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preview posts

Lucid's GPU-mixing HYDRA Engine gets previewed, shows real promise

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Nov 11th 2009 at 1:14PM

After a bit of a delay Lucid is back on our radar -- and we're pleased to say that the company's technology for combining multiple GPUs seems to be well on course. Indeed, a few HYDRA 200 units appear to be out and about, with preliminary tests showering love on the device. When the kids at Hot Hardware put theirs through its paces they encountered drivers issues (not surprising for something still in development) but still reported running a mixed ATI / NVIDIA combo for "impressive scaling" most of the time, peaking at 85% in dual-GPU mode. And PC Perspective also had positive things to say, with the HYDRA pushing performance "up by 83% -- definitely a competitive solution to SLI!" But that ain't all -- for the real nitty gritty you'll have to check out the links below.

Read - PC Perspective's Lucid HYDRA 200 Multi-GPU Technology Performance Preview
Read - Hot Hardware: Lucid Hydra 200 Multi-GPU Performance Revealed

Sonos S5 ears-on review: a premium iPod speaker dock without the dock

by Thomas Ricker posted Oct 20th 2009 at 9:00AM

We had the opportunity to hear a preview of the $399 Sonos S5 all-in-one speaker ahead of its 27 October US launch (November 10th in Europe). For comparison, we had it staged side-by-side with a pair of Sonos 100 speakers -- a setup that costs $678 ($499 for an amplified Sonos ZonePlayer Z120 and another $179 for the separate loudspeakers). Unfair, perhaps, since Sonos is actually positioning its five speaker (two tweeters, two 3-inch mids, and a built-in 3.5-inch sub) S5 with five dedicated amps against premium iPod speaker docks like the $600 Bose SoundDock 10, $600 B&W Zeppelin, or legacy $349 Apple iPod Hi-Fi. So how did it sound? About what we expected, which in this case is a good thing. Click through to find out why.

Gallery: Sonos S5 ears-on review: the premium iPod speaker dock without the dock

Continue reading Sonos S5 ears-on review: a premium iPod speaker dock without the dock

Samsung's WinMo 6.5-powered Armani smartphone gets previewed

by Darren Murph posted Oct 10th 2009 at 4:01AM

Got a cool grand to drop on a Windows Phone? Oh, yeah? Then have a gander at Samsung's latest fashion piece, the Armani-branded M7500. The cool cats over at PhoneArena managed to get their paws around a unit, and as predicted, they didn't hesitate to bust out the camera and give us all a good look. They also took the chance to give us a brief overview of how the handset handled, calling it "bulky even for a WinMo smartphone," though praising the high-res display and well-spaced keyboard. Feel free to hit the read link if you're interested in more, but don't be shocked to hear more than a little criticism.

[Via MobileTechWorld, thanks Arnaud]

Nokia shows off N900's sweet web browsing skills on video

by Darren Murph posted Oct 7th 2009 at 5:39AM

Eager to get your pulsing palms around Nokia's N900? Yeah, we feel your pain. As if the phone itself and Maemo 5 haven't been talked about enough, Nokia itself has published a new video showcasing the Mozilla-based web browser. Only time will tell if said browser lives up to the hype, but if the video posted up after the break is any indication, we'd say things are looking good. Six minutes may be a long time to look at something you can't touch, but we're guessing you'd listen to six minutes of the host saying anything. Have a listen -- you'll see.

[Via HotHardware, thanks dafrabbit]

Continue reading Nokia shows off N900's sweet web browsing skills on video

Verizon's HTC Imagio toyed with on video, sized up against BlackBerry Storm

by Darren Murph posted Oct 2nd 2009 at 5:18AM

Interested in HTC's upcoming slate of WinMo 6.5 goodness for Verizon? How interested? Interested enough to peek a minty fresh video of the thing in action? If you're nodding your head up and down with any level of ferocity, we'd encourage you to re-familiarize yourself with the specifications, come to terms with the fact that there's no way you're laying hands on this yourself prior to October 6th, click on past the break and mash play. In that order, please.

