Like the well-oiled global superpower that it is, Intel has performed a smooth and immediate transition from the announcement of its new 32nm CPUs to actual chips hitting shelves. Newegg has stock of the Core i5-670 (3.46GHz), i5-660 (3.33GHz), and i5-650 (3.2GHz), all of which come with 4MB of cache and that ultra-efficient power profile we drooled over not too long ago. There’s also the i5-661 (which sucks up a bit more juice but has higher integrated GPU clock speeds) as well as a pair of Core i3 options. Hit up our Clarkdale review roundup here for a handy guide to distinguishing between all these.
You wouldn’t generally think of a smaller outfit such as ViewSonic having a major presence here at CES, but sure enough, the company has hit the ground blazing in Las Vegas. Kicking things off is the new ViewLED TV lineup, which consists of four LED-backlit sets ranging from 19- ($299) to 42-inches ($1,199) in size. Moving from HDTVs to PC panels, we’ve got ten new Eco-View monitors spanning the entire gamut of sizes and features. The company is also letting loose its VFP858 connected Bluetooth smart frame, which packs an 8-inch panel, an integrated microphone, stereo speakers and support for handsfree dialing… all from a digiframe. For media junkies on the run, the new line of MovieBooks (including the 5-inch VPD550T and 3-inch VPD313T) both sport touch-sensitive displays and sub-$150 price tags. Finally, we’ve got no fewer than nine new laptop and desktop models, including the 13.3-inch VNB131 ViewBook Pro, 18.5-inch VPC190 all-in-one and the VOT125 nettop. Obviously we’ve got far too many pricing, availability and hardware details to cover in this space, but all the information you could ever want on the new kit is hosted up after the break.
HP’s just unleashed four new Pavilion Elite HPE desktops — the 110f, 120f, 130f, and 170f. Terrifically creative naming scheme aside, the HPE series offers a choice of processors, including AMD Phenom II Quad-Core or Intel CPUs, and ATI Radeon or NVIDIA GeForce graphics. The desktops are also configurable for an up to 2TB hard drive, and up to 24GB of DDR3 RAM. Other features of these bad boys include front panel 15-in-1 card readers, DVD burner, wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n, an optional tv tuner, pocket media drive, and Blu-ray. We don’t have pricing or availability yet, but we’ll update you when we do. Full press release and specs are after the break.
Lenovo already treated us to a slew of new ThinkPad machines, and now it’s time for the Idea line to get its due. Up first, we’ve got the IdeaCentre A300, which is hailed as the industry’s thinnest all-in-one desktop. Measuring just 18.5mm deep, the 21.5-inch machine sports a 1080p LED panel, Core 2 Duo CPU, WiFi and a bundled Bluetooth keyboard / mouse. The IdeaPad S10-3t (shown above) is the industry’s first multitouch capacitive netbook tablet, with Lenovo trumpeting the device’s ability to easily recognize fingertip input and plow through chores with an Atom N470 CPU and a 320GB hard drive. Moving right along, the 14-inch Y460 and 15.6-inch Y560 offer up respectable multimedia performance on a budget, while the 20-inch Lenovo C310 goes down as the company’s first multitouch all-in-one desktop. The Core i7-equipped IdeaCentre K320 caters to the gamers, and the G460 / G560 lappies are slated to suit those “mainstream” users who just need something basic to handle… well, the basics. Pricing, availability and detailed specifications await you just beyond the break.
One might expect a smallish outfit like CyberPower to start the new year off with merely a fizzle, but the “bang” is firmly in place with this one. The company has just announced its refaced (and re-energized) Black Mamba gaming PC, complete with Intel’s freshest Core i7 Extreme CPU, 6GB of DDR3 RAM, twin 64GB Kingston SSDs, 2TB of SATA II storage space, a pair of watercooled ATI Radeon 5870 GPUs, a 4x Lite-On Blu-ray drive and a 12-in-1 media reader for good measure. You’ll also get a tweaked BIOS that gives you more flexibility when it comes to overclocking, and the bundled Razer input peripherals ensure that even your mouse and keyboard needs are addressed. Best of all, this pristine piece of gaming goodness can be ordered up right now — problem is, you’ll need a bare minimum of $3,800 to cover the cost of acquisition. But hey, that 2009 tax refund should cover that in just a few months, right?
