TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

GPS and location-related features are undoubtedly gaining popularity on smartphones, but Dell hopes they’ll also become a major selling point for netbooks. The company plans to introduce an optional mini-PCI module with its Dell Mini 10 offering next week that combines both an internal GPS card from Broadcom and Wi-Fi triangulation technology from Skyhook Wireless to find its own location.

The $69 Wireless 700 card will be accompanied by mapping software from CoPilot navigation software for turn-by-turn directions, 2D and 3D maps, and trip optimizations including detours. It will also work with the Loki plug-in to make Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers location-aware, meaning users could geo-tag photos on Flickr, find nearby points of interest, or check weather information customized to their current location. Dell says the technology will initially require Windows XP, with Vista and Windows 7 support to come later.

Former Inquirer writer Charlie Demerjian is reporting (for his new project called SemiAccurate, mind you) that recent negotiations between Apple and Nvidia over next-gen hardware have come to a bitter halt. At issue is supposedly a much publicized problem with previous-generation GeForce GPUs that affected many of Apple’s MacBook laptops, forcing them to offer a costly warranty extension and repair refund policy.

While the newer 9400M chipsets which are now the basis of nearly all of Apple’s machines don't appear to be affected, there is some speculation that the 9600M GPUs used in 15" and 17" MacBook Pros may also suffer similar failures. But it is Nvidia’s questionable handling of the whole situation and arrogant stance that has Apple angered and looking for new suppliers.

However, the alleged ditching of Nvidia hardware (if true) is likely due to the fact that Core i7 chips for laptops are scheduled to be released in the second half of the year and Nvidia doesn’t have a chipset product for that space. The graphics firm is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with Intel over whether or not it is licensed to make chipsets compatible with Intel processors that include an integrated memory controller – such as Nehalem CPUs.

Regarding its relationship with Apple, Nvidia claims nothing has changed in the last few weeks and that the Cupertino-based company is still buying their notebook GPUs and chipsets.

Packard Bell (subsidiary of Acer) has revamped its “imedia” desktop series – and their logo too, for what it’s worth. While notebooks and mobile technology as a whole has exploded, desktops still offer the best bang for your buck. Keeping this close to heart, the top-end imedia has been outfitted with components which balance cost and performance.


At its best, the imedia provides the choice between an Intel Core 2 Quad and an AMD Phenom II X4, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GT230 with a whopping 1.5GB of VRAM. It has plenty of storage capacity with up to a 1TB HDD and is media-friendly with HDMI-out and a Blu-ray combo drive. It houses 6 USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA port, a multi-card reader and an optional Firewire port. Other optional specifications include a DVBT TV tuner with a remote control and a Wi-Fi adapter.

Cutting edge? Nah – but it’s a great package that offers quite the spectrum of customization. Its starting price isn’t half bad either at £299 ($489), which kicks things off with a Celeron.

Although Microsoft already supports the use of solid state drives in Windows Vista and XP, Windows 7 will be their first operating system actually optimized and designed with SSD performance in mind. Will its forthcoming release boost adoption of such drives, however? According to Digitimes, their cost is simply too prohibitive to make that a reality, with most drives still on the order of ten times more costly per gigabyte than traditional disks. As a result of that, sources at notebook vendors estimate that by the end of the year, SSDs will compose a mere 1% of the market.

While Windows 7 may not serve much to further their adoption on the basis of cost alone, it might be a tad shortsighted to gauge the state of SSDs based on market share alone. Manufacturing costs and storage densities are improving very rapidly. If you recall, some of the first available drives were selling for over $50 per gigabyte a few years back. Putting things into perspective with today’s prices, that means a drop rate significantly faster than mechanical disks are currently achieving.

One must also consider Windows 7 sales even farther down the road, where PC retailers might have the choice between a 1TB HDD or a 512GB SSD – the price premium might be easily overlooked a year from now.

Following the delivery of final specifications and first host controller samples, it appears that the SuperSpeed Universal Serial Bus standard, better known as USB 3.0, is about ready for a commercial rollout. According to a Nikkei report, Taiwanese PC vendors will be among the first to release computers equipped with the next-gen interface, which promises up to 5Gbps transfer speeds, or roughly ten times the speed of USB 2.0.

