News Archive

It's that time again folks! In conjunction with our friends at OCZ, Intel, WD, Gigabyte, and Xigmatek, we have assembled another <HOT> rig to give away this month! We're announcing a new sweepstakes where you could win a full Intel Core i7-870-based system, complete with a Radeon HD 6870 graphics card, some super-fast DDR3 RAM, an OCZ...

Video: Intel HD Graphics 3000 and Intel HD Graphics 2000 Review @ XbitLabs AMD Radeon HD 6950 1GB Performance Review @ [H} Motherboards and Chipsets: ECS A890GXM-A2 Motherboard Review @ OCC MSI XPower: an LGA1366 Mainboard from “Big Bang” Series for Gamers and Computer Enthusiasts @ XbitLabs Memory and Storage: Vertex 3 240GB @...

The iPhone 5 is about 3, 3 1/2 months away if the annual refresh cycle runs true to form, and rumors are beginning to ramp up, just as production will in a few months. The latest appears to have shown up on a Chinese site that resells iPhone parts, as of Feb. 24. The purported part shows what looks to be the iPhone 5's digitizer panel. From...

We just recently finished up our Vertex 3 SandForce SD-2000 based SSD preview, and now OCZ Technology is spilling the official beans on two of their newest solid state drive lines. The Vertex 3 and Vertex 3 Pro are the newest, and both feature SATA 6Gbps technology. The line is said to cater to consumers and enterprise users, and with the...

And just like that, Apple's Thunderbolt I/O port has some company. LaCie, which has obviously been a big-time proponent of supporting Apple interface options. They've had FireWire ports on their devices for as long as we can remember, and now they're one of the first companies out of the gate to vouch for Apple's newest connector. Well, Intel's...

3D's big mobile launch happened this weekend. Nintendo's 3DS, which is the 3D version of their now-famous DS handheld gaming console, shipped in Japan over the weekend, and crowds were huge over there as people were anxious to snag one. In fact, some lined up the night before, camping out as if this were a new home console or iPhone launch....

The world's supply of LCD monitors is growing, yet again. AOC is the latest to give the world one more option when it comes to selecting an LCD, with the company launching their AireLED Series. That includes a stockpile of 12.7mm-thick monitors with an embedded Screen+ feature and a DVI-D input with HDCP compatibility. The Aire Black LCD is...

Maxthon released a new version of its Maxthon Mobile browser for Android. This browser lets users view the web with mobile optimizations for better speed or in a complete desktop view. Thanks to the browser's new Multi-mode feature, users will see the faster-loading, mobile-optimized version of a web site when it exists. If you'd rather see...

It's tough to believe just how many months ago we reviewed Froyo. It was sunny, summer evening in 2010 when Android 2.2 began hitting the Nexus One, and now, over half a year later, some phones are still awaiting the update. Samsung's Galaxy S line has been a huge hit for the company, with over 10 million units sold worldwide and a version...

Video: PowerColor AX6950 PCS++ Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews iXBT Labs Review: Gainward GeForce GTX 570 1280MB 'Phantom' Graphics Card Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 Flex Video Card Review @ Ninjalane Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 On Linux @ Phoronix Motherboards and Chipsets: ECS H67H2-M Black Motherboard Review @ Madshrimps Sapphire Pure Fusion Mini...

VIZIO has become the number one brand for LCD HDTVs in North America, the company said recently. When considering last year's sales numbers, VIZIO held the No. 1 spot for LCD HDTVs in the US with over 21% market share. In the final quarter of 2010, VIZIO's share of the market was 28%. VIZIO also boasts of being the leading shipper of LED backlit...

If it's not Apple, it's Google clogging up the rumor mill pipeline. Recently, the search giant has been at the center of rumors that they could be launching a new music service to compete with iTunes, and now, The New York Post is reporting that Google may be considering the opening of a YouTube subscription-based movie service in the UK....

Swedish mobile app developer Crunchfish has prototyped a mobile app that lets users control their devices using finger gestures in the air. The app requires a front-facing camera and can replace the touchscreen gesture control with what the company calls "3D control." Crunchfish says that this 3D control means more than simply clicking, dragging...

"If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen." That's a statement that we've heard used from time to time in our lives, but rarely has it applied to Google. This week, it does. And clearly, Google can take the heat. In fact, the company is jumping right into your own kitchen with the new Recipe View, which is a new search paradigm designed...

When the going gets tough, the tough start innovating. That's not exactly how the saying goes, but it definitely applies. Western Digital is seeing loads of increased competition in the storage space, and they're looking to stay one step ahead of those rivals by investing in research. R&D can go a long way to getting a product to market...

Those who follow the consumer electronics industry closely will probably remember the LCD TV wars of a few years ago. It wasn't the race to 1080p, it was the race to impossibly thin. Sets were coming out thinner and thinner, with each company grappling for the claim of "world's thinnest television." Those wars finally ended, and now it's more...

A few years from now, we'll all look back at Intel's Sandy Bridge snafu and remember it as just a nick. A scratch. A minor hiccup in the grand scheme of things. But earlier in the year, it definitely had folks running, and Intel definitely took a major cash hit in order to remedy the problem in rapid-fire fashion. Now that things are being...

In lieu of our regularly scheduled episode of Two and a Half Geeks this week, we decided to feature a rather lengthy video we put together with our podcast host, Iyaz, for his show This Old Nerd, detailing the steps necessary to assemble a system from start to finish. One of Marco’s incredibly cute daughters also makes a few surprise...

Only 3 1/2 months late, the first humanoid robot has finally made it into space, on the last flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery. The mission, STS-133, was supposed to launch, along with Robonaut 2, on Nov. 1 of last year. However, the last flight of Discovery was delayed for numerous reasons, including a hydrogen leak, which was followed...

Swirling around inside MSI's newest Wind U270 notebook is AMD's "Zacate" E-350 dual-core processor. Zacate is the codename, of course, the E-350 being AMD's first fully integrated CPU-GPU combination, otherwise known as an APU, or Accelerated Processing Unit. And if you're stockpiling buzzwords, go ahead and add "Fusion" to the mix, which...

Are the type that would overclock your toaster if it came with a utility that made it easy to do? If so, MSI's looking at you, along with everyone else who has an interest in no-fuss overclocking. MSI just released version 2.1.0 of its Afterburner overclocking software, and while it won't help you toast your bread in under 10 seconds, it does...

Like you, Google is fed up with useless sites that consist of little more than keywords to attract visitors to increase ad revenue, but unlike you, Google has the power to do something about it. And so it is. Google's making a bunch of changes to its search algorithm, most of them subtle, but one of them is big and will impact nearly 12 percent...

iBUYPOWER is re-launching systems with Intel Sandy Bridge 2nd Generation Core Processors. The systems feature the new B3 revision Intel chipsets that fix the issues reported by Intel in late January. The Chimera XLC, iBUYPOWER’s flagship system, is among the systems included in this re-launch. iBUYPOWER Announces Re-Launch of Systems...

Despite the fact that they say you can't have it both ways, late last month, a report surfaced that RIM was looking to do just that. While it decided to eschew Android and use its own newly developed QNX platform for its BlackBerry Playbook, it was mulling ways to get Android apps to run on QNX. Now, more evidence has arisen that points still...

Verizon began selling Motorola's Android Xoom tablet on Thursday amidst rampant rumors over 4G activation fees for the pricey off-contract device. Verizon had planned to charge a one-time 4G activation fee and require one-month's service fee, but the company has confirmed that it won't charge those draconian fees. There are, however, still...

ORIGIN PC announced two new laptops that boast of being the most powerful ORIGIN laptops available with mobile processors. The new EON15-S and EON17-S laptops feature 2nd generation Intel Sandy Bridge processors and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M graphics cards. The laptops also feature updated motherboards that are free from the Intel chipset error....

T-Mobile USA customers have been waiting for months on end for a "4G" (with "4G" meaning HSPA+ here) version of the Galaxy S, and now they have it. This week, Samsung's Galaxy S 4G has gone on sale at T-Mobile, making it one of what feels like a million variants of this very phone. Samsung has sold well over 10 million of these worldwide,...

At the time of our recent review of Lenovo's ThinkPad X120e, we weren't exactly sure when the machine would go on sale to the public. It was stated that it may be some point in March before Lenovo had them ready to go, but obviously things have been sped up somewhat. As of now, the X120e can be ordered directly from Lenovo, with a starting...

In addition to the Big Bang-Marshal (B3) motherboard, MSI also announced the P67A-GD80 (B3) mainboard. Aimed towards enthusiasts, the new motherboard offers the OC Genie II one-touch overclocking system that makes it easy to optimize the system. The P67A-GD80 (B3) also features a 12 phase power design along with MSI's DrMOS advanced digital...

MSI introduced the Big Bang-Marshal (B3) motherboard. Highlights of the new motherboard include eight sets of PCI-E 2.0 x 16 slots, Creative's X-Fi MB2 sound technology, and a 24-phase DrMOS power design. The all new Big Bang-Marshal (B3) supports AMD's Crossfire X and NVIDIA's SLI multi-GPU operations. To help you achieve maximum cooling,...

MSI announced the new Wind Top AE2050 all-in-one PC. This new AIO features a 20-inch HD 16:9 widescreen display and an optional multi-touch panel. It comes with up to an AMD Dual Core Processor E-350 with AMD Radeon HD 6310 Discrete-Class Graphics. The Wind Top AE2050 also features two high speed USB 3.0 ports; one of these ports features...

We have discussed Intel’s Light Peak technology on a number of occasions over the last few years. We caught a glimpse of the technology at work at the Intel Developers Forum a couple of years ago and in later briefings with Intel we’ve seen the technology mature into what’s being officially announced today—Thunderbolt...

Chalk up another Apple confirmation. Not only did we find out that March 2nd would be the day that Apple would reveal the iPad 2, and now the company is revealing that the North Carolina data center they invested in last year will be for iTunes and MobileMe. The news was confirmed during a Q&A session at a shareholder meeting, with the...

Just last week, we gave a glimpse of what OCZ has in store for the enterprise SSD market with our preview of the Vertex 3 Pro. Without giving away all of the juicy details, the Vertex 3 Pro essentially buried the competition and offered performance that was significantly better than any current-gen solid state drive. As we mentioned though,...

Making official one of the worst kept secrets in tech, Apple today lifted the nearly see-through curtain from its retooled MacBook Pro line with so many upgrades we don't know where to start. Let's begin with a little thing called Thunderbolt, which is a high-speed I/O technology better known as Light Peak that was developed by Intel in collaboration...

Remember Spring Design's Alex? That was an e-reader that had tons of potential just over a year ago, and today, it's no more. Proving yet again just how difficult it is to compete with giants in the industry such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, Spring Design has decided that the Alex simply cannot keep up with the competition, and according...

Oh, brother! Another port to remember! As the times change, so do the ways in which we sync our devices, and Samsung's newly announced Galaxy S II has a port that has never been used on a smartphone before, and based on the specifications, we're hoping that it somehow comes to more phones in the near future. The port in question is the MHL...

It would be too easy to mock MetroPCS for collaborating with Snoop Dogg to market the release of the world's first LTE Android smartphone (the Samsung Galaxy Indulge), but when you think about it, too many companies take themselves far too seriously. MetroPCS is going the opposite direction with this latest stunt, and it's actually pretty...

It's a shame, but no one can honestly say that they didn't see this coming. Blockbuster has been dwindling for years. They simply haven't been "popular" in years, and many younger folks don't even acknowledge their existence. These days, it's all about Netflix, Redbox and streaming media. Even cable TV is becoming a lot like Blockbuster: unnecessary....

The days of Rupert Murdoch's The Daily being an iPad-only app are numbered, according to a new report issued by MediaMemo on Feb. 23. With Android tablets about to flood into the market, The Daily will hit Android devices in Q2, the report stated. It's truly no surprise that The Daily would have an Android version. In fact, with the new Honeycomb-based...

