HTC Desire review
Tech Sunday, August 1st, 2010HTC Desire could be a dream buy, if you love touch screens.
Gigabyte: 1 million USB 3.0 motherboards served
Tech Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
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Gigabyte’s USB 3.0-capable motherboards have gone platinum, as they say in the record biz. Gigabyte announced that it has shipped 1 million USB 3.0 motherboards, giving them 1/3 of the overall USB 3.0 market share worldwide. Henry Kao, Senior Vice President, Motherboard Business Unit, Gigabyte, told MaximumPC, “Reaching the 1 million USB 3.0 products mark is a testament to Gigabyte’s strategy of innovating for the high-end product category, and then driving those innovations down through our product line quicker than our competitors in order to boost sales volumes.” This is a landmark number to be reached, and a signifier of Gigabyte’s rising stock with aficionados. Besides, who would be caught dead using USB 2.0?
Heatswell cups – coming to a coffee shop near you?
Tech Monday, March 22nd, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
So this is pretty cool; inventor Scott Amron has come up with a really interesting product for the hot beverage industry. We’ve told you about another product Scott came up with, the split ring key , which didn’t seem quite so useful. The current technology involves using a thick piece of paper that has to be applied every time a cup of coffee is poured. The Heatswell cup incorporates a heat sensitive, biodegradable paper that is attached the cup during manufacture, which insulates and reacts to temperature. The Heatswell paper reacts dramatically, and can incorporate 3D effects and logos as well. More information is available on the Heatswell website . Run a coffee shop? Ask for a few and see how they work.
The Digital Storm DAVINCI is a Core i7-980X workstation
Tech Wednesday, March 17th, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
The six-core Core i7-980X is hitting nearly all sectors of the computer world now. First gaming machines and now workstations. The Digital Storm DAVINCI is the latter in case you couldn’t tell by the product name. Just like in the BlackOPS Core i7-980X announced yesterday, the Davinci also gets the overclocking option, which brings the speed up to a whooping 4.44GHz from the stock 3.33GHz. If that doesn’t make Photoshop zip along, the Nvidia Quadro GPU options should. All this graphic power starts out $2,952 for a base Davinci system with the Core i7-980X rigs going for a minimum of $4,995.
AT&T announces zero draw anti-vampire charger
Tech Wednesday, March 17th, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
AT&T’s ZERO draw charger will turn itself off when it isn’t actively charging. That is all. It’s the eco-friendly charging solution for your mobile phone. Conventional chargers left plugged in – even when not actively charging – can draw as much as 5 to 20 times more energy than stored in the battery. The advanced, energy-saving AT&T ZERO Charger outperforms other chargers by automatically shutting down when not in use. “Vampire draw” is 100% eliminated and you’ll never have to unplug your charger again! Plus, USB compatibility makes the AT&T ZERO Charger a convenient charging station for many mobile devices! You can give them your email address . Why you would want to I don’t know. They should just put the product into every box that goes out the door.
Review: Creative World of Warcraft headset
Tech Sunday, March 14th, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
Short Version: Fresh from the box, Creative’s World of Warcraft, is here! They were designed for WoW players and their performance definitely reflects that. While a tad bulky, they don’t feel heavy. Pros • Very Comfortable • Hard to hear outside the headphones • Wireless Mic works well. Does not get in the way. • Driver allows deep customization of audio to serve your needs. Cons • No way to determine battery power. • Volume buttons feel a little flimsy. • Microphone can adjust but not very well. • In order to download drivers, you must register the product. • Reasonable but not impressive range. • Not compatible with consoles (at least the PS3) The headset packs a serious punch. Immediately, when you first put them on you’ll notice they muffle out sound very well. Despite the size they feel comfortable and even after prolonged periods of play your ears won’t ache. Windows has no trouble finding the skeleton drivers once I plugged in the USB device. I sought out to download the drivers and was surprised that they required me to register the product in order to install the drivers. Once that way squared away, I played around with the Audio Control Panel. They allow you to customize the Glyph illumination (change color, pulsation, etc). There’s a panel that allows you to customize 5 audio options that massively enhance the audio quality. There are also voice filters that allow you to mask your voice into various characters from WoW including XT-002 Deconstructor. Finally, you can bind your keys to various actions like mute to your keyboard. There’s no way to tell how much battery life you have on the wireless headset. Eventually they will simply go off. They can be charged by a simple mini-usb cable. They also work while plugged in so you can play while charging – granted – this technically defeats the purpose of a wireless headset. All the audio options make a huge improvement to the game. The surround sound works surprisingly well. Better than previous simulated surround sound devices I’ve ever used. Quick note: all sounds are based on the character’s perspective (not camera) so be wary if you’re in a PVP zone and you hear fire off in the distance. I only have 3 significant complaints. They probably placed the microphone far from the mouth to prevent pop but you can only bend it so far. This can also be troublesome if you raid late at night and loved ones are in the room: you can’t mumble effectively. Other than that, the microphone works very well. The volume buttons are flimsy and often don’t feel like they work. They are sensitive but don’t increase the volume more than 2 percent making it quicker to adjust volume via the slider. You may also hit the volume (or even microphone mute) buttons while taking off/putting on the headphones. My last major gripe is the lack of compatibility of with the consoles. The PS3 can recognize some USB headsets and the WoW headphones would have made an excellent headset but alas; the PS3 could not detect the wireless USB key. I haven’t checked for the 360 yet. You can walk around your room with the headphones on, but they won’t last a bathroom trip. This is mildly disappointing but considering you’re not meant to be roaming your household with them on, it can be forgiven. On that note, I discourage roaming around with the glyphs pulsating. Sure they may look cool to you, but to anyone else, you will be confused with a tool. Creative’s World of Warcraft wireless headset sells at $159.99. While not completely necessary, the audio improvements they make are incredible and the headset does serve as a status symbol. There’s nothing quite like going to the kitchen with your headset on listening to music of Dalaran. Gabriel Deleon, Nicholas’ younger brother who has like 10 level 80s, wrote these fine words.
