Sony Xperia S: 12MP, DLNA, NFC, PlayStation certified, 1080p

first when I saw it, I fall in love with it.
the device have 1.5GHz Dual core Processor with 1Gig RAM and Adreno 220 GPU, isn't sounds awesome........???
and let me tell you if you are interested in playing games,,, this mobile is PlayStation certified...

experience Multi-touch means you can use both hand fingers to play with it, hell yeah...
capture image with 12MP Exmor R (4000x3000) and video recording in 1080p@30fps with back camera and 720p@30fps with 1.3MP front facing camera,,, isn't enough to carry on in the move,,, on the go,,, anywhere,,, in the journey,,, in vacation,,, in office,,, or in party,,, any time,,, any situation...........
soon will get update of Android ice cream sandwich :) so be happy.

about the size of the screen, this is 4.3″ best-in-class,,, u know why,,, because bigger than this will not easy to put on your pocket, headache... bigger than this probably will count in Tab category... am i right?

and the screen, sony' mobile BRAVIA engine,,, LED Backlit LCD,,, 1280x720 with ~342ppi pixel density...
now come to connectivity, DLNA, NFC, HDMI, USB-on-go, Wi-Fi and ofcourse Bluetooth 2.1,,, what you need more,,, i guess,,, nothing left :) have everything in this little device........
Design, is awesome,,, I liked the old Xperia arc's sleek design but this is also rock, looking next gen....

and last about the timescape interface.............. there is no other android or other OS can compete SE's interface,,, no one,,, yes, you got me right,,,, no one can compete SE's interface...........
once you feel it... you cant leave it... believe me... you cant stop your self to love it.....
finally the real phone for real people... go get this new Supercool,,, outstanding,,, unique,,, master piece mobile,,, the Sony Xperia S.....
You'll LUV IT, i KNEW IT.

Intel's Core i7-980X Launches with a Bang

Intel today launches its newest processor, the Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition, which promises to be the new king of the CPU hill. The Core i7-980X Extreme Edition (codenamed "Gulftown") is Intel's first six-core processor for consumers, more specifically gamers and well-heeled multimedia professionals.
The Core i7-980X replaces the Core i7-975 as the top-of-the-line Intel processor. It costs approximately $999 per chip, which is the same price as the i7-975. (It's therefore no surprise that the Core i7-975 will be going away soon.) The Core i7-980 is truly a "drop-in" replacement, since it shares the same LGA-1366 socket as the i7-975 (and i7-920, i7-960, etc.). You should be able to use the most recent motherboards with an Intel X58 Express chipset; all you'll have to do is flash the motherboard's firmware before you install the chip. The usual suspects will have BIOS updates available on their Websites: Intel, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, Foxconn, EVGA, Biostar, etc.

The Core i7-980X has six cores and comes with Intel's Hyper-threading technology. This means it can work on twelve streams at once. This is a boon for people that need multi-processing, like graphics professionals transcoding videos, or people doing 3D rendering in software (think CGI). Like previous Core i7 systems, the i7-980X has TurboBoost, which can turn off some of the cores and give that power to the remaining cores (if, for example, your photo editing program can only address two cores). It also can "boost" all six cores above the usual 3.33-GHz specs, as long as the CPU cooler can keep up with the heat output. Intel can do this because it builds a large amount of overhead into its chip design, so that its new standard cooling fan can handle the occasional spike in thermal energy. Needless to say, this on-demand overclocking won't be constant, but most of the time a computer is waiting for you, rather than vice versa.

Another boost in performance is the result of the larger 12MB L3 cache on the processor (up from 8MB on the Core i7-975). The L3 cache is a holding cell for the data the CPU is processing, and more L3 cache means that the CPU has to access the relatively slower DDR3 memory less often. The cache will help speed up single-threaded tasks like gaming, though as seen in our testing, the choice of GPU is still more important to the hardcore gamer..

Not surprisingly, the Core i7-980X will show up on gaming PCs first, like the Maingear Shift and Falcon Northwest Mach V (Core i-980X). Well-heeled gamers are exactly the type of consumer who will crave a $6,000+ system with a $1,000 processor and $1,500 worth of graphics cards. Gaming system builders have a lot of experience combining the extra overhead in the CPU's thermal envelope with liquid cooling to bump the stock 3.33GHz clock speed up to as much as 4.3GHz while running heavy loads. The overclocked processors still cool down while idle, so they're not running at full speed all the time.

