Gadgety News

Well, the first lot of Asus Eee Top’s have hit the UK and even though I’m digging it at the mo I’m gonna hang on a while longer.

I’ve chatted about the 15.6-inch Eee Top before and, as far as I can tell, the touchscreen PC looks a decent bit of kit. 

You get a budget PC-based alternative to the iMac with a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of memory, 160GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, 1.3MP webcam, stereo speakers, plenty of connectivity plus Windows XP for your OS.

Don’t forget you still get a keyboard and mouse so can navigate your way round even when your hands are covered in jam.

But if you think that the 15.6 inch screen is letting down the whole package there is good news on on its way.

According to Asus CEO Jerry Shen, the  Eee Top is being outsourced to Quanta Computer, which will be producing new 20-inch and 22-inch models for 2009.

And this aint no limited edition. Five million of the things will be produced in the next couple of years - so says Mr Shen.

If you’re cool with the 15.6 model Eee Top you can grab one from this month for around £399.

Looking for a true all-in-one media thingy?

Say Allo to the Allio HDTV with built-in PC and Blu-ray player!

No more will you need to multi-task from laptop to tele and back again - this 42-inch 1080p TV has cojoined with a high spec PC that holds an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of memory, a massive 1TB of storage and Windows Vista Premium.

It’s no surprise really that it is also packing plenty of connectivity including wireless networking.

You can still multi-task (of course) with this big TV as the split screen/picture-in-picture options are a go-go!

To ensure that all boxes are ticked there’s that Blu-ray player - surly making this the first high-def all-in-one to hit the market.

Silicon Mountain is offering up six flavours of the TV, starting at $1,599.99 for the 32-inch model, jumping to $2,799 for the big boy.

No news of a UK launch as yet but don’t question about future upgrades or “what happens if this bit breaks?”………….

Silicon Mountain via Engadget

Left 4 Dead – it’s almost here!

If you’re not familiar with the title let me tell you a little about it.

The ‘4′ in the name underlines that this is a 4 player First Person Shooter (FPS) (and not an homage to Prince’s whacky way of writing) and the ‘Dead’ bit is a nod to what will happen to you if you don’t work as a team.

Oh; and perhaps the fact that you’re fighting zombies!

The game comes from those great people, Valve (they gave you Counter-Strike and Half-Life), and is set in the immediate aftermath of the zombie apocalypse.

Theses zombies aren’t your Dawn of the Dead slow moving types – think more 28 Days Later. These deads move quick!

Thanks to “the AI Director” you can play the same level repeated times and it will be different each time you play – You’re actually meant to keep coming back, charging through each zombie-infested level again and again, in the company of your buddies.

The Director tailors the frequency and ferocity of the zombie attacks to your performance, putting you in the middle of a fast-paced, but not too overwhelming shooty-shooty-kill-kill game!

Obviously the other aspect to the randomness is your 3 playing partners – you know how it goes: One will go off on a killing spree leaving the rest behind.  We’ve all been there and/or been guilty of doing that

Most games it’s ok and you generally can get away with it but this game reminds you to stay as 4.

But even then you could be handling the zombie horde as a group when suddenly a molotov is thrown, or a cannister explodes, and everything is engulfed in flames! You watch in horror as one of your team is caught by a lasso-tongued smoker zombie and dragged off to their doom and then….then……I sharn’t spoil it!

Here’s a quick look at those bad-guys:

• Boomers: Big, fat explodey meatsacks. Players caught in the blast/vomit radius become a great big beacon for a huge, bonus wave of zombies

• Smokers: These use huge Gene Simmons-esque mouth-snakes to grab a player from a good forty metres away, rendering him helpless until his mates save him

• Hunters: Stupily fast undeads that’ll pin a player to the ground, again until a heroic buddy intervenes

• Witches: Tend to sing a lot and remain motionless until disturbed by light, noise or an errant gunshot. Their eerie song and simultaneous sobbing are by far the most terrifying thing in the game. Upon waking up, they’re a whirling dervish of destruction. Fight every instinct to shoot the apparently frail things and sneak around them.

