Its Technology

Audi replaces rear-view mirror with mobile phone inspired camera

2012-08-11T17:54:00.002-07:00

SYDNEY: Audi appears to be the first car maker that is prepared to jump across the digital divide, replacing the reflective glass of the rear-view mirror with a large and glowing mobile phone screen.

The technology comes straight off the racetrack, with large LCD screens featuring in Audi's R18 Hybrid and Ultra race cars that dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans race earlier this year.

In another digital first, the electronic rear-view mirror will feature in the R8 e-tron, the road-going, battery-powered version of the R8 two-seat sports car due to appear in its production form later this year - but this has not yet confirmed for Australia.

The German luxury brand says swapping the traditional mirror for the camera-fed digital version introduces a host of benefits for drivers.SYDNEY: Audi appears to be the first car maker that is prepared to jump across the digital divide, replacing the reflective glass of the rear-view mirror with a large and glowing mobile phone screen.

The technology comes straight off the racetrack, with large LCD screens featuring in Audi's R18 Hybrid and Ultra race cars that dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans race earlier this year.

In another digital first, the electronic rear-view mirror will feature in the R8 e-tron, the road-going, battery-powered version of the R8 two-seat sports car due to appear in its production form later this year - but this has not yet confirmed for Australia.

The German luxury brand says swapping the traditional mirror for the camera-fed digital version introduces a host of benefits for drivers.

"A control unit produces a consistent high-contrast, brilliant image," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted the car maker as saying in a statement released overnight.

"During the hours of darkness the intelligent control system prevents dazzle from the headlights of other vehicles. The driver can dim or deactivate the display at any time.

"Audi is also working on incorporating additional information on the monitor in future," the car maker said.

The R8 e-tron will use the electronic mirror because unlike the conventionally-engined version, it has no rear window.

Instead, the battery-powered car has a big bank of aluminium cooling fins that help to cool the electronics and batteries that lie in the space occupied by the engine in the conventional sports car.

A rearward-facing camera will be mounted in a special housing at the rear of the car.

According to Audi, the organic materials used in the digital screen - adopted from mobile phones and much more advanced than a laptop screen - can glow at night under very low power, eliminating the need to provide a back-lit screen once darkness falls.

The car maker added that the system is also smart enough to be able to digitally filter out the bright headlights of following cars.

"A control unit produces a consistent high-contrast, brilliant image," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted the car maker as saying in a statement released overnight.

"During the hours of darkness the intelligent control system prevents dazzle from the headlights of other vehicles. The driver can dim or deactivate the display at any time.

"Audi is also working on incorporating additional information on the monitor in future," the car maker said.

The R8 e-tron will use the electronic mirror because unlike the conventionally-engined version, it has no rear window.

Instead, the battery-powered car has a big bank of aluminium cooling fins that help to cool the electronics and batteries that lie in the space occupied by the engine in the conventional sports car.

A rearward-facing camera will be mounted in a special housing at the rear of the car.

According to Audi, the organic materials used in the digital screen - adopted from mobile phones and much more advanced than a laptop screen - can glow at night under very low power, eliminating the need to provide a back-lit screen once darkness falls.

The car maker added that the system is also smart enough to be able to digitally filter out the bright headlights of following cars.

Facebook Timeline

2011-12-26T17:32:00.000-08:00

Facebook Timeline is a radical new profile page design that Facebook will launch around the end of September 2011. It was announced by Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook's F8 conference following an introduction from SNL's Andy Samberg. (See pictures of Facebook Timeline here.)

Facebook Timeline changes the default profile from a list of your most recent updates to a complete summary of your entire life since birth. It includes photos, videos, status updates and locations you have visited. The new Facebook profile is divided into two main columns, with a line down the middle representing the passage of time. Users are encouraged to add life events which were not captured by Facebook, particularly those that occurred before the person joined Facebook.

Timeline uses an algorithm to assess the most important moments of your life, which can then be edited to your satisfaction. Unwanted updates can be hidden from the Timeline.

The new profile pages are thought to constitute one of Facebook's most extreme redesigns so far, completely reimagining what a social networking profile can be. Timeline also means that Facebook now bears fewer similarities to Google+, a social network from Google which currently uses the standard format of showing the most recent updates first.