So, is it worth it? Yes and no. Our performance tests with the Falcon Northwest Mach V and Maingear Shift show a significant performance bump in multi-threaded tasks like CineBench R10 (a doubling of performance from the mid-range Core i7-870). There's also a significant speed bump for the PCMark Vantage test, which is multi-threaded and measures day-to-day tasks. However gaming tests still depend more on the graphics you put into the system, with the credit going to multi-GPU systems rather than multi-core CPUs. The multimedia tests are starting to reach a plateau of diminishing returns: while the scores are still getting faster, having an ultra-fast quad core and SSDs are "enough" for tasks like Windows Media Encoder and PhotoShop CS4. Throwing two more cores at the multimedia tasks won't help at this time. Maybe they will help when Adobe releases CS5; time will tell. (story Link)

Intel Core i7 [860] Lynnfield Processor Review

Last week Intel's latest addition to its arsenal of desktop processors was released in the form of the Core i7 and Core i5 series' for the LGA1156 socket. These new cores, previously known as Lynnfield (and we will still call it as much throughout our reviews), differ from the previously available Bloomfield processors (only available as Core i7 CPUs for the LGA1366 socket) in a few ways:

• Dual-channel memory controller- Lynnfield does indeed still have an integrated DDR3 memory controller but here Intel has removed one of the channels from Nehalem to make the new core dual-channel. While this is theoretically a performance drawback, in real-world testing (as you will soon see) the third channel made very little performance difference in most consumer applications. By removing one channel Intel was able to make the CPU package smaller (less pins required), lower the cost of ownership (only two DIMMs needed now) while keeping performance very high.
• No QPI interface- While Nehalem used the QPI interface to communication with the north bridge of the motherboard, Lynnfield uses a connection called DMI. DMI is much slower than QPI (2 GB/s versus 26 GB/s or so) but in nearly all cases that bandwidth will be more than adequate for the amount of data moving between the processor and chipset even in a worst case scenario. Again, with this change, Intel was able to lower the pin count for Lynnfield in relation to Nehalem.
• Integrated PCI Express 2.0- A first for a consumer processor, Lynnfield actually takes 16 lanes of PCIe 2.0 and moves them onto the die of the processor itself. That means that the graphics cards (or any other PCIe devices) now communicate directly with the processor itself rather than through a north bridge or chipset controller. The advantage here is for a lower cost chipset though I am betting that performance advantages from this are going to be minimal to non-existent. This is basically another move towards a more highly integrated platform on the Intel CPU.
• Split HyperThreading integration- HyperThreading is still around on the Lynnfield processors, but it will only be enabled on SOME of the product offerings. While the die size and transistor counts will be exactly the same, Intel will basically just flip off the HyperThreading capability in order to create a market differentiation and pricing segmentation. More details on what CPUs have what on the next page.
• Larger Turbo Mode differentiations- While Lynnfield was being prepared Intel's engineers found out how to get a little more frequency out of the Nehalem architecture and you'll notice that when you see the larger Turbo Mode improvements on Lynnfield. Essentially, the cores have been fine tuned in a way that will allow them to auto-overclock higher than even the most expensive Core i7 processors available today.

I won't get into all of the architectural or product differences here, but if you are still a bit behind the curve in that regard you should definitely be checking out the previous Lynnfield launch review in which I go into great detail about all things new and old in the processor, motherboard chipset options, pricing and more.

While we already tested the Core i7-870 and Core i5-750 processors, the Core i7-860 finds itself resting directly in the middle of those two parts in terms of clock speeds and Turbo Mode overclocking. (full Story)

world's first 3D camera from Fujifilm

Fujifilm Corporation, Japan, one of the world's largest photographic solutions company, today announced the launch of "FinePix REAL 3D System", which it said is its groundbreaking new imaging technology.
Fuji said this is the world's first 3D (three dimensional) digital imaging system that lets users enjoy 3D images with naked eye without the need for wearing special 3D glasses. The revolutionary 3D system consists of FinePix REAL 3D W1, the 3D camera; FinePix REAL 3D V1, an 8 inch viewer on which spectacular 3D images can be displayed; and 3D Print, Fujifilm's high precision production technology that enables users to print 3D images.
Kenichi Tanaka, managing director, Fujifilm India, said, "Fujifilm believes in bringing the latest of its technological innovations to the discerning buyers in India. In accordance with our strategy to become one of the top digital camera brands in India and acquire 15 per cent market share in three years, we shall continue to introduce digital camera models that are world's first in some aspect."
"Fujifilm invented the digital camera and we continue to lead technological innovations in the imaging industry. We wish to assure buyers that when they buy a Fujifilm digital camera, they are getting the best value for money," said A. Rajkumar, country general manager (DSC), Fujifilm India.
To achieve a 3D image, it is necessary to flawlessly layer together two images. So two Fujinon lenses, renowned for their high resolution and exquisite rendering, are installed in the camera. A 3x optical zoom, deemed difficult to achieve in 3D photography because of the precision required to align two lenses, has also been achieved, said a press release.
The engine of the camera synchronizes data passed to it by the two lenses and two CCD sensors, to determine shooting conditions such as focus, brightness and tonality to instantaneously blend this information into a single symmetrical image. (full Story)

Lenovo Moving into Theater PCs, Servers for the Home

Lenovo representatives said Tuesday that the company will enter the "digital lifestyle" category with four new desktops and one laptop, two of which expand Lenovo's reach into home theater PCs and home servers. The most interesting addition is the IdeaCentre Q700, a home theater PC designed to take on rivals from HP and others. Lenovo has paired the Q700 with the IdeaCentre D400, the company's first Windows Home Server box. Both cost $499.

Lenovo also debuted a pair of Atom-based nettops, the Q100 and Q110, which will be priced at $249 and $349, respectively. Finally, Lenovo announced the U450p notebook, which will be priced at $799. The D400 and the two net-tops are available in mid-September; all of the others are available now.