There's no question that Ford and Chevy have been hitting on all cylinders of late when it comes to integrating technology into their vehicles, but BMW is largely credited with starting that trend. It was among the first automakers to fully integrate the iPod into the in-car experience, and they have slowly but surely innovated beyond that...

Video: Funky Kit Review: Zotac Geforce GTX 560 Ti (1Gb GDDR5) graphics card XFX Radeon HD 6850 Black Edition Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews ASUS GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II Review @ Overclockers Australia Processors: AMD Phenom II X4 975 3.60GHz AM3 Processor Review @ eTeknix.com AMD Athlon II X2 255 Review by Ultimate Hardware Memory and...

These days, pay-TV providers are doing just about anything to get people to keep their cable subscriptions. And that usually includes building an iPhone and/or iPad app to make interacting with their services that much easier. Comcast has an app, Verizon has a FiOS TV app and DISH Network has an app. So what DirecTV? They're on the ball, and...

Well, that confirms it. The rumors have led us to a confirmation, as March 2nd has been set as the date in which the next iPad will be revealed. According to this image, which was sent along with an invite to various media sources, something big is coming on March 2nd, and considering that an iPad is shown there in the corner, Apple would...

Eurocom is adding a new processor option to its EUROCOM Panther 2.0 performance notebook. Now, customers will also be able to choose Intel's new high performance i7-990X Extreme Edition Processor. The processor comes unlocked and runs at 3.46GHz with a 3.73GHz Turbo Boost. The EUROCOM Panther 2.0 is a 17.3-inch notebook with support for full...

Don't you just love competition? It's usually for the best when it comes to the consumer, and with the media streaming landscape becoming more heated than ever before, that's definitely the case here. CBS and Netflix have just inked a major deal that's sure to have other streaming companies looking, as this new two-year licensing agreement...

Honeycomb! It's real! Android 3.0 has been somewhat of a mystery over the past few months, but now that Google has confirmed its existence and Motorola has committed to shipping it on the Xoom tablet, there's just one more major piece of the puzzle: developers. Those developers are being given a huge gift today, as Google has released the...

This week, at ISSCC (International Solid-State Circuits Conference) Intel unveiled its next-generation Itanium processor, codenamed Poulson. This new octal-core processor is easily the most significant update to Itanium Intel has ever built and could upset the current balance of power at the highest-end of the server / mainframe market. It...

It's Girl Scout Cookie time again. This time around however, some Girl Scouts in San Diego have a new trick up their sleeves. No longer will the excuse that you don't have any cash give you an out for not buying cookies. It seems everyone carries a credit card these days, so a sampling of Girl Scout troops in San Diego are planning to use...

Talk about a gut punch. Some users who took a leap of faith into Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform are reporting the first WP7 update has turned their groovy new smartphone into a shiny brick. Making the situation even tougher to swallow, this wasn't even a major software update, but a minor patch intended to "prepare the phones for updates...

If you would have told us yesterday that Apple's iPad 2 tablet was being delayed, possibly by up to 2 months, we'd conclude you're a tech savvy individual who follows the news. But if you tell people that today, well, you could be accused of being bat crap crazy. Short and to the point, Reuters says yesterday's rumor simply is a bunch of hogwash....

Sharkoon has a history of creating interesting, under-stated peripherals that no one really thinks about, until they see them. And once they do, it's nearly impossible to forget about. Look at this one for instance -- it's an external SATA-to-USB 3.0 adapter. Basically, it connects external SATA drives to a PC or notebook through a USB 3.0...

If you're in need of a place to store a lot of digital files, and we mean a lot of digital files, OWC has a new RAID storage drive that's ready to handle extreme needs. The OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 is a massive, intimidating 12TB enterprise RAID storage drive, designed with a highly-reliable two million MTBF for critical 24/7 applications....

Google Music is inching closer to becoming less of a rumor and more of a reality. Based on a quote by Sanjay Jha, chief executive of Motorola Mobility at Mobile World Congress, there's not much left to doubt. Here's the golden nugget: "If you look at Google Mobile services [via Android] today, there's a video service, there's a music service...

Video: Palit GTX 570 Sonic Platinum Review @ OCC Sapphire Radeon 6870 FleX Edition @ PureOverclock Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 Vapor-X @ Techgage HIS Radeon HD 6850 IceQ X Turbo 1 GB @ techPowerUp Palit GeForce GTS 450 Sonic Platinum Review by Ultimate Hardware Motherboards and Chipsets: Sapphire Pure Black P67 Motherboard Review @ Ninjalane Memory...

Fujitsu getting into the tablet game? It's true! With the world waiting patiently for Microsoft's big push into this market, the Stylistic Q550 will be one of the first Windows 7-based tablets to come from a major name in the industry. A few options popped up last year, but all of them seemed underpowered and short-lived. But this particular...

On the same day that rumors about delays for both the iPad 2 and iPhone 5 caused Apple stock to drop precipitously, news from BoomTown was that Apple was set to unveil its next-generation "magical device," the iPad 2, on March 2. The news came on Feb. 22 when Apple (AAPL) stock tumbled, based on the earlier reports of delays, closing at $338.61,...

Just to make sure you don't stay too sad over the loss of Dell's XPS 14, the company is introducing revised versions of the XPS 15 and XPS 17. Naturally, it's Sandy Bridge making the move to two of Dell's more popular notebooks, and since 3D is the bandwagon of the moment, the 17" can now be ordered with 3D support as well. Dell is quick to...

Lenovo put forth the effort to introduce a number of new business-oriented notebooks earlier this week, and tonight HP is following suit. There are plenty of new laptops to consider this week, and if you were hoping to get away from HP without having to digest anything new, we have very, very bad news for you. The company's revamping their...

We knew there was the possibility that Amazon was looking into a Netflix-style streaming service to accompany its Prime membership option. Now, the online retailer has officially confirmed the service. With a paid subscription to Amazon Prime (which costs $79 per year), users will get the ability to stream unlimited, commercial-free content....

When Nvidia announced its next-generation Tegra product at the Mobile World Conference, it pulled out all the stops in an effort to impress. The stats themselves were impressive—the chip packs a twelve-core GeForce GPU in with a quad-core ARM CPU—but NV opted to hammer home the point by showing benchmark results. According to Nvidia,...

Sony announced the VAIO C Series of laptops featuring a second generation Intel Core i5 processor, Blu-ray Disc drive (select models), and AMD Radeon 1GB Hybrid Graphics card (select models).The C Series will be available in two screen sizes. The CA10 is a 14-inch model with a LED backlit LCD widescreen display while the CB10 features a 15.5-inch...

Genius added the Navigator 905 Vogue to its line of BlueEye wireless mice. This mouse features a 1200 dpi BlueEye optical engine to give you precise tracking. The mouse works on almost any surface and connects to your PC via a Pico USB dongle that uses 2.4GHz RF wireless connectivity. The Navigator 905 Vogue also has a stick-n-go feature the...

AMD's upcoming Bulldozer processor has been an increasingly hot topic as its launch date creeps nearer, but the company has kept a great deal of information under wraps. That's now beginning to change; AMD plans to discuss Bulldozer more in-depth at the ISSCC conference currently underway. According to AMD Fellow Tim Fischer, Bulldozer was...

Gaming peripheral maker Razer continues to make a play for console gamers, this time with the release of a pair of new wireless cans, the Razer Chimaera 5.1 Surround Sound and Razer Chimaera Stereo Gaming headsets. Both of these are intended for use with the Xbox 360 console, and both give you the freedom to jump around and do cartwheels without...

Someone needs to tell Apple, "You better check yourself before you wreck yourself." Here's the deal. Steve Jobs and his merry Cupertino gang are in excellent shape in the emerging tablet market. The original (and current) iPad, even with all its quirks (like no Flash support, limited I/O ports, etc) set the bar by which all other tablets are...

Free flowing bandwidth; it's an enabler. There was a time when no one had cable modems or DSL lines. Remember that? Alright, fair enough, neither do we. Regardless, having a 10Mb+ data connection to your domicile is a thing of beauty, because there's obviously so much you can do with it. The question becomes not so much what the cable or telecom...

In mid-January, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that the Kinect motion-capture gaming controller would come to the PC, officially that is, "at the right time." Microsoft appears to have decided that the right time is Spring 2011. In an official blog post on Monday, Feb. 21, Microsoft said that the Kinect SDK for Windows will be available...

It's finally happening. Well, maybe we should rephrase that. It's finally happening in America. NFC payments, as well as other contactless options, have been all the rage in places like Japan for years now, with many cellphones having these chips embedded in them, enabling consumers to pay for metro rides and groceries with a swipe of their...

Clearwire hasn't had an easy go of it. But then again, breaking into the wireless industry never sounded like an easy thing to do, so that's probably no surprise either. The company has been burning through cash at an alarming rate in order to build out their 4G WiMAX network, and that buildout rate has become critically important now that...

Video: Compro Videomate U680F Review - XSReviews Inno3D GTX570 1.25GB Review @ Vortez Battle of the HTPC Cards Sparkle GTX 430 Vs the Sparkle GT 240 Video Card Review @ OverclockersHQ Palit GTX 560 Ti Sonic 1GB @ PureOverclock Gainward GeForce GTX 570 1280MB Phantom Video Card Review @ Tweaktown Motherboards and Chipsets: G.Skill Ripjaws 1600...

It feels like only yesterday that Lenovo was serving up a lot of new ThinkPad machines, but as the times roll on, so must PC makers. This time, Lenovo's new spate of machines are targeting the mobile business user, perhaps one that's fed up their clunker from last decade. The T420s, T420, T520, L420, L520 and W520 are all making their debut...

If there's one thing Chrome is known for besides speed, it's the browser's minimalist interface. Unlike Firefox, which offers several search engines in their own secondary space, Chrome has a very less-is-more attitude towards the UI. The team has recently published several concept designs its currently working on, one of which could end up...

QNAP is increasing the performance and capabilities of its Turbo NAS Servers with the announcement of new NAS Management software. With the new software, users will get support for real-time remote replication capabilities, advanced folder permissions, virtual LAN support, and much more. The software will also enable RAID 10, giving users...

Super Talent announced the new CoreStore line of SSD drives that combine the latest Marvel controller (88NV9143), DDR ONFi 2 flash, and a direct connection to the PCIe bus. With this combination, Super Talent promises "unforeseen performance" with its two new drives. The new mini-PCIe card (30mm x 50.95mm) is designed for embedded applications,...

Samsung Electronics is working on a 1 gigabit mobile DRAM with a wide I/O interface that uses 50 nanometer class process technology. This new mobile DRAM is designed to be used in mobile applications such as smartphones and tablet PCs. The new DRAM is able to transmit data at 12.8GB per second. It also reduces power consumption by approximately...

Wow, talk about dying out quick. Dell's XPS 14 has only been on sale for less than half a year, but already the company is confirming that it has been discontinued. This news comes just days after HP decided to cancel the Envy 13 while letting their 14" ultraportable pick up the slack. Clearly, Dell's not having the same story running with...

By now most of you probably know that AMD’s Fusion technology bakes a CPU and GPU into one single piece of silicon.  And while we have already reviewed the E-350 APU by its lonesome, we've been patiently waiting for a system builder to integrate the chip into a retail-ready, ultra-portable notebook. Lenovo has become one of the...

Did you know that Amazon will soon be launching their very own App Store for Android? It's true. Soon, Android users will have access to the standard Android Market (ran by Google) and the Amazon Appstore for Android (ran by Amazon). Why does Amazon need their own app store? The reasons are numerous and complicated, but the primary reason...

Monopoly is going 21st century. Soon, there will be a computer managing all the transactions in the game, which will make all the clever alterations to the game's rules that people inevitably use as part of the fun a thing of the past. Monopoly Live, as it is called, was shown off at last week's Toy Fair in New York. Instead of that huge center...

