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Dell Mini 10 Review with Hands-On Video (Inspiron Mini 10)

Flatulent One — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:08:22 +0000

The Dell Inspiron Mini Series is a line of netbook computers originally introduced in September 2008 during the exploding popularity of cheap netbook computers, and currently consists of the Inspiron Mini 10v, Mini 10 and Mini 12–the numbers represent the diagonal screen size in inches across. The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 has a 10.1″ screen, the Intel Atom Z520 and Z530 processor configurations, an HDMI port, and it ships with a 16:9 widescreen display with a 1366×768 (they call it 720p) or 1024×576 HD resolution. Dell is claiming that there will be additional features added later such as GPS and an integrated TV tuner.

Now, to take the place of the Mini 9 Dell has come out with a ‘value’ version of the Mini 10 called the Inspiron Mini 10v, which comes

with the same Atom N-series CPU as the old Mini 9, a regular VGA connector, and a 1024×576 resolution display. In fact, the 10v has pretty much identical hardware to that of the Mini 9. Check out this hands-on review, it’s about 16 minutes but it’s extremely through and very well presented, and

he addresses a lot of issues that you really need to know about if you’re considering shelling out your hard-earned cash for this notebook–I’d be especially concerned with the issues about video playback having to do with the graphics card that he points out:

Additional Resources and Further Reading

Official Dell website for the Mini 10 and 10v

Engadget loves the Mini-10!

Read reviews and check prices for the Dell Mini 10 on Amazon.com

Sony X1 Review (Sony Ericsson Xperia X1) with Hands-On Video

Flatulent One — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:56:34 +0000

The Sony X1 is an arc-slider phone with a Qualcomm 528 MHz processor and 256 MB RAM, and running the Windows Mobile 6.1 Operating System. This is Sony Ericsson’s first mobile phone to run Windows Mobile. The phone also has a Java virtual machine, called JBed.

The X1 has a lovely three-inch resistive touchscreen which overlays a keypad that can be gotten to by sliding the touchscreen face

upward, kind of like the HTC TyTN II, except the X1’s touchscreen slides up in an arc. The screen itself is a 65,536-color TFT WVGA display. The on-board camera is 3.2 megapixels and can record video at up to thirty frames per second in 640×480 VGA. There is also a built in front-facing QCIF camera, kind

of like a webcam, for videoconferencing. As far as connectivity goes, the X1 has EDGE along with quad-band GSM, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, and HSCSD, as well as wireless LAN 802.11b/g, a mini-USB, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, FTP, and HID.

There’s 512MB of internal memory (400MB free), and

this you can expand up to 16 gigabytes with the High Capacity microSD cards. The phone also features A-GPS for navigation, and ships with Opera Mobile pre-installed (good choice). The Sony X1 also features as standard push email, an RSS feed aggregator, and handwriting recognition

capability. Have a look at this for a solid, hands-on review:

LG HDTV 1080p Netflix-Streaming TV’s Debut in U.S.

Flatulent One — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:51:02 +0000

The LG LH series of HDTV’s are nearly paper-thin (see photo) HDTVs that are completely wireless: they come with an ASW1000 Media Box, which has three HDMI jacks, a pair of component inputs, antenna in, and VGA, all of which it can send wirelessly to your HDTV from up to 10 meters (32.8 feet) away at 60GHz. Due to the fact that it’s operating at

such a high frequency in the radio spectrum, the set has to be within visible range (known as “line of sight”) of the transmitter (the Media Box), though I don’t imagine that’d be too difficult to work with. Also, as a nice added bonus, LG has teamed up with

Netflix to offer streaming straight to your LG HDTV: so you can order, download to, and then immediately watch any movie on Netflix straight from your TV. Brilliant!

If you’re looking to buy one, the models that are now available in the United States are the 47-inch 47LH50 LCD HDTV and the 50-inch 50PS80 plasma, and LG says that the 42-inch 42LH50 LCD and 60-inch 60PS80 plasma should be available later this summer. Right now, both the 47LH50 and 50PS80 are $1,999.

