Hasta La Gadget!

Reviews are starting to trickle out for Pansonic’s LX3 successor, the DMC-LX5, and so far they all seem to echo similar sentiment. The form factor hearkens back to its Micro Four Thirds darling GF1, at least from the top, with “dinky buttons” (in CNET UK’s words) on the back reminding you of its point-and-shoot bloodline. The pictures are solid if not characteristically warm — and the ability to simultaneously produce RAW and JPEG files is a nice touch — as is the choice of either Motion JPEG or AVCHD Lite video. The universal issue with this camera is the price; that £449.99 tag (the equivalent of $691 in US currency) doesn’t quite seem to match the offerings, especially when it’s about on par with entry-level DSLRs with interchangeable lenses (albeit without the slim look). As PhotographyBLOG puts it, Panny’s gotta hard case to make for a camera “that looks, at first glance to be very similar to a £299 model.” Hey, a hardware switch for changing the aspect ratio (just above lens barrel; 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, or 1:1) doesn’t come cheap. Much more detail can be found in the reviews below.

Note: It’s worth mentioning that this camera can be had for $500 at Amazon right now. Still pricey, but not $700 pricey.

Read – PhotographyBLOG
Read – CNET UK
Read – Pocket-lint

Lumix DMC-LX5 review roundup: great hardware for a not-so-great price originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic FZ35 and Canon SX20 IS superzoom cameras shoot it out in group test, rise to the top originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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My So-Called Laptop kicks off a new series of retrospectives where the editors of Engadget detail their first brushes with technology. Join them, won’t you?

We were awkward, young, innocent, and oh-so-nerdy. They were painful times, back when being called a “nerd” wasn’t exactly a compliment, and our best shot at an “internet connection” involved kicking our siblings off the phone and dialing up a BBS for our valued time slot. Still, there were bright lights at the end of the tunnel, and here we are writing at Engadget, having our passion for tech validated on a daily basis by a vibrant industry and an obsessive community. So now, with all sorts of “perspective” and “maturity,” we’ve decided to take a trip down memory lane, remembering our very first gadgets through rose-colored glasses. To kick things off? Our first laptops. Most of us started out nerd life chained to a desk, and remember well that first moment when we were able to cut the cord and take our work (or pleasure) on the go. We’ve ordered these from oldest to newest, so the real “olds” get a first crack at showing up the young whipper snappers among us, but what we’re most excited about is hearing what your first laptop was in comments. Don’t be shy, nobody will judge. Probably.

Continue reading My So-Called Laptop

My So-Called Laptop originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 May 2010 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ATI’s Radeon HD 5870 first saw the (official) light of day in late September of last year, but the GPU has managed to age well. In the months since that original debut, we’ve seen an Eyefinity 6 Edition hit the market for multi-monitor maniacs, and quite a few factory overclocked options have also made their way out. The benchmarking gurus over at Hot Hardware scrounged up three of the latest and greatest, all priced just below the $500 mark, which have core clock speeds that are 100MHz higher than standard and memory clock speeds that are up 50MHz above the norm. Cards from MSI, HIS and Gigabyte were represented, and while each of ’em put up a better-than-average fight, the latter card came out on top in nearly every single test. Gigabyte’s Super Overclock technology tended to outperform the other OC’ing solutions, but the whole lot managed to show up the non-overclocked alternatives by a good bit. Still, you’ll be forced to pay a 25 percent premium for an 11 to 16 percent boost in performance, so these are still probably best for enthusiasts who can’t stand to leave a single frame behind. Peep that source if you’re in need of more coaching before pulling the trigger either way.

Overclocked ATI Radeon HD 5870 shootout: HIS, MSI and Gigabyte trade blows originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 09 May 2010 10:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mousepads, who needs them? That’s the question that’s been keeping Tom’s Guide up at night lately, so they’ve done the only responsible thing a tech site can do and rolled up a mega roundup review of some of the more popular ones. Unsurprisingly, you’ll find plenty from Razer’s gaming collection, including the dual-sided Vespula and the Engadget-approved Megasoma, which are faced off against entries from Saitek, SteelSeries and lock specialist Kensington. The one that will have inevitably caught your eye, though, is that steel saw impersonator known as the Greensforged Remember Ravensholm pad. Built especially for a Half-Life 2 fan, it’s made entirely from steel, but we’re told its usefulness is apparently not quite on par with its good looks. Anyhow, dive into the source link for the complete roundup.

[Thanks, Ben]

Mousepad roundup: Razer, SteelSeries, Saitek and Kensington battle for two-dimensional supremacy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Apr 2010 09:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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