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Personal Computing
Sanwa 12-port USB hub is the center of attention
By Darren Quick
00:41 November 6, 2009 PST
The incredible range of USB peripherals available and the shortage of free ports on many machines – particularly laptops – means that a USB hub is practically a necessity if you don’t want to waste precious time plugging and unplugging devices. Sanwa’s 12-port offering doesn’t quite match Brando’s effort in the number of ports, but is definitely the more eye-catching of the two when loaded up with devices. Its circular design might be OK for those rare occasions when you need a high tech table centerpiece, but will likely have cables running every which way on the desk when fully loaded. Read More
ASUS P7P55D-E Premium motherboard supports USB 3.0
18:26 November 4, 2009 PST
Asus has announced the world's first motherboard to support the upcoming USB 3.0 standard, allowing data transfer rates approaching 600MB/s. It also includes the latest generation SATA, which will support transfer speeds of up to 6Gbit/s, and the company has also flagged a cheaper alternative in the form of an add-in card that will offer these two functionalities for motherboards of the same family and will be sold for under US$30. Read More
Dell SX2210T - multi-touch, Windows 7 ready, full HD monitor
By Jude Garvey
17:55 November 2, 2009 PST
Spurred on by the release of Windows 7, the number of screens on the market offering the benefits of multi-touch functionality has jumped significantly in recent times. Acer, HP and Toshiba have released multi-touch notebooks and we've also seen multi-touch creep into the desktop and all-in-one PC arenas. Dell has had multi-touch PCs in its sights for a while and recently released the rugged Latitude multi-touch tablet. Now there's the Dell SX2210T – a 21.5 inch, 16:9 widescreen multi-touch monitor with full HD and integrated webcam. Read More
eviGroup enters touchscreen tablet market with 'the Pad'
By Paul Ridden
05:27 November 2, 2009 PST
It's only been a short while since eviGroup's Wallet MID was released and the French tech company has already unleashed its bigger sister - the Pad. With an Atom processor at its heart, a 160GB hard drive, WiFi, 3G and Windows 7 Home Premium, is this touchscreen tablet PC an Archos killer? Read More
ID titanium laser mouse - stunning design and a price to match
By Jude Garvey
17:41 October 30, 2009 PDT
With Apple’s new wireless Magic Mouse grabbing headlines this month, and innovations such as the multi-functional GlideTV navigator and Nortek Duplus mini wireless mouse being rolled-out almost weekly, it seems the days of the humble mouse are long gone. Enter Intelligent Design’s titanium laser mouse - a hand-crafted device that is anything but humble (or cheap) and while it doesn't have the smarts of Apple's new offering, its certainly lays down a challenge on the design front. Read More
AsusTek unveils the ESC 1000 - 1.1 teraflop ‘personal supercomputer’
By Paul Lester
19:26 October 29, 2009 PDT
Goodbye to the days when supercomputers had to fill a room and welcome Asus, purveyor of all things Eee and its first ever supercomputer - the ESC 1000. Produced in conjunction with NVIDIA and the National Chiao Tung university in Taiwan, the desktop-sized machine is capable of speeds up to a mighty 1.1 teraflops, which may pale in comparison to the petaflop Roadrunner, but then so does the footprint. Read More
Google releases developer build of Chrome for Mac
By Darren Quick
21:48 October 28, 2009 PDT
Mac users keen to give Google’s Chrome a try have had to endure a long wait compared to Windows users who have had a public stable release available to them since December last year. The wait is finally over with Google publicly releasing an official developer preview but, although it seems stable enough for daily use, there are a few caveats that may make it a good idea for most users to wait a little longer before using Chrome on a day-to-day basis. Read More
Dell Latitude XT2 XFR - small, tough and multi-touch capable
By Jeff Salton
22:15 October 27, 2009 PDT
Dell continues to expand its Latitude range by revealing a 12.1-inch rugged convertible tablet PC with a multi-touch display - the Latitude XT2 XFR. The company says this PC is designed to meet the unique and demanding needs of customers in the military, police, border patrol, field service organizations, factory fulfilment and first responders. At only 1.5 inches thick (38.1mm) this rugged 12.1-inch convertible tablet weighs 5.4lbs (2.45kg) and adds to Dell’s Rugged Mobility Solution offering that includes the fully rugged Latitude E6400 XFR and the semi-rugged Latitude E6400 ATG laptops. Read More
