Acer Aspire One Review

Reviewed by: Rory Reid

Reviewed on: 20 June 2008

Acer says the Aspire One is not a laptop. It might look and smell like one, but the company has gone to great lengths to promote the message that the One is an 'Internet device'. Others, such as Intel, refer to it as a netbook -- a new category of device spawned by the Asus Eee PC 701. You, friends, can call it what you want. We'll stick with mini laptop.

Despite its lateness to the party, the One has pretty much everything it takes to be a market leader. It's attractive and lightweight. It offers solid performance and it's easy to use. Most importantly, however, is its price: the entry-level One costs a very pocket-friendly £220.

www.tikatusite.info

Dell Studio 15 Review

Reviewed by: Dan Ackerman

Reviewed on: 27 June 2008

Parsing the intended markets for Dell's ever-shifting in-house brand names requires some tea-leaf reading. It's been easier lately, with the company stripping down its consumer brands to just the Inspiron and XPS lines.

Now the company is adding a new line between the budget Inspiron and the high-end XPS. The new Studio line, as personified by the 15.4-inch Studio 15, has the same tapered shape, slot-loading optical drive and rounded hinge as the Dell XPS M1530, but a similarly configured Studio system costs roughly £350 less than a similarly outfitted XPS.

The base model of the Studio 15 costs around £479. We've reviewed a model that includes an upgraded CPU, which costs around £540 from Dell. All prices were correct at the time of writing.

cnet.uk

Latest Boards Products (Sapphire - PI-AM2RS780G review)

At first glance, Sapphire's PI-AM2RS780G looks like the perfect board to base an HTPC (Home Theatre PC) around. But digging a little deeper reveals that it is something of a missed opportunity, which is a real shame. As it is, it would make the ideal basis for a quiet, non-gaming (if you use the integrated graphics) everyday PC.

The reason for the disappointment is that AMD's latest 780G chipset, on which the board is based, can support VGA, DVI, HDMI and Display Port outputs. Unfortunately Sapphire chose to go with the VGA and DVI options and didn't include the HDMI port, which would have made this board a real contender for the home-built HTPC.

As the board uses the 780G chipset you get fairly decent integrated graphics powered by the HD3200 core in the Northbridge, which also can relieve the burden of the CPU when it comes to decoding high-definition content via the UVD (Unified Video Decoder) which supports both Blu-ray and HD-DVD. The HD3200 has a clock speed of 500MHz and supports DirectX 10.

t can use up to 512MB of the system memory and also supports Hybrid Graphics; add in a dedicated card (currently only HD2400 and HD3400 series cards are supported, and then only in Vista) and you can set up Crossfire using both the integrated core and the discrete card. This also works in a power-saving mode, so when the graphical demand is low it only uses the integrated core, but when you switch to something more demanding the technology dynamically uses both.

The board is well laid out despite its MicroATX format, even down to things like the locking latches on the four DIMM slots not being blocked by a card in the single 16x PCI-E slot. The slots support 800MHz DDR2 memory up to a maximum of 8GB.

The only other slots for extra cards are two PCI slots, but with integrated eight-channel audio and Gigabit Ethernet, that should be plenty.

Both the Northbridge and the SB700 Southbridge are passively cooled, as are the voltage regulators. Six SATA 3.0GBps ports are provided and, thanks to the SB700 chipset, drives can be built into RAID 0, 1 or 10 arrays.

Tucked away under the memory slots is an LED display for showing the POST codes during start-up: very useful should things go awry... or it would be if Sapphire had put a list of the codes and their meanings in the manual.

Latest Board Products (Asus - M3N-HT Deluxe Mempipe review)

One of the latest boards form Asus is the M3N-HT Deluxe, based around Nvidia's new nForce 780a SLI chipset which offers 3-Way SLI support for AMD processors, as well as bringing Nvidia's new HybridSLI technology to the table.

Nvidia's HybridSLI consists of two technologies - HybridPower and GeForce Boost - both of which are only available under Windows Vista. The power-saving HybridPower works by turning off the dedicated graphics card when you're not playing games and dynamically switching in the onboard GeForce 8 series graphics. GeForce Boost, meanwhile, allows the graphics core of a dedicated card and the core of the integrated graphics to be used in SLI mode.

So far, so good, but at present both technologies are limited to a couple of cards each. GeForce boost only works with GeForce 8400GS and 8500GT entry-level cards, while HybridPower is restricted to the high-end GeForce 9800GTX and 9800 GX2.

Asus's M3N-HT Deluxe/Mempipe supports both AM2 and AM2+ AMD processors. To get the best out of the board you really need to use a Phenom processor, as this allows you to get the full benefit of the HyperTransport 3.0 interface which is theoretically 10,400MBps (but current Phenoms work at the lower end of the HT 3.0 specifications, at 7,200MBps).

