HardwareGeeks
Archive for September 2008
WD Announces 2 / 4 TB Network Storage Systems for Home and Office
Western Digital today introduced ShareSpace a network attached storage system that allows small offices and even your home network to centralize storage, so that it can be accessed easily from with in the network or remotely via WD’s MioNet service.
Think of the WD ShareSpace device as your own personal YouTube/Flickr server, where you can share your videos, music, documents and pictures with everyone else on your network and with friends and family. This device is perfect for users who don’t want a Windows HomeServer and want something similar to the abandoned Maxtor Fusion Product.
Dell Launches Dell Movies
Dell today has launchd Dell Movies, a movie services that will allow new Dell PC buyers to pre load their computers with movies. The first movie available will be Iron Man, dell pc buyers simply have to visit http://www.dell.com/movies and for 20 dollars can pre-load their PC with the movie, no DVD required.
“Dell continues to create ways to express an individual’s personal style through the devices they choose,” said Tim Bucher, Dell’s vice president of consumer content and services. “By teaming up with entertainment industry icons like Paramount Digital Entertainment to deliver pre-loaded entertainment content like Iron Man, we continue to raise the bar in offering unmatched choice, value and design that catches the eye as well as the imagination.”
AMD Introduces the ATI Radeon HD 4550 and ATI Radeon HD 4350
Today amd has introduced the ATI Radeon HD 4550 card which represents the first ATI Radeon HD card from the 4000 series offered to the value segment, and has also introduced the 4350 also a card geared toward he value market.
The two cards offer support for DirectX 10.1 which will deliver improved image quality, improved rendering techniques and optimized to deliver better gaming, with DDR3 memory on both cards, you will see better memory performance and bandwidth. You will als be able to experience better upscaling of DVD quality videos and High Definition video playback along with High Definition (PIP) Picture in Picture.
What happens when you drop an SSD drive?
Well we all know that SSD drives are durable, but just how durable are they? That is a question Samsung wanted to answer, so they dropped one from the roof of their building in San Jose California. Check out the video below to see what happens.
I doubt they would drop an entire notebook from that high. 
Sandisk announces 16 GB microSD card
Today Sandisk announced the worlds largets microSDHC card which has a capacity of 16 GB, maybe I should get one of these and use it with Kingstons microUSB adapter.
“Handsets have become far more than just phones – they’ve become mobile jukeboxes, mobile offices, even mobile movie theaters,” said Avi Greengart, Research Director for Mobile Devices at Current Analysis. “Flash memory cards have increased in storage capacity, but even an 8GB card may be too small for anyone with GPS map data, a few movies, a game or two, a presentation file and other applications. There is an acute need for more mobile storage capacity. 16GB gives consumers the ability to carry their digital content with them and still have room to do more with their mobile phones.”
SanDisk’s 16GB microSDHC card has an MSRP of $99.99 and the 16GB M2 card has an MSRP of $129.99. The new 16GB capacity will be available at Best Buy Mobile stores in October and Verizon Wireless stores in November – the only major retailers in the United States to carry this mobile storage capacity in 2008.
Microsoft Takes over Times Square
Microsoft has taken over Times Square in NYC specifically the Reuters building and the NASDAQ screen. How you might ask?
Well when the I’m a PC campaign started Microsoft also launched the same ad campaign in Times Square, but a bit more unique. Average people walking down the street would be able to get their picture taken or do a little video saying “They’re a PC” and what they do. The pictures and Videos would then appear on the huge Nasdaq screen in times square. Click here to see some pictures. (Not of I’m a PC Campaign)
Checking out Fancast
So earlier this year Comcast announced Fancast.com, a site where you can watch your favorite TV shows online after they aired. When I first heard about it I thought it would offer low quality crap, but as almost always I was wrong.
The service is pretty sweet and the video quality is a lot better than some of the crappy HD channels I get from Cablevision.
I am actually thankful I decided to check out the Fancast service as I had forgot to record the first episode of House two weeks ago and it was available on Fancast with limited comical interruption’s, and if you watch it your self you will see the quality isn’t that bad, and you just don’t get Fox shows, you get access to shows from ABC, CBS, NBC, WB and Fox.
microSD too small for your SD slot?
A common problem some of my neighbors have is, they own a notebook PC and have a cell phone or camera that uses a microSD card, and well they can’t get the microSD card to fit into the SD slot on their notebooks because well the SD slot is too big and they have no idea where they placed the adapter, and I have to admit I tend to find my microSD adapters two weeks after I needed them.
Well Kingston wants to make our lives easier with their microSD USB reader combo. The microUSB reader like the microSD card is tiny it self and attaches to your keychain.
The microUSB adapter comes with up to an 8GB microSD card, a mini and regular sized SD adapter, and before you say it I know it is not a new product from Kingston, it has been around for nearly 2 years but now it’s available with an 8 gig microSDHC card which has a life time warranty. Adapter just has a 2 year warranty, so in a way it’s a fairly new product.
Tagging with RFID tags
Tagging, it seems to be the new hip thing to do, we tag our pictures on facebook, our files in our Document’s folder and I’m sure if we could we would tag the toilet paper in our bathroom, well starting October 1st Tikitag.com will allow you to tag anything you own, not just your digital files.
While at a press event called Show Stoppers here in NYC yesterday, I was able to meet with the creator of Tiki Tag and he essentially described it as a virtual bar code, where you tag your property and with a RFID reader or a cell phone that can read RFID tags (not many but by 2012 about 40% are expected to be able to read RFID tags), you can download information about what ever is tagged, and you control the content so just imagine the possibilities of what you can do.
Review: Portégé R500-S5007V
Last year we reviewed the Portege R500 and we loved it, we even awarded it our 5 Star Editors Choice Award and said it was the best notebook for mobile professionals.
This past July Toshiba announced some revisions to the R500, which upgraded the CPU, Graphics, Memory, and hard drive, and for the past 3 weeks we have been playing with it nonstop and I have to say I haven’t been disappointed in a bit.
Back when we first reviewed the R500 we called “The Donald Trump” of notebooks and it still is, as it is still one of the most elegant machines available today, and with its ultra thin frame and light weight it is definitely one of the lightest.