You didn't go and believe all the doomsayers who said that tablets would kill off the netbook market, did you? Good, because if you did, you'd miss out on MSI's new U160XM, the company's newest addition to its Wind netbook line, which MSI describes as "gorgeous, slender, and light." It's also well equipped (for a netbook), boasting an Intel...

Is it really possible to play Doom...on a calculator? You may think that one would have just as good a chance at making that happen as ever seeing Duke Nukem Forever, but in the case of the former, it's a reality. Doom has found its way onto a Texas Instruments calculator, and the entire geek world is in a tizzy about it. The actual build...

It was only a matter of time. In order to keep kids coming to class, the Anaheim Union High School District is implementing a controversial new system: giving out GPS units for students to track there whereabouts. It's honestly not as invasive as it sounds at first, but it's still pushing the envelope of "comfort" and "privacy." The system...

Video: VisionTek Killer HD5770 Combo Card @ Benchmark Reviews HIS HD 6970 Review - XSReviews ZOTAC GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMP! Edition 1 GB @ techPowerUp ASUS ENGTX570 Video Card Review @ [H] MSI GeForce GTX 460 1GB Hawk Review @ Hardware Canucks [Tech ARP] Mobile GPU Comparison Guide Rev. 10.9 Gelid Icy Vision Rev 2 Graphics Card Cooler Review...

Is it the end of the era? Or just the foreshadowing of a new beginning? It's hard to say what the death of HP's Envy 13 means for the category, but it's not hard to realize what it means for the here and now. The Envy 13 was one of a kind in the PC world. It was a direct reaction to the MacBook Air, but rather than just copying Apple, HP added...

It's not even available at retail outlets or via delivery yet (that will be Feb. 21 for delivery of pre-orders or Feb. 22 in retail) but the Motorola Atrix 4G (AT&T) is already rooted. Yes, it's those busy guys over at XDA Developers who have come up with the root, and it means access to Titanium Backup and other apps that require root...

Video: AXLE GeForce GT 430 1GB Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews Motherboards and Chipsets: Jetway Mini-ITX NC98-525E-LF Motherboard MultiMedia Review @ Madshrimps ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme Review @ OCWorkbench Memory and Storage: TechwareLabs Review: Kingston SSDNow V100 Solid State Drive Power: Zalman ZM1000-HP Plus 1000W Power Supply Review...

Rugged? Check. Relatively sleek? Check. How on Earth can you have both? Just ask GammaTech. It's rare these days to find a rugged, tough notebook that isn't ugly and brutally thick, but GammaTech's new S15C manages to be fairly slim while maintaining a tough physique. It's the newest notebook in the company's Durabook line, and it uses a 15.6"...

The media streamer segment has boomed in a big, big way. It wasn't long ago that DVRs were the only boxes residing beneath the television, but now, many are giving up cable altogether in favor of a streaming set-top box from Roku, Popcorn Hour, D-Link, etc. Xtreamer is a company looking to take on the big boys, and their newest box looks like...

Ixonos may not be a name you're familiar with, but if you love to hack Android, it's a name that you may be seeing more frequently in the coming months. At last week's Mobile World Congress event in Spain, the company was on hand in order to showcase a new Android solution that makes it more like a desktop OS. For years, Windows and Mac users...

Given the lackluster success of the Zune line over the years, would anyone really be shocked if Microsoft pulled the plug? We sort of doubt it, and according to reports, the company may be on the verge of doing so. Numerous sites are noticing that Microsoft executives have been hesitant to use the Zune word in discussions, and it's unusual...

If you're in the mood for streaming content, but you don't feel like making your way over to the sofa, there may be good news in your future. And by future, we're talking about right now! PlayOn, which is home to an app by the same name, is coming to Android 2.2 and higher. It's already streaming loads of content to Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Google...

Much like hard drives, which cannot be over a certain size in 32-bit machines and have to be formatted a certain way to be visible to certain operating systems, SSDs are also complex beasts. There was a lot of confusion early on about just how reliable these would be in long-term usage patterns, and while TRIM has come to the rescue to some...

Those goofy guys over at M.I.C. Gadget must have had too many unsold Steve Jobs Action Figures lying around to just sit on, so they tried disguising him by adding a Ninja Face Mask and renaming him "Pineapple CEO." Sadly, it was just a tad too obvious, and Apple told them to stop selling the figure. According to the site's blog post, Apple...

If you use Twidroyd, UberTwitter, or UberCurrent, you're probably having trouble reading Tweets right about now. That is because Twitter has officially suspended those applications, citing policy violations. The suspension appears to have been enforced on Friday, Feb. 18. Reports from a Twidroyd user indicate that after the ban, he saw only...

It took automakers quite a long time to finally realize that consumers really adore having technology in their cars. Not just basic stuff like power windows and locks, but more advanced stuff like iPod support, Bluetooth calling and touchscreen navigation units. Chevrolet and Ford have both been pushing technology a lot over the past year...

Blackboard is a name that fits right into education these days. In fact, it's hard to encounter a college course-load today that doesn't use Blackboard in some form or fashion. With online courses, it's nearly always Blackboard as the tool that delivers the coursework and returns the grades. There are a few rivals, but Blackboard is far and...

With Mobile World Congress going on this week, it's no surprise that loads and loads of new cellphones were introduced. But this is a surprise in its own right: ZTE will be bringing an Android phone to the world. In recent years, ZTE has been a company focused primarily on Asia, and not really on higher-end smartphones. But with the boom that's...

The most recent news surrounding HP has to do with their new WebOS devices: the Veer, Pre 3 and the TouchPad tablet. But HP is a PC company at heart, and that's shining through this week with the release of the TouchSmart Elite 9300. It's an all-in-one desktop that's expected to be available in the U.S. this May, with a 23" touch display second-generation...

Recently, President Barack Obama said that his goal was to eventually provide access to broadband Internet to 98% of America. He doesn't have too far to go based on numbers alone, but getting from 90% to 98% will probably prove tougher than anyone can imagine. This week, the FCC released a Broadband Heat Map of the U.S., a way of showing just...

One might say that Steve Jobs can't be doing too terribly bad (regarding his health) if he has it in him to go out on the town for dinner, but when the President calls you, we assume you make every effort to hide any ailments and just make the event. Barack Obama attended a dinner in northern California this week with loads of higher-ups from...

The release date for the highly anticipated Motorola Atrix 4G has been moved up from March 6 to Feb. 22, according to reports and a Tweet from Seth Bloom, who is in charge of "Blogger relations for AT&T" via Fleishman-Hillard. The Tweet indicates that Motorola and AT&T beat their target timing. Originally scheduled for March 6, Atrix...

Fancy a Windows Phone 7 device? Unless you're jonesing for a new smartphone right this minute, you may want to hang tight for a few. Nokia's chief executive, Stephen Elop, made some comments recently that suggest WP7 devices are going to come down in price, and soon. In negotiating a deal with Microsoft to carry WP7 smartphones, Elop said...

MeeGo isn't dead yet, but it's barely breathing. Into this life-supported world, Fujitsu birthed its first MeeGo netbook ... and the world yawned. The world also hardly took notice of the MeeGo tablet that Intel is demonstrating at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Not that the new Fujitsu netbook deserved much fanfair. Fujitsu merely took...

In this episode of Two and a Half Geeks Dave Iyaz and Marco discuss the AMD's new Fusion low power processor in new retail-ready products the Boxee Box's latest updates NVIDIA's upcoming Kal-El quad-core Tegra mobile processor for tablets and handsets and OCZ's new blazing fast Vertex 3 Pro SSD. Show Notes: 00:50 - AMD Fusion Hits Retail:...

Ready for battle? Redbox is, but who knows if Netflix is geared up as well. The rumors have been swirling for months now, and the Los Angeles Times is now reporting that Redbox could be preparing itself for a serious showdown with Netflix in the streaming arena. Currently, Redbox only has rental kiosks. The $1-per-night tactic has worked well...

Is AMD going to get bought out by Dell? It's a long shot, and it's not really a rumor worth putting my stock into just yet, but all of that is neither here nor there for AMD's production line. The company's still hammering away on their own products, and this week they have the pleasure of announcing that the AMD Radeon HD 6450, 6570 and 6670...

The IT industry has begun to warm to the idea of a sustained recovery after the hammering it took in 2009 through the first part of 2010, but industry analysis firm iSuppli has warned that the current level of inventory buildup could cause problems if market demand slows in 2011. Original graph, data from iSuppli At the end of 2010, inventory...

Well, these aren't quite "Facebook phones," but the rumors were at least somewhat true. HTC was indeed working on a Facebook-centric phone (two, actually), and while these do a lot more than just check and update statuses, there's no question that social networking comes first on the ChaCha and Salsa. The Latin-inspired phones are designed...

With Mobile World Congress going on in Barcelona this week, tons and tons of new cellphones were hitting the airwaves. Of course, HTC was on hand to make a splash of their own, and while the Flyer tablet was arguably the biggest news from the company, three new Sense-enabled phones were also revealed. The Desire S, Wildfire S and Incredible...

It's been a few weeks since Intel first announced that it was temporarily halting Sandy Bridge shipments to repair a chipset issue. At the time, we speculated that Intel's problems could improve AMD's quarter; a new ad campaign from the smaller manufacturer is proof that Sunnyvale agrees. Industry sources tell us that Intel's shipping difficulties...

It's a funny thing, really. Are we witnessing the death of the 7" tablet already? You may laugh, but look at this. Even Samsung's second Galaxy Tab is utilizing the 10.1" form factor, and it's only months after Steve Jobs made clear on a quarterly earnings call that he saw no use for a 7" slate. But there's at least one more coming to market,...

Colossus (from the film "Colossus: The Forbin Project") and Skynet would be proud. IBM's Watson bested its human competition on Jeopardy easily, as it won the second game of the two game, three day event, adding to its total from its earlier game one win to take home the grand prize of $1 million. Watson finished with $77,147, with Ken Jennings...

The DRAM market isn't exactly raining down riches on memory makers at the moment, but apparently there's still money to be made, and not always on the home consumer side. Kingston, which plays both sides of the field (desktops and servers), just announced that its ValueRAM Server Premier series of DDR3 has been independently validated for...

Do you own a PlayStation 3 console? If so, shut up, sit down, and do what you're told! Before you fire off an angry email, understand that directive's not coming from us -- we're just the messenger here, so please don't shoot -- but Sony, who admittedly didn't word things that way. What the company did do, however, was threaten PS3 hackers...

The visionary behind Apple's resurgence may have only weeks to live. On Wednesday, Feb. 16, Radar Online reported that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is receiving cancer treatment at the Stanford Cancer Center in Palo Alto, California, while the National Enquirer is reporting that Jobs has only weeks to live. The Stanford Cancer Center is the same place...

It's the American Dream. Come up with a great idea, get investors, and you're on you way to wealth and unauthorized biographies about your life. The White House is throwing its weight behind a new way to better support hopeful tech entrepreneurs based on the mentorship model. About two weeks ago, TechStars Network launched as part of the White...

Location-based services just might be the buzzword of the hour, and as mobile communications grow, we think this will become more and more the rule rather than the exception. Location-based apps aren't uncommon to find these days; in fact, we'd say most social networking apps are already location-enabled, and more and more apps are picking...

Nokia's "Comes With Music" obviously saw its fair share of problems at launch, but there's clearly a market for subscription-based music. Rhapsody, Napster and even Apple have managed to get it right, and now Cricket is taking the next step by expanding their own music service to 13 new markets. The company's Muve Music, an unlimited mobile...

Already, Origin and Maingear have announced high-end gaming desktops with Intel's new Core i7 990X Extreme Edition CPU, and now another player is joining: CyberPower. Intel's launch of this CPU has been rather quiet. Instead, it's the PC makers who are making more of the noise. CyberPower has a history of upgrading their machines just as soon...

OCZ Technologies’ Vertex 2 series of products are undeniably some of the more popular Solid State Drives currently on the market. Since their introduction, the drives have offered excellent performance, competitive prices (which have dropped considerably in recent weeks), and excellent support in terms of constant firmware updates and...