All of the products will be formally announced on Wednesday, a Lenovo spokeswoman said. The Q series, according to Lenovo, "offers a range of PC products to complement the home theater experience and simplify the living room or study."

For Lenovo, the move continues a homecoming of sorts into the consumer market. IBM, which sold its PC assets to Lenovo in 2004, had long since pulled out of the U.S. consumer market, focusing on its corporate customers and its ThinkPad strategy. Lenovo had followed that business focus until about January 2008, when the company debuted the IdeaCentre and IdeaPad and launched all-in-one PCs to boot.

The addition of the new products will make Lenovo a "well-rounded partner" in the consumer space, according to Charles Farmer, a consumer products marketing manager for Lenovo.

With the Q700, Lenovo included the choice of Intel Core 2 Duo processors (either the E5200, E5300, or E7500), up to 2 terabytes of internal storage, 8 USB ports, plus an eSATA port for external hard drives. The box supports up to 1920-by-1080 (or 1080p) video and graphics (either the Intel GMA 950 or GMA X4500), as well as 7.1-channel surround sound. The unit ships with Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. A TV tuner is optional. The Q700 runs on Windows Vista Home Premium 64.

Lenovo said it believes that the Q100 and Q110 nettops are the industry's thinnest, at just 6 inches x 6.3 inches x 0.7 inches thin. Both use the Intel Atom 230 processor, but the Q110 adds an Nvidia Ion processor, making it capable of decoding HD video and DirectX 10 graphics. In addition, the Q110 doubles the gigabyte of RAM found in the Q100 to 2 Gbytes, and bumps up the storage from 160 Gb ytes to 250 Gbytes. Lenovo is touting the Q100 as a low-power contender, pulling 14 watts while in idle and 40 watts at full operation. (full Story)

From Ubuntu to Windows 7, All the best OS for Netbooks

Netbooks have become a hugely popular hardware category. So much so, that netbooks have in some cases started to outsell laptops, considering their low prices, excellent portability and web centric approach.

But these mini machines are a lot different from our usual ultra powered laptops and notebooks. They have different hardware set ups from their laptop congeners and thus have different software needs. Keeping in view their moderately powered processors, these netbooks may not be able to handle the elephant that Vista is, though they can pick the load of his brother that we know as XP. But using an OS that is specifically built for a netbook has its own aura.

We will tell you about these Operating Systems that your netbook will just love to spend its day and night with.

Moblin

Moblin is short for Mobile Desktop. It’s an open source project which aims to develop software for Mobile Internet Devices or, Netbooks and Nettops. Moblin is the brainchild of the people behind this initiative and Moblin.org. Built on a customized Linux build, it uses a tailor-made Gnome environment. It’s still in development, with V2.0 Beta already in the market. Targeting netbooks, Moblin is specifically designed for Intel Atom processors, that most netbooks are based on. With version 2, Moblin has brought an intuitive and easy to use user interface, built for a better media and social networking experience. It also sports a new graphical shell designed to provide the best experience on netbook devices and the likes. The bar placed on the top of the desktop holds different panels called ‘zones’. Each zone holds applications for different uses. Web surfing is handled by Moblin's self customized browser which is based on Mozilla’s Gecko engine. The media library can be browsed from the top bar from where a user can access music, videos and image gallery.

The connectivity can’t be ignored. With Moblin, you can easily create connections, whether Wifi, 3G, WiMax or a wired one. All of this is handled from the top panel. The home screen, that you see above, shows recent appointments and tasks. It also shows tabs of recently visited websites and messages from social media websites. Last.fm and twitter are supported till now and more should be added as Moblin progresses out of beta. Twitter is also integrated within the panel from where a user can quickly update his status. Moblin can be downloaded from here, although note that it is still in development and may cause some glitches.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix

Ubuntu Netbook Remix is simply a spin-off of the original Ubuntu, customized for Netbooks and similar devices. With Ubuntu at it’s heart, you will get the security, user friendliness and customization options that Ubuntu promises.

Specifically designed for netbooks, the Netbook Remix has an intuitive interface with large icons and buttons, making it easy to ‘tap on’ with fingers when the OS is used with a touchpad friendly monitor. The default install takes up nearly 2GB, clearly disappointing users with 2GB EEE PCs. But considering the netbooks that come these days, with large volume hard drives and SSDs, this won’t be a problem at all. It comes with most of the default Gnome applications. OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Evolution all come bundled and the Gnome Web cam app, Cheese is also packed which works out of the box. The current version is 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope. corresponding to the desktop release. It’s just another Ubuntu release (tuned up a bit though) and you should expect it to work like one. The Ubuntu Netbook Remix supports many popular netbook models like Asus Aspire One, Asus EEE 1000, 1000H, 900a & 901, Dell Mini 9 & 10v and a lot more.

Nokia Enters netBook Market with Booklet 3G mini-laptop

Nokia on Monday announced that it plans to move into the PC market with the introduction of its first netbook, the Nokia Booklet 3G.

