Hasta La Gadget! Page not found

Aug 23

Samsung N510 unboxed, looking rather large sitting next to the NC10

Posted in: netbook, nvidia ion, NvidiaIon, samsung, Today's Chili, unboxing

We know the specs, the release window, even the price — it feels like we’re already intimately acquainted with Samsung’s ION-powered N510 netbook, but honestly, we’ve never really seen it outside of a touched-up press photo. Netbooknews.de has gone ahead and fixed all that, giving us a good idea what we’ll be taking home to mom and dad, from retail packaging all the way to the exposed underbelly. There’s even a number of side-by-side shots with its older brother NC10, which looks downright tiny sitting next to its more powerful, but also pretty small kin. Want a good glimpse ~~of what’s~~ ~~likely to be~~ ~~the first~~ ~~ION netbook~~ ~~to US market~~? All relevant materials lie beyond the read links below.

Update: Turns out the ION-equipped N510 has been pushed back until after the Windows 7 launch, at least for the US. Unboxing is from Germany, where the netbook’s now on sale.

[Thanks, buttons]

Read – Samsung N510 unboxing (translated)

Read – Flickr gallery

Filed under: Laptops

Samsung N510 unboxed, looking rather large sitting next to the NC10 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Jul 06

Flash drive bonanza: 36 crummy drives tested and compared!

Posted in: flash drive, FlashDrive, Today's Chili

The wild array of flash drives you see above — a veritable cornucopia of bad taste, if you will — has been put through some rather exhaustive paces by the freaks over at Test Freaks. That’s right, they rounded up the finger tip, the tiny skull, the truly disgusting chicken foot, as well as a wide variety of fake edibles — and poked and prodded them en masse until they came up with the answer we expected: most of these are actually pretty shoddily made. As if you buy a foul-looking shrimp tail flash drive because you expect it to get the best transfer rate. Hit the read link to check out the full insanity of this undertaking.

[Thanks, Vincent D.]

Filed under: Storage

Flash drive bonanza: 36 crummy drives tested and compared! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Jun 25

BlackBerry Tour hands-on, wild sibling confrontation with Curve and Bold

Posted in: BlackBerry, Features, hands-on, RIM, Today's Chili

While some interesting things may or may not be happening under the hood, the freshly announced BlackBerry Tour for Verizon and Sprint (pictured in Verizon garb on the left) is hardly a departure on the surface. It mostly appears to be a minor modification to the Curve (right), though it does seem inexplicably thicker. The Bold seems positively overwrought in comparison. We didn’t get much time to play with the OS, but the screen and the keyboard are pure new-generation BlackBerry charm.

Gallery: BlackBerry Tour hands-on, wild sibling confrontation with Curve and Bold

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

BlackBerry Tour hands-on, wild sibling confrontation with Curve and Bold originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Jun 22

Mac Beats PC in Popular Mechanics Benchmarks, but…

Posted in: Apple, Gadgets, Mac, Reviews, Today's Chili

This article was written on April 17, 2008 by CyberNet.

imac gateway It seems as though Apple has been getting a lot of good publicity lately, and it’s definitely got to be helping their sales. The latest example is a benchmark and usability test done by the reputable Popular Mechanics lab. They tested two laptops and two desktops where half were Mac’s running Leopard and the other half were PC’s running Vista. Here are some of the specs they mention on the machines:

The Gateway One PC had a processor that runs 400 MHz slower than its iMac competitor (not a heck of a difference in this age of dual-core chips), but it also had two extra gigabytes of DDR2 memory. In the laptop category, our Asus M51 had a 2.2 GHz processor, compared to 2.4 GHz for our MacBook. But the Asus had a larger screen, a more sophisticated graphics card and an extra gig of RAM.

