Really, eMachines? You're honestly going to give your newest cheap-o PC this kind of tagline? Truth be told, we're not exactly sure what a standard sized dictionary even looks like (there's this thing called the internet...), but apparently, it's exactly the same size as the EL1200 desktop. Not sassy enough to be called a nettop, this here mini-tower is 40% smaller and 55% lighter than the company's second tiniest rig, and while it won't handle the likes of Crysis, it shouldn't have too many issues surfing the web and opening Word documents. As for specs, we've got a 1.5GHz AMD Athlon 2650e 64-bit CPU, NVIDIA's GeForce 6150SE integrated graphics, 1GB of DDR2, 160GB hard drive, a dual-layer DVD burner, 14-in-1 multicard reader, seven USB 2.0 ports and a $298 (MSRP) price tag. That system we just rattled off is available now at Wally World, while a slightly more stacked edition can be had at Best Buy for $349.

Let's get one thing straight, we're huge fans of budget-priced gear. Yes, even bargain bin PCs that are done right. But eMachines' latest trio is just downright embarrassing. Still, those that don't mind covering their tower in a brown paper bag may find just what they need in the $299.99 T3656, $399.99 T5254 or $498 W3653 kit (pictured). Specs wise, you'll find Intel's Celeron / Pentium dual-core processors, a DVD burner, six USB ports, 1GB to 2GB of RAM, a 160GB or 320GB hard drive, 15-in-1 multicard reader and an equally hideous 17-inch LCD monitor bundled in with just the latter. Oh, and eMachines actually expects you to run Vista on these things and not rip every last hair from your noggin. Enjoy!

[Via DigitalBurn]

Look, eMachines is just here to help. The low-cost PC maker has introduced a few new desktop models, destined to sit beside your paper plates, can of beans, and tin of generic instant coffee. Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you. The new budget models come in two flavors, the T3646 and T5254, both featuring AMD CPUs (2.2GHz Sempron LE-1250 versus the 2.1GHz dual core Athlon BE-2350), an NVIDIA 6100 graphics chipset, 1GB or 2GB of RAM, a 160GB or 320GB hard drive, DVD+R/RW SuperMulti drive, a handful of ports, a mouse, and really nasty looking cases. Available right now, $299.99 and $399.99, respectively.

eMachines, long known for dropping mediocre, middle of the road, inoffensive desktops, has once again busted out of the gate with two new defiantly tame PCs that will make you say "Hello." The latest entries -- confusingly named the T5246 and T3642 -- share similar guts, including NVIDIA GeForce 6100 GPUs, DVD DVD±R / RW SuperMulti drives, and 6-channel 5.1 audio. The differences are more apparent where it counts, with the T5246 utilizing a 2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ dual core CPU, 2GB of RAM, and a 400GB hard drive, while the T3642 uses a 2.6GHz Athlon 64 4000+ CPU, carries 1GB of RAM, and downsizes the hard drive to 250GB. Both systems are available now, with the T5246 clocking in at $429.99, and the T3642 listed at $349.99.

Sure, Wal-Mart's $100 Toshiba HD-A2 is going to be a little hard to beat this holiday season, but Best Buy is proving no slacker in the Black Friday price war. Turns out they've got a $200 eMachines desktop on offer, complete with 17-inch LCD. Unfortunately, it'll cost you a fair bit more to get an HD player: Best Buy will have a Philips Blu-ray player for $400, but you can nab an Xbox 360 and a copy of Guitar Hero II (with guitar) for $350 at a more significant level of bargain-ness. Yeah, nothing's blowing our mind like that HD-A2, but it looks like there's going to be plenty of cheap-as-free electronics for adventerous shoppers to fight over in a couple weeks.