GarageBand for iPad and iPhone

2011-12-14T07:01:00.000-08:00

GarageBand already has a long history on the Mac, letting people use intuitive controls and a huge library of instruments and prerecorded loops to create songs. But for the iOS version, Apple needed to come up with creative ways to record music using only a touch-screen interface, and we think the company did an amazing job. The iPad version was released in March 2011, but the app has now gone universal in the latest version, letting you record and create songs on your iPhone and iPod Touch as well.

As a general overview, GarageBand offers several Touch Instruments, guitar amps and effects, eight-track recording and mixing, and more than 250 loops to play with. You can export AAC files of your projects through e-mail or add them to iTunes.

Immediately upon launch, GarageBand makes it easy to get started creating a song. Simply choose an instrument and start playing around with GarageBand's many options. GarageBand offers instruments you can play in real time like their real-world counterparts, but you also have the option to play Smart Instruments that do most of the heavy lifting for you. Every instrument has its own specific theme, giving all of them their own feel as you play. Some instruments even have added controls such as effects boxes you can turn on and off to fine-tune your sound.

Using the smart keyboard, for example, lays out all your chords in the chosen key. This means that just about whatever you press will probably go together in a song. You can change the key by touching the wrench in the upper-right corner of the screen. Using a combination of bass notes on the bottom and chords at the top, it's easy to create a nice-sounding song, even if you have very little experience playing the piano.

Similarly, the smart guitar offers a different layout that lets you play chords with a swipe of your finger. You also have the ability to switch to individual notes and actually bend guitar strings for your big rock solos. All of the Smart Instruments come with a few prerecorded segments so you can just tap a key and let the app play for you. Drums can be played manually on touch-screen drum kits or drum-machine-like layouts. But as with the other instruments, you can choose smart drums to make things easier. Simply drag and place drum set pieces onto a grid to experiment, or hit the dice icon in the lower left for a random layout. It's clear that Apple spent a lot of time on how to make music creation easy even for people with no musical experience.

Read more: GarageBand for iPad and iPhone - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com http://download.cnet.com/GarageBand-for-iPad-and-iPhone/3000-2133_4-75415495.html#ixzz1gWOjIG3V

Check out the world’s thinnest phone

2011-10-21T01:55:00.001-07:00

Rumors have been flying for some time that Motorola would be launching its Droid RAZR today. The company made sure not to disappoint its fans and presented the device calling it an "impossibly thin" phone that features a stainless-steel core. Moreover, for those who are scared their screen may get scratched the Droid RAZR comes with a Gorilla Glass screen and a nanotechnology Splash-guard which managed to protect the electronic pieces inside the phone.

Motorola Mobility president Sanjay Jha declared their handset was the world’s thinnest phone, having a thickness of only 7.1mm. If you don’t care about the fact that it is thinner than all other 3G phones on the market, then you will most likely be interested by the fact that it runs on Verizon Wireless's 4G LTE network. Some countries will be calling the phone the Motorola RAZR. So far details on international carriers and network compatibility have not been released.

The phone has a 4.3-inch screen with qHD resolution. Like the Samsung Galaxy phones, its screen is not LCD, but Super AMOLED. As a result the device has a higher contrast and brighter colors. As far as the power department goes, the handset will feature a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. Moreover, it will be the first smartphone to “download HD movies from Netflix."

The device runs on Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread and also supports the webtop interface.

"You can stream content from your computer straight to your pocket (or purse) so your personal content is always within reach," said a press release about MotoCast, the phone’s syncing system. "And, because you don’t have to upload to a third-party site, you’re saving time while gaining peace of mind. That’s right — your files stay safe because they stay with you."

Oldest running car finds its owner

2011-10-15T22:13:00.001-07:00

In the year 1884 this little car could be seen running on the streets. Its name was: De Dion Bouton Et Trepardoux Dos-a-Dos Runabout. On Friday, at the RM Auctions Hershey, the world’s oldest running car has finally found its owner. At the auction the car managed to sell for double the pre-sale estimated price. The car has a steam powered engine which works with a tank of water that needs to be refueled every 20 miles. The automobile can reach 38 miles per gallon and was used in the first motor car race that was held in 1887. At that time it reached 16 mph.

This car is considered the first family car considering the fact that it is able to accommodate four people while one drives. The car was sold for $4.2 million. A 10 percent fee was also added to the price, augmenting it with $420,000.

