Shawn Oliver
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
Apple's iPhone has been generating tons of demand ever since it was unveiled in 2007, and right from the start, consumers seemed to adore the touch screen. Unlike many phones before it, the iPhone uses a capacitive screen, which reacts instantly to finger presses without the need for a stylus. Right or wrong, the...
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Let's play a game, shall we? We say "mice," and you say whoever comes to mind. Go! Did you say Razer? Logitech? Microsoft? Probably, but we doubt you said Mad Catz. Up until now, Mad Catz has been best known for its work in the console world, cranking out peripheral after peripheral to work on the Wii, PS3 and Xbox...
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A bunch of new netbooks launched at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show, but you'll still have to select an ultraportable (or larger) if you want a machine with an integrated optical drive. Still, Intel's new Atom N450 is likely to move quite a few more netbooks in early 2010, particularly amongst those who were waiting for...
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Razer has generally been known best for its hot gaming mice, and more recently, keyboards. But clearly the company has expansion in mind, and with the high-end peripheral market booming (Rock Band instruments, anyone?), there has never been a better time to dabble in the world of motion sensing. At CES 2010, Razer teamed with Sixense and Valve...
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We briefly mentioned Smartfish Technologies when we rounded up the best and brightest from the early days of CES 2010, but the new ErgoMotion Keyboard deserves more than a passing glance. Much like the Optimus Maximus in its day, this keyboard has the potential to really revolutionize the way we experience typing...
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Storage announcements haven't been everywhere here at CES, but Samsung has taken a moment to divert from its notebook and HDTV announcements to introduce a new rugged, eco-friendly external hard drive family. The G Series lineup bolsters the company's external drive portfolio of 1.8”, 2.5” and 3.5” drives, which aims...
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CES is a proving ground for big tech companies, and with any big tech show comes Dell. Today, the company made a number of significant announcements, including a sneak peek of the Mini 3 smartphone and a 5" tablet concept that could very well turn the industry up on its head. The company also made a few introductions on things that are a little...
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NVIDIA's Tegra chip has barely been around long enough to gain traction. Microsoft's Zune HD uses it and a few lesser-known devices can claim the same, but outside of that, Tegra hasn't really lived a life in the spotlight. With the attention that Ion has received, we get the feeling that Tegra 2 will be a different story.As of today, you...
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For awhile, Intel's Core i7 was the only Core around. Then came the Core i5 and Core i3, and now a whole new world of machines are being offered up at much more reasonable price points. CyberPower is usually one of the first PC makers out there to implement new chips once they hit the market, and the same goes this...
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The GPS market as a whole changed when Google introduces its Maps Navigation feature on the Motorola Droid. All of a sudden, real GPS was available to anyone willing to support Android, and buying those dedicated navigators suddenly felt less necessary. In response, it seems that both Garmin and TomTom are being more mindful of pricing, and...
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We've seen digital photo frames shifting their feature set over the last few months in particular; it used to be that a large screen, maybe a Wi-Fi module and a few card slots made a decent frame. Now, it's not a standout frame without something really radical--something like a printer, or something like a live data...
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When dealing with solid state drives, we hear the words "durable" and "reliable" with an insane amount of frequency. Naturally, those two words are two of the biggest selling points when it comes to convincing someone that an SSD is what they should purchase over an HDD, and while we all that speed is the real reason...
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Super Talent actually released its original RAIDDrive nearly a year ago, but with USB 3.0 on the rise, it hasn't waste any time in transforming the popular device into once that can now take advantage of the faster version of the USB protocol. This week, the company said that it had started to ship the USB 3.0 RAIDDrive in volume, with 32GB,...
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Media players are out in force at CES, and Iomega is making sure it doesn't miss this train. Here at the show, the company has introduced an expanded ScreenPlay HD Media Player product line, which is capped off by the top-of-the-line ScreenPlay Director HD Media Player. As with most rivals, this unit is designed to give users easy access to...
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If you thought Tablet PCs were in style here at CES, well, you'd be right. Most any non-traditional notebook is getting a look, and that includes Litl's new Webbook. Debuting at the show this week, this machine is described as an "easy-to-use Internet computer for the home that blends the best of the Web with high-quality TV-like viewing."...
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If it's not one thing, it's another. In other words, if it's not a touch-enabled slate PC, it's a touch-enabled notebook. HP is getting in on the action at CES, today introducing a new line of TouchSmart notebook and netbook machines. The highlight of the revised lineup is the company's first-ever touch Mini PC, but...
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Skype has done a lot to revolutionize the way we communicate; there's hardly any arguing that. But largely the service has remained the same for years now. It's a VoIP system, and while it has arrived on new devices (like the iPhone), not much has changed in terms of functionality. Until this week. From CES in Las Vegas, Skype has announced...
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MSI confessed that some new things were on deck for CES, and sure enough the company has today confirmed that they weren't just kidding around. A whole slew of new notebooks and desktops were unveiled, with a few machines in particular really catching our eye. The X620 and U160 are both exceptionally stylish, and while MSI has always had a...
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If there's one thing that's getting massive amounts of attention here at CES, it's 3D. If there's another, it's USB 3.0. VIA, the company responsible for powering all sorts of lower-end computers, has just launched the world's first USB 3.0 hub controller. What's the big deal? The VL810 SuperSpeed USB hub controller enables a single USB port...
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With new processors comes new motherboards, and that's exactly what we're getting today from Asus. The company made famous by its Eee PC line has just unveiled new motherboards based on Intel's H57/H55 chipsets, which are designed to support the new Core i7, Core i5, Core i3 and Pentium CPUs. The mainboards include...
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In case you haven't heard, USB 3.0 is the hot new thing, at least in the connectivity realm. Today at CES, Seagate--a name you surely recognize in the storage industry--has announced its first major USB 3.0 portable drive: the BlackArmor PS110. It's an on-the-go 2.5" drive with a 7200RPM spindle speed, and just in...
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A very interesting new report at the Wall Street Journal has thrown a huge assumption from 2009 in the face of itself. If you'll remember, many entertainment analysts said that consumers could be spending more time in front of the television (instead of at the box office) during 2009 as they struggled to curtail...
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