Tech Gadgets Reviews

Behind its rather un-catchy name, the Egoman MP810RSTD-43 offers more than just your average media file playing capabilities. Aside from supporting a wide array of music file formats like MP3, WMA, WAV, and FLAC, it will also play WVI and RMVB files at 30 fps, as well as photos in JPG, BMP, GIF formats. And you can be certain you’ll have a good view of your photos on its 4.3-inch screen, because it supports a 480 x 272-pixel resolution and up to 16 million colors (clue: that’s more than what you’ll find in a rainbow). And if you get tired of watching your movies on its screen, then simply hook it up to your telly to give your clips some maximum exposure. There are no details on pricing yet but I’m sure the digital voice recording feature, support for e-books and built-in FM tuner won’t do this product harm overall.

Via [PMP Today]

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The upcoming Toughbook CF-U1 UMPC is powered by Intel’s new Atom processor and seems to fit a wish we asked for last year: Just build a UMPC that is simple, tough, and has a long battery life.

But not everything is as simple as it looks–the UMPC will be challenged from within by its own operating system, a little thing they like to call Vista.* Some of us in the Lab actually don’t hate on Vista as much as others do, but the graphic heavy, menu-rich build could be a bother in a small form. This could be especially true on this one, which is thicker than others and will likely require a larger grip and more patience.

There are obvious benefits to using the Atom chip in a small UMPC. Applications should operate more efficiently, use less power, and will connect to the networks at sweet speeds, actually making the device a useful option to carry on the road. If that doesn’t work, its toughness might handle the endless throw-downs you’ll put it through.

Other notes: The display seems small at 5.6" (for comparison, the display size of the awesome Eec PC is 7"). On the positive side, it includes a simple, rugged QWERTY keyboard, as well basic scrolling and zoom options on the face of the gadget.

Of course, we should note that UMPCs are not really popular. It’s been more than a year since manufacturers promised to fill up the market with awesome UMPCs, expecting to ride the coattails of the new MS OS. That didn’t work (no, really!) and the results from the first year have been uneven.

But toughness is not one of the reasons for their unpopularity. Better reasons are unnecessarily complicated UIs, expensive kits, and tiny buttons unfit for sausagy fingers.

So tough is good but simple is better. Let’s hope that Panasonic at least split the difference with this one.

Source: MobileMag

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*Correction: There are reports this Toughbook will be shipped with the upgrade-by-downgrade XP OS, but we’ll believe it when we see it.

HP has just formally announced the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC and we are already seeing quite a few hands on reviews coming in. Judging from what is being written the Mini-Note is going to be a solid force in the UMPC market. As we mentioned earlier today, the Mini-Note PC will be priced (starting) at $499 and be available later in the month.

Lets get on with the reviews…

Notebooks.com:
Aside from a few minor issues the review was overall very positive. The few cons that were noted were in regards to the heat and fan noise, and that the display did not tilt back far enough. As someone considering the Mini-Note as a replacement for an upgrade to the Eee or Cloudbook that may be an issue depending on your style of use, for those who want an ultra-portable to sit back on the couch and surf, the display could become an issue, or more accurately a pain in the neck.

“The HP 2133 blew away my expectations and I’d be comfortable relying on the HP 2133 while on short business trips or on vacation.”

“The HP 2133 Mini-Note is not the cheapest compact notebook you can buy, but it is the best value hands down. While other notebooks in this category look and feel like they should be sold at Toys R Us, the 2133 comes across as a serious business computer at a price that’s unbelievable.”

jkOnTheRun:
Once again it seems to be an overall positive review, something to note is that they mentioned Vista Business ran well without any performance issues but pointed out they had a notebook with 2GB of RAM and would not feel as confident with only 1GB. Otherwise the keyboard had “good travel depth” while the keyboard and trackpad were “delightful.”

“I think HP has a real winner on their hands with the Mini.  I find it to be a capable notebook computer that is highly portable and the build quality is outstanding.  I also find it impressive that the total price swing from entry level (with Linux) to fully loaded is only $250 and there is no question in my mind that the Mini is the best built UMPC at this price level.”

PCMag.com:
In what seems to be a pattern forming, PC Mag also gave the Mini-Note and overall positive review, giving it a 4-out-of-5 or Very Good rating. They pointed out the HP 2133 offers an “Apple-like design” which comes (at least in my oninion) as a compliment. They also had similar comments as the other reviews, noting that the keyboard was comfortable and that the 7,200 RPM hard drive was very hot. They concluded with a unique take as their Bottom Line:

“The HP Mini-Note is not quite an Eee PC killer, but it’s a super-sleek ultra-mobile PC that will sell out as quickly as the Eee PC did.”

NotebookReview.com:
In keeping with the patterns we have seen so far NotebookReview had some similar likes and dislikes about the Mini-Note PC. They noted the keyboard quality, build quality, multiple configuration options and mentioned that it was the “most attractive 8.9-inch notebook we’ve ever seen.” Their cons once again focused on the Via processor and the fact that Vista may require a little too much power, however they also disliked the placement of the touchpad buttons and felt the screen was a little too reflective.

“The HP 2133 Mini-Note is one of the most impressive subnotebooks we’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, the amazing design and solid range of features are diminished by a sub-par processor and a price tag that places this notebook dangerously close to far superior 12-inch notebooks such as the HP tx2000.

HP managed to create the single most impressive ultraportable notebook on the market … and then decided to put a lackluster processor inside.