The car is also known as “Le Marquise” after the mother of its creator. At the auction another car was mentioned, the Grenville which also competes for the title of “oldest running car”. It was described as “basically a powered gun carriage.” However, a representative of the National Motor Museum explained that the description was incorrect and that, in fact, the car was a family car and not a gun carriage. It was used for personal transportation.

“Le Marquise” has now reached its fifth owner. So far it is unknown whether it will be added to a private collection or if it will be put on public display.

Google translate added 14 more languages

2011-10-15T22:10:00.000-07:00

Google’s translation application for Android recently added more languages. The company is known to have offered text translations and speech-to-text translation for a long time. Still, in January, it took a new step and made an attempt at making speech-to-speech translations from English to Spanish.

With the new update that was released on Thursday, the application can now converse in 14 languages. Besides English and Spanish, it has added Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian and Turkish.

“Mobile technology and the web have made it easier for people around the world to access information and communicate with each other,” product manager Jeff Chin explained in a post on the company’s blog. “But there’s still a daunting obstacle: the language barrier. We’re trying to knock down that barrier so everyone can communicate and connect more easily.”

Chin pointed out that the application was still an early alpha. Due to the accents and background noise its accuracy is far from stellar.

“But since it depends on examples to learn, the quality will improve as people use it more,” Chin said. “We wanted to get this early version out to help start the conversation no matter where you are in the world.”

Google also added a feature that allows you to see what the application believes it heard. Therefore you can correct any mistakes.

In addition, the number of languages that are supported for the application’s text and text-to-speech translations keeps on growing. At the moment there are 63 languages supported for text, while speech-to-text has 17 languages and text-to-speech works in 24 languages.

NASA strikes deal with Virgin Galactic

2011-10-15T21:58:00.000-07:00

The space tourism company Virgin Galactic has announced it has a deal with NASA worth approximately $4.5 million. Virgin Galactic officials announced today that they will provide their new private spaceliner SpaceShipTwo, in order to aid in research. Based on this deal, NASA will have to charter three flights on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo which is an air-launched spacecraft that may carry up to eight people on trips towards suborbital space. Two days ago officials from Virgin Galactic announced that Mike Moses, NASA's former deputy space shuttle program chief became the company’s vice president of operations.

"We are excited to be working with NASA to provide the research community with this opportunity to carry out experiments in space,” said George Whitesides, president and CEO of Virgin Galactic, in a statement they sent to the press.

"An enormous range of disciplines can benefit from access to space, but historically, such research opportunities have been rare and expensive," Whitesides added. "At Virgin Galactic, we are fully dedicated to revolutionizing access to space, both for tourist astronauts and, through programs like this, for researchers."

Each of the ships that will be used by NASA may carry 1,300 pounds (590 kilograms) of scientific experiments. A flight test engineer will join every mission in order to monitor and conduct experiments.

"Bringing Mike in to lead the team represents a significant investment in our commitment to operational safety and success as we prepare to launch commercial operations," Whitesides said.

Until he was chosen as a director in 2005, Moses acted as a space shuttle flight controller for 10 years.

"I am extremely excited to be joining Virgin Galactic at this time, helping to forge the foundations that will enable routine commercial suborbital spaceflights," Moses added in a statement. "Virgin Galactic will expand the legacy of human spaceflight beyond traditional government programs into the world’s first privately funded commercial spaceline."

Apple server suffers hack attack

2011-07-05T09:43:00.001-07:00

It appears that a group of hackers who call themselves AntiSec managed to get a list of 27 usernames and passwords that they found in an SQL database on Sunday. The database was linked to several online surveys posted on the Apple Inc. Business Intelligence site. The group stated on Twitter that they were able to attack the server of the company as they had found a security flaw in the software used by Apple. The Wall Street Journal claimed AntiSec was behind several branches and also postings of numerous alleged usernames and passwords. On the bright side none of these security branches involved iTunes whose database holds 225 million accounts and the credit cards associated to them.

"#Apple could be target, too," AntiSec posted on Twitter on Sunday giving a link to their list of usernames and passwords. "But don't worry, we are busy elsewhere."

The “busy elsewhere” part of the message was most likely referring to the attacks they were directing to the database of the Australian Election, even if it received less attention than the one directed towards Apple. As a result of the attack, important data was posted on the PirateBay website.