The Windows-based device will be powered by an Intel Atom processor, and Nokia promises up to 12 hours of battery life. It features a 10-inch glass HD ready display, weighs about 2.75 pounds and is about 2 centimeters thick. The Booklet 3G will include 3G/HSPA and Wi-Fi connectivity options, an HDMI port for HD video out, a front facing camera for video calling, integrated Bluetooth, and an SD card reader.

The new netbook will also include integrated A-GPS, which will pinpoint a user's location using the Nokia Ovi Maps gadget for a "truly personal maps experience," Nokia said.

Nokia will incorporate other Ovi offerings into the Booklet 3G, including music through the Nokia Music Store, and the ability to sync your Nokia smartphone with your netbook via the Ovi Suite. Additional details about pricing and availability with be unveiled at Nokia World on September 2, the company said.

"A growing number of people want the computing power of a PC with the full benefits of mobility," Kai Oistamo, Nokia's executive vice president for devices, said in a statment. "We are in the business of connecting people and the Nokia Booklet 3G is a natural evolution for us. We will make the personal computer more social, more helpful and more personal."

Earlier this month, Microsoft and Nokia on Wednesday announced an alliance that will bring Microsoft mobile software to Nokia devices at some point next year. (story Link)

A hands-on review of the HTC Hero

A couple of months ago HTC announced a new handset called the Hero. Even though it was powered by Android, it was much different than other Android-powered phones such as the G1 and the HTC Magic in the sense that it wasn't Google-branded and also brought along a new user-experience dubbed as the HTC Sense UI.

Looking at the preview of this beauty, I was much appealed by what it had to offer and also because I got quite bored of using my iPhone, so I went ahead and purchased the HTC Hero. So here comes a detailed review:

The body of the phone is what makes it feel like it has come from heaven. It has a fully teflon-coated back which takes it to the next level of smoothness and gives the bearer a great pleasure in holding this little beauty.

Other noticeable features of the phone include, a 3.2-inch touchscreen, a trackball, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi, a 5-megapixel camera, an SD slot and a 1350mAh Lithium-ion battery.

Now there might have been some debate over whether the 528Mhz processor on the back-end makes the Hero an underpowered phone but in my say, it does not. The processor is as good, and even better than many other smartphones out in the market so it all comes down to how many apps you plan to run simultaneously. As in case of the iPhone, its only one app at a time so comparing Hero to the iPhone does not do full justice.

The OS on the phone is an up-lifted version of the Android cupcake with new icons, better navigation and the HTC Sense UI which provides up to 7 workspace screens with custom widgets and addons.

Battery-timing of the phone was what impressed me the most. It managed to survive through a complete day with EDGE turned on 24/7 on the backend and trust me on this one, no one uses EDGE like I do.

Notes to Follow

For those planning to buy this phone, here are some notes to follow:

1. Its Android, so make sure you get a preview of it before going out to purchase an Android phone for the first time.
2. Don't compare it to the iPhone since both have different classes, one has full multitasking features while the other doesn't.
3. Speed is not an issue on this phone as the rumors say, its all about how many apps you want to run in the background.

Good news is that HTC will soon be rolling out an update for the Hero that will make its UI even more fast and snappy. I would definitely recommend this phone to anyone who is tired of the iPhone and wants a change, and also to those who want to experience Android for the first time. (story with Thanks)

Apple Tablet to be available this September

Apple has always managed to keep a lot of things secret around its campus but what really isn't a secret anymore is the fact that Apple will be launching a Tablet soon.

Even though Apple has previously denied that it would ever be planning to enter the Netbook market, it still doesn't keep us away from thinking that Apple is probably working on something more catchy and innovative, that would eventually turn out to be a Tablet media device.

According to 9to5mac, the new Apple Tablet device may have already been previewed by an un-named analyst and that he predicts for it to be announced by Apple at an event somewhere in September.

The un-named analyst has also suggested that the Tablet device will be shipped in November, for a price of around $700-$800 and will focus on experiences such as Movies, E-book reading and Gaming. (with Thanks)

Hands On with the Thin Dell Inspiron 11z

What does the "z" in the Dell Inspiron 11z stand for? Z-height, and Dell's intent to create the absolute thinnest laptop available for that screen size.

And, as the name suggests, the 11z has an 11.6-inch widescreen and is the first Inspiron laptop to bear the "z" moniker (the "z" parade started with the Dell Studio 14z). Note that it doesn't have the "Mini" brand: Dell is not calling this a netbook, even though 11-inch netbooks like the Asus eeePC 1101HA and the Acer Aspire One A0751h are already shipping. The 11z's biggest differentiator is that it runs a 1.2-GHz, Intel Ultra Low Voltage Celeron processor instead of the more commonly found Atom. Everything else, however, smells like a netbook.

Like all Dell Inspiron models, the 11z can be customized with up to 7 colors; the one we played with was draped in Alpine White. The 11z is slightly wider than the Inspiron Mini 10v and almost as thin. It weighs about 3 pounds with a 3-cell battery (a 6-cell will be offered at a later date), which is slightly heavier than the 1101HA and the A0751h, whose frames include 6-cell batteries at about the same weight.