Citing rapid development in integrated circuits and the shipment of compliant controllers to PC manufacturers, the website claims the first USB 3.0-compatible PCs could appear by the end of the year, with 2010 seeing the start of a mass rollout. External storage is the likely first application of this technology. Unfortunately, USB 3.0 devices are not expected to reach its full potential at launch, with speeds probably reaching only 1.2Gbps initially. This is expected to improve as the standard matures though, as it was the case with its predecessor, paving the way for stuff like HD video streaming or backing up gigabytes of data in mere seconds.

Taiwan consumer regulators have ordered Dell to honor a pricing slip-up on their website that offered 19-inch LCD monitors for only NT$500 (around $15). The pricing mistake was posted late Thursday, and while it has been fixed since, news of the supposed bargain spread quickly via email, blogs and sites like Twitter. In the eight hours before Dell corrected the listing to the intended price of NT$4,800 ($148), 26,000 people had placed orders for nearly 140,000 displays.

Dell apologized and promised to offer “reasonable discounts” to those who ordered the incorrectly-priced monitors. Naturally, people were not happy. Taiwan’s Consumer Protection Commission said it has received 471 complaints about the mix-up and ordered Dell to complete orders for customers who had only ordered one monitor. Those who had ordered more than one should receive discounts on the second and further units.

According to the agency’s statement, if Dell doesn’t follow the directive, they will consider it a violation of Taiwan’s fair trade laws and seek legal recourse.

Pretty much confirming rumors of an impending update to Intel’s SSD lineup, Micron announced today it has begun mass-production of 16Gb and 32Gb multi-level cell NAND chips using a 34nm process. According to the company, its newly-designed 32Gb multi-level cell (MLC) NAND chip is 17 percent smaller than its first-gen counterpart, while the 16Gb chip measures only 84mm squared.

The process shrink and tiny footprints will enable customers to provide more cost-effective, high-capacity storage in small form factor products. As far as performance goes, both 16Gb and 32Gb products feature an ONFI 2.1 synchronous interface that delivers transfer speeds of up to 200MB/s. Micron is also sampling 8Gb and 16Gb single-level cell (SLC) NAND chips using its 34nm process technology, which are expected to feature even faster write speeds, lower power consumption and higher cell endurance.

The official press release only confirms the MLC chips will be used in a variety of Lexar memory products, but an announcement from its partner Intel can't be far off now.

Samsung already broke the typical netbook mold back in February when it announced the Nano-powered NC20. Now in a similar fashion, the company is joining Lenovo in bringing mainstream PC graphics to the segment, with the introduction of its Ion-based N510. Shown briefly during an Nvidia presentation, the new netbook will sport an 11.6-inch (1366 x 768) display, and Intel’s latest Atom N280 processor under the hood clocked at 1.66GHz.


Besides housing an Nvidia 9400M graphics chip, the N510 should have relatively standard netbook components. These include a 160GB hard disk drive, 1GB of memory, Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity, Bluetooth, a webcam, multi-format memory card reader, 6-cell Li-Ion battery and Windows XP Home. The N510 should arrive as soon as next month, though unfortunately the rumored 570€ (~$800) price tag puts it firmly into full-notebook territory. (Image source: Legit Reviews)

HP and Dell have dominated the PC market in terms of worldwide sales for a quite while, but the latter may soon be losing its number two spot to Acer. According to the New York Times, at its current growth rate, the Taiwanese manufacturer is poised to overtake Dell before the end of the year, becoming the first non-American company to earn such a high place in the global PC sales chart.

In the past year, Acer’s market share grew by 3 percentage points to 10.9 percent, compared to a near-flat growth of 0.1 percent for Dell to 15 percent. That gap further closed this past quarter to just 2 percent, with Acer claiming 11.6 percent of the market versus Dell’s 13.6 percent. The difference is attributed to an emphasis on lower-cost systems and some solid business moves in recent years.

These include the acquisitions of Gateway, Packard Bell and eMachines, all of which address different markets and have produced good sales numbers for Acer. The company was also early to the netbook market, and its Acer Aspire One netbook has already ousted Asus for the top spot in this category.

AMD is said to be on the verge of delivering a higher-clocked successor to the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition. The news was reported over the weekend by Expreview, which spotted details of the still unannounced CPU on ASRock’s website. Apparently, the so-called AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition will have the same amount of cache and the same 125W power envelope as the 955, just with a higher 3.4GHz clock speed.

