Tech Gadgets Reviews

The Averatec 2575 ultra portable notebook is extremely pocket friendly, retailing for $1,099.99 while featuring the following :-

• 12.1″ WXGA widescreen display
• 1.3 megapixel webcam
• 250GB hard drive
• 2GB RAM
• AMD Turion 64 X2 2.2GHz dual-core processor
• 802.11b/g connectivity
• 4-in-1 memory card reader
• SuperMulti DVD burner

Other than the generic design, what’s there not to like?

Posted Mar 21st 2008 3:02PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Transportation

While we spent our high school days trying not to cut our thumbs off in shop class, these West Philly High School kids have been making a run on the $10 million Automotive X Prize. They’re building a plug-in diesel hybrid in an attempt to reach that magical 100 mpg mark “without sacrificing style, safety or affordability.” Pictured above is a previous project, a K1 Attack modded up hybrid and biofuel-style. Seems like they’ve got the chops, but they’re certainly up against a lot of competition.

Averatec has released the 2575 12-inch notebook which is the newest addition to Averatec’s line-up of ultra portable consumer machines. With this latest offering, Averatec has integrated design and functionality with the hopes of attracting consumers interests, which could be difficult, especially with the slew of new notebooks hitting the market lately.

So, does the Averatec 2575 have anything new to offer to the ultra-portable notebook market? Depends on what your needs are and what you are looking for in portable computing machine. In addition to the “contemporary design” the Averatec 2575 comes pre-installed with Vista Home Premium and features an AMD Turion 64 X2 dual core chip, 2GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, ATI RS690 integrated graphics, a 1.3 megapixel webcam and a 4-1 card reader. The 12.1-inch display sports a 1280 x 800 native resolution with AveraBrite Technology. All things considered its seems to be a good alternative, especially with the $1,100 price tag.

Product [Averatec] Read [PR Newswire]

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HP just introduced its Pavilion dv3000 notebook that features a 13.3″ display and comes with the following features :-

• Based on Intel Centrino technology
• A wide range of Intel Core 2 Duo processors
• NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS 256MB video card
• WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity
• Ethernet LAN port
• 56k modem (!)
• ExpressCard slot
• 5-in-1 memory card slot
• Fingerprint reader
• Integrated webcam

This Vista-powered notebook will be available in Asia come May, retailing from $1,399 upwards depending on your system configuration.

If you haven’t been paying attention to the latest in technology news, you may not know that the big FCC auction has come to an end. The winners of the various 700 MHz spectrum blocks have been announced, and there is one name missing on the list of winners which is quite surprising.

Last year Google promised that they would place a bid for 4.7 billion for the larger C block, provided that the spectrum would be open to all applications and devices. They held true to their word, and while that does mean that the spectrum will be open, Verizon was the one that walked away with the victory. Their high bid came in at $6.6 billion.

This was a brilliant move by Google. They forced the spectrum to adopt an open standard without actually having to spend billions on it. Well played Google, well played indeed.

Source: Gearlog

You won’t see anybody at The Tape Project using anything as vulgar as an ipod. For those guys, even CDs and vinyl aren’t good enough, so they’ve started selling music on reel-to-reel tape.

The original studio master tapes are dubbed to a 1″ duplicate master and then copied to quarter inch tape for the ultimate in audiophile bragging rights. According to Dan and Paul of The Tape Project, “You just aren’t going to get any closer to the original master, short of buying a record label or two.”

You also aren’t going to get many titles. Currently the line-up number just ten, mostly classical and jazz. Sonny Rollins is in there, as is Robert Cray (no relation to Seymour Cray). If you buy the lot in one go, it’ll cost you $2000. And you’ll need to buy a player, too.

Product page [The Tape Project via Retro Thing]

Posted Mar 21st 2008 11:33AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Laptops

Nary a fortnight after Nicholas Negroponte affirmed that his role wouldn’t be changing all that much once a new CEO was strapped in, along comes word that the nonprofit’s highly regarded Director of Security Architecture, Ivan Krstić, has moved on to greener pastures as of three weeks ago. According to a soul-bearing post on his own blog, the ex-chief outrightly noted that he could no longer “subscribe to the organization’s new aims or structure in good faith, nor [could he] reconcile them with [his] personal ethic.” Additionally, he admits that he was “asked to stop working with Walter Bender,” someone he greatly respected, and forced to report to a replacement “with no technical or engineering background who was put in charge of all OLPC technology.” It should be noted that Krstić seemed to admire his colleagues overwhelmingly, but we can’t help but wonder who else in there is feeling similarly about the recent internal restructuring.

[Via Yahoo / Infoworld, image courtesy of TheAge]

Sony will remove all the pre-installed garbage from its notebooks for an extra $50, but only if you spend $100 to upgrade to Vista Business first. The new configuration option comes on the slick TZ-series subnotebooks, reports PC World, and is being marketed as "Fresh Start." Most sites covering this are positively incensed at the idea of being held to ransom like this — having to pay to not have system-damaging software pre-installed seems, to them, to be a bad move.

Sony, however, is making a benevolent gesture. It merely wants you to free you from this:-

This was what came up the first time I booted up a $2,700 Vaio SZ sent in for review. See how horrible that is? And all you can do is complain about being saved from having to deal with it, for the low, low price of $50. Ingrates!

Perhaps all this trash is part of the production process, burned onto the hard drive in the factory, which is why it has to charge extra to remove it afterwards. It makes me sad, because Sony makes fantastic computers.

Here’s a funny quote from PC World’s story:

"Customers opting for Sony’s Fresh Start will miss out on software including Microsoft Works SE 9.0 bundled with a 60-day trial version of Microsoft Office, Sony’s Vaio Creation Suite Photo Software bundled with a 30-day trial version of Corel Paint Shop Pro; the Click to Disc video editor; WinDVD, and a free edition of QuickBooks Simple Start that can only track 20 customers."

"MISS OUT?," my editor shrieks.

Sony Removes Bloatware–for a Fee [PC World]

In what seems like a strange story, Opera has announced they are now including a direct link to the AccuWeather mobile website from the Opera Mini start page. While Opera Mini seems to be the favorite mobile browser right now, and I do appreciate their effort to make my weather checking ability quicker and easier, couldn’t I just bookmark the weather site of my choice?

Nonetheless both Opera and AccuWeather seem pretty pleased with the announcement.

AccuWeather’s Senior VP of New Media saying: “We’re very pleased to offer our weather directly to Opera Mini users from their start page.”

Opera’s Senior VP of Consumer Products said: “Offering fast and convenient access to pertinent information is part of that experience and is even more critical on a mobile device. Partnering with AccuWeather.com provides timely and useful weather information to our users wherever they are.”

Its almost funny to see two companies so happy over a what amounts to a simple link, but seriously if you have not yet checked out Opera Mini, assuming you have a compatible phone, you should go ahead and download it. In addition to having quick and easy access to AccuWeather you will also get a solid mobile browsing experience.

Via [IntoMobile] Read [Opera Mini]

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Emirates claims to be the first airline in the world to allow passengers to make authorized cell phone calls while in the air, with the Airbus A340 heading towards Casablanca from Dubai being the benefactor of such an honor. Passengers are allowed to make and receive not only phone calls but text messages the moment the aircraft touched the crucial cruising altitude. Emirates is thinking to retrofit other aircraft in their fleet with the interference-blocking AeroMobile system later this year , including adding blackberry and “other data services.” I wonder how the roaming charges will work then.