Computer

LG X140 Slim Netbook

2010-06-04T03:02:00.001-07:00

LG Electronics has introduced its new netbook after release LG XNote X130 with slim and stylish looking called LG X140. Its powered by Intel Pine Trail platform that is a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 and a
1.83GHz Intel Atom N470, 250GB/320GB hard drive, and 1GB/2GB of RAM.
The LG X140 netbook slim and sleek chassis comes in four colors – white, hot pink, pastel pink (Brazil only) and black. With its LED backlighting, the 10.1-inch HD LCD screen greatly enhances the viewing experience with 1366 x 768 resolution.

Canon Pixma MX340 Inkjet

2010-06-04T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Canon Pixma MX340 color inkjet multifunction printer (with print, scan, copy, and fax capabilities) looks like a bargain ($100 as of June 1, 2010) until you factor in its pricey inks. If you
don't print much, however, this machine offers just enough of everything else to enable a small or home office to get by. It's definitely a better deal than the HP Officejet 4500 Wireless, which has similar strengths and a few more weaknesses.

The Pixma MX340's two standout features are Wi-Fi connectivity, which requires a temporary USB connection during setup but is otherwise painless; and a 30-sheet automatic document feeder. The configuration also includes a letter-size flatbed scanner; a vertical, 100-sheet, rear input slot; and a front, foldout, 50-sheet output tray. The front control panel's buttons for primary functions are clearly labeled. You use two arrow buttons to navigate menu items on the one-line, monochrome LCD. We had a hard time reading the LCD in dim lighting conditions, and the viewing angle is rather narrow. A backlight would have helped immensely. If you're looking for a color LCD, media card readers, or ethernet, check out the $150 Canon Pixma MX350, which is otherwise similar.

Canon bundles a plethora of useful scanning and printing programs with the Pixma MX340. The abundance of software could be overwhelming, except that Canon makes it easy to choose between loading everything upon installation or cherry-picking what you want. Uninstalling is easy, too.

The Apple iPad tablet computer

2010-06-04T02:58:00.000-07:00

After a long wait, the Apple iPad is available to pre-order in the UK from today, with the official launch date being 28th May 2010. Judging from the speed of the Apple UK website this
morning, there seem to be a lot of people looking to be jumping on this bandwagon:

"The Apple iPad tablet computer will cost from £429 when it goes on sale later this month.

Prices for the top-of-the-range model of the slim, lightweight, touch-screen iPad - which can browse the web, play videos, send emails and read e-books - will reach £699.

Apple's website hosting the pre order list called it: "A magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price."

However, before even going on sale in the UK, Apple has already received criticism for charging British consumers more than their American cousins.

The basic version sells for 499 US dollars (£337) and the top-of-the-range model is priced at 829 US dollars (£561)."

LG's edge-lit local dimming LED

2010-06-04T02:51:00.000-07:00

In the last few years the most compelling LCD challengers to the picture-quality reign of plasma were equipped with multizone LED backlights that could dim or brighten in different areas of the screen independently. Broadly known as "local dimming" technology, in the best cases it delivered superb black level performance and manageable tradeoffs in the form of stray illumination or "blooming." In worse cases, such as the LG LE5500 series, that stray illumination is not managed well.

Unfortunately, we suspect that many buyers lured by the LG's claims of dimming won't understand the differences--among them the fact that this TV uses LED that illuminate the screen from the edge, rather than from behind. The LE5500 does offer plenty of perks, including accurate color, decent bright-room performance, a stylishly thin frame and numerous Internet features, but seekers of LED-based LCD who place a premium on image quality should look elsewhere.

Series information: We performed a hands-on evaluation of the 47-inch LG 47LE5500, but this review also applies to the other screen sizes in the series. All sizes have identical specs and according to the manufacturer should provide very similar picture quality.

U1 hybrid tablet/laptop

2010-06-04T02:45:00.000-07:00

Back at CES 2010, we saw two parallel trends developing: a renaissance of touch-screen tablets and slates, and a series of smaller-than-Netbook laptops called "smartbooks" that promised to have automatic 3G, simplified operating systems and very slim profiles.

Well, so far one has come to fruition (thanks largely to the iPad), whereas the other has gone into a state of hibernation.

Lenovo's recent announcement that its "Skylight" smartbook and U1 hybrid tablet/laptop would be delayed underlines the sudden lack of momentum smartbooks have suffered. Lenovo claims it's due to an OS switch from proprietary Linux-based software to Android, but so far at Computex we've heard next to nothing about smartbooks, whereas last year there was a landslide of boasting on the topic.