In terms of performance, the extra 200MHz will help AMD compete against Intel’s Core 2 Quad offerings and perhaps even the Core i7 920, which currently sells for around $280. While no pricing information for the new part is mentioned, some expect it to launch at the same $245 AMD currently charges for its flagship Phenom II X4 955. The company might also choose to price the new 3.4GHz processor closer to the $320 Core 2 Quad Q9650 – at least initially, before dropping prices down to more competitive levels when Intel starts delivering Lynnfield processors later in 2009.

According to a piece on The Inquirer, Intel is about to update its much-lauded SSD lineup with the introduction of new units based on the firm’s 34nm NAND chips. Initially expected for a Q4 release, it now appears that the drives could arrive in just a couple of weeks, bringing larger capacities, reduced power consumption, even faster performance and most importantly a drop in price.

Intel’s 34nm-based lineup will reportedly include a 320GB drive, which fits nicely with rumors we heard back in January, alongside 160GB and 80GB models. No details regarding price or performance were revealed, but they did mention other capacities could be announced when the drives officially launch.

The current X18-M and X25-M solid state drives use a 50nm process, have 80GB and 160GB capacities with 2-bit multi-level cell (MLC) technology, and deliver up to 250MB/s and 70MB/s read and write speeds. A single level cell X25-E model is also available with faster I/O rates and 32GB and 64GB capacities. Prices range from around $350 to upwards of $800 depeding on model and capacity.

Asus has unveiled two gaming laptops stamped with the well-established Republic of Gamers (ROG) seal. When the company first began using the ROG name, it was mostly imprinted on gaming-oriented motherboards. It is now seen on notebooks and a few other products, to highlight their intent for gamers.


Jumping right in, the G51Vx and G60Vx appear to share identical specifications, apart from the extra .4” of display on the G60. They each offer the choice between a host of Intel Core 2 Duo’s and a Core 2 Quad Q9000. They have an Intel PM45 + ICH9M chipset, up to 4GB of DDR2 800MHz RAM, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M with 1GB DDR3 VRAM, support for dual SATA HDDs (up to 1TB 5400RPM and 640GB 7200RPM), a Blu-ray combo drive and a 2 megapixel webcam.

Asus claims to have remedied the typical thermal issues presented when squeezing a GTX 260M into a 15” form factor. The laptops weigh in excess of 7lbs when equipped with a 6 cell battery and single HDD. There’s no word on US availability, but folks in the UK are looking at a September launch date and a price of £1,500 (about $2,475).

Research firm iSuppli has torn apart yet another Apple device, this time it was the entry-level Mac Mini. The company discovered that the system’s bill of materials runs about $376.20, and jumps up to $387.14 with manufacturing costs.


The dissected model retails for about $599, and packs an Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, 1GB of DDR3 RAM, Nvidia GeForce 9400M, 120GB HDD, a DVD burner and a WLAN/Bluetooth module. These components consume about $289.51, or 74.8% of the entire production cost. The most expensive of them is Intel’s CPU at $118.35, which is well ahead of the 9400M GPU at $65.16 and HDD at $46.

The firm’s data sheet attributes the mainboard and standoffs with $7.55, an AC adapter with $14.25, and enclosure materials with $8.92. “Other material costs” are said to make up $55.97 of the BOM. If you didn’t break out a calculator above, the Mac Mini costs about $10.94 to manufacture. As always, iSuppli’s figures don’t reflect costs associated with intellectual property, royalties, licensing and other fees.

Corsair is announcing the introduction of two new SSD models this week. Available in 64 and 128GB sizes, the capacity of these drives isn't particularly noteworthy, but Corsair is instead focusing on performance aspects to grab our attention. The slower of the two, the P64, will write at speeds upwards of 120MB/sec, whereas the P128 can nearly double that at 200MB/sec.

The drives are based upon the existing technology Corsair already uses in the P256, so they are naturally intended to fill price points underneath that model. The 128GB model is available now priced somewhere around the $350 mark, which is about half the cost of the existing P256, and pretty much in line with similar capacity drives from other vendors. The 64GB variant is expected to be available next month, though its price is not yet known.

It is hard to get terribly excited about new SSDs any longer, with so many options available and the price premiums on them remaining high. With every new drive that is released however, we're one step closer to a market of SSDs that is affordable to everyone. SSD adoption may seem slow, but looking at it from a price per gigabyte standpoint the market has made leaps and bounds in just a few years.

