BT thinks that it’s “highly likely” it’ll let its 2.6 percent stake in OnLive go to the wall. It told TechRadar that it was keeping a “close eye” on the gaming venture which is restructuring in the face of spiraling debt costs. The telecoms provider has promised that its customers will be able to access the service (for as long as it exists, we guess) and that the investment is a small enough figure that it won’t be worrying too much about its balance sheet.
I’m huge fan of Stargate both on the big screen and the TV series that ran for so long. In fact, my first date with my future wife years ago was to see Stargate on the big screen. We watched each season of the TV show and even watched the spinoff series as well. I particularly liked Stargate Atlantis.
Combining my love of Stargate and LEGO, a guy going by Kevin Walter has created this replica of the Death Glider from the Stargate SG-1 television series using the ubiquitous building blocks. Kevin used gray and beige bricks for the design and the finished product looks really cool. I particularly like the way he pulled off the canopy.
I also like the way he created the canons that pop open before they fire. Sadly, there are no plans offered so you can build your own version of this flying aircraft, but you can check out more pics of the ship over on Flickr.
I have a dream of living in a tiny apartment where everything is multifunctional and/or has the ability to transform. Beds that turn into desks. Bookshelves that hide a dining set. Side tables that contain an emergency chair. But what about the kitchen? What can I do with the kitchen? Why not pack the entire thing into a low-sitting, floating sideboard? More »
Next month Nintendo will be bringing on their newest vision for the Wii U, the next-generation console made by the company to compete against the Microsoft and Sony tide. With the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 being continuously rumored for release inside the next few years, Nintendo appears to be preparing the Wii U for another preview and perhaps a release date for the press to report. This event comes soon after a UK-based hands-on experience we had earlier this year.
This event has been set for 10AM EST on the 13th of September, just one day after the rumored date for the next Apple press event. Nintendo COO Reggie Fils-Aime will be at the event to present the console once again and hands-on game play and demos will be there as well. The launch line-up for games is a likely candidate for announcement on the event’s schedule, as are the launch date and price of the console. Nothing is assured, however, and a simple presentation may be the best thing available.
The event coming here next month also comes right after the Nintendo E3 presentation which was rather devoid of Wii U news. It would seem that Nintendo is hoping that a separate event will take the place of what may have been quickly-lost bits of news during the convention. Here in the summer of 2012, we’ll be hoping to see what the Wii U will be in its final release form once and for all.
Have a peek at the timeline below to see our hands-on time with the Wii U thus far, and stick around as the next event approaches. Also feel free to hit up our Wii U tag for more Wii U information than you can handle!
Device makers are bent on bringing us inductive charging, and Redmond has joined the fray with a recently allotted patent that describes all kinds of tech that could make it work better. For the charging itself, a trick is proposed that’s similar to one we’ve seen before — careful matching of the resonant frequency of charger and device. That would amplify efficiency and allow more than one device to be charged at a time. To make it easier to use, a pressure sensor could detect if a device was on the pad, with different parts of the pad allocated for smartphones or tablets, for instance. The patent also proposes a display placed opposite the charger to give it another use when it’s not juicing, which would be determined by a gyro to sense which side was facing up. Of course, a lot of patents are whimsical things, which never amount to anything — but judging by the detail in this one, Microsoft may have something more concrete in mind.
Clearly designed for home improvement types who are quick on the draw, this electric screwdriver is modeled after a classic revolver handgun and comes with six interchangeable bits stored in the cylinder. More »
This summer HP has brought on a beast of a business machine in the Z1 all-in-one Workstation, complete with an upgradable set of innards and all-in-one style. The display is a massive LED-backlit 27-inch IPS panel at 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution and inside you’ve got several configurations available straight from HP, each of them landing in at right around $2,700 USD in the end. You’ll be working with an Intel Core i3 processor, Windows 7 or Linux, and the whole machine is easier to modify than your sub sandwich – fabulous for the tech-friendly business owner.
Setup
This beast is heavier than you’ll ever want to wish to carry at a back-breaking 21.32 kg (47 lbs). You’ve got a beast of a display up on two different hinges, this allowing you to adjust both the angle and the height at which the display sits. Once you’ve got it where you want it, you’ll probably want to leave it alone, though, as the weight of this conglomeration of metal, plastic, and glass is not the easiest thing to move around.
