HI TECH GADGETS

Super Talent's dual interface UltraDrive MX SSD does SATA II and mini-USB

2010-07-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

She aint the first solid state drive to ship with a keen understanding of both SATA II and USB, but in the case of niche storage devices, the more the merrier, right? The newest member of the Ultra Drive family (that'd be the UltraDrive MX, if you're curious) has given Super Talent its first two-faced SSD, complete with a dual interface that enables it to be used as an internal or external drive. The company claims that this makes laptop drive swaps a lesson in simplicity, as you simply mount it via USB in order to clone your existing drive, and then connect it via SATA once you're ready to take it beneath the surface. We're told to expect read and write speeds as high as 250MB/sec and 180MB/sec, respectively, with capacities of 60GB, 120GB, 240GB and 480GB being available. Oh, and speaking of which -- these bad boys won't actually ship until September 1st, so we'd suggest pinching those pennies in the meantime.

Walmart to Embed Electronic Tracking System Into Clothing

2010-07-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

We know who you are and we know what you wear. At least, this will be the case for all Walmart customers from August 1st, when the retail giant begins embedding electronic ID tags into their clothing items. The Wall Street Journal has reported that this will be the first step taken by Walmart towards implementing a wide-scale real-time tracking system for controlling inventory and preventing theft. The way it works is suppliers add removable radio-frequency ID (RFID) tags to clothing items at the point of manufacture. Walmart workers then scan the garments with electronic readers to build a database with information of all sizes and ranges available. This will allow them to keep a closer, more accurate eye on their storeroom and shop floors. However, when combined with customers’ credit card information, data from the RFID tags could also allow retailers to keep a more watchful eye on their customers’ behavior and movements, and identify them the next time they step into their premises. Someone alert the privacy police.

iPod touch becomes iPhone using Yosion's Apple Peel 520?

2010-07-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

Oh sure, VoIP on the IPOD Touch is hardly breaking news these days, but what if you could actually slap on a regular SIM card and make calls on said device? That's what Yosion's appropriately named Apple Peel 520 claims to do. Powered by an Infineon baseband chip, this adapter not only offers voice calling and text messaging (presumably requiring a jailbroken iPod touch for the apps; GPRS not possible yet), but it also doubles up as an 800mAh battery and provides 4.5 hours of call time or 120 hours of standby juice. We're told this cheeky hack's coming out in China as early as this week for somewhere between ¥300 ($44) and ¥500 ($74), although the lack of an official website, full spec sheet or compatibility list means we'll have to remain skeptical with this potentially vaporware company. Maybe the demo video after the break will keep us believing

Buying Guide: Apple’s New iMac

2010-07-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

Apple updated its iMacand Mac Pro desktop line today with little or no design changes, but the technical specifications of these two machines are finally in line with what you can get from their Windows-running counterparts.
Let’s take a look at these two machines side by side for anyone looking to upgrade or switch.
First of all, if you’re looking to buy one of those shiny new 27" Apple cinema display to go with a new iMac, wait to make your purchase as those won’t be available until September. In my opinion, Dell's monitor offerings are priced very competitively to Apple’s, but you lose out on that Apple touch such as an aluminum enclosure and built-in MagSafe adapter. I have a 30" Dell LCDhooked up to my 27″ iMac and it performs perfectly with Apple’s Mini DisplayPort to Dual- Link DVI Adapter

The 27″ & 21″ iMac Side by Side

For nearly every user reading TheAppleBlog, Apple’s new iMac is the perfect machine both in performance and price. It will make your wallet happy compared to the Mac Pro and is a versatile machine with a small footprint and speeds that most users have never experienced. It also uses far less energy than the Mac Pro, which is good for your electric bill. Here’s my recommendation for a top of the line Core i7 iMac:

27″ Monitor
2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM – 4x2GB
2TB Serial ATA Drive
8x double-layer SuperDrive
ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB GDDR5 SDRAM
Magic Mouse

Final Price: $2,549
For this, you’re getting eight total cores since the quad-core i7 processor has hyperthreading and the 8GB of RAM is far from the max of 16GB that the new iMac can handle while still being more than enough for most users. Remember, the MacBook Pro can take a max of 8GB of RAM. I’d recommend 16GB to any aspiring filmmaker, CGI artist or science geek doing complex computations that require a ton of RAM. Besides, you can add more RAM a couple of years from now as the price drops and your needs grow.
The lowest-end iMac I’d recommend would be the following:

21.5″ Monitor
3.60GHz Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM – 2x2GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR3 SDRAM
8x double-layer SuperDrive
Magic Mouse

Final Price: $1,699
This is a great machine for people who don’t need a spacious monitor or the performance gains of 8 CPU cores. There is a cheaper Core i3 available at $1,199 but jump to this model if you can for a machine that will keep up with your day-to-day activities a year or more down the road. The Core i5 is a dual-core machine with hyperthreading so you get a total of 4 cores. Of note, the clock speed on this machine is much higher than the i7 but comparing the Core i5 and the Core i7 is night and day when it comes to performance.