When new products hit the market, you usually expect early adopters to end up paying the most for them. The iPhone, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 all serve as examples of products that are now much cheaper than on launch day. However, when one of these receives a technical refresh or is replaced by a successor, it rarely comes with a price hike as well. That will not be the case with the PSP Go, which will be priced significantly higher than the current PSP-3000 at $250, despite dropping the expensive UMD drive in favor of cheap flash memory.

Why the increase? Joystiq might have the answer, with a short blurb from Andrew House of Sony explaining some of the justification. When prompted if the increase in price was related to R&D costs or if they were seeking to make retailers happy with a better markup, the answer was no to both questions. Instead, it was revealed that Sony believes there’s a certain “premium” that gets attached to a product simply for the novelty factor; Sony will charge more for the PSP Go because they can.

Uncommon? Not at all. You can fire shots at any high-tech device and claim that customers were being overcharged in the beginning. If people are willing to pay the high price, the manufacturer will surely be willing to collect on it. If enough people got wind of such actions, though, you might see the number of early adopters dropping off – forcing manufacturers to drop their prices down to reality sooner rather than later.

Though Apple is the undisputed king of portable media players today, we can't discount the numerous competitors that are all seeking to steal some of its glory. Microsoft is one of the biggest among them, and has for several years now been trying to make the Zune a better buy than the iPod. They haven't achieved that yet, but will be getting a leg up later on this year when they launch the Zune HD.

Redmond hasn't officially confirmed their release date for the new players, but rumors surfaced this week indicating it is on the schedule for release around September 8th. Microsoft will reportedly push out 16GB and 32GB models, being one of the first devices based around Nvidia's Tegra platform. The latter is what likely interest technophiles the most, as we'll get to see the much hyped platform in action.

That interesting tidbit aside, there’s one thing that strikes me as odd with this rumor. Though 16GB and 32GB sizes are perfectly logical for an mp3 player, the Zune HD is intended to be more than that, with Microsoft expecting people to watch HD videos on it as well. When it comes to hi-def content, even 32GB is very limiting. Is that really the top end of Zune capacity Microsoft will put out for now?

Gone is the day that you need a battery backup for Adaptec’s RAID controller cards, as the company has introduced a NAND flash cache and capacitor duo. The company’s series 5 RAID cards use cache memory to store data prior to leaving the card. Being volatile storage, data stored in the cache is lost during power failure.


Adaptec’s 5Z Series cards now come armed with a "super capacitor" and secondary NAND cache. When a lack of power is presented, the capacitor contains enough juice to write the traditional cache’s contents to the NAND cache, thus evading data loss. The capacitor and controller card are separate units, adjoined with a power cord. There are numerous benefits of kicking your battery to the curb – not least its lengthy recharge time. The super-capacitor charges in mere minutes of having a power source.

Adaptec is rolling out the 5Z upgrade to RAID controller cards with low port counts first. Among the cards is the 5445Z which has four internal and four external ports, the 5805Z with 8 internal ports and the 5405Z with 4 internal ports. The change will be phased into cards with higher ports progressively. For now, the mentioned devices are available and priced from $785 to $1,045.

Only one day after drawing back the curtain on its new ProBook and Mini netbook yesterday, HP has unveiled a new generation of wallet-friendly desktop PCs. Of the four systems introduced, the Pavilion p6000 and Slimline s5000 are the least expensive starting at $270 and $290. Unsurprisingly, with similar specifications, they're only geared for the most basic of tasks - but that's not to take any thunder away from the bargain.

The p6000’s base specs open with an AMD Sempron LE1300 CPU, 2GB of DDR2 800MHz RAM, a 320GB HDD, and an Nvidia GeForce 6150. Only a notch ahead, the Slimline s5000 series offers a “free” upgrade to a 500GB HDD and throws in a 6-in-1 memory card reader – not bad for an extra $20. Both models have a wide spectrum of upgrades available. I bumped the s5000 up to an AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750, 3GB of RAM and a 512MB Nvidia GeForce G210 for a total of $430, and a Blu-ray player pushes the sale to $550.


Starting at $380, the Compaq Presario CQ5000 is the most balanced system of the bunch. It ships with an AMD Athlon X2 7550, 3GB of RAM, a 128MB Nvidia GeForce 6150 SE, 320GB HDD and Vista Home Premium 64-bit. The most expensive and best equipped of HP’s new desktops is their Pavilion Elite e9000. Its pricing begins at $600 and it delivers an AMD Phenom II X2 545 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz RAM, a 512MB Nvidia GeForce G210, 500GB HDD (“free” upgrade to 640GB), 15-in-1 card reader and Vista Home Premium 64-bit.

