Posts in Notebooks
It's a phone, it's a UMPC, it's...an HDPC?
Erica Ogg | Mar 25, 2008
That basically includes writing my blog posts and going through mounds of e-mail and auto-deleting the stuff I don't want. Otherwise, the HDPC from Korean manufacturer MIU does almost everything I want to do during the day.
The list of its purported functions: Internet phone, MP3 player, UMPC, digital camera, voice recorder, e-book reader, Wi-Fi, navigation, camcorder, and portable video game player. It also runs dual operating systems: Windows XP or Windows CE 5.0 and Linux QPlus. The screen measures 4 inches, and the keyboard is a full QWERTY setup, and to top it off, its starting price tag is around US$500.
Sounds great, but there are several things to quibble over. First, in the looks department... it probably has a good personality. I mean, I want to like it, but the photos reveal it to be bulky, and the design is really lacking. If I actually used this as a phone I'd look like I teleported from 1994. (To see why, check out this photo of the phone in someone's hand.)
While the ability to have a phone replace that many devices is a fantastic idea, it will run into in the same problems in the US (if it's ever released here--so far it's on track for Korea only) as every other in-between-categories UMPC device: The display and keyboard are too small for a computer, and its too big for a properly portable device.
Read more »
GreenPeace, GreenPeace on the roll, who's the greenest of them all?
Darius Chang | Mar 25, 2008Green seems to be the new black, as more companies discover the importance of an environmentally friendly image to their profit margin. But it's just too easy to give lip service or start half-hearted initiatives simply for the sake of good press. GreenPeace, a non-profit environmentalist group, dug deep into the green initiatives of various tech companies to discover which brands actually walked the walk.
The top winners are Samsung and Toshiba, though both companies would have taken second place if it wasn't for the fact that Nokia lost a point due to corporate misbehavior in its taken-back and recycling scheme, as well as the fact that its Russian and Indian staff were not informed of such a scheme at all. Though Sony sits in the fourth place, it's VAIO TZ laptop series has been declared the greenest laptop of them all, as it is totally free from beryllium.
If you feel strongly that all companies should adopt a strong environmentally friendly stand, vote with your wallet and walk away from the worst offenders (Philips and Nintendo) in the tech business.
Via Wired
Even fans are going solid-state
Darius Chang | Mar 24, 2008
Moving parts seem to be going the way of the Dodo. Harddisks, with its rotating platters and swivel reader arm, were the first to go solid state. With no mechanical movements involved, these drives not only save power, but are less prone to damage and makes almost no noise.
Now, CPU fans are following the trend as well. The internal fan of the system is possibly the noisiest part of a machine, generating enough sound to annoy especially when the processor is going full blast. Thorrn Micro Technologies, maker of the RSD5 fan, has created what may be the first such solid-state device in the market. Despite being only a quarter of the size of its mechanical equivalent, it is up to three times more effective. The underlying technology is similar to ionizing air fresheners, using ions to push air molecules and hence generating wind.
Who knows, perhaps in the near future we can even customize heat vents to generate a cool howling sound for a gaming laptop, or a soothing breeze in an ultraportable.
Image credit: Thorrn Micro Technologies
HP releases 13.3-inch Pavilion
Darius Chang | Mar 19, 2008
Editors' note:
The Web cam on the dv3000 is a low-light VGA camera, and not 1.3-megapixel resolution as previously reported. The article has been amended to reflect the new information.The smallest HP Pavilion laptop used to be 14.1-inches big, but not anymore. The latest entertainment notebook from the Palo Alto company is a sexy 13.3-inch number which straddles the portability of an ultraportable and the features of a mid-size machine.
Just to make it clear, the new dv3000 series is essentially a smaller version of the older 14.1-inch dv2000, and both models share similar characteristics. Based on the discrete Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS graphics chip, the dv3000 is equipped with an HDMI port and ExpressCard mini remote control emphasizing its entertainment roots. Though a fingerprint sensor and HP 3D Drive Guard (both business-centric features) are present, it lacks a TPM security chip to secure your data. A new feature which wasn't present in the Pavilion series before is the eSATA/USB combo port, a nice touch to handle the next-generation external storage device.
Notable features include:
The HP Pavilion dv3000 will hit Asia in May, with a starting price of US$1,399.
Intel's Netbook leaked?
Dan Ackerman | Mar 19, 2008
While we've already seen details of the desktop version, called the NetTop, via some leaked presentation, but the NetBook was a less-defined concept. Until now, that is. According to the original poster (on a blogspot blog called Tech Corner"):
"My buddy works for a US Based OEM, and showed me a sample of one of the products that will be hitting US shores soon...It has a 900MHz Celeron, 512 Ram, 40GB HD, 9 Inch screen, wifi, and Ethernet. It seems to be about 7" x 9"x 1.5". I asked him how much it was going to cost, and he said he didn't know but would probably be around 400 bucks. Said it should be available in the US by June."If all this seem oddly familiar, it's because we've already seen a lot of this in Intel's Classmate PC, and a lot of the same concepts have already been commercialized in the best-selling ASUS Eee PC.
Via Crave CNET
Crave is...
The name says it all. Crave is our blog about cool gadgets and other crushworthy stuff.
Drop us an email if you have tips or suggestions.
Crave for...
» Mobile Phones (2240)
» Digital Cameras (988)
» Notebooks (1238)
» PC & Peripherals (1312)
» Handhelds (585)
» Printers (83)
» Home AV (1147)
» Music & Play (896)
» Gadgets (1488)
» Future Tech (396)
» Green Tech (172)
» Lifestyle (157)
» Luxury (22)
» Home Appliances (58)
» Cars (99)
» Games and Gear (248)
» Software (96)
» Web (119)
Previously...
Hot Topics
What's Hot
apple apple inc. apple iphone apple ipod asia battery camera game google inc. iphone microsoft corp. microsoft windows mobile phone photograph singapore smart phone software sony corp. video
Copyright © 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.
