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Acer's HD DVD-equipped Aspire 9800 laptop released
Sure, LG's got a 15-inch laptop for HD DVD lovers, and Toshiba has a 17-inch model sporting one of those sweet HD optical drives, but if you want this tech in a 20-inch notebook, then Acer's Aspire 9800 is the only way to go. Just released today, the 9800 has a lot more going for it than just that high definition drive, including a Centrino Duo chipset, nVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 graphics, and a 1,680 x 1,050 CrystalBrite display. You're also getting up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, 240GB worth of HDD storage (or 120GB in a RAID 1 configuration), a hybrid analog / DVB-T TV tuner, and for piping those HD DVD movies out to your big screen, an HDCP-enabled HDMI output. All in all, a pretty attractive set of features -- but really, you should expect nothing less from a $2,800 machine.[Via laptoping]
Core 2 Duo-powered Dell XPS 410 and HP Pavilion d4600y desktops announced, reviewed
If there's anything better than killing two birds with one stone it's killing four of them, and thanks to a pair of early looks from Cnet, we're able to cram two product announcements and their corresponding reviews into one tidy little post. Even though they were just unveiled today, the tech mega-site was already able to take Dell's XPS 410 (pictured, left) and HP's Pavilion d4600y (pictured, right) Core 2 Duo-powered desktops out for a spin, and both machines come across as very capable performers. The two rigs share the same 2.4GHz E6600 CPU and 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM -- meaning that they throw down almost identical benchmark numbers, with the HP enjoying a slight but ultimately inconsequential edge -- but the Dell's nVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS graphics card with 512MB VRAM makes short work of the ATI Radeon X1600XT-sporting Pavilion in the all-important gaming department. Dual 320GB hard drives also put the XPS 410 on top when it comes to storage capacity (although the d4600y still offers a very reasonable dual 250GB HDD array), and both towers seem equally well-suited for multimedia applications with their on-board dual-tuner TV cards and plethora of connectivity options. In the end, each $2,000 system earned a Very Good score of exactly 7.2 from Cnet, with the Dell obviously getting the nod for gamers, while the cheap-looking but feature-filled HP sounds like a better choice for the all-around user who wants greater expandability. Luckily, the hot new dual-core processors in both PCs means that you'll be getting one of the fastest machines on the market, no matter which model you choose.Read- Dell XPS 410Read- HP Pavilion d4600y
First International's slim, VIIV-powered GE2 multimedia PC
Ever since the Mac mini made its much-heralded debut, new small form-factor multimedia PCs have been popping up seemingly every day, so a new company called First International (FIC) has its work cut out for it if it hopes to top the likes of AOpen, Blueado, and Hi-Grade with the super-slim, VIIV-powered GE2 revealed at Computex. Not surprisingly, the specs on this machine closely match other models on the market, so features like a Core Duo processor, integrated graphics, slot-loading DVD burner, WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0, optional TV tuner, and DVI and S/PDIF outputs will probably sound quite familiar by now. Since neither pricing nor release date are known at this point, all we can hold onto is FIC's promise that the GE2 will be shipping "very soon."
Leadtek announces "WinFast PalmTop TV" external tuner
External USB TV tuners are a dime a dozen these days, but with DIY media PCs still growing in popularity, we can expect to see even more devices like Leadtek's WinFast PalmTop TV before the flood of products tapers off. This Japanese model features a high-speed USB 2.0 connection, hardware-based MPEG-1/2/4 and AVI encoding, and a wireless remote, along with a suite of bundled software for TV watching, recording, and DVD authoring. Expect this unit to hit an already-crowded market next month, for an unknown price.[Via Impress]
SageTV Placeshifter offers mobile content streaming
Those of you who do the home theater thing from your PC and are for some reason unhappy with the free streaming service offered by Orb now have a new way of "slinging" your content to a remote computer with SageTV's Placeshifter add-on. The $30 software, which requires the $80 SageTV media center package, offers remote access to videos, music, photos, and if you have a TV tuner card or USB device, both live and recorded programming. Cnet got a "first look" at Placeshifter in action, and reports spotty but acceptable performance, with the delays and artifact-infested video we've come to expect accept from these remote streaming services. While we're pretty happy with our free Windows Media Center and Orb setup, if you already own SageTV, the one-time fee might be worth it to free your content with the knowledge that someone's there to troubleshoot the inevitable problems.[Via PVR Wire]
Velocity's Micro NoteMagix M57 Ultra gaming notebook reviewed
Although the hardest-of-hardcore gamers will likely scoff at any laptop that isn't SLI-enabled these days, PC Mag's review of Velocity's 17-inch Micro NoteMagix M57 Ultra shows us that even a solo graphics card combined with a zippy single core processor and a generous helping of RAM can deliver excellent 1,920 x 1,200 fragging performance. The M57 is powered by a 2.26GHz Pentium M 780 -- which gives it only decent productivity benchmark scores compared to a dual core machine -- but the fact that Velocity throws in 2GB of RAM along with the high-end mobile nVidia GeForce Go 7800GTX card and a 7,200 RPM hard drive allowed the rig to best PC Mag's previous champ, the Dell XPS M170, in all-important 3-D and framerate testing. Even better, the faults here are few and far between -- a rather-hefty 9.3-pound weight, lack of software for the built-in TV tuner, and separation between mouse buttons are the only knocks in this review -- so non-SLI snobs should feel safe in dropping their $3000 on what is judged to be a "Very Good" laptop.
DS Lite: Japanese news video
Footage from a Japanese TV news program detailing the DS Lite and its forthcoming web browser and TV tuner add-ons is now available online for your deeply personal watching pleasure. The clip contains plenty of DS Lite action shots, a brief demonstration of the Opera browser and above all, an unmatched level of politeness. Note: "Read" link points to an AVI video file.[Via Engadget]
DS Web Browser, TV tuner revealed
Well, Nintendo's big DS press conference in Japan has come and gone, with the fallout raining down upon us like a torrent of delicious, bite-sized candy. Though the main purpose of the conference was to parade the extraordinarily beautiful DS Lite about, Nintendo also took the opportunity to unveil some exciting new add-ons.As many of our readers correctly predicted, the melancholy and overly dramatic Internet browser, Opera, is indeed being released for the DS! Launching in June for approximately $30, the Opera browser is a fully featured, non-firmware web browser adapted to display pages on both screens and allow for stylus-based input. Yay!Nintendo also revealed a TV tuner add-on that simply plugs into the DS card slot and beams television programming straight to your portable. Though the chances of this little device making it to the West are slightly slimmer than the web browser, don't count it out just yet. Other points of note regarding the conference: The New Super Mario Bros. game will be released in Japan this May. Tetris DS will sell at a budget price. Calligraphy Training is coming to the DS, doing for the hand what Brain Training did for the mind. New footage of Xenosaga Episode 1-2 and Children of Mana was shown. Super Robot Wars, Dynasty Warriors and Winning Eleven 9, oh my! The last two will be using the Wi-Fi connection. Well, I guess we'd better get working on a DS-optimized version of DS Fanboy. [Via Joystiq][Thanks Keith Moloney, Khurrum and dwarpdesign!]
