Recent Comments:
Video: the PS3 Laptop in action {Engadget}
Apr 12th 2008 1:59AM @Chris MacDonald
You just answered your own question. The 360 Laptop had an external power brick because the 360 has an external power brick. The PS3 has an internal PS because thats what the Playstation 3 has. If the power supply circuit is integrated onto the mainboard, it would be pretty hard to route around it and use an external one. Plus the PS3 is a real power hog and pulls like 300W under load. I can't think of any laptop power bricks that can handle that kind of current.
Video: Hands-on with Gibson's Robot Guitar {Engadget}
Jan 12th 2008 12:01AM @Marcus
Its called an MIDI synth. You can download software versions free online.
Toshiba's Portege G910 / G920 go FCC: followup to the G900 superphone {Engadget}
Dec 16th 2007 11:18PM Hopefully it will be better than the G900. Even though it had some mouthwatering specs, it was slow as molasses, couldn't get a full GSM signal if you pressed it against a cellphone tower, and crashed all the time. Even if it works better, it still looks disgusting and hard to use as a phone (How do you dial?!?).
Jonathan Ive being groomed to take over for Jobs one fateful day? {Engadget}
Dec 9th 2007 4:14AM He's up to blue-grey T-Shirt level! I've never seen anyone get so high! Its only 15 more levels until black turtleneck!
NAT Audio's Magma is one beastly tube amplifier {Engadget}
Nov 16th 2007 10:04PM Actually, that is completely untrue. A tube amp does distort at the extremes of its sine wave if overdrive, in fact, earlier than a solid state amp. The difference is that tube amp distortion CAN sound good (for guitar amps, not hifi amps). Since solid state amps sound terrible in distortion, you cannot turn them up as far, meaning that a 100W solid state amp may only sound good up to 60W of power, whereas a tube amp can go all the way up to 100W while still sounding good (for a guitar amp). For hifi amps, such as this one, you don't want distortion, tube or no, so a tube amp and solid state amp will be usable up to about the same point (60-70%) of their max power output or so. This means a 100W hifi amp is of the same "loudness" as a 100W solid state amp.
That said, different manufacturers quote different power ratings for their equipment. One company might quote the power of an amp as the absolute peak power, while another might measure the loudest it can get before distortion. The latter figure is a much more useful measure for a hifi amp, however, many less reputable companies like the beef of the specs of their amps by quoting the max rating. Since tube amps tend to be more expensive and have audiophile-savvy buyers, their specs tend to be of the more accurate kind. A 100W before distortion amp is much more powerful than a 100W max power amp.
NAT Audio's Magma is one beastly tube amplifier {Engadget}
Nov 15th 2007 7:27PM For those of you not familiar with tube amps, this amp is special because it is the largest "SINGLE ENDED" amp available. Single ended amps use only one tube for amplification, as opposed to multiple amplifier tubes cooperating. Many a audiophiles feel this provides a superior sound compared to push-pull (multi-tube) amplifiers. The downside of single ended amps is that they use huge amounts of power, produce huge amounts of heat, and are in general are not very high powered, as they are limited to the power of one tube (usually less than 30W).
Gibson launching self-tuning guitars, rockers rejoice {Engadget}
Oct 3rd 2007 2:03AM Rockers rejoice?
Most rockers are fine spending the 15 seconds it takes to tune a guitar, especially if it saves them $900. Not to mention a tune-o-matic Gibson stays in tune for decades (my SG gets tuned every 2 weeks whether it needs it or not). Its the newbies who can't tune by ear who will be buying this guitar. Still, its a cool technology. They should really put it on guitars with Floyd Roses where it would actually be useful.
Ask Engadget: Can you turn my clunker laptop into a media center? {Engadget}
Aug 16th 2007 9:24PM What about snapstream? In terms of polish thats probably the closest thing to Media Center. There is also Meedio, although that seems much less popular.
Of course, you could try... Media Center. Snapstream is already up near the $80 mark, and XP Media Center is only about $100 from newegg. I have used all of these programs, and I definitely prefer Media Center.
Apple's new metallic keyboards: in wired and Bluetooth flavors {Engadget}
Aug 7th 2007 2:23PM I have a diNovo, or rather, have had 4 diNovos. They all broke, none lasting more than 6 months of light duty typing. Pretty insulting for a $200 (now $150) keyboard set. Makes me wonder how these Mac boards will work.
Giveaway: super rare E Ink watch! {Engadget}
Jul 7th 2007 11:17PM Replacing a 4 year old Timex, baby!
