Shawn Oliver
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
While everyone seems to be talking about TomTom's GPS application for the iPhone, it's little-known Navigon that is really stepping up to the challenge. Today, the company is introducing its second major update for its MobileNavigator app, and it's definitely one worth checking out.For starters, the update makes the...
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Vudu has certainly come a long way during its brief existence in the world of home entertainment. Starting out as a company peddling standalone movie boxes, the outfit has morphed into a software solutions provider that puts its iconic software and UI onto devices that people are already looking to buy. No extra mess...
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Microsoft has a history of producing solid, quality keyboards, and the company's newest one could possibly be one of its most attractive ever. The Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 was designed to work with Bluetooth-enabled notebooks and desktops alike, but it's clearly engineered with portability in mind.The keyboard...
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It's not unusual for competitors to attempt to keep up and one-up each other, and that's exactly what's going on here with Western Digital's latest hard drive. Shortly after Samsung and Toshiba introduced 640GB mobile hard drives, WD has stepped forward to do likewise.Announced today, the outfit's 9.5mm high 2.5" 640GB HDD has started shipping...
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Make no mistake, Dell's new Inspiron 'Z' family isn't the same as the Studio 'Z' family launched back in May. The model names may be similar, but quite a bit is different on the machines themselves. Launched today alongside the company's new Studio XPS 8000 and 9000 desktops, these notebooks are powered by Intel's Ultra-Low Voltage (ULV) processors...
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Asus has been keeping itself busy of late, announcing that it would be giving Amazon's Kindle a run for its money later this year and that it would soon be shipping a new mainboard line with Intel's fresh P55 Express chipset. Now, the company is going back to its notebook roots by introducing the UL Series.Short for UnLimited Series, these...
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We're not quite sure when it happened, but media streaming has taken off in a big way. Just about every consumer electronics company with any experience in the HD/Wi-Fi/routing businesses has decided to jump in, with Netgear being no different. The new Digital Entertainer Live is a step-up from the EVA9150 introduced...
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With the introduction of every major CPU release from AMD or Intel comes the inevitable flood of new and updated machines tweaked to take advantage. Dell's certainly not one to sit things out while the others play ball, which is why the company has today introduced a new pair of Studio XPS desktops that are available with Intel's new Lynnfield...
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Not sure if you heard, but Intel finally let the whole Lynnfield Core i7 and Core i5 cat out of the bag today, and MSI's not wasting a second in getting official with a new range of motherboards designed to suit those very pieces of silicon. The new Xtreme Speed mainboard series is engineered to work with the P55...
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If you were considering entering the e-reader market, it's pretty safe to say your window of opportunity has all but closed. Amazon already has a major chunk of the overall market share, but even overseas, companies like BeBook and Sony have perfectly acceptable options on store shelves. Now, one more player is entering the lion's den, and...
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By and large, we don't cover individual iPhone applications here at HotHardware. But this...this is something else. This has a life of its own, and it's easily the most hilarious iPhone app we've seen released to date. We know it's incredibly silly, but it's things like this that really give the iPhone an edge. Since when did your phone make...
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While we're always a tad skeptical when some company selects a flavor-of-the-week artist to endorse its products, we're doubly so when a company selects two artists to endorse its products. Take Monster, for example, which is probably best known for charging insane prices for cabling in big box retailers and somehow convincing consumers that...
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We've had our suspicions for awhile now, but now it looks like the research is confirming it. The dedicated navigation device has seen its peak, and it's days at the top are numbered. We knew that the standalone PND could be going the way of the Dodo when navigation applications began to pop up on some of the world's...
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SanDisk themselves have publicly stated that no one can "out iPod the iPod," but evidently Sony did just that. According to a recent survey, Sony's own Walkman brand of digital media players outsold Apple's iconic iPod in Japan last week-- a feat that hasn't been accomplished in four years. Calling the victory "rare"...
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Razer has been branching out on their products for quite some time, with the company's audio range being its go-to line when the mice and keyboard grows tired. With the PAX 2009 conference in full swing out on the west coast of America, Razer is joining forces in order to issue a limited edition PAX series of its Moray+ mobile gaming communicator....
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We've seen report after report asserting that children, teens and even adults text like there's no tomorrow. According to Nielsen Mobile research, the average teenager with a cellphone sends and receives a grand total of 2272 text messages per month, or about eleventy billion per second of every day. All joking aside...
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It's unavoidable: 3D is the next big thing in television, whether you believe it or not. With 1080p panels losing their luster in terms of novelty, there's hardly any other feature that TV makers can add to entice you to upgrade. Besides, our current cable and fiber systems can't even deliver content en masse at a resolution above 1080p, so...
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NVIDIA's Tegra is sure doing a good job at gaining respect in the industry. The company's HD Mobile Processor enables portable media devices to handle HD video and 3D graphics, feats that were deemed impossible for small gadgets just a few years back. Now, however, Tegra has already found a home in the high-profile Zune HD, and just in case...
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Garmin isn't unleashing a new fleet of navigators over at IFA, but the company is still introducing one new guy that'll undoubtedly garner its fair share of attention. The nüvi 1690 doesn't look all that different than any of the company's other PNDs, but as they say about relationships, it's what is inside that counts. This device is the...
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Toshiba told us it was coming, and now the world can finally mark it down: the company famous for supporting HD DVD while everyone else sided with Blu-ray has finally decided to product its very own BD deck. Some might view this as the real death of HD DVD, as for the longest time, Toshiba would have nothing to do with the rival format that...
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Finally, some confirmation that we actually aren't crazy. Well, too crazy. We always wondered where exactly the crowds were that were responsible for buying up all of these Bluetooth headsets, and while we'd see one or two self-talkers walking around the mall every so often, we never saw these things as being...
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HTC's Hero just sounds like a powerful phone. And with Android loaded in, it's hard to dispute the allure. But up until now, anyone interested in bringing one home had to purchase a GSM version in unlocked form for use on AT&T or T-Mobile, and that required quite a few hundred dollars. Starting early next month...
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