The best part about an 11.6-inch widescreen is that you don't have to suffer the 1,024-by-600 resolutions found in 10-inch netbooks like the Toshiba mini NB205 and the Mini 10v; the 11z, like the A0751h and the 1101HA, has a 1,366-by-768 resolution. Its keyboard, unfortunately, is not full sized like that of the A0751h. At 92 percent of full size, it delivers a typing experience touch typists can adjust to, though, similar to the 92-percent ones found in the 10v and the 1101HA. The large touchpad is like that of the 10v, in which the mouse buttons are concealed within it.

Feature-wise, it has what the 1101HA and the A0751h lack: an HDMI-Out port. This handy port allows you to stream all those downloaded videos to an HDTV (or larger display) that supports the format. It also comes standard with a 250-Gbyte spinning hard drive, which is impressive when most netbooks standardize on 160 GB. Otherwise, the three USB ports, Ethernet, and a media card reader are consistent with those of a netbook. (full Story)

Sony E-Series Video Walkman

Sony announces that a new line of Walkman music players will be available in Europe.  If you love to have your very own OLED Walkman but you do not have the money to buy one, these entry-level video MP3 players might do the trick.

The Sony Walkman E-Series Video MP3 Players feature great looks and easy listening features that are packed with innovation that only Sony can provide.  The E-Series appear in slim and light body (measuring just 9.3 mm thin) in choice of black or red, with high-resolution QVGA 2-inch color LCD screen, and clear stereo and bass technologies that assures you with superb sound quality.

These MP3 players also support video file format conversion, allowing you to convert other video formats if you have a decoder software.  Its long battery life provides you with non-stop listening pleasure for up to 30 hours and up to 6 hours of video-viewing pleasure.

The Walkman E-series features the Clear Audio technology by Sony for high-quality and detailed sound.  It reduces leakage between left and right channels while delivering powerful, controlled bass without distortion.  This video MP3 player also has a 5-band equalizer that fine tunes your listening enjoyment, as well as a Dynamic Normalizer that balances volume levels between songs for that comfortable listening experience.  Sony also throws in a high-quality FM audio tuner that can be recorded at a touch of a button and enjoy your favorite songs wherever and whenever. (story Link with Thanks)

Acer Aspire One D150 Netbook

Netbooks are becoming quite popular among those who go online most of the time. Netbooks provide the means for some people who use such gadgets to browse the Web without having to shell out a lot of cash. Netbooks such as the Acer Aspire One D150 surely makes the point clearly.

The Acer Aspire One D150 netbook is designed with a frequent Web user in mind, especially the one that's always mobile. It is provided with features mostly required to make the online experience more convenient and portable. It is equipped with a 10.1" display which allows more than a convenient browsing experience for such a portable device.

Its Intel Atom N270 1.60 GHz processor provides enough computing power for browsing the Web. Add in a 1GB DDR2 533 SDRAM memory, integrated digital microphone, stereo speakers, a 160 GB hard drive, WLAN capabilities,  multi-card reader and webcam, you then have for yourself an all-in-one Netbook that provides all the Web browsing capabilities that you need. And just weighing under three pounds and costing just around US$330, it certainly is quite a handy and affordable device to bring along. (story Link)

ASUS HD TV Monitor T1

ASUS attempts to grab a slice of the HDTV market pie with the unveiling of its TV Monitor T1 series in Europe, which combines a desktop monitor and LCD TV technology, giving you high-quality HDTV broadcast as well as Full HD Blu-ray Disc playback.

The ASUS TV Monitor T1 has built-in TV tuners, allowing you to watch both digital and PAL/ SECAM channels, maximizing your European viewing pleasure.  Apart from Full HD capabilities, which let you watch high-quality videos in 1920 x 1080 pixels, the ASUS TV Monitor T1 also features surround sound through its 7-Watt speakers, together with a rich complement of I/O ports and ASUS' Splendid Video Intelligence Technology that enhances color reproduction.

The T1 Series also features ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio technology that brings the display's contrast ratio up to 20000:1.  The ASUS TV Monitor T1 comes with a remote control, customizable sound presets, a Splendid Video Intelligence Technology that lets you adjust the display's parameters to ensure optimized colors, and a Splendid Game Mode that boosts those dim and hard-to-see areas in video games all while keeping well-lit area untouched.

Let's hope that a NTSC capable version will come out soon for the North American market. (Link)

Samsung SMX-K40: Near HDTV Quality

Samsung has recently released a new line of interesting HD camcorders, but for those who want to have high definition videos without suffering your savings, the company has just the right camcorder for you.

The Samsung SMX-K40 lets you record videos in standard definition-which is 720 x 480 pixels-but these clips can get a "HD upscale" when viewing through a high-definition monitor using a HDMI output (cable sold separately).  Now you can enjoy videos that are almost at full-HD quality for the price of a standard camcorder.

Another highlight that would make us love the Samsung SMX-K40 is its 65x Intelli-Zoom lens, one of the most powerful zoom lenses that Samsung can offer.  This lets you capture any moment no matter how far away they may be.  And unlike ordinary digital zoom lenses that negatively affect the quality of the image, the Intelli-Zoom lens allows you to go beyond the standard 52x optical zoom.  You can also be assured that your videos are recorded with high quality with Samsung's advanced Optical Image Stabilizer, making your videos shake-free at any zoom distance.