How the iPad, and the slate computer, will evolve in the next two years
Tech Wednesday, March 10th, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
With the iPad hitting pre-order in two days and shipping in April , it’s important to think about when and why to buy the iPad. Based on our understanding of the product lifecycle and expected moves by Apple’s competitors, we foresee big changes in the ultraportable landscape with the ultraportable/netbook as we now know it mutating – or branching – into a new species of media oriented Win7 and Android devices. Here’s what we can expect. April 3, 2010 – Big launch. Light crowds at the Apple Store. This isn’t huge-huge. It’s medium-huge and I don’t think you’re going to see an army of the pasty arriving at your local shop clamoring for iPads. This is Apple’s wait and see product, although I don’t doubt between 3-5 million won’t wait and see in 2010. May-June 2010 – Chinese knock-offs will flood the market and we’ll see a nice collection of weird, mutated slates hitting the more esoteric sites. Nothing major and no big sellers. Summer 2010 – Dell and HP release their devices. Dell’s is called the Mini 5 AKA the Streak and HP’s as of yet unamed . These guys will wait until the waters have been fully tested before they move with their devices. Holidays 2010 – Expect an iPad bump. This could include more memory for cheaper or more features. The most obvious feature is a front-facing camera. Holiday and Back-to-School are Apple’s favorite time to upgrade but I don’t see them doing much in the way of upgrading before next Christmas. Don’t expect a fall in price at this time, just a change in specs. Summer 2011 – A whole new iPad and a potential contender from another corner, potentially Microsoft’s Courier product. By this time Apple will have either convinced the world they need and iPad or we’ll have another MacBook Air on our hands. While I’m leaning towards the former, the latter could still come to pass. Here’s another ball out of left field: what if Google came out with a slate running their own official version of Chrome OS. A GooglePad, then, would blow everyone’s minds and essentially make this a two-horse race. It’s a fascinating idea but I wouldn’t expect Google to move on this for at least a year. Back-to-School 2011 – Full iPad integration into the product line. The worst thing that the iPad could be at Apple is another Apple TV like outlier. By this time MacBooks will have changed, moving towards a more iPad UI model while netbooks will lose some ground to media slates that run Android and hang out on your coffee table. Carriers will also get in on the act with manufacturers like HTC upping the size of their devices to reflect a slate form factor. The trick is for Apple to normalize the slate form factor. Yes, slates have been around for years but people have never seen the value in a slate computer except in niche situations. What the iPad is is a slate “browser” or “net device,” something decidedly different than the monstrosities we’ve seen thus far. In general, once slate usage is normalized, I don’t think the mass of iPad/slate users will actually want to go back to netbooks. While I may be bullish, I think the iPad is carving a niche that will change entire landscape of low-cost computing this decade.