The current HDD and monitor upgrade promotions are scheduled to expire on Saturday the 27. So, a friendly word of advice for you: hold off on your purchases until June 26 at 12:01AM ET. Not only will you snag a free component upgrade, but you'll be eligible for HP's Windows 7 Upgrade Program as well.

In an effort to extend their reach and make their name better known, Sugar Labs, the developers of the open-source platform originally designed for the XO-1 laptop will soon make the software available in an entirely new format. Nicknamed “Sugar on a Stick,” the software package is being released for 1GB USB flash drives, so that any PC can turn into a fully-functional educational desktop.

The platform is specifically engineered to run smoothly even on aging or obsolete hardware, making it more accessible in locations where modern hardware is too expensive or altogether inaccessible. The developers at Sugar Labs are interested in getting feedback from people who use it, looking to help optimize the speed and smoothness of the environment, a key concern when trying to make it run on as many hardware platforms as possible. Interestingly, there are reports of the software running on other low-cost laptops like Intel's Classmate PC.

Based on Fedora, Sugar on a Stick comes well after Sugar Labs split off from OLPC, and represents a part of their effort to get computing into the hands of everyone in the world.

From the outside, Apple’s iPhone 3G S seems nearly identical to the 3G model released last year, but it’s what’s on the inside that matters they say. Indeed the company claims their latest and greatest smartphone offers twice the performance of its predecessor, longer battery life, and an improved camera. But who and what is behind the device’s capabilities? Looking to answer that question, iSuppli has performed one of their accustomed teardown analyses, showing the source of components and estimating the manufacturing costs.


The market research firm estimates the new iPhone 3G S – or at least the 16GB model – has about $172.46 worth of materials and costs $6.50 to make. In total, that’s a little over $4 more than the previous iPhone at release last year and quite a bit more than the Palm Pre. Toshiba scored the biggest single design win in the 3G S, with its 16GB MLC NAND flash costing $24. The 3.5-inch display module was the second priciest component estimated at $19.25, while costs of the associated touch-screen display electronics followed in third at $16.

Samsung supplies the applications processor, priced at $14.46, and Infineon continues to supply its PMB8878 baseband chip for an estimated $13. Meanwhile, Broadcom replaced discreet Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips from Marvell and CSR, respectively, with a $5.95 part that handles both features in addition to having a tiny FM radio receiver on board – even though the iPhone currently has no FM-receiving features. A complete breakdown of the iPhone's components can be found at iSuppli’s website.

Western Digital already bumped its My Book Studio Edition II hard drive to 4TB earlier this month, and now the company is doing the same for its networked storage line. The My Book World Edition II NAS is based on two Caviar Green drives in 1TB or 2TB sizes, for a total of 2TB or 4TB respectively, which can be configured in a mirrored RAID 1 array for an extra level of protection or RAID 0 if capacity and speed over redundancy is required.


As one would expect, the drive attaches to home networks using a Gigabit Ethernet connection, and is compatible with both PC and Mac systems. Bundled with automatic backup software and streaming media utilities, the new and improved My Book World Edition II can act as an iTunes server or a DLNA-compatible device, streaming content to Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 consoles and some digital TVs. Users can also securely access their files from anywhere in the world using the free MioNet remote access service included.

It’s not as robust and feature-rich as the Synology Disk Station DS-409+ NAS, which we recently reviewed, but then again WD is targeting home users here rather than small-and-medium businesses. As such, it also comes with more affordable price tags of $400 for a 2TB version and $700 for the 4TB one.

HP has unveiled a new business-focused netbook today, the Mini 5101, as well as a new member to its ProBook family of laptops launched earlier this year. The first is the successor to the Mini 2140, which is currently being phased out, and comes sporting some slightly bumped specs along with a 95-percent chiclet keyboard that is reportedly spill-resistant and a slick aluminum and magnesium housing.


The HP Mini 5101 has a 10.1-inch matte display that comes either in 1024 x 600 or 16:9 HD resolutions (1366 x 768). It is powered by a 1.66GHz N280 Atom processor, 1 or 2GB of 533MHz DDR2 memory, and will include a 160GB fast-performing 7,200RPM hard drive as standard with the unit. Additional storage options include 250GB and 320GB HDDs as well as 80GB and 128GB SSDs; and OS options include Windows XP Home, XP Pro, Vista Home Basic, Vista Business, or SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11.