It's Mobile World Congress, which means lots and lots of mobile innovations. Atheros is a major player in this space, and while they aren't a household name in the consumer universe, they power a lot of devices that end up in consumer hands. The latest innovation out of the company is a world's first: it's a monolithic combo of 2-stream, dual-band...

The question of what's next for AMD took an interesting twist this morning as the company's stock rose ~ five percent on the rumor that Dell might be interested in acquiring the CPU designer. To say 2011 has been a tumultuous year for AMD thus far would be an understatement; the company has launched major new products, fired its CEO, turned...

There's no shortage of hype surrounding Motorola's upcoming Xoom tablet, which will debut as the world's first slate sporting Google's spiffy Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) platform. Unfortunately, the Xoom has also been accompanied by tons of pricing rumors. Will it cost $700 or $800 as some leaked slides have suggested, or (hold your breath) a...

It's been a long time coming! One of the biggest, if not the biggest, requests for the Boxee Box has been the inclusion of Netflix support. The Box has seen some amazing success, but without Netflix, it has lagged behind Roku's boxes and the Apple TV, among others. Finally, after a long wait, the issues have been worked out and support has...

The new App Store rules that Apple announced on Tuesday were planted in a news release about subscriptions.  However, after a number of inquiries from different places, it's clear it's much more far-reaching than that, and at least one content publisher is intimating that leaving the App Store is a distinct possibility. As some feared,...

Revolutions are talked about frequently, but in honesty, not too many revolutions come about. It takes something truly outstanding, truly innovative to be considered a "revolution" in our book. The original iPhone was revolutionary, but every model since has simply been evolutionary. But Corning's vision of the future, if it all works out,...

Recently, a smattering of products based on Zacate and its lower-power cousin, Ontario, have since begun trickling out to retail and we’ve gotten our hands on two of them for some in-house testing. Although they are based on the same AMD E-350 APU (Accelerated Processing Unit), the Gigabyte E350N-USB3 and Zotac Zbox Blu-Ray AD03 Plus...

Huawei on Tuesday announced what it claims is the thinnest Android smartphone on the market, the IDEOS X3. It also showed off an updated tablet, the IDEOS S7, with a 7-inch touchscreen. The IDEOS X3 runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), the company's first phone to run the latest Android OS, released in December. It sports a 3.2-inch HVGA capacitive...

Sorry humans, but it's time to welcome your new robot overlords. After last night's airing of Jeopardy, it's only a matter of time before our gadgets turn against us, perhaps led by Watson or some other equally intelligent creation. You see, Watson is the name given to IBM's supercomputer, which proved both faster and smarter than the two...

It's pretty amazing how tiny storage is becoming. 3.5" hard drives just seem enormous sitting beside some of these tiny modules, but that's a good thing. The smaller we can get things, the easier it'll be to become mobile, so no gripes there. SanDisk is a big proponent of small, and that's shown with the introduction of their new iNAND and...

If you had any doubts about the real-ness of the Core i7 990X Extreme Edition CPU from Intel, let them be washed aside. Maingear was quick to announce that new desktops would include the CPU, and now Origin has done the same. The company, which started only a year or so ago, is now offering Intel's baddest, most intense CPU yet in their high-end...

Cases rarely grace these pages, but we're all about rugged computing. If a company enables a mobile machine to become even more mobile by letting it operate safely in less-than-safe places, that's a big win in our mind. Loads of rugged tablets have made their way out over the years, and Panasonic's ToughBook line has become famous for being...

Looks like Seagate hit a milestone this week, as the company topped the 1 million mark in shipments of self-encrypting hard drives for laptops and data center servers. Particularly as it relates to security and hard drives, reliability and security are two of the biggest, most important factors. When it comes to security in particular, there's...

New CPUs usually mean a couple of things. For one, it means that your current CPU just got a little older, but the other thing is this: it means more options from those looking to buy a new PC now. Maingear is a pre-fab PC maker that seems to always be on the ball when it comes to updating their lineup after Intel and AMD introduce new chips....

NVIDIA took the wraps off its first quad-core Tegra processor design at the Mobile World Conference today and it's a sight to behold. Dubbed Kal-El, the new chip will be capable of outputting 1440P video content and offer 300 DPI on devices with a 10.1" display. NVIDIA is claiming that Kal-El will deliver 5x the performance of Tegra 2 and...

Intel took the wraps off their Sandy Bridge desktop and mobile platforms back in January and with new technologies like an improved integrated HD Graphics engine, Quick Sync video encoding and Turbo Boost 2.0 dynamic overclocking, it was obvious that Intel was shooting for more than just a performance kick.  Also, though perhaps a bit...

Google has released a goofy, fun little app into the Android Market, called Androidify. It allows you to create your own Androids; you know, Google's mascot for its smartphone platform. In fact, the idea of Androidify (and Google has gone so far as to give it its own site) is to turn the Android into you or your friends or family. You can...

The long anticipated Verizon iPhone 4 launch took place less than a week ago, but already the Web is littered with iPhone 5 rumors. Good thing too, that is if you happen to agree with Consumer Reports that the current model is now a "middle-aged" device. Let's break down what you can expect. One of the rumors floating around is that the iPhone...

Following the recent release of News Corp.'s "The Daily" app, Apple today made official a new subscription service available to all publishers of content-based apps on the App Store. This includes magazines, newspapers, video, music, and more. Apple says subscriptions will be sold using the same App Store billing system already in place, providing...

Cloud-based services are definitely all the rage these days, but there's hardly a better name for a new cloud service than this: Unifi. A tasteful play on words, this new solution was announced this week at MWC by RealNetworks, who is revealed a new personal media cloud service for carriers to potentially offer clients. The first operator...

A site that has been the source of some valid Apple leaks previously has reported that Apple is looking at perhaps manufacturing a model with a slide-out keyboard. The report comes via a rough translation of a post by tw.apple.pro. The source cited by tw.apple.pro claims that Apple has built three prototype models for the upcoming iPhone 5....

OK, so a Roomba robotic vacuum is, by it's very nature, hands free. But what if you wanted to direct it now and then, but still, heaven-forbid, touch it? You can give it a Kinect hack interface. So it is with this demo video by "Ogutti." Is this a practical hack? Maybe not. Entertaining and cool? Yes and definitely....

If it walks like a Droid Pro, smells like a Droid Pro, and looks like a Droid Pro...it must be a Droid Pro! Unless it's heading to Europe, and then it's the simpler Motorola Pro. Announced in Mobile World Congress (which just so happens to be in Europe), the new Motorola Pro is an Android-based phone with both a touch panel and a QWERTY keyboard....

New tablets? In 2011? Get outta here! Actually, that's exactly what we've been expecting out of 2011, and that's what many companies are delivering this year. OpenPeak is joining the crowd by introducing new 4G tablets at Mobile World Congress. These new tablets will rely on Intel's Atom CPU, an Ercisson F5521gw broadband module and 4G speeds...

Here's a little lesson in mobile apps: there's a Netflix app for iOS, enabling users to stream 'Watch Instantly' movies to their iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. But that same app isn't in the Android Market. In fact, there's no Netflix streaming on Android at all! Isn't that a shame! There are rumors that this is to blame on Android's DRM system,...

Lenovo and security go together quite well. The company's ThinkPad line has made a name for itself over the years as being one of the most robust, rugged and secure notebook lines on the market. And now, with business users more concerned about their privacy and security, the company is taking another big step to ensure that data is kept where...

We think J. Geils Band said it best, love stinks.  You know the deal; you love her, but she loves him, and he loves somebody else... you just can't win.  Well, our pals at AMD are there for us it appears.  We're the sensitive type here at Team HH and when the chips are down, apparently they've got our back.  Like a trusty...

Pandigital announced a firmware update for its 7-inch Pandigital Novel line of products that will transform the eReaders into full Android tablets. In addition to apps and other typical Android tablet features, users will also get the benefits of additional file compatibility with support for DOC, DOCX, TXT, XLS, XLSX, CSV, PPT and PPTX formats....

As tablets, portable media players, and even ultra-thin notebooks keep shrinking in size, so too will the components they're built around. This is where Intel's new 310 Series SSDs come into play. The 310 Series utilize the same 34nm NAND flash memory technology and controller found on the chip maker's 2.5-inch SSDs, but in a form factor just...

Acer announced the new Acer ICONIA TAB A500. This 10.1-inch tablet will run on Google's Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) operating system with an Acer user interface. The screen on this tablet will be a high resolution, high color contrast display with wide viewing angles. You'll find a built-in HDMI port and 1080p output on this tablet as well, enabling...

AMD is celebrating Valentine's Day this year with a new series of Opteron processors that improve overall performance and reduce power consumption. At the high end, AMD's new highest-end 6180 SE 2.8GHz 12-core CPU is a 105W ACP (Average Power Consumption). Up until now, the 6176 SE at 2.3GHz / 105W ACP had been AMD's highest-end processor....

Acer announced a new smartphone that is described as blending the capabilities of a tablet with a smartphone format. The new ICONIA SMART features a large, 4.8-inch widescreen display with a 21:9 aspect ratio and multi-touch capabilities. The smartphone also features a full metal body that measures 141.7 x 64.5 x 13.6 mm. Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)...

Apple last Thursday made official its desire to see other people, ending a long-standing exclusivity agreement with AT&T to sell the iPhone 4, which is now also available through Verizon. It's an open relationship of sorts, one that Apple wanted and AT&T didn't. Call it a rebound if you will, but according to a report in The Wall Street...

Obtaining wired broadband-like performance in a mobile form factor is considered by some the Holy Grail of mobile computing. It's also entirely possible, says Netgear, which just introduced four new 3G / LTE mobile broadband routers at the Mobile World Congress (MWC). According to Netgear, these latest additions to its router line feature...

Bing is playing catch-up to Google in at least one major way this week: they are now sorting search results based on location. This means that when users search for a particular place to eat, for example, the results that populate first will be ones that are nearby. Microsoft can glean this information based on your IP address or GPS coordinates,...

Whenever NVIDIA pops out a new GPU, Zotac is close behind with a new graphics card to support that core. This week, the GeForce 560 Ti is being unveiled, and if you need a bit more power, the GTX 560 Ti AMP! Edition is being introduced also. The AMP! Edition gets a 950MHz engine clock, 384 unified shaders, 1GB of DDR5 memory, a 256-bit interface,...

Video: GIGABYTE HD6970 2GB Review @ Vortez iXBT Labs Review: Gainward GeForce GTX 570 1280MB "Golden Sample"  Sapphire HD6870 Vapor-X Review @ OCC Motherboards and Chipsets: iXBT Labs Review: MSI P67A-GD65 Motherboard ASUS P7P55D Premium Intel P55 Express Motherboard Review @ PCStats Sapphire Pure Black X58 Review @ Neoseeker Asus E35M1-M...

A filmmaker is claiming that Motorola's Xoom Super Bowl ad is "an identical concept" to a short film of his. Whether or not he takes it any further is unclear, but you can judge the "similarities" yourself with both of the videos embedded below. The film, called "Do Not Disconnect," has a few similarities. Indeed, in both films Apple earbuds...

New SSDs? It's actually been some time since we have heard of any new SSDs shipping, but Plextor has a new patch that is now available in the U.S. The M2 Series of solid state drives are one of the first to market to support SATA 6Gbps, with the 2.5" line using a Marvel 88SS9174 controller. Other key features include a sequential read rate...

Video: ASUS GeForce ENGTX560 Ti DirectCU II Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews ASUS GeForce GTX 580 Direct CU II @ techPowerUp 3D LED TV & Blu-ray Player: The Three-Dimensional LG @ InsideHW Motherboards and Chipsets: ASUS P8P67 Deluxe (Intel P67 Express) Motherboard Review @ Tweaktown ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional Review @ Neoseeker...

