News Archive

Video: Axle GeForce GT 430: Reaching for the Sky @ XBitLabs AXLE GT 430 Classic Review @ OCC Palit GeForce GTS 450 Review by Ultimate Hardware Motherboards and Chipsets:  Zotac's H67-ITX motherboard @ The Tech Report Processors: AMD Spring 2011 Phenom II Lineup, plus Noctua NH-D14 Review @ Rage3D.com Intel Sandy Bridge Review @ Digital...

Following a weekend where much of Egypt had no Internet service at all, we're now seeing data that proves just how important the world wide web is to the society we now live in. Just decades ago, there was no worldwide inter-connectivity. But the world has become a far smaller place with the advent of the Internet, and the UN's telecommunications...

There's no question about it, people have been wondering what Microsoft's response to the iPad would be. Early on, the company seemed pretty content with just putting Windows 7 onto tablet form factors and rolling with it. But is that really enough? Windows 7 is a desktop OS, and it was never made specifically with tablets in mind. To date,...

Barnes & Noble has released a small, bug significant firmware upgrade for the NOOKcolor. The new firmware fixes some bugs and adds a few new features including the ability to pinch-and-zoom from the Web browser. On its Website, Barnes & Noble provided a brief description for the update: Barnes & Noble is providing a minor update...

Just as cellphones are exploding, so is the consumption of digital media. Netflix is well on their way to taking over the content world, and following a very nice quarterly report, the company also revealed one other little nugget of interesting information. The company wrote the following: "Apple TV has done very well for us, and in just...

If you just so happen to have a television that is marked "3D-ready," but still need a little help in making the whole thing come together, Mitsubishi has a new kit that just might be exactly what you need. The new 3D Starter Pack enables owners of both Mitsubishi and Samsung 3D-ready DLP TVs to actually enjoy 3D content on older televisions...

The world is mighty big, but it's getting smaller every day with the boom of mobile communications. Cellphone use is skyrocketing, and there are now loads of facts, figures and research to prove that. IDC, a respected company in the research and analyst industry, has found that the worldwide mobile phone market grew 17.9% in the fourth quarter...

The way people communicate has changed drastically, and Skype has played a major role in that. The VoIP calling company has made it easier than ever to dial up anyone, regardless of where they are, and with over 20 million people logged in each day, it's easy to see why this revolution is only growing. While mobile clients have obviously been...

Although it's known that the Motorola Xoom will launch very soon with Honeycomb, Android 3.0, there's been no detailed unveiled of the new tablet-specific Android version. That will all change on Feb. 2, a date that has been called by some as a sort of "War Manuever" by Google. The reason for that nickname is that Feb. 2 is also the date that...

Rovio's Angry Birds game is on its way to "Rio," sort of. The company announced on Friday that it is partnering up with Twentieth Century Fox to create a version of the game centered on the upcoming animated movie “Rio,” which hits theaters on April 15. The Angry Birds game will launch ahead of the movie, sometime in March. According...

Spam text messages are an annoyance, and perhaps more so than spam email, as each spam SMS message could cost a subscriber who doesn't have an unlimited messaging plan money. However, in this case a spam text message prevented a suicide bombing, saving hundreds of lives. Russian security forces reported on the incident with a so-called...

It wasn't long ago that Pioneer was selling a line of Elite plasma HDTVs. In 2009, Pioneer abandoned the TV business to focus on other efforts. Now, it appears the Elite brand will be available on TVs once again. Sharp will license Pioneer's Elite brand for a line of high-end flat-panel displays the company plans to introduce in the US and...

Times may have been tough for the corporate world in 2009, but things are definitely different now that it's 2011. A lot of companies are finishing up their 2010 earnings with Q4 announcements this week, with Amazon having a particularly great outlook. The company managed to score their first $10 billion quarter (talking about sales), with...

If you're an enthusiast, there's a high likelihood you're enjoying the primary benefit of 64-bit computing, that being gobs of memory space to work or play with.  We do a bit of heavy lift around these parts, crunching video and the like, and at the end of the day it literally pays to have a lot of memory at our disposal.  Most times,...

Apple's new 11" and 13" MacBook Air models are extremely thin. No question about that. But what if you want to use it as a desktop replacement? There probably aren't a great deal of computer users out there who would even consider such a thing, but if you are, Twelve South now has an option to consider. The BookArc is a new vertical stand...

A new version of Apple's iTunes is now available via OS X Software Update, and while it's a relatively small update in terms of the point release, it's monumental in the scheme of things. iTunes 10.1.2 isn't a major overhaul. The design looks about the same, and most of the functionality seems exactly as it was. So why update? If you're planning...

It's something that was once reserved for only the highest of the high-end home cinema setups, and the average Joe simply never considered wiring his home for whole home audio. But these days, as technology has improved, blossomed, and become cheaper and easier to install, having whole home audio isn't the chore that it once was. Largely due...

With the explosion of "the cloud," remote access has become a sector where lots of growth is taking place. And as more and more media goes hosted on connected storage devices, people will become increasingly interested in pulling down data from remote locations. Splashtop has been a big player in the market, and while the company sought first...

Both TSMC and GlobalFoundries have released new information on their respective plans for the next few years. TSMC has announced its intention to double its 2011 R&D capital expenditure to $700 million, while it simultaneously spends $7.8B over the next year in order to increase its manufacturing capacity by approximately 20 percent. This...

Verizon Wireless announced the latest version of the carrier's navigation service, VZ Navigator VX. This service provides 3D navigation views. Initially, the 3D capabilities of VZ Navigator VX will be available in six cities (Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Mo., New York, and Washington D.C.). Additional cities are scheduled to...

Don't go hitting the panic button if you suddenly notice ads in your Gmail account, you're not the victim of a virus or any other malware looking to wreak havoc on your system. So what's going on? Apparently Google got the bright (and potentially lucrative) idea of testing out display ads in Gmail user accounts. "We're always trying out new...

Can you smell it in the air? It smells like a Honeycomb cooking, otherwise known as Android 3.0, which Google's trying to bake to perfection for the tablet space. The search titan has begun serving up samples of its next-generation OS to allow developers enough time to get acquainted with the new platform. "Today, we are releasing a preview...

Razer's specialty is gaming mice. The company kicked things off with a bang years ago by launching the BoomSlang, and at this point, they've created more mice than we care to count. This week, they're launching yet another new mousing device in the DeathAdder Black Edition. It's an update to the original DeathAdder, which was actually launched...

StarTech launched two new 4-Drive External Hard Drive Docking Stations that support both USB and eSATA connectivity. Both of these new docking stations also accept 2.5- or 3.5-inch SATA or SSD drives. StarTech claims these new docking stations are the first in the market to offer support for four drives simultaneously. The new SATDOCK4U3E...

It's still January, and AMD is still focused on Fusion. There's no question that the APU is a huge step forward for the company, and in the never-ending battle with Intel, this kind of leap could be just what the doctor ordered. Today, AMD announced availability of the updated AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing (APP) Software Development...

Apple's Mac Mini has been viewed as a legitimate HTPC contender ever since the original model was released years back. People immediately began hacking the mounting options to get them onto the backs of their televisions, and with the new model, it became an even nicer solution. With a more powerful CPU and GPU, more storage space and great...

Another day, another new Panasonic camera. The company has been pumping out a healthy amount of compact cameras here lately, with the LUMIX FX78 featuring an f/2.5 24mm ultra-wide Leica lens, a 3.5" touch screen and a 1080p movie mode. That's not too shabby for simply a point-and-shoot camera, and there's also Touch AF, Touch Zoom, Touch Shutter,...

If you ever doubted the importance of digital books, here's something that may change your mind. Amazon's "Singles" have launched today, and it's not a dating service. It's a new form of book, and it could spearhead an all new category of writing. Before the advent of digital reading, writers often had to choose between making their work short...

AMD's Fusion APU launch was just huge for the company. It's a technology that they have been talking about for years now, and it has finally come to fruition. So it's okay if even weeks after launch, the company is still gloating about what their APUs are capable of. We'll cut 'em some slack -- it's a momentous month, and it's fair to bask...

Can you believe this? That's not the PSP, that's the next PSP. And not the next PSPgo. Are you still with us? We hope so. Sony's PSPgo was more of an experiment than anything else. It relied solely on digital downloads, not accepting UMDs or physical discs of any kind. It was a drastic shift in approach for the company's handheld business,...

NextComputing introduced a new all-in-one workstation that offers desktop-like performance in a slightly more portable form. The new Radius EX is definitely a powerful machine. It has a 17-inch, 1920x1200 display, Intel Core i7 processor or dual Intel Xeon 5600 processors, 48GB of RAM, and up to 7TB of storage. New All-In-One, Portable Workstation...

Last quarter, Microsoft sold more than 2 million units of its Windows Phone 7 software to various handset makers. Although the sales numbers represents a strong start for the new mobile operating system, Microsoft still has a long way to go if it hopes to catch up to Apple's iPhone or Google's Android operating system. Some analysts have said...

MetroPCS expanded its 4G LTE service into the Atlanta, Jacksonville, Miami and Orlando metropolitan areas. In these areas, customers with the Samsung Craft 4G LTE smartphone will enjoy even faster speeds with their no annual contract plans. MetroPCS offers unlimited talk, text and 4G LTE web browsing on plans that range from $40 to $60 a month,...

Compact cameras just aren't the same as they used to be. And that's a good thing! They're becoming more and more advanced, and while rugged cameras used to be tremendously bulky, that's no longer the case. A slew of hardcore cameras have been announced recently, some of them packing GPS as well. Panasonic has a new rugged compact that looks...

It's said that the squeaky wheel is the one that gets the oil, and there's been a lot of squeaky wheels complaining about borked hinges on Dell's Alienware M11x notebook line. In one forum thread, there's over 150 users who reported problems with their M11x, most of which cried foul over cracked and noisy hinges. The message was heard loud...

What kind of topsy-turvy world would it be if Research In Motion (RIM) allowed BlackBerry devices to run Android applications? The awesome kind, that's what. More than just a pipe dream, Boy Genius Report insists such a future is possible, or so "multiple trusted sources" keep chirping in their ear. We already know RIM wants to get a Java...

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 560 Ti is the talk of the PC town this week, and iBuyPower can't let it end without announcing that the card will now be available in each and every new system that they sell. The Paladin XLC (Extreme Liquid Cooling), LAN Warrior II and Level 10 systems are all available starting today with NVIDIA's newest GPU, and considering...

It's still not cheap to get 3G data while traveling overseas, but at least AT&T is giving their customers a couple of new options when heading abroad. It's hard to recommend such options when they're so pricey, but if you know you'll be away from a Wi-Fi hotspot and you aren't interested in renting a MiFi or SIM, the company's new pay-as-you-go...

Another long day, another large hard drive. It feels like the storage industry is growing its product line at a crazy pace these days, with new hard drives surfacing just about every other day. Not that we're complaining; in fact, we probably need to toss another HDD into our NAS, while we're thinking about it. Hitachi GST is clearly hoping...

Verizon and Apple pre-orders for the iPhone 4 on that CDMA network won't go live until Thursday, Feb. 3, but a slip-up at Apple's site on Wednesday showed off some details on plans, etc. Some of this information has been confirmed by Verizon, but nothing this detailed has shown up yet. The ordering pages were taken down later, but here's what...

Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Review @ Hardware Canucks MSI N560GTX, Palit GTX560 & Zotac GTX 560 Reviewed @ t-break GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB SOC Video Card @ Tweaktown Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti Review @ TechSpot Nvidia GTX 560 Ti @ LanOC Reviews ASUS GeForce GTX 560 Direct Cu II 1 GB @ techPowerUp NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560...

Ever heard of a femtocell? Sprint's AIRAVE, AT&T's 3G MicroCell and Verizon's Wireless Extender all fall into that category, and they all serve one main purpose: to extend cellphone signal range into your home. They're basically made for those who have terrible in-home cell service. You just plug the box into your broadband Internet connection,...