Other great features of this amazingly affordable camcorder includes a 2.7-inch LCD monitor, a built-in intelli-studio program that lets you upload videos on You. (full Story)

Lenovo ThinkPad T400s

The wheels were set in motion for the advent of the ThinkPad T400s ($1,995 direct) the minute Lenovo launched the ThinkPad X300 (and subsequently, the X301). A larger version of that highly sought-after 13-inch business ultraportable was the next logical step. At the same time, though, the flagship ThinkPad T400 desperately needed an update, so it's fitting their paths would intersect. Lenovo just added an "s" to the model name, but the system changes are dramatic. The ThinkPad T400s takes the X300's exquisitely thin dimensions and widens them with a 14-inch LED widescreen. Certain features such as a FireWire port, an extra card slot, and options for discrete graphics aren't available on the T400s. Luckily for those who can't do without these things, the old T400 models will still be around.

Design
Above everything else, the T400s is an aesthetic overhaul. Taking the brilliant engineering that went into the X300 and applying it to a 14-inch model was something Lenovo aficionados were waiting for. It measures exactly one inch thick (13.3 by 9.4 by 1 inches, HWD) and that includes optical drive. It and the Apple MacBook Pros are the only laptops that can pull-off these compact measurements without sacrificing the optical drive (a dual-layer DVD burner in our test unit; a Blu-ray reader is also available).

At 3.9 pounds, the T400s is officially the lightest laptop with a 14-inch screen, a title that was previously shared by the Toshiba Tecra R10-S4401 (4.2 lbs) and the Samsung X460-44P (4.2 lbs). More compelling is that the T400s is over a pound lighter than the original T400 (5.2 lbs), with the Dell Latitude E6400 (5.6 lbs) and the HP EliteBook 6930p (5.3 lbs) heavier still.

You may wonder how the T400s's bland-looking exterior can possibly be considered an aesthetic makeover. Well, you have to look beyond its all-black frame. Stripping the black from a ThinkPad would have been like stripping its brand identity, as Lenovo found out when it tried out a platinum version of its now-defunct ThinkPad Z61m. Likewise, Apple abandoned its black MacBook—certain colors will forever be paired with a particular brand. The T400's chassis is fortified with carbon and glass-fiber, making it both accident-proof and long-lasting. Within the rigid frame is an inner metallic skeleton called the Roll Cage, a concept similar to that used in cars to keep the occupants (in this case, the processing components) from harm. These engineering feats, perfected in X300, have been carried over to the T400s.

The 14-inch LED widescreen is energy efficient and thinner than that of the T400, yet it's not susceptible to bending. The panel is bright and its colors are sharp, and much of the credit belongs to the 1,440-by-900 resolution (the same as the T400). The 1,280-by-800 (or WXGA) resolutions found in the Tecra R10-S4401 and the X460-44P aren't as sharp. Meanwhile, you can find similar resolutions in the Dell E6400 and the HP 6930p. Just as black is synonymous with ThinkPads, so is the magnificently built keyboard, Lenovo's signature TrackPoint pointing stick, and the soft mouse buttons. Lenovo has added texture to the touchpad, which makes it more enjoyable to use than the standard one found in the T400. A ThinkPad's typing experience simply has no equal. (Next: Features and Performance)

LG Launches New Sprint Phone

LG has unveiled the LX290, a low-end slider with a 1.3-megapixel camera, a GPS radio with optional voice-enabled turn-by-turn directional capability, and Sprint Mobile E-mail for Web and work e-mail access.
It also includes a music player and a (sadly, non-standard) 2.5mm headphone jack. It supports Sprint's NFL Mobile Live audio and video broadcasts, and lets you send a voice message to up to 25 friends at once without making a call.
The LX290 measures 4.1 by1.9 by 0.6 inches and weighs 3.6 ounces. It features a 2.2-inch QVGA LCD with 240-by-320-pixel resolution. LG claims the handset offers up to 6 hours of continuous talk time on a single charge. The LX290 is now available from Sprint as of July 12th (Sunday) for $29.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in. (story Link)

Hands On With the Nokia Surge

Nokia's new Surge smartphone for AT&T Wireless is designed specifically for the U.S. market – and a younger demographic.

BOSTON – I spent some time Monday checking out the Nokia Surge, the company's new smartphone for AT&T Wireless. In a twist, Nokia designed the Surge specifically for the U.S. That means there's no unlocked version with a different model number, such as with the E71 and the E71x.

In fact, it's actually Nokia's third smartphone for AT&T in the past 12 months; the first two were the Nokia 6650 and the E71x. That's significant because it signals a change in Nokia's strategy; up until recently, Nokia's diverse lineup of unlocked smartphones have barely made a dent in the U.S. marketplace due to their high upfront cost.

That said, Nokia is aiming the Surge at a younger demographic than the E71x. The big news is the Surge's thin, squat form factor, as if it endured a few passes of a rolling pin. It's made almost entirely of black gloss plastic and accumulates fingerprints like crazy. The handset measures 3.8 by 2.3 by 0.6 inches and weighs 4.4 ounces. But it felt lighter in the hand than I had expected.