Additional Info. on LG’s HDTVs with Netflix

Official Press Release from LG Announcing Sale of the 47LH50 and 50PS80

Toshiba’s Own Web-Enabled HDTV’s

CTD Dragonfly – Brilliant Concept, Still Needs Work

Flatulent One — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:38:22 +0000

I love this idea: you’ve got a PDA-sized device you can carry in your pocket that folds out so you’ve got a full-sized keyboard and a screen large enough such that you can do full-on word processing (among other usual PDA

functions, but the real benefit they’re pushing here is on-the-go word-processing) from anywhere without having to carry a laptop with you: you’re in Starbucks, or the airport, or wherever, you can’t be bothered to haul around a laptop with you, and you

want (or desperately need, as the case may be) to get some particular piece of work done, so you just pull out your Dragonfly and you can pound away at 80 WPM due to the full-sized keyboard, and then e-mail it off (I’m presuming this thing has internet connectivity, I can’t see the point in it if it didn’t). So, if you’ve got a report or spreadsheet that the boss just has to have right friggin’ now, the Dragonfly allows you to have the capability to respond immediately without

being tethered to a laptop you have to carry around all the time. Brilliant concept, but this device is still very much in the development stage, the photos you see here are just renders, they’re not even functional. Their plan is to use a Moorestown CPU, Windows XP,

and have…wait for it: an external mouse you carry around. Oooo, I don’t think that’ll fly–touchpad, Thinkpad-type stick in the middle of the keyboard, anyone? It’ll do just fine on a device like that, you don’t need a laser-tracking mouse with something like this. tl;dr: awesome idea, but we don’t have the technology to pull this off yet, but we might in a year or two, so wait for it–it might be worth it.

Additional Information

Samsung Already Tried This (didn’t work)

New Macbook Review (from WWDC 2009): Firewire, Yes!!! Apple, You Listened!

Flatulent One — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:18:28 +0000

*Note: there’s a video at the bottom of the macbook bit from WWDC 2009…
I have a macbook, the old white plastic one, and about a year ago when the new aluminum ones came out I was considering upgrading so the first place I went was where a lot of other people go when they want honest reviews of products from people who have actually purchased them: Amazon.com. The Amazon reviews for the new aluminum macbook were sterling with one exception: they didn’t have firewire. Apple had

gotten rid of it–oh, it was still available for the macbook pro, but not the regular macbooks, and a good number of people were livid about this: Apple products are used by the overwhelming majority of photographers, cinematographers, and others doing graphics work, and this has been

the case for 20-some-odd years. Macs have been loved and relied on by graphics designers since the beginning of time: and then, Apple thought it would be a good idea to remove the firewire port on the new macbooks last year. Oops…

Firewire is Back!

Apple has unveiled the new macbook line at WWDC 2009, and they’ve made a number of changes:

ALL macbooks now have firewire, they’ve done this by eliminating the old ‘regular’ macbook line except for the previous white plastic ones (which had firewire in the first place), and now all macbooks with the exception of the older white ones are macbook pros.
The old 13″ macbook has been replaced with a 13″ macbook pro. This is AWESOME, because basically the old 13″ aluminum macbook has had some of the specs upgraded AND they’ve kept the price the same!
As I just said, they kept the price on the 13″ macbook, but not only that: they’ve upped the specs AND dropped the price on ALL of the other aluminum macbooks. Here are the details:

The New 13 Inch Macbook Pro

$1,199: 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, 160GB HDD, GeForce 9400M graphics, SD card slot
$1,499: 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 250GB HDD, GeForce 9400M graphics, SD card slot, no ExpressCard

The New 15 Inch Macbook Pro–Starting at $1,699 (down from $1,999 in prior lineups)

$1,699: 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 250GB HDD, GeForce 9400M graphics, SD card slot
$1,999: 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 320GB HDD, GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT graphics, SD card slot
$2,299: 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB HDD, GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT graphics, SD card slot

The New Macbook Air

$1,499: 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, 120GB HDD, GeForce 9400M graphics
$1,799: 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 RAM, 128GB SSD, GeForce 9400M graphics

Video of New Macbook Bit from WWDC 2009

Additional Reading

Official Apple WWDC Site (lots of cool stuff here, do check it)

Engadget Coverage of New Macbooks from WWDC 2009

LED Cooling Fans: Ghetto + Nerd = FAIL

Flatulent One — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:21:36 +0000

Just what are you thinking to waste your money on one of these,

I mean really? You normally can’t even see the cooling fan on a computer since it’s at

the back and behind a metal grill. Conclusion: mildly smelly.

