The fine folks at both HotHardware and PC Perspective have run the new ASUS P7P55D-E Premium motherboard through its paces, which has the particular distinction of handling both USB 3.0 and the up-and-coming SATA 6G through controllers by NEC and Marvell, respectively. Lucky for us, both sites’ tests came to similar conclusions. The Seagate Barracuda XT SATA 6G drive has almost zero improvement over SATA 3G, other than in some burst speeds due to the fancy cache on the 6G — the bottleneck here is the drive, not the controller. Meanwhile, USB 3.0 has speeds that are roughly 5 to 6 times faster than USB 2.0 with the same drive, a huge win for fans of external storage the world over. Perhaps even better news is that an ASUS US36 controller card with USB 3.0 and SATA 6G support is a mere $30, so this stuff is already basically within reach to the average desktop user.
Archive for October, 2009
USB 3.0 and SATA 6G put to good use: benchmarks
iLuv ships weather-watching iMM183 dual dock iPod / iPhone alarm clock
It belts out severe weather alerts as storms are barreling towards your domicile. It acts as a decent bedroom stereo. And it wakes you and the SO up to your own favorite jams — all while charging your iPod or iPhone throughout the night. If those amenities sound like must-haves in your own life, you might be interested in knowing that iLuv’s iMM183 dual dock alarm clock is now shipping, nearly a full year after being originally announced at CES.
Sony Ericsson Android XPERIA X3/X10 teaser
Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA teaser may have been accused of being a little presumptuous, but that doesn’t mean we’re not excited about the Android device they’re announcing on November 3rd. Now a teaser video has emerged showing the XPERIA X3/X10 Rachael in action, and darn it if we’re not excited again.
There’s no new detail on the device, at least nothing we didn’t know already, and neither the full front nor the OS is shown. However, we’re pretty certain that this is the company’s first Android smartphone, complete with the own homegrown UI that, from the video demo we’ve seen of it in the past, looks like it could take on HTC Sense. Read the rest of this entry »
Samsung Moment
Samsung caught our Android attention with their Galaxy, a slender smartphone with a gorgeous AMOLED touchscreen, and now they’re back with the keyboard-toting follow-up. The Samsung Moment on Sprint is a phone with a few firsts of its own – the first QWERTY Android device to offer an AMOLED display, the first to have an 800MHz processor – but it seems the company stopped their innovation before reaching the software: unlike other Android handsets we’re seeing, there’s no reworked UI and no expansive social network integration. Can a well-turned spec sheet make up for it? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
The Moment’s keyboard certainly impressed us initially, with large keys, decent travel, an audible click to let you know you’ve pressed and an offset layout that we thought better replicates that of a regular keyboard. Unfortunately, Samsung squander that head-start with the frustrating positioning of the space bar and the Fn key, which results in the bottom row of letters being unusually offset underneath the middle row. Read the rest of this entry »
Nintendo DSi LL Gets Official
In case you happen to love your Nintendo DSi then I just hope you didn’t just purchase your own DSi. I am saying all this as there’s a new DSi in town, a bigger one that you’ll like even better. The DSi LL has been officially unveiled by Nintendo and the new handheld console will be available in Japan starting with November 21.
The rest of us mortals will get the shiny new toy at some point in early 2010. Nintendo UK will launch the device in the first quarter of 2010 and it will be known as the Nintendo DSi XL. Other markets will probably get the new, improved DSi around the same time but there’s nothing official. I can’t help but notice how Nintendo has screwed the launch date. Why not launch it a little earlier? You know, just so most markets out there would be able to get it in time for Christmas? Read the rest of this entry »
Acer T230H 23″ Multi-touch LCD Announced
It looks like the big hype with Windows 7 is that it offers great multi-touch capabilities, hence why we see more and more multitouch-capable LCD monitors these days. Another addition to the market is the new Acer T230H, a 23-inch Full HD display (16:9, 1920 x 1080 resolution) that brags to recognize one- and two-finger gestures, such as pinch-zoom and chiral-rotate.