A slide-out, horizontal QWERTY keyboard spans the width of the unit. In fact, the entire handset is oriented horizontally, down to the AT&T and Nokia logos and the asymmetrical front panel. As a result, it looks a little weird when holding it vertically. The keyboard's squarish keys felt a bit cheap, but they offered a pleasant, clicky resistance despite their flat look. The slide mechanism itself was smooth but also felt a little chintzy.

The power button doubles as the End key, which is a departure from other Nokia handsets. The Surge's five-way control pad was a little smaller and harder to press than I normally like, but I adjusted pretty quickly. Plenty of buttons adorn the unit's sides, including a messaging shortcut key on the front for texting fiends. Given that most horizontal sliders only rotate the screen when you slide out the keyboard, the Surge's responsive accelerometer was a nice touch. The QVGA screen was sharp and bright, but its 320-by-240-pixel resolution and simple menu graphics felt aged compared with an iPhone 3G or BlackBerry Bold.

As a proper AT&T device, the Surge features support for the TeleNav-powered AT&T Navigator. That's a step up from Nokia's confusing, proprietary GPS software, such as what came with the unlocked Nokia N78 last year. The Surge also features CV for streamed videos, and Nokia's standard-issue Mini Map browser.

There are some minor nods to the younger target market, such as JuiceCaster support, some built-in games, and support for AT&T Video Share. But even as such, the Surge is a genuine Symbian Series 60 Third Edition smartphone. It can multitask, it includes Quickoffice for editing Word and Excel documents, it works with Mail for Exchange 2.9, and it can be used as a 3G modem for a laptop. I tested a pre-production unit, though I didn't run into any bugs for the short amount of time I had the handset.

The 2-megapixel camera lacks auto-focus or an LED flash, but it's capable of recording smooth QVGA videos. The non-standard, 2.5mm headphone jack is a bummer. But other Nokia smartphones I've tested have sounded quite good when paired with stereo Bluetooth headphones; this one shouldn't be any different. There's also a built-in FM radio for the three or four people who need that. The battery is the same 1500 mAh pack that comes with the Nokia N97 and E71x, which should put talk time in the four-and-a-half hour range.

The Surge will be compatible with the Ovi Store when it launches later this year, complete with integrated carrier billing when buying mobile apps. The Surge will cost $79.99 with a two-year contract and after rebates when it drops on July 19; stay tuned for a full review. (Gearlog)

Nvidia and Dell team up to ship Tesla-powered Personal Supercomputers

Nvidia announced today that Dell has begun shipping workstations with their Nvidia Tesla C1060 supercomputer card. Dell Precision R5400, T7500 and T5500 all offer Tesla GPU compute cards, which, according to Greg Weir, Senior Manager at Dell, “put the power of supercomputing on the desktop”.

Dell’s R5400 is a rack-mountable workstation computer designed for cluster operations. The T5500 and T7500 are tower-model workstations which sell for around $1800 base, plus the add-ons, which now include the C1060 which has an MSRP base price of around $1599.

The Tesla C1060 GPU provides raw computing power which is roughly equal to a small- to mid-range traditional CPU supercomputer cluster, though in a traditional dual-slot graphics card-sized configuration. The workloads it can operate on are not always the same as full-blown supercomputers, which can handle anything. Therefore, the C1060 does have real limitations (as do all graphics-based compute engines).

While the Tesla C1060 looks like a graphics card in appearance card, and even appears to software that way, it has no graphics port outputs. The Tesla is designed exclusively to be a compute engine which operates inside your PC.

Nvidia introduced double-precision (64-bit) floating point compute abilities with Tesla. The card itself is similar to high-end graphics cards offered by Nvidia, capable of nearly a Teraflop of dedicated single-precision compute performance (933 GFlops), with something around 80 Gigaflops in double-precision, though it is fully IEEE-754 compliant. It consumes up to 188 watts, has a memory bandwidth of 102 GB/s on a 512-bit interface 800 MHz clock, with a 1.3 GHz core clock with 240 stream processors. Each card comes with 4 GB of GDDR3 memory. Even though the Tesla C1060 card itself consumes up to 188 watts each, the reality is its compute abilities far exceed a traditional CPU-based supercomputer cluster, and for a fraction of the power and, according to Nvidia, for 1/100th the price.

The card’s dedicated compute is typically targeted at the oil and gas industries, computational finance, fluid dynamics, medical research and weather modeling — jobs which are traditionally sifting through volumes of data, computing with common operations like add, sub, multiply and divide.

It operates with Nvidia’s CUDA programming language, which exposes the compute abilities of the card through a C-like software interface.

See Nvidia’s press release, and information page about the Tesla C1060 released earlier this year in January. Nvidia also has a Tesla Personal Supercomputer Store, which shows several dedicated clusters which contain a series of Tesla cards inside, and are sold as true personal supercomputers. TigerDirect also published a YouTube video on Nvidia’s Tesla cards.

Rick’s Opinion

Nvidia’s second-generation Tesla C1060 was introduced nearly a year ago. That card is not up to today’s levels of performance and even greater performance can be obtained today through Nvidia or ATI’s highest-end graphics cards.

