Shawn Oliver
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
Dell's Vostro lineup never has been flashy. Instead, it has relied on an all-business approach that keeps costs down, style at a minimum and specs decent. The latest in the family, the Vostro 1220, follows right in line by offering a decent array of specifications at a price that's certainly respectable.The 12.1" ultraportable is tailor made...
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Maine may be about as far from Cupertino as one can get in America, but there's still a serious connection between the state and company. In an effort to distribute even more OS X-based machines to students within its public school system, Maine has ordered up 64,000 additional Apple notebooks for schools. In case you couldn't guess, Maine...
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What would you get if RIM's BlackBerry Storm and Bold slammed together at an unnerving rate of speed? Aside from a real mess, you'd probably have something akin to this: the BlackBerry Tour. The newest 3G BlackBerry is headed straight for Verizon Wireless, with an in-store launch date of July 12th. Better still, this is classified as a "world...
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Finally, a solution for that perplexing issue that hits netbook owners the hardest. Asus has placed its recent design cues onto a new external optical drive, but this is no normal external optical drive. Instead of just reading back DVDs and CDs, the SBC-04D1S-U External Slim BD-Combo Drive plays back Blu-ray Discs, promising high-def playback...
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We're not entirely sure if this is the mythical "quadruple play" bundle that cable companies had in mind, but whatever the case, it works for Comcast. With mobile broadband usage on the rise and pay-TV seeming less and less potent with the introduction of Hulu and the like, Comcast is making sure to grasp as many revenue generating businesses...
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It's somewhat hard to believe, but Sony's iconic and downright legendary Walkman turned 30 this year. Three decades ago, Sony's craftsmanship propelled a bulky, one-trick audio player onto the portable scene, sparking a revolution that continues today. But 30 years after its introduction, the original Walkman has little revlence in the world...
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Semiconductor process technologies keep on shrinking, and while we've heard of Intel and rivals talk up 32nm, it's 34nm making the news today. According to rumors that are getting harder and harder to ignore, Intel will soon be launching a new range of solid state drives based on its 34nm NAND chips. How soon, you ask? Within a couple of weeks? ...
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Asus has been busy of late introducing a few versions of its Eee PC Seashell, but it's taking a break from the notebook business in order to showcase a new WLAN router. The RT-N16 is a wireless-N router that does quite a bit more than just transmit Internet signals from your broadband modem to your Wi-Fi enabled devices. Asus touts this one...
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While there's no denying that the solid state drive arena is still growing (in leaps and bounds, we'd argue), Super Talent has yet to become a huge brand name that measures up to the likes of WD and Seagate in terms of name recognition. That said, the company is sure doing its best to change that with a torrent of new drives. Just a few months...
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With adapters coming out faster than we could ever keep track of, it's not often that we take time to point one out in particular. But this is just too handy to pass on. PhotoFast, a company based in Japan and known more for its SSD solutions than anything else, has just issued one of the most amazing adapters we have ever had the pleasure...
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While HDTV growth is still strong during the global recession, Blu-ray adoption remains sluggish. We obviously can't pinpoint the exact reasons, but we have our guesses. The primary reason we figure the format still hasn't taken off the way BD backers would like is price. Even years after BD hit the mainstream, the price of admission is still...
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It's somewhat baffling to think about what the HD media streamer sector has become. Even five years ago, hardly anyone had an interest in these one-trick set top boxes. Now, it seems that every consumer electronics company on the market has a unit out. Today, MvixUSA as launched the latest in its lineup, the Ultio. Hailed as the "ultimate...
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Shuttle's XPC line doesn't stay put for long, this week growing yet another member in the G2 7600. Arriving on the scene just weeks after the Core i7-powered H7 5800 landed, this small form factor box switches things up by going with AMD. In fact, this box is the company's first AMD socket AM3-ready SA76G2 barebones kit, and it's Advanced...
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Let's face it: Edge Tech definitely isn't the go-to name in storage, but the company's still not totally unheard of in the industry. In an effort to expand its popularity and get more products on the scene, it has this week launched a new 128GB USB flash drive (Disk Go) along with 2.5" and 3.5" portable hard drives. As for the USB drive, it...
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Taking a break from expanding its Aspire netbook lineup, Acer has instead select its monitor and desktop lines to refresh this week. Getting us going is the new H235H premium monitor, a 23" widescreen LCD while provides a 1920x1080 resolution, 2ms response time, 300 cd/m2 brightness and 100,000:1 contrast ratio. The unit also boasts SensorTouch...
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Garmin has been steadily expanding its Nuvi GPS lineup for quite some time, but the company's latest introductions are more for the outdoors crowd. The Dakota 10 and Dakota 20 handheld GPS navigators each include a high sensitivity GPS receiver, worldwide basemap and color touchscreen display. Both are completely waterproof and up to 20 hours...
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We're not sure what's up with all of these companies busting out "back-to-school" machines in late June, but we're downright saddened by it. While kids attempt to enjoy their summer break, firms like Toshiba are helping them remember that next term is just months away. Today, Toshiba has revealed a new slate of notebooks, the Satellite A,...
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As the solid state drive expands further, we've got yet another company stepping in to grab a slice of the sweet, lucrative pie. Hitting just days after Super Talent's own MasterDrive SX line, Active Media's new Predator GT SSDs sound pretty menacing, and they should perform quite admirably. In fact, the company is announcing two new drives,...
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Seriously Gateway, don't spill all of your surprises at once! For the third time in the past 24 hours, Gateway is introducing a new machine. This time, it's the company's first-ever 11.6" netbook, the LT3100. As netbooks continue to inch closer and closer to ultraportables, this 11.6" version weighs in at 3.14lbs. and arrives with an AMD Athlon...
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Gateway's on a roll, and we're in no position to stop them. Shortly after introducing a new pair of back-to-school desktops, the company has unveiled a new NV Series notebook. Said machine is described as "a workhorse entertainment notebook that pairs the latest notebook technologies and important one-touch buttons with excellent style at...
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Only weeks after Western Digital introduced its spacious 4TB My Book Studio Edition II Drive, the company is putting itself back in the spotlight with a new dual-drive My Book World Edition II Network Storage System. Basically, it's WD's fancy way of saying that it has a new NAS drive, one with room for twin HDDs and up to 4TB of capacity.The...
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Good news, Windows fans/users. If you're in need of a PC now, but don't want to miss out on the Windows 7 train which officially leaves the station on October 22nd, Microsoft is stepping in to help. Today, the software giant announced that starting tomorrow (June 26th), consumers and small businesses that purchase a Vista-enabled PC from a...
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