Acer Aspire Z5610 offers multi-touch support for Windows 7
By Paul Lester
17:15 October 27, 2009 PDT
The response to the release of Windows 7 has been generally very positive, bringing Microsoft some much needed respite from the issues that plagued Vista over the last few years. One of the more interesting facets of the new OS is the inclusion of touchscreen support, which seems to have been of particular interest to Acer, which recently released its first touchscreen notebook and has followed up with a touchscreen All-in-one PC - the Aspire Z5610-U9072. Read More
Acer releases 3D laptop
05:22 October 24, 2009 PDT
Acer's latest laptop aims to offer something new to videogame and movie enthusiasts: equipped with a 3D screen and glasses, the AS5738 is specifically designed to deliver 3D multimedia and it's also capable of translating standard 2D media content into the third dimension. Read More
Microsoft launches long awaited Windows 7
By Mick Webb
20:13 October 22, 2009 PDT
After much anticipation and speculation, Microsoft has finally released its long awaited Windows 7 operating system. Aiming to make it easier for users to “do the things they want to do on a PC”, Microsoft’s successor to the largely ill-conceived Vista brings a host of new features to the table. Read More
Apple iMac updates - new features including 27-inch widescreen model
By Jeff Salton
01:16 October 21, 2009 PDT
We’ve featured plenty of news lately about updates to laptops but here’s news for Mac-lovers who like their computers to "stay at home". Apple has unveiled an all-new iMac range featuring bigger and brighter LED-backlit 21.5 and 27-inch widescreen displays in a new edge-to-edge glass design and seamless all-aluminum enclosure. Apple says the new models are the fastest iMac’s ever, with Intel Core 2 Duo processors starting at 3.06GHz, and Core i5 and i7 quad-core processors for extra performance. What’s more, new iMacs come with a wireless keyboard and the all-new wireless Magic Mouse, the world’s first mouse with Multi-Touch technology pioneered by Apple on the iPhone. Read More
Apple takes inspiration from MacBook Pro for updated MacBook
By Darren Quick
01:10 October 21, 2009 PDT
Apple’s new MacBook update finds the notebook borrowing a few things from its bigger brother. Like the MacBook Pro, the new MacBook features a unibody enclosure, albeit polycarbonate instead of aluminum, an LED-backlit display, a glass multi-touch trackpad, and a built-in battery designed to deliver up to seven hours of battery life. Read More
Apple introduces world’s first multi-touch wireless ‘Magic Mouse’
By Darren Quick
23:58 October 20, 2009 PDT
The Apple rumor-mill’s speculation of a replacement for the Mighty Mouse has been borne out today, with Apple introducing the world’s first wireless multi-touch “Magic Mouse”. As with all Apple designs, the new mouse is a lesson in minimalist design with no buttons, scroll wheels or “nipples” on display. Instead, the entire top of the aluminum-based mouse is a seamless hard acrylic multi-touch surface that lets users navigate using the finger gestures made popular on other Apple devices, such as the iPod touch, iPhone and Macbook trackpads. Read More
Samsung STORY Station external drives cut standby power consumption to less than 1W
By Darren Quick
00:25 October 20, 2009 PDT
Samsung’s STORY Station drives will be the first 3.5-inch external hard drives to boast a standby power consumption of less than 1W. The typical standby power consumption of external hard drives is around 2.5W, so lowering that figure to 0.09W constitutes a reduction of more than 95 percent. The reduced standby power level easily meets requirements for the forthcoming European Union’s EuP (Energy Using Products) Directive for Standby Regulation, which is effective from January 2010. Read More
Acer announces Aspire One AOD250 netbook with Android and Windows XP dual-boot option
By Mick Webb
22:41 October 19, 2009 PDT
Acer has delivered on its promise to develop a netbook incorporating the Android operating system with the release of the updated Aspire One AOD250. Featuring a dual-boot option, the model operates with both Android and Windows XP. Read More
Acer delivers its first touchscreen notebook and updates the Timeline series
07:39 October 18, 2009 PDT
