Hasta La Gadget!

By and large, thin clients are relatively boring. That said, they’re typically dead silent and plenty powerful to handle the most basic of tasks, and thanks to Fujitsu, this one’s even halfway easy on the eyes. The new FUTRO S100 was revealed today, complete with a 500MHz VIA Eden ULV processor that enables the entire system to suck down just 11 watts under full load. Other specs include 1GB of DDR2 memory, a pair of USB 2.0 connectors, VGA output, Ethernet, a VX800 media processor, Chrome9 HC3 graphics and internal CF-based storage support. There’s nary a mention of price, but it’s ready to ship today for those with the correct change.

[Via HotHardware]

Filed under: Desktops

Fujitsu’s sleek FUTRO S100 gets VIA Eden implant originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Face it, we’re not normal. Most consumers don’t want to convert their home PCs into media centers. That doesn’t stop them from wanting a single device serving as both their TV and PC, however. That’s where the 22- and 32-inch Bristol ViewSurfer PC/TVs carve out their niche. Each set features a FreeView tuner and an integrated, netbook-like, Atom-based Windows XP computer with 160GB of storage, 1GB of memory, 4x USB, and Ethernet. The PC lacks integrated WiFi, oddly enough, and the TV seems to function in complete isolation from the computer processing — so no integrated DVR, for example. The £500 (about $814) 22-inch model does feature a 1680 x 1050 pixel resolution, well above the 1024 x 600 display found in most netbooks. Not that you’ll be pushing Flash-based video from YouTube or BBC’s iPlayer full-screen as these ViewSurfers are undoubtedly saddled with Intel’s integrated 945GSE netbook graphics. Bristol remains mum about the specs on the 32 incher. Available in October if you’re still game.

Filed under: Desktops, Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Bristol’s ViewSurfer TVs let you use XP from 10 feet away originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AsRock’s Ion 330-BD nettop got a little lost among the twenty other Ion-based products that debuted at Computex, but the folks at TweakTown recently got a chance to spend a bit of one-on-one time with it, and they’ve now turned out an expectedly thorough review. As you can tell from the model name, one of the big selling points of this with this particular model is the built-in Blu-ray drive (it’s also available without one), which TweakTown says feels right at home in the nettop, delivering “silky and smooth” playback with nary a hiccup. The rest of the nettop also seems to be more than up to par, with it delivering on its promise of quiet, low-power operation, and providing the performance you’d expect from the Ion / Atom combination. Better still, TweakTown says that the system can be easily overclocked to 2.1GHz without any apparent hit to stability. Hit up the link below for the complete rundown, including plenty of benchmarks and a closer look at the system itself (inside and out).

Filed under: Desktops

ASRock’s Ion 330-BD nettop gets reviewed originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This is really more of what we’d expect out of some slightly deranged basement hacker, not a company like ECS at a major tradeshow, but we’ll take any entrants in the burgeoning “nettop in a vase” space we can get. To be serious for a moment, this is actually a pretty interesting illustration of the future afforded by small, low-power components: ECS has stuffed a full Intel Atom 230 system, including NVIDA ION graphics, 1GB of RAM, a 2.5-inch HDD and a Blu-ray drive into what looks like a family heirloom. There’s even room for a couple USB ports, Ethernet and HDMI plugs on the bottom, which keeps the main body uninterrupted other than the tray-loading drive. Basically, we’re floored.

Filed under: Desktops

ECS stuffs Atom, ION and Blu-ray into a vase for all the right reasons originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh look, it’s nearly time for Computex, which means it’s finally time for ECS to come out to play again. For whatever reason, it seems the aforesaid PC maker only pulls out the stakes for Taiwan’s biggest consumer electronics show, and with the doors opening early next week, we’re getting a sneak peek at what it’ll be bringing to the mix. Not surprisingly, three of the five new machines are said to be of the netbook variety, with the other two being all-in-one desktops. ‘Course, the whole lot will be humming along on Intel’s all-too-modest Atom, though we are led to believe that at least one rig will get equipped with NVIDIA’s promising Ion technology. The T10IL (shown left) is apt to steal most of the attention, boasting a thin-and-light frame that’ll look awfully similar to ASUS’ Eee PC 1008HA. The V10IL (shown right) is expected to be more of a vanilla type machine in terms of both design and specification, and the other guys are slated to be revealed at the show. You’re tense with anticipation, aren’t you?

Filed under: Laptops

ECS plans a trio of netbooks, duo of all-in-one PCs for Computex originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 May 2009 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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