[Via The Boy Genius Report]

Acer -- the third largest PC company globally -- just announced a definitive agreement to acquire Gateway. The acquisition has been approved unanimously by both boards and is expected to close by December 2007. You know, following the usual international, anti-trust approvals. Sure seems like a win-win what with Gateway steadily losing market share (but still tied for third largest PC maker in the US) while finally giving Taiwan's Acer a dominant position in the Americas to match their aggressive growth in Europe and Asia. From the looks of the press release, it would appear that the Gateway (and eMachines) brands will continue under Acer's new "multi-branded company." Fine, but could we now get rid of the cow spots, please? It's not 1985 anymore.

[Via Notebooks]

eMachines continues to ply its wares in the cutthroat waters of the low end PC market, and its new summer and fall lineup looks like it'll be pretty competitive. $500 will get you a T5230 desktop (pictured with optional 19-inch display) with a 2.32GHz dual-core Athlon 64 X2 4400+, NVIDIA 6510SE integrated graphics, 1 GB of RAM, a 250GB disk, Vista Home Premium, and a dual-layer DVD±RW drive, while the $450 T5062 swaps in a single core 2.4GHz Athlon 64 3800+ and a 160GB disk. The $400 T3616 is somewhat less of a deal, with a 2.0GHz Sempron on a 160MHz frontside bus, 512MB of RAM, a 120GB disk, and Vista Home Basic. All these prices go down $50 if you complete the mail-in rebate eMachines will be offering, which should be enough to throw in a couple extra sticks of RAM and actually make these things useful.

eMachines has a new range of desktop machines and displays for you this weekend with the T3612, T5008, and T5226 coming in with the usual mix of low- to mid-range specifications. At the core of the range is a selection of Intel Pentium processors, ranging from the Celeron D 360 in the T3612 up to the dual core Intel Pentium D 925 processor running at 3GHz in the T5226. The rest of the specs are relatively standard with memory configurations bottoming at 512MB and topping out at 1GB, yucky Intel 950 GMA "graphics cards" in the entire range, a 120-250GB SATA Hard Disk Drives, and all format DVD writer drives, and 15-in-one memory card readers rounding out the rest of the specs. All of these machines run Vista Home Premium, and the top end machine will cost you one cent short of $500 with the lower end T3612 and T5008 priced at $349 and $399 respectively. Expect to see these flogged to bewildered customers everywhere from today. eMachines is also making available a 19-inch widescreen LCD for $209.99 and a 17-inch model for $179.99, although they didn't elaborate on precise details.

[Via Mobile Whack]

There's a good chance your dealing with some eMachines boxes when the "high-end" boasts a hefty $530 pricetag. The Gateway-owned budget PC builder has a new lineup of desktops out today to support Windows Vista, ranging from the Celeron-based T3604 to the Pentium D T5224. In the low-end, the T3604 sports a Celeron D 356 3.33GHz processor, with 512MB (hardly adequate for blazing Vista performance) of RAM, a 120GB HDD, CD-RW/DVD combo drive, Intel 950 graphics, Vista Home Basic and a $350 pricetag after a $50 instant rebate. Next up is the T5082, which runs a Pentium 4 631 3GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, a 160GB HDD, a super-multi DVD drive, 15-in-1 card reader, ATI Radeon X300-based integrated graphics, Vista Home Basic and a $400 pricetag after the $50 rebate. Finally, the T5224 really does it up fancy for an eMachines box, including a Pentium D 820 proc running at 2.8GHz, 1GB of RAM, a 250GB HDD, super-multi DVD drive, card reader, Intel 950 graphics (bleh), and Vista Home Premium. The box is Viiv compatible, and will run you $530 after the $50 rebate. All of the PCs have 5.1 surround sound, DirectX 9.0 graphics, and a PCI Express x16 slot for upgrading the graphics -- which seems highly advisable. You should be able to find these things at retail outlets before too terribly long.