[Thanks, Mark]

Continue reading Verizon's HTC Imagio toyed with on video, sized up against BlackBerry Storm

Nokia N900 undergoes extensive preview, N97 found sobbing in a corner

by Vladislav Savov posted Oct 1st 2009 at 6:20AM

Our amateur sleuthing skills tell us there might be a tiny bit of excitement about this N900 device. With the Maemo 5 environment already measured up, it's the turn of the hardware to get exhaustively previewed. The My Symbian team took a look at a prototype unit and were immediately impressed by the 800 x 480 display and relatively compact dimensions for such a loaded phone. The resistive touchscreen was on par with the N97, though it picked up scratches too easily for their liking ( a screen protector is recommended), while the keyboard was deemed small but still a major improvement over the N97's. Internals rated well, with the 600MHz Cortex-A8 CPU and "superb" video recording grabbing plaudits. Perplexingly, there was only 256MB allocated to application installs (see image after the break), which can be altered by those with Linux knowhow, but this may draw plenty of ire from mainstream, app-hungry consumers, considering the device is capable of holding 48GB of total memory. On the outside, the camera cover was found to scratch the case around the lens (but not the lens itself like on some N97 units) while sliding, and removing the stylus from its slot revealed some bare electronics, both of which rather undermined the overall feel of a well-built device. They did find connectivity on the device a pretty dreamy and trouble-free affair, but we're still only scratching the surface here -- hit up the read link for the whole enchilada.

[Via MobileTechWorld]

Update: Nokia has expressly stated that the retail phones will come with repartitioned memory, which will provide "plenty" of space for app installations and obviate the storage issue noted above. [Thanks, sockatume]

Continue reading Nokia N900 undergoes extensive preview, N97 found sobbing in a corner

Missed the Google Wave beta? We've got hands-on!

by Nilay Patel posted Sep 30th 2009 at 2:47PM

Google Wave started limited beta testing today, but chances are you'll miss out on an invite, since the 100,000 open slots will fill almost instantly. Not to worry, though -- our in-depth impressions of El Goog's innovative new IM/email/everything service are still right here if you want to get in deep. Will Wave change the world? Only one way to find out.

Read - Google Wave beta testing begins
Read - Our hands-on impressions from last month

Intel's 32nm processors show off power efficiency in informal preview

by Vladislav Savov posted Sep 28th 2009 at 10:19AM

Craving for some cutting edge tech to go with your croissant this morning? Intel's Clarkdale and Arrandale -- the 32nm chips that cram the GPU and memory controller inside the CPU package -- have been subjected to the discerning eye of the Hot Hardware investigators, and have shown off some significantly reduced power usage. The entire small form factor system you see above, built around a Clarkdale processor, clocked up an austere 28W when idling, and only went up to around 70W under full load, which you can just about make out on the wattmeter beside it. Limited to two processing cores due to the added complexity inside the chip, these might lack the juice to oust Core i7 rigs, but if the laptop parts reflect similar power savings, it's difficult to imagine a more desirable CPU for your next mobile computer. Hit the read link for some synthetic benchmarks and further impressions.

Wacom's Bamboo Pen & Touch unboxed and previewed

by Paul Miller posted Sep 26th 2009 at 10:50AM

Wacom sure has been busy with its Bamboo line, and now the impressions are starting to trickle in. The Pen & Touch is particularly interesting, marrying what is essentially an extra large touchpad with traditional digital pen tech -- and to what effect? Well, the tester at BestTabletReview.com didn't find much difference in accuracy or sensitivity with his old Graphire, and was particularly digging the 16:9 ratio over his old tablet's 4:3 setup -- making for more of a 1-to-1 penning experience. Of course, it's probably more up to personal tastes as to whether you'll really find the multitouch aspects of the unit worthwhile, but they aren't touched on much here, and you could always just spring for the Pen-only edition if that's the way you're wired.