New Year’s Eve is upon us, ring it in with some New Year’s-themed wallpaper. Judging by the wallpapers we found, 2010 is going to be all the neon and sparkles the futurists of yesteryear promised us.
Note: The “Full Size” link directly under the picture only shows you the sample image we uploaded for this gallery. You need to click on the name of the particular wallpaper in the right hand column to access the full range of sizes at the source site.
Not keen on the gallery layout? See all the larger images on one page here.
Glowing 2010 by ~ritamd Click on the link above to visit the author’s page and access the full size image.
In the land of netbooks and nettops, the tried-and-true all-in-one PC still has a place in this world yet. MSI is living proof of that, with its 21.5-inch Wind Top AE2220 bringing Windows 7, multitouch and an eye-pleasing design to the collective masses. Said machine just started shipping to consumers at the tail end of last month, and we’ve been fortunate enough to spend a few weeks tinkering with one of the most cost effective AIO options on the market right now. Thankfully for those who enjoy doing anything with relative speed, MSI overlooked the Atom range and went straight for the Core 2 Duo lineup, and for those with a bit of extra coin to spend, there’s even an optional TV tuner and Blu-ray drive. Care to see how we felt about this touch-friendly rig after some extended play time? Read on to find out.
Nobody likes staring at a boring desktop when they fire up their computer every morning. Keep your wallpaper fresh with the five most popular sites Lifehacker readers use to satisfy their wallpaper needs.
Photo by goincase. Wallpaper on monitor available here.
Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite wallpaper site. We quickly learned that—while not everyone has a strong opinion about Linux distributions or encryption software—everyone has a favorite wallpaper site; readers logged nearly 500 votes for their favorite wallpaper sites. Now we’re back to share the five most popular sites used by Lifehacker readers to dress up their monitors with fresh wallpaper.
Vlad Studio features the work of Russian wallpaper artist Vlad Gerasimov. He cranks out hundreds of great wallpapers, ranging from holiday themes to abstract art. Vlad Studio has wallpaper in a wide range of sizes suited for everything from your mobile phone to a multi-monitor setup. Mobile wallpaper and desktop resolutions at 1600×1200 and below are available for free. Images larger than that are available only to registered users. If you want access to the larger resolutions, now is a great time to pick up a subscription. Vlad is running a Christmas-special where the $30 lifetime membership is available for $20.
4Chan is an image-based forum where anyone can anonymously post and share images and comments. It’s divided into sub-boards devoted to all sorts of topics like Anime, video games, etc., but has gained notoriety for some of its more unsavory sub-boards. The /Wallpaper/ board, nonetheless, is bustling and updated nearly 24/7 with images from around the web. Since the 4Chan boards are a bit kludgy to use if you’re not trying to comment and just looking for images, a variety of scrapers have sprung up to help you pick through all the images in /Wallpaper/. You can visit 4Chan directly at the link above or you can use services like Nik.Bot and 4Walled to browse through the wallpapers available through 4Chan. Be strongly forewarned, however: although the /Wallpaper/ forum is much tamer than other areas of 4Chan, you’ll still find a large number of Maxim-level NSFW wallpaper images and the occasional Playboy-level NSFW images when you’re browsing. If you’re not prepared to explain some really awkward internet memes to your boss, you’d better save 4Chan /Wallpaper/ for home.
Social Wallpapering borrows the vote up/down model used by many social aggregators (Reddit, Digg, etc.) and applies it to desktop wallpaper. Users vote up their favorite, vote down their least favorites, and upload their own images to be ranked by other users. You can browse by rank, category, view random images, and sort by screen size to help you drill down through the huge collection to find the wallpaper you want. Prefer to grab everything and sort it out later? Social Wallpaper makes their entire wallpaper collection available for download via BitTorrent. If you’re looking for a site where you can not only find fresh wallpaper but participate in helping your fellow wallpaper lovers find the best images, Social Wallpapering is a solid choice.
