Wed Reviews

Quote

Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Herd 3 is now available for download. New in this third alpha release of 7.04 Feisty Fawn is GNOME 2.17.90 and numerous other updated packages. For Ubuntu fanatics this is certainly worth trying out.

Quote

Media center PCs are becoming more and more common today and with the availability of services like iTunes and Netflicks the need for a PC (or PC-like device) in the living room is becoming more and more necessary. While there are many stand alone devices that can stream media from the PC you generally loose the ability to browse the web or play video games from your couch. Today we will be looking at the NZXT Duet case, which was designed to be used in the living room for all your media center PC needs.

Quote

We are now in the second week of the Windows Vista launch and the FUD (Fear Uncertainly and Doubt) being spread by those that compete with Microsoft is reaching amazing proportions. Apple, in their Mac vs. PC campaign is taking all kinds of shots at the system and wound up getting Bill Gates so excited he actually called Steve Jobs a liar in a NewsWeek interview. The campaign does say some questionable things which we=92ll explore at another time but let=92s check how the Vista launch month is going.

Quote

The Thermaltake Bach VX case is nothing ordinary, even though the slogan The Charm of the Ordinary may imply some form of simpleness. The case sports some gorgeous looks and comes feature packed from start to finish. A brushed aluminum front, black drive bay covers, multiple locks and a partially screws-less design are just some of the highlights. We fill the case with hardware and let you know if we are still smiling in the end.

Quote

The SuperTalent MEGA Screen 2GB MP3 player is value priced but is not a value oriented MP3 player. This unit can be found for just over $100CDN online and has a ton of nice features, good looks and a nice color screen. It is a bit cheaper than other media players that come without a nice screen. The MEGA Screen name is a bit of a stretch as the screen only measures 1.5 at 128px * 128px, but it is bright, clear and very functional to find songs, tune radio stations and check song titles.

Quote

Intel's Visual Computing Group (VCG) gave an interesting overview of the discrete graphics plans this week. There seems to be a few interesting developments down the pipeline that could prove quite a challenge to NVIDIA and AMD in 2 years time. As already stated on their website, the group is focused on developing advanced products based on a many-core architecture targeting high-end client platforms initially. Their first flagship product for games and graphics intensive applications is likely to happen in late 2008-09 timeframe and the GPU is based on multi-core architecture. We heard there could be as many as 16 graphics cores packed into a single die.

Quote

If you just recently purchased the latest GeForce 8800 GTS/GTX graphics card, you may found out that your power supply is just not up to the task to handle such monster card. Often, not only a poorly constructed power supply will not deliver the needed wattage to the components, it could potential damage them as well. The power supply is the heart of the system and it cannot be overlooked specially if you have expensive components, such as GeForce 8800.

Quote

Earlier today, I stumbled upon an article that was filled with reader comments stating that the sellers of open source software are to be dismissed as scam artists. Those in this crowd that actually understand the legal bindings of the individual license(s) and definition of open source generally pointed out that they feel such sales are unethical - just not illegal. Fine. But what kills me are these misguided individuals that claim that laws are being broken should said software be sold to the end user. This is false. What they apparently misunderstand is that open source software offer a fairly complex license. And while variations of a common idea are abound in the open source licensing world, it's still the same concept at its core.

Quote

What makes Moneual one of the premiere HTPC builders as stated above? High quality products like the Moncaso 932B. The 932B is not only constructed of high quality aluminum and has striking good looks, but also boasts a full color seven inch LCD touch screen that supports a resolution of 1024x768. Throw in a remote control and a wireless keyboard and you have the ultimate HTPC case.

Quote

The I-Rocks IR7330 4-Way Navigation Laser Mouse is a very light, but robust 800/1600 DPI mouse. It offers more than the usual functionality and comes with a very small and slim piece of software to customize these. If you are a gamer looking for an ultra light mouse, this one may be for you. We won't be distracted by the fancy blue scroll wheel and take a close look at form, functionality, feel and performance of this mouse.