This is only another in a list of many hack attacks that took place in the recent months, attacks that were made by groups like AntiSec and the already disbanded LutzSec. Some of the most important victims of these groups include: Sony, Nintendo, Epic, Sega and Codemasters. Moreover LutzSec also attacked the FBI, the CIA and AT&T.

4 new smartphones arrive at Verizon

2011-05-27T07:17:00.000-07:00

f you are tired of your old smartphone and want something special then make sure to check the new packages landing at Verizon. The company is bringing forth, four new devices: LG Revolution, Xperia Play, HTC Trophy and Motorola Droid X2.

Although the LG Revolution is not what you would call a top level handset, featuring only a single-core 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU, a 5-megapixel back camera and a 1.3-megapixel front camera, with a 4.3-inch, 800×480 pixel screen, the feature that definitely attracts is the LTE capability which gives top notch speeds for those who need fast data transfers.

The Droid X2 is more powerful as far as performance goes with a dual-core 1 GHz CPU, 8-megapixel back camera, featuring a 4.3 inch with 960 x 540 display. However this smartphone lacks LTE capability making it $50 cheaper, being sold at a $199 price with a two year contract.

The cheapest of the 4 smartphones is the HTC Trophy. This is a regular Windows 7 Phone which features a 3.8-inch screen with a 480×800 pixel display. It has a 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU, featuring a 5-megapixel back camera and 16 GB of storage memory. It costs only $149.

Last comes the Xperia Play which is a device crafted for gaming. The phone features an Android OS and has a 4-inch screen with 480×854 display. It has a1 GHz CPU and additional Adreno 205 GPU especially for gaming. It also comes with a 8 GB pre-installed memory card to hold all your favorite games on it. The Xperia Play costs $199 with a two year contract.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti

2011-02-17T18:04:00.000-08:00

Here at the start of 2011, Nvidia is showing no sign of slowing down. In late January, the graphics giant continued the expansion of its 500-series card line with the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, a mid-priced card aimed at bringing high-performance DirectX 11 gaming to cost-conscious, yet serious, gamers. With performance approaching last year’s high-end cards, it offers a significant speedup over the earlier GeForce GTX 460, and it also provides some serious competition for AMD’s recent midrange Radeon HD cards.

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti doesn’t replace the GTX 460 in Nvidia’s lineup, however. Instead, it occupies the $249 price slot the GTX 460 originally shipped at last year, while the GTX 460 will continue to be sold at its current price point of $160 to $199. (Of course, we wouldn’t be surprised if that price point is eventually occupied by an as-yet-unannounced 550 model.)

The GTX 560 gets its performance boost by upping the number of CUDA processing cores to 384 (from 336 in the GTX 460) and by including eight PolyMorph engines, up from seven in the GTX 460. (The CUDA cores are Nvidia's parallel processing units, essentially the parallel computing engine of the card, while the PolyMorph engines are used in geometry processing, turning polygons into game worlds and characters.) The stock clock speed of the graphics-processing unit (GPU) has been upped from 675MHz to 822MHz, and the 1GB of GDDR5 memory runs at 4,008MHz. Additional speedups come from redesign and optimization of the GPU chip.

Sony Left Stranded Again!, PlayStation 3 Firmware 3.56 Hacked Already Read more: Technology | My Blog

2011-01-31T17:18:00.000-08:00

Sony might have thought their move to sue GeoHot would put some sort of brakes toward the jailbreak doom its beloved gaming console is currently facing. Unfortunately designed for Sony, the latest PlayStation 3 firmware v3.56 got hacked in just 24 hours after its release. The custom firmware genius KaKaRoToKS, who was behind one of the initial 3.55 custom firmwares, has previously released the signing keys designed for 3.56 meaning custom firmware is soon to follow

Read more: Sony Left Stranded Again!, PlayStation 3 Firmware 3.56 Hacked Already | My Blog

However, it appears that the custom firmware designed for v3.56 won’t be that easy to build. According toward Engadget:

Panasonic ToughBook S9 Review

2010-12-23T14:13:00.001-08:00

The ToughBook S9 has an unremarkable black lid, with ridges on either side of the center, and a simple silver body. Weighing in at 3 pounds even, it is lighter than many other competing business models, and even some netbooks. Part of the reason for this uncommonly light weight is that the body is made with the thinnest magnesium alloy available. While the case can easily be mistaken for plastic, it is more durable than acrylic alternatives and can withstand around 220 pounds of compression before beginning to buckle. Naturally, we tested this by standing on it, and the system held up perfectly

The lid itself flexes noticeably when twisted. Panasonic assures us this is an intentional accommodation for times when some flex is preferable to damage to the laptop, such as when it's stowed in an overhead bin on a plane. Indeed, when we twisted the screen past what would typically be a breaking point for comparable machines, the S9 sprung back without any damage.

