Dell, Asus and Acer To Release New Sub-laptops

Dell have revealed a new 8-inch sub-laptop, thanks to Gizmodo where I came across the story yesterday. Visit the gallery at Via Gizmodo] for more pictures. No idea on what OS the unit is running but it does have 3 USB ports, a card reader, VGA out, Ethernet, it looks really nice. Asus have also revealed that they are releasing new EeePC based models one of which is the Atom sporting Eee 901 and the other which is a Eee PC 1000 series. The new 10-inch laptop should be announced at Computex in Taiwan next Tuesday.model. Acer have also launched into the Mini-portables market with their Aspire One. The One will run with Windows XP SP3, A 8.9" screen with a resolution of 1024 X 768. No idea yet on other specs but it looks like this category is warming up...

Gadget Shopping - Sites For Geeks

As a tech fan, I often hunt the web in search of cool gear. I don't always spend any money when doing this because if I did my credit cards would have melted long ago. I figured I'd share some of my favourite sites with you. These sites are not all of a kind but offer different things and most actually sell stuff or tell us where we can buy it, rather than just tell us about it. These first few sites sell stuff: Boys Stuff - The Doghouse - GadgetShop This trio of shops pride themselves on having the gadgets you need to cover just about any eventuality, however although this isn't really the case, they do have some rather cool stuff. They carry games, ipod accessories, robots, remote controlled gadgets, garden stuff, bachelor pad furnishings, audio kit and some rather neat little usb toys amongst other stuff. I Want One Of Those One of the most popular gift sites in the UK, great name but not so brilliant in the products it offers more tat than tech, but still if you want gadgets that make great gifts for mates with a sense of humour then this site is worth a visit. ThinkGeek In their own words ... "ThinkGeek started as an idea. A simple idea to create and sell stuff that would appeal to the thousands of people out there who were on the front line and in the trenches as the Internet was forged. From programmers, engineers, students, lovers of open source, to the masses that helped create the behind-the-scenes Internet culture." Some of the stuff they sell is just plain naff, but there are also a lot of gems at their site too, making them well worth a visit. Uncommon Goods They are a really cool marketplace that has worked hard at sourcing products that are creatively designed, and different to the kind of items you would find on your high street or in your malls. They offer high-quality products at affordable prices. They offer an exciting selection of home furnishings and accessories. Their stuff is often very cool and well worth exploring. Visit them today. The following Sites mostly tell us about existing gadgets and link to sites which sell them, however some are more speculative and cover concepts and proposed tech and gear... Slippery Brick Slippery Brick are a blog that "have an obsessive passion for emerging consumer based technology, gadgets and related sciences" I often visit them because they not only report on great new products but also on concepts which are worth exploring. Uncrate Uncrate is a webzine which is aimed at guys who love stuff. Their team finds the coolest gadgets, clothes, cars, media and much more. I like much of what they post although it is definitely male centric ... Shiny Shiny With Tech and gadget coverage from a female viewpoint, Shineyshiny provides its take on the consumer technology world, with news, reviews and opinions on gadgets and tech. Nerd Approved In their own words "Nerd Approved is a website dedicated to all things weird and interesting in the world of gadgets. If it’s nerdy and entertaining, you will find it here." Although not as sexy as Slippery Brick or Uncrate they do report on some really cool stuff Dvice The SciFi Channel are responsible for this site/tv show which obsesses on cool tech both existing and proposed. I often visit them to see what they've uncovered.

The 10 Most Annoying Programs on the Internet

ZDNet UK has just published contributor Rupert Goodwins' brilliant list of the 10 most annoying programs on the Internet. I'm not sure if Goodwins had help from the other ZDNet editors or if this incisive, spot-on list flew out of his mind alone. Either way, it's good enough to make you laugh and cry at the same time. Here's the list. As you click each Gallery thumbnail to access the list and read the well-written annoyance descriptions, you may think of some other annoying products. Let us know. In the meantime, Goodwins' ZDNet list is an excellent overview.

Samsung Announce 256GB SSD

Solid State Drives are increasingly being looked at as the future of portable data storage, and Samsung have just raised the stakes by announcing a 256GB SSD. The NAND Flash memory based MLC 256GB SSD drive is a 2.5in SATA II drive that's only 9.5mm thick. It looks like the battle for the thinnest large capacity SSD in on. The Drive is also very fast, with a purported data read rate of up to 200MB per second, and all this whilst consuming only 0.9Watts in active mode. Samsung will start mass producing it by the end of this year.