Interfacelift is an enormous repository of wallpaper images. Thanks to the button-based layout at the top of the screen, you can easily drill down through wallpapers using factors like rating, number of comments, screen type, and so on. Once you select your screen type—widescreen, full screen, dual monitors, etc.—you can pick from available resolutions so you never end up clicking on an image and finding out it’s not available in the resolution you want. Every search result gives you information about the image plus a drop down menu for size selection and a quick download. Interfacelift has recently added a feature called “The Loupe” which allows users to vote on incoming submissions to accelerate the process of new materials being added to the database.
If you’ve visited your fair share of wallpaper sites and gotten tired of the endless stream of glowing line-art and video-game wallpapers, then you’ll enjoy browsing the wallpaper archives of DeviantART—a subdivision of the artist-centric site. You’ll find everything at DeviantART from the more common glow-lines variety of abstract wallpaper to quirky paintings, photographs, and computer-rendered images. Most of the users at DeviantART are prolific contributors, so if you find a wallpaper you really like, make sure to check out the user’s gallery to see if they have any other gems to share. DeviantART doesn’t have the advanced wallpaper-oriented search features that many of the other wallpaper sites have, but you can still search by image size and sort by popularity.
Now that you’ve had a chance to look over Lifehacker readers’ favorite wallpaper sites, it’s time to cast a vote for your favorite:
We have two honorary mentions to hand out this week to extremely deserving sites that have contributed a multitude of awesome wallpapers over the years: Digital Blasphemy and Mandolux. Got more to say about your favorite (or a favorite that didn’t make the list)? Let’s hear it in the comments.
Every week we bring you fresh workspaces from the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell pool, all supplied by you—the awesome Lifehacker readership. Today we’re highlighting the 25 most popular workspaces of 2009.
Featured workspaces cover a wide range of designs, budgets, and occupations. We’ve featured entire offices, individual offices, home offices, workspaces, work benches, and every possible configuration of places therein. Wherever you get things done, we love to see and hear about it.
The following are the 25 most popular workspaces of 2009. Each featured workspace includes additional photos and sometimes video of the workspace, so click on the name of the workspace to check out additional photos and information about it.
One of the most popular workspaces we featured in 2009, Mitch’s home office was a makeover to behold. He totally gutted his attic and rebuilt the entire thing as a programmer’s paradise.
Lifehacker reader acflynn put together a home office with a lot of functional style. The small shelf beneath his monitors actually houses his network gear.
When you’re a DIYer with a desire to build an epic desk for your dorm room, it helps to have access to good tools and materials. One Lifehacker reader used great gear and forward-looking design to craft an ultimate dorm desk.
How do you maintain a completely uncluttered workspace, but also keep access to basic tools and peripherals? You build, as Lifehacker reader Roitsch did, a desk with a large storage compartment in the middle.
Lifehacker reader Steve Price had a two-fold problem. His previous desk was short on space for all his monitors and the noise and heat generated by having all his computers under the desk was unpleasant. By taking advantage of an alcove in his computer room he was able to cut down on the heat and noise substantially.
Just because you’re in college doesn’t mean that your room has to be a cluttered mess of schoolwork, piled with unwashed clothes, and overseen by John Belushi posters. Check out today’s featured workspace to see a well planned room.
Brian Connolly was tired of cramped desks and messy wiring, so he built his own desk and wire management system to have the spacious and tidy spread he desired.
Lifehacker reader m2j2 has invested quite a bit of time, creativity, and cold, hard cash into his office setup. The result is an office that is not only visually appealing but packed with enough shiny tech toys to cover all sorts of work and play. His office is set up to handle just about anything he wants to throw at it, short of planning a zombie apocalypse resistance, although don’t quote me on that—for all we know, the office is in an abandoned missile silo.
Brett wanted to get his monitor off his desk, but didn’t want to waste money on an expensive mounting arm. With the addition of some lumber and LEDs, problem solved!
Lifehacker reader and architect Jeremy Levine has a spacious and well lit office that will likely be the envy of cubicle-dweller and telecommuter alike. Jeremy’s office features a vaulted ceiling with exposed recycled wood beams and a combines clerestory and transom windows to bring in a huge amount of natural light and create an expansive work environment.
Lifehacker reader Tomas Carrillo—responsible for sharing the handy chain sinnet method of cable tidying with us—has the kind of neat workspace you’d expect from a guy with that kind of cable wrangling knowledge.
