Shawn Oliver
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
It's hard to believe that Apple last updated its Time Capsule NAS + WLAN router in March, but already the Cupertino, California-based company is giving customers a reason to upgrade. In typical Apple fashion, the company quietly updated its Time Capsule with a 2TB model, up from the previous high of 1TB. For those unaware, Time Capsule is...
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We know it may be overstated, but Samsung sure knows how to design an HDTV. The company best known for its 'Touch of Color' design style is wowing potential television buyers again today with its all-new 8500 series. Considered the flagship model of its expanded LED backlit HDTV series, the new lineup combines the picture quality you're used...
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Another day, another new smartphone (or "featurephone," if you will) on AT&T's network. Today, Samsung Mobile is introducing its latest finger-friendly phone to grace America's largest GSM network, the Solstice. At first glance, the phone actually look a lot like the Samsung Instinct that did so well for Sprint last year, with a thin,...
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Acer's Timeline series launched with quite a bit of momentum behind it, but ever since, we've heard almost nothing about the ultra-light, long-lasting crew. Now, Acer is hoping to give the series a new lease on life with the introduction of the Timeline 8000 family. This set is a sleek, classically styled gaggle of machines that aims at both...
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You've heard of memory, and you've heard of RAM. Heck, you may even know a thing or two about DIMMs. But have you any knowledge whatsoever on LRDIMMs? Those very modules are being unveiled today courtesy of Micron Technology, which has introduced the industry’s first DDR3 load-reduced, dual-inline memory module (LRDIMM). In short, these reduce...
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Sonic Solutions has been doing itself quite a few favors of late, linking up with Blockbuster and even bringing CinemaNow films to USB flash drives. Today, however, it's really kicking things up a notch. In an effort to take on the likes of Vudu, Netflix and even Microsoft's Xbox 360 streaming service, Sonic has announced a new platform to...
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Palm may have released its Mojo SDK Beta for webOS developers earlier this month, but we've yet to see any real action spawn from it. In contrast, it only took developers a matter of days with Apple's iPhone SDK to start pumping out quality software, and now the App Store has well over 65,000 programs to choose from.Still, we can't help but...
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Confirming rumors that we'd heard over the past few weeks, Nikon has today introduced two new Digital SLR cameras in its expanding Dxxx lineup. The two cameras couldn't possibly be more different, with one of these aimed at amateur/professionals and the other aimed at those looking to finally make the leap to the DSLR world. Starting with...
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While it's not quite a household yet just yet, Vudu is definitely well-known and respected in the media streaming sector. The company broke through a few years back with its dedicated Vudu movie streaming device, and by and large, it has stuck to its guns so far. Today, however, it's showing a new side of itself, along with an all new Vudu...
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Eye-Fi, the company responsible for bringing wireless digital image uploads to the masses, is introducing an all new Secure Digital (SD) card today that adds one more feature that photogs are sure to love: geotagging. The appropriately named Eye-Fi Geo is a 2GB SD card that slides into any digital camera that accepts SD cards. In simple terms,...
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As you probably know, Apple's iPod shuffle created quite a stir when it was introduced with no screen and no buttons. How are you really supposed to control it, after all? Of course, Apple's innovative (and hampering, in some ways) solution was VoiceOver, a system that enables owners to shout commands and have it respond accordingly.Unfortunately,...
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It's a problem faced by far too many netbook buyers these days: what do you do when you need access to an optical disc? The vast majority of 8", 9" and 10" netbooks arrive today without an optical drive to speak of. Just a few years back, it was practically unheard of to see a notebook sans a DVD drive; today, it's almost a given if the machine...
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Well, isn't this an interesting development? Just a few short months after Virgin Mobile--one of the few remaining MVNOs left in America--introduced a delightful new pay-as-you-go mobile broadband plan, the company is now be swallowed whole by Sprint Nextel. If you're shocked to hear that the USA's sole Palm Pre carrier is busying buying up...
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You know, it makes sense, really. Considering that Barnes & Noble is gearing up to launch what it calls the "world's largest bookstore," it should probably make sure that a maximum amount of people have access to its in-store Wi-Fi network, not to mention test it out to ensure that it can handle the strain of a million digital bookworms...
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We're a little rusty on our "old sayings," but we're pretty sure one of them goes: "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." With seemingly everyone jumping into the E-reader game these days, we guess it was just a matter of time before the consumer electronics giant known as Samsung jumped into the ring. Following the likes of Amazon, Plastic Logic...
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TriGem USA, the parent company responsible for the Averatec notebook line, has really been on a hot streak of late. After announcing two new all-in-one PCs over the past two months, the outfit is now setting its sights on MSI's X-Slim, Apple's MacBook Air and Asus' Seashell families. The sleek, all-aluminum 13" N3400...
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Research In Motion's BlackBerry line has a long history of being the go-to smartphone for the business crowd. By and large, the BlackBerry hasn't changed much over the years, sticking to its vertical form factor, full QWERTY keypad and generally small screen. Those attributes, along with a few nice extras, are all present on the company's...
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Got issues getting a signal? Don't mind strapping some extra hardware on your notebook in order to make things better? If not, then give hField Technologies' a look, which has just issued a new long-range Wi-Fi adapter that can supposedly help users maintain a wireless signal from up to 1000 feet away from the router. In case you're wondering,...
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Well, what have we here? Unless our eyes are deceiving us, we believe we're looking at the latest media streamer in the long line of newfangled media streaming devices. As media becomes more and more mobile (and thus, less and less attached to whatever device it's actually stored on), AV addicts are finding the allure of taking their content...
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Software pioneer Bill Gates always wanted a PC on every desk in the world, but we aren't quite sure he envisioned it happening like this. In much the same way as the cellphone industry took off in the 1990s with the advent of the "free-on-contract" phone, a Linux bigwig is suggesting that PCs are the next to follow in those footsteps. Linux...
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Look out, archive junkies! Western Digital is now coming for you down there in the mobile realm, a place where you once thought the "never enough space" bug couldn't bite. Today, the company who beat everyone to the 2TB mark in the desktop hard drive space has developed and shipped the industry's first 2.5" 1TB HDD. The drive, which is joined...
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Is there such a thing as being too popular? Having too many friends? If you're Bill Gates, we guess the answer is "yes." The famed Microsoft co-founder has recently admitted to giving up Facebook after "too many" people wanted to befriend him. Of course, we find it kind of silly that Mr. Gates expected anything other than an onslaught of friend...
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