A sleek build with a bunch of goodies inside, Acer T230H is the company’s first touch-activated display. It sports VGA, HDMI and DVI inputs, delivers a 2ms response time, 300 cd/m2 brightness and a 80,000:1 dynamic contrast rate. It also comes with an USB port that allows you to hook up the multi-touch interface to your PC in case you haven’t opted for Windows 7 already, and has built-in 1.5W stereo speakers. Read the rest of this entry »
Elmo and Nokia join forces, meld kids’ books with teleconferencing for Storyplay
Whether you love Elmo for his ability to make your kids sit quietly or hate him for his voice that’s about two steps away from fingernails on chalkboards, there’s no denying his popularity. His latest appearance is in this maple-stained electronic reader from Nokia called Storyplay. In these days of electronic ink and Kindle competitors, Espoo has taken something of a different tact here, designed to help kids and adults read together even when far apart. It has room in the middle for a removable paper book with magnets on each page to identify which is being shown, then on the top are two screens. One is continual footage of that most ticklish of Sesame Street characters, the other a live video stream from a remote parent, grandparent, or other floating head who can read along. The video below shows it all in action and, while the tech is compelling, it’s hard to see much of a market outside of parents with a wallet full of platinum frequent flier cards. Then again, we didn’t think the Booklet 3G would find success, so this will probably be the best selling thing ever.
Lenovo Leaks ThinkCentre All-in-One PC
All-in-one PCs are today’s big hype with companies like MSI, Dell, Acer or Lenovo introducing better and better products that will gain them market share. Speaking of Lenovo, the company has recently shrouded in mystery a sleek unnamed business class AIO computer for their ThinkCentre Series.
Designed with the business user in mind, — which is a first for Lenovo, if we’re to believe the company’s profile on Flickr, the new Lenovo ThinkCentre All-in-One PC is expected to make its official debut soon at the upcoming EDUCAUSE 09 conference.
Not much is known about the ThinkCentre AIO PC, but from what it looks there’s a webcam attached and a microphone, integrated stereo speakers, wireless keyboard and mouse (they look new), some USB 2.0 dongles together with in/out ports on the side. No word on what’s under the hood, but they’d better put some sharp processors in there if they want these used for business.
TomTom Car Kit incompatible with iPod touch
TomTom have confirmed that their Car Kit – the optional accessory to accompany the TomTom iPhone app – will only fully work with the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, thanks to a limitation in the TomTom application. The app’s limitation means that owners of the first-gen iPhone, together with iPod touch users, won’t be able to take advantage of the Car Kit’s integrated GPS receiver and speakerphone.
The TomTom navigation application does not require the Car Kit accessory, but with it users of iPhone 3G and 3GS can see boosted GPS signal together with using their phone hands-free. It also has an integrated charger, which both rejuices the iPhone and powers the Car Kit’s GPS/speaker.
TomTom are saying they have no “public announcements” about whether they’ll be releasing a version of the Car Kit app that’s compatible with the iPod touch or first-gen iPhone. The Car Kit itself is priced at $119.95 and expected to ship in 2-3 weeks according to Apple’s online store.
Nokia N97 mini goes on sale
It’s all go in Nokia N97 land this week, with the double news that not only have the Finnish company released the much-anticipated 2.0 firmware update for the original N97, but that the Nokia N97 mini would be arriving on shelves. The N97 mini – officially announced at Nokia World back in September – has a smaller chassis than the N97, but uses the same touchscreen-friendly S60 5th Edition OS.
Among the changes for the N97 with firmware 2.0 are “flip scrolling”, similar to the kinetic scroll on the iPhone, the latest Ovi Maps 3.1 with 3D mapping, Nokia Messaging and Ovi Contacts. There’s also the newest version of the Ovi Store, Nokia’s download center, together with further personalization of the homescreen. The new firmware can be downloaded via a PC and updated with the Nokia Software Update tool, or directly OTA from the N97 itself.
As for the N97 mini, that has a 3.2-inch resistive touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard, 3G and WiFi, and will be priced at around €450 ($666). Anybody tempted?
