Lenovo ThinkCenter A61e: Green midget

Crave loves Mother Nature. So much so we've hired our own environmental activist and started turning the taps off--gas and water--before we leave the house. So you can imagine our joy when the eco-friendly Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e arrived on our doorstep.

This frankly hideous-looking, phonebook-sized desktop PC is a hippy's dream. It's designed for businesses that want to cut their power bills or for individuals with a pathological desire to lower their carbon footprint.

The A61e (and its packaging) is made from 90 percent reusable or recyclable materials. It uses a low-voltage AMD Athlon X2 dual-core or Sempron single-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, an ATI X1200 graphics card and an 85 percent efficient power supply.

The whole shebang is so earnestly green it's earned EPEAT Gold and Energy Star 4.0 status. Plus, Lenovo says it'll release an optional solar panel to make it even greener, although we don't know how that'll work indoors. But stick it up your exhaust pipe anyway.

Lenovo Singapore has confirmed the A61e will be coming to the Asia-Pacific market, though pricing details and actual launch date are hazy at the moment.

Via CNET Crave

Rugged ThinkPads coming?

Two months ago, Lenovo competitive analyst Matt Kohut wrote a blog post, ThinkPads are ruggedized machines, explaining why the laptop brand favored by many corporate honchos isn't available in a box you can drive over with your car. But it's not like the company is a stranger to expensive laptop packaging: It's releasing a US$5,000 US-only version of the X60 that's swaddled in leather and coddled by a special support staff.

On a recent trip to Lenovo HQ in Beijing, Kohut was shocked--shocked--to see a Lenovo-branded fully rugged PC on display in the company's Innovation Center showcase. Available only in China, this Lenovo-but-not-ThinkPad laptop is fully encased in magnesium with rubber bumpers and built-in handle, and is apparently capable of operating under a stream of running water while you continuously bash it against the rocks. Which, if it comes with Vista preinstalled, is something you might realistically do.

No word on the internals, nor if it will ever come stateside and how it would be branded. And if it did, who'd buy it. The truly-rugged laptop market is not all that large. Although I would wager that there are more Carhartt buyers than Armani, if you know what I mean.

However, you will have to take a slow boat to China if you want this set, as Lenovo has confirmed that this unit does not have a passport to go overseas.

Picture credit: Inside the Box blog
Via CNET Crave

Battery powered cell phone

My word, when was the last time a battery-powered cell phone made it to market? That said, Sanyo's cell-based cellular bucks the traditional look for a cylindrical cannister design that sports braille-like keys and probably looks as awkward talking on as the Nokia N-Gage was. Dressed in that signature Cupertino white we all love, this is one phone that knuckles down to barebone basics in order to wring the most charge out of a single AA Sanyo Eneloop battery. So no 3G, no camera, no MP3 player, no SMS, and not even an LCD screen!

The end result is a battery life that's touted to last a good 5 hours of yaktime and 250 hours on standby.

Did we also mention that this runs only on Willcom's PHS network in Japan? Ah well.

Via Japan Today

LifeStraw water filter designed for developing world

In way of tech conference swag, the LifeStraw is definitely unique.

Matthew Nordan, the president of nanotechnology firm Lux Research, delivered the morning keynote for his company's annual conference earlier this week where he talked about the disruptive potential of materials sciences.


Although he's working with very technical topic, Nordan puts on a good show. There was the nanonickel-covered ping pong ball that he tried unsuccessfully to crush with a hammer.

Then he brought out a bowl of muddy water that he got from a local woodland. This was nasty-looking water with lots of brown things floating in it.

And he drank it.

Nordan survived the episode by using a LifeStraw, a thick plastic straw the acts as a portable water filter. It was created by Danish company Vestergaard Frandsen for developing countries, where access to clean water is a serious problem and expected to get worse. The filter costs US$3.50 and lasts a year.

At the end, Nordan told everyone to look under there seats, where taped to the bottom of each was our very own LifeStraw. I don't actually go camping for days at a time, so I can't say I actually need it. Maybe I'll use it to show kids in the neighborhood what tech can do.

In any case, the product is available only for institutional sales. But at some point, it will be sold at retail.

Via Crave CNET

Countdown to Onkyo's premium HD-DVD begins

Heads up people! We have just received insider news that the Onkyo DV-HD805 will be launched at the upcoming International Sound & Sight Exhibition in Singapore on November 16. For those uninitiated, this is probably the first HD-DVD player in Asia capable of outputting Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD bitstream audio output. It will be an ideal tool to unlock the HD soundtracks recorded on HD-DVD titles, paired with a next-gen A/V receiver. A fine example is the award-winning yet affordable S$1,019 (US$749.26) Onkyo TX-SR605.

The DV-HD805 is also a competent video-upscaling DVD and CD player. The video playback performance for the former is reinforced with an enthusiast-grade HQV video processor, while high-resolution 192kHz/24-bit digital-to-analog converters are on hand to beef up stereo music reproduction. There's no official word on HDi interactive feature support, though there is short mention of "future Web-based content access" for its Ethernet port functions.

Take note that the above-mentioned features are still based on preliminary specifications and the set will be priced at a whopping S$2,899 (US$2,131.62) tentatively. On a separate note, the Onkyo DV-HD805 bears a cunningly similar resemblance to the Toshiba HD-XE1, right down to the buttons and A/V socket placements and LCD information display. Hmm… so who's the original equipment manufacturer for both players here?

Crave is...

The name says it all. Crave is our new blog about cool gadgets and other crushworthy stuff.

Drop us an email if you have tips or suggestions.

Crave for...

» Mobile Phones (826)

» Digital Cameras (451)

» Notebooks (548)

» PC & Peripherals (588)

» Handhelds (281)

» Printers (45)

» Home AV (549)

» Music & Play (457)

» Gadgets (1045)

» Future Tech (184)

Previously...

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

Subscribe to
Crave

Today on CNET |  Reviews |  Crave |  Blogs |  CNET TV |  Digital Living |  Downloads