Combine dark colors, ample desk space, and an arc of viewing pleasure, and you’ve got a workspace dear to many a geek’s heart. Throw in a few toys like an Ambient Orb and a break now and then to play some video games on a nearly wraparound display and the deal is sealed.
One of the best ways to cut down on cable clutter is to get all your equipment and cables right off the floor, so cables can never drape across the floor in the first place. Louis’ workspace uses a system of shelves to keep everything in a position where the cords travel the shortest distance possible.
Lifehacker reader Mandrake has assembled quite a setup for himself. From the custom ergonomic chair to the tilting work surface of the ergonomic desk, the workspace is geared for long term comfort.
Lifehacker reader Schodts has been tweaking and tuning his workspace setup for some time. The current incarnation is a pleasing multi-monitor setup with plenty of space to work. Thanks to a wall mount for the TV and a repurposed glass table top turned monitor shelf the common desktop fixtures like monitor stands, phones, and pencil cups have been lifted off the desk freeing up more space.
This featured workspace belongs to Lifehacker reader tehdik. He was pretty happy with this workspace, save for the enormous tangle of wires under his desk. Thanks to its sleek glass surface, he could see the mess not only across the room but every minute he was at his work station. Finally he’d had enough of the mess and ordered some supplies to make short work of it.
If we had to guess how Lifehacker reader edgefactor627 came about the idea of having such a pile of goodies in his attic, we’d have to go with him having a strong desire to serve as a beacon of fun for the whole neighborhood, drawn to the signal of condensed awesomeness in the highest room in his house.
Lifehacker reader msweston took some basic building blocks from IKEA and assembled them into a sleek workspace with well manged cables and a tidy layout.
Lifehacker reader aloftindenver lives, shockingly enough, in a a loft in Denver. They’ve been cataloging their adventures in furnishing the loft-largely by creating their own designs and furniture-at their blog A Loft In Denver. While we’d highly recommend reading over the entire blog, especially if you’re into loft living and modern design, what really caught our eye is the amazingly sleek workspace they built from scratch.
This featured workspace pulls off the office-as-bedroom tact without introducing clutter or bulk into the bedroom. Tucked neatly in the corner and with dual monitors to boot, reader ryopang can get work done in style in his bedroom office
It doesn’t float, spin, flash, or appear to contain glowing alien spore, but today’s featured workspace gets the job done in a very practical and tidy way. Lifehacker reader Dani Cela just needed to tame the mess of cables at his feet and tidy up.
This featured workspace is an example of how you don’t have to spend a fortune to have a fun and functional workspace with a solid dose of style. Obviously Apple products don’t come cheap, so we’ll discount the presence of a gorgeous and pricey Apple screen as part of the total cost of the space. The rest of the space is composed of simple and inexpensive items, like $89 IKEA Vika Gruvan desktop and a comically large clothespin for temporally stashing important papers.
Cubes are the antithesis of individuality. Tiny, colorless combs in the hive of industry, right? Not if you work at The Balcom Agency in Fort Worth, Texas.
What do you do when you and your roommate are media-loving computer geeks? Why, turn your mutual living room into a mecca of computing and media magic, of course!
Windows only: If you want a little extra eye-candy in your Windows management, T3Desk is an alt-tab alternative that gives you 3D windows arrangement and more.
Click on the image above for a closer look.
T3Desk works on all versions of Windows but it really shines in Vista and above where it can take advantage of Aero. After installing T3Desk you can use keyboard shortcuts to minimize and maximize windows to the edges of your monitor, arranging them in a pseudo-3D fashion. T3Desk can be tweaked in a variety of ways including how the windows are angled, animated, their level of transparency, the apparent distance from the viewer, and how they transition from the virtual desktop back into use.
You can drag windows and dock them to the four sides of the monitor, use Aero Peek to see which windows are on the virtual desktop, and set an always include/exclude list for applications to easily exclude applications from the effects of T3Desk.
Some caveats about T3Desk: the biggest issue is that it won’t work with multiple monitors. All 3D windows are pushed onto the primary monitor. Another minor issue is the inability to customize the application’s hot keys. Those complaints aside, it works as promised and provides a novel way to arrange and view open applications.
T3Desk is free and Windows only. Have a favorite application for tweaking the appearance of Windows and managing your applications? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
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