With DDR2 Memory Pantech Announced Vega Xpress Handset

2010-12-23T14:02:00.001-08:00

Time Pantech introduced a newly Mobile with DDR2 Memory known as “Vega Xpress”.Pantech phones are smaller. Thinner. Lighter-weight. More colorful. Easy to use, with smart design features similar to sleek-sliding complete keyboards and large, easy-toward-use buttons. Loaded with apps and features that help you connect with lightning-fast speed.

This 4-inch Android 2.2 beastie will come equipped with an unspecified amount of DDR2 RAM – yes, the stuff that usually goes into x86 laptop and desktop computers – which Pantech will contain you believe is going toward blow the war out of the proverbial water

With Clamshell Case and Handle iCapsule iPad Wireless Keyboard like iBook G3

2010-11-21T17:36:00.001-08:00

It had candy similar to colors on its clamshell cover, and a grip so you can carry it around without a case. I had a fondness used for that iBook G3. The keyboard + case + handle combo concept of the iCapsule is reminiscent of that design.

The propose was establish as an FCC patent application, so we probably will not see the iCapsule on the shelves anytime soon. But if and once-it ever gets released, it will be a clamshell case that will give laptop like functionality to the iPad.

You get a slot used for your iPad, along with a wireless keyboard to connects to the iPad via Bluetooth. The keyboard itself is powered by a set of AA batteries. The iPad can evidently be inserted in a landscape or portrait orientation, used for flexibility.

No word on pricing so far, but the iCapsule will be accepted under the RocketFish brand, which means it will expected be sold by Best Buy.

For Xbox 360 Sells 1 Million Units In 10 Days! Microsoft ‘Kinect’ Motion Sensor

2010-11-21T17:32:00.000-08:00

The revolutionary activity sensor introduced by Microsoft known as ‘Kinect’ exclusively used for its premium gaming console Xbox 360 has already sold over 1 Million units during 10 days from its launch. Dozens considered to the Kinect sensor is an overpriced accessory before these figures, but its complete sell out at every one the main retailers during US says otherwise. If this were to continue, Microsoft could sell over 5 Million units by the end of 2010 which definitely outsells some other activity controller available in the market!

We are appreciative of the response we have seen from consumers that has culminated in sales of more than 1 Million units during the first 10 days on the market used for Kinect used for Xbox 360. This is a great start to the holiday season, and we will continue to work using our retailer partners to keep pace using high demand and deliver against our plan that sell more than 5 Million Kinect sensors worldwide by the end of this year.”

Wow! this figure could even double or more with the release of some hardcore titles similar to Star Wars with a lightsaber during your hand. Star Wars game however is due that be released in 2011. Till then, Kinect aims at mostly the non-hardcore gamers with titles such since Kinect Adventures, Kinect Joy Ride with Kinectimals. If you already own one or more of these titles with a Kinect sensor, perform share your knowledge using us in the comments section below!

Android Phone as a Remote For YouTube on Your Computer

2010-11-11T17:45:00.001-08:00

For ages, YouTube-watching posture was essentially this: slumping forward over your computer and squinting your eyes at a clip. But Google’s been trying to make things more comfortable, first with Leanback and now with the YouTube Remote app for Android.

The new app, YouTube Remote, pairs Android devices with any screen playing YouTube Leanback, be it a TV set via Google TV or just a trusty old computer. Then you can search for videos on your phone, beam them to Leanback, and control their playback right from your smartphone. Setting it up’s a snap:

YouTube Remote creates a virtual connection between your phone and YouTube Leanback. To ‘pair’ your phone with your Leanback screen, simply sign into YouTube Remote on your Android phone, and to YouTube Leanback on your Google TV or computer with the same YouTube account.