Photos of AMD's upcoming Radeon 6990 dual-GPU have surfaced on the Japanese website 4Gamer.net and the card's sheer bulk is an impressive sight. Instead of using a fan mounted at the back of the GPU that pushes air across and out the front, the 6990's fan sits dead center where it can simultaneously cool both GPUs. We're curious about how...

Jawbone unveiled the Jawbone ERA headset, a Bluetooth headset that features a built-in accelerometer, HD Audio, and a connected app platform. In addition to a 25% larger wideband speaker for HD Audio, the Jawbone ERA comes with the latest version of military-grade NoiseAssassin 3.0 technology for noise cancellation. Thanks to the Jawbone ERA's...

Earlier today, we learned Verizon Wireless will offer the same $30 unlimited 3G data plan for the iPhone 4 as it currently offers for other smartphones available from the carrier. Now, additional details have surfaced surrounding the retailers who will offer the iPhone 4. More specifically, Walmart has confirmed it will offer the device in...

When MSI unveiled the new GT680R gaming laptop at CES this year, the company touted it as one of the "fastest, most powerful gaming notebooks in the world." As one of the first laptops to take advantage of Intel's Sandy Bridge processor, this laptop definitely packs plenty of power. Under the hood, you'll find NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M graphics...

Microsoft's Office for Mac portal has been a little wonky for us today, which might be the result of increased traffic and downloads. Why, you ask? The Redmond outfit is now offering a free trial of its Office for Mac 2011 software. The trial lets Mac users test out full versions of the software, albeit for 30 days (Windows users can play...

It was expected, and now it is official: Verizon will offer the same $30 unlimited 3G data plan it currently offers on other smartphones for the upcoming iPhone 4. At the same time, mobile hotspot costs were detailed as well. Here is what Verizon CEO Lowell MacAdam said to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday: “I’m not going to shoot...

In this episode of Two and A Half Geeks, Iyaz, Dave and Marco talk about rooting tablets with custom Android ROMs for a better experience, NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 560 Ti and AMD's new Radeon HD 6950 1GB graphics cards, along with a view of a new light Linux desktop called Jolicloud, wrapping up with good ol' fashioned rip session on Duke...

Ready. Set. GO! If you've been patiently waiting to port your existing phone number over to Google Voice and flip the bird at your cellular company, start flexing your middle finger because your time has come. Following a limited preview of the service (Google initially only tagged a certain number of accounts that were allowed to port their...

2011 may be heralded as the Year of the Tablet, but we're thinking it will really shake out to be the year that mobility finally hit it big. Smartphones as a whole are becoming insanely popular, and more people are gravitating towards Android and iOS to handle the on-the-go computing needs. Larger-screen devices like the HTC EVO 4G and Motorola...

Fractal Design is a relatively new name in the expansive PC case business, and while it's definitely tough to cut through in this saturated market, this particular company seems to be doing a great job of doing just that. Their designs are refreshing, unique and intelligent, and much like the Define case that was introduced at the start of...

Way back at Computex last year, Microsoft let the world know that they were serious when it came to tablets. Apple had the iPad, and there were already a bunch of Android tablets heading to market. The question was simple: "Does Microsoft plan to compete in this space?" The answer was "yes" but no one really knew how Windows 7 would react...

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 560 Ti is the GPU of the week, with a tempting price point and great frame rate results to go with it. Companies are already lining up to offer new graphics cards based on that new core, and Zotac is right there on the bandwagon. The company has today let loose their newest GPU, the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 560 Ti. Based on our...

Is the surround sound system dead? Not quite, but it's not nearly as necessary as it was just five years ago. At that point, running miles of speaker cable around your den was a dreadful requirement to get legitimate surround sound, but audio technologies have evolved quite substantially in the span of just a few years. Sound bars in particular...

If you are one of the people that happens to be running a bleeding-edge 'alpha 1' version of Ubuntu Linux on your main desktop machine (and who isn't?), you may have noticed a particular change in recent days: OpenOffice has been replaced by LibreOffice for the upcoming (next April) Ubuntu 11.04 release. What is OpenOffice, what is LibreOffice,...

NVIDIA's affordable gaming GPU solution is all the rage this week, with the new GeForce GTX 560 Ti offering loads of performance with a reasonable price tag. As fate would have it, a load of GPU makers are jumping at the chance to unveil new graphics cards based on this new core. Gigabyte is one of those companies, today revealing the new...

One of the most significant impacts of the iPad (and of tablets more generally) has been the devices' perceived ability to alleviate the crushing financial woes currently afflicting most major newspapers and magazines. The general theory is that customers, who are used to reading web content for free, will pay a monthly charge for the privilege...

Seagate issued a general announcement yesterday in an apparent attempt to clarify its SSD plans going forward. Of all the various hard drive vendors, Seagate has been by far the most acrimonious towards SSD development; former CEO Bill Watkins' plans for dealing with the introduction of SSDs was to threaten to sue the companies out of existence....

Razer, in the speaker business? Oh yeah! Razer actually isn't a stranger to the speaker world, and definitely not to the headphone world. The company has definitely focused more on keyboards and mice over the past few months, but today is a day for something different. The company's new Ferox Twin Speaker Set uses a design that emits omni-directional...

World's fastest notebook? We hear that a lot these days. Almost every single time that NVIDIA, Intel or AMD release new mobile hardware, the first laptop company to implement that technology into their gear gets to lay claim to a "world's fastest." Today, the award goes to Maingear. The company has just introduced the new EX-L 15, which is...

For the better part of the second half of 2010 there's been plenty of hype surrounding the emerging tablet market, but few actual product releases. As 2011 slowly gets underway, things are starting to look different already. CES was bustling with working tablets, Android 3.0 is just around the corner, HP is expected to launch its webOS-based...

Someone over at Hewlett-Packard is apparently ultra-excited about the company's upcoming Topaz tablet -- the first slate to be built around HP's semi-newly acquired webOS platform -- and has leaked a ton of info and pictures to Pre|Central. Topaz, as you already know, is the name HP is giving its first webOS-based slate, and while some of...

It's hard out there for PC makers. There's just so much competition hitting you from every angle, and with AMD and Intel introducing new gear every month it seems, it has to be hard to keep your supply channel in check. But Origin PC has been hanging in there with the best of 'em since launching a year or so ago, and today they're announcing...

If you’ve been on top of the graphics space the last few months, you’ll no doubt be aware that NVIDIA recently introduced the GeForce GTX 580 and 570, which feature the GF110 GPU; an updated version of the GF100 which arrived with the GeForce GTX 480. In a similar move, the GF114 GPU that powers the new GeForce GTX 560 Ti is a...

Are you familiar with NOOKnewsstand? If not, you're probably alone based on Barnes & Noble's most recent press release. The company's digital periodical subscription service has apparently been doing quite well, exceeding 650,000 subscriptions and single copy sales in just the first two months. The company claims that this is being driven...

What have you 'Liked' today? Anything? Probably a lot of things. Well over 500 million Facebook accounts exist, and that number is growing rapidly every single day. The world is becoming more of a digital one, and it's safe to say we're living in a "digital age." With social networking becoming so prominent and playing such a huge role in...

Security firm Imperva reports that a hacker is selling access to military, educational, and government websites for bargain basement prices ranging from $55-499. Imperva, which reported on the hacker on Friday, believes that he was able to gain access to the sites through a SQL injection technique. The priciest hack is access to the homepages...

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. And if you can't buy 'em, create some competition! That's the route that Google is taking these days, with reports coming out this week that Google is planning to launch a new Groupon rival called 'Google Offers." The search giant has yet to confirm or deny the news, but being that it was initially reported...

Video: Zotac Amp! Edition GeForce GTX 480 Graphics Card Review @ OCIA.net MSI HD 6950 Twin Frozr II @ techPowerUp Samsung FX2490HD 24" LED Hybrid HDTV & Monitor Review @ Hardware Canucks Sapphire Radeon HD 6970 BFBC2 Vietnam Edition @ Techgage ASUS Radeon 6950 and 6970 @ PureOverclock Motherboards and Chipsets: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3...

When you generally think about storage, you think about sizes getting bigger and prices getting smaller. But there are always exceptions to the rule. Toshiba's new 1.8-inch hard drives fit that mold. They aren't the biggest, and they probably aren't the cheapest, and they definitely won't be as quick as your average SSD. But what they lack...

In the notebook world, we see a lot of change. Ultraportables have become hip, and netbooks changed the category forever. But on the desktop side, change comes a lot slower. The "beige box PC" reigned for what felt like a decade, and for some time, Alienware was just about the only major company doing unique cases. But even now, with loads...

Sandy Bridge is the big new buzzword in the consumer PC industry now that CES 2011 is behind us, and every PC maker in existence is jumping at the chance to offer Intel's new wave of Core CPUs. CyberPower is joining that group, today introducing a new partnership with Newegg to offer three new pre-built gaming rigs. The systems, Gamer Ultra...

Good news for AMD users who have been waiting for OpenGL 4.1 support within Windows and Linux. AMD has just announced wide-ranging support for OpenGL 4.1 for Windows 7, Vista, XP and Linux across select ATI FirePro, FireGL and Radeon graphics card. The new support is being enabled with a new driver release: the FirePro and FireGL drivers are...

The Internet isn't quite "everywhere" yet, but it's well on the way to being so. Rural broadband projects are hoping to take the Web to new places, and with 4G networks popping up all over the place, mobile connectivity is booming as well. One place where the Internet has only recently found is the automobile. While some cars have been equipped...

Jolicloud is a Linux-based OS with an extremely clean UI that taps into the world of cloud computing, where you have access to your data, files and desktop, virtually anywhere you go. Anyone trying this relative newcomer OS might call it accessible because it has an extremely easy-to-use interface. Or, it could be called accessible in the...

Little did Gail Davis know that she was the winner of Apple's 10 billionth App download promotion, because had she known that, she wouldn't have hung on up the Cupertino company. But that's exactly what she did when Apple called to inform her she had won a $10,000 iTunes gift card. "I thought it was a prank call," says Davis. "I said, 'Thank...

Solid state drives have been making waves in the storage industry since they first entered the consumer market about four years ago, but Western Digital is still dubious about the value of both SSD's and hybrid drives. In a recent company call with investors, Western Digital's CEO, John Coyne, remarked: ""We have taken a look at and in fact...

Some say the best smartphone is a jailbroken iPhone, but one problem (aside from the obvious, that jailbreaking, although legal, voids your warranty) is the issue of reinstalling all your jailbreak-only apps if you update and re-jailbreak. The latest version of Cydia can help with that problem. iTunes will restore your non-jailbroken apps...

The Pirate Bay, despite its legal ups and downs, remains one of the most infamous BitTorrent sites around. Those involved in TPB may be on the cusp on introducing something new, something they say the music industry should fear. For years, The Pirate Bay has sat on a domain name, http://themusicbay.org. It's done nothing with it, although...

Last week, the FAA announced that there were a record number of "laser events" in 2010. What the FAA means by that, there was a record number of idiots who think it's funny to potentially temporarily blind a pilot with a laser pointer or even some high-powered laser device. The FAA created a formal reporting system for laser events in 2005....

Haven't heard of Lovefilm? If you live in North America (or anywhere outside of Europe, really), we wouldn't be surprised. But have you heard of Netflix? Essentially, Lovefilm is Netflix for Europe, and soon, Lovefilm will be a part of Amazon. It's likely that Netflix was simply too pricey for Amazon to pick up, but Lovefilm is another story....

Sony may use serial keys to verify legal PS3 games in the wake of the complete PS3 hacks publicized earlier this month, but the efficacy of such a plan is dubious at best. The Dutch website PS3-Sense reports that a very reliable source close to Sony has informed them that Sony will begin issuing unique serial keys for all PS3 games at some...