The Popcorn Hour C-200 media streamer makes its way into the wild

by Steven Kim posted Sep 19th 2009 at 2:47AM

It looks like Popcorn Hour's C-200 media streamer is making its way into end-users' hands, so prepare yourself for a flurry of reviews. Our friend Brent over at GeekTonic should be jumping into the fray soon, and has kicked things off with a preview. Yeah, the C-200 is bigger than its sibling A-100, but it brings so much to the table that we'd say Popcorn Hour has packed in just as much -- if not more -- goodness per cubic inch. With space available for a hard and/or Blu-ray drive, wired and wireless networking, and USB ports to round out the input connectivity, the C-200 then adds a smorgasbord of codec support just to make sure your bits will survive the translation back into entertainment. With the "it plays anything" kind of capability the C-200 is promising, we've got a feeling that a positive review or two might be the only thing standing between us and a $300 dent in our credit cards.

[Via ZatzNotFunny]

Nokia N97 Mini previewed: not so mini, not so great

by Ross Miller posted Aug 24th 2009 at 4:46PM

As sure as the sun, Mobile-review's Eldar Murtazin managed to nab a very early look at the still yet-to-be-announced Nokia N97 Mini, and as if we needed another reminder, the FCC filing wasn't kidding with that 1:1 scale. Turns out it only takes "around a centimeter" difference to earn the "mini" nomenclature in Finland, and in addition to that peculiarity, the company's apparently managed to make the keyboard actually worse than its predecessor -- no small feat, if you ask us. Of course, we haven't had a chance to try it ourselves yet, but the prognosis so far isn't so good. Perhaps more interesting is good ole' Eldar's teasing about a number of other touchscreen Nokia devices, some without keyboards, that'd target the same segment as the N97 Mini, including one he'll be revealing and previewing tomorrow -- and no matter what it is, we can all but guarantee with supreme confidence that it'll have a more compelling raison d'être than this thing.

Zune HD getting previewed at select Best Buys this weekend

by Paul Miller posted Aug 21st 2009 at 12:28PM

Now that NVIDIA is totally free to chat up its Tegra involvement in the Zune HD, it's wasted little time in publishing a list of Zune HD preview locations where you can witness the magic for yourself this weekend. The tour is fairly limited to the big urban hubs, but peep the PDF and see if your friendly neighborhood Best Buy is represented.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in. Warning: PDF link]

Always Innovating Touch Book unboxed, previewed and stuck to a fridge for good measure

by Paul Miller posted Aug 20th 2009 at 12:55PM

Always Innovating sure made good on the promise of removable tablet embedded in a netbook form factor and price -- we've gone from hardly believable renders in March to a now-shipping $400 ($300 without the base) product as of now. The impressions are already trickling in, but our favorite observation so far is this fridge magnet implementation. The main complaint so far is that the machine altogether is rather heavy for a netbook. It makes sense given that all the computer internals are in the MID-style touchscreen, while the keyboard base adds on 7 hours of purported battery life. So far it doesn't sound like this is the sexy-slim way to get into the netbook game if you're not in it for the removable MID capabilities, but for the MID affectionate the Touch Book could provide a nice alternative to the same old same old.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

Read - Touch Book first impressions
Read - Touch Book unboxing

Nokia's Maemo 5 RX-51 / N900 tablet gets exhaustively previewed

by Nilay Patel posted Aug 19th 2009 at 3:04PM

Eldar Murtazin at mobile-review teased us with that shot of Nokia's RX-51 / N900 Maemo 5 tablet earlier today, and now he's back in force with a detailed preview. We're talking tons of hardware pictures and screenshots of what stands to be the standard-bearer for all Nokia devices going forward, and while we'd love to tell you all about how impressed we are with what we're seeing of Maemo 5 and how disappointed we are in the Rover's resistive touchscreen, we won't hold you back -- hit the read link and dive right in.

Xbox Live dashboard update preview invites begin rolling out

by Ross Miller posted Jul 28th 2009 at 11:28PM

You've already read our thoughts on the new Xbox Live dashboard update, and now it's time for those who put in their name for the preview program to join the fun. Microsoft today began sending invites that'll get you set up for the download, so that you can enjoy Avatar marketplace and a slew of new Netflix options (and irksome restrictions for Starz Play titles). Registration is still open if you still want a shot at nabbing it before August 11th. Didn't get an email? A second wave of invites is going out tomorrow, but also be sure to check the Connect site you registered at anyway, as Microsoft notes those who opted out of receiving emails will have no other way of confirming.

[Via Joystiq]