Jun 19

Commodore USA begins shipping replica C64s next week, fulfilling your beige breadbox dreams (video)

Posted in: desktop, desktops, Retro, Today's Chili, video
If you’re like us, you’ve probably been holding your breath in anticipation since Commodore USA announced its replica of the famous C64. It promised a keyboard PC that duplicated the original’s retro-beige finish, with an Atom CPU and an NVIDIA Ion graphics card under the hood. But despite numerous announcements, and even after a cross-promotion with Tron: Legacy, they’ve yet to ship any products. The latest word from the company has pre-orders shipping next week, in five different varieties, from a barebones chassis and card reader to the C64x Ultimate – an $895 machine that includes 1TB hard drive and a Blu-ray player. If you haven’t been teased enough over the past year of delays, hit the video after the break for more preview images.

Continue reading Commodore USA begins shipping replica C64s next week, fulfilling your beige breadbox dreams (video)

Commodore USA begins shipping replica C64s next week, fulfilling your beige breadbox dreams (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Jun 2011 11:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 17

Acer announces Predator G5910 for the UK with up to 8TB of storage, ‘combat-machine’ design cues

Posted in: desktop, gaming, intel, Today's Chili
Acer’s been mighty busy the past few days, trotting out laptops, desktops, a media streamer, and a multitouch monitor, to boot. But the company wasn’t ready to call it a week just yet — the outfit also announced the Predator G5910 gaming rig for the UK gaming crowd. As you might gather from its reddish accents and claw-like doors — a “combat-machine” aesthetic, according to Acer — this is a power tower. These bad boys pack quad-core, desktop-grade Core i5 and i7 processors, up to 16GB of memory, 10 USB 2.0 ports, a 12-in-1 memory card slot, two swappable hard drive bays, and as much as 8TB of storage spread across four SATA drives. In terms of graphics, the most specific thing Acer is saying is that it’s compatible with NVIDIA GeForce and AMD Radeon cards, and that it’s NVIDIA 3D Vision-capable. You can also overclock this guy using Intel’s own Extreme Tuning Utility, but only if you opt for a K-series CPU. This would mean the machine has a P67 chipset — which is what retailers in other European countries are listing — and not the H67 listed in the press release. As final flourishes, Acer threw in a handle on the back, and an angled deck on top to keep your inevitable morass of cables under control. UK shoppers can find it in mid-July starting at £599 VAT. PR after the break.

Continue reading Acer announces Predator G5910 for the UK with up to 8TB of storage, ‘combat-machine’ design cues

Acer announces Predator G5910 for the UK with up to 8TB of storage, ‘combat-machine’ design cues originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 08

Sony’s new VAIO L all-in-one thinks it’s a 3D TV

Posted in: blu-ray, desktop, PC, playstation, ps3, sony, Today's Chili, vaio

The folks at Sony clearly couldn’t decide whether they wanted to give the world a new 3D HDTV or desktop PC — and thus the latest addition to the VAIO L all-in-one line was born. The newly announced system plays television and features a 24-inch 3D multitouch display, a Blu-ray player, a bezel with built-in touch controls, 1080p HD playback, USB 3.0, and an HDMI port, so you can plug your PS3 into the thing. The system will start hitting stores on July 13th, for around $1,420, a price that includes a wireless keyboard and mouse, plus one pair of active shutter 3D glasses. Thankfully, you won’t need those to view the press release after the break.

Continue reading Sony’s new VAIO L all-in-one thinks it’s a 3D TV

Sony’s new VAIO L all-in-one thinks it’s a 3D TV originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Jun 2011 09:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 07

SSI’s rugged Spark S9T brings triple-screen computing to power-hungry road warriors (hands-on)

Posted in: desktop, Features, gaming, hands-on, military, PC, portable, rugged, Today's Chili

A portable desktop tower with three LCDs mounted on its side, you say? Why yes, there is such a thing. At Computex, we spotted SSI’s camouflaged booth demoing this eccentric Spark S9T rig: a rugged ATX case sporting a handle, a keyboard with a touchpad, plus three 17.3-inch 1920 x 1080 LCD panels. As you’ve probably already guessed, the keyboard and the screens can be folded up for storage convenience. Let’s be clear, though: you’ll still need to find a wall socket to power this beastly machine, but such all-in-one solution should still appeal to video editors, military personnel, or even gamers that are regularly on the road. Alas, we couldn’t get a price for single purchases, but feel free to check out the full detail over at SSI’s website — maybe a nice postcard will get you a deal.

Gallery: SSI’s rugged Spark S9T brings trial-screen computing to power-hungry road warriors (hands-on)

SSI’s rugged Spark S9T brings triple-screen computing to power-hungry road warriors (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 06

Mozilla’s Webian Shell interface will cloak your OS in a browser (video)

Posted in: app, desktop, download, interface, mac os x, MacOsX, Mozilla, operating system, OperatingSystem, os, Today's Chili, video, Windows

With Google’s fleet of Chromebooks making their way to market, Mozilla Labs has decided to release a similarly browser-based desktop interface, known as the Webian Shell. As of now, the prototype app consists of a screen-encompassing web browser, which essentially replaces your desktop interface. There’s an address bar running across the top of the screen, a clock in the bottom right corner, and a tab button for all your web apps. Developed as part of the company’s Mozilla Chromeless project, the tool was written entirely in HTML, CSS and JavaScript and, unlike Chrome OS, is designed to run on top of existing operating systems, rather than replace them. For now, the Shell is still in an early phase of development, looks pretty spartan and can’t control a system’s hardware. Mozilla, however, says it has plans to incorporate multiple home screens, split screen views and an on-screen keyboard, among other features. Windows, Linux and Mac OS X users can download the Shell now, from the source link. Otherwise, you can just head past the break to see a brief demo video.