We've all heard stories of people doing stupid things while using their cell phone. Just how attached are we to our phones? Many people would argue we're too attached. After all, numerous people have seriously injured or nearly killed themselves by accidentally walking into traffic or simply tripping and falling down while distracted by their...

It may be winter, but it's still a great time to strap on the cold gear and trek outside. Magellan has just introduced a new member to their Explorist Outdoor GPS family, with the new Explorist 310 debuting at the 2011 Outdoor Retailer Winter show. This new device is as powerful and rugged as ever, offering a waterproof casing and an outdoor-visible...

LaCie has always been a company obsessed with style, and so this newest partnership isn't too surprising. The storage company has teamed with Christofle to introduce one of the fanciest USB flash drives we've ever seen. It's a circular device that snaps in two, with the Galet being pebble-shaped and plated in silver. It's definitely not for...

If you're building smartphones these days, particularly phones with iOS or Android on them, you're probably doing quite well. These data-driven phones are becoming more popular then ever, and there's no sign of that trend stopping. HTC has had a hand in numerous Android phones over the past few years, from the Nexus One all the way up to the...

Is anyone doubting that app stores are the future? Google's Android Market is now home to tens of thousands of applications, and Apple's App Store is home to even more. Rivals like LG and Samsung have also looked at creating their own stores, and Apple is even bringing an app store to their desktop operating system. You could argue that Apple...

Samsung just upgraded themselves in a big, big way. Way back in 2009, Liquavista hit the e-reader scene with a major splash, and for a while, they were all the rage. Right up there with Pixel Qi's crazy display technology, Liquavista's advanced e-ink technology was said to be faster, brighter and more responsive than existing e-ink technologies,...

And just like that, all is right in the television world again. Or, at least between two giants in the industry who have been at each other's throats lately. LG and Vizio have been fighting over patents the past few years, but it looks like they're both resolving to let bygones be bygones in 2011. Vizio just announced that they have signed...

As hard as it might be to believe, forever is nearly here. Duke Nukem Forever, the long-awaited an long-delayed sequel to Duke Nukem 3D has a launch date: May 3. Duke Nukem Forever was once the property of 3D Realms. However, that company folded in 2009, and it seemed like Duke Nuke Forever was going to be renamed Duke Nukem never. Instead,...

Although smartphones are certainly growing in popularity, many users still find that feature phones suit their needs just fine. Facebook recognizes this, so the company is rolling out an app designed specifically for feature phone users. The new app is built on the Snaptu mobile-app platform. It provides many of the social networking site’s...

We're starting to think that voice minutes are heading to the grave. We know that's an exaggeration, and we're still decades out from cellular voice minutes actually being "old hat," but there's no question that those on the cutting-edge have fewer reasons than ever to actually use them. Skype over 3G has put a large dent in the usefulness...

Here's a surprise: Verizon isn't too fond of the FCC's Net Neutrality order. Actually, that isn't too much of a surprise. Many ISPs, cellphone carriers and other operators in this space are very hesitant to jump onboard the FCC's latest train, as any additional regulation and oversight into their industry could mean less control for how they...

The times, they are a-changin'! It's not exactly normal to see two high-profile companies announce market-shaking news about their primary leaders in the same week, but 2011 is definitely shaping up to be an unusual year. Just a few days after Apple's Steve Jobs decided to take a medical leave of absence, Google has announced that Eric Schmidt...

Expedia made headlines last month when it hid fares for American Airlines after AA cut its fares from being available on Orbitz. In keeping with its commitment to provide travelers with affordable options, Expedia recently announced a multi-year agreement with US Airways to provide the airline’s full range of products and services including...

Hey, you there, out from under that rock. Have you heard? Verizon's going to carry Apple's iPhone 4 starting February 10, 2011. Oh, you have heard? Alright then, here's something you probably haven't seen just yet. It's Verizon's first commercial promoting the new partnership with Steve Jobs and Co., a 30-second spot the wireless carrier tossed...

You can debate the so-called "Apple Tax" all you want and whether or not it actually exists (and, in fact, we did just that -- see here), one thing we should all be able to agree on is that few other companies go the same lengths as Apple in keeping its users from poking around inside its devices. Non-replaceable batteries are the norm, and...

Have you been out to a DVD rental kiosk lately? What about a movie rental store? Opened your mailbox only to find a Netflix envelope? We're guessing that you may have utilized Netflix or Redbox lately, but when's the last time you actually drove out to a movie rental store to find a flick? It's happening less and less overall, and now there...

AMD has released its fourth quarter 2010 financial results and they're nice numbers to end a year on. The company's revenue of $1.65B was up two percent quarter-on-quarter and flat compared to 2009. Despite the sales plateau, AMD's position has substantially improved over the past 12 months; the company reported a Q4 net income of $375M for...

Well, this settles that! Earlier in the week, there were a number of reports that stated Acer's intentions to phase out netbooks in favor of a tablet-filled future, but the company seems so serious about miniature notebooks that they're issuing a statement of their own to debunk those claims. Acer has made clear that mobility continues to...

Speed kills, and speed is also required if you're planning to do any hardcore online gaming. Ping times can mean life and death in an online deathmatch, and TRENDnet is looking out for your head. In a sense, anyway. The company has just shipped their newest wireless adapter, the 450Mbps Wireless N Gaming Adapter. The TEW-687GA networks computers,...

Well, it's probably nearing the end of an era. Of course, it's not totally unexpected, and analysts in the industry have seen this day coming for years. The CD is becoming a relic, and children born five to ten years from now will probably view the Compact Disc the same way that teenagers view the vinyl record today. The CD has had an incredible...

At a press breakfast event on Thursday, T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm confirmed the Sidekick would be returning to the carrier, in 4G HSPA+ form. Also confirmed to be coming was another HSPA+ device already leaked all over the Web and previously called T-Mobile Vibrant 4G Plus: the Samsung Galaxy S 4G. To be clear, the new Galaxy S device...

The Boxee Box is still missing one major piece: Netflix. But that's better than missing two major pieces. Most of the streaming set-top box competition provides access to both Netflix and Vudu, and the latest Boxee Box firmwaer now provides access to the latter. Vudu is yet another movie rental service, but it differs from most by offering...

Today HIS Divulges its Secret Weapons: HIS 6850 IceQ X TURBO & HIS 6850 IceQ X HIS today unveils its Secret Weapons – the HIS 6850 IceQ X TURBO & 6850 IceQ X, which are HIS revolutionary Series.   The HIS 6850 IceQ X Series is equipped with performance-leading cooling technology and silent configuration for enthusiastic...

With Dirk Meyer out the door and AMD publicly hunting for its new CEO there's a great deal of speculation as to who AMD might want sitting in the center seat. The board's options may be more limited than it likes; several analysts have raised questions as to the BoD's credibility in the wake of Meyer's dismissal. AMD announces its Q4 earnings...

Mobile payments couldn't possibly be hotter right now. It's a trend that has caught on in my European and Asian nations, but the USA seems content with their old fashoned payment methods. But it feels like the future is finally catching up, and with major brands like Visa and Starbucks backing the initiative, it's going to be even tougher...

AGC, one of Japan’s largest glass manufacturers, has created a new glass designed specifically for smartphones, tablets, and TVs. This new glass, known as Dragontrail, is said to be considerably tougher than traditional glass. According to the company, Dragontrail is about six times tougher than typical chemically-treated soda lime glass....

Antec announced its next-generation high-performance CPU cooler in the form of the Antec KÜHLER H2O 620. Antec worked together with Asetek to develop this easy-to-install liquid CPU cooling solution that claims to outperform stock CPU coolers up to 20 percent under full load. The Antec KÜHLER H2O 620 targets mainstream PC hardware...

If we consider companies like LSI and their competitors, like Adaptec and AMCC (3Ware), you'll note that they're in a unique position in this storage technology migration, in that they can almost take an agnostic stance, in terms of which media type and market opportunity they decide to resource development efforts in.  For players like...

Let's forget for a moment that Apple's iPad has been on the market since April of last year and still has yet to really be challenged. Despite the lack of competition, market research firm IDC says the media tablet market still managed to grow 45.1 percent in the third of 2010. Much of that credit goes to the aforementioned iPad, but it's...

Ever the crafty (and malicious) bunch, malware writers added a new trick to an old scam, and it appears to be working. According to the Internet Crime Complain Center (IC3), a recent FBI analysis reveals that cyber crooks are targeting employers with fake job applications capable of wreaking havoc. "Recently, more than $150,000 was stolen...

Apple CEO Steve Jobs will soon have to admit that Android is not the only place for porn. Jobs famously said that in the past, yet here comes Playboy to the iPad, uncensored, as Tweeted by no less than Hugh Hefner himself late Tuesday. Undeniably, Playboy is not hard core porn.  But considering that even apps with bikini shots have been...

If you were one of the lucky ones grandfathered in when AT&T changed to tiered data plans, you may be using your iPhone 4 more than ever before. The only trouble with that is the battery; Apple made great strides to improve the battery life on the iPhone 4 compared to the 3GS, but using it hard all day still drains it pretty heavily. If...

If it's just a sensor, why would it be important? That's a good question, but with proximity sensors being used so heavily in smartphones these days, and that iPhone proximity problem that caused so many headaches during the iPhone 4 launch, you can probably understand why Silicon Labs is bragging around their new Si114x QuickSense Infrared...

At this rate, it's getting pretty near impossible to keep track of exactly hard drives are released each month. Even this week, both Seagate and Western Digital have both released new drives, proving that the unspoken rivalry actually does exist. Today, WD announced availability of its second-generation WD S25 SAS drives and its latest WD...

At yesterday's Common Platform technology day, IBM and the other members of the Common Platform Initiative made a major announcement. While plans to use gate-first technology at the 32nm/28nm node remain unchanged, the coalition will move to gate-last technology when it makes the jump to 20nm production. As semiconductor manufacturing has...

Oh, the places Fusion will go. Or, the APU, at least. AMD's Fusion launch earlier this year has us more than eager to see companies embrace it. The Atom platform has needed real competition for years, and we're hoping that Fusion will be the product that finally offers it. But there's a much larger market out there than just the netbook and...

Lancool announced three new mid-tower cases, all of which feature anti-vibration, tool-free installations as well as black steel exteriors. The new PC-K63 features a transparent side panel and blue LEDs to illuminate the two 140mm front panel fans and the 120mm rear panel fan. This case also has two 140mm top panel fans. Lancool’s new...

We knew HP was working on a webOS tablet, but now, pictures and additional specifications have emerged. Although the official announcement for HP’s webOS tablet is expected on February 9, a “trusted tipster” has provided Engadget with images as well as specs. In looking at the photos, the upcoming 9-inch tablet, code-named...

The EVGA GTX 580 FTW Hydro Copper 2 is made for a specific type of enthusiast. It comes with a custom, pre-installed water block that eliminates two of the biggest concerns associated with high end graphics cards: heat and noise. When interconnected to a liquid cooling loop, the HC2 makes no sound and operates at relatively frigid temperatures....

Is there any stopping Apple? Who knows. Just a day after Steve Jobs shook the core of Wall Street by announcing that he was leaving for medical reasons (temporarily, we're left to assume), the company's first quarter earnings results were able to turn the frowns upside-down. Apple has been on a real streak of late, breaking record after record...

The gaming headset industry has boomed in the past few years. Online gaming is exploding, and PC gaming is strong. A couple of major companies have surfaced as big players in the headset arena, with Turtle Beach and ASTRO Gaming coming to mind. The latter has a new set of headphones for gamers to consider this week, with the A40 being updated...

Listen up tightwads, if you view paying for antivirus software only slightly more appealing than shoving bamboo under your fingernails, then we have good news for you. ClamAV recently announced the public beta for ClamAV 3.0 for Windows, which the company says "includes full integration of the ClamAV engine into the Immunet Protect product."...

