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Tesla Model S pricing and delivery details confirmed
Tesla took the opportunity just before CES to reassure potential buyers that its Model S wouldn't follow the competition by creeping up in price ahead of release, and now we have what looks to be final confirmation: a full MSRP, complete with prices for all the different battery options. A base Model S, with an estimated 160 miles of range, will retail for $57,400 and will of course be eligible for the $7,500 federal tax credit. The 230 mile range version will carry a $10,000 premium, and if you want a chance at making 300 miles on a charge it's another $10k on top of that. So, $77,400 then if you want the top of the line Model S 300, which initially will be called the "Model S Signature Series" in the US, a limited edition run of 1,000 autos with big batts. Deliveries are expected to begin sometime around the summer of 2012, with the 230 and 160 versions coming later in the year. Tesla hopes to produce 5,000 of the cars in total in 2012, a whopping 20,000 in 2013. Oh, and should you live in a market that requires a right-hand drive model you have about a two year wait ahead of you. That's what you get for driving on the wrong side of the road.
iRobot unveils super-compact Scooba 230, new Roomba 700 series
Our friends at iRobot have shrunken its hardwood cleaning child -- not Roomba, the other one -- to about half the diameter of its predecessors (6.5 inches). The Scooba 230 is maintains the same 3.5-inch height and, more importantly, is just as programmable as every other model (in an unfortunate twist of irony, it's now thinner than a Kinect sensor). Speaking of Roomba, the company's also unveiling the new 700 series with a number of cleaning and detection improvements. All autonomous cleaning discs will be available in the Sprint from iRobot's online store with the prices ranging from a penny under $300 for Scooba 230 and $450 / $500 / $550 for the Roomba 760, 770, and 780. More shots / hands-on below; full details in the press release after the break.%Gallery-112273%%Gallery-112272%
Lenovo serves up Atom-powered C100 all-in-one desktop for $399
Clearly there's something special waiting for some product manager who gets all of his / her new kit out the door before the fiscal Q4 ends, as Lenovo has been on a serious tear of late. Hot on the heels of its ThinkPad X200, T400s touch and IdeaPad S12 comes this, another all-in-one desktop that should suit the web surfers and email checkers of the world just fine. Starting at $399 (or $50 less than the similar IdeaCentre C300), this rig is equipped with an 18.5-inch LCD, a two-inch thick chassis, Intel's Core 230 or Core 330 CPU, a DVD burner, four USB sockets, GMA950 integrated graphics, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB (5400RPM) hard drive and Windows XP running the show. Something tells us these will be flying off the shelves come Christmastime.
Sony's Alpha 230, 330 and 380 DSLRs get flood of official pics
Sony's latest mainstream DSLRs cameras got the seal of officialness this past Saturday, and now the company's added some icing to the cake by releasing of plethora of pictures for its α230, α330, and α380. Direct your eyes lovingly at the articulating screens and SD/SDHC card slots in the gallery below. Pre-orders for the trio are supposed to start today at Sony's official retail site, but as of this writing, they're not yet there.
Zotac Ion-based IONITX-A SFF motherboard review roundup
Jonesing for a new small form factor PC, are you? Not so keen on selecting a pre-fabricated unit? If you definitely fit the bill here, it's worth taking a gander at Zotac's recently released IONITX-A motherboard. As the first of its breed to actually ship, a whole lot is riding on its solder points, and according to reviews found 'round the web, it's done a satisfactory job of living up to expectations. The test bench-abusin' kids over at Hot Hardware found that Zotac's board (and the included dual-core Atom 330 CPU) performed "as expected," notching results that were "significantly better than any of the single core Atom 230-based systems." The unique DC power input was also lauded, and the silent nature made this a perfect candidate for a low-power, highly-capable carputer building block. All in all, this here mobo won't transform your life, but it's certainly a welcome extra in the all-too-stale DIY SFF market. Check the links below for all the bar charts you can handle.Read - Hot Hardware ("most appealing of the Ion-based products")Read - PC Perspective ("an impressive motherboard for its size")Read - The Tech Report ("as good as the Ion platform gets")Read - Tom's Hardware ("it's most promising destination is in the HTPC space")
Zotac jumping in Ion-filled waters with new Mini-ITX motherboards
We'd heard a few whispers rolling through the gentle breeze that Zotac would be hopping on the Ion bandwagon early on, and sure enough, it looks like said firm is indeed latched on. Reportedly, the outfit will be producing a few Mini-ITX motherboards in the near future that support Intel's Atom 230 / 330 processors and come loaded with NVIDIA's GeForce 9400M G chipsets. The mobos would also include all of the basic amenities: Ethernet, two RAM slots, HDMI / DVI / VGA outputs, a trio of SATA ports and a WiFi module. There's still no word on what system maker is looking to slap these into their next-generation nettops, but who knows, maybe this will end up being the first standalone Ion-based board for the DIYers in attendance.[Via Expreview, thanks Shawn]
MSI's Wind Top AE1900 all-in-one PC comes to US at $529
MSI's eco-friendly Wind Top AE1900 has already been formally introduced and spotted over in Hanover earlier this year, but the outfit notorious for withholding price and availability information until the last possible moment has finally let loose those very details. The 18.5-inch all-in-one PC is available with an Atom 230 or 330 CPU, a 1,366 x 768 resolution touchscreen, integrated GMA950 graphics, 2GB of DDR2-533 RAM, a 160GB or 250GB hard drive, 4-in-1 multicard reader, dual-layer DVD writer, WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, a 1.3 megapixel webcam and audio in / out sockets to boot. Two configurations are available (both are shown after the break), with the lesser of the two going for $529.
VIA Nano and Intel's Atom benchmarked head-to-head
Netbooks based on VIA's Nano mobile processor aren't nearly as common as those based on Intel's Atom, but based on the benchmarking that's been going on recently, that's a shame, since the Nano appears to be much faster than the Atom 230. PC Perspective, Eee PC News, and Hot Hardware all ran some tests recently, and a 1.8GHz Nano L2100 with Chrome9 graphics was usually able to outperform a 1.6GHz Atom 230 with GMA950 graphics at everything from MP3 ripping to 3D benchmarking. Of course, that's not without a tradeoff -- the Nano was a bit more power-hungry, and the Atom's memory and graphics systems were occasionally faster than the Nano's. Still, it seems like the Nano has more raw horsepower than the Atom -- and it's pin-compatible with VIA's popular C7M, so hopefully we'll be seeing machines like HP's Mini-Note make the jump relatively soon. Read - PC Perspective results Read - Hot Hardware results Read - Eee PC News results