You know how some things go out of fashion here in the US, but they continue to live on in Europe? We're talking about things like Speedos, very colorful shirts and house music. In the computer biz, add Packard Bell to that list. As we reminded you back in late June, Packard Bell withdrew from the American market in 1999, but has remained successful in Europe under the direction of NEC. Well, yesterday, the company announced that its sale of its beloved subsidiary to eMachines founder Lap Shun Hui should be complete by the end of the month. No word on how much LSH offered for PackBell (The Wall Street Journal quoted estimates of as much as $87 million) but the head of the company, Aymar de Lencquesaing told The New York Times that its annual revenue last year was about $1.9 billion and added the company is "slightly profitable." Lap Shun Hui also offered to buy Gateway for $450 million, but was turned down by that company's board of directions. We guess Mr. Hui doesn't take well to rejection -- either way, we expect to spot him bumping to house music in an Amsterdam nightclub any day now.

Just a couple of months after making an offer for Packard Bell's BV PC subsidiary, eMachines founder Lap Shun Hui has now set his sights on Gateway, the very same company he sold eMachines to for some $290 million all the way back in 2004. He doesn't want the whole company though, just its retail business (which includes eMachines), which he says would be more successful if it were separated from Gateway's other operations. So far, Hui has offered $450 million to take the business off Gateway's hands, but it doesn't look like he's gonna be quick to take no for an answer, even saying he'd consider acquiring all Gateway shares and splitting up the businesses himself if necessary. There doesn't appear to be any indication of Gateway's intent just yet, but its shareholders seem to have spoken, with Gateway's stock shooting up over 13 percent yesterday on the news.

[Via Ars Technica]

Even though summer has only barely begun, Gateway's eMachines is already looking ahead to the upcoming school year, having just announced five new Vista-ready desktops for the student on a budget. Starting at the "top of the line," we have the T6536 (pictured, with optional monitor) and T6534, which both feature Athlon 64 processors from AMD (3800+ and 3700+, respectively), nVidia GeForce 6100 graphics, and 250GB of storage, but the extra $90 you're spending on the $540 T6536 doubles the RAM from 512MB to 1GB and bumps the OS up to Windows XP Media Center Edition. Next in line is the T5046, which will set you back the same $450 as the T6534 but changes up the specs with a hyper-threaded Pentium 4 processor, Radeon Xpress 200 graphics from ATI, 512MB of RAM, a 200GB HDD, and the same dual-layer DVD burner found in both members of the 6000-series. Finally, the super-budget-conscious consumer has the option of either the $350 T3506 or $380 T3508, with the former machine offering a Celeron D352 CPU, Radeon X300-based graphics, 512MB of RAM, 120GB HDD, and a CD-RW/DVD combo drive, while the latter rig steps it up to a Celeron D356, Radeon Xpress 200 chip, 160GB hard drive, and that good old multi-format DVD burner. All of the new machines are available immediately, which gives you plenty of time to load up the software you'll need for surviving next year's vigorous academic schedule -- namely tunes, vids, and games.

Read- T6536
Read- T6534
Read- T5046
Read- T3508
Read- T3506
[All models via Yahoo]

Some of our older readers may remember using Packard Bell gear all the way back when the consumer electronics industry consisted of just radios and TV sets, and even the younger crowd probably played on a PB or two after the name was sold to a budget computer manufacturer in the mid-80's. Well even though the company withdrew from the US market back in 2000 after being plagued with quality and compatibility issues, it has actually been quite successful overseas under the guidance of NEC as Packard Bell Europe, where it's consistently been one of the top-selling PC manufacturers and even begun branching out to other product lines. Still, NEC seems to think that the tide has turned on old Packard Bell once again, as sources in Asia indicate that the Japanese corporation is looking to sell the Dutch Packard Bell BV PC subsidiary, and that eMachines founder Lap Shun Hui is looking to buy. Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun is claiming that Hui offered around $87 million for the division, probably hoping that he can use his skills to transform the 'Bell into the same type of property that convinced Gateway to shell out over $200 million worth of cash and stock for eMachines a few years back.