Panasonic Notebook Impreza Style

I don’t really get how it works with notebook companies making car themed notebooks. Acer make some of the cheapest no frills notebooks around and they get Ferrari. Asus aren’t much better and they get Lamborghini. Panasonic make impressive, expensive, ultraportable and unique notebooks and they get Subaru!
Now I have had a rant, I can get back to the news at hand. Panasonic have released a CF-W7 Subaru Impreza themed notebook (that was easy wasn’t it). If you like the new Subaru Impreza WRX STI and want a CF-W7, then unless you are in Japan, you can probably forget it. They will be limited run of 500, and at the $US2499, I would say they will sell fast.
Inside, in case you are wondering, is a Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB DDR RAM (2GB upgradeable maximum), 80GB HDD and 12.1″ TFT colour XGA display, running on Windows Vista Business Edition. The whole package will weigh in 1.2Kg.

For more info, click over to the Gizmodo Blog.

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Update: Nokia N810 Hits Shelves

The Nokia N810 is one of those devices I get excited about (almost to the point of arousal) and would love one if I didn’t owe the bank so much money. It is now available for purchase $US479 from a whole array of US sellers. If you are from the US, what are you doing still reading this? Go get one!

For more info, click over to the Engadget Blog.

Bigger Airbus Coming

The A380 is one mean plane. It will revolutionise an industry, which isn’t exactly fast moving (the 747, even though revised, are still freaking old), and now they will try and go a step further. The Airbus A380 may not be as attractive looking as their competitors Boeing 787, but it is designed for a different industry altogether. The current version can sit 800, with the talk of a new ’stretched’ version going as far as 1000. Full production of the 1000 seater plane can be expected in 2010, with Emirates already showing interest (as usual).
On a side note, congratulations on the A380 for also becoming the biggest privately owned jet. Some extremely rich Saudi Prince (HRH Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal) has already placed his order for the $US300 million plane. Replacing his ancient 747-400, his new jet probably won’t be setup to sit 800 people, but no doubt it will P-I-M-P (whatever that means).

For more info, click over to the Gizmodo Blog, and Gizmag Website.

PS3 Dev Kits Get Price Drop Too

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were awesome games for the PlayStation 3. Sure you have a few new ones that have been just released that aren’t so bad, but most of them are on all gaming platforms. Sony may have noticed that as well, with it now being cheaper to become a developer for the PS3, seeing there has been a price reduction on the cost of the  Playstation 3 Reference Tool. If you are a developer, you can get yours now for $10,250 USD, half of what it use to cost! Lets hope that more game companies will adopt the PS3 and we will finally see some new and unique games for the system.

For more info, click over to the Joystiq Website.

ATI Has Another Surprise, The HD 3600 Series

I have to say I feel sorry for anyone who just forked out for a new video card, because you can guarantee that in the next couple of weeks there are going to be big changes. It was only a few days ago that AMDATI did the big HD 3800 series release and there is already news of a HD 2600 series replacement.
The new series, which you could have guessed already, will be titled the HD 3600 series, and will come in 2 flavors. The first having 512 MB of DDR2 (they still make that stuff?) and the second will be a 256 MB DDR3 version. It isn’t known yet if they will keep the old branding of XT and Pro, but considering the introduction of the 3850 and 3870, I would guess them to be the 3650 and 3670. The new series will based on the ‘RV635′ GPU and will support DirectX 10.1.
Apart from that, there is also talk of a 2400 series replacement (I guess the 3400).

For more info, click over to The Register Website.

Pocket Software You Must Have

If you aren’t familiar with the Smartphone And Pocket PC Mag software awards, then this is a good time to find out about them. Every year they do a run around and grab as much Pocket PC (and Smartphone) applications, utilities and games as they can, and then setup a cage match to see who is the best. They have just completed the 2007 addition and have thrown it up on their website for all to see. If you have a Smartphone or Pocket PC then I definitely recommend you go over and have a perusal.

The software awards can be found at the Smartphone Pocket PC Mag website.

Mazda Do It Again With The 2 Sedan

I have to say, for a small car sedan, the 2008 Mazda 2 sedan is very attractive. At the 2007 Guangzhou International Auto Show in China, Mazda have revealed the upcoming Mazda2 sedan, which is built by a partnership between Mazda, Ford and the Chinese automaker Changan Automobile Group. At the moment it will only be available in the Chinese market, but it wouldn’t take a genius to predict its success and eventual spreading of markets. All that is known currently is, it will be 168 inches long, 66.73 inches wide and 58.26 inches high, making it 16 inches longer (152.95 inches) the same width the same height as the Mazda2 hatch. Price is  not yet know, but I will try and get an update when there is one. For now you can enjoy the pretty pictures.

For more info, click over to the Jalopnik Blog.

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ATi Radeon HD 3800 Is Here To Play

It wasn’t long ago, in the scheme of things, that ATI released their HD 2000 series of video cards that brought in a budget DirectX 10 era, and now that have pushed a new product to the budget buyer, the HD 3800 series.
The series will come in 2 flavors, the HD 3850 and 3870, which main difference’s are DDR3 on the 3850 and DDR4 on the 3870. Otherwise, both cards support full 10.1, are built on the – world’s first – 55nm manufacture process, 666 million transistors, run on PCI Express 2.0 and the list just goes on. There is a million things to read about it, and there is no better place to read it then at the Reg Hardware Website.
Now to what the rest of us are after, the benchmarks. It is hard to say currently (different on every site), even though it is no limit to the amount of reviews already found around the net, but currently it sits around the HD 2900 series mark. Not bad when you consider the cards are going to sell for around the $US150-200 range.
It seems that AMDATI have gone all out on this offering, and it looks like it could do well. We will have to wait and see what NVidia have lying in wait before we give it the crown, but I personally have to say that this would be the next video card I put in my system.

For more info, click over to the Engadget Blog, or for a list of reviews, go to the DailyTech Website.

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HD-DVD Strike’s Back With Larger Disk

This Red Vs Blue battle (not the famous, and very hilarious, Halo machina) is getting a little old for me. I am talking about the long winded standard war of HD-DVD (red laser) vs Blu-Ray (purple poker dot laser). The people who are currently losing the battle are the consumer, with not knowing who is going to win, and therefore having to wait to see who can spit the furthest.
The latest turn in the battle is HD-DVD getting 51 GB disks (thanks to Toshiba) approved by the DVD Forum, making them 1 GB bigger then the current biggest Blu-Ray disk. This is achieved through the use of a 3rd layer, making the disks triple layer.
What does this mean to the good people out there? High resolution movies with more features, backup drives with more capacity, bigger computer games and the possibility of massive XBox 360 games. The problem is by the time the disks are affordable, there will most likely be a better standard replacing both of them.

For more info, click over to the Engadget Website.

Zune 30 As A USB Drive

Wouldn’t it be nice if every company that makes PMP’s and other portable entertainment machines gave you the ability to use the device as a MSC (Mass Storage Device Class). Though the Zune 30 can’t by Microsoft’s doing, it can with a little hackory. If you want to know how you will have to click over to the Zunerama Forum, and be warned, it could break your computer. Lets hope that this hack works on all the new Zunes as well.

For more info, click over to the Crunch Gear Website.