A 2-megapixel webcam is built-in along with three USB ports, Wi-Fi, VGA out, headphone jack, and an RJ45 port. There will also be 4-cell and 6-cell battery options, for up to 4.5 or 8 hours of use respectively, according to HP. The 5101 is reasonably lightweight at less than 3 pounds and will be available next month starting at $449.

As for the HP ProBook 4310s, it shares the same basic design and styling as current models in the series, but comes with a smaller 13.3-inch display. It is built around Intel Core 2 Duo processors up to 2.8GHz, and ships with up to 4GB memory, hard drive options up to 500GB, and the usual range of connectivity options. The ProBook 4310s should also arrive this July, with a starting price of $799.

OCZ has launched their Sabre OLED multimedia and gaming keyboard. Its primary selling point is quite clear at first glance, with nine OLED hotkeys consuming the left portion of the device. With the Sabre’s intelligent management software, OCZ brags of its virtually boundless customization options.


For starters, the user-programmable OLED keys can convert any digital image or text into distinctive icons. They also permit the user to map sets of command tiers to each OLED, which can store limitless layers of shortcuts and macros. The hotkeys are able to switch their icons and command tiers as the user skips from one application to another. Launching a first person shooter for instance, can bring forth a programmed sub-grid of weapons and tool commands.

As anyone could guess, the Sabre was engineered with hardcore gamers and enthusiasts in mind. It connects via USB, features 128MB of flash memory, weighs a whopping 2.7lbs and its 103 keys are rated for over 5 million cycles. OCZ tells us its MSRP is $199.99 and it is expected to ship later on in the week to resellers.

Lenovo has unveiled the latest update to its ThinkPad line, the T400s, promising a full notebook experience for business users in an ultra-slim chassis. This 14-inch laptop measures 0.83in at its thinnest point, and is 20 percent lighter than its T400 predecessor at just under 4 pounds; largely because of its LED-backlit display and use of the carbon-fiber roll cage design that Lenovo first implemented in its X300.


Available with a starting price of $1,599, the T400s comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz processor, 120GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM, an integrated Intel GMA 4500 graphics chip, DVD burner, 2-megapixel Webcam, and Windows Vista Business. Battery life is rated at approximately 5.5 hours, when upgraded with a solid state drive, but as always you should take that with a grain of salt. Besides the typical connectivity features, which include optional 3G and WiMAX modules, the new ThinkPad can be configured with up to 8GB of RAM, a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo and a 2GB Turbo Memory cache to supposedly speed up load times.

The system is available now through the company’s website. Also today, Lenovo is releasing three new add-ons for its T400s: the ThinkPad Port Replicator Series 3, Mini-Dock Series 3, and Mini Dock Plus 3.

Gateway (subsidiary of Acer) has introduced its LT3100 “netbook,” which steps outside conformity and makes use of an AMD processor. Anyone can tell you the line in the sand between netbooks and notebooks is fading, and the LT3100 too, embarks beyond conventional boundaries. While its modestly petite 11.6” (16:9) WXGA LED display might yield the aura of a netbook, the LT3100 can take it a step further, as a sample configuration demonstrates in the press release.


It shows the spec sheet of an LT3103u, which features an AMD Athlon 64 L110 CPU, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, an ATI Radeon X1270 GPU, 250GB 5400RPM HDD, multi-in-1 card reader, 802.11 b/g capabilities, a web cam, three USB 2.0 ports, a 6-cell Li-ion battery and two stereo speakers. The Gateway LT3100 weighs about 3.14lbs, ships with Windows Vista Basic SP1 and a standard one-year warranty. Its base asking price is $399.99.

Maingear is adding some gaming capabilities to its Axess line of home theater systems with the introduction of the Axess HD Gamer. Just like its HD and HD PRO siblings, the new system combines a low profile design with aluminum case and optional OLED front panel display that is meant to blend in with other audio and video components in your living room; all while boasting some serious horse power under the hood.


Built around an Intel Core i7 processor and X58 chipset, the system can handle up to 12GB of DDR3 memory and dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT graphics cards in SLI configuration. The HD Gamer also ships with 500GB to 4TB of hard drive storage (high speed drives and SSDs are available as options), gigabit Ethernet, 8-channel HD audio, optional Blu-ray drive and HDTV tuner, and Windows Vista Home Premium with its media center UI. It is also the first PC to ship with the Phantom Lapboard, a combination wireless keyboard, laser mouse and hard surface that makes it easy for users to work or play games from the comfort of their couch.