In fact, the Tesla is an expensive parallel compute engine, and one not required for massively parallel compute abilities thanks to the advancements in CUDA and BrookGPU libraries for Nvidia and ATI graphics cards.

Buying two or more high-end Nvidia’s GTX 2xx or ATI Radeon HD 4xxx series cards might be a wiser decision, as these cards yield well over 1 Teraflop of performance today on less power, while also providing usable graphics abilities for the workstation. And with Nvidia’s SLI and ATI’s CrossFire, the cards can be joined together for a single-instance compute appearance with even greater resources and power. (story Link)

Review: Acer Aspire Timeline 4810T Notebook

Acer’s engineering approach has fairly assisted to innovate, highly advanced notebooks, which have tremendously attracted the notebook users, towards the Acer Brand. It is really true in the case of, Acer Aspire Timeline  4810T Notebook – a smart combo of creativity and truly the breaking news to the notebook zealots.

This latest model notebook operates on two types of systems, either on Intel® Centrino® 2 or Intel® CoreIM2 Duo SU9400 ultra low voltage processor.  It is also operating on Intel® CoreIM2 Solo SU3500 highly low energy consumption processor.

Out of many features, motherboard flexibility gives users far more alternatives to select either they intend to use it for web surfing or business scheduling.   This new model has a fitted-in dual-channel DDR3 SDRAM slot for memory enhancement that can assist up to 4GB 1066MHz memory.  The memory capacity can be upgraded to 8GB, you may have rarely thought for before. (story Link)

Sony BDP-S360 (Blu-ray)

Sony's BDP-S360 Blu-ray player ($299.99 list) is a fine example of getting more for less. It delivers even better picture quality than its predecessor, the excellent BDP-S350, yet the S360's price is $100 lower. A few sacrifices were made: You won't get the multimedia streaming features some other players in this price range offer, for example. But if you care about picture quality above all else, the S360 delivers.

Behind a fold-down door on the S360's glossy tinted face you'll find a centrally located tray mechanism, an information display, and basic playback controls. The player's forward-facing power and eject buttons in the upper corners of its face are much easier to operate than were the upward-angled buttons of the S350, especially when the unit is stacked under other components. The basic remote control is a step back from the S350's, which featured bigger buttons on a larger frame. Sony has also eliminated the eject button on the new remote, making it more likely you will smudge the player's glossy face with fingerprints when inserting and removing discs.

The S360 lacks the S-Video connection that was on the S350 but retains the HDMI and component video outputs that support HD video formats. Like the LG BD370, the S360 also features coaxial and optical digital audio outputs for greater flexibility when connecting to an amplifier that may not support HDMI audio. As with most Blu-ray players, the S360 settles for a composite video cable; manufacturers should include HDMI cables, instead, for superior picture quality and simplified setup.

An Ethernet port on the S360 allows simplified firmware updates over a broadband connection, and a USB port can be filled with 1GB or more of flash storage to enable support for BD-Live downloadable multimedia features. The cheap cost of flash memory nowadays should make this optional upgrade standard, but at least this player's USB port is hidden out of sight; the LG BD370 leaves the memory sticking out the front of the player.

Unlike other $300 players such as the Samsung BD-P1600 and Panasonic DMP-BD60, the S360 doesn't support Internet-based streaming of services such as Netflix's Watch Instantly (Samsung) or YouTube (Panasonic). The player supports JPEG and MP3 multimedia file playback, but only from a recorded disc (Blu-ray, CD, or DVD) and not also via USB like other players, including the aforementioned Panasonic and Samsung models.

At 41 seconds, the S360's Blu-ray load time is 2 seconds faster than the S350's. When the S360's Quick Start feature is enabled, it reduces the time the player needs to start up and eject its disc tray from 23 seconds to 7 seconds. The S360 is below average at quickly scrolling through long menus, however: It took 22 seconds, whereas the LG BD370 needed only 15 seconds.

The S360 is better at upconverting standard-definition DVDs than any other Blu-ray player I've tested. The challenging HQV Benchmark DVD showed that the S360 could minimize jagged-edge artifacts better than the Panasonic DMP-BD60. And the S360 nailed all of the benchmark's film cadence tests that check for preservation of detail when dealing with some of the more common frame rates used video production—including the rate of 24 frames per second (fps) in which most movies and prime-time TV shows are captured.

Most Blu-ray movies are stored in the 1080p24 format (1080p resolution, 24 fps), and the BDP-S360 can output this video format to a compatible display via HDMI. But unlike the Panasonic DMP-BD60, the S360 upconverts DVD movies not to 1080p24 but to the more commonly supported 1080p60 format that can introduce judder, which is noticeable in slow panning shots.

On my tests, the S360 displayed exceptionally detailed 1080p Blu-ray video, but it was slightly less capable with 1080i, the format commonly used for bonus material and some animated titles. The 1080i HD HQV Benchmark's video resolution test revealed some flicker that could result in a minor loss of detail; this has been a consistent issue with all Sony BD players that I've tested, including the PlayStation 3. (full Story)