Dell has just released their much anticipated 15.4-inch XPS notebook, the M1530. After receiving stellar reviews for their 13.3-inch M1330, many have been waiting for an XPS laptop that would give the MacBook Pro 15.4-inch a run for its money.

Well, the day has come, and the M1530 is now for sale. But, gleaning specs from Dell’s website, it is obvious that this laptop will not please everyone. Read the rest of this entry »

Today, I’m focusing on nVidia’s practice of (mis)labeling their line of mobile graphics chips to make them seem more equivalent to their famed desktop products.

Earlier, I was reading Trusted Reviews’ excellent coverage of the first laptop to integrate a 8800m GTX. Having used many nVidia mobile and desktop graphics chips in the past, instinctively, the first thing that entered my mind was to what extent has nVidia limited this mobile chip’s performance compared to that of its desktop equivalent.

It seems that every time nVidia releases a new mobile chip, they lend it a title that closely matches a desktop product, which, if you ask me, implies that it also closely matches it in performance. As we all know, this is hardly the case. Over the years, lowered expectations for mobile graphics performance has been something we’ve all come to live with. Read the rest of this entry »

This sweet little unit will allow you to create catchy beats in no time. The Korg Kaossilator’s touch pad is wired to rattle off a hundred stored samples, including classical instruments and drums. The deceptively simple controls can layer multiple two-bar loops, of your own composition, in realtime. The pocket-sized synthesizer attempts to satisfy experienced musicians, yet also allows for your neighborhood no-talent-DJ to bust out some sick sounding beats, all without killing his (or her) high. Read the rest of this entry »

Apparently inspired by what people in the early 80’s might have dreamt as the e-tablet of the future, the Amazon Kindle is either boldly ahead of the design curve–by a couple decades–or a rather disastrous miscalculation of what people might consider stylish today. Somewhere in Japan, consumer product designers are laughing their asses off.

Looking like a cold shard of plastic hacked off an original Apple Macintosh (monochrome screen and all), this ebook reader is bound to stand out from any electronics you’ve bought in the last 20 years–in a god awful Zune’ish way. In this day and age, people expect their new gadgets to actually look modern!

The Kindle will hit you $400, which appears to be this holiday’s magical price point. If you’re going to get one though, make sure it’s for someone you hate.

Apple has updated their patent for a multi-touch surface that can discriminate between different parts of the hand when touched. This would allow the technology to be integrated into the hand rest of a notebook or desktop keyboard, intuitively sensing when multi-touch should become active, and providing sophisticated recognition for various hand gestures. 

With Dell leading the charge for multi-touch laptops in 2008, how soon can we expect Apple to bring an extension of what we’ve seen in the iPhone to the rest of their product line? With the exception of a few notable devices, Apple has not been known to rush new technologies to the market; they would rather refine new features and release them when they feel the time is right. Read the rest of this entry »

 

Is it just me, or has the Asus Eee 4G been getting a bit too much attention as of late? Overnight, the book-sized notebook has become the darling of the gadget lover community, and I’m pretty sure it’s not because of its low-spec components.The Eee’s 3 USB ports, VGA output, and memory card reader are a welcomed surprise for a unit of this size; however, its small screen and ridiculously low resolution (800×480) kills any potential for the Eee 4G to offer serious competition in the subnotebook market. Give me a call when Asus fits the Eee frame with a 10 inch, 1100×600′ish screen. That would be much more practical and exciting to use. Guess we’ll just have to wait for some new gadgets next year.

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Many users have reported problems coinciding with their MacBook or MacBook Pros coming out of sleep. Common complaints are choppy mouse control, sluggish performance, slow-motion screen animations and an unresponsive keyboard. Not very nice behavior for my favorite new gadget!

The problem, at least for some users, appears to stem from the wifi adapter attempting to reconnect to the network last used. For some people, the problem is most prevalent when the notebook is woken up out of range from the network last used.

So, if you are experiencing this problem, I suggest turning off Airport before closing the lid of your MB or MBP. You might also want to use a wired LAN connection to test if Airport really is the culprit. With any luck, Apple will release a fix for this widespread problem soon, and you can stop blowing coke dust into the intake fans every time she gets lazy on you.