Instead, even more tablet news abounds from all sectors.

Maybe we never (that is to say, "we" meaning the public) cared about smartbooks. They looked similar to laptops, particularly Netbooks, and what made them different was often hard to explain, even for the manufacturers of those prototypes.

It's enough to make us sigh. Not because an opportunity's been missed, but because we don't really see the point of smartbooks anymore.

* First, any smaller-than-a-Netbook device is bound to either have a compromised, uncomfortable keyboard, or a keyboard that's so big it makes the device's dimensions skew wide and shallow. The beauty of a tablet is that its dimensions can be flexible: a touch interface can adapt easily to any size device, from smartphone up to iPad.
* Second, any tablet with a keyboard can essentially become a smartbook. We've used Bluetooth keyboards with the iPad and enjoyed the combination. All someone needs to do is offer a thin (not giant) case with a lightweight, superthin keyboard attached and we'll be set.
* Third, it's not as if smartbooks had any significant OS advantage over tablets: most smartbook prototypes were running Android or some other smartphone-like closed OS that ran off apps or Web apps. Users would still be limited to the selection of software offered from the app marketplace.

Though we were excited about laptops that could detach from their keyboards back at CES, it now seems equally plausible that we'll simply see keyboard-free devices that can easily attach external keyboards. Same concept, different angle.

Intel challenges AMD 'Black' chips

2010-06-04T02:27:00.000-07:00

Despite trailing Intel in chip-for-chip performance over the past few years, AMD has still kept a measure enthusiasts love with its "Black Edition" desktop chips. Unlike Intel's generally stand-offish stance toward overclocking, the Black Edition Athlon and Phenom chips have provided the DIY and boutique PC crowd with a cost-effective, user-friendly means to increase PC performance. Intel's new K-Series CPUs, announced today, show that Intel sees value in that same market, and wants a piece of the action.

The K-Series launches with just two desktop CPUs, the $342 2.93GHz Core i7-875K, and the $216 3.2GHz Core i5-655K. The 875-K CPU is a four-core/eight-thread chip (via HyperThreading), and the 655K is a dual-core/four-thread chip. Both fall under the Lynnfield class of Intel's Nehalem architecture, and as such work on the LGA1566 CPU socket, found on Intel's P55, H55, and H57 motherboard chipsets.

What the K-Series brings to these new CPUs is the ability to overclock the individual CPU cores and memory frequencies. This method allows for more granular control than the bus-overclocking method commonly used with older Intel CPUs, such as the previous overclocker's favorite, the Core i7 920. With bus clocking, you end up applying one change that affects all of your components. With unlocked core multipliers, you have far more control, and can build your system accordingly.

Intel isn't specifying exactly what clock speeds you should expect to hit with the new unlocked chips. As always, overclocking also voids the warranty, so tweak at your own risk. Given the auto-overclocking TurboBoost feature (which you can also overclock in the K-Series) already built into most Core i7, Core i5, and Core i3 CPUs, though, it's safe to assume they all have a decent amount of headroom. Top-end speeds will vary from chip to chip, but one indicator we have is a Falcon Northwest Talon we tested. Its Core i7 875-K came overclocked from 2.93GHz to just over 4GHz.

We certainly applaud Intel for finally embracing the overclocker market outside of its $1,000 Extreme Edition CPUs (the only other unlocked Intel CPU). We expect that the DIY crowd will embrace this news with enthusiasm, since Intel's CPUs tend to be faster out of the box than those from AMD of a similar price. It also puts a damper on one of the features AMD could point to that enthusiasts still appreciated. In our Talon review we found that though the overclocking was effective and stable, it didn't surpass the performance of PCs with older Intel CPUs overclocked via the old bus-clocking method. Even if overclocking doesn't provide dramatic performance gains to the boutique system builders, they, and their customers, will still appreciate the improved simplicity and stability gained from being able to manage the voltages, memory frequencies, and CPU clock speeds independently.

Sony VAIO Billabong

2010-06-04T02:24:00.000-07:00

Sony release a new netbook join with Billabong called Sony VAIO W Series to match the Australian designer 2010 summer board. It’s called VAIO W Series Imperial Lime featuring 10.1-inch display with
1366×768 pixel resolution and Intel Atom processor.
The colors featuring lime-green, blue and black hand-drawn artwork to present the vibrant color pallete that helped define suft fashion in the 1980. Another features of Sony VAIO W Imperial Lime like Intel GMA 3150 integrated graphic card, 250GB of HDD, 1GB of RAM, 2x USB 2.0 ports, built-in webcam, express card slot and up to 8-hours battery life. The price around A$749.