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Personal Computing
Yes, it's for real: the Emperor Workstation
By Loz Blain
00:14 January 13, 2009 PST
January 13, 2009 Talk about over the top! This US40,000 contraption acts like a sedentary gamer's life-support system. Three synchronised 19" monitors adjustable to the perfect height, inbuilt 5.1 surround sound with a woofer right under your leather-coddled hiney - which is gently warmed or cooled by the seat depending on temperature, electronic posture-controlled reclining, subtle lighting, HEPA air filtration, and it gently and automatically rotates to avoid external glare. The Emperor Workstation uncoils like a scorpion to let you in, then closes in around you once you sit down to lock you into workstation world. Stick a hole in the seat with some plumbing, and sit it next to the fridge, and you wouldn't have to pause your game for ANYTHING. Read More
HP unveils 2009 line
By Kyle Sherer
19:48 January 12, 2009 PST
HP released the details of its 09 lineup at CES, outlining new notebooks, a desktop, a gaming keyboard, a server, and a photo printing app for iPhone. Among them, the inch-thick HP Pavilion dv2 weighs less than four pounds and has a high-capacity hard drive of up to 500GB. Read More
The Touch&Go Messenger 65P - world’s largest all-in-one computer
By Mike Hanlon
15:54 January 12, 2009 PST
January 13, 2009 Micro’s new US$15,000 touch screen Messenger 65P is designed as a retail-ready interactive consumer kiosk which can be used for self-service applications, digital signage, store maps, advertising, messaging, product information, and demonstrations. It can be hung from a ceiling or wall or even positioned on the countertop, but it's the dimensions of the bohemoth which couples Sharp’s largest commercial LCD with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor which make it stand out almost anywhere - 64.6" high by 37.6" wide by 7.4" deep. The Messenger 65P is on display at the Intel exhibit at the National Retail Federation’s BIG Show 2009 which opened this week. Read More
True-3D stereo vision gaming revolution begins
By Loz Blain
03:00 January 12, 2009 PST
January 12, 2009 Today's 3D games are already programmed to take depth of field into account as part of their game world graphics rendering. Your graphics card already knows exactly how far away the objects it's crunching are. So it's really only display and driver restraints that have prevented us from seeing our existing 3D games in a truly immersive stereoscopic 3D format. Vegas CES 2009 has shown us some extremely promising, and already affordable, stereoscopic 3D display technologies that work with the majority of recent release 3D games and take a big step forward towards the ultimate goal of virtual reality home gaming. We'll take a look at NVIDIA's 3D Vision system and iZ3D's stereoscopic monitors, which approach the task from different angles and give us a glimpse of what we can expect when 3D technologies flood the mainstream in years to come. Read More
Pogoplug introduces a new take on home file storage and sharing
17:41 January 11, 2009 PST
The Pogoplug is a diskless file server that plugs into your wall, and connects to your home network and to any external hard drive of your choice. OK, this sounds similar to dozens of existing home servers already on the market, but Pogoplug's secret sauce is a proprietary tunneling mechanism that let you access files on the device both at home and on the road, via your PC, Mac, or even iPhone. Read More
Clickfree's Transformer turns any USB drive into a backup device
09:35 January 10, 2009 PST
Sun Microsystems used to say, "the network is the computer", but in this case, the smarts are all in the cable. Clickfree's Transformer cable contains their backup and restore software, and uses the "autorun" feature of Microsoft Windows to automatically launch their backup/restore whenever the device is connected to your PC. None of the software is ever copied to your hard drive, but it does run each time you insert the cable directly from the device. We had a chance to get a quick demonstration from Clickfree's CEO, Bryan McLeod. Read More
pureSilicon's 1TB 2.5 inch SSD surpasses magnetic density for the first time
09:30 January 10, 2009 PST
New Jersey based startup pureSilicon announced their Nitro SSD line including the first 1TB 2.5" SSD at CES 2009. We had a chance to talk to their CEO, Jason Breakstone, and ask a few questions. Read More
Novint's Falcon 3D controller
By Mike Hanlon
21:00 January 7, 2009 PST
We all know the keyboard and mouse are NOT the future of the Computer Human Interface (CHI), and it’s high time we found a replacement capable of generating critical mass. One device with the potential to play a role in the next generation interface is the Novint Falcon. Aptly named because of its predatory view of the mouse, we wrote the Falcon up when it was first announced in 2005, then released in 2007, and this week Dave Weinstein and Noel McKeegan sat down with Tom Anderson, Novint's CEO to discuss the future of the Computer Human Interface. Read More