The Dell Adamo XPS really is discontinued even though it’s still available for purchase
Tech Wednesday, March 10th, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
Let me catch you up. We received a tip back on Monday indicating that the Adamo XPS had disappeared from Dell.com. This of course caught our attention as the super-thin Dell was just announced back in late October and only available for purchase since December. We of course checked it out and found that the XPS model wasn’t found on the Adamo microsite (www.AdamoByDell.Com), which just so happens to be the first site listed on Google for that model. The Adamo XPS also wasn’t listed alongside the other Adamo models or on Dell.com’s master notebook list that also includes Alienware models. The only way you can find it on Dell.com is if you use the search tool and even then the purchase link on the product page is dead . We then reached out to our Dell contacts, but they didn’t respond in a timely manner. I then asked two separate Dell chat agents who both clearly stated that the Adamo XPS was discontinued. Satisfied with the conclusion that the XPS was in fact gone, I ran the post not thinking anything of it. It was just another news story to me. But not to dell apparently. Several other sites ran similar stories on Monday except they simply asked the question whether or not the Adamo XPS was discontinued rather than stating my conclusion that it was dead. Throughout the day, these stories were updated, quoting an official dell spokesmen that stated that the model was in fact still around and not discontinued. Dell finally emailed us and commented on our story nearly six hours later. The comment : Hi Mark. I saw your article and thought I’d drop a quick comment to clarify the issue. The first point I’d like to make is that the Adamo XPS is still available in the U.S. at select Best Buy Stores and on bestbuy.com, still starting at $1,999.00. It has not been “discontinued” as such, but was meant to be a proof point to Dell’s design and engineer capabilities. Because of this, it was similar to a “limited edition”, and most of the original supply has since been accounted for. Those who want one can still get it from the aforementioned sources. Also of note: the original Adamo is still available on adamobydell.com with a starting price point of $999. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions 
JohnBatDell First, my name is Matt, not Mark. But that comment just confirmed my post. It states that most of the Adamo XPS’s limited supply have nearly been exhausted and the model is currently only available from Best Buy. Right? That’s what it says. Ok, so maybe calling the Adamo XPS discontinued is a wrong choice of words, because apparently it was only intended to be a limited edition model anyway. But it’s a fact that the model has reached the end of its life and therefore deserves the R.I.P sentiment I gave it in the post’s picture. This brings us to today as Gizmodo finally ran its Adamo XPS R.I.P. post . (they later pulled it from the front page) Dell quickly sent us an email asking when were we going to update our post because apparently we got it all wrong and Gizmodo ousted us as their source — even though they didn’t in the post, but I still love Rosa. Dell’s request didn’t sit very well with me so I pulled out my Sherlock Holmes pipe and went to work reconfirming my original post. Once again I confirmed that the Adamo XPS is no longer on Dell.com. It’s still not listed as a current model or available to purchase. The only way you can pull up the model is still by searching for it. AdamoByDell.com , Adamo models , master list . Then John Biggs and I both contacted Dell Chat Support and were told that the model was “discontinued” and “reached its end of life.” Check the gallery below for transcripts. Fair enough, Dell told us that Best Buy still had it online and in stores so I checked that out, too. The only thing is we can’t find it in any store besides one in New Jersey. It’s not at any location in Detroit, Flint, San Francisco, SoCal, Denver, Phoenix, Philidelphia, Boston, Minneapolis, upstate New York, or New York City proving that it’s in very limited supply. Once again, check the pics below. I then called my local Best Buy location where I was told that yes, I could still order it, but I better hurry because it was discontinued. What it seems we have here is a company trying to save face. You see, the Adamo XPS only hit retail shelves back in December and people just started to get their hands on the product. Laptop Magazine posted their review of it the same day I wrote its obituary. It could be true that the Adamo XPS was just a limited-time product, but it was never marketed as such. Even if it was a Halo project of sorts, why remove nearly every instance from Dell.com and the Adamo microsite? It’s an amazing piece of modern technology that Dell should display for the whole world to see — even if it’s at the end of its intended life. It’s true that you can still buy the Adamo XPS brand new in the box from a few retailers. It’s just like how you can still buy 2009 model year cars even though they are really discontinued. Except you don’t get a discount on the Adamo XPS.
Ezy Tablet PC features 10.2-inch multitouch screen, runs Windows
Tech Monday, March 8th, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
I’ll leave the comparisons between the Ezy Tablet PC and a certain device to be launched in a little under a month up to you. Actually, aside from the casing and the 10.2-inch multitouch LCD, there’s not a whole lot else in the way of commonality. The Ezy Tablet PC features the following: 10.2-inch multitouch display with 1024
WTFJeans feature special iPhone pocket, testicle padding, other weirdness
Tech Friday, March 5th, 2010&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1" class="alignleft" alt="">
WTF, indeed. These “WTFJeans” have a special micro fiber-lined iPhone/iPod Touch pocket (good idea), hidden memory stick pocket (okay, I guess), and extra padding on both sides of the crotch area so that, according to the product description, “No matter whether you wear the family jewels on the right like 90 percent of guys, or whether you’re a leftie—extra padding on both sides keeps them cozy.” Again, WTF indeed. The jeans are made in Europe and the first 100 pairs will sell for 59 Euro (around $80). That’s a “beta price” and the jeans ship April 1st, which may mean that these are an elaborate April Fool’s joke a month in the making. They’re not quite dumb enough to not be real, though, except for the ball warming feature. That micro fiber-lined pocket is actually a good idea. The stitching around the jeans is “Twitter bloo”. I’m beginning to think this whole Twitter thing might be catching on, seeing that it’s made its way into weird European pants. The jeans will be available in men’s and women’s cuts, although the ladies miss out on the hot crotch zone features. WTFJeans [wtfjeans.com via Mashable ]