Hasta La Gadget!

Digg
If you’re anything like us, as soon as you get a new PC there’s a laundry list of things you do: uninstall every piece of crapware, change the desktop wallpaper, and fire up Internet Explorer 8 to download a new browser like Firefox or Chrome. Without fail, we’ve repeated that last step on every Windows laptop we’ve reviewed in the last year. Why is it that we almost instantly replace IE with another option? There are lots of reasons, but to name a few… the browser usually comes plastered with toolbars, which makes it painfully slow to load even just a simple news site. And even when those are uninstalled it feels sluggish in comparison to Firefox and Chrome. Also, it’s just not as attractive or intuitive as the others. Oh, and then there are the smaller items, like the fact that it lacks a download manager or uses more RAM than the competition.

That’s no short list of complaints, but you can’t say Microsoft hasn’t been listening. It’s been saying for months that Internet Explorer 9 — which is now available for download as a public beta — will mend all those issues and then some. A lot of the improvements come in speed — Redmond’s been talking about hardware acceleration since November of last year — but there are some other interesting features such as “Pinned Sites” and “One Box” that Microsoft’s been less vocal about. So, does IE9 live up to the hype and will it finally give us a preloaded browser that’s fast enough to run with the others? Should you run along and download it right now? We’ve spent the last week using it as our primary browser on a number of different laptops to find out. We’ll meet again in our full review after the break.

Continue reading Internet Explorer 9 Beta review

Internet Explorer 9 Beta review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  IE9 Beta Download  | Email this | Comments

Ever seen a handheld that can run StarCraft II? You have now — this is the Ocosmos OCS-1, a Windows 7 sliding-QWERTY and dual-joystick device from Korea with Intel’s new Oak Trail inside. We’re looking at a 1.5GHz Oak Trail chip to be exact, coupled with Intel GMA600 integrated graphics, up to a 64GB of solid-state storage, 802.11b/g WiFi and Bluetooth underneath a 4.8-inch, 1024 x 600 capacitive touch screen. Front and rear cameras and a microphone are on hand for your inevitable video chat sessions, and there’s an array of slots and ports just as you’d expect. Get a closer look in our gallery below, while we go find out more.

Ocosmos OCS-1: Oak Trail meets Windows 7 in a 5-inch gaming handheld originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Among the various demos at IDF today, Acer showed off its Revo 2 sporting a special treat — Windows Media Center Embedded. A quick perusal of the menus (video is embedded after the break) showed off the same live TV / internet streaming video integration we’ve come to expect from Media Center, although obviously running on a simpler dedicated box. Acer’s aiming for availability in the first half of 2011, we’ll see if this setup can do any damage in the set-top box / media streamer wars.

Continue reading Acer shows off Windows Media Center Embedded at IDF (video)

Acer shows off Windows Media Center Embedded at IDF (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

At this point Toshiba’s dualscreen Libretto W105 shouldn’t need much of an introduction — or at least after glancing at the picture above we figure it won’t. It looks like a laptop straight out of the future. And it kind of is. It’s the sort of clamshell gadget we’ve seen rendered and rendered for years, but that’s never made it to market… until now that is. In celebration of Toshiba’s 25 years in the laptop business, the company’s gotten bolder than ever, and it hasn’t just created a gadget with two seven-inch capacitive touchscreens, but it’s actually brought it to market. Sure, it’s only available for a very limited run, and at a lofty $1,100, only die-hard gadget geeks are bound to fork over the cash. That said, it’s still one of the most intriguing devices we’ve seen all year, and that’s saying something. And it’s even more compelling when you consider that packs the parts of a 12- or 13-inch ultraportable, including an Intel Pentium processor, 2GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD and also runs Windows 7. But that’s exactly what’s wrong with the Libretto — it looks like the future, but it’s held back by modern day laptop parts and software. We’ve spent quite some time with the W105 — we typed half of this review on the bottom screen! — so you’ll want to hit the break to find out just what we’re talking about.

Continue reading Toshiba Libretto W105 review

Toshiba Libretto W105 review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We realize keeping up with HP’s model numbers can be as hard as keeping tabs on say, Lindsay Lohan’s run-ins with the law, but the 5103 is notable in one major way — it’s one of the first netbooks to ship with Intel’s dual-core Atom N550 processor. Like the 5102, the 5103 is still primarily aimed at business professionals. In fact, HP hardly messed with the look and feel of the aluminum dressed laptop — the chassis and features are pretty much the exact same, although HP did ditch the black lid for an “Espresso” color and preload some new “Day Starter” instant-on OS. Obviously, the big deal here is the new processor and seeing as how we’ve been waiting on Intel to release a dual-core Atom CPU for netbooks since well, the first netbook we were eager to see how much power that extra core adds and if it impacts battery life. Hit the break to see some of the results.

Continue reading HP Mini 5103 with dual-core Atom N550 performance review

HP Mini 5103 with dual-core Atom N550 performance review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments