Shawn Oliver
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
Right around this time last month, A-DATA announced a new slab of memory in its XPG G Series. Now, the company's reverting back to its desktop tactics with a new speed in the XPG Gaming Series. Starting today, users can start hunting down the company's XPG Gaming Series DRAM module in DDR2-1066.The sticks will be offered up in Dual Channel...
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Asus' VENTO chassis line has been around for years, and with the introduction of the TA-M2, we're led to believe that it's still going strong. Like many gaming enclosures today, this one also sports a translucent side panel and plenty of LED lighting, but unlike most, there one has a touch of class to go along with all that pizzazz.Right away,...
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You're probably pretty proud of that 24" LCD that you use to play the hottest titles at 1080p or above, but what if we told you those same games (and those same resolutions) could be seen on a 150" screen -- and you wouldn't even need a home theater space to make it happen? Now that we have your attention, take a close look at the coffin-like...
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Just a few weeks back, Lite-On introduced its very own 8X Blu-ray Disc reader; today, Pioneer is one-upping that with its 8X Blu-ray Disc burner. The BDR-2203 picks up where the others have left off by adding in 8X BD writing (the fastest currently available for the format) as well as the traditional CD-R and DVD-R burning capabilities. Aimed...
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UMD movies -- remember those? Yes, they're the little discs that slide into the rear of Sony's PlayStation Portable, and it's been ages since a major motion picture was released on the format. In a crazy, wild world just years from now, we could be saying the very same thing about games.In what Sony is describing as a "one time test case,"...
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Not long ago, we heard that Dell's smartphone prototypes were being frowned upon by an undisclosed amount of carriers. Today, Reuters is reporting that Dell is taking its phones elsewhere in hope of gaining ground, impressing pundits and eventually moving into the US and Europe in the future. If a pair of apparently in-the-know analysts are...
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OWC has been on a roll of late with system upgrades, but today it's introducing a standalone product that will definitely catch the eyes of storage junkies everywhere. The Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 is a quad interface plug-and-play desktop hardware RAID solution which easily handled FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 and eSATA. Like most average,...
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Nintendo is gearing up to breath new life into its already wildly successful Wii this summer with the launch of its MotionPlus Wii accessory. The device, which will attach to the bottom of the Wii Remote, where the Nunchuck accessory currently affixes, aims to provide a more 1:1 physics ratio when interacting with motion heavy games. Specifically,...
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Nothing here we haven't heard rumored before, but given just how concrete this data is compared to theoretical assertions of the past, we figured it prudent to pass along. A study that polled over 1,100 IT professionals recently found that a staggering majority of companies are likely to skip right over Windows 7 -- just like so many did with...
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A few weeks back, Intel took some flack for shipping its X-25M and X-18M SSDs with a syndrome that caused their performance to slowly degrade under certain conditions. Intel responded by saying it was highly unlikely that end users would be affected under real-world conditions, but they were still left wondering whether or not their solid...
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If you weren't lucky enough to win one of HP's newest MediaSmart Servers, the company's newest firmware update just might convince you to plunk down for one anyway. Announced today, the version 2.5 software for the EX485 and EX487 MediaSmart Servers provides remote video streaming and video conversion of unprotected content. Interested in...
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This may be the first and last time you hear of SandForce, but if you're looking to finally buy into the solid state drive arena within the next few months, you'll probably get acquianted one way or another. You see, SandForce is leaving its self-described "stealth mode" today with the introduction of its unique, hasty line of SSD controllers....
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As of late, much of the spotlight on Asus products has focused on the company's diminutive Eee PC netbook line. With a near constant stream of new models to fit nearly any possible set of requirements, it's easy to see why the Eee brand has become Asus' most recognizable. That said, the company's mobile product offerings are definitely about...
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It's like a disease, really. You come to NVIDIA , you get a few paychecks and you start bashing Intel. Even the astute, politically correct Bill Dally -- which NVIDIA picked up from Stanford University as its Chief Scientist earlier this year -- is breaking out from his shell in order to slam Intel and promote his own view of the future of...
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It hasn't even been a full month since Apple launched the first iPod Shuffle with speech capabilities, and already the diminutive player is seeing its first software update. Announced late in the day on Friday, the VoiceOver Kit 1.0.1 (which bumps things up from 1.0.0) is the first update for both the player and its talking capabilities. The...
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While 2010 still seems forever away, at least Intel isn't looking to delay things further with regard to its Moorestown platform. At the company's Developer Forum in Beijing, China, it confirmed that the MID platform would indeed launch sometime next year. Unfortunately, it failed to lock down a specific month or quarter, but we get the feeling...
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What does your current cellphone look like? What did your prior cellphone look like? Better yet, what did your phone look like in 2000? If you suddenly realized that you've transitioned from a standard numeric keypad-based candybar phone to a touchscreen-based or slide out QWERTY keyboard-based phone, you definitely aren't alone. According...
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With all this talk of the new Terminator flick, we can't begin to think of a more timely announcement for this particular news bit. The HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) Cybernetic Suit, described as an exoskeleton and designed to give average humans superhuman abilities, is just about to hit mass production. If you'll recall, we first caught wind...
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While satellite phones were last hot during the original Jurassic Park, there's apparently still a market out there for folks who find themselves in some of the world's most remote locales. TerreStar Corporation and SkyTerra are attempting to do what rivals Iridium and Globalstar haven't been able to: launch a serious sat phone service without...
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These days, specifications on netbooks are almost predictable. Without looking, we'd say there's an 85% chance that any given netbook you look at has a 1.6GHz Atom processor, a 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM and no optical drive. Oh, and Windows XP -- it probably has Windows XP. In fact, the vast majority of netbooks today have Microsoft's not-exactly-newest...
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We know this is going to simultaneously take you by surprise and crush your dreams, but the price of Nintendo's Wii isn't going down anytime soon. Sure, there's some sort of a "recession" going on (or so they say), but video game sales haven't been hurting. Especially not in Nintendo's world. If you'll recall, the company just shipped its...
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Recession got you down? Thinking of canceling that cellphone contract? Need a bailout in order to keep that texting habit alive? Virgin Mobile USA is looking to make the most of a bad situation (not to mention rival Boost Mobile's completely attractive $50 unlimited plan) by offering up a $49.99 Unlimited Plan that's sweeter than most similar...
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