The monitor sits on its two hinges mightily, both of them making sure that this heaving beast does not move even the slightest bit once its set in place. In addition to being able to set this computer up with its “traditional display” setup (on the stand it comes attached to) you can mount it to the wall with industry standard VESA mounts. This unit utilizes a 100×100 VESA mount pattern, making it easy to set up with 3rd party display gear.
HP has done an amazing job of making sure this computer both looks and feels fabulous with a black and silver metal setup both on front and back. While most workstation-aimed computers are made to sit out of the way or under a desk, this all-in-one unit looks great from all sides. The one odd point that appears off as far as aesthetics go is the power cord port which sits under the display – it feels like HP went so far to keep the front and the back clean that they nudged that rather unsightly cord to the underside.
Connectivity
That said, the rest of the computer is indeed rather clean looking. You’ve got your power button up top on the right, a system activity LED below that right near the eject button for your optical drive. The optical drive is always a Slot Load 8X SuperMulti DVDRW no matter what configuration you pick up, and it sits right above a 4-in-1 Media Card Reader as well. Next on the right is a standard Firewire 1394a port above two USB 3.0 ports and ports for Audio in and out. Each of these buttons and ports are super easy to access.
What’s not so easy to access – and perhaps rightfully so – are the ports below the monitor. This collection of ports includes the power port (as mentioned above), one standard DisplayPort in/out, digital audio via a S/PDIF port, audio in/out and subwoofer out, and a set of four more USB 2.0 ports. There’s also a hidden USB 2.0 port under the hood which HP has used up with a dongle that connects with a couple of packaged accessories: keyboard and a mouse – both of which are relatively high quality.
Software
You can work on this system with Windows 7 or HP provided Linux, the Linux builds including drivers from 32 and 64-bit OS versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 Workstation, RHEL 6 Workstation, and 64-bit SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 11 for your convenience. For Windows 7 you’ll either get 32-bit or 64-bit Genuine Windows 7 Professional installed right out of the box.
With a computer that’s made to be updated in the hardware universe for years into the future, you’ll also want to be sure you’ve got the software to back it up as well. Windows 8 will of course be able to be loaded here, and with HP Performance Advisor included in the out-of-box experience, you’ll have HP’s own software wizard to help out out along the way as you continue to optimize your system towards its constant full potential.
This machine also includes HP Remote Graphics Software, (loaded standard with every new-age HP workstation,) an environment which allows you to access your setup remotely from other machines connected to the web with ease. Just as it was with each of the other HP workstations we’ve tested over the past year or so, this machine plays nicely with a vast array of machines outside its build – Directory Mode allow you to access workstations throughout your office, RGS functionality works with pixels (as opposed to data) to expand your workspace to a wide variety of 3rd party monitors automatically, and the whole RGS suite works on both Windows and Linux.
This device also comes with ISV certification so you know its up to snuff according to the Independent Software Vendor set of tests – standard stuff! Along those same lines is the fact that this machine is Energy Star certified with 90% efficient power supplies, and each HP Z1 comes with a warranty that includes limited 3-year parts, 3-year labor and 3-year onsite service extendable up to 5 years with HP Care Pack Services – business friendly indeed!
System – Hewlett-Packard HP Z1 Workstation
Manufacturer
Hewlett Packard
Product Type
Desktop
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
Motherboard
Hewlett-Packard 3561h
Processor
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31280 @ 3.50GHz
Processor ID
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
Processor Frequency
3.49 GHz
Processors
1
Threads
8
Cores
4
L1 Instruction Cache
32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache
32.0 KB
L2 Cache
256 KB
L3 Cache
8.00 MB
Memory
16.0 GB DDR3 SDRAM 666MHz
FSB
99.8 MHz
BIOS
Hewlett-Packard J52 v01.04
Above and below you’ll see some additional components listed as well as our standard Geekbench benchmark results. This machine does extremely well for itself, both in benchmarks and in practice with everyday light and heavyweight tasks like video processing. And again, you can switch essentially every piece out and make it more powerful as you deem necessary.