Quote

There are two things I enjoy most in life. The first is photography and the latter, well.I like to tell people what to do. It makes me feel powerful. Strong. Like a small pony. Keep reading. One of the most common questions I get as related to photography is what camera should I buy? I've already answered that question (sort of) with a couple of previous articles. The next most common question (I mean next literally, as in directly after the previous question) is what lens should I buy? Well, that's a tricky question because there simply is no one-size-fits-all lens. My goal in this article is to give you some basic knowledge about lenses that will help set you on the path to lens buying goodness, or if you're like me, indecisiveness. Hey, it's a start.

Quote

* ForeSight Systems LLC... ever heard of them? Nor me, but today I have their Pertelian X2040 LCD display designed for the lazy end user who doesn't want to do through the modding process of using, say, a Matrix Orbital. Hopefully their display will improve on others in the market.

Quote

ATi briefly mentioned to their partners a 2nd generation Unified Shader Structure and a new hardware Crossfire for R600 family which can be bridgeless yet faster. The retail card is half an inch longer at 9.5 and the OEM/SI version remains the same at 12. It comes with 512-bit memory bus and 1GB DDR4 at more than 2GHz frequency. Core clock remains a mystery as yet.

Quote

Logitech has a wide variety of keyboard/mouse combos to choose from. They offer two Cordless Bluetooth versions and nine Cordless versions. Not long ago I looked at the MX 5000 Laser and Sheldog just took the diNovo Edge for a ride. Today we are going to have a close look at the LX 710 Cordless Desktop. The LX 710 offers several great features, while still staying practical.

Quote

At some point in time most of us have had to purchase a computer. Regardless of whether it was a laptop or a desktop price was a factor in the purchase. Price plays the dominant role in brand selection, component selection, timing of the purchase, and much more. It is our advice ,however, that consumers start to look beyond price and into factors that determine the overall long term usefullness of the system.

Quote

Designed to be paired with all types of Apple iPods, the FreePulse headphones come with several small adapters to fit the original iPod, the iPod Video, the iPod Nano and the iPod Mini. Included in the box with the headphones is the wireless receiver, iPod adapters, AC power recharger, stereo mini-jack extension cord and a quick-start guide. After an initial charge of the headphones and receiver that takes about 40 minutes, the next step is to find the right iPod adapter to fit the receiver to your iPod. After finding and attaching the adapter to the wireless receiver, you connect the receiver to your iPod and are ready to start enjoying music. For those people who have MP3 players other than the iPod, there is also a short extension cable to work with any media player that has a stereo mini-jack.

Quote

2006 was a great year for gamers, bringing us some great and innovative games. But everything has to end and, as we all know, every ending means a new beginning. It is now time to raise our heads, look forward into the distance and try to figure out what the future holds for us and what we should expect to see on our screen in 2007. Every year has it's own agenda and we, as gamers, always have our own list of games that we wait so eagerly to their release. This list is supposed to justify the huge amount of hours that we spend by staring at a bunch of pixels on the screen

Quote

You've got to hand it to In Win. It takes a lot of guts to design and market a computer chassis with such close association to an automotive legend like the Ferarri F430. With their F430 case, though, In Win seems to have pulled it off rather well. The immaculate finish, innovative design elements, single-fan cooling, and racecar sounds all contribute to make the F430 a high-performance and stylish case with that little something extra that sets it apart from the crowd.

Quote

Quote: Today we have the HIS' X1950 XT 256MB iTurbo video card in our lab. This X1950XT is features the popular HIS IceQ 3 cooler and is tagged as one of their iTurbo cards meaning it can be overclocked quite easily by using HIS' overclocking software. When overclocked the X1950XT runs at X1950XTX core speed of 650MHz and a memory speed of 900MHz (1.8GHz effective), a nice little speed boost. This card also has full HD video (1080p) with HDCP support right out of the box. When looking at other higher end video solutions including the X1950XTX and recently released GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB the X1950XT is priced quite competitively.

Quote

Since consumers have long been in the dark about power supply units, it seems common that manufacturers market their product and push features that may not actually make a difference in performance. For example, it could be seen early last year that multi-rail technology was viewed as a positive innovation. Yet later down the road we learn that a single-rail power supply unit not only offers more stable and efficient power if designed and built correctly; it would also cost less.