Best Gadgets News

Posted Feb 29th 2008 12:53PM by Darren MurphFiled under: Laptops Uh, we figured this whole Penryn update thing was all taken care of by now, but for whatever reason, Dell has found it quite pleasing to roll out said chips to its machines on a one (or two) at a time basis. Just a day after the new processors landed in the Precision M2300 and M4300 — and merely two days since they crawled within the M6300 — the Round Rock powerhouse has seen fit to hook up the all-business Latitude D630 and D830. Effective immediately, interested consumers can snatch up one (or both, we ’spose) of the aforementioned machines with a 2.5GHz T9300 or 2.6GHz T9500, both of which include 6MB of L2 cache. (Read the full post about ‘Wait, there’s more! Dell’s Latitude D630 / D830 go Penryn’…)

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Luxury camera maker Leica has confirmed that it has no immediate plans to offer a rangefinder digicam with a full-frame image sensor, either as a new product or an upgrade to the current flagship M8. This is no doubt a disappointment to cash-enrinched camera weenies dreaming of high-end SLR image quality without the bulk or complexity of a high-end SLR.Leica issues statement on M8 future [Amateur Photographer] (Read the full post about ‘Leica Nixes Full-Frame Digicam’…)

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Posted Feb 29th 2008 10:54AM by Darren MurphFiled under: Handhelds Not like we expect anything earth-shattering to emerge from Inkel’s South Korean laboratory or anything, but surely it could do better than this. The awkwardly named MU-D (it’s for Multimedia Dictionary, supposedly) does manage to include a DMB TV tuner for keeping you busy when not defining your life, but the whole swivel screen approach just seems… forced. Nevertheless, you will find a 4.3-inch 480 x 272 resolution panel, 4GB of internal storage, support for SDHC cards and an undisclosed price tag. (Read the full post about ‘Inkel’s MU-D e-dictionary longs to be a real tablet PC’…)

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Nothing helps mythologize a steamy tension between Apple and Sony quite like the Vaio Premium SZ, a sub $3k notebook that looks like the 13.3-inch MacBook’s evil twin. Where the MacBook is smooth, minimalist and Zen-like, the Vaio, which has 4 GB of RAM, a cellular modem, DVD burner and a 250 GB hard drive, is sharp and splendid. Where the MacBook balances consumption and performance, the Vaio’s muscular engine, powered by a 2.5-GHz T9300 Core 2 Duo and an Nvidia 8400M video chip, all but roars as it murders the battery. Where the Apple logo gently glows, the Vaio’s similarly placed marque glistens in chrome. (Read the full post about ‘Review: Sony Vaio SZ Premium Model Is MacBook’s Evil Twin’…)

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Game developer Iron Lore Entertainment has closed its doors this week, with all games development coming to an end.

Those of you who don’t recognize the name may know its well-received game Titan Quest. It got a Metacritic score of 77/100, a user score of 8.4/10, and the expansion pack Immortal Throne scored even higher (80/100 and 8.7/10 respectively).

Reasons for the closure seem to be due to a lack of new funding. A statement on the Iron Lore website included the following:

It is with great regret that we must announce that as of close of business Tuesday, February 19, 2008 Iron Lore Entertainment has ceased active game development.

(Read the full post about ‘Iron Lore is no more’…)

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Thanks to a new program, the homeless in San Francisco, California will have an important tool to be able to get back on their feet. The new tool will be life-long voicemail accounts and phone numbers given to any homeless person in the city courtesy of Google.

The program, which is expected to start soon, will give homeless people a permanent, local voicemail phone number that can be accessed by any phone.

(Read the full post about ‘San Francisco homeless to get free voicemail from Google’…)

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Sprint has joined AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile in offering unlimited cell phone calling plans. Sprint’s first unlimited plan is $99 and includes *everything*, not just calls, but data and PTT (Push to Talk) if you have one of those phones. Sprint is certainly pushing its competitors harder, and they must if they are to stem the financial bleeding they’ve been experiencing.

Ah, competition. It may be a cliche, but it really is amazing for consumers, although these price breaks and the possible ensuing price war may sink 1 or more of these cell providers before this is all over. But then again, it’s never over.

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Posted Feb 29th 2008 3:31AM by Ryan BlockFiled under: Desktops Okay, try not to let your mind get blown by the possible time-space paradox we’re about to illustrate, but MSI’s supposedly introducing a new ECOlution motherboard at CeBIT with an “air powered cooler” that operates on the Stirling Engine Theory to transform the thermal output of its chipset into the kinetic energy necessary to power that same chipset’s fan. Of course, as the fan cools the heatsink it deprives itself of energy, supposedly the piston affixed to the crankshaft pulls back down, giving it another potential surge when its heat rebuilds. (Read the full post about ‘MSI ECOlution motherboard transforms chip heat into fan power’…)

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Ah, the Lexus - a sign to the world that you’ve arrived. Amerigon Incorporated has just announced that its proprietary Climate Control Seat (CCS) will be making its way as an optional feature in the front seats of the all new 2008 Lexus LX 570 premium luxury utility vehicle. According to Amerigon President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel R. Coker, the CCS prides itself in being the only actively heated and cooled seat system on the global automotive market. This allows the driver and front seat passenger to individually heat or cool their seat for comfort in any climate. Man, I could definitely make do with such a seat in my beat up vehicle, combating the colds of winter as well as the sweltering summer heat at the touch of the button. (Read the full post about ‘Amerigon Climate Control Seat’…)

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Golden Tee Golf Do not fret if you cannot make it to your favourite golf course. The Golden Tee Golf Game brings the course to you in one simple, plug-in-and-play unit. No need for separate controllers or game console. See price (Read the full post about ‘Golden Tee Golf’…)

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