Dual Core Atom Processor Rumoured

Intel's rumoured Atom dual-core chip appears to be a real thing. Several Sites are reporting on the new chip which will purportedly come in an 8W, 1.6GHz flavour. With each physical core adding Hyperthreading support, The next generation of dual core Atom powered MIDs should start offering much more in the way of power and capabilities.

Acer Aspire Predator Gaming PC

Bit-Tech.net have just published a preview of the upcoming gaming rig from Acer. The Bright Orange unit looks like it should have either arms and legs, like a Transformer, or big fat chunky wheels, such as you would find on a Formula-1 race car. The Predator not only looks the part but is kitted out with some pretty heavy hardware. The systems come in four flavours the “basic” Sniper (which will retail for €1,699), the Trooper (€1,999) , the Crusher (€2,999) and at the top is the Eliminator (€3,999). The Sniper is configured with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 (up to Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650), Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1 (32-bit option available). 2x 2GB DDR2-800MHz memory (up to 8GB of DDR2-1,066MHz memory available), 2x 640GB hard drives (up to four Western Digital Raptor 150GB hard drives in RAID 0, 1, 10 or 5), BD DVD and DVD-RW, (MSI) Acer branded nForce 780i SLI motherboard, 2x GeForce 9600 GT 512MB graphics cards in SLI, Asetek CPU watercooling, Logitech G11 keyboard and G5 mouse and Delta 750W PSU. The Prices, although competitive with what is on offer from Dell and HP, are a little on the high side, when compare to what you can get built for you via one of the online kit riggers. Still, as you can see from the image above, it certainly looks the part.

Apple Tablet Rumour Again...

Several sites are speculating on a possible announcement by apple of a new OS-X based tablet. Some are speculating that it will be a larger and more enhanced touch tech based iphone concept whereas others are talking up a more pc centric tablet with stylus. Whilst the latter would would most certainly be a welcome addition to the line especially for artists (actually Axiotron produce an OS-X based tablet called the Modbook), a larger iphone might struggle because the MID concept has yet to be accepted. Asus have let slip that Apple are working on a tablet and Intel have done the same with regards to Apple using the Atom processor. Who knows? Certainly not I, however if Apple do release a new form factor lets hope they pay attention to the execution of the design better than they did with either the iphone or the Macbook Air, which were good but problematic.

Samsung Unveils Ultra HD TV

Samsung will be demonstrating an Ultra HD LCD TV at the Society for Information Display (SID) International Symposium in LA. The 82in Set features ultra definition (UD) resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels and has a refresh rate 120Hz. This set represents one of the first examples on consumers based 2K UD Tech. With 4K and 8K displays and capture devices available for industrial use, I was wondering when we'd start seeing this tech trickling down to us consumers.

Sony Reveals Upcoming First Line Titles for PS3 and PSP

Sony has revealed the list of titles they have planned for the PS3 and PSP for this year and early 2009. I've excerpt the list from their press release below. SCEA's first party line up for PS3 includes the original and imaginative LittleBigPlanet from Media Molecule, along with heavy hitting sequels to some of SCEA's most popular franchises including Resistance 2 from Insomniac Games, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation from Slant Six Games, and the officially titled MotorStorm(TM) Pacific Rift from Evolution Studios. Available in February 2009 will be Killzone 2, the highly anticipated first-person shooter from Guerrilla Games. Through the PLAYSTATION Network, PS3 owners will see an assortment of unique and original titles such as Elefunk(TM), Pixel Junk(TM) Eden, and wipEout(R) HD. For PSP, franchise favorites such as Secret Agent Clank(TM) and Hot Shots Golf(R): Open Tee 2 will make their return to the portable screen. With a line up like that it looks like it's going to be an exciting line-up. I for one cant wait for Killzone 2.

Samsung Show OLED Laptop Concept

Samsung SDI - Sammy's display division - have shown a cool looking ultra-thin, AMOLED laptop concept. The display measures 12.1-inches and features a 1,280 x 768 resolution with infinite contrast. When combined with the apparently touch-sensitive keyboard it's definitely aimed at the more style conscious user.

Rumours of Atom Based iPhone Unfounded

The race to find tech news is often with its perils. Yesterday several sites posted news about a possible new iphone which uses intels atom chip as its cpu. The story which has been refuted by intel themselves arose out of a purported statement reported by ZDNet in Germany, where German Intel General Manager Hannes Schwaderer said future iPhones would have the Intel Atom chip. Later posts indicate that Mr Schwaderer was only making general statements of future Atom powered MIDs. Sites like Engadget and ZDNet were quick to post corrections. Only Time will tell if this is true or not. Unfortunately this is one of the dangers of trying to be first at the post.