Uh oh big fella, did you jump the gun on a smartphone this past holiday shopping season thinking that the Verizon iPhone 4 rumors would never come true? If you did, and assuming you were interested in the iPhone 4 to begin with, then you're probably left with a serious case of buyer's remorse. Bummer. Don't despair. If you really, REALLY must...

Turns out hard drives are useful for all sorts of things -- way more than just backing up your music, photos and other important documents. HDDs are critical in the enterprise space, and they're also vital in the surveillance realm. Seagate is recognizing that this week with the introduction of their 6th-generation of SV35 hard drives. The...

The fastest notebook in the world? We seem to see these surface every few month or so, usually after a major chip maker has just introduced a new processor or after AMD/NVIDIA has revealed a brand new mobile GPU. It's easily to claim the "world's fastest" when you're the first to introduce the latest hardware, but Eurocom seems to be faster...

If you had any lingering doubts that tablets and smartphones were the wave of the future, this should probably quell them. Lenovo, a major notebook and PC maker, obviously sees the importance and potential growth in mobile computing. Convergence is still happening in a bit way, and the need for full-blown computers is shrinking with each and...

We understand that a lot has happened since 2009, but if you remember the QUE e-reader that never actually shipped, this is the company that just received $700 million. Let's back up a bit, first. Plastic Logic was an up and coming company with loads of promise, and the QUE e-reader was particularly impressive. It looked unlike anything else...

Some people say that tablets simply have no business in the real, working world. They aren't powerful enough, the lack real keyboards, they rarely use a real, desktop-based OS. The list goes on and on. Some say that tablets are only for casual users doing casual things, but what about this? Griffin has just given the iPad one of its most impressive...

IBM and ARM are extending their collaboration on advanced semiconductor technologies in an effort to enable faster development of next-generation mobile products. The two companies have worked together since 2008 and have improved SoC density, routability, manufacturability, power consumption, and performance through their collaborative efforts....

Acer plans to offer two or three new tablet PCs in the first half of this year. One of the new tablets will offer a seven-inch screen. The largest of the new tablets will feature a 10-inch screen. The new tablets will use Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors and run on the Android operating system. According to Taiwan sales manager Lu Bing-hsian,...

Oh the horror! The inhumanity! The injustice! Say it isn't so! What are we bellyaching about? Not much, really, but plenty of Netflix users are none too happy with the online DVD rental streaming service's decision to remove the 'Add to DVD Queue' from streaming devices. "We're doing this so we can concentrate on offering you the titles that...

Ruh roh Shaggy, get ready to fork over an extra $10/month to Sprint to cover the wireless service provider's "Premium Data add-on charge to activations of smartphones." But don't worry, the additional funds coming out of your pocket is how Sprint shows it's "committed to providing its customers a great wireless experience now and in the future."...

In this episode of Two and A Half Geeks, Iyaz, Dave and Marco take a look at the new LSI WarpDrive PCI Express SSD, discuss HotHardware’s overclocked AMD Radeon HD 6870/6850 round-up, talk about why the CEO of AMD was just sent out behind the woodshed for a whacking and how the HTC HD2 Windows Mobile 6.x-based smartphone was recently...

We've heard plenty from tablet and smartphone manufacturers at CES about their upcoming 2011 products. Apple has remained nearly silent about its own plans, but Taiwanese sources have surreptitiously reported that the next-generation iPhone 5 will pose a threat to the best-laid plans of everyone else. According to the Hong Kong-based newspaper...

Sprint really has been all over the map in the past dozen years. Prepaid, postpaid, "chirp," Nextel, no more Nextel, NASCAR, NFL, WiMAX, Clear...the list goes on and on. The company has their toes dipped into a lot of pools, and that number is increasing. There's already been a deal struck to get involved with ECOtality's EV charging stations,...

Well, it's that time again. The time of the year when yet another group of cable viewers don't know if their favorite shows and local news will continue to be broadcast. Over the last couple of years in particular, things have really become heated between cable companies and local affiliates. Cable companies want to pay less for carriage,...

New LCDs. Need 'em? BenQ's got 'em. The company has just announced two new members of the EW series of Vertical Alignment (VA) LED monitors, with the lineup boosted by two with the addition of the EW2430 and the EW2430V. Both monitors have a 3,000:1 native contrast ratio, an 8-bit color panel and BenQ's own Seneye Human Vision Technology....

Electric vehicles are on a pathway to success so far as we can tell. They'll obviously face a lot of challenges to start, as with any brand new technology. But the industry backing is there, and the hype is too. The one that is really needed to kick things into high-gear is a strong infrastructure. If consumers know that they can recharge...

It's hard to compete against Apple. A few years back, SanDisk's CEO stated that no one could "out iPod the iPod," and to this day, everyone that has tried hasn't succeeded. Even Microsoft has let the Zune family die down, despite spending tons of cash marketing it as a major iPod competitor. Apple has just been on fire over the last decade,...

RIM’s first-generation BlackBerry Storm wasn’t exactly a huge hit, but RIM nailed the second generation version of this smartphone. Now, pictures and specifications of a third-generation BlackBerry Storm have surfaced. This upcoming smartphone appears to have the highest resolution screen we’ve seen on a BlackBerry to date—800x480...

Google is modifying the service level agreement for its Apps service in ways that will hopefully make Apps for Business more attractive to large businesses. Google realizes downtime hurts businesses, so it removed the SLA clause that allows for scheduled downtime. Moving forward, Google plans to count all downtime against a customer’s...

Even those of you who really have been living under a rock or in a cave are undoubtedly aware that Apple's iPhone is coming to Verizon. Some of you already have February 10, 2011 circled on your calendar, the day this long-anticipated partnership between Apple and Verizon will finally take place (existing Verizon customers can get their preorder...

Steve Jobs is in the news again today, and not for the best of reasons. Last week, Apple's Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook took the stage at a Verizon Wireless event in New York City in order to co-introduce the iPhone 4 for VZW. Many found that peculiar. Why wouldn't Steve Jobs take this opportunity to introduce such a monumental phone in...

Taking aim at serious photography buffs and enthusiasts who "need to shoot like the pros," SanDisk today introduced its new Extreme Pro SDHC UHS-I card. What is UHS-I, you ask? For those of you not savvy to the newly released SD 3.0 specification, that's the new Ultra High Speed technology, and with it, SanDisk says its card can achieve up...

Sony's at it again. The company always seems to be "first" at something in the camera world, and recently they've become the first to introduce a digital still camera with 1080/60p Full HD video capabilities, not to mention 3D still image capture with only a single lens and imager. Both of those feats are really impressive, particularly the...

Notion Ink might just be the darkhorse for the company that creates "the" tablet to beat in 2011. All of the mainstream buzz is obviously surrounding the purported second-gen iPad, which is rumored to ship later this year, but Notion Ink's 'Adam' has one thing that Apple probably doesn't: a Pixel Qi display. If you aren't familiar with Pixel...

Is it smart to give away the very software that makes your hardware appealing? Hard to say, but Amazon has been doing it for years. The Kindle used to be the only way for consumers to shop for digital books in Amazon's eBookstore, but that soon changed. Amazon created Kindle Apps for smartphone platforms, and most recently, the iPad. This...

The future of the television remote should be an interesting one to pay attention to. For years now, consumers have relied on basically the same type of TV controller: a long, button-filled remote that changes channels, adjusts the volume and switch inputs. But with more digital content finding its way onto the TV (think Google TV), the remote...

Video: MSI GeForce GTX 580 1536 MB Video Cards in SLI @ Tweaktown Sparkle GeForce GT240 1024MB DDR3 w/Low Profile & Native HDMI Port @ TestFreaks Motherboards and Chipsets: iXBT Labs Review: Gigabyte P67A-UD5 Motherboard Funky Kit Review: Zotac H67-ITX WiFi motherboard ASUS Maximus III Gene P55 @ techPowerUp Memory and Storage: Thermaltake...

We were already expecting that HP is going to release new tablet PCs and smartphones carrying the Palm's webOS platform, and now we have confirmation that it will also produce webOS netbooks, as well. The information comes via an HP carrier training website. The training video on the site, which anyone can sign up for despite its focus on...

A game show with two award winners, a famed host, and a supercomputer as a contestant. What is Jeopardy? That's actually correct. Next month, Jeopardy will air a series of episodes with just two human contestants, and one human host. Brad Rutter, Alex Trebek and Ken Jennings will be joined by a rather unusual opponent and guest, an IBM-built...

It's begun. NVIDIA has finally begun accepting claims in the class-action settlement from late last year regarding defective laptop GPUs. The issue affected a number of Dell, HP, and Apple laptops, and spread across what can only be called a huge number of different models. The statement NVIDIA made on July 2nd, 2008 admitted the issue, and...

Video: Zotac GTX 580 AMP! Edition Review @ t-break ZOTAC GeForce GTX 580 AMP! Edition 1536 MB @ techPowerUp Sparkle GT240 Video Card 512MB vs 1024MB @ TestFreaks AMD Radeon HD 6870 CrossFireX: It's Easier in a Duet @ InsideHW Panasonic Viera TC-P50GT25 Review @ TechReviewSource.com Motherboards and Chipsets: ASUS Sabertooth P67 Motherboard...

The compact camera market is definitely exploding, and more sophisticated sensors and movie modes moving down to even cheaper devices, the race to the bottom is definitely in effect. Panasonic's newest compact lineup has just been announced, and the LUMIX range is specifically seeing two new releases in the FP series. The LUMIX DMC-FP7 (16.1...

We’ve heard that a webOS-based tablet was in the works from HP, but nothing has been confirmed yet. Although HP made no announcements at CES last week, Todd Bradley, executive vice president of Hewlett Packard’s Personal Systems Group, made comments during a recent interview that seem to indicate HP is working on a tablet to compete...

A lot has changed in a year. At this point in 2010, some of the most anticipated products were e-readers coming from a variety of companies. But then the iPad happened. And consumers began to see that tablets could also be used as readers, albeit with worse battery life and with screens that aren't as viewable in the daylight. This year, there...

2011 is still poised to be a breakout year for tablets and small mobile PCs, particularly with AMD's Fusion platform being launched alongside Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs. But there's still another category that might just explode this year: wireless HD streaming. For years, companies have been working to perfect transmission technologies that...

When you get a good thing going, you keep it going if you know what's good for you. Samsung has seen a massive hit with their Galaxy line of products, and LG's Optimus line hasn't been too poorly either. The company has recently released a brand new phone in the Optimus line, the Optimus Black. The main highlight feature here is the NOVA display,...

Apple's AirPlay is definitely taking off in a big way. The concept of streaming music and media over the air from device to device is very appealing, and while the concept isn't new, Apple has once again taken an older concept and delivered it to the mainstream, but that also gives opportunity to rival companies to once again push their competing...

Obesity is a problem in the United States, and it's not a secret. Gastric bypass surgery is a radical, often last-ditch effort to "cure" the problem, and apparently some have decided that it's not something that requires a doctor: there appears to be a DIY kit available on Amazon.com. Just to be clear, there are two sellers available, but...

Most of today's tablets, like it or not, aim for the same market. The Galaxy Tab, iPad and every other mainstream tablet on the market appeals to the generic consumer, but there are a few companies out there who are really pursuing the fringe markets. DRS Technologies is one of those companies. Just as Panasonic has done with their ToughBook...

Before the iPhone 4 makes its debut on Verizon Wireless, the carrier is making changes to some of its policies. More specifically, Verizon Wireless plans to cancel its New Every Two program as well as its early upgrade policy. Both of these policies offer savings to current customers who are looking to upgrade their phone. Verizon Wireless’...