• Tanks: Are armoured and rather large. You’ll hear them stomping towards you from about half a mile away. On Normal, they’ll fall over before they do too much damage. On Advanced, their hitpoints are such that it’ll be the shortest route to an endgame situation.

If you like gaming, killing zombies and having your mates join in the fun you will want to click this link and try on the demo for size!

The game costs $44.99 through Steam and is available for pre-order now (you get access to the demo straight-away) and the full game is released on November 18th.

Good luck - keep your friends close!

A mighty big claim that, Mr YoYoTech Fi7epower MLK1610 - You up for the task?

Challenging something like the official record for the World’s Fastest Desktop isn’t something to take lightly - you’re gonna need something a little special.

Let’s say: something like a new Intel chip…………

The Intel Core i7 to be precise - but not just any Core i7.

It happens to be packing the Core i7-965 Extreme Edition, with a 3.20GHz clock speed and 6.4 GT/s QuickPath - it costs a credit-crunch defying £1,000 all by itself.

Backing up the new chip is an Asus P6T motherboard, which boasts Intel’s latest X58 chipset. Then added to that you’ve got a staggering 9GB of high performance DDR3 RAM (that’s 2GB per channel and an extra 1GB thrown in for good measure). Then they throw in an 80GB Samsung SSD to make things run even faster whilst staying completely silent.

Gamers will be salivating and getting all unneccessary wondering what sort of gaming specs this brings to the table.

Well, to be honest, they’re pretty average.

The Fi7epower MLK1610 sports the latest and greatest Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card with 2GB of DDR5 memory. But only the one of them. BOoooooooooooooooooooooo! 

The Asus P6T motherboard supports AMD’s Crossfire - a means of hooking up a pair of graphics cards to work in unison - so there’s no real excuse as to why there’s only one graphics card on board.

Saying that though, YoYotech do offer quite a fair bit of options for customisation so you can decide exactly how you want it kitted out - ie, add another Graphics Card

So - is it as fast as it sounds?

Apparently It has blown the former world record holder out of the water, and in practical terms it can be expected to perform twice as fast as anything powered by Intel’s former top-of-the-range CPU.

YAY!

The downside, as you’d expecty is the £4,000 for the version described above.

So, fast and mindboggingly expensive.

But a world champ none-the-less

Tech Radar

How time flies huh?

The gaming oscars that was the 26th Annual Golden Joystick Awards have already come and gone.

Long story short - Activision pretty musch cleaned up: Call of Duty 4 nabbed four awards (Multiplayer Game Of The Year, PC GOTY, Online GOTY and Ultimate GOTY), and Call of Duty 5 taking the One to Watch award. Oh yeah, and Activision won publisher of the year too.

As expected Rockstar also swiped three gongs: Developer Of The Year, Soundtrack Of The Year and Xbox Game Of The Year for Grand Theft Auto IV.

If you’re looking for a list of all the winners, well you’re in luck people!

The Sun Family Game of the Year: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Bliss Handheld Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Activision Blizzard Retailer of the Year: Play.com

The E4 Talent Mobile GOTY: Bejeweled 2

Nintendo GOTY Sponsored by Official Nintendo Magazine: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Nuts All-Nighter Multiplayer GOTY: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

BBC1Xtra Soundtrack of the Year: Grand Theft Auto IV

ARVATO Xbox Game of the Year: Grand Theft Auto IV

PC GOTY Sponsored by The United Kingdom e-Sport Association: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

The Play.com One to Watch: Call of Duty: World at War

CVG.co.uk UK Developer of the Year: Rockstar

PlayStation GOTY Sponsored by Official PlayStation Magazine: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Publisher of the Year: Activision

Edge Most Wanted: Fallout 3

E4.com Grand Master Flash award: Stickman Madness

Games Radar’s Online Game of the Year: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Virgin Media Ultimate Game of the Year: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Whatchya reckon? Is this a true representation of the gaming industry over the last 12 months?

Is there games that shouldn’t be there and which ones shoulda?