Benchmark Score – Hewlett-Packard HP Z1 Workstation
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (64-bit) – Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
12316
15079
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
23630
Memory
Memory performance
8518
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
7951
Versatility
This machine is fabulous in its ability to be modified. Push the display down horizontal and lift the face up like the hood of a car and poof! Like magic, you’ve got a vast array of plug-n-play pieces at your fingertips. You can change out essentially anything under the hood at your leisure, and several expansion slots and bays are available for your DIY modifications. You’ve got one internal 3.5-inch bay OR 2x 2.5-inch bays, one MXM expansion slot for graphics (requiring NVIDIA custom cards, you may want to note) the base model uses Intel integrated graphics, but Quadro 500M, 1000M, 3000M and 4000M graphics cards are optional. You’ve also got 3 miniPCIe full-length expansion slots as well.
Four zones separate this device’s insides, with the 400w power supply, Quadro graphics card, CPU, and memory sitting behind fans and panels. Your power supply, hard drive chassis, and DVD/Blu-ray drive are easily removable, of course, and up to four 8GB full-sized memory DIMMs can be added as well.
Everything under the hood is able to be clipped in and out with ease using the simple to understand green arrows and hard-plastic holds. The hands-on video earlier in this review shows how simple it is to switch components in and out. Business owners pay attention here: upgrading your whole office will be so easy that you won’t need to hire Nick Burns to do it – for real!
Wrap-Up
This computer is a fabulous choice for an office in need of massive displays and Windows 7 (or Windows 8 later this year). You’ve got a perfectly solid build, HP has made the entire structure out of high-end components, and you’ll be able to modify this beast to your liking well into the future. As long as you’re not planning on lifting this monster up and lugging it around on a regular basis, you’ll be glad this was your business-oriented Windows choice for your next-generation standard workstation situation.
Video editors, web designers, graphic designers, and those working with massive files on the whole will find this machine quite satisfying.
Have a peek below at additional HP Z-series hands-on, review, and news posts we’ve published over the past two years, all the way back to the official launch of the series at an event we attended with HP!
While pricing hasn’t revealed whether it’ll spar with the Nexus 7 for the hearts of bargain tablet shoppers, Lenovo‘s smaller Android 4.0 slab, the A2107, has called in at the FCC. Again, there’s not all that much we can glean from a tablet that’s prone and turned off, but it does give the product another nudge towards launching next month. Fans of all things radio and wireless can peruse the official filing at the source below.
With all of the rumors saying that the next PlayStation and Xbox are right around the corner, you might be expecting Microsoft and Sony to drop the price on their current consoles soon. Unfortunately, you’d be wrong, at least in the case of the PS3. Sony has said that there won’t be a PS3 price cut this year, despite the fact that many have been expecting one for a while now.
Even though there isn’t a PS3 price cut on the horizon, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida thinks it’s the perfect time to buy one anyway. “PS3 is I think in prime time,” he told Eurogamer at Gamescom. “It’s a great time for consumers to look at purchasing PS3 this year. There are a variety of games coming out and new and exciting games coming out next year.” When pressed about an incoming price cut, Yoshida explained that Sony is “very happy” with the PS3 in general – including pricing – and at the moment there aren’t any plans to change that.
Yoshida was also the one to claim that the PS Vita won’t be getting a price cut this year, and with the PSP already pretty inexpensive, it seems that all of Sony’s gaming platforms are staying where they’re at for the time being. If the reveal of next generation consoles is as close as some claim, however, then we may not have to wait that long for the elusive price cut anyway. Once Sony announces the PlayStation 4 (or whatever it will be called), it’s likely that the company will discount PS3s in order to begin moving units before the arrival of the next console.
Still, we don’t know when the PS4 will be revealed, so that could be quite some time off. Also worth noting is Yoshida’s refusal to comment on the existence of the Super Slim PS3, saying that it was only a rumor. The Super Slim PS3 is said to be making its debut at the Tokyo Game Show next month, and if it does, there’s a chance that it may come with a smaller price tag. Stay tuned, because if Sony does reveal the Super Slim PS3 at TGS, we’ll be sure to let you know.
People who use cameras like the Canon 1DX are usually shooting fast-action sequences like sports and nature subjects. The hallmark feature at play is the ability to fire off stills ridiculously fast—12 fps RAW, or 14 fps JPEG. More »
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