Shawn Oliver
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
People may gripe that a company like Apple gets all sorts of positive publicity simply because its iPod and iPhone products are selling so well, but there's a dark side to rampant fame as well. The bad definitely comes with the good, and a chorus of angry MacBook Pro owners have apparently made themselves heard.The story goes something like...
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The greatest name in sound? The only name in sound? Yeah, something like that. Whatever Bose's slogan happens to be these days, the company is doing itself proud by introducing yet another glorified set of cans designed to help you tune out mortar fire and crumbling buildings, not to mention airplane noise and rowdy...
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While Sony has made strides to ditch its proprietary ways in some aspects, it certainly has more work to do in others. Take the memory card game for example. Most everyone these days uses a camera that supports either SD/SDHC or CF (CompactFlash). You'd probably have to search pretty hard to find anyone using xD, Memory Stick Pro or any other...
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LTE, or Long Term Evolution, isn't looking to be very "long term." The next generation mobile broadband protocol, or 4G, isn't even being deployed commercially yet, and already the European Commission is looking to spend some big bucks in order to research the next-next big things.Starting on New Year's Day 2010, the...
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One of the first things we thought when TomTom announced that it would finally be making an honest-to-goodness iPhone app was this: "what will this do to standalone GPS sales?" It's a reasonable question--TomTom has long since made its profits by selling hardware with routing software built in. The app within was just a portion of the equation,...
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You've got to hand it to 'em here, Palm sure is doing a bang-up job in reviving itself. Around this time last year, many pundits wondered if the company famous for creating the Palm Pilot and Treo smartphone would live to reach the next decade. The Palm Pre turned things around for the California-based company, but it's still struggling to...
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Back in the day, it was somewhat unusual for a company to issue revamped versions of popular machines. Instead, they'd simply pop out another model so it was quite clear that an update had taken place. These days, consumers seem to "get" that technology changes frequently, and that models are updated from time to time...
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It's hard to say at this point if nettops will ever become as popular as netbooks, but if Acer has anything to say about it, they'll come close. The planet's third largest PC vendor has today introduced its new Veriton N260G-U2802CP, a product that sounds like it's straight out of a Transformers movie. The ultra-compact nettop is aimed specifically...
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As if Sony's week couldn't get any better, the company responsible for issuing a new, slimmer PlayStation 3 is also announcing a new audio product line that'll soon be gracing the shelves of Best Buy locations. The ALTUS range will initially consist of just a handful of kits, all of which are tied to the company's S-AIR wireless protocol in...
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With all the talk of music piracy clouding the airwaves these days, it's rather refreshing to hear some positive news about music in the digital age. And despite what the RIAA or anyone else may have you believe, music sales are still happening. Just not in the same way that they were when your mother was buying...
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We're still not convinced that we could comfortably walk around with a Bluetooth headset hung around our ear in public, but for those who don't mind making others think that they're talking to them whilst walking down the street, Samsung has a smattering of new options that look pretty darn stylish. The flagship...
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Not sure if you've noticed, but Razer has definitely been on a tear of late. Following up the already impressive Orochi BT mouse and Kabuto surface, the accessories powerhouse has today revealed a new one-two punch over at GamesCom in Germany. Hailed as the company's first ever MMO gaming mouse, the Razer Naga...
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We were pretty moved by DOW Chemical's recent "Human Element" campaign, and we're delighted to see yet another major American corporation going above and beyond the call of duty in order to better our planet. Ford, along with its utility partners, have announced that they are testing out one of the industry's first...
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Remember all that hoopla surrounding President Obama's use of a standard BlackBerry? Surely you recall just how crazy our government is when it comes to security, so we're not shocked in the least to hear that SanDisk is caving to those strict requests in order to get its Cruzer flash drive certified for use by government employees. The Cruzer...
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Netbooks may be all the rage these days, but one thing is for sure: if you need an optical drive, you're hosed. Of course, that's why companies like Lite-On exist--to solve quandaries you never knew you'd end up in. For on-the-go computer users that love the low price and small design of netbooks, but wish they had an...
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iBuyPower is a company generally associated with custom gaming PCs and notebooks. If you need a high-octane machine to handle the latest games, they're the company to turn to. What they aren't known for, however, are things such as this. Of course, you won't find us griping about a company spreading its wings and...
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At long last, the new PlayStation 3 is a reality. At a press event today in Germany, Sony announced that it would be shipping a slimmer, sexier PS3 console at the beginning of next month, and while it wouldn't gain any functionality from the 80GB PS3 that we've come to know and love, it wouldn't lose anything either...
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Asus may not be the first name that pops to mind when thinking about WLAN routers, but the company is definitely doing its best to compete with the likes of Netgear, D-Link and Linksys. The RT-N13U is an all-in-one router that just so happens to do more than provide wireless Internet access. The stylish device doubles...
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Welp, so much for keeping a secret! Those far-out rumors we heard just a few months ago were apparently true, and now the suits at Dell can finally talk (somewhat) freely about their plans to finally enter the burgeoning world of cellular telephones. For whatever reason, Dell has waited for what feels like years to confirm rampant rumors that...
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There's little doubt that the hype surrounding Microsoft's Zune HD far exceeds that which surrounded the original Zune. The design is far superior, the technology is cutting edge (HD Radio, OLED display, etc.) and far more is at stake. Microsoft didn't exactly hit a home run with the original Zune, but if the Zune HD crashes and burns in much...
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Looking for yet another venue to showcase your overclocking skills? Look no further, as two of the biggest names in overclocking have joined hands in order to offer up an array of prizes for those willing to push the very boundaries most folks are fine with accepting. Futuremark (the company responsible for the benchmarking suite we use right...
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Push aside your political feelings on stem-cell research; any halfway respectable PC enthusiast will definitely be giving IBM the thumbs-up here. The wacky minds over at IBM, which have already proven that they never, ever stop ticking, have apparently determined that the next great generation of microprocessors will have quite a lot in common...
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