Samsung, like Sony Ericsson and Nokia, had a press event today in Barcelona to kick off the opening of Mobile World Congress. And like SE, Samsung had a few surprises in store for those who came. The first was the next version of the highly successful Galaxy S. That smartphone has sold over 10 million units worldwide, and Samsung (along with...

AT&T will begin selling iPad accessories at 50 percent off, starting Sunday, Feb. 13. As noted by BGR, this could be a suspicious turn of events: AT&T doesn’t usually put items on clearance sales unless a replacement is near. The timing seems in-line with reports that Apple will be announcing the iPad 2 before the end of the...

It's the next Galaxy Tab! That's right, the next Galaxy Tab was introduced today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and unlike the original, this one will use a 10.1" display. It's hard to say if Samsung felt that a 10.1" panel was superior to the 7" one that they used in the existing Tab, but either way, there's a bigger screen being...

Sony Ericsson really came to play at this year's Mobile World Congress. On top of the Xperia Pro and the PlayStation Phone (which isn't actually called that, for whatever reason!), the Xperia Neo was also unveiled. It's an interesting play for SE. It's basically an Xperia Arc, but with slightly lower-end features. We're guessing this will...

The world’s first PlayStation certified smartphone is a reality. Sony Ercisson officially revealed today in Barcelona a phone that the world has known about for months: the Xperia Play. It's odd that SE isn't just calling this the PlayStation Phone (or the PSP Phone), because that's pretty much exactly what it is. This device is what...

Mobile World Congress is underway in Spain, and already new mobile products are flowing. One of the ones that Sony Ericsson managed to keep under wraps until the show is the Xperia Pro, launching for the first time in Barcelona. It's a pretty big phone, with a full QWERTY slide-out keyboard for those who prefer real keys over virtual, on-screen...

Think tablets are the main score in 2011? We're actually guessing that mobile devices in general will have a banner year this year, and none of that will be possible without advanced mobile graphics. The NVIDIA Ion GPU has changed the landscape and expectations for graphical performance on the mobile side, and this year NVIDIA is apt to have...

AC Ryan may not have the name recognition of Western Digital or Seagate in the media player industry, but with the explosion of digital content, lots of smaller companies are able to get in while the market's hot. This is an example of one of those companies taking advantage. The Playon!HD2 and Playon!HD Mini 2 were both announced a few months...

One of the reasons that Nokia decided to partner with Microsoft to embed Windows Phone 7 into future Nokia handsets was this: there's too big a risk for phones to become "commoditized" with Android. In other words, Android phones are a dime a dozen, and just about anyone can build one. Nokia simply didn't want to become "one of the crowd,"...

Are you a hardcore overclocker? Do you never settle for factory, always pushing your gear to the absolute limit? If so, this record will most likely interest you. The Corsair Dominator GT was just used in a world record breaking journey. The DDR3 memory was the memory of choice when used to shatter the MaxxMem benchmark record with Intel's...

One of the most overlooked video display devices out there is the projector. Compared to HDTVs, they simply get no love whatsoever. But for anyone who has had the privilege of using one, it's a pretty remarkable experience. A far bigger image, way better for movies and way better for immersion. Acer spends most of their time producing notebooks...

If you own Seagate's GoFlex TV or FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player, and you also enjoy using your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, there' a new control app that you should consider. For now, the only real way to control either of those boxes is with the remote that ships inside of the box. But that's a hassle. Why not use a device you already...

Believe it or not, we have actually heard of a quad-channel USB 3.0 stick before. They certainly aren't "everywhere" yet, but they're becoming increasingly popular as more and more notebooks start to ship with USB 3.0 ports. Sharkoon, an accessories and peripherals company, has just introduced their newest USB stick, a USB 3.0 device that...

AT&T continues to sweeten the deal for those who stayed with the oft-criticized carrier, rather than bolting for Verizon and the Verizon iPhone (or any other Verizon device). It's latest bonus: 1,000 bonus rollover minutes if you text "yes" to a certain number. To get the bonus minutes, you just have to text "yes" to 11113020. Reportedly,...

It was probably a great campaign if you understood it, but even then, Groupon's Super Bowl ad campaign was in pretty poor taste. On Thursday, the company announced it was pulling all of the ads, not just the particularly contentious "Tibet" ad starring Timothy Hutton. In fact, the campaign was not just supposed to advertise Groupon, it as...

iBUYPOWER is adding to its XLC (Extreme Liquid Cooling) line with the announcement of the new Chimera XLC. The Chimera XLC is the third generation of iBUYPOWER’s signature gaming line. You'll find a 240mm radiator, 200mm fan, and five 120mm fans inside of the Chimera XLC. This machine is equipped with an Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA...

With the mobile world exploding, there's a huge market growing for charging solutions. Keeping your gadgets charged has always been a top priority for heavy users, but now it's becoming entirely more mainstream. PowerTrekk is a company that's looking to mix cutting-edge charging technology with the mobile space, and they have created a fuel-cell...

Can there be too much of a good thing? That's probably not exactly the case with Verizon's iPhone 4, but whatever it is, lines were shorter than they usually are when Apple launches a new phone. But could anyone really be surprised? Despite being rumored for ages, you have to think that most everyone in America who desperately wanted an iPhone...

It has been a very, very long time since Sprint has had a tremendous amount of great news to report in a quarterly earnings statement. In fact, this most previous quarter is the company's best in five years when looking at customer gains. For years now, Sprint has been shedding customers left and right, with many fleeing to AT&T for the...

Well, those rumors of the "Facebook phone" have amounted to something. It's not exactly a "Facebook phone," but it's close! INQ is a little-known cellphone company, but now with this, they're getting on the map in a big way. The company has just released the Cloud Touch and Cloud Q phones, both of which are "Facebook focused." The INQ Cloud...

If you read the news, you'll probably think that things are great at Nokia. The company recently decided to stray from Symbian in favor of using Windows Phone 7 on their smartphones, and it's a play that will almost definitely put Nokia back on the map in North America from a smartphone standpoint. But there is always two sides to every story....

Is Apple working on an iPhone Nano? Maybe! The rumor has definitely been around before, but this time it's picking up an unusual amount of steam. Bloomberg's sources found this week that Apple may be developing a smaller, less expensive version of the iPhone, with a prototype device already kicking around somewhere in Apple's labs. The only...

When AMD announced roughly one month ago that it was firing Dirk Meyer as CEO, it touched off a controversial debate as to the reason for the CEO's dismissal. The fact that the dust from that decision has scarcely settled hasn't deterred AMD from wielding the axe again—this time it's chief operating officer Robert Rivet and senior VP...

In this episode of Two and a Half Geeks, Dave, Iyaz, and Marco discuss the new Dell Streak 7 Android-based tablet and Seagate’s 2TB Barracuda Green SATA 6G hard drive. We also talk about HotHardware’s open letter to system builders regarding bloatware, in addition to the plethora of announcements from HP’s event where...

Yahoo is hoping to attract advertisers with the launch of its new Livestand digital newsstand service. Livestand promises to deliver the content consumers want based on their interests, time of day, and location. For advertisers, Yahoo promises an "interactive canvas that brings magazine-style ads to the tablet." Livestand from Yahoo! is expected...

You don't have to have any rhythm to do the Google Two-Step, which isn't a dance, but a much more secure log-in process. It was previously only available to Google Apps customers, but in a blog post on Thursday, the sultan of search announced it was extending the functionality to all users. So what exactly is this new-fangled two-step verification...

Tablets are hot these days—it seems that everyone has or wants one. Kids are no exception, so VTech has created the new InnoPad. This multi-function tablet for kids features interactive and animated reading, educational gaming and creative activities for children ages 4-9. The InnoPad has a 5-inch touchscreen LCD as well as a tilt-sensor...

While Republicans across the nation are screaming to cut spending, there's one thing in particular that's hard to scream about: education. But if there's a second thing, it's probably infrastructure. It's obvious that a nation's economy can be bolstered and boosted by widespread Internet access. Just look at nations where Internet is nearly...

The next generation of browser wars is just around the corner. While Mozilla inches closer to shipping Firefox 4, which is currently in its eleventh beta, Microsoft on Thursday announced the availability of Internet Explorer 9 in Release Candidate form. That means it's essentially finished, at least in terms of features, and should have most...

Wow. What a huge, huge bombshell in the mobile world. We honestly can't think of anything more astounding than this since the launch of the original iPhone, and it has the potential to completely change the competitive landscape as we know it. Currently, iOS and Android run the smartphone show. Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 is lagging around...

Wow, Alltel! Haven't heard that name in a long, long time. Verizon Wireless swallowed Alltel Wireless last year, but in a few markets, Alltel stores still exist. Hard to say why they're still hanging around, but we're sure it's due to some strange loophole in the closing process. At any rate, those still living in an Alltel service area now...

If you were wondering exactly how long it would take before 3D content caught up with 3D hardware, it's around a year or so. When 3DTVs started shipping, many consumers were hesitant to buy one; after all, what good is a 3D TV if there's no 3D content to consume? Not very worthwhile at all, as it turns out. But now, 3D Blu-rays are starting...

Whether you love or hate Apple, it's impossible to deny the impact that the iPod has had on the world of consumer electronics. It's the de facto MP3 player now, and even vehicles have grown to adopt Apple's technology from the factory. Many new cars are shipping with the ability to tap into one's iPhone or iPod library and play that through...

Well, what better way to celebrate your one hundred millionth user than to unveil plans of expansion onto new platforms, all but guaranteeing another flood on your way to 200 million? That's the question being posed to Opera today, which just reached the 100 million mark on the mobile side of things. According to the numbers issued today in...

Recently, 802.11ac made a lot of noise in the tech world by promising wireless transfers nearing 1Gbps. That's mighty fast for Wi-Fi, and with the amount of HD multi-media being transferred and consumed these days, we'd say it'll be more of a necessity than ever before in the coming months and years. But what about phones? Will they be left...

Video: PowerColor Radeon PCS++ 6950 @ PureOverclock [Tech ARP] Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 21.8 nVidia GeForce GTX 460 Graphics Card Review @ OCIA.net Memory and Storage: Legion Hardware - (Patriot SuperSonic 64GB USB 3.0) Kingston HyperX Max 3.0 128GB Portable SSD @ Techgage New Evolution Spiral: 3 TB Hard Disk Drives Roundup...

Sharkoon announced a new chassis known as the Scorpio that allows SSDs and 2.5-inch hard drives to be used without any special adapter frames. The case has support for a total of six 3.5 inch drives. Two of these bays feature a Fast Swap Mechanism directly on the housing front. The Sharkoon Scorpio also has room for up to seven extension cards...

eBay on Thursday announced a giant new strategy for PayPal that it hopes will squash the up-and-coming threat of Apple and Google with near-field communications payments. In one of those karmic twists, earlier this week news broke on the very thing that would let people feel safe enough to outfit their mobile devices with NFC payment systems:...

Hitachi Maxell on Monday unveiled a wireless power transition pad and case intended for the iPhone 4. The no-fuss, cable-free battery charger has the blessing of the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), an industry group tasked with wireless charging standards. On tap is the WP-PD10.BK and WP-PS10S.BK charging pads, with the former boasting enough...

The first half of 2011 is shaping up to be all about tablets. Truly, the tablet mania that everyone was so adamant about last year is finally here. While dozens of tablets were announced and shown off at CES in January, most of them won't be arriving until later this month or the March time frame at the earliest. The main reason for the delay...

As the Verizon iPhone starts reaching the hands of end users, AT&T continues to add incentives to its service to try to keep end users. In this case, effective today, which coincidentally is when the Verizon iPhone reaches retail stores, AT&T customers will have unlimited calling to any U.S. mobile number. Similar to Sprint's service,...

The super-zoom COOLPIX P500, COOLPIX S9100, and COOLPIX L120 cameras aren't the only new offerings in Nikon's line. In addition to these three new cameras, Nikon also added five other handsets to its lineup. Among the new offerings, you'll find the COOLPIX P300, a 12.1-Megapixel shooter with a 4.2x Wide-Angle, f/1.8 maximum aperture NIKKOR...