AMD Radeon HD 6870

2010-11-06T15:28:00.000-07:00

When it was announced in late 2009, the ATI Radeon HD 5870 ushered in a trifecta of key graphics-card innovations. Along with the concurrently launched Radeon HD 5850, it was the first card to support DirectX 11 for improved graphics in next-generation games. With DisplayPort, DVI, and HDMI connectors, it allowed users to connect up to three screens to one card for more-immersive gaming. Plus, its impressive raw performance made it the most powerful single-chip graphics card on the market—until, that is, rival Nvidia launched its first DirectX 11 card, the beastly GeForce GTX 480, in early 2010.

Now, roughly a year after the launch of the Radeon HD 5870, AMD has put to bed the ATI brand that it has been using since acquiring the graphics-chip company in 2006, and it's rolling out a pair of second-generation DirectX 11 graphics cards: the AMD Radeon HD 6870, and the AMD Radeon HD 6850. While the more-mainstream Radeon HD 5700-series graphics cards will continue to be manufactured and sold, AMD says that the HD 6800-series cards will replace its Radeon HD 5800 series. This last move may seem surprising once we get to our performance-benchmark tests, but first let’s tackle what’s new with these cards.

First of all, with 3D movies breaking records in theaters and 3D HDTVs finding their way into early adopters’ living rooms, AMD has finally added support for true 3D (in this case, stereoscopic 3D) gaming with this latest line of cards, as well as support for 3D Blu-ray. Nvidia has had its own GeForce 3D Vision kit available for its graphics cards since early 2009. But while Nvidia’s 3D technology uses active (that is, powered) shutter glasses, necessitating expensive, bulky frames and a USB breakout box to make it all work, ATI’s 3D-gaming technology, dubbed HD3D, uses passive glasses, which should be less costly and less bulky. This is the same technology used in a few recent 3D-centric monitors, such as the Zalman ZM-M240W Trimon display we tested this summer. (Some 3D HDTVs are also supported).

Gateway One ZX6810-01

2010-11-05T19:18:00.000-07:00

The recent rash of cheap, underpowered all-in-one (AIO) “nettop” PCs powered by Intel’s Atom processor (such as Lenovo’s C300) or AMD’s low-voltage CPUs (like the MSI Wind Top AE2010-02SUS) has lowered our expectations of just what a typical all-in-one is capable of. Those systems, after all, aren’t capable of much more than basic productivity apps, standard-definition video playback, and Web browsing. They can’t even handle Hulu.com playback without stuttering. So when Gateway’s One ZX6810-01 arrived in our labs, we were initially impressed by its large 23-inch, 1080p (1,920x1,080) screen, but we weren’t expecting to be blown away by the PC's performance.

As soon as we started testing the PC and perusing its hardware list, however, we realized that the ZX6810-01 was a different beast entirely. Underneath its unassuming glossy black plastic shell, this system is arguably, as of this writing, the most powerful all-in-one PC on the planet. The $1,399 model we tested houses a four-core, 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Quad 8200 CPU, 8GB of DDR3 memory, and a surprisingly capable Radeon HD 4670 graphics card (much more on that later). Plus, it had a 64GB Samsung solid-state drive (SSD) for programs and the OS (Windows 7 Home Premium), and a 1TB hard drive (huge for an AIO) for media storage. Other much-appreciated extras include a TV tuner and remote, a multi-touch-capable touch screen, and a wireless keyboard and mouse. About the only component this system seems to lack is a Blu-ray drive—the slot-loading optical drive is, sadly, a plain-old DVD±RW.

Apple iPod Touch (Fourth Generation, 2010 Version)

2010-11-04T22:23:00.000-07:00

The Apple iPod Touch, since its release in 2007, has ruled the portable-media-player waves like Britannia. It's by far the best designed, most feature-packed, and easiest-to-use media device on the market. But now that Apple's iPhone and iPad have so successfully edged in on its domain, does the iPod Touch still have a viable place in the media-consumption market? We would answer that question with a resounding yes. To an extent, the new iPod Touch is the iPad, but even more portable. And it's the iPhone, without the worry of reception issues (and not, entirely, without the phone). To put it simply: The 2010 iPod Touch is as close to perfection as any portable media player has come yet.

