Microsoft have officially dropped the price of some Vista packages. The highest price drop has been seen on Ultimate, which is now available for $US320, down from $US400. Does this mean you will buy it instead of downloading it from your favourite bittorrent site? Probably not.
For more info, click over to Engadget.
Isn’t it amazing that Lenovo had some ultra thin notebook coming, just as Apple had one coming? Unlike the Apple, the Lenovo doesn’t sacrifice any features to do what it does (other then looks). Now it is out and about and a bunch of people have reviewed it.
The all over feel of the reviews is that they really liked it. Most of them directly compared it to the Air, which it truly is aimed at it, and feel that the slight fatness was better then losing features. They liked the keyboard layout, they like the screen, they like the cooling and they like the sound system among other things.
They didn’t like the price and lack of HDD space, but considering the Air is around the same price, you don’t really have a choice. The biggest choice you really have to make between the notebooks is, do you want MacOSX or Windows (XP or Vista)?
Now for my rant (sorry). I think both notebooks are a good step forward in technology, but that Lenovo doesn’t challenge anything. It just makes things as small as possible, which Sony and a bunch of other manufactures will be doing right now.
Sony’s challenge with the TR1 was a ultra small 10-inch notebook. Asus challenge was the EeeCP with a 7-inch with Linux and SSD. Apples challenge was with the Air’s feature sacrifice for size. The Lenovo is an attractive package, but it isn’t anything particularly different.
Unfortunately for Lenovo other companies will soon release products that are similar and possibly cheaper or more attractive (looks and features). I would enjoy the spotlight while I had it Lenovo.
To read the complete reviews, go to PCMag, CNET, CMP Channel, Notebook Review and Walt Mossberg.
Thank you Gizmodo for doing the hard work.
Creative have been behind a little laterly. The ZEN looks on paper to be a great device, but many people have had little issues with the player, plus it doesn’t feature any nextgen features (Bluetooth, WiFi, touchscreen). That is hopefully where the Zen Share comes in, which is supposedly Creative’s answer to the Samsung P2 and iPod Touch.
The rumour goes that the Zen Share will be Solid State (flash drive, not hard drive), have WiFi (which will be magically different to the Zune and iPod), feature X-Fi audio and will have a touchscreen.
To me it sounds like an iPod Touch with better sound hardware, and I’m fine with that. If Creative are going to make a device similar to the Touch, but release us from iTunes, I would be interested. Better support for a larger range of video codecs and competitive price, and Creative will have a winner.
For more rumours, click over to epiZENter.
The title pretty much says it all, except the date, which is April 15th. Ohh, it will cost $US54.99. Now what do I write to make the article more informative and fun? I got nothing, sorry people.
For more info (like you need more), click over to Kotaku.
Sony are actually putting a pretty good deal together with this one. You get the 80GB PlayStation 3 (not sure if it is being redesigned without the backwards compatible chip or if it is the same old), a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4 (you were going to buy it anyway) and a DualShock 3 controller. You can get all that for $US499, though you will have to wait till June 12. The question is, will it arrive at that price in Australia? I would have to say no Larry.
For more info, click over to Kotaku.
Everex have been getting a lot of media time of late. They seem to make really check PC’s that give pretty good value. The latest computer to be released is the mini gPC, and is focused directly at the Mac Mini.
Inside you get an 1.86GHz Intel Dual-Core Mobile Processor T2130 (1MB L2 Cache, 1.86GHz, 533MHz), 120GB Hard Disk Drive, 512MB DDR2 667 SDRAM, DVD+/-RW, Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator GMA950, Realtek ALC268 High-Definition Audio, 10/100/1000 Ethernet Port, DVI-I Port, S-Video Port, IEEE 1394 Port, USB 2.0 Ports, 4-in1 Media Card Reader, Headphone/Line-Out Port, Microphone/Line-In Port. All this for as little as $US499.
It also comes with the custom Linux OS, that they seem to put on all the Everex gear, but considering you can get a notebook with better hardware for around the same price, it isn’t as sweet a deal as the other Everex PC’s. To top it off, it isn’t very attractive to look at, which is a small thing, but if you pay the cash you’d expect a little nicer design.
For more info, click over to Gizmodo.
It is a mix of processor and LED backlighting, but with both features you are getting between 30mins to a hour. That is taken directly from Apple though, so a grain of salt is needed. 5 hours, in my book, is still not nearly enough.
For more info, click over to Gizmodo.
It has been rumoured for a while, but only moments ago is it official. There are new Macbooks and Macbook Pro’s on the Apple block, and they got some handy, but not life changing updates. The biggest one is the introduction of the Air’s Multi-Touch pad to the whole Macbook range and the updated processors to Intels flagship Penryn series.
They’re also getting a much more powerful graphics processor, with the introduction of the sweet new Nvidia 8600GT with 512mb of memory onboard, on all the new Pro’s. The new top end processor is the beastly 2.6 GHz processor with 6MB of shared L2 cache.
The rest of the package is pretty standard affair, but is nice to see Apple rolling out the Multi-Touch feature to its minions. Starting from $US1,099, the new Macbooks are available from the Apple website immediately.
For a whole lot more info, click over to Apple Insider.
It doesn’t create green electricity, nor does it create water (or wine for that matter), but it does prevent your drink from freezing when it drops below zero. Plus it has the ability to keep beverages warm for twice as long as a standard aluminum-polyurethane bottle. It is the drink bottle for hikers of the future, except it is available now.
The Laken ISO 70 drink bottle is insulated by a material called Aerogel, which is made of 99.8% air. Other then the excellent insulation properties, it is also very light. The 24 ounce bottle (600ML) weighs less then half the weight of other conventional vacuum bottles.
They are available now for $US59, and if you are going to the Antarctic is it a must have gadget. I recommend reading up on Aerogel, because if they are already placing it in drink bottles, the next place might be your next iPod.
For more info, click over to OhGizmo!
Those Bluetooth enabled DAP’s we saw a few days ago, are now being priced for the US market. They are priced competitively, with the 8GB (NWZ-A828K and comes with DR-BT21G Bluetooth wireless headphones) going for $US270 and the 16GB (NWZ-A829) going for $US320. Isn’t so bad, with it being $US80 cheaper then similar iPod Touch, but without a touch screen it is so last generation.
For more info, click over to Engadget.