Always the opportunistic bunch, boutique system builder CyberPower used the launch of Thermaltake's wild and crazy Level 10 GT case as a springboard to jump into a new series of desktop gaming rigs, the Gamer FTW series. Whether you swing AMD or Intel, there's a Gamer FTW rig for you, and both versions sport the funky Level 10 GT case. Customization...

The Dell Adamo, the Round Rock, TX company's MacBook Air rival, is now dead. The multiple price cuts and lack of options available on the Adamos that were being sold seemed to point to Dell trying to clear inventory. The Adamo was first unveiled at CES in in 2009. It had an aluminum case like the MacBook Air, was ultra-thin (0.65 inches),...

Today is the day that many AT&T users, or cellphone users in rural parts of the country that can't get decent AT&T service, have been waiting for. Now that the existing Verizon Wireless customers have had a chance to claim their iPhone 4, Walmart is giving everyone else equal opportunity starting today. Rather than flocking to the...

It may be because Mobile World Congress is starting up next week, but it's probably more than that. We're talking about the increase in mobile-related news lately. In the past, mobile devices had their place, but they weren't all the rage. Now, mobile has infiltrated the mainstream, and smartphones (and wireless mobile broadband) is hotter...

Surprised to see yet another 4G phone on the horizon? You shouldn't be. With every major carrier now pushing for the next step in mobile broadband, 4G is becoming more of the rule than the exception. MetroPCS was one of the first carriers to actually activate a 4G network, despite the fact that it's a much smaller carrier compared to Sprint,...

It may strike some of you as shocking, but it's really not too much of a surprise: more smartphones were sold in the last quarter than actual PC computers. Even three years this would have been a huge, huge deal, but these days? Smartphones are everywhere, and they're still becoming more and more important and in-demand. PCs, meanwhile, aren't...

Red Hat, the company responsible for delivering Linux and a myriad other open source solutions, has today announced an expanded partnership with Fujitsu that extends the technology leaders' collaboration to the cloud. We're starting to hear more and more about the cloud these days, and it's not a surprise. As Internet connections become easier...

It's baaaack! Thermaltake Level 10 gaming chassis was easily the most amazing, wild and unique looking cases on the market during its heyday, but we suppose that heyday ends now. The reason? The second version! Thermaltake knew that they had to keep a good thing going, so version two has arrived. The Level 10 GT is a towering gaming case that's...

One of the negative points of Palm's Pre and Pre 2 was the relatively small screen size and low resolution. HP fixed that when they introduced the Pre 3 today, but if you're one of those who just love small phones, the Veer keeps the tiny tradition in tact. The HP Veer is the smallest HP webOS phone offered, and you could argue that it's a...

Palm just had their biggest day in years, and they're not even Palm any longer. When HP purchased Palm, many feared that it meant the end for the Palm brand. The URL stuck around, and rumors were swirling all along that maybe it actually would hang on in some form or another. But now, it's pretty clear that the Palm we've known and loved since...

Look out Apple, slide aside Samsung, and move over Motorola because the gauntlet has been thrown, and boy has it ever. Making the most out of a press event in San Francisco, Hewlett-Packard formally (and finally) rolled out its long awaited webOS tablet, the HP TouchPad. HP's challenger enters the ring measuring 13.7 millimeters thick and...

Nikon revealed a handful of new COOLPIX digital cameras, including the all new COOLPIX P500 with a 36x zoom. The COOLPIX P500 features a 12.1-megapixel backside illumination CMOS sensor with a 22.5mm to 810mm (35mm equivalent) lens. Nikon also announced the new COOLPIX S9100 and L120 cameras for users who want a slim zoom or affordable telephoto...

HP announced a handful of updates to the Pavilion line of notebooks. First up are the HP Pavilion dv6 and dv7 notebooks, which feature second-generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processors and optional AMD Radeon 6000M graphics. These notebooks will come with HP CoolSense Technology, USB 3.0, and on-board quad speakers. The Pavilion dv6 and dv7...

MSI wants you to know that its new R6870 Hawk videocard totally blows, but in a good way. The card comes equipped with the Twin Frozr III cooling solution, and according to MSI, it's the world's fastest graphics card to use propeller blade technology. Confused? Let us explain. "Propeller Blade" technology is essentially MSI's fancy pants way...

It's sort of funny to think about how IBM has changed over the years. Remember when you either had an "IBM-compatible" PC or an Apple? Remember when ThinkPad meant IBM? The company has transformed a lot over the decades, and lately, they've really been on a supercomputer kick. IBM's Watson supercomputer will be on Jeopardy later in the month,...

If you're trying to stay ahead of the upgrade curve, now might be a good time to consider listing your iPad on Ebay or Craigslist, if you can manage without it for a couple of months. According to reports, production on Apple's second generation iPad -- which we'll go ahead and call the iPad 2 -- has already begun and might be the only real...

The antenna design of the Verizon iPhone was tweaked slightly to work on the carrier's CDMA network. It was not, however, tweaked enough to totally eliminate "antennagate" issues. iLounge has done some hands-on (no pun intended) testing of the Verizon iPhone, and managed to duplicate the "death grip" issue of the AT&T iPhone 4, where holding...

Data Robotics is hardly a startup any more. At this point, they're a well-known name in the storage business, and they're still just about the only company out there with automated backup solutions like the Drobo. It's more like a storage robot than a dumb RAID box, and while the company has focused mostly on consumers thus far, they're now...

If you took a look at the George Hotz (geohot) PlayStation jailbreaking video that was formerly posted to YouTube, Sony wants to know who you are. The company is demanding that a federal judge order Google to release the IP addresses and other identifying information (.PDF) of those individuals who viewed or commented on the video. The company...

While desktop and notebook CPU platforms are certainly getting faster and faster, it's the mobile realm that is really on a hot streak when it comes to innovation. The Atrix 4G actually has a dual-core CPU in it; even some laptops a few years ago lacked that! The race for faster, smarter and more power efficient is in top gear in the mobile...

At a glance, you may expect that HTC's new phone is another standard smartphone, probably one with Android. But if you actually investigate it, this isn't a "smartphone" by definition. It's a "feature phone," one of the first out on the market with the new Brew MP operating system. Brew itself has been around for years, mostly used on dumbphones...

Isn't the world just a better place when companies get along? While that's true in most all cases, it's definitely less fun/interesting, but there hasn't been a lot of beef between Samsung Electronics and IBM to begin with. Samsung today introduced a patent cross-license agreement with IBM, a huge monolith in the supercomputer and enterprise...

Last week, Intel announced it was temporarily halting shipments of its Sandy Bridge-compatible 6 Series Chipset due to a long-term reliability problem with the conventional SATA II ports on all P67 motherboards. Today, the company announced a partial reversal of that decision. The company's PR statement states: Intel subsequently initiated...

Not only is 1Gbps heading for your Wi-Fi network by next year, it will be instantly über popular. The new 802.11ac 1G Wi-Fi standard hasn't even been ratified by the IEEE yet and In-Stat predicts that by 2015, consumers will have bought nearly 1 billion devices that use it.  1G Wi-Fi, which will use radio spectrum in a range below...

Dell released more business-oriented desktops and laptops today than the average middle manager would care to count, but there was one small interesting nugget tucked into the press release that average consumers might enough: something about a tablet. Yeah, another tablet! This is the exact quote: "Additionally, Dell plans to extend its existing...

The first Android 2.3 device may also be the last Android 2.3 device, according to a report from Pocket-lint. Speaking to a representative from Viewsonic, the site learned that Android 2.3 was being end-of-lifed, because of incompatibilities with Honeycomb apps. The change in strategy is being made "to ensure that dual-core apps designed for...

It's a big day for product announcements, and that includes Dell. The company is introducing new Latitude, Precision and OptiPlex systems, all of which are aimed to tackle the newest challenges to business and to provide plenty of speed and agility to handle cloud computing. This launch marks Dell's largest-ever business computing portfolio...

The Dell Inspiron Duo is an impressive sight. It's not often that we're this enamored by a device's physical design, but the Dell Inspiron Duo simply does it for us. The machine is a feat of engineering, and it really redefines the convertible laptop segment. This 10.1" machine is part netbook, part tablet, but unlike many rivals, it doesn't...

The results of a new survey conducted last week indicate that the majority of Verizon's current Android and BlackBerry users suffer from serious iPhone envy. Of those surveyed, 54 percent said they are very likely (25 percent) or somewhat likely (29 percent) to switch to Verizon's iPhone 4 when it goes on sale on February 10. But the real...

Alcatel-Lucent is one of those companies that you know has a huge impact on technology, but you can never really put your finger on it. They're a company that mostly revolves behind the scenes, but they play a hugely important role in how we communicate over mobile networks. This week, they're getting a lot more attention than usual in the...

The economy may have been down in 2009 and through some of 2010, but if there's any sign of a rebound via increased acquisitions, 2011 is certainly looking up. Cisco just recently picked up Inlet, AOL picked up Huffington Post and now HTC is making a "strategic investment" in Saffron Digital, a company that's heavily staked in digital multi-media...

T-Mobile may be the smallest of the Big 4 U.S. carriers, but it is known for having big promotions. This weekend is no different: virtually any phone on T-Mobile's network can be had gratis, as long as you sign up for a two-year contract. Just to be clear, weekend means Friday and Saturday, 2/11/2011 and 2/12/2011. The promotion includes even...

Nuance is working to make it easier for electronics manufacturers and app developers to integrate voice recognition capabilities into their devices. Recently, the company announced a new pre-packaged app that will provide PND manufacturers and mobile navigation developers the tools they need to provide voice-enabled navigation in their products....

The 3D products just keep rolling in. One of the latest is the GN245HQ 3D monitor from Acer. Sporting a 23.6-inch LED backlit panel with Full HD (1920x1080) and a 120Hz refresh rate, Acer's marketing this one as the world's first 3D monitor to support the HDMI 3D solution from Nvidia. Don't worry if you're not equipped for HDMI connectivity,...

Vendors shipped a record volume of smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2010. In all, a total of 100.9 million smartphones were shipped, representing an increase of 87.2% from 53.9 million smartphones shipped during the fourth quarter of 2009. Android continues to enjoy great success, while the newest mobile operating systems—Symbian^3...

There's an all new Android phone on the scene this week, and it's not being made by the usual suspects. Not HTC, not Motorola, not LG and not Samsung. Nope, none of those. The industry's first dual-touchscreen Android smartphone is actually being produced by Kyocera. It's easily the company's most notable phone in recent memory, and it may...

Amazon has a history of producing Kindle updates on a regular basis, and that's not changing anytime soon. The company has just introduced an early preview release of the Kindle Software Update Version 3.1, and the new additions are pretty impressive. The Kindle is still largely leading the e-reader market, despite competition popping up all...

Last week we reported on AOL's business plan for 2011 and how it appears to eschew content quality in favor of content quality. Today, the company announced that it's reached an acquisition agreement with The Huffington Post. For the price of $315 million, Arianna Huffington and her website's staff, professional journalists, and various contributing...

Best Buy isn't the only company offering to buy back your electronics. A company called NEW is also willing to purchase your high-tech products after you're finished with them. According to the company, it is interested in buying back your old MP3 players, tablets, laptops, netbooks, GPS units, digital cameras and gaming devices. The program...

HP revealed the company's first touchscreen desktops with a 60-degree reclining display. The new HP TouchSmart610 Consumer PC and HP TouchSmart 9300 Elite Business PC will tilt to an almost flat position. Both of the new PCs feature a 23-inch diagonal high-definition display that reclines up to 60 degrees and tilts forward up to five degrees....

Today at HotHardware we take a look at the Barracuda Green 2TB hard drive from Seagate. Previously, the company's low power drives were designated with the LP nomenclature. But Seagate has made the change to a more recognizable industry standard naming convention. The 2TB Green drive sports a 5900 RPM spindle speed, SATA 6 GB/s interface,...