Four DIMM slots support 1066/800/667/533MHz DDR2 memory up to a total memory capacity of 8GB, although 1066MHz support is only supported by AM2+ CPUs.

Passive heatsinks are used throughout; both bridges and the MOSFETS, although Asus bundles a small fan in the box should your overclocking efforts start to cook the Northbridge. Also a pair of passive coolers are provided for two memory modules and these will even fit standard sized modules with their own heatsinks, although you might run into problems with the massive heatsink-equipped modules like Corsair's DHX series.

Three x16 PCI-E 2.0 slots are provided which allow 3-way SLI setups to be used, but they only work at full x16 speed in the standard dual card SLI setup. When three cards are used, one slot runs at full speed while the other two run at x8 speed.

For expansion purposes there are two PCI slots along with a single x1 PCI-E slot, which is about all you need as the board comes with integrated Gigabit Ethernet and eight-channel audio (ADI AS1988B chip) which also feeds the S/PDIF out port on the rear I/O panel. In any case, there just isn't enough room on the board for any more slots.

Six SATA 3GBps ports are edge-mounted at ninety degrees, making for tidy cable runs, and there is support for RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 and JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) RAID arrays. A Marvell 6111 controller looks after the e-SATA port on the rear panel.

A really useful feature is what Asus calls Express Gate, a Linux utility with a five-second boot-up time allowing you to surf the 'net, use Skype and access webmail without booting into Windows.

Best Graphic Card For Your PC Today

What is the best graphic card today? with a cheap price, good to play the game.
Find your answers here

The NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600 GSO GPU offers a powerfully immersive entertainment experience designed for extreme high-definition gaming and video playback. Play the hottest DirectX 10 games with awesome speed and watch the latest HD DVD and Blu-ray movies with brilliant clarity. Featuring next generation GeForce and PureVideo® HD technologies, the GeForce 9600 GSO GPU puts amazing graphics performance within your reach.

The 8800 GS will be based on the G92 core powering both the 8800 GT and GTS and is expected to run with 757MHz core, 1,438MHz shader, and 1,700MHz memory clock speeds. As well as being slower than the GT the GS also sacrifices 16 stream processors, leaving it with 96 of these and also meaning the card has a reduced number of texture units: 48 down from 56 and ROPs: 12 as opposed to 16. Further to this the card uses a 192-bit memory interface so we once again see unusual memory sizes; this time 384MB and 768MB GDDR3 options.
As with all of nVidia's current graphics chips, DirectX 10.1 support is still missing, but that is unlikely to be a problem for a fair while yet. Expreview, the site which managed to get the early scoop on the card, reckons that performance is about 25 per cent less than that of the 8800 GT, which falls in with the idea of it being a rival to the Radeon HD 3850 and available information also suggests that pricing should also fall into 3850 territory - how surprising (review by Hugo Jobling at http://www.trustedreviews.com)

Computex 2008: Sapphire develops 3D gaming graphics driver

Posted at: 8:37am 3rd June 2008 by Clive Webster in Taipei

New graphics driver to make games 3D, plus new Sapphire 3D screen to run them on.

New 3D gaming technology was on show at Computex, Taiwan today with Sapphire demonstrating two systems using it's new stereoscopic graphics driver and Sapphire-branded 3D monitors. The new driver 'polarise a stereoscopic image, which can be displayed on a two-layer LCD screen' said Bill Donnelly, Global PR Director for Sapphire Technology.

By using a special pair of polarised sunglasses, each eye can only see one of the two layers of the LCD, and when the brain combines the two images from both eyes, it makes the image on screen appear 3D. This is the same technique Nvidia uses for its Nvidia 3D Stereo driver to achieve the same effect.

Donnelly was keen to explain that the new driver is a Sapphire innovation, "ATI doesn't [have a stereoscopic driver]. We've done a proof of concept working with a different monitor manufacturer [than Zalman], using our own driver set to integrate with the ATI driver to deliver 3D not just in games but in the workstation market.'

Donnelly couldn't tell us which monitor manufacturer Sapphire had teamed up with, though the very fact that it was definitely not Zalman is interesting in itself - as Zalman has its 3D Trimon screen that we've seen working with Nvidia cards.

What we can say is that the results of the new driver are impressive, especially as Sapphire has had to write its own driver add-on to get it to work. Only a Ruby demo was playing, but the 3D technology certainly works.

