Shawn Oliver
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
It's a real pet peeve of ours. You know, the inability to install Windows XP onto an optical-drive-less netbook without all sorts of funky workarounds on a USB flash drive. Thus, we couldn't help but smile when we heard that the all new SD card slots on the new line of MacBook Pro notebooks allows for users to boot directly from their Secure...
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Data Robotics has a good thing going with its Drobo smart storage line, and if you've been waiting on the sidelines looking to jump in, now might be the perfect time. Just months after introducing its DroboPro SMB/SOHO storage solution, the company has launched its "Drobo Gives Back" program to provide even more incentive to buy now.From today...
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AMD shot its Istanbul Opteron chip out like a cannon to lead June off, and now we're seeing Penguin Computing pick it up as an integral part of its Altus Series products. If you've never heard of this company, it's because they aren't' exactly consumer-level. Instead, this outfit focuses on high performance computing solutions, and its Altus...
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Dell and Microsoft have had something more significant than just a working relationship for some time now, but it looks like that partnership just got ratcheted up a notch. As more and more outfits (Adobe, for one) offer full applications online, Dell has landed a deal that will allow it to sell "digital" versions of Microsoft products. In...
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We've heard that Intel may have a few new Atom processors on tap for release later this year, so it makes sense to see AMD propping up its own low-end, low-power lineup. Rather than unveil them alone, however, it seems as if Advanced Micro Devices is enlisting the assistance of Hewlett-Packard, as the newest Athlon Neo and Turion Neo processors...
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Symantec, McAfee and Norton. What do all three of those have in common? A little something with Microsoft, now. For years upon years, the first three companies have been ruling the PC security roost, all while Microsoft scrambles to patch its own operating systems when new exploits are discovered and reported. At long last, the OS maker has...
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Expectations couldn't possibly be higher for Microsoft's next-generation operating system. Amazingly, this will be the first Windows OS that will actually run smoother on current-gen hardware than the prior OS. Indeed, the Release Candidate of Windows 7 that is on the market today runs far smoother on current machines than Vista, and while...
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Go figure -- one thing that's not ailing in this economy is something that many, on the surface, would assume one could live without. As mobile data usage rises, a great deal of that comes from the average smartphone. In a new report from The New York Times, we're forced to think about just how much of a necessity these ultra-smart cellphones...
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Well, isn't this something? We knew that Palm was looking to reinvent itself after the Centro, and that was never more apparent than when the slipping company managed to convince Apple's own Jon Rubinstein to step in and take on a high-level management position. Jon is largely credited with putting the wind back in Palm's sails and pushing...
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Autonet Mobile has been around for years, believe it or not. We know -- it's not like you've actually seen Wi-Fi in too many cars, but the company has been installing its services in vehicles for quite some time. Just recently, however, the service has begun to gain real traction in America, and we don't think it's a coincidence that inflight...
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We can't say for certain, but it sure feels like Rambus is doing its best to redirect attention away from its recent legal tussle with NVIDIA and onto more, shall we say, positive matters. Just a day after NVIDIA made clear that Rambus had withdrawn its complaints in court, the California-based memory maker announced that it had shipped over...
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After what feels like forever, Nokia's latest shot at breaking ground in the American smartphone market has arrived. The highly sophisticated N97 smartphone, which has been available overseas for a small while now, is finally shipping to US customers. By and large, Nokia is still struggling to have its smartphones taken seriously in the US...
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You just knew Western Digital would take every chance it could to milk every last ounce of profitability from its extra-spacious 2TB SATA hard drive, didn't you? After launching the drive for high-end workstations and desktops earlier this year, WD has crammed two of them into a single external drive. The world's first 4TB external HDD is...
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As Apple continues to encroach over on the PC side, the company has announced its newest piece of multi-platform software: Safari 4. Hailed as the planet's "fastest and most innovative web browser," Safari 4 escaped its beta form this week at WWDC 2009, and yes, it's available now to download for Mac and PC systems.Built on the Nitro engine,...
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Man, talk about depressing. Some students aren't even out for summer break yet, and already Hewlett-Packard is issuing systems for next school year. For whatever reason, the HP Pavilion dv2z and the Pavilion dv6t notebooks are ushering in what we can only imagine to be the summer leg of year-round school, with the former checking in at least...
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QNAP, purveyor of Network Attached Storage devices large and small, has just recently introduced what it's calling the world's most affordable NAS server with iSCSI. The device they speak of is the single-bay TS-119 Turbo Pro, which we've taken into our labs and scoped out across the pages to come. The device itself is just marginally larger...
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Averatec just got done introducing an all-in-one PC back in March, but just in case that alien-inspired machine doesn't float your boat, the company is debuting a slightly more mainstream unit in the D1200. Described as a PC / TV combo, this rig is ready to play back 1080p material while tuning OTA TV signals (analog and digital) and checking...
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For PC lovers, it's October 22nd that's circled in your calendar. But that's not the only major OS that's launching this fall. This week at Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference in California, the company announced that its long awaited OS X Snow Leopard operating system would be shipping in September, undercutting Microsoft's own debut...
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While "IBM" probably isn't the first name that pops to mind when thinking of "SSDs," the company still has a point here: it just set a new performance record in the solid state drive arena. Fame or not, IBM has just made clear that its SSD-equipped System Storage EXP12S device has nailed down a new performance record based on the Storage Performance...
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File this one under "news of the weird." In a completely strange and unexpected twist of events, Activision has filed a lawsuit that could prevent a Jack Black-based video game from becoming a reality. The aforementioned company sued game developer Double Fine Productions this past week in order to halt the impending release of "Brutal Legand"...
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We've always heard that the best things in life are free. We've also heard that nothing great lasts forever. Mix those two mantras together, and you get this. Down in Louisiana, a $0.15 surcharge is being tossed around as an idea to stop online criminal activity (and raise state income, no doubt), which would be levied on Internet access across...
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Fusion-io is a company name that has become synonymous with high-priced but ridiculously fast Solid State Storage solutions. Unfortunately for those without loads of disposable income, the outfit's newest creation still isn't budget-friendly, but it's certainly cheaper than Fusion-io's other enterprise-based wares. Announced at E3...
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