September 30th, 2010
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Less than six months ago, the ASUS U30Jc ultraportable walked away with a Bronze Editor's Choice award. The combination of portability, performance, and price made the U30Jc a favorite around here. A couple months back, we looked at the bamboo covered U33Jc, with USB 3.0 and Intel WiDi; Vivek loved the bamboo finish, but he's a sucker for fashion statements. Now ASUS is back with a slimmer, lighter version of the U30Jc and no bamboo. Is the U35Jc a worthy upgrade, or did ASUS misfire with their new ultraportable?

September 29th, 2010
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Honestly, Roku's price drop and yesterday's announcement of Hulu Plus coming to the platform probably stole much if any remaining thunder from the imminent arrival of the new Apple TV. While we'll still give the Apple TV a thorough treatment, it's still clearly a very niche product from Apple (until it gets jailbroken, then all bets are off). It's one of the easiest devices to test simply because it doesn't work with the vast majority of downloadable video content. We can't even run our media streamer test suite on the device since it doesn't support streaming anything outside of iTunes.
To tide you over until our review is done however we've got a full gallery of the new Apple TV dissected. There aren't many surprises installed. The thing is tiny, there are no fans and the entire chassis is used as a heatsink. Apple makes liberal use of thermal conductive pads within the device.
The new ATV does use the A4, but the markings on the chip in my unit are very feint so I couldn't tell how much memory was integrated onto the package. There don't seem to be many other surprises inside, the new Apple TV is a iPod Touch without the display and speaker/mic. The real potential for this platform (much like its predecessor) is realized if/when it's hacked. Until then it'll be a tough sell for many. Update: Looks like it has already been jailbroken (thanks crimson117), it's just a matter of time for folks to put the freedom to good use.
Check out the gallery!
September 28th, 2010
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I've wanted a higher density, more compact alternative to the 30-inch 2560 x 1600 panels that I've seen for the past 6 years. Apple was the first to intrigue me with the 27-inch iMac, however I didn't need another computer, I just wanted a monitor. Earlier this year we reviewed Dell's U2711, a 27-inch CCFL backlit LCD display with a 2560 x 1440 resolution and loved it.
Recently Apple presented us with an alternative. An LED backlit, 27-inch Cinema Display similar to what's used in the new iMac but without the Mac part. Priced at 9 it's actually 0 cheaper than the Dell, but lacks the input flexibility of the U2711. What Apple does give you is an integrated MagSafe power adapter useful for charging your MacBook Pro in a very sleek package. But how well does it do as a monitor? Read on for our full review.
September 27th, 2010
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Acer is launching a series of new notebooks in their Aspire TimelineX range boasting mobile form factors, Intel Arrandale processors, and up to 8 hours of battery life. These new models come in a variety of sizes, starting with an ultra low voltage 11.6" model. 13.3", 14" and 15.6" models with full voltage processors are also available. All models feature Acer's CineCrystal 16:9 LED-backlit displays. These new notebooks are available today starting at 0 for the ultra mobile 11.6" model.

September 26th, 2010
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Here at IDF, Intel has been promoting the Atom platform pretty heavily, with the new dual core Atom N550 and all of the new Moorestown-based chips like the CE4200 and E6xx series. They’ve been demoing quite a few of the latest netbooks and tablets from their partners, including the OpenPeak Moorestown device we looked at on Monday, but for the most part the devices have been running Pine Trail, like the WeTab from yesterday's keynote.

Read on to see more of what Intel has been showing off on the show floor.
September 25th, 2010
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We’ve seen more than our fair share of Pine Trail netbooks since their launch late last year. Performance has never been spectacular, but battery life and portability have been strong points. Today we’ve got a look at HP’s Mini 5102, which marks a couple of firsts for our Atom reviews. Not only is this the first “business” netbook we’ve reviewed, but it’s also our first look at what Broadcom’s Crystal HD decoder can do for Atom. Read on to see how HP’s latest compares to the competition.

September 24th, 2010
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When we looked at NVIDIA's 480M with its 100W TDP, we were curious how long it would take for notebook manufacturers to deal with the power requirements that two such GPUs would place on a laptop. Three months later and Clevo has now revamped their flagship desktop replacement to support 480M SLI with desktop Core i7 processors—including support for hex-core options up to the i7-980X! Make no mistake about it: this is a beast of a notebook designed for a certain clientele, with pricing higher than most are willing to pay. But if you want the fastest DTR system on the planet (at least for now), the X7200 is the new king of the hill.

September 23rd, 2010
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Gateway certainly isn't the first brand you think of when you're looking for a stylish, classy, well-rounded notebook, but that's just what they aim to bring to the table with the ID49C series. Does a dash of aluminum and backlighting blended with a svelte build and mainstream hardware elevate the ID49C beyond the usual consumer fare, or are the engineers at Gateway solving the wrong problems? We take a look inside the ID49C and see if it deserves to be on your shortlist.

September 22nd, 2010
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We’re currently down in San Jose, California covering NVIDIA’s annual GPU Technology Conference. While we're only covering the final 2 days of the conference, on Tuesday NVIDIA's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang announced the company's next two GPUs: Kepler and Maxwell. Due in late 2011 and 2013 respectively, these will be the next GPU families for the company and will be their major 28nm and 22nm products. At this point NVIDIA isn't telling us more more than the name and the expected double precision floating point performance, but it's certainly a start. Read on for more information.

September 21st, 2010
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I don’t know the last time I was this excited about AMD’s roadmap. Zacate and Ontario are due out in a quarter, and both promise to bring competition to an area where we haven’t seen much from AMD.
Llano is slated for release near the end of Q2 next year. While it won’t be a big step forward in CPU performance, we should see a huge increase in integrated graphics performance.
Sampling in Q4 of this year and shipping sometime next year is AMD’s next-generation microarchitecture: Bulldozer.
Within the course of twelve months we will see AMD introduce three drastically different microprocessors into the market’s eager hands. We’ve been dying for more competition and AMD is planning on giving us just that. But that's the future, what about the present?
Today AMD announced speed bumps to nearly every processor in its desktop lineup. Everything from the dual-core Athlon II to the six-core Phenom II gets a new family member today. And they’re all very attractively priced.