Aircell today announced it has secured $35 million in private equity funding, proceeds of which will be used to expand the company's Gogo Inflight service for both commercial and business flights. As it stands, Gogo already serves nine of the top 11 U.S. airlines and offers inflight Internet on 6,000 business aircraft, Aircell says. "2010...

Short of an official announcement, the most convincing proof that Motorola's Xoom tablet will launch on February 24th, 2011 (and not February 17th, 2011 as earlier reports indicated) is a Best Buy ad that's been floating around the Web. According to the ad, we're about two-and-a-half weeks away from launch, which gives you time to start saving....

Most of the Nokia news lately has surrounded rumors that big changes are coming at the top, but there's a nice break from that today: the company has just started to ship their E7 smartphone, which is actually one of the most nicely designed Nokia smartphones in recent memory. It provides a really nice slide-out keyboard, a massive 4" ClearBlack...

The Micro Four Thirds world is saying 'hello' to a new member today: Carl Zeiss. MFT took the world by storm a few years ago, but even today, the main players remain Panasonic and Olympus. Some other camera companies have produced rivaling interchangeable lens cameras, but your lens options for Micro Four Thirds cameras has been somewhat limited....

Cisco is back on the M&A warpath, look out! Inlet Technologies, an NC-based company that won't have to move far, has just been acquired by Cisco, not too terribly longer after they picked up Pure Digital -- the company responsible for Flip Video pocket camcorders. Reports are stating that the company is being purchased for $95 million,...

The digital camera space has evolved quite significantly over the years, and there's nothing quite like a new DSLR introduction to get the CE working talking. Well, except for two DSLR introductions! Canon has just revealed two new ones, the EOS Rebel T3 and EOS Rebel T3i. Both of these are entry-to-mid-level units, with neither costing over...

The Super Bowl broadcast tonight actually served to be quite revealing in the technology space. Motorola's XOOM, the world's first Android 3.0 tablet, was finally introduced in a crazy '1984'-like advertisement, and Best Buy also used a bunch of celebs to showcase their new Buy Back Program. The company is getting into a market that has been...

Looks like we have some compelling evidence that the Motorola Xoom will launch on February 24, as multiple rumors have claimed. This Best Buy ad image says that the first Android tablet to carry the tablet-optimized Honeycomb (Android 3.0) OS will be "available in-store on February 24." That's pretty good evidence. The ad also confirms the...

Verizon's HTC Thunderbolt, also known as the wireless carrier's first handheld LTE device, still has a TBD date, but at least pre-orders are being taken. Multiple sources have said that Best Buy dealers nationwide are taking pre-orders for the new Android device. To get a pre-order, buyers just have to plunk down $50 toward the device. Best...

The Chronic Dev Team has released the greenpois0n untethered jailbreak for iOS 4.2.1. It took an extra 48 hours for the jailbreak to be released for those using Windows systems (meaning, most of us), but that's now here as well. An untethered jailbreak means you can now boot your iDevice without having to have it tethered to a PC at the same...

Google launched the latest version of Chrome late last week with support for multiple new features. While Google no longer labels Chrome with a version number or admits such a thing exists, information under the "Stats For Nerds" link in the browser's task manager confirms that this is Chrome 9.0.597.84. There are no default UI changes, at...

This is the final straw. This is the line in the sand. This is the year that companies have to wise up and realize that they're destroying the experience of the very machines that they try to market so vigorously over their competitor's products. We're talking about bloatware, and it's an issue that we simply cannot remain silent on any longer....

Video: AMD HD 6950 1GB vs. NVIDIA GTX 560 Ti Overclocking @ Techgage ASUS GTX 570 Review @ OCC Motherboards and Chipsets: MSI Big Bang Marshal Motherboard Review @ t-break ASRock P67 Extreme6 Motherboard Review @ Madshrimps Processors: Intel Celeron Dual-Core E1400 CPU Review @ BayReviews.com Memory and Storage: LSI WarpDrive SLP300 300GB...

Security firm Sophos warned on Friday that the new Android Market website, as currently configured, could present a security hole for Android users.  However, given the way this website works, in reality it's not really that much of a concern. As noted by Sophos, when you select an app from the Android Market, and approve its installation...

Remember "GameShark?" How about "Game Genie?" For older gamers, these names bring back memories of a time when game cheats required extra hardware, as our consoles weren't exactly equipped with extra memory or Internet connections -- things that make entering cheat codes easy today. These days, it's pretty tough to cheat when playing online,...

The tension is building, and the world at large (particularly those who pay attention to the mobile world) has to be wondering what's next for Nokia. There are only so many re-starts available for a company that's caught up in a world where innovation is happening at a rapid pace, and Nokia can't keep doing what they have been doing if they...

If you've been searching high and low for a PC enclosure lately, you've probably been overwhelmed by the options. There are simply hundreds upon hundreds of them, and it's often tough to discern which is actually ideal for your needs. Then there's style and price, which always have to be taken into consideration. Fractal Design has impressed...

NBC has fired the source of the recently leaked "Today Show" footage that showed then (1993) Today Show anchors Katie Couric, Bryant Gumbel, and Elizabeth Vargas asking "What is the Internet? Then, the Internet wasn't something we couldn't live without, and thus, the hosts' confusion over it was understandable. The video was originally off-air...

Tablets, tablets, and a few more tablets. There's no question that 2011 will be the launch year for tons of tablets, particularly with an all-new version of Android (Honeycomb) about to hit the market. Stream TV Networks has a 10" tablet that they hope will compete with the iPad and provide an Android-based alternative for those who feel the...

Although AT&T has just released an anti-Verizon iPhone ad that mocks the fact that Verizon CDMA users cannot use both voice and data at the same time, Verizon has an answer for that: who cares, if your phone cannot make or hold a voice call? As reviews come in on the Verizon iPhone, noting better call quality and less dropped calls, so...

Dell's Venue Pro has been a relative mystery. While the phone was launched months ago along with the other first wave of Windows Phone 7 handsets, actually finding one has been tricky. For one, it's only available on T-Mobile, and both the carrier and Dell have had issues keeping them around. But now, there's something that may take the attention...

Take a look at your power outlet. If you saw a DreamPlug PC there, you could mistake it for nothing more than your mobile phone charger. Yet Globalscale Technologies' newest Linux PC offers enough zing to make the "plug computing" concept a serious one. The DreamPlug is built with a Marvell Sheeva 1.2GHz CPU coupled with 512MB of DDR2 RAM....

The homebuilt PC business is still booming, and if you're in the market to buy up parts and construct your own rig, there's hardly a more important piece to the puzzle than the enclosure. Antec has been making PC cases for years now, and this week the company is celebrating their 25th year in the business with the introduction of even more...

Apple may be advertising the iPhone 4 as a friendly product for two friendly networks in America, but the truth of the matter is that Verizon Wireless still is no fan of AT&T, and the same is true in the opposite direction. Even since it was announced that VZW would be getting the iPhone 4, both ad departments have been working overtime....

Is the Wi-Fi connection that you're on now open, password-free? If it's also a Wi-Fi network within your home, you should probably change that. A recent survey found that 32% of respondents are guilty of mooching off of nearby open Wi-Fi hotspots, up a significant amount from 18% in a 2008 poll. Kelly Davis-Felner, marketing director at the...

People are too distracted nowadays by their electronics, and it isn't just distracted driving. Some have been run over by trains while texting, or hit by cars. In this case, a 10 year old boy nearly suffered the consequences of playing a portable video game while near some subway tracks. It serves as another cautionary tale of too much electronic...

Dell's Streak 7 tablet is the highly anticipated big brother of Dell's 5-inch tablet, the Streak 5 that came out in September of 2010. The larger Streak 7 goes up against stiff competition with the likes of Samsung's Galaxy Tab though the Streak 7 is retailing slightly lower in the $449 price range without a contract and through T-Mobile on...

Earlier this week, following Intel's news of a Sandy Bridge P67 chipset bug, MSI released its own statement noting that it was "working closely with Intel to minimize the inconvenience to customers and retail stores with regard to related issues," and recommending that "end users who want to return their MSI Intel P67 and H67 motherboards,...

Most of us have created a temporary email address at one time or another in an effort to avoid spam and other junk mail from entering our primary email account. Now, the Windows Live team is looking to make this a bit easier for Hotmail users with the launch of a new alias service that will be available starting today. With the alias, you'll...

Best Buy plans to launch a buyback program aimed at helping you "future-proof" your technology. The retailer plans to launch the program during the Super Bowl this Sunday. Through the Buy Back Program, you can purchase the technology you want today, knowing that within two years (four for TVs), Best Buy will buy it back for a set price. The...

You're confused about your wireless bill plan. So much so, that you've gone and chosen the wrong one applicable to your needs. Your failure to accurately assess voice, text, and data usage is costing you big time. Whoa there, Billy! Before you go and fire off an angry comment, remember we're just the messenger, so don't shoot us (and for the...

AT&T today announced it's working with FlipSwap to offer a trade-in service to all AT&T stores across the nation. Starting February 13, 2011, you can walk into any AT&T store and trade your old cell phone for a promotional card based on the device's trade-in value and condition. FlipSwap has the final word on how much it's worth....

Well, at least one thing has been made clear: anyone with faulty Sandy Bridge gear won't be left out to dry. Intel has already set aside a billion dollars or so to complete the needed return/repair processor, and just about every major PC maker on the planet has issued a public statement letting customers know that they are in good hands....

Wow, that was quick. Very quick. The Verizon iPhone is probably the most highly anticipate smartphone to ever be announced, and that probably has to do with the insane amount of hype surrounding it and the growing displeasure with AT&T. People have been looking for a way to switch over for years, and last month, Apple and Verizon announced...

When the iPad was created, some analysts suspected that it would mark the second coming of the magazine and newspaper industry. When subscription numbers started to fall, some suspected that it would be e-readers and tablets picking up the slack. To date, that hasn't really been the case. A few really amazing looking magazines have been ported...

For Android, third-party keyboards are all the rage. Unlike a stock iPhone, you can actually change up the keyboard within Android, and two companies in particular have really gained traction lately. Swype is one, with its very unusual sliding / typing method, and TouchType is the other. The company's SwiftKey keyboard uses predictive technology...

Well, this isn't going to sit well with consumers. And it's something that AT&T executives just have to be smiling about. Currently, AT&T doesn't throttle user data; they have implemented caps, but not a throttle plan. And now, it's one more reason to keep that iPhone 4 on AT&T instead of switching to Verizon. It's difficult to...

It hasn't been a good month decade for AOL. A little over a week ago, The New Yorker published a profile of the company's CEO Tim Armstrong in which the author, Ken Auletta, dismissed most of the website's published content as 'piffle.'  Worse, Armstrong admitted that the vast majority of the company's subscribers—some three million...

If you thought the battle between AT&T and Verizon Wireless was heated before, it's really on starting today. The Verizon iPhone is about to start shipping to customers, breaking AT&T's stranglehold on the phone and providing real competition in a market that needs it so very badly. And now AT&T has little choice but to step it...

Little things like work, money, and travel tend to get in the way of fun stuff. If that weren't the case, maybe you would have attended a Google event yesterday in which the search Goliath demonstrated its much anticipated Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) operating system. We've seen some teaser videos of this potentially awesome OS before, but this...

Here's what we want you to do. Take whichever arm's stronger and clench a fist. Raise it above your head as high as you can, take a breath, and sock yourself in the gut if you've ever posted the question, "But can it run Crysis?" It hardly ever fails -- if there's a story about a next-generation videocard or a new supercomputer, it's a safe...

OCZ Technology may not be famous for their power supplies, but that hasn't kept the company from keeping things flowing in that department. The ZX Series of gold-rated power supplies has just been released, with a fully modular design, an ultra-quiet fan design and a variety of power options. Customers can pick one up in 850W, 1000W and 1250W...