When it came to usability they received user feedback from both operating systems regarding design, ergonomics, and more. In the end both operating systems came out nearly equal in terms of usability, with only a slide edge being given to Mac OS X. When it came to performance, however, Mac’s seemed to dominate the board:

	iMac ($1499)	Gateway One ($1800)	MacBook ($1299)	Asus M51SR ($1299)
Startup Time	28.7s	1m 13s	41.6s	1m 51s
Shutdown Time	4.0s	44.3s	3.9s	25.4s
Install MS Office	4m 17s	6m 25s	2m 57s	4m 46s
Install Adobe CS3	31m 44s	25m 45s	34m 54s	21m
Launch Browser	3.3s	6.3s	–	–
Launch Word	4.2s	5.2s	5.3s	6.2s
Launch Photoshop	4.0s	5.5s	4.1s	5.2s
Launch Photoshop*	21.36s	40.0s	16.2s	25.5s
CD Rip	3m 35s	3m 35s	5m 49s	3m 9s

* This was a stress test where three video sources (a YouTube clip, a DVD and an .avi file), DivX encoding, instant messaging, Word, Adobe Acrobat and a spyware scan were simultaneously running when trying to launch Photoshop.

I would say that the comparisons are pretty fair since they are judging a consumer’s out-of-box experience, but I don’t know that this could be viewed as an accurate Vista vs. Mac comparison. It’s very likely that both the Gateway and the Asus came loaded with all kinds of bloatware that slowed down the PC horribly… particularly the startup and shutdown times. Looking at the Gateway One homepage I can see that it comes preinstalled with the entire McAfee Internet Suite, which isn’t exactly known as the speediest program.

Popular Mechanics took the correct route in their review though. They never really considered it a Mac vs. Vista matchup, but instead a Mac vs. PC. I do recommend checking out their entire review, which includes a lot more detailed benchmarks than those listed above.

Thanks for the tip Omar!

Related Posts:

Jun 13

What’s Your Dream Laptop Like?

Posted in: Laptops, solid state drive, Today's Chili, Wireless

This article was written on August 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

Dream Laptop I was recently invited to join a group for HP regarding the future generations of laptops. They want myself, among others, to share our "ideas, designs, thoughts or rants." This is really a great idea, and in a way reminds me of Dell launching the IdeaStorm site.

I haven’t actually owned a HP laptop in over 5 years, and I’ve gone through more computers than I care to mention. Lately Dell has been my brand of choice simply because they’ve just worked for me, and I’ve never had a single hardware problem with any of them that I’ve owned. Okay…I’ll cave. Here are the computers that Ashley and I have owned in the last five or so years: 1 HP, 1 Compaq, 1 Sony, 2 Averatec, and 6 Dell’s. Some of those had been given to me, and some of them were new when I bought them.

With that being said I’ve had quite an experience with different manufacturer’s of computers. Therefore coming up with a list of things that would make one manufacturer stand out over another wasn’t extremely difficult:

Make the hinges that hold the monitor the body extremely sturdy. I can’t stand when those get loose and the screen wobbles. This really is my biggest pet peeve for laptops.
Make an integrated wireless card that is swappable. That way when 802.11n gets into full swing (as well as future technologies) we can upgrade the wireless card ourselves.
Make upgrading the RAM easy for goodness sakes! There should be one cover on the bottom of the computer that I have to unscrew, and then I should be able to pop in the RAM from there.
At least 5 hours of battery life.
Some sort of video outputs. HDMI would be nice, but I haven’t seen that on a laptop before.
Low-cost solid state drives (SSD). I know that they are expensive right now, but they are much more energy efficient and faster than traditional drives.
Small power cord that doesn’t weigh as much as the computer itself. My dad’s power supply for his laptop is insanely massive.
Put a few small buttons down by the mouse that let you do things like launch Alt-Tab or Flip-3D for switching between programs. I want the ability to quickly switch between windows with the same hand that I’m using the mouse. And no, going to the Taskbar doesn’t count. A button wouldn’t be necessary if the next bullet was implemented:
Make the touchpad multi-touch capable. That way putting my finger in one corner
and tapping another corner could initiate some sort of command that I assign it
(like copy and paste).
Built-in webcam. A lot of laptops are getting these lately, and I think it is going to become a standard.
On-site repairs included…I hate sending a computer in to get fixed!