Up until now, touchscreen laptops have been one of two things — either low-resolution and lacking the horsepower to perform heavy tasks, or just too expensive. With the upcoming Aspire 5738PG, a multi-touch screen notebook sporting Windows 7 and some respectable specs priced at less than US$800, Acer is looking to bring a quality touchscreen experience within the budget of a wider range of users. On the same day, the PC giant also announced an update to its Timeline series with the addition of a 11.6-inch notebook and the transition to Intel dual-core processors on all existing models. Read More
Toshiba joins the multi-touch party with new Satellite laptops
By Mick Webb
03:32 October 16, 2009 PDT
Toshiba has announced its latest line of laptops, with two of the new Satellite models representing the company's first foray into multi-touch notebooks. While all models in the new range will ship with Windows 7 Home Premium, only the M505 and U505 Touch models will offer the touch-screen capabilities available via the new operating system. Read More
CyberLink TrueTheater Enhancer gives YouTube videos a spit and polish
By Darren Quick
01:10 October 16, 2009 PDT
I’ve always considered YouTube an example of “two steps forward, one step back.” Although it has provided a seemingly endless supply of video to keep us entertained, if not informed, it does so with often low quality video at a time when television services around the world have shifted to digital broadcasts offering improved high definition (HD) picture and sound. CyberLink is looking to bridge the divide with its TrueTheater Enhancer software that is designed to give YouTube content a spit and polish. Read More
HP releases TouchSmart PCs and 42-inch HD digital touch display
By Jeff Salton
19:20 October 14, 2009 PDT
HP has burst forth and launched a range of multi-touch computing products comprising three new TouchSmart PCs and a fully-functional interactive 42-inch HD digital signage display, the HP LD4200. The company has also upgraded its multi-touch notebook range with new touch features. Read More
10/GUI the human computer interface of the future for people with more than two fingers
By Darren Quick
03:43 October 14, 2009 PDT
Those old enough to remember the command line interfaces of yesteryear are only too aware of what a godsend the Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) of today are. However, the human computer interface (HCI) developed in the 1970s at Xerox PARC, combining a desktop metaphor GUI and mouse controller, has remained largely unchanged ever since. Now R. Clayton Miller proposes the next step in the evolution of HCI's with his 10/GUI concept that harnesses the power of multi-touch by removing the touch surface from the screen. Read More
Gateway introduce One ZX Series all-in-one PCs with multi-touch
By Mick Webb
21:13 October 13, 2009 PDT
With the official release of Windows 7 just around the corner, Gateway has introduced a new line of all-in-one desktop PC’s that take advantage of the multi–touch capabilities of the highly anticipated operating system. The competitively priced One ZX Series combines stylish design with impressive features aimed at both the serious and more casual user. Read More
Belkin’s Easy Transfer Cable for Windows 7 makes upgrading smoother
05:11 October 10, 2009 PDT
Upgrading to a new operating system is a notorious mess — you need to find all of your data and user settings (often spending hours doing so), burn them to a DVD or other support and then copy them all to the new OS. Belkin's "Easy Transfer Cable" for Windows 7, a USB 2.0 cable with accompanying software aims to make the whole process much easier by guiding you through the transfer process, automatically finding your data and settings and streamlining the transition from XP or Vista to the upcoming Windows 7. Read More
Mouse 2.0: Microsoft's multi-touch mouse prototypes
05:01 October 10, 2009 PDT
It's been over forty years since the first computer mouse saw the light of day, and the fact that its basic design hasn't changed all that much is a testament to the original. But that doesn't mean there's no room for improvement. A group of researchers at Microsoft has come up with five new experimental designs that tie traditional mouse functionality to increasingly popular multi-touch technology on a single device. Read More
Kingston releases MobileLite Flash card reader, reloaded
03:24 October 10, 2009 PDT
Kingston recently released MobileLiteG2, the second generation of its portable Flash card reader. The 18.9g plug-and-play unit shows up as two separate devices on your system to make it easier to transfer data between Flash memory cards using only one USB port. Read More
Jonathan Cole
- November 6, 2009 @ 16:15 UTC