New Data Loss Laws Introduced In UK

As of last Wednesday (May 7th 2008), anyone who recklessly loses personal data will face a "substantial" fine after the government created a new civil offence. British MPs backed the amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, making it an offence for anyone to "intentionally or recklessly disclose information" or "repeatedly and negligently" allow information to be disclosed. The Information Commissioner's Office welcomed the powers and said it would be a strong deterrent against companies losing personal data.

Microsoft Launch MSN Video

Microsoft has announced the launch of a new social video service which is tightly integrated with it Windows Live Messenger instant messaging service. "MessengerTV," is initially only available in 20 countries, including Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Brazil, and Mexico. Funny enough it is not yet available in the US. The service offers content from MSN Video's collection, this includes TV shows, music videos, and a selection of the web's viral content from third party providers.

CHDK - Hacking Your Canon Point & Shoot

lifehacker.com have posted an excellent article on the Canon Hacker's Development Kit. CHDK is a free, open source project with which you can add features like RAW shooting mode, live RGB histograms, additional photographic settings, motion-detection, time-lapse, longer video recording and even games onto your existing Canon camera. The beauty of CHDK is that it is non-permanent and non-destructive, you can use when you want to; CHDK makes no changes to your camera. Installing CHDK entails having a couple of files added to your camera's memory card. Removing it involves simply restarting your camera without the memory card present.

HTC Touch Diamond ... Worthy Adversary

HTC have announced the latest challenger to the iPhone: the HTC Touch Diamond. The touchscreen phone features a new interface called TouchFLO 3D, which provides animated access to people, messaging, email, photos, music, weather and more. It even has its own browser for surfing the web on its 3G wireless connection. With some unique capabilities such as an automatic face down silent mode, and the gorgeous faceted back the phone will certainly attract a lot of users: HTC Touch Diamond Key Specifications Size: 102 x 51 x 11.33mm Weight: 110 g Connectivity: WCDMA / HSPA: 900/2100MHz. HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA Operating system: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional Display: 2.8-inch VGA touch screen Camera: 3.2MP, with video calling Internal memory: 4 GB Internal Storage, 256 MB flash, 192 MB RAM, Bluetooth: 2.0 with EDR Wireless: WiFi 802.11b/g GPS: GPS/AGPS Interface: HTC ExtUSB™ - (mini-USB and audio jack in one; USB 2.0 High-Speed) Battery: 900 mAh Talk time: GSM: up to 4 hours Standby time: GSM: up to 300 hours/100 hours with push email Chipset: Qualcomm® MSM 7201A™ - 528MHz Visit Gizmodo for more pictures and details.

Iron Man Phone

LG Electronics have unveiled the LG Iron Man phone, a limited-edition, 18-karat gold slider based on the LG Shine. The Phone is being given away as part of the promotional campaign with Paramount Pictures to promote the upcoming Marvel Studios film Iron Man. The Iron Man phone will however not be sold in stores. The only way to get one of these babies, is to win one on the Iron Man Website after the 15th April or from one of the other promotions being run by magazines and websites. If you can't win one then you can always console yourself with one of the great Iron Man Figures.

Zune XNA Games Preview In May?

Microsoft are aiming for the first community technology preview of their XNA games for the Zune to be released in May. Zune games are able to support ad-hoc wireless play, supporting up to eight players, however, the devices don't currently have hardware 3D acceleration. However Microsoft already have several proof of concept games up and running.

CD-Player For £4K

As a gadget freak I like the looks of this seriously cool looking CD Player and audio system. The Shanling CD-T3000PRO looks very much like something cooked up in an alien lab, or as a power device for Stargate or any other sciu-fi series. However it is simply a high powered CD player which is fitted with a Philips CD-PRO 2 disc mechanism, an aluminium alloy chassis and 8x Burr-Brown DAC. It also features some serious protection against mechanical and electromagnetic interference. So is it worth $7K, not to me, but then again, if you have the cash to spare, I guess it depends on whether you fancy it or not. I give it high marks on style though.

iLogic Sound Hat

The iLogic Sound Hat is a simple concept that allows you to plug your iPod or other portable media device directly into integrated speakers inside of the hat’s surface. Devices can be plugged-in via a standard 3.5mm headphone plug on a 98cm wire. The hat itself has a fleecy feel on its interior and looks quite simple. You can get the iLogic Sound Hat from I Want One Of Those for £14.99.