That may sound like a bold statement, but look at what the iPod Touch can do. The iPod started off merely as a music player, and the iPod Touch's siblings, the iPod Shuffle and iPod nano, still serve basically that purpose alone. The iPod Touch, however, has morphed into a music player, a video player and recorder, a tiny tablet, a gaming device, an organizational tool, and much more. And with its connection to the Apple App Store, it can serve an endless panoply of purposes, all navigated by a super-streamlined interface on a gorgeous. multi-touch screen. What's most impressive of all: This functionality all fits into a sliver that easily tucks into your back pocket, leaving nary a bump. And in this iteration, we get a slimmer design, a better screen, a faster processor, and excellent new features that include an HD video recorder and the ability to make video calls.

Gateway LT2120u

2010-11-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

A netbook with a low price and competitive performance is worth celebrating. Add good looks and long battery life to the mix, and you’ve got yourself a worthwhile PC. Throw in some of the best Flash video playback we've seen on a netbook, and the final product is a winner. All these reasons make the $349.99 LT2120u one of our favorite netbooks this year.

The Gateway LT21 series comes in three configurations, distinguished by color: the red LT2118u; the black LT2119u; and the white LT2120u, which we tested. This netbook's sleek-yet-sensible design is professional-looking, while still managing to turn a few heads. Proportioned like its netbook competitors, the Gateway LT2120u measures 1x10.2x7.3 inches. At a wispy 2.8 pounds, this PC will travel well, without requiring you to get a massage the following day. The lid’s textured wave pattern is protected by a layer of clear glossy plastic that is easy to keep clean. The all-white keyboard stands out against the silvery plastic bezel and palm rests, both designed to look like brushed aluminum. Located to the left of the white battery bump is a unique power button, embedded into a glossy square of silver plastic and backlit by blue LEDs.

Occupying the edges of the chassis are the usual selection of netbook ports, including a five-format flash-card reader (compatible with the SD, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, and xD-PictureCard formats), three USB ports, a VGA-out port, and an Ethernet jack. As for Internet connectivity, in addition to the Ethernet jack, you also get 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. The LT2120u does not come with Bluetooth, despite the presence of a Bluetooth activation key. Embedded into the glossy screen bezel is a VGA Webcam (the resolution is 0.3-megapixel) that captures accurate skin tones when taking still images but blurs motion video. The Webcam’s sensor is overly sensitive, so waving your hand across the screen during recording causes drastic light fluctuations

Apple Magic Trackpad

2010-11-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

In the fall of 2009, Apple released the Magic Mouse, an input device that has many similarities to the Multi-Touch trackpad on the company's line of Macbook Pro laptops: the same touch-sensitive body, and the same ability to use the swiping and inertia-based scrolling familar to anyone owning an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. It was as if Apple had taken the trackpad off of its MacBooks and made it into a mouse. Well, with the new Magic Trackpad, that's exactly what Apple did.

Measuring about 5 inches wide and 4 inches deep, the $69 Magic Trackpad is about 80 percent bigger than the Multi-Touch trackpad on a MacBook Pro laptop. In classic minimalist Apple style, there's not much to describe here design-wise. The body is slightly elevated at the back, by a cylinder in which the batteries are stored, causing this device to resemble the Apple Wireless Keyboard that ships with its iMacs. The bottom is covered in white plastic with an Apple logo in the middle. Two anti-slip grips hold the Magic Trackpad in place at the two corners below the batteries.

On top, you'll find the silver glass pad where all the action happens. You turn the device on by pressing a power button on the right side of the body. When powered on, a small green light shines in the upper right corner of the pad. On the other side is a twist-to-release door for the batterie

Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse

2010-11-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

Computer mice—specifically, really small computer mice—have suddenly gotten a bit complicated. That’s because the moniker “mobile mice,” used to describe mice for use on the go, is no longer sufficient. "True" mobile mice (tiny mice made for use while you travel, like the Editors’ Choice-winning SwiftPoint) do exist, but now, so do big mice that shrink for carrying anywhere—like the subject of this review.

Microsoft’s Arc Touch Mouse, already termed by one wag “the Gumby mouse,” isn’t particularly small—it requires the same space to use as any conventional desktop mouse. It’s mobile, though, because it snaps flat when you’re not using it. That’s its main plus; we weren’t as enamored with how it felt, or its material makeup. (The Arc Touch will ship in early December 2010 for $69.95; Amazon.com, Best Buy, and Buy.com currently have it available for preorder.)

