Hardware | No Comments »
BiTMicro has just announced an 832GB NAND drive.
This is the largest 2.5″ NAND drive yet announced and places NAND technology firmly in competition with magnetic media for mainline storage applications.
NAND drives use a form of flash memory. As such, they have no moving parts and are therefore much more durable and reliable than traditional hard drives.
In addition, as NAND drives do not suffer from the tradition seek time delays inherent in any media designed with rotating disks, NAND drives can perform faster than magnetic or optical media.
This new drive is estimated to support 20,000 I/O operations per second and a sustained transfer rate of 100MB/sec.
Currently, price is the main limitation to the adoption of NAND drive technology. As memory prices decrease, NAND drives should slowly replace magnetic media for storage applications.
When you think about buying a new laptop, WalMart may not be the first vendor that springs to mind — but perhaps it should be.
WalMart has great prices on laptops from vendors like Everex, Acer, Toshiba, Dell, Sony, and HP.
You may find the best deal by visiting your local WalMart instead of going online. WalMart’s web site offers a basic Everex NC1501 laptop for $398. My local Wal-Mart is selling a much more well equipped Acer for the same price.
Acer is a better brand than Everex. Toshiba, Dell, Sony, and HP are all premium brands which you can buy for very good prices at your local WalMart store.
For $648, you can purchase a Toshiba Satellite with a 15.4″ WXGA widescreen display, a 1.8 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core processor, 1 GB RAM, and an 80 GB hard drive. That’s quite a reasonable machine!
In addition to comparing brands when buying a cheap laptop, you will also want to compare:
- Display size
- Display resolution
- CPU
- RAM (How much? How many available DIMM slots?)
- Storage (How much? How fast?)
- DVD drives (Read-Only or Read-Write?)
- Wireless (Built-in or add-on?)
When looking for the best deal, it pays to do your research and shop around. My recommendation is that you add WalMart to the list of places you look for your next laptop.
Friday, September 21st, 2007 | Posted in Hardware | No Comments »
There are two main types of computer monitors, the old, but extremely reliable CRT monitor and the newer flat panel monitors. If you have been computer shopping, you will immediately notice that the older monitors have all, but disappeared. You might be saying what gives? Well, for most computer users the flat panel monitor has definite advantages over the older CRT monitors. (more…)
Thursday, September 13th, 2007 | Posted in Hardware | No Comments »
If you are tired of your plain old looking external HDD, you might like the following gadget. It’s a nice looking golden case, with a nice HDD inside. Comes in a package with LaCie backup software and works under Windows 2000/XP and even MacOS X. It connects to your PC via a USB 2.0 cable, and under the hood there are 500GB of storage working at 7200rpm that are ready to reach speeds up to 480MB/s.
Alienware released their media server platform as a response to Sony’s Home Entertainment Server. But unlike Sony who offers a meager 500GB of storage, Alienware gives you 4TB to store your favorite movies, songs, etc.
And not only that but the HD Media Server offers a HDMI output, Dolby Digital 7.1 preamplified output, wireless connection with other devices like computers or mobile devices. Besides it can provide automation for many functions around the house like lighting, air conditioning, or room music.
What Alienware is trying to do with this new Media Server, is not only beat Sony, but conquer a new market of centralized home entertainment. A Media Server that not only takes care of your movies and music, records TV-shows or downloads media content from the web, but also centralize other house functions into one media core. It sounds good but I don’t know for sure if this trend for centralization is leading us in the right direction.
Saturday, August 18th, 2007 | Posted in Hardware | No Comments »
Stealth Computer Corporation a leading ISO 9001 manufacturer of industrial rugged computers and peripherals has released a small form factor or mini PC that is so small that it can fit on the palm of your hand. The LPC-350PCI Little PC employs Intel’s Pentium and Celeron M series processors, designed for optimum power efficiency without compromising processor performance. The robust anodized aluminum chassis measures just over 2 inches tall having the overall footprint about the size of a hard cover novel, measuring in at 10″ x 5.87″ x 2.75″ and weighing approximately 6 lbs.
One of the unique attributes the LPC-350PCI possesses is the open PCI card slot. “Clients can simply add specialized I/O, video, data acquisition and communications cards, something that cannot be achieved with other small computers such as notebook PCs” remarks Stealth’s President & CEO, Ed Boutilier.
The LPC-350PCI mini PC features a multitude of I/O connectivity built into its impressively small design such as; LAN, Serial, 3-USB 2.0, FireWire, Video, Audio, PS/2 Mouse & Keyboard ports. The LPC-350PCI has a built-in 2.5” high-shock hard drive with up to 160GB’s of storage space for archived data.
For applications that require extra high shock, vibration and wide temperature ranges an optional Solid State Hard Drive or Flash Drive is available. A slim DVD/CD-RW optical drive comes standard with an optional DVD burner available. Systems are compatible with Microsoft Vista/XP, Linux etc and can be custom configured to meet the exact needs of the OEM or end user. The Stealth LPC-350 series Little PCs are shipping now with prices starting at $995.00 USD depending on configurations. Stealth’s LittlePC products serve a demanding market where powerful solutions are being deployed in space-challenged applications around the world. Digital Signs, Kiosks, Embedded Control, Thin-Clients, POS & Human/Machine Interface are just a few of the applications that are ideal for Stealth’s LittlePC products.
Thursday, August 16th, 2007 | Posted in Hardware | No Comments »
Some new cooling systems are in order for the ever-growing heat produced by new generation processors. And although for now it’s just a project, the new ionic cooling project is just crazy enough to work. Water cooling systems, considered one of the best solutions to date might become obsolete if the developers manage to scale down their prototype and launch the product on the market.
The idea behind ionic cooling is that small “wind engines” will generate a constant flow of positively charged particles (ions) over the microchip, thus dissipating the heat in a much more efficient way. Traditional fans, although provide a strong flow of air have problems in removing molecules really close to the processor, and it’s exactly those particles that keep the microchip hot. This won’t be a problem of course for the ion cooling system, as it can move these particles in an ergonomic way to provide optimized cooling.
Here’s what researchers have to say about it:
“Other experimental cooling-enhancement approaches might give you a 40% or a 50% improvement (1.4 to 1.5 times the cooling rate of a conventional fan). A 250% improvement (3.5 times the cooling rate of a conventional fan) is quite unusual.”