Continue reading Mozilla’s Webian Shell interface will cloak your OS in a browser (video)

Mozilla’s Webian Shell interface will cloak your OS in a browser (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 02

Visualized: the coolest desktop chassis at Computex, literally

Posted in: case, desktop, Features, hands-on, PC, Today's Chili

Having a gadget encased in ice is always a cool stunt (pun intended), but Fractal took one step further by using blocks of ice cut out of a Swedish river, and then have them shipped all the way to Computex in Taiwan. Apparently that’s how Scandinavians roll. As for the actual products, frequent desktop builders may have already heard of Fractal for its silent, minimalistic chassis, which recently made their way to the US market. While we didn’t get a chance to check out how quiet the live machines were, the cases’ build quality was surprisingly solid for their prices, and we were also impressed by the attention to detail on damping noise wherever possible. Hit the source link below to check out Fractal’s Define, Arc, and Core series cases.

Gallery: Visualized: the coolest desktop chassis at Computex, literally

Visualized: the coolest desktop chassis at Computex, literally originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 01

Lian Li PC-U6 Cowry desktop case hands-on

Posted in: desktop, Features, hands-on, PC, Today's Chili, usb 3.0, Usb3.0
As usual, Taiwan-based Lian Li showed up at Computex with a whole bunch of desktop chassis, and this year’s highlight is none other than the eccentric PC-U6 Cowry. From our brief hands-on, we’d say that this seashell-like case looked even more gorgeous in real life than in its renderings, especially how the internals and the spiral grooves were lit up by the red LED strip. As expected, the widest part of the Cowry can indeed house a single 310mm (12.2-inch) graphics card, so multi–card enthusiasts will have to get the internal measurements right before ordering the components. Alternatively, maybe our hands-on photos below will give potential buyers a rough idea to start off with, before they drop a cool $349 on Lian Li’s doorstep.

Gallery: Lian Li PC-U6 Cowry desktop case hands-on

Lian Li PC-U6 Cowry desktop case hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 31

Thermaltake Level 10 GT modded to the high heavens, shows off spacious interior (hands-on)

Posted in: case, desktop, hands-on, mod, modding, PC, Today's Chili

We’ll readily admit that Thermaltake’s Level 10 GT case isn’t for everyone. Its exeskeleton-emulating protrusions don’t exactly blend in well with living room decors, and the company seems to like it that way. Computex 2011 has been the victim host to a whole bevy of customized Level 10 GTs, which exhibit a love for all colors in the rainbow and a fascination with the humble LED light. Underneath the aesthetic excesses, however, you’ll find a practical and very roomy case that’ll happily serve as the fashion-challenged home to your next super rig. 200mm fans spin almost inaudibly, individual hard drive enclosures make hot-swapping storage a doddle, and as you’ll see in the gallery below, all the mods feature retractable headphone hangers. What will they think of next?

Gallery: Thermaltake Level 10 GT hands-on and mods at Computex

Thermaltake Level 10 GT modded to the high heavens, shows off spacious interior (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 May 2011 07:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 26

Skype goes down globally, investigation underway (update: restored)

Posted in: breaking news, desktop, Online, skype, Today's Chili, web

There’s a pretty widespread outage of Skype going on right this minute, judging by the explosion of tweets relating to it. It’s not universal, as we’ve been able to log in and use the internet communicator for both text and video chat, but something’s definitely gone wrong. So far, we’ve noticed our OS X machines are ticking along just fine, but our Windows computers are not. Importantly, we had to upgrade one of our Windows desktops to “break” Skype, which indicates it could be a fault contained in the latest version, but then again, it could have simply been just a case of terrible timing. The iPhone and Android apps look to be unaffected, but skype.com is down and out. Skype is on the case right now and will have more details for us “soon.”

[Thanks, Manthan]

Update: Skype has a solution for bringing tech savvy users back online. It requires deleting the shared.xml file, instructions for which are available for Windows 7, XP and Mac OS X (so yes, Apple computers have been bitten by the same bug too). A simpler fix is said to be in the works as well.

Update 2: Looks like Skype is back to normal now. Phew!

Update 3: If you’re still experiencing issues, a Windows software update is now out and a Mac update will follow tomorrow.

Skype goes down globally, investigation underway (update: restored) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 May 2011 08:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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May 24

Digital Storm’s ODE gaming PC brings the heat

Posted in: desktop, gaming, Today's Chili
It may look like a space heater (in the best way possible, of course), but what you’re looking at is actually Digital Storm’s very first pre-built gaming system, the ODE. Available in your choice of “Good,” “Better,” “Best,” or “Ultimate” configurations, the rig packs a Core i7-2600K processor that can be overclocked to 5.0GHz, along with NVIDIA GTX 570 graphics (SLI in all but the lowest config), a standard 8GB of RAM, plus a regular 1TB hard drive that can be paired with an SSD up to 120GB — not to mention that nice red glow, which shouldn’t actually give off much heat thanks to some liquid cooling. Check out the gallery below for a closer look, and hit up the source link to place your order if you like what you see — this one starts at $1,499.

Gallery: Digital Storm ODE

Continue reading Digital Storm’s ODE gaming PC brings the heat

Digital Storm’s ODE gaming PC brings the heat originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 18:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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