Who could ever seen this coming? The deal, sure, but more than that, Skype taking over the communications world? It has only taken Skype a few years to really go from being a VoIP startup to being a world-recognized name for calling. Recently, the company announced that they hit a record 27 million simultaneous connections, and on any given...

Ah, the Sony Dash. It was an interesting device from the start, but the main complaint we heard with it was the inability to take it anywhere. It's a widget-centric device that displays lots of useful information on the screen that you can digest at a glance. But it requires an AC power connection, so it's only as good as your tether. If it's...

If you're someone who follows the media streaming business with any regularity, you'll probably recognize the Orb Networks name. This month, Orb is expanding in a big way, and coming into mainstream homes via the PlayStation 3 and a host of other Blu-ray players. The new Orb BR application is designed to integrate with Sony's PS3 and select...

Sony was always a huge backer of Blu-ray, right from the start. For some time, it was Toshiba (HD DVD) vs. Sony (Blu-ray), despite the fact that BD isn't actually Sony's format. But there's nothing wrong with picking a favorite and sticking with it. To start the year off, Sony has announce a new Blu-ray Disc line that's more connected than...

BGR has details and images for two upcoming smartphones from RIM that have yet to be announced. First up is the BlackBerry Dakota. This smartphone has a pretty classic design, following in the path of many of RIM’s already popular handsets. The Dakota’s specs set it apart from the rest, however. Here’s a closer look at what...

NAMM 2011 is getting starting this week in Southern California, and Shure is one of the first out of the gate with new gear. The SE215 sound-isolating earphone has been introduced, featuring a new Dynamic MicroDriver and a detachable cable. These are pro earbuds that join the SE315, SE425 and SE535 at the top of the company's tanks, and they'll...

The Dark Forces Team is misnamed, in our opinion. They should be called the Light Way Team. They have once again posted a hack on the XDA Developers forum that will earn cheers. They've made Windows Phone 7 run on the HTC HD2 smartphone. Their instructions will even let HD2 users get access to their Windows Live service. However the hack won't...

The British Recorded Music Industry (BPI) released figures for music sales in 2010, sparking a debate over whether or not piracy is playing a role, or at least a significant one. According to BPI, combined 2010 digital and physical album sales declined 7 percent overall in volume to 119.9 million. This, the organization says, is due to illegal...

It's been two days since AMD's Board of Directors announced it was firing then-CEO Dirk Meyer and new information on the board's reasoning has begun to appear. As we suspected, it was Meyer's decision not to focus on a new ultra-mobile processor that incurred the board's wrath. The particular incident in question is believed to be the decision...

IBM's news of the week involves Watson. The supercomputer just recently beat two prior Jeopardy champions, but more than just that is going on at the mega-corporation. IBM and Samsung have just announced a new joint research effort that will focus on new semiconductor technology. IBM and Samsung, putting their brains together? This could definitely...

Generally speaking, point and shoot cameras look like point and shoot cameras. Most are designed relatively similar to one another. They're almost all rectangular, with the thickness being the most notable differentiator. But Casio isn't satisfied with crafting yet another plain camera, and the new TRYX definitely isn't plain or normal in...

Hola! That's about the extent of our Spanish knowledge, but now when we have an Android phone in-hand and a live data connection. The Google Translate app has been assisting users to translate text and websites for quite some time now, but there's always room for improvement. And Google understands that. This week, the company rolled out the...

Not everyone gets into the consumer electronics business to make friends, but Antec and Asetek have put their rival instincts aside for the betterment of both companies. Asetek just recently celebrated the shipment of their 500,000 sealed liquid cooler, and now they're going to be issuing yet another new product, but with the help of a company...

Corporations want to maximize their profits, both for themselves and their shareholders. Thus, this shouldn't come as a surprise. A tipster has come forward and said that Samsung is holding back the Android 2.2 (Froyo) update from the T-Mobile Vibrant (Samsung Galaxy S variant) because they are afraid that such an update will impact sales...

After reports surfaced that News Corp. is considering selling Myspace, a News Corp. spokeswoman has confirmed that the company is exploring “strategic options” for Myspace. News Corp. purchased Myspace in 2005 for $580 million. Since then, the social networking site has struggled in comparison to its competitor, Facebook. Reports...

As enthusiasts, one of the things we can always count on is the never-ending progression of computer hardware. Year after year, video cards get faster, processors offer more cores and / or performance, and motherboards provide additional features. That top of the line, $500 GPU you bought a few years ago can't touch the performance of a $200...

Zotac today announced its first Zbox series of mini-PCs equipped with USB 3.0 technology -- the Zbox ID41 series. The boring name belies what's a fairly sexy nettop, made even more so with the addition of SuperSpeed ports (two on the back panel). There's also four USB 2.0 ports (two on the back, one on the front, and one on the top panel)....

Before we get bombarded with emails and angry comments, let's clear the air real quick. We're well aware that by a technical definition, a Mac is a PC (personal computer). But when we use the term, we're generally referring to Windows-based PCs (and sometimes Linux). Clear? Awesome. That said, according to IDC's latest figures, Mac sales posted...

The MSI Master Overclocking Arena 2011 was held in Las Vegas last week, during CES. It's where nine teams go head to head to find out who the best overclockers are in North and South Amercia. Each team was made up of two participants that had to qualify for this event by first taking part in an online competition. The team that wins in Las...

Cisco's weekly Cyber Risk Report slipped in an interesting statistic: over the past two years, the number of security holes in software has declined. This is inspite of (or maybe because of?) the increased level of noise we in the media have made over security. A constant barrage of news reports makes it seem like computers are growing less...

Sony's attempts to prevent piracy on both the PS3 and PSP have taken a number of blows in recent weeks. Today, the company announced that it intends to sue the PS3 hacker GeoHot, who's been an increasingly large thorn in the company's side over the past 18 months. When Sony released the 3.21 firmware update that broke Other OS functionality,...

A keyboard is a keyboard, right? Not at all. We tend to favor mechanical keyboards for gaming, backlit keyboards on our notebooks, and keyboards with integrated trackpads for use with our HTPC setups. IOGEAR has a long history of providing keyboards for that last application, and they're keeping the trend alive in the new year. The company...

When it comes to major connectors, FireWire is pretty high up there on the list. It's obviously not nearly as universal as the Universal Serial Bus (USB), but it's still a well-know, oft utilized port for A/V professionals. FireWire always had a larger grip on the Mac market than the PC market, but even with eSATA and USB 3.0 making it out...

It's a rough and tough world out there, that's for sure. And while it's possible to grab a ToughBook in order to be prepared for just about anything when it comes to lugging a notebook around, what about your camera? Turns out there are a few rugged camera options as well, with Fujifilm responsible for the latest addition. The company's new...

The battle for your mobile business is officially on. As if it wasn't already on before. With AT&T taking loads of heat over the past few years for having oversaturated networks in major cities -- namely New York City and San Francisco -- Verizon Wireless has obviously seen what not to do. They have pushed their network as being the one...

Looks like the big dogs, namely LaCie, Seagate and Western Digital, have some extra competition. The HDD space has always been crowded, and it seems to be a market with ultra-thin margins. But the good ones are staying in it, and hanging in there. Freecom has been dishing out storage options for quite some time, but rarely gets the kind of...

Integrated Device Technology demonstrated the ability to carry touchscreen data over the DisplayPort auxiliary channel. IDT’s technique for transmitting touch sensor data over the existing DisplayPort AUX channel simplifies and lowers the cost of integrating touch technology into tablets, notebooks, all-in-one PCs, and other devices...

In this episode of Two and Half Geeks, Iyaz and the crew from HotHardware talk about the hottest products from CES 2011, from tablets to handsets, to hot new SSDs and motherboards.  We also cover Intel's new Sandy Bridge Desktop and Mobile processors and hint of a new killer gaming rig contest/give-away in the weeks ahead! Show Notes:...

To the best of our knowledge, ECS just did something no other motherboard maker has yet done. What is it, you ask? They jumped on the 3D bandwagon by releasing a new motherboard "specially designed for 3D home theater" setups. ECS brings a bunch of buzzwords to the table to promote its latest micro-ATX motherboard. In terms of 3D, the ECS...

Blue Coat announced the K9 Web Protection Browser for iOS. This free Web browser designed for Apple iPads, iPhones, and Web-enabled iPod Touch devices provides for a family-safe browsing experience. In addition to protecting from content that is not appropriate for children such as pornography, violence, illegal drugs, and gambling, the browser...

Maingear is a custom PC builder that's been making some noise lately, and for good reason. The competition is intense in this space, with a number of companies (CyberPower, Maingear, Falcon Northwest, Digital Storm, Origin, etc.) elbowing each other in order to grab the hard-earned dollars of those in need of a new machine. Maingear, like...

No room? No problem! ZOTAC has been pushing out small-form-factor PCs for years on end now, and with NVIDIA's next generation Ion platform ready to catch first, the company is eager and willing to introduce three new systems based around it: the ION-ITX platforms, R, S and T. All three are passively cooled, so all three will be amongst the...

Change is in the air, and so is the smell of new flash memory. Lexar really is on a roll to start 2011, first issuing a new 32GB microSDHC card, and now revealing the Echo MX and ZX USB backup drives. The company's newest backup drives are unique in that they're "no touch," compared to the "one touch" options you'll usually find. Both of these...

Google has decided to renege on its promise to support both H.264 and open source codecs in its Chrome browser, dropping support for the former and vowing to completely back the latter. This change will take place in the next couple of months, the search giant said in Chromium blog post. "We expect even more rapid innovation in the web media...

Memory cards seem to be all the rage here in the early part of 2011. We've got faster SD cards coming our way, a 128GB CompactFlash Extreme Pro card from SanDisk, and now, a massive Class 10 microSDHC card from Lexar. With smartphone use on the rise, particularly those with Android on-board, the demand for microSDHC cards is also going up....

Do you love speed? Do you need a new CompactFlash card? SanDisk has something you should check out, but only if you have loads of spare cash. It's funny, really. New hard drives and other storage mediums are always crazy expensive whenever a new size/capacity emerges, and that's evident again with the introduction of the newest SanDisk CF...

Francis Shammo, chief financial officer of Verizon Communications Inc., confirmed what we already assumed: Verizon will soon have an iPad that can connect to its network without use of additional hardware. Currently, Verizon sells the iPad, but 3G connectivity for those who want it comes via a MiFi hotspot, which can provide connectivity for...

Bigger, faster, stronger. It applies to a lot of things, include storage formats. Hardcore power users are always demanding more from their media, and the SD Association understands that they have to keep up for fear of being lapped by CompactFlash, xD or any of the other memory card formats. The association has just introduced a new speed...

Video: ASUS Radeon 6870 DirectCU @ PureOverclock HP ZR30w Review @ TechReviewSource.com Motherboards and Chipsets: Funky Kit Review: Intel DH67BL Motherboard (P67 Chipset) ECS A890GXM-A2 @ PureOverclock Memory and Storage: OCZ Platinum XTE PC3-16000 4GB Dual Channel Kit Review @ OCIA.net Kingston HyperX MAX 3.0 External USB 3.0 (64GB) Review...

Nearly four years of pent-up demand by users who wanted a Verizon iPhone means Verizon is bound to sell millions of the devices. That success may not exactly be a good thing for Verizon, at least short-term: the subsidies involved may be so high as to cut significantly into Verizon's profits. According to a Bloomberg report, Verizon may spend...

Wow. Wow. Three little letters, and just one single word. It's actually difficult to think of any other way to express how we feel about this launch. From day one, when the original iPhone launched on AT&T, people immediately began asking one simple question: "Will it work on Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile or any other network?" As Verizon...

Let's say you pick up an iPod touch with 8GB of storage. A few days go by and you realize with all the movies and music you're shuttling to and fro, you probably should have shelled out for the 32GB version. Just return and exchange, right? Sure, so long as you're cool with paying a 10 percent restocking fee. Ouch. According to 9to5Mac, Apple...