So now I want to know what your dream laptop is like. What would the perfect laptop be for you, and what kind of price would you be willing to pay for it? Let us know in the comments below…and HP will probably be checking up on what you have to say!

Related Posts:

May 14

How Big Is the New Enterprise Compared to the Old One?

Posted in: enterprise, exclusive, Today's Chili, top

725.35 meters. A whoppumental 2,379.75 feet. That’s how big the new super-sized Enterprise is. Here you can see it compared against the Galactica, the good old Enterprise, the Blockade Runner, and the ISS. UPDATED

Click on this image to see the full picture.

When JJ Abrams said that he wanted to put some Star Wars into Star Trek, apparently it also applied to the scale of spaceships (and matching viewscreens.) And while the new Enterprise doesn’t even reach half of the 1,600 meters—that’s a mile long—of an Imperial Star Destroyer, it’s still amazingly big compared to the 288 meters of the old Enterprise. Maybe now you would be able to take down an Star Destroyer with a couple of these.

The battle I would really want to see now, however, is not the old Star Trek vs Star Wars (we already know who would win that one.) No, you know what I want to see.

Yes, Starbuck vs Uhura. In a chocolate pudding pit.

Maybe Galactica vs Enterprise too, but that’s a distant second. [Thanks to David B. from Bad Robot Productions]

UPDATE: Since we did the original ISS comparison, the specifications for the new Battlestar Galactica have changed. After the end of the series, one of the visual effects guy shared information about the actual size of Adama’s new ship. It measures 1,438.64 meters. Almost a mile, so it’s bigger than the new Enterprise and less than 200 meters shy of an Imperial Star Destroyer. I changed the graphic to display the old Galactica, which has the correct size. [Thanks to the readers who pointed this out]

Apr 30

Canon EOS Rebel T1i impressions, head-to-head with Nikon D5000

Posted in: camera, dslr, impressions, nikon, review, reviewed, Today's Chili, video

Make no mistake about it, the low / mid-range DSLR battle of early 2009 is on. Just over a month ago, Canon shook up the entry-level DSLR game with a shooter that packed a 1080p video mode, a 15.1 megapixel sensor and a price tag well below the magical $1,000 mark. Right around a fortnight later, Nikon not-at-all-coincidentally issued a new shooter in its own range, one that was no doubt built to rival the previously mentioned EOS Rebel T1i. Just this week, both of these bad boys showed up on our doorstep, and we’ve spent every waking minute since mashing buttons and capturing memories in order to give you our take on the pair. Care to hear more? Jump on past the break… and be sure to leave your fanboy suit at the door.

Gallery: Canon EOS Rebel T1i hands-on

Continue reading Canon EOS Rebel T1i impressions, head-to-head with Nikon D5000

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Canon EOS Rebel T1i impressions, head-to-head with Nikon D5000 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Apr 28

Nikon D5000 impressions, head-to-head with D90

Posted in: camera, digital camera, DigitalCamera, dslr, Features, hands-on, HandsOn, nikon, pics, pictures, review, Today's Chili

Nikon’s D5000 is a curious beast. It boasts an unorthodox model name, packs a strikingly unique display and aims at an atypically small niche. In a way, it’s a poor man’s D90, but stopping there would be selling this gem short. The D5000 kit, which ships with the same 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens that comes bundled with the D60 kit, sports an MSRP of $849.99, placing it squarely between the aforementioned D60 kit (currently streeting for $549.95) and the D90 kit (which can be found for around $1,150). ‘Course, the D90 kit lands you a nicer 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR lens, a higher resolution rear LCD, a top-mounted display for showing vital statistics, a more rugged body and a few other internal upgrades. We’ve had some time to toy with Nikon’s latest, and we’ve laid out our impressions just past the break. Join us, won’t you?

Gallery: Nikon D5000 hands-on