Despite the poor processor performance, the HP 2133 Mini-Note is a remarkably solid machine that could be a perfect fit for students, teachers, or mobile business professionals. If HP decides to replace the VIA processors with the new Intel Atom processors or alternative processors from Intel, the Mini-Note would become the undisputed champion of the subnotebook market.”

And finally a nice video walkthrough, and possibly what convinced my to seriously consider picking up a Mini-Note of my own, courtesy of Notebooks.com:

Product [HP]

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Do you ever stop to marvel at the amount of data you can carry around in your pocket? Of course not. Even those of us who grew up booting their Amigas from floppy disks take our 160 GB iPods and terabyte HDDs for granted. But it wasn’t always so, and Royal Pingdom has compiled a fascinating trip down Memory Lane, as it were.

From the punched card (first used, astonishingly, in 1725) through the Selectron (made back when technology had real names) to the giant magnetic drum you see above (12,500 rpm and just 10 kB of storage), the gallery details the highlights of storage in pictures. It makes me wonder, though, where we’ll be in, say, 20 years time.

The history of computer data storage, in pictures [Royal Pingdom. Thanks, Peter!]

Sharp has introduced two new laptops into the Japanese market, the PC-FW70X and PC-FW50X. While the two laptops’ external design and color choices (black and white) may remind you of the MacBook, make no mistake because neither of them will match up to the computing powers of the MacBook.

Both laptops have a 15.4-inch LCD with 1280 x 800 resolution and are either powered by AMD Turion 64 or Mobile Sempron 3600 with AMD M690V Chipset. Both are covered by UV coated case that also serve as protection from UV rays. Other features of these two laptops include; 2GB of RAM, 120GB hard drive, DVD multi drive, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and infrared support. And for the clincher? The PC-FW70X has a battery life span of 1.1 hours while the PC-FW50X’s battery lasts for an estimated 50 minutes. The notebooks also weigh in at around 5.74-pounds. I wonder what’s inside those batteries if they could only last that long. Major bummer, eh?

Via [Akihabaranews.com] Product [Sharp]

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How does one go about creating a new breed of supercomputer capable of performing trillions of operations per second without running up some beastly air conditioning bills? With water, of course.

IBM says it’s devised a new system that uses water-chilled copper plates located directly above each of the 448 microprocessors in its Power 575 supercomputer to remove all that hot, hot heat and transport it somewhere more useful — like your shower for instance.

The so-called Hydro-Cluster at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching, Germany uses a new 5-GHz microprocessor, so IBM scientists rightly recognized they’d need a new chip-level water cooling system, one that could bring water as close as possible to the hottest parts of these heat-generating speed demons.

“Instead of treating heat like the enemy, they’re treating it like a precious commodity,” says IBM’s Jeff Gluck of the company’s method. Water, as Gluck notes, is close to 4,000 times more effective than traditional air cooling, and the Hydro-Cluster carries the piping hot water off of the chip and out of the system where it can then be reused “to heat your home, the town swimming pool, a hot shower, or to cook a family dinner.”

The next step, IBM researchers say, is to get the water even closer to the chip — like, inside of it. Once captured there, the water can be easily routed out of the computer and pumped directly into the heating system for re-use.

Photo courtesy IBM

IBM Turns on the Water for Energy-Efficient Supercomputer [Press Release]

Wal-mart has announced that it is now offering refunds for hd dvd players purchased on or after November 1 2007. Consumers have until April 30 2008 to return the players with or without the original packaging. Consumers just need to present their proof of purchase to get a refund.

If you are one of those who bought HD DVD players, only to find out later on that movie companies will no longer support it and instead put their videos on Blu-ray discs, now is the chance to get your money back or add a few more bucks to purchase a Blu-ray player instead. Similarly, other big box retailers such as Best Buy, Circuit City and Future Shop all have similar return policies for HD DVD players.

Via [Engadget HD] Read [Wall Street Journal]

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Here’s an innovation for this year. This dude named Razec apparently found the existing line up of Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot phones way too boring for his liking. Which is why he went ahead and designed his own version of it called the Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot G905i. It is just a concept phone and obviously not certified by Sony Ericsson themselves but we found it to be just about sufficient to excite our budget-conscious concept phone fantasies. The G905i features a cool 5.1 megapixel camera which bodes well for mobile photography but could have been that tad bit more ambitious what with an 8mp cellphone camera already in the offering by Samsung. But generally we like this concept phone for its innovative spirit and appreciation of current cellphone technology.
[ Source ]

Customers who bought an HD-DVD player from November 1st 2007 should qualify for a refund, even if they have discarded the packaging. There is a limit in time and that’s April 30th, so make up your mind quickly.

Isn’t that cool? You can now jump in, buy the wrong horse, and get a refund – wOOt. Note that similar offers exist at Best Buy, but with more restrictions. In other news, Amazon has a “buy 2 get one free” Blu-Ray sale.

This will teach Wal-Mart not to name anyone as the “winner” in the next tech war…

IBM is working on new ways to cool supercomputers. The idea is simple: get water as close as the chip, or in the chip itself, to extract heat from it. While water-cooling is not new, getting so close to the chip is. The second novelty is that IBM wants to use the hot water for domestic purposes. Examples provided were “to heat your home, the town swimming pool, a hot shower, or to cook a family dinner.”

I agree that the hot water could be used locally in the building, but transporting it to “the town swimming pool” seems a little overkill. Also, “hotter” doesn’t seem like what the future of computing should be. Power consumption is already a huge problem today (in computer farms), so brute-force cooling won’t be good enough: we need better performance-per-watt.