At the end of February, Nintendo will finally launch its 3DS handheld console in Japan, followed by a worldwide release in March. As those release dates near, Nintendo has begun serving up additional details about its 3D-capable gaming device, including battery life. According to Nintendo's recently updated product page, you can expect just...

AC Ryan may not be the household name that Seagate and Western Digital are, but it's an up-and-coming media streamer outfit that actually has a fairly impressive list of new gear. The company's newest two include the Playon! HD2 and Playon! HD Mini2. Both are Full HD Media Players, with each being the first to feature the latest 1185 Series...

Google Goggles on Android received an update to 1.3 on Monday. In addition to speed fixes for barcode scanning and the ability to recognize magazine print ads, Google Goggles can now give Sukoku players a cheat ... or rather, treat. Here are the changes, as noted in Google's blog post: Barcodes In Android version 1.3 of Google Goggles, scanning...

Automakers such as Audi wowed CES attendees last week with their gadgetry. Problem is, said gadgetry is proving to be a boon to car thieves, too. Last week, university researchers demonstrated how they could use antennas to hack into 10 models of cars that use keyless entry and start systems. A keyless entry requires the key to be within a...

Eurocom. Say the name, and think big notebooks. Really big. The company is famous for producing some of the world's most powerful (and largest) machines, and now their newest is available with one of the world's most powerful mobile GPUs. The AMD Radeon Mobility HD 6970 is AMD's top of the line VGA card in the 6xxxM series, which just launched...

This afternoon, AMD announced that its current CEO, Dirk Meyer, would be resigning immediately. Dirk, who took the helm of AMD on July 18, 2008, has guided the company through the difficult 18 months since. As AMD's Board of Directors notes, "Dirk became CEO during difficult times.  He successfully stabilized AMD while simultaneously...

Powerline networking has been around for longer than we can even remember. Much like Ethernet, it's just something we've grown to expect. But unlike Ethernet, Powerline isn't widely adopted, or at least it's not on the same level overall. Many A/V enthusiasts know about and utilize Powerline, though, and TRENDnet has a new 3-port product that...

Here at Hot Hardware, we've learned not to always believe claims of "portability." There are some 17" and 18.4" notebooks, which are technically portable, but hardly "mobile." But the truth remains: having a giant notebook like that is still more mobile than carrying around a tower, a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse. And so, there's now the...

The Intel news of the week will definitely be the $1.5 billion that they'll be paying to NVIDIA for licensing fees over the next five years. But there's something else going on in the Intel camp that only those who pay attention to high-end audio will notice. The company has just landed a deal with Bang & Olufsen. B&O, as they're often...

Cars have been "just cars" for an awfully long time. It's 2012, and we still feel that we're a century or more away from having surroundings like that of The Jetsons. But slowly, cars are becoming more and more advanced. Microsoft's SYNC system started things off a few years ago, and companies have obviously looked at that in order to copy...

Intel and Nvidia announced today that they've resolved their legal problems thanks to a new, six-year cross-licensing agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Intel will pay Nvidia $1.5 billion dollars in five annual installments beginning on January 18. As part of the agreement, the two companies have renounced all previous legal claims,...

In combination with AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless, HTC announced three new 4G smartphones at CES this year. First up is the HTC EVO Shift 4G from Sprint. This 4G phone offers a slide-out QWERTY keyboard as well as a 3.6-inch touchscreen, 800MHz Qualcomm processor, a 5 megapixel camera with video capabilities, and Android 2.2. The...

This year's Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas Nevada, offered some of the most exciting product announcements we've seen in any previous CES show thus far.  The past three years' CES shows have been rather snoozy, to be honest, with the economy taking its toll on product design investment and innovation.  However, this year's...

NVIDIA and Intel making nice? Hard to believe, but it's true. These two companies have been bickering and fighting for years now. There has been a rivalry nearly as intense as Microsoft vs. Apple, with NVIDIA and Intel executives making public remarks against each other quite often. But now, it looks like the war that we have watched...

Talk about stretching a dollar. In a regulatory filing, Apple announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Steve Jobs, was again compensated just $1 in annual salary for 2010, which is something he has been doing for over a decade now. "In 2010, Mr. Jobs’s compensation consisted of a $1 annual salary," Apple said in the filing. "Mr. Jobs...

You're probably familiar with the advertising that frequently appears above public urinals in men's restrooms. Always the innovator, Japan has a new idea for that unused space: video games, where the controller is your urine stream. They are called Toylets, and currently there are four models. To be clear, these are still in development. Manneken...

Thin is in, playa, or at least that's the message Sony Ericsson sent at this year's CES convention in Las Vegas. Unveiled at the show was the company's new Xperia arc smartphone, a slim and lightweight device measuring a scant 8.7mm at its thinnest part, yet boasting an extra wide 4.2-inch multi-touch screen. Sony says the Xperia arc (are...

Microsoft's Surface has been an interesting technology platform ever since the company launched it back in 2007. The original Surface was built around a 30" LCD, ran at a resolution of 1024x768, could respond to up to 52 touches simultaneously, and was based on a 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2GB of DDR2-1066. Despite these impressive...

Microsoft's demonstration of Windows 8 running on ARM processors may have been one of the major events of CES, but the OS's 2012/2013 release date has been criticized as a day late and a dollar short. One of the tidbits that slipped out of CES is that IT analysts aren't the only ones frustrated with Redmond's timetable. Intel Senior VP and...

Another Verizon Wireless / Samsung announcement? It's true! The two companies just keep on giving at CES this year, this time introducing something for those who just can't stand to disconnect while on the go. VZW was one of the first carriers out with Novatel Wireless' MiFi 2200, but that only operates on 3G. Now, with the company's 4G LTE...

It really seems like the entire world is introducing new PCs based on Intel's Sandy Bridge platform, so why not one more? Puget Systems has followed in the footsteps of quite a few other custom PC makers by introducing a new, full line of Sandy Bridge PCs. All of these utilize Intel's 2nd generation Core processors, with Turbo Boost 2.0. Puget...

Android, iOS and yes, even Windows Phone 7 devices have been labeled app phones instead of smartphones, because there'a an app for just about anything. There are also cases for just about anything, as demonstrated by this iPhone case that's also a bottle opener. It's called the iBottle opener protective case, and it sells for 19.95. The 3G...

It's pretty clear that Samsung and Verizon Wireless have a great relationship, and with the carrier's 4G LTE launch, that relationship seems to only be getting stronger. Both companies have announced at this year's CES that Samsung Mobile will feature their first LTE-enabled smartphone on VZW, but neither company seems to be willing to put...

There's no doubt that the Galaxy Tab has done quite well or Verizon, and for Samsung. While this 7" Android tablet has found a home on all four major U.S. carriers, Verizon Wireless now has one thing that no other competitor has: access to an LTE Galaxy Tab. That's right -- at CES 2011, Verizon and Samsung Mobile came together to announce...

Video: Sony KDL-55NX810 Review @ TechReviewSource.com Samsung PN58C7000 Review @ TechReviewSource.com Motherboards and Chipsets: Gigabyte P67A-UD4 @ PureOverclock Funky Kit Review: Intel DP67BG Motherboard Extreme Series Edition Memory and Storage: TechwareLabs Review: Seagate Momentus 750GB 2.5 Hard Drive Kingwin DM-2356 Dockmaster II Review...

Windows Phone 7 users are complaining over what they call "phantom data usage." The nascent smartphone platform is, according to some accounts, using as much as multiple megabytes per hour of cellular data, and that's even when connected to wi-fi. Indeed, you read that correctly; even when connected to wi-fi, Windows Phone 7 seems to be defaulting...

Razer is mostly know for their gaming peripherals, and while the bulk of their products are for the PC, they have shown some love for the console market in the past. This year at CES, Razer released their new Onza controllers: the Tournament and Standard Editions. These controllers are designed for the Xbox 360, and both are wired. The major...

One of the biggest stories at CES 2011 was Intel's Sandy Bridge. The second generation of Core processors is a huge deal, and the performance gains are definitely real. PC makers have been hurrying to offer new, refreshed systems with these cutting-edge chips in them, and Digital Storm is no difference. They have just announced that Sandy...

Here's a couple of things that go well together: a USB gaming headset, and a new mid-tower case. It's an interesting combination to be perfectly honest, but it's a pair of new gadgets that Corsair is introducing this week. The Company's HS1A USB Headset falls into their Gaming Audio Series, while there's a new white version of the Graphite...

3D wasn't quite as big of a deal at this year's CES as compared to last year, but it was still very much in play. There were lots of new takes on 3D, and lots of sets that relied on passive glasses versus the more common active glasses. Lenovo was one of the those companies pushing a new 3D product, believe it or not. Rather than issuing a...

Well, there's really no choice but to give it up for Bigfoot Networks. The company that was simply selling standalone Killer gaming NICs a few months ago now has a bunch of new partnerships under their belt, with an integrated NIC/GPU on the market, a mainboard deal with Asus and now, a motherboard deal with another huge vendor: Gigabyte....

The PlayStation 3 has always been seen as a pretty great media/entertainment center. It plays Blu-ray, streams Netflix, and even handles gaming. But one of the major drawbacks in the eyes of hardcore home theater buffs is that it uses a Bluetooth protocol for its remote instead of IR. Most home cinemas with universal remotes talk to components...

Just a few days after a California law banning certain Internet impersonations (or e-personations) went into effect, Apple has complained to Twitter about the @ceoSteveJobs Twitter account. While that account has over 370,000 followers, its most famous Tweet came last year when the U.K.'s Daily Mail quoted a post that said Apple might have...

New PCs? CyberPower has them, as do lots of other companies that were introducing new products this week based on Intel's Sandy Bridge desktop and notebook platforms. This particular custom PC maker has chosen the Consumer Electronics Show to introduce their latest, with the Gamer Xtreme 1000 featuring Intel's Sandy Bridge i5-2300 processor,...

The well-publicized alarm bug that affected iOS devices earlier has cost a young woman her waitressing position, according to an open letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs that was published on the Huffington Post. There are a few things missing from her story, however, such as how many times she had been late previously? After all, based on the...

Loads of PC makers were here at CES this week introducing new products, and iBuyPower simply couldn't let the opportunity pass them by to jump in on the fun. The company's Chimera XLC debuted at the show, which marks the 3rd generation of this machine. It's also the first to feature the company's XLC (Extreme Liquid Cooling) package, necessary...

Bigfoot Networks may have found their niche and their big break all at once, and they aren't even introducing a new product at CES. The secret? Partnerships. A few months ago, the company managed to get their Killer E2100 gaming network interface card integrated into a shipping GPU. The card manages bandwidth and has been shown to help online...

Creative really hasn't had a huge splash in the audio business (at least in relation to the PC audio business) since the early days of the Sound Blaster audio cards, but with such great audio cards being integrated into motherboards now, that business seems to be on the decline. But the company is still kicking, and they're still greatly involved...

Asus definitely made a splash at this year's CES with their onslaught of sexy tablet PCs.  We were expecting to see a healthy offering from Asus and weren't disappointed.  However, what was more impressive were the designs Asus stepped out with that broke the plain old slate mold.  Our favorite perhaps, at least until we can...

Super Talent really has been on a roll of late. The company's USB 3.0 flash drives are undercutting just about everyone with regard to price, and today they're introducing a refresh to their Ultra Drive SSD series. The new UltraDrive MT SSD is the drive in question, offering a SATA II interface and the new Barefoot controller (plus Indilinx...

It only took 24 hours for Apple's newly opened Mac App Store to record over one million downloaded applications. That's impressive, not only because Apple just opened the doors yesterday, but also because it was achieved with a mere 1,000 apps. "We're amazed at the incredible response the Mac App Store is getting," said Steve Jobs, Apple's...