In this week's episode of Two and A Half Geeks, Dave, Marco and Iyaz cover the release of Google’s upcoming tablet OS, Android 3.0, aka Honeycomb, a Mobile Graphics showdown with the AMD Radeon HD 6970M and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470M, Intel's Sandy Bridge chipset woes, the HTC Evo Shift 4G, and details of our most recent contest and how...

Video: Palit GeForce GTX 560 Ti SONIC Edition Review @ Neoseeker Palit GeForce GTS 450 Sonic Review by Ultimate Hardware ASUS GeForce GT 440 1 GB @ techPowerUp Galaxy GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB GC Video Card Overclocked @ Tweaktown Processors: Intel Sandy Bridge CPU In-Depth Look At Overclocking, Memory Timings and More @ Madshrimps Memory and...

Another month, another new MSI notebook. This time, the company is introducing a new F Series of laptops, including the FX620, FR620, FX720 and FR720. All of those employ Intel's 2nd-generation Core i5 CPU, and if it's horsepower and variation you're after, these have it. The 620 models have 15.6" displays, while the 720 models have 17.3"...

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) has proven to be very instrumental in the future of streaming. The DLNA label has become one that's coveted, and it has become somewhat of a streaming standard that people have grown to rely upon and trust. Sony's PS3 is capable of streaming from all sorts of DLNA-certified devices, making it one...

Intel announced earlier in the week that they would be taking a huge hit to deal with the widespread Sandy Bridge flaw. Something to the tune of $1 billion or so. Many companies have been quick to react, assuring customers that all of their Sandy Bridge products will be covered under warranty. Now, Puget Systems is doing the same. The company...

As the Verizon iPhone launch is nearing, AT&T is getting aggressive. They have just announced they are increasing their tethering plans from 2GB to 4GB, and announced that their first hotpost enabled phone will be the $99 HTC Inspire 4G, launching Feb. 13. The Inspire 4G will carry AT&T's new Mobile Hotspot application. Just as with...

Third-party peripherals have come a long, long way. A few years ago, third-party accessories were generally frowned upon, with first-party accessories being far superior. But today, the quality of third-party peripherals has improved tremendously. Some are even more comfortable than first-party alternatives! Mad Catz is also a company on the...

When we first reviewed the iPad, we felt that the potential was greater than what it offered at launch. The iPad has definitely grown into its own, becoming an excellent media consumption device that is becoming increasingly flexible as new applications are platforms are developed. Due to the hype surrounding it, a ton of companies are jumping...

Hulu has struck a content deal with Viacom that returns "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" to Hulu.com and brings shows from other networks to the subscription service, Hulu Plus. At the same time, Hulu's CEO hinted that the days of fully free access to the service might be numbered. The agreement covers shows on Comedy...

Well, it's not like Google had an awful lot to hide, but at least it's official now. The world has been wondering what exactly the future of Android would hold, and with Mobile World Congress around the corner, everyone was expecting an announcement by mid-February at the latest. Turns out Google let us in on a secret earlier than expected,...

We knew there were big things in store for today's Android Event in California, and Google didn't disappoint. The company has a history of making pretty big announcements whenever they call upon the media to attend their own special events, and this one was no different. One of the major launches to come from Google today is the Android Market...

T-Mobile and LG unveiled the Android 3.0 (Honeycomb)-powered tablet, known as the T-Mobile G-Slate with Google by LG. This new tablet features a high-definition 8.9-inch, 3D-capable multi-touch display; a rear-facing stereoscopic video recorder with 1080p for HD video capture and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, and HDMI output. Under...

We took a pair of Radeon HD 6970M graphics cards and put them up against a pair of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 470Ms for some head-to-head benchmarks. Since we'll be working with mobile cards, we'll need a suitable mobile platform to run the tests on. Our benchmark platform is the Eurocom Panther 2.0. This is a very large and very powerful desktop...

Unless your Internet's been down for past couple of days, then by now you're undoubtedly aware that something's amiss with Sandy Bridge, or more specifically, the 6-series chipset built into socket 1155 boards that Sandy Bridge processors plop into. The "design flaw," as Intel calls it, is estimated to cost the chip maker between $700 million...

Samsung and T-Mobile announced that the Galaxy S 4G from T-Mobile will be available in February. In combination with T-Mobile's 4G network, the Galaxy S 4G will be capable of theoretical peak download speeds of up to 21 Mbps. The Galaxy S 4G will feature a 4-inch Super AMOLED touch screen display, front-facing and rear cameras, Android 2.2,...

We may be dreaming here, and that's a very likely case, but we really believe that solid state is the future. The true future of storage. Many are still trying to figure out what will be the technology that eclipses HDDs, particularly since solid state storage solutions generally aren't nearly as large (in terms of capacity) without a huge,...

Some couples buy each other chocolate for Valentine's Day. Others skip the gifts and take their partner out for a night on the town. And a few end up forgetting completely, ultimately winding up on the couch instead of the bedroom. If your significant other is jonesing for a new smartphone, AT&T will begin selling the HTC Inspire 4G just...

CareerBliss has dubbed San Jose, CA, the Happiest City to Work. Folks there are happier than workers in Portland, New York and Tucson. They are way happier than workers in Saint Paul, MN, which was found to be the most miserable city to work. With San Jose's average February temperature a brisk 54°F degrees, while Saint Paul's mean hovers...

The Micro Four Thirds and interchangeable camera sector is just blowing up these days. DSLRs are still huge, but it's the prosumer/MFT category that really seems to be getting traction. Panasonic's LUMIX GF1 was a huge hit, and people have been looking forward to the GF2 for some time now. The DMC-GF2 has just now received a price, getting...

Another week, another new GPU, and it just so happens to be another one from ZOTAC. The company has just introduced their new GeForce GT 440 series of graphics cards, with between 512MB and 1GB of onboard DDR5 memory. This one's based on NVIDIA's Fermi platform, with 96 customizable unified shaders, DirectX 11 support, CUDA-enabled transcoding...

A new router may not seem all that interesting, but a new 3G router? Now that's something worth investigating. ZyXEL's new MWR211 is a mobile 3G router, yet it also supports wired DSL/cable connections. Unlike many MiFi devices, this one has no Wi-Fi device limit. Most MiFis restrict usage to just five Wi-Fi devices, but this one's a new breed;...

It seems that Samsung Galaxy Tab buyers are experiencing a huge amount of buyer's remorse, after purchasing the devices. Perhaps they've heard about the Motorola Xoom and Honeycomb. At any rate, ITG Investment Research says that 13 percent of Galaxy Tab purchases have been returned overall, with the holiday shopping season showing a higher...

How many times have you downloaded a free app from the App Store, played with it once, and discarded it? Or Android users, how many times have you done the same or bought an app, used it once, then refunded it (ahem, Apple)? Apparently, people do it a lot. According to Localytics, 26 percent of the apps downloaded in were tried once, and never...

In April of 2009, Apple brought over Intel's Nehalem Xeon CPU to the Xserve rack-mount system. Not even two years after that, the company has decided to lay the Xserve to rest. That system is officially no more, as the prior Xserve link now redirects to an Xserve Support page. The Xserve managed to last nearly a full decade. 9.5 years to be...

Asus is adding NVIDIA’s latest GPU, the GT440, to its lineup. The new ASUS GT440 is factory overclocked by Asus to run at 822MHz. The Asus GT440 utilizes Super Alloy Power technology to help lower operating temperatures, extend product lifespan, and improve overall performance. The GT440 also uses Asus' Dust-proof Fan design and supports...

This news clip from the Today show's archives is an interesting look at how awkward and uncertain the first discussions of the Internet on television actually were. On January 24, 1994, Katie Couric and Bryan Gumbel did a short segment on the massive "computer billboard" that's getting bigger and bigger all the time. The mind-blowing thing...

According to market analysis firm Strategy Analytics, the number of Android-powered tablets sold in Q4 surged dramatically. In Q3 2010, Android devices held just 2.3 percent of the market compared to the iPad's approximate 95 percent. In Q4, Android's market share increased tenfold; Google's OS accounted for 22 percent of global tablet shipments...

LG plans to reveal "the world's first 3D smartphone" at Mobile World Congress on February 14. The new LG Optimus 3D will feature a glasses-free 3D display. It will also have a dual-lens camera that can record 3D video. This smartphone is expected to come with many of the features you'd expect from a high-end smartphone, including a dual-core...

AMD announced the AMD FirePro 2270 and ATI FirePro V5800 DVI professional graphics cards. The FirePro 2270 features a fan-less, energy efficient design that consumes less than 10 watts of power on average. This card also offers support for DisplayPort, DVI and VGA connectivity. The ATI FirePro V5800 DVI can drive two high-resolution dual link...

Remember the Twilight Zone episode, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet? If only Facebook, digital cameras, and the Internet as we know it today had been around in the 1960s, William Shatner, who played the part of a nervous salesman on his first airplane flight since having a nervous breakdown, could have posted proof that there was a gremlin on the...

Intel's 'little' screw-up with its 6-Series chipsets for the recently launched Sandy Bridge platform will cost the company an estimated $700 million to fix and repair affected boards and systems, with some saying the cost is likely to be closer to $1 billion. But the SNAFU has also left OEM system builders between a rock and a hard place....

A few manufacturers have forged on and released 10-inch Android tablets regardless of Google's hamstringing of it, by limiting Android Marketplace functionality on any device larger than 7 inches.  It's a hard line to walk without Google's blessing until Honeycomb is released but ViewSonic has stepped out with their 10-inch gTablet and...

Video: MSI N560GTX-Ti GeForce Video Card @ Benchmark Reviews AMD Radeon HD 6950 1GB @ Techgage Motherboards and Chipsets: Gigabyte GA-X58-USB3 Review @ OCC ASUS P8P67 EVO Motherboard Review @ OCIA.net Sapphire Pure Black X58 @ PureOverclock ECS P67H2-A Black Extreme Motherboard Review with Core i5 2500K ew @ OCWorkbench Memory and Storage:...

Where would be without Multi-Touch? It's hard to imagine, given that the vast majority of today's smartphones utilize some form of multi-touch, and many new all-in-one PCs, monitors and tablets do as well. Multi-touch has effectively revolutionized how we interact with displays, and Integrated Device Technology (IDT) has just created a major...

MeeGo tablets could reportedly be on the market as soon as the second-quarter of 2011. Intel is said to be shipping reference tablets to developers and the target date for final hardware is June. Note that Taiwan's giant electronics trade show, Computex, is May 31-June 4. Putting it all together, an educated guess would have this first crop...

Lovefilm sure is getting a lot of play these days. Basically, that's the UK version of Netflix, and just like Netflix is growing over in the States, Lovefilm is getting lots of traffic overseas. Companies are starting to take notice of that growth, and just as Netflix support slowly seeped into set-top boxes, game consoles and Blu-ray players...

The pocket camcorder segment has definitely calmed down somewhat. Flip Video had a good thing going, and now Sony, Samsung and numerous others have joined in. Sony's most recent addition is the Bloggie Touch, and while the specifications set is quite impressive, one thing has bee a chink in its armor for OS X lovers: no Mac support. That's...

And the Streak gets larger. Dell's original Streak was just 5" in size, which was quite small for a "tablet." But then again, it was one of only a few tablets that could double as a smartphone. Most 7" tablets have their cellular capabilities disabled, but that size has proven to be pretty popular. Just look at the Galaxy Tab, for example....

Eric Jacqmain's version of Archimedes' Death Ray is, based on the video below, a hot item. While obviously overhyped when described as having the power of 5,000 suns, it definitely has enough power to melt or burn everything he tried it on. Eric Jacqmain, 19, took 5,800 tiny mirrors, put them onto a 5'9” dish at a cost of only about...

With USB 3.0 becoming the port of choice for many new notebooks and desktops, many accessory companies are now looking to provide peripherals that convert other formats to USB 3.0. It's a fight for compatibility, and NewerTech is now introducing a new adapter that makes any eSATA hard drives compatible with USB 3.0. The idea is simple: if...