Adobe Premiere Elements 9 Review

2010-11-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

Adobe’s latest iteration of its consumer video-editing program, Premiere Elements 9, isn’t as heavy on completely new features as its photo-editing equivalent, Photoshop Elements 9. Its enhanced video-sharing features, audio-cleanup tools, and improved import feature are welcome additions to the program, but alone they probably don’t justify the cost of upgrading from the

previous version. However, Photoshop Elements has seen major enhancements under the hood that make it faster, more responsive, and best of all, stable. Stability has been an issue with this program for a long time, and with its rich feature set and now-reliable operation, we can finally recommend Premiere Elements to newcomers and upgraders alike.

As with the previous version, Premiere Elements imports virtually all popular video formats, including AVCHD and HDV high-def video, as well as DV and other standard-definition formats. New to version 9 is support for direct import from the popular Flip video cameras and a number of digital SLR models.

AMD Phenom II X6 1075T

2010-11-04T09:17:00.001-07:00

AMD’s first pair of six-core CPUs, the $285 Phenom II X6 1090T and the $200 Phenom II X6 1055T, both debuted in April 2010, and neither was exactly cheap. But compared with Intel’s sole six-core CPU as of this writing, the $1,000 Core i7-980X (which launched a month earlier), AMD’s offerings looked downright thrifty.

That remains true today with AMD’s latest six-core offering. The Phenom II X6 1075T, at $245, falls right between the company’s two previous six-core CPUs. At those prices, it’s not a surprise that AMD’s six-core chips don’t run as fast as Intel’s ultimate CPU speed demon. What is a surprise, though, is just how good these chips are, considering they're around a quarter of the price. With features like dynamic CPU clock speeds and compatibility with existing AM3 systems, these three chips further cement AMD’s clear hegemony in terms of both upgradability and performance for the dollar. Intel still holds a strong lead in ultimate performance, but in our tests, the Phenom II X6 1075T performed quite close to Intel’s quad-core Core i7-870, which (as of this writing, in mid-September 2010), sold for roughly $40 more.

Socket Type: AM3; AM2+
Number of Cores: Six
Operating Frequency: 3GHz
Front-Side Bus: HyperTransport 3.0
Cache Memory: 9MB (combined L2 and L3)

Malibal Nine X7200

2010-11-04T09:10:00.000-07:00

With its six-core Core i7 Extreme processor, dual Nvidia SLI graphics chips, and pair of solid-state drives configured for RAID, the Malibal Nine X7200 is as tricked out as laptops come. Not surprisingly, this desktop-replacement notebook blows the competition away in terms of performance, and it has more features than you can shake a stick at. You don’t get much in the way of battery life, however, and its huge 13-pound chassis will keep you close to home. The price starts at $2,610 for a base configuration, but our fully loaded review system will take a massive $5,325 bite out of your bank account. But if you want the fastest notebook ever, it doesn't come cheap.

If you have only about $2,000 to spend, you can get this system with a 3.06GHz Core i7-950, 6GB of RAM, one Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M graphics card, and a 320GB standard hard drive. But configuration options abound in all of those categories, with storage being the one we're most concerned with. Our test configuration came with two 80GB solid-state drives (SSDs), which left us with only 160GB of total storage—fast, but hardly enough to store games and videos. However, you can equip your system with up to three standard 5,400rpm hard drives at 640GB each. If you kept the rest of the configuration the same as our tested config, you could choose this option for a total price of $4,554, or a savings of $771. (Of course, these slower drives would affect performance.)

Processor: 3.33GHz Intel Core i7-980X Extreme
Memory: 12GB RAM
Storage: Dual 80GB solid-state drives
Optical Drive : Blu-ray burner/DVD±RW combo
Screen: 17.3 inches (1,920x1,080 native resolution)
Graphics: Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 480M cards (2GB each)
Weight: 12.8 pounds
Dimensions (HWD): 2.4x16.5x11.3 inches
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)

The Malibal Nine X7200 uses the sturdy Clevo X7200 chassis, which is done up in a black, brushed-aluminum finish. A slice of smoked mirror trim bisects the lid and has a backlit pattern in its center. This system is huge, measuring 2.4x16.5x11.3 inches, and at just under 13 pounds, it’s one of the heaviest notebooks around. If necessity forces you to take it on the road, a rolling suitcase is probably in order. And you’ll have to make room for the gargantuan power brick, which measures 2.7x8x4.4 inches and adds 3.6 pounds to your total travel weight. The power brick alone weighs more than most netbooks do.