Call if a Fusion frenzy if you want (just don't confuse it with the launch title for the Xbox), because Acer's new Aspire One 522 is equipped with an AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). As a result, Acer says the Aspire One 522 is "ready for a next generation user experience and amazing HD Internet multimedia performance." Sounds...

T-Mobile has announced a tablet, the LG G-Slate. The device will carry Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), HSPA+, but size, price, and timing weren't mentioned. Because of the vagueness around the tablet, more interesting to some are the videos of the G-Slate, which give us more views of Honeycomb, the first tablet-optimized version of Android. Honeycomb...

Western Digital's Scorpio Black lineup has gained another member this week. The company has just introduced a 750GB version of the 7200RPM 2.5" drive, which is perfectly suited for upgrading the notebook in your life. It's one of the biggest HDDs you can buy for a laptop, and it's also one of the fastest. It has 16MB of cache and is engineered...

Just about every company out in Las Vegas this week has a cellphone with their name on it. Okay, that's probably stretching the truth a good amount, but there isn't a shortage of new phones at CES, that's for certain. Acer is also introducing a new piece this week, the Liquid Mini. This phone's designed to be a fun, colorful, stylish one....

There's just no question about it: Skype is really killing it. It's the go-to name in VoIP communications, and it's hard to find someone these days with a smartphone that hasn't at least heard of Skype. In fact, most have probably used it at least once. And with 4G technologies coming to light, it's obvious that Skype will be right there to...

Motorola and AT&T are claiming to have the "world's most powerful smartphone" with the ATRIX 4G. This smartphone definitely packs some power with its dual core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor that runs at 1GHz. You'll also find 1GB of RAM in the phone, enabling better multi-tasking. The ATRIX 4G uses Motorola's webtop application along with one...

Flash memory is getting cheaper, faster and more prominent. Perfect for the consumer. Super Talent in particular has done a great job of placing pricing pressure on everyone else in the industry. The company's USB 3.0 drives are amongst the least expensive in the business, and now the company is introducing a 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive for just...

What's the definition of a tablet these days? Generally, most tablets are between 7" and 12", but ViewSonic has us wondering if that's the case. The company has just introduced what they're calling a new tablet at CES. The ViewPad 4 is joining the ViewPad 7 and ViewPad 10. You could probably guess, but the ViewPad 4 is a 4.1" tablet. What's...

Intel's Sandy Bridge made headlines this week for its improved efficiency, reduced power consumption, and much-improved graphics engine, but there's another important feature that's not yet gotten the same degree of press. One of the new technologies incorporated into Sandy Bridge, Intel Insider, is designed to ensure that only paying, authorized...

Nvidia launched its next-generation of mobile GPUs today at CES, the 500M series, with the pointed lead-in that it expects these products to ship hand-in-hand with Sandy Bridge-equipped notebooks. The 500M series doesn't add any additional features over the 400M cards, but the company's press release stumps over Nvidia's Optimus technology,...

One of the common concerns among users of AMD’s previous-generation mobile platforms is that they tend to run relatively hot in comparison to many of Intel’s offerings. And we’re not necessarily talking just about chip temperatures either, but rather the heat that radiated out to the notebook’s or netbook’s keyboard...

Today, Dell announced two new 4G capable devices. First up is the Streak 7, an Android 2.2-powered tablet with connectivity to T-Mobile’s 4G network. The Streak 7 features an NVIDIA Tegra dual-core processor along with a 7-inch multi-touch screen and support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1. In addition to 4G connectivity, the Streak 7 will...

Early this morning, in a conference room behind Intel's booth, we got a first hand look at Intel's latest refinements with their recently launched Sandy Bridge processor with integrated graphics. One question that some of you have been concerned about is if Sandy Bridge will allow users to access the chip's Quick Sync video encoding engine...

Last night at Digital Experience, Toshiba gave us a closer look at the company's upcoming Android-powered tablet. It looks pretty sweet, with it's 10.1-inch widescreen display. We especially liked that this tablet has a built-in SD card reader as well as a mini USB connection and full-size HDMI and full-size USB ports. Under the hood, you'll...

In addition to their big press conference yesterday, NVIDIA was out and about showing off a few more of their wares at some of the other press events that take place during the Consumer Electronics Show. While walking through the Digital Experience event at Ceasar's Palace, we spotted these piece of kit that we thought you'd all like to check...

Apple doesn't attend trade shows like CES, instead holding its own press events from time to time, but that doesn't mean the Cupertino company is oblivious to the buzz in the tech world being generated from Las Vegas. Capitalizing on the hoopla and excitement that always comes around this time of the year, Apple today announced that the Mac...

Honeycomb, or Android 3.0, is to be the first tablet-optimized Android version, and not that much is known about it, although rumors of higher hardware requirements are rumbling. However, Google has gone and posted a teaser video on Honeycomb, pre-CES, so come one, come all, and take a look. The fact that they use the phrase "Built Entirely...

We're already familiar with phone/PC hybrids -- they're called smartphones, and these days nearly everyone has one. But Speakal's just-announced BTS8 is a phone/PC hybrid of a completely different sort. It's an office telephone and miniature computer all rolled into one, and you won't be stuffing this into your pants pocket. The BTS8 comes...

When we think of SanDisk, we typically think of CompactFlash cards and other storage mediums for photography buffs (like the SanDisk Ultra SDXC memory card line). But SanDisk also dabbles in solid state drive options, some of which you'll find in Asus' upcoming Eee Slate EP121 tablets. Asus opted to use both the 32GB and 64GB SanDisk P4 modular...

We knew CES would be loaded with tablets, and that foreshadowing has proven correct so far. They're definitely a major part of this year's show, and Velocity Micro is bringing not just one, but three total tablets to the show. There's a 7", 8" and 10" version, all of which are expected to ship in late Q1 2011. All three are joining the Cruz...

Got a Mac? Need storage? Look Seagate's way, as they have just introduced a new GoFlex for Mac external drive collection that comes pre-formatted in HFS+ format. Of course, any of these new models can be re-formatted to work with a PC. The GoFlex certification means that you can swap out the connectors to work best with your setup, and they...

There's a lot of movie streaming going on. Right now, it's hard to even fathom how many kilobytes are flying across the world as digital multi-media is consumed, but Roku is giving us a small glimpse into just how much streaming goes on. More and more people are cutting their cable out and relying solely on streaming for in-home entertainment,...

Motorola recently made quite a splash with their cute, mysteriously non-descript tease of their upcoming Xoom tablet that they promised to unveil at CES 2011.  Alas we waited with baited breath and tonight the wait was finally over, with Motorola unveiling not only the Xoom tablet but a host of smartphones based on the Android platform....

CES just wouldn't be CES without a couple of new gaming accessories. Turtle Beach is here at the show to demonstrate their latest line of gaming headsets for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC with the flagship Force PX5 Programmable Wireless Surround Sound Headset taking the lead. There's also an Ear Force P11 Amplified Stereo Gaming Headset for PS3,...

We just spent some time at an event hosted by enthusiast favorite GIGABYTE, at which the company showed off an array of high-end motherboards targeted squarely at hardcore gamers. GIGABYTE’s G1 Killer line of motherboards as they are known sport a number of features and aesthetic touches that not only set them apart from more generic...

Can your wireless equipment seriously handle three antennas? That's a question you'll have to ask yourself if you're thinking about picking up TRENDnet's latest. The company has just launched what they're calling the first 450Mbps concurrent dual band router at CES 2011, with the TEW-692GR capable of handling 450Mbps transfers. This is the...

Earlier this week, Lenovo revealed a handful of new offerings. Today, we got a chance to see all of Lenovo’s latest products in person. Lenovo’s new IdeaPad U1 Hybrid with LePad Slate definitely had us excited earlier in the week, and it’s looking good in person too. This 2-in-1 device combines a slate with a Snapdragon processor...

In typical fashion, OCZ had plenty of cool stuff on display in their suite at the Aria Hotel, a few miles away from the hustle and bustle of the Las Vegas Convention Center and CES. As we’ve come to expect from OCZ, a plethora of new solid state storage products on display, along with some new power supplies and other memory products....

A little earlier today, in a jam packed meeting room in the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, we spent about an hour listening to NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang speak about the massive influx of mobile computing devices over the last few years and NVIDIA’s plans to better infiltrate the burgeoning market moving forward. During his address, Mr....

VIA Technologies formally announced that its new dual-core, 40nm Nano X2 processors have been released. At present, processors are available to motherboards and OEMs, with systems available in Q1 of 2011. VIA will most likely have at least a few motherboards and notebooks/netbooks on display at CES, but the company has yet to name any major...

Looking for sheer horsepower when it comes to a desktop replacement notebook? You have a lot of options these days, but now Acer is getting into the same game that has been dominated by Alienware, Asus and other high-end outfits for years. The company's new Aspire AS8950G is its most potent yet, and it has the specifications to rip a hole...

It's a new year, and for those that follow the tech industry, they know that a new year brings new platforms, new CPUs, new GPUs and new designs. There's nothing quite like CES, and Acer is using the Las Vegas show to introduce a load of new notebooks for 2011. Acer is launching new machines in conjunction with Intel's Sandy Bridge announcement,...

There was some concern early on that Intel's upcoming second generation Core processors would prove to be poor overclockers, but if that's the case, boutique system vendor Maingear certainly didn't get the memo. Instead, the OEM today announced the expansion of its "Super Stock" options to all desktops with an overclocked next-gen CPU up to...

NEC this week announced the its new 23-inch MultiSynic EA232WMi display intended for corporate, financial, healthcare, engineering, CAD, and other professional applications. Why so? Part of the reason is because of the sexy LED backlit IPS panel, which offers superior viewing angles and better color accuracy than what you'll find on your average...

Need a little extra storage in your back pocket? Who doesn't? Samsung has just announced a new three-pack of USB 3.0 drives, all external and mobile and all fairly stylish. These new drives offer up to 1TB of capacity, a wave-like matte finish and four colors: Brown black, Noble beige, Clay orange and Mist gray. The premium drives also include...

Microsoft has been talking about "three screens and a cloud" for some time now, and "cloud" is definitely the big new buzzword in the consumer electronics space. Lots of content we consume each day lives in the cloud, or faraway servers that host our content and can be accessed remotely at any time. Lots of Internet TV content also lives in...

When it comes to wireless connectivity, "fast enough" never actually is fast enough. There's always a need for having something faster, and with growing file sizes and loads of HD content everywhere you look, it's easy to understand why a company like Atheros would be working towards a faster Internet. The company has today introduced two...

VIZIO announced its new line up of LED TVs with models ranging from 16- to 71-inches. Among the new models are two Cinema HDTV LED models with a 21:9 Cinema aspect ratio, Theater 3D, and VIZIO Internet Apps. Select models in the E and M series and the entire XVT series feature VIZIO Theater 3D, a technology that uses a circular polarized filter...

There's not much here, but it's definitely worth a peek below. Angry Birds has been turned into an carnival game, in Guangzhou, China. You might remember those games where you throw balls at bottles or other things, in hopes of spending $50 to win something worth $5 for your sweetheart. Just as in the video game, the object is to bust up the...

Warpia announced StreamHD, a device that lets you stream media from a laptop to a TV in true 1080p resolution. With the StreamHD, you can share video, pictures, movies, presentations, and more from your laptop wirelessly with your HDTV. The StreamHD supports a range of 30 feet (line-of-site). If your home theater system has optical inputs,...

Remember WebTV from years and years ago? It's sort of funny that people once made fun of that idea, and now having internet on your television seems to be all the rage. Google TV is hot to trot about it, and just about every high-end HDTV on the market today supports some form of connectivity. Now, iGUGU is hoping to follow suit and jump back...

We know it's hard to stay on the cutting edge of technology, particularly if you're trying not to go broke while doing it. But Zotac is definitely not waiting around for anyone with their latest release. It feels like just yesterday that we sat down and tested out a Blu-ray equipped HTPC from this very company, and now -- just months later...