CPUs Compared

The most notable difference is that the Core i5 has 4MB of L3 cache while the Core i7 has 8MB for twice as much memory per core and a faster front side bus.
Remember, more cores isn’t always faster. It’s easy to say the Core i7 has 4 physical and 4 virtual cores so it’s better than the i5, but so many applications don’t even know the other cores are there and I have some apps that max out one or two cores but leave the others alone. Snow Leopard’s Grand Central Dispatch makes it easy for devs to take advantage of those cores, but the extra time involved doesn’t make a task manager or note taking app move any faster.
In actuality, it’s the i7′s faster front side bus, enhanced memory architecture, larger cache and features like TurboBoost that truly make for a worthy upgrade.

SSD & HDD Available

Another observation that Apple didn’t spend too much time highlighting is that you can have SSD and HDD drives in the new iMac. The previous model only supported a single 1 or 2 terabyte hard disk drive. Now, buyers on Apple.com can configure a new iMac with a 1 or 2 terabyte drive in addition to a 256GB SSD. If you can afford it, do it. My 15″ MacBook Pro has an HDD but my MacBook Air is SSD and the speed and overall performance of having an SSD is phenomenal. Apple is letting users have their cake and eat it too because SSD is still very expensive so you have to choose performance over storage capacity. Now, you can have the speed of SSD and the storage of a 1+ terabyte drive in the same machine but you’re playing an additional $750/$900 for the privilege. This option is only available on The 27″ iMac.

The Value Proposition for Switchers

To understand the true value of this new machine, let’s compare it with a similarly equipped Dell. With the 27″ iMac, you’re getting a $999 monitor built into the machine. Subtract that number from the price tag and you’re getting a blazing fast Core i7 machine with 8GB of RAM for just over $1500 which will beat any similarly configured Dell Desktop. The Studio XPS 9000 desktop from Dell had a $1,799 price tag pre-tax after I configured it as similarly as I could to Apple’s 27″ iMac – and this is before adding a Dell monitor. Apple’s iMac is so competitively priced that it’s a no-brainer considering you can install Windows 7 on it, if you want.

The Magic Trackpad

We’ve already provided a run-down of the Magic Track Padhere on TAB but I wanted to emphasize that this is a big deal. Apple is bringing the tech that makes its notebooks so much better than other PC notebooks and making a standalone input device that everyone can enjoy.
I still agree and it’s a $69 add-on when buying your new iMac. But I say go for it; there’s always eBay if you really don’t like it. Apple notebook owners will see this as a no-brainer way to interact with the desktop computer. My friend, who does graphic design, loves the trackpad over a mouse and she’s already ordered one of these for her iMac.

Final Thoughts

The iMac is the most affordable iMac ever as it blows the pants off any previous desktop Mac under $3,000. If you can afford it, the top model I recommended is perfect and will function as a capable Mac for the next 3+ years without buyer’s remorse. The Mac Pro has its place but it can’t compete in price and packaging with the iMac. Even the normally affordable Dell machines can’t compete in price and that makes this machine perfect for home users, pros and switchers in a way that no other Mac has before.

HP's 30-inch ZR30w IPS LCD monitor reviewed: exceptional performance, reasonable price

2010-07-28T06:36:00.000-07:00

The market for 30 inch monitors is growing, but that's not the same as saying that your options are plentiful. You'll have a far easier time finding high-res 24- and 27-inch screens to toss together, but if you've got your mind set on a single LCD workspace, HP's ZR30w has to be on the short list. Coming in at an altogether respectable $1,299, this panel offers oodles of pixels (2,560 x 1,600) and top-shelf image quality. Critics over at Hot Hardware were thoroughly pleased with the results, keeping in mind that this was designed for the creative professional. They did knock the lack of ports (only a DisplayPort and DVI connector are included), but the lack of inputs was just about all they could kvetch about. Performance was deemed "exceptional," color reproduction was said to be "superb" and it even managed to hold its own while gaming. You may not be a big fan of the plain styling, but those source links are definitely worth a look if you've been teetering on this here fence.