DisplayLink ups the ante with 2nd Generation 1920x1200 Chipset
01:08 January 7, 2009 PST
Amongst a bevvy of unannounced new monitor designs that included the company's video over USB technology, DisplayLink quietly demonstrated their 2nd generation chipset at the CES 2009 preview today, pushing their maximum supported resolution from 1600x1200 up to a full 1920x1200. Read More
Macworld '09: new 17-inch Macbook Pro features 8 hour battery life
12:29 January 6, 2009 PST
In what might be seen as somewhat of an anticlimax by those still yearning for a Mac entry into the netbook space, the key hardware announcement to emerge from this morning's keynote address at Macworld 2009 is a new 17-inch MacBook® Pro featuring a built-in battery that delivers up to an impressive eight hours of use and up to 1,000 recharges. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, introduced the new flagship notebook along with a number of new software innovations including the new iLife® ’09, which brings major upgrades to iPhoto®, iMovie® and GarageBand®. The new 17-inch MacBook features the unibody aluminum enclosure and glass Multi-Touch™ trackpad introduced with the MacBook family in October 2008 and its slimline (0.98-inch) profile and weight of just 6.6 pounds make it the world’s thinnest and lightest 17-inch notebook according to Apple. It's also the most powerful Mac® notebook yet - 2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors and 8GB DDR3 main memory at its highest spec. Read More
SanDisk's new Ultra Backup Flash drive
By Kyle Sherer
10:36 January 6, 2009 PST
SanDisk’s Ultra Backup USB Flash drives allow users to securely store and protect their data at the touch of a button. Billed as world first functionality for a USB portable Flash drive, the backup technology is designed to quickly and painlessly copy important files and will be available from April in capacities ranging from 8GB-64GB. Read More
Lenovo's IdeaCentre A600 All-in-One Desktop
By Mike Hanlon
01:26 January 6, 2009 PST
The IdeaCentre A600 is Lenovo’s first all-in-one desktop and has the same levels of style and presence as Apple’s iMac. The A600 is very slim, features a 21.5-inch frameless screen, an integrated speaker system including a bass sub-woofer and Dolby Home Theatre audio certification, an optional Blu-ray player, a digital TV tuner and an optional 4-in-1 remote controller with air mouse functionality (presumably accelerometer-based ), enabling users to control on-screen objects according to the movement of the remote. It can also be used as a cordless VOIP handset, a media center/TV remote, and Microsoft Vista Media Center users can use it to operate DVDs, movies and TV. There’s also VeriFace facial recognition technology which allows users to use their face as their log-on password.The IdeaCentre A600 all-in-one desktop will be available in April from US$1000. Read More
Minoru 3D Webcam to launch at CES
23:25 January 5, 2009 PST
3D vision systems have been threatening to make the transition from quirky novelty to mainstream consumer product for some time now, and though the jury is still out on whether that will actually happen, we can certainly expect a flurry of 3D products to hit the market during 2009 - starting with this one. Using two cameras incorporated into a single stand to produce a stereoscopic effect, the Minoru 3D webcam's image can be viewed in 3D using the familiar red and cyan 3D glasses. Read More
Google releases Picasa for Mac OSX
By Loz Blain
22:06 January 5, 2009 PST
Good news if you're frustrated by iPhoto's limitations - Google Labs has just released a 'beta' version of its Picasa photo management system for the Apple OSX platform. Picasa will import a copy of the contents of the iPhoto library and offer an alternative management tool that includes the ability to manage and synchronise selected photos, with their comments and tags, with an online Picasa Web Albums photo gallery. The original iPhoto data is left alone, so you can try out the Picasa beta without fear of losing or modifying their original image files. Read More
Internet surpasses newspapers as main news source
By Mike Hanlon
16:59 December 28, 2008 PST
2008 will be seen as a landmark year in global communications in the textbooks of 2100 – it was the year that the internet finally surpassed what was once considered an unassailable bastion of main media, newspapers, as the leading source of national and international news in America. The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press is an independent opinion research group that studies attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues. This year, for the first time in a Pew survey, more people said they relied mostly on the internet for news than those that cited newspapers (35%). Television retained top spot with 70% but it’s now clear that it’s when, rather than if, the internet will become the key news communications medium. Read More