The Axess HD Gamer is available at www.maingear.com with a starting price of $1,799. However, ordering one with all the bells and whistles can set you back well over $5,000.

Seagate is strengthening its external storage portfolio for small business today with the announcement of three new BlackArmor product offerings. The first is a network attached storage appliance called the BlackArmor NAS 220, which will be released in 2 and 4TB configurations, and is designed to provide data protection for up to 20 computers.


It can automatically and continuously back up networked computers, features two USB 2.0 ports to connect external drives, printers or an UPS, and sports two hard disk drives that can be configured with RAID 0 and 1 options but are not hot-swappable. The NAS 220 will be available in July, priced at $430 or $700 depending on storage capacity.

Also new are two BlackArmor external hard drives. The WS 110 includes a single 1TB ($159.99) or 2TB ($309.99) external hard drive with backup and encryption software, plus eSATA and USB 2.0 interfaces. The PS 110 is smaller (500GB) and lighter than the WS 110, and goes for $159.99.

Sony, and no doubt the investors and backers of Blu-ray, are well aware of the adoption woes that the technology is currently facing. A victory over HD DVD is hollow if it means nothing but lackluster sales in the face of customers still overwhelmingly favoring the older DVD. This is something Sony has been concerned about for some time, and while they have recently sought to reorganize and find a new way to make Blu-ray attractive, the truth is that Blu-ray is simply not performing as well as they'd hoped.

Depending on your frame of reference, this can actually be surprising news. Blu-ray is a format intended to be coupled with high-definition televisions, so it's easy to assume that sales of HD-capable TVs and Blu-ray players would go hand in hand. That just isn't the case – HDTV sales are on the rise, with a huge increase in market share over the past year in the U.S. (from an estimated 35% to 42%). Standalone Blu-ray players, on the other hand, are only in an estimated 7% of U.S. homes and PlayStation 3 consoles in about 9%. Why the difference? It's assumed that the increasing availability of hi-def content from cable and satellite providers plays a part, with people buying HDTV units for high-def TV content as opposed to movies.

Despite Sony winning a technical victory with Blu-ray, their adoption issues are still dismal. Many claim they are waiting for Blu-ray format prices to come down before taking to plunge, but players have already dropped below $200 in many areas and dip even lower on occasion. So what's stopping Sony from convincing the world it needs Blu-ray?

Acer announced today new Aspire notebooks that will join their existing Gemstone Blue line in the U.S. market. The latest systems place an emphasis on wallet-minded workhorse qualities with a media-centric garnish. Of the three systems, only two are presently available; the Aspire AS5536 and AS7735Z. The AS5739G, which is the most expensive of the bunch, won’t hit shelves until later on this month.

While the systems do vary in horsepower, they all share the same general build. Starting at $480 the AS6636 is the least expensive (and endowed) of the trio. It features a 15.6” 16:9 LED display, an AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-64, 3GB of DDR2 667MHz RAM, an ATI Radeon HD 3200 GPU, 320GB HDD, 8x DVD drive and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi capabilities.


The AS7735Z starts at $600 and packs a 17.3” display, an Intel Pentium T4200 and GMA 4500MHD, 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz RAM and a 250GB HDD. Jumping up to $750, the AS5739G takes a step backward with its 15.6” display but makes up for it with a Core 2 Duo T6500, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT130M and an 8x Blu-ray drive.

Sony has initiated a new member into the VAIO club, the NW series, which effectively retires the NS line. The latest entry has some pretty impressive multimedia-oriented specifications and a humble price point. While it’s no match for true desktop replacements, the VAIO NW would certainly meet the demand of a casual user.


The model features a 15.5” Xbrite display, Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, an ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570 with 512MB of memory at its disposal, 400GB hard drive, webcam, 802.11 a/b/g/n, VGA and HDMI-out as well as an optional 4x BD-ROM drive. The NW also features a button to turn off the display while the machine stays on and will house Memory Stick Pro, ExpressCard and SD card slots.

Sony’s new VAIO NW weighs in at about 6lbs, has a max battery life of 5.5 hours (standard spec says 4 hours) and will ship with Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit later this month. Pricing is expected to start around $800 and jump up to $880 with the built-in Blu-ray player.