These are made by Fresh-Tech and recently featured at the Computex computer show in Taipei, Taiwan. They can be programmed to display whatever message you don’t want to see, brilliant…

Gotta Go Briefcase : Portable Toilet-in-a-Briefcase For the EXTREMELY Busy Executive

Flatulent One — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 16:57:10 +0000

Invented by, who else, the Japanese: the Gotta Go Briefcase comes with everything the busy executive needs to be able to take a number two so he can stay number one.

Designed by Japanese firm, Niban Too Corp., came up with this after extensive market research to maximize time efficiency of business executives…It’s rated to hold 175 pounds…

Dear God there’s something so VERY wrong about this…

From American Inventor Spot:

“The water proof briefcase retains an elegant yet durable appearance with high quality Mahogany leather, a strong lightweight aluminum internal structure, and stainless steel bowl with generously equipped sealing lid.

Quietly and discreetly go about your personal “business” anywhere you please with a fold out leather privacy panel which

tucks away neatly to the side when you have completed your multi-tasking. A toilet paper dispenser easily swings out and can be conveniently stored in an inconspicuous storage compartment under the padding [for added discretion] when not in use.

Included with the Gotta Go Briefcase are a small tray with cup holder (clips onto the privacy panel), attachable vanity mirror, and refillable hand sanitizing dispenser. The newspaper and air freshener are not included but recommended.

*Maximum weight capacity is 80 Kilos (approx.175 lbs.). Exceeding the recommended weight will void all warranties and may result in rupture of waste tank, possible bacterial contamination of briefcase contents, and massive stench.”

Thanks, Gizmodo

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Automatic Waffle Maker – Pours Batter, Cooks, and Plops Waffle on Your Plate | Thanks Norway!

Flatulent One — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 21:34:01 +0000

The folks at the University of Science and Technology in Norway have concocted a mostly-wooden automatic waffle maker consisting of some strange rope-and-pulley mechanism that pours the batter, cooks the waffle, drops it onto your plate for you, and then closes back up automatically for easy cleaning. Video (of course):

This seems more like one of those let’s-see-if-we-can-do-it type things than something of a sillier nature such as the Texas Shaped Waffle Maker or Mickey Mouse Waffle Iron.

Thanks to Engadget for this one.

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Twirl-A-Squirrel Violently Slings Hungry Squirrels Off Birdfeeder – For Heartless Bird Watchers Everywhere

Flatulent One — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 01:10:12 +0000

I’ve never understood why anyone would want to select certain wild animals to feed, in particular the whole ‘I’ll feed the cute birdies but not the mangy squirrels’ routine which has caused the invention of countless products design to deter squirrels from nourishing themselves at your bird feeder – this is the worst ever (and the funniest ):

The Twirl-a-Squirrel activates when enough weight is placed on the feeder (the idea being a squirrel is heavy enough but a bird isn’t) at which point the squirrel begins to rotate along with the feeder until dizziness, centrifugal force, and the general unpleasantness of the situation overtake the animal and they are slung to the ground at which point they become violently ill and vomit up what little precious bird seed they stole from you for the birds to come along and peck up later

Thanks, Gizmodo

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Funeral Video TV – Irish Undertaker Offers Webcasts Of Funerals

Flatulent One — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:14:32 +0000

Somebody croak? Perhaps an “acquaintance”? Like, someone who if you lived 3 blocks from where their funeral was being held, you’d go, but you don’t, soooo…hm.

Northern Ireland Undertaker Jim Clarke has got you covered! Now, through Clarke’s network of cameras and microphones installed in the funeral home, hearse, churches, and graveyard, YOU can be there even if you’re not!

Clarke:

“Our internet option means [mourners] get to become part of a grieving process they might have missed out on. … The pictures are so clear that people watching can see the faces of everyone in the crowd, and hear everything clearly, so they can spot relatives they might not have seen in years…Life moves fast – we’re just trying to adapt to the changing needs of our world.”

“There are families living abroad who can’t afford to fly to funerals, or people who are too sick to go, or busy people who can’t get the time off work,” he told the BBC.

Via Engadget

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