Notebooks, Tablets, Smartphones, Wearables And Gadgets
In-depth product reviews and news of notebooks, tablets, smartphones, wearable technologies and gadgets. We're now living in a contextually-aware computing world and mobile devices can not only help us enjoy the ride but create and capture new experiences as well.
In the middle of December, at the beginning of the annual holiday shopping spree, AMD released their latest and greatest graphics cards, the Radeon HD 6970 and 6950. In our review, we noted that the new GPU, code-named "Cayman" is a notable step forward from the previous generation. It incorporates dual graphics engines whereas the previous...
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So, why haven't we seen more 10-inch or larger Android tablets to compete with the iPad? That's a question we've been asking and we're sure many of you have the been wondering about the situation as well. The primary reason is that Google's tablet-targeted operating system isn't here just yet. The latest version, Android...
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Sprint continuously brags about its flagship 4G Android phone the HTC Evo. It is a great piece of hardware, but it is also a relatively large device with a premium price tag. Enter the HTC Evo Shift, currently Sprint's least expensive Android 4G phone. The Shift runs Android 2.2, includes a slide-out keyboard and is noticeably smaller than...
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When MSI unveiled the new GT680R gaming laptop at CES this year, the company touted it as one of the "fastest, most powerful gaming notebooks in the world." As one of the first laptops to take advantage of Intel's Sandy Bridge processor, this laptop definitely packs plenty of power. Under the hood, you'll find NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M graphics...
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Maingear is a custom PC builder that's been making some noise lately, and for good reason. The competition is intense in this space, with a number of companies (CyberPower, Maingear, Falcon Northwest, Digital Storm, Origin, etc.) elbowing each other in order to grab the hard-earned dollars of those in need of a new machine. Maingear, like...
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This year's Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, Nevada offered some of the most exciting product announcements we've seen in any previous CES show thus far. The past three years' CES shows have been rather snoozy, to be honest, with the economy taking its toll on product design investment and innovation. However, this...
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At the annual Asus press conference held a couple of days before CES, Jonney Shih gave us a sneak peek of the company's tablet lineup. If you haven't jumped on the tablet bandwagon yet, 2011 might just be the perfect time to do so. Let's take a look at what Asus has to offer. Is it a tablet? Or a notebook? The Eee Pad Slider is...
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About this time last year, Intel offered us a complete processor revamp and architecture update for both the desktop and mobile markets. Intel called it their evolutionary "tick" step in their manufacturing process migration from 45 to 32nm. The "tock," as it were, follows along in cadence offering refinement and feature enhancement...
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The ultraportable notebook marketplace is hotter than ever before. In years past, buying a sub-14" machine generally meant a couple of things: low power and high price. Today, it's still fair to say that ultraportables are generally less powerful and more expensive than the standard-sized 15" machines that sit above them, but the gap is closing...
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One day while sitting in an office going over TPS reports, someone over at Western Digital heard a voice. It whispered, "If you stream it, they will come." After hearing this, he marched into the board room and pitched his idea for a streaming media player, and thus the WD TV series was born. Now whether or not it actually played out like...
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Lenovo recently celebrated the milestone of selling 60 million ThinkPad notebooks. That's a ThinkPad for every person in the United Kingdom, to put it in perspective. Moreover, the PC maker claims these things sell like electronic hotcakes, to the tune of 14 per minute. Those are iPad sort of rates. But Lenovo doesn't reach these...
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Sprint's marketing campaigns over the past few months have focused on the fact that the carrier was the first to launch a 4G network in the U.S. Building on that, the company has focused on the various things you can do with a 4G connection that weren't possible (or at least weren't very usable) without a fourth generation high-speed mobile...
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It seems like we've all been waiting for "the iPad killer." It's not that anybody thinks Apple's slate device needs to be knocked off its perch directly, but let's be honest, consumers benefit from competitive options to choose from, whether it be strictly on price or performance and innovation. 7 and 10-inch Android and Windows...
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Dell's fairly recent entrant into the tablet market certainly made a splash when it hit the scene a few months ago, with the company's CEO and namesake randomly making cameo appearances with the device in hand, like one of his one personal private stock toys. Of course, once we got our hot mitts on it for a proper man-handling, we became...
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About a month ago, we ran a story on how Walgreens was selling the Maylong M-150 tablet for $99, $30 below the regular price. While the M-150 is an obvious iPad knock-off that would never pass muster in the US, we were curious to see what sort of product $99 could buy. This is the M-150's default program layout. The display is decent for a...
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As far as iOS releases go, this is just about as big as they come. Not since the iPhone OS revision that introduced Apple's App Store to the original iPhone has there been a buzz surrounding one of Apple's iOS releases, and for good reason. Much in the same way that Android 2.2 had significant impact on the path of Android's future, iOS 4.2...
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There's no doubt the Apple iPad has taken the market by storm. Although tablets have been around for some time, no other manufacturer has managed to create the same level of demand for a tablet like Apple has created for the iPad. These days, it seems everyone wants an iPad—kids included. Of course, other manufacturers aren't going to...
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Apple decided to refresh their MacBook Air lineup this year, but rather than simply upgrading the existing machine with a new CPU, GPU or Blu-ray drive, Apple introduced some entirely new pieces of hardware with the new 11" and 13" MacBook Airs. While the 11" machine is certainly intriguing, and a compelling addition to the...
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As the holiday season rapidly approaches, there’s one question that gets asked rather frequently: Have you been naughty or nice? Of course, we all know that a lot hinges on this seemingly simple question. If you’ve been nice, then perhaps Santa will bring you an awesome gift; that one piece of hardware you've been jonesing for....
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Acer is a somewhat understated name in the notebook business, but even though they may not receive the sheer press that Apple, Alienware, Dell and HP do, they're still one of the world's prominent PC makers. Hanging amongst the top five in total PC output is no easy task, and the company's Aspire line has been quietly climbing the charts in...
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Last week we brought you a detailed overview of AMD's first ever, fully integrated CPU-GPU combination born out of the company's "Fusion" technology initiative. Dubbed the first ever APU or Accelerated Processing Unit, AMD's claimed goal is to offer a more balance and efficient low power platform for thin and light notebooks and netbooks. ...
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"Fusion." We've heard that word from the good folks at AMD for what seems like an eternity, to be perfectly honest. Fusion is AMD's marketing moniker for the company's next generation of integrated processors with on-board graphics -- a "fusion" of the CPU along with the GPU into what AMD now affectionately calls an "APU" or Accelerated...
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