We knew that HP didn't buy Palm just to sit on it, and we also knew the company was planning new devices for 2011. Thus, it's no surprise that HP has an event coming, on Feb. 9, at which attendees are supposed to "Think Big. Think Small. Think Beyond." It sounds, from the teaser, that HP will be unveiling a series of devices, from tablets...

Who says retro went out of style years ago? Retro is most definitely in, particularly when one does it as classy as Onkyo does. The company has just revealed a new line of separate Hi-Fi components at CES, and they're all about as beautiful as they come. Home cinema equipment is generally seen as boring in terms of design; almost every single...

At the annual Asus press conference held a couple of days before CES, Jonney Shih gave us a sneak peek of the company's tablet lineup. We’ve got pics, specs, and information regarding the upcoming Asus Eee Pad Slider, Eee Pad Transformer, Eee Pad MeMO, and the long awaited Eee Slate EP 121... CES 2011: Four New Tablets Coming From Asus...

Samsung launched a new digital camera with Wi-Fi capabilities. The new SH100 is a 14.2 megapixel compact camera that can wirelessly connect to other devices such as your Android-powered Samsung Galaxy S smartphone. By pairing your devices, you'll be able to use your phone as a remote control or a remote viewfinder before snapping a photo....

Earlier today, before the onslaught of consumer tech goodness that is CES 2011, our man Mat Miranda had a chance to catch up with Micron representatives at the Storage Vision 2011 conference that is taking place before the big show opens in sunny Las Vegas.  Micron it appears is readying their next generation of SSDs to follow-up their...

Lenovo really is on a roll here at this year's CES. First came a bunch of new notebooks, and now this: the official introduction of the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid with LePad Slate. Now, we have heard about and seen these devices before. Even as far back as CES 2010, this units were making the rounds as prototype devices. It's been a long ride for them....

Lenovo's CES launch started yesterday with five new notebooks, but the company just couldn't let desktop users sneak by without new machines to consider. The company is launching four new IdeaCentre all-in-one PCs today, the A320, B520, B320 and C205. Each one of these are uniquely designed, so you'll need to gaze on each one to see which...

After reports surfaced that Research In Motion's upcoming PlayBook tablet might suffer from poor battery performance, RIM was quick to downplay the issue. According to RIM, any testing done on existing units were performed on pre-beta versions of the PlayBook, all of which didn't have any power management schemes built in. When the final product...

AMD's Fusion APU platform is finally a reality, so now the obvious question can be asked: who is buying in? The platform looks to be headed in the right direction, already finding a home within a Zotac HTPC, loads of new notebooks and even a small desktop or two. And now, Fusion is heading inside your chassis and onto a Gigabyte motherboard....

CES is just now starting to take shape this year, and while tablets will no doubt play a large role, we get the feeling that wireless streaming will also be a huge topic of discussion. The time has come for wires to take a back seat to wireless, but there's still a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure that transfers are quick, lag-free...

At CES today, AMD will both launch its first Fusion Application Processors (APUs) and discuss the new platform's design wins. According to the CPU manufacturers press release, desktop, notebook, and netbook systems should be available now, with tablets and embedded options launching before the end of Q1 2011. "We believe that AMD Fusion processors...

Ever heard of TransferJet? That's a protocol issued by Sony, and it seems like some other company sure loved the name. Alereon and Spectec have chosen CES to announced their partnership: SD CameraJet. This name described a wireless, ultra-wideband solution for transferring and streaming HD media from mobile devices, and there seems to be a...

Consumers may see the end-product side of Samsung the most. Things like Samsung notebooks, Samsung HDTVs, Samsung hard drives. But Samsung is actually much more than what you see at Best Buy. The company has huge investments in the memory sector, and it's clear by the sheer quantity of news coming out of their semiconductor department that...

There was once a time where notebooks were no good for gaming. And now, that time has passed. There was once a time where embedded machines weren't even capable of displaying graphics that were even the slightest bit intense. And now, that time has also passed. VIA has today launched the eH1, the embedded industry's first dedicated graphics...

It's official. Finally. The AMD Fusion APU era has begun, and it couldn't have possibly come at a better time. Intel has been able to capitalize in recent years, particularly with their Atom platform, due to having no real, shipping competition from AMD. But now, the war really begins. Today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, AMD...

The hits just keep on coming for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Being named Time's Person of the Year is one thing, but securing $500 million in funds from Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies, is definitely another. The New York Times reported the deal on Sunday. Goldman Sachs invested $450 million and Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian...

Apple has been eying Exxon Mobil's market cap since the Cupertino, CA-based company passed Microsoft last year to become the world's most valuable tech stock and the world's second most valuable company. On Monday, the first day of trading in 2011, Apple passed $300 billion in value, but Exxon Mobil's lead is increasing, not shrinking. Apple's...

The CES website may tell you that the trade show doesn't begin until the 6th of this month, but don't tell that to Lenovo or HP. Both companies are offering up something new today, with Hewlett-Packard having the most lengthy list of announcements between the two. At least for today. Let's dive on it! First, HP's Pavilion dm1 has been updated...

Video: MSI Radeon HD 6850 Cyclone 1GB Power Edition Video Card @ Tweaktown MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II Review @ tbreak Motherboards and Chipsets: TechwareLabs Review: Jetway HA12-LF Motherboard ASUS P8P67Pro review @ OCWorkbench ASUS P8P67 EVO Sandy Bridge Motherboard @ Benchmark Reviews Processors: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge CPU @ Benchmark...

Well, it's safe to say that the tablet flood of 2011 has started. With the Consumer Electronics Show kicking off this week, Stream TV Networks has announced a whopping seven new tablets for the public to see. They're all in the eLocity line, and honestly, the specifications on each aren't that different from one another. The 10-inch eLocity...

Are you too lazy to vacuum your own floor? We're just kidding. But a little help around the house never goes unappreciated. The company that started it all when it comes to robo-vacs is launching a new line at CES this week, the iRobot Roomba 700 series and the iRobit Scooba 230. The 700 Series is the company's smartest line of robot cleaners...

Is this time the charm? Videoconferencing is an old art, one that's still being perfected. And while some companies have attempted to integrate it into the home (like Verizon with their "Hub"), things haven't gone so well in terms of sales. With video chatting so easy on smartphones these days, convincing anyone to hang onto their landline...

And with CES opening its doors in Las Vegas today, in comes the official Vizio news we were waiting for. It was reported last night that Vizio would be entering the tablet market; an odd move for a television maker, but today we've found out that it's true. Vizio is basically turning themselves into a consumer electronics powerhouse today....

After months and months of speculation, Sandy Bridge is finally here, at least in pre-launch form. The big question on everyone's mind is, does Intel's newest silicon live up to the hype? See for yourself! We answer that question, and more, in both our in-depth "Intel Core i7-2820QM Mobile Processor" and "Intel Core i7-2600K and i5-2500K Processors"...

The flash memory game, of all games, is starting to heat up. With HD video recording on the minds of nearly everyone these days, having a card that's fast enough to capture it all is quite important. More and more HD devices are supporting the Secure Digital format, and SDXC in particular. Today, Lexar Media introduced their new professional...

The CES madness has officially started. Freescale, the company that has produced chips for just about every mobile device known to man, is taking this chance to introduce some new gear as well. The new i.MX 6 series of quad-, dual- and single-core applications processors are badly needed in a world where software is quickly becoming too advanced...

A year ago, the Chinese government launched a campaign to shut down porn sites. Whether it's been a success or not is hard to say, but it's certainly taken down a huge number of porn sites. The government has shut down some 60,000 porn websites, the official state-run news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday. At a news conference, the...

Today’s pre-launch of Intel’s Sandy Bridge-based processors should come as no surprise to anyone who even remotely follows the PC tech scene. We, along with Intel and numerous other companies and media outlets, have been slowly leaking Sandy Bridge and Sandy Bridge-related details for many months now. Heck, we’ve even showed...

About this time last year, Intel offered us a complete processor revamp and architecture update for both the desktop and mobile markets.  Intel called it their evolutionary "tick" step in their manufacturing process migration from 45 to 32nm.  The "tock," as it were, follows along in cadence offering refinement and feature enhancement...

It's a new year, and that means new ThinkPad notebooks. Lenovo has a history of announcing new machines at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show, and they are taking the opportunity to announce five new machines in Las Vegas. Yes, five! The ThinkPad Edge E220s, ThinkPad Edge E420s, ThinkPad Edge E420, ThinkPad Edge E520 and ThinkPad...

Video: Inno3D Geforce GTX580 Overclock Review @ XtremeComputing Memory and Storage: 7" Sylvania SDVD8732 Widescreen Portable DVD Player w/Additional LCD Screen @ TestFreaks Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB Hard Drive Review @ Hardware Canucks Systems: Samsung SF510 Notebook @ PureOverclock Cases, Cooling & Misc.: Coolage X120TF Heatsink...

Verizon is reportedly dropping the price on the Samsung Galaxy Tab by $100, to $499. Additionally, Verizon is going to throw in $60 worth of free movie rentals, either via the Blockbuster app or Media Hub. For those who might have purchased recently, according to the report, if you have your receipt and it's been within the last two weeks,...

The question just has to be asked: "Why didn't I think of that?!" Magnetic connectors have been around for years. They solve a common problem, in that they'll break apart if too much tension is applied. Apple has a patented version on their notebooks, a technology dubbed MagSafe, that is easily our favorite AC adapter technologies amongst...

The Consumer Electronics Show for 2011 hasn't even started yet, but already things are warming up near Las Vegas. While Vizio themselves have yet to make a proper announcement, The Wall Street Journal has published a report that essentially spills the beans on two new major products from America's low-cost TV leader. Vizio has made a name...

It's a new year, and that means new things for the Boxee Box. Boxee Box owners have been wishing and waiting for Netflix support ever since it went on sale in November of last year, and now the team is providing an official update. Unfortunately, neither Netflix nor VUDU apps were available for the holidays. But there was plenty of other things...

One of the Nook's claim to fame when it launched was that you could lend books that you purchased to other Nook users for up to two weeks. In a way, it was just like owning a real book, which you can obviously lend to someone at will. Amazon's Kindle couldn't do that, but a new year represents the turning of a new leaf. The company has just...

Many people have a box or drawer full of old chargers for our old cell phones. Although the charger may function just fine, due to special connection types, we often can't reuse a charger when we switch phones. After all these years of dealing with different chargers and various connections between phones and other devices, some good news...

Another day, another month, another year...another media player. That's the trend we're seeing, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. Most all of the major players have contributed to the sector, with Western Digital, Netgear, D-Link, Roku, Apple and loads more introducing new networked set-top boxes to the market. And now, smaller players...

The mystery! The intrigue! The suspense! It's all a part of AMD's latest thriller. It's coming to select cinemas near you soon, and it involves something pretty special: Fusion. AMD's Fusion APU has been making the circles for some time now, combining the power of a CPU and a GPU into one power plant. What's in store for consumers? Hard to...

For the first time, Facebook has surpassed Google to become the most visited website in the U.S. for the majority of 2010. According to online measurement service Experian Hitwise, Facebook topped Google with 8.9 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November 2010. Google came in a close second with 7.2 percent of all visits. In 2008...

Well, that was short lived. Consumer electronics have a pretty short life-cycle these days. Even the HTC-build Google Nexus One only remained on sale for a few months, and now one of Clear's mobile hotspot devices has bit the dust. The iSpot was an interesting product from the start. It was a small 4G pebble that provided access to WiMAX services...

Come to think of it, it has been quite some time since we have seen a PC enclosure that truly blew us away. Thermaltake's Level 10 will always hold a special place in our hearts, but outside of that, the custom enclosure market has been a little more quiet than usual. Thankfully, Fractal Designs is kicking the new year off with a bang. The...