The washable, bacteria-retardant keyboard
By Kyle Sherer
15:58 December 21, 2008 PST
We’ve encountered washable computer accessories before, but the Silver Seal keyboard adds a new level of protection against germs. In addition to being machine-washable and functioning even when wet, the Silver Seal contains built-in silver ion protection, which inhibits the growth of bacteria like E. Coli and Staph. Read More
United Keys launches OLED keypad
By Kyle Sherer
23:00 December 15, 2008 PST
Substantially more restrained than the Optimus Maximus, United Keys' entry into the OLED keyboard field tacks nine dynamic OLED keys onto the end of a regular desktop keyboard to add a dose of versatility and increase input efficiency. Read More
IBM introduces Linux-based Virtual Desktop
By Darren Quick
03:32 December 8, 2008 PST
While Linux erosion of Microsoft’s desktop dominance hasn’t really reached the mainstream yet, the popularity of the open source operating system has seen a steady increase as variations become more user friendly. Recognizing that rise in popularity IBM, along with its business partners, Virtual Bridges and Canonical has released a Linux-desktop solution that is designed to drive significant savings compared with Microsoft-desktop software by amplifying Lotus collaboration software and Ubuntu to a larger user base through virtualization. Read More
LaCie's loose change USB drive
19:19 December 4, 2008 PST
The explosion in capacity of the now commonplace portable USB drive has coincided with a huge array of different form factors entering the market. This new example from Lacie takes the shape of a coin designed to slip into your pocket or purse so that your data travels conveniently and inconspicuously with you - just don't put it in a parking meter. Read More
Happy 40th birthday to the computer mouse
By Jack Martin
15:43 December 3, 2008 PST
December 4, 2008 Computer peripherals giant Logitech recently shipped its billionth mouse, quite some feat given there are only 6.7 billion humans and a billion PCs on the planet. The mouse, in conjunction with the dastardly QWERTY keyboard, has become the cornerstone of the Computer Human Interface. The milestone comes within days of the fortieth anniversary of the first public demonstration of the computer mouse. On December 9, 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart gave a live public demonstration of the online system, NLS, which included the first mouse. The accompanying image is of the great grandaddy of the thing you’ve probably got in your hand as you read this. Read More
Iomega Encrypt and BlackBelt hard drives
By Tim Hanlon
18:18 December 2, 2008 PST
In this day and age, it's not just the tinfoil hat crowd who are likely to find themselves a little paranoid about their precious data. Iomega has announced two new entries to their eGo portable range, the ultra-rugged eGo BlackBelt and the government-grade encryption packing eGo Encrypt. Read More
NewerTech Voyager quad interface SATA drive dock
By Tim Hanlon
16:57 December 2, 2008 PST
NewerTech's Voyager is a hot swappable docking station for 2.5" and 3.5" SATA hard drives of up to 2TB capacity. With support for Mac and PC, with interfaces for FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 and eSATA on board, you'll be hard pressed to find a computer that won't talk to it. Read More
The real-life Minority Report computer interface
By Kyle Sherer
14:23 November 30, 2008 PST
The second best thing about the film Minority Report has to be the glove-controlled, wall-sized computer display (first place goes to the jetpacks). Oblong Industries is working on a computer interface that operates in a similar way – and rather than a case of tech imitating art, the Minority Report computer was actually based off early Oblong designs. Read More
Kanguru e-Flash drive with eSATA and USB connectivity
By Darren Quick
19:23 November 24, 2008 PST
The new Kanguru e-Flash drive features both USB and eSATA connectivity, which gives it the dual advantages of widespread connectivity through the USB2.0 standard as well as allowing it to achieve speeds never before obtainable with standard USB drives thanks to an eSATA connection. Using eSATA's 3Gbit/sec throughput, the drive potentially offers five times the throughput of USB 2.0’s 480Mbit/sec and the eSATA connection is powered so no additional power source is required. Read More
The Top 50 Best Selling LCD Monitors
By Tim Hanlon
04:08 November 24, 2008 PST
Need to replace that old, eye-straining CRT monitor from ten years ago, or just looking for a Christmas gift idea for someone special? We can help. Here's a list of the 50 best selling LCD monitors right now on PriceGrabber, with links to the online retailers offering the best prices. Read More
Freedom Glen
- November 25, 2009 @ 02:47 UTC