Uncoincidentally, Sapphire was also showing off some Sapphire-branded dual-layer 3D monitors to show the new driver in action. Expect to see Sapphire screen and card bundles for gaming and workstation use soon, as while Donnelly pointed out that`"at this stage it [the stereoscopic driver] is a proof of concept" he also said that, "we're expecting to bring something to market in the next couple of months."

iPhone Games Are Expensive

http://kotaku.com/

Super Monkey Ball, Spore...iPhone gaming sure looks promising. But how much would you pay for a game that, fancy graphics or not, you're playing on your phone? $5? $15? Hahaha. Not even close. No, according to Spanish mobile studio LemonQuest - who are currently working on an iPhone game - Apple are planning on charging $25 for an iPhone game. That's a spicy meatball. Too spicy? Not if iPhone games can be the equivalent of at least a DS game. And if they can manage that, well...that's a bargain!

Smaller, cheaper Laptops take Trade Fair by storm

When 17-year old Yuna Hua bought a new notebook computer for school, she chose a smaller, lighter and cheaper one to replace her bulky and expensive laptop.

HTC Touch Pro Business Handset Unveiled

HTC today unveiled the Touch Pro, its newest Window Mobile 6.1 business device with 3D touch user interface, desktop-like browsing and 5-row sliding QWERTY keyboard.
The Touch Pro includes a new touch-sensitive control for device interaction. It offers advanced touch screen technology with TouchFLO 3D, HTC's 3D touch interface. TouchFLO 3D uses one touch to scroll through common tasks like messaging, calendar appointments or making calls. Music, photos, contacts and surfing the web are also responsive.
"HTC Touch Pro is for those customers that demand the ease of use and enjoyment of TouchFLO 3D and want the styling of the Touch Diamond but also need the powerful mobile business experience that HTC delivers," said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corp.

The Touch Pro delivers broadband-like speeds with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps. A new browser lets users view and navigation websites designed for PCs. Surfers can zoom and pan websites with one-hand and view content created to fit the display. Turning the device sideways automatically rotates the webpage view from a portrait to landscape.

An HTC-developed, YouTube application is integrated for watching user generated video. Google Maps for Mobile is included for mapping and traffic data.

Crafted to fit comfortably in the hand, the Touch Pro's five-row QWERTY keyboard makes tasks like composing email or working on Microsoft Office documents quick and easy. Built-in TV-out functionality, users can deliver PowerPoint presentations from the handheld.

The built-in 3.2-megapixel camera includes an optical auto-focus lens for clear and consistent photos. The 2.8-inch display provides web browsing and viewing of snapshots.

Motorola Launches Windows Mobile 6.1 Update for Sprint Q9c

Written by Humberto Saabedra on June 3, 2008

Motorola has released the first US carrier-branded Windows Mobile 6.1 update for users of Sprint’s Motorola Q9c smart device.

The update features new functionality such as copy/paste of text, threaded SMS messaging, Direct Push, and the new Internet Exploer Mobile browser which allows for advanced zooming and formatting of web pages.

Users with the device will need to run Motorola Software Update in order to begin the update process.

Verizon Launches RemoSync Microsoft Exchange Application on Select Phones

Written by Humberto Saabedra on June 3, 2008

In a press release today, Verizon Wireless and solutions developer Remoba have announced the availability of the RemoSync email access application through the Get It Now service on select phones.

RemoSync allows standard BREW handsets to access corporate email networks that utilize Microsoft Exchange and offers complete access to features such as Direct Push, read, compose, reply, reply to all, edit, send, and delete mail, e-mail fowarding with attachments and viewing of attachment names, handling of meeting invitations with three options (accept, decline and undecided), phone book integration, global address list access, and e-mail alerts.

Contacts are handled via integration with Microsoft Outlook with sync support and the ability to download Outlook contacts to the phone, uploading phonebook contacts to Outlook, add, edit, sync, remove from phone, delete from Outlook features, and full search and access within Global address lists and Outlook.

Full Calendar access is also provided with View Calendar Events which includes daily, weekly and monthly views, adding, editing, and deleting events from the phone, date selection to view events, online and offline editing features, reminders, and the ability to schedule meetings and invite attendees via the phonebook, Outlook, and Global address lists.

The application does not require a data plan, but does require prior access to an Exchange service whether it be provided by a business or through Verizon’s Hosted Exchange service.

The application is available for $9.99 per month on top of applicable airtime and data charges on the LG VX9400, LG VX8700, LG Chocolate, LG V, LG enV(2), LG Venus, and LG Voyager; Samsung Gleam, Samsung FlipShot and Alias, and Motorola MOTORAZR maxx Ve, MOTORAZR(2) V9m, MOTORIZR Z6tv, and MOTO Z6c World Edition.