Let me know

I came across this and actually thought it was pretty cool in a Chameleonic “WASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssup” kinda way.

The neat thing about this USB powered pet is not that it looks like a real chameleon - oh no…………..

It’s the fact that it actually changes colour as your screen changes.

So, if you fancy bringing a little more colour into your computing day or see this as more a cheaper version of the Philips Ambilight tele’s then it’s a win!  :p

If you want to know more about its features and its design, you can see it here: Strapya

Chameleon USB pet

Happy birthday to this gadget blog. Happy birthday to this tech blog. Happy birthday dear Jay’s Gadget News.  Happy birthday to yooooooooooooooooou!

Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog!

Well, what started off as a test to see if there was room for another gadget and tech blog site a year ago has slowly gained enough of you lovely readers for me to carry on writing about things that have caught my eye and that you (hopefully) find interesting.

My first posts (ie not ones dragged over from my temporary test site) were posted this very day 12 months ago - I know, how Goth to choose Samhain/Halloween to start a blog

I would like to take this moment and space to thank all of you for coming here and making this place feel loved - whether you were here from the very start or have only just found this place.

If there are anythings that you would rather see more/less of now is your chance. Either email me or just leave a comment here and I’ll do my best to please - the new look was prompted by a comment a lo, it was done.

So, thanks once more and here’s hopefully to another year of gadget grooviness and tech tremendousness

Much gadgety love

Jay

The Sony Rolly has always been an enigma to me.

Ok, it’s cute - It’s probably one of the cutest small speakers around.

But.

It’s a portable, trundling, dancing speaker - but the sound isn’t great for £250.

It’s a music player able to stream via A2DP Bluetooth or play from its internal flash but there’s no place to shove your 3.5mm lead.

 Sony are now updating it - and it will be controlled by YOU!! MWAHAHAHAHH!!!

Ahem.  Next month, Japanese Rolly buyers will be able to get the new SEP-50BT version complete with Bluetooth controls thus allowing them to make Rolly dance and spin like a performing monkey-bot all directed via their mobile phones.

I can imagine the high jinks and thoroughly wicked japes to be had through controlling the egg-shaped dancing speaker under somones chair and then unleashing a choice cut from ‘Cannibal Corpse’ as the little mp3 player starts its own circle pit :) 

The new system will actually give you control of up to seven of the little blighters at the same time using a mobile phone or laptop.

I reckon it’s time for some synchronised dancing……….

Gizmodo

The Mir:ror tag is a little misleading as it’s not reflective (as far as I can see) and you’ll need to connect it via USB to a puter so hanging it on your hallway wall maybe a little tricky.

Instead of checking yourself out before you leave home you’ll be waving your various possessions over its USB-connected sensor.

Why? Well by the magic of small RFID stickers, enhanced-reality style info will be displayed on your computer.

What?

Put simply: Wave your brolly handle over it and get a weather forecast, your TV remote to get tele listings and so on.

An oddly cool concept yeah?

It’s made by Violet who are also to blame for bringing us the animated internet “buddy” bunny Nabaztag.

The RFID bit is in the little ‘Ztamps’ you stick to your gear, and the magic all happens through Violet’s new website.

The mir:ror can recognise quite a few things straight off however with dedicated stamps, but through the site you can configure more of your stuff to work with it.

$70 buys you the sensor, a skin for the sensor “puck”, 2 nanotagz rabbits (those little Nabaztaglets) and 3 ztamps.

You can buy more RFID stickers for the rest of your portable gear.

I’m strangely tempted

Dynamism via Technabob

Like some scary sequel - Bill Gates returns

~insert onimous soundtrack using mainly flat 2s~

bgC3 is Billy Gates’ new venture and it has a federal trademark as a think-tank, covering:

• Scientific and technological services.
• Industrial analysis and research.
• Design and development of computer hardware and software.

The HQ is a small office near BG’s home and is said to be full of high tech toys including a Microsoft Surface used as a guest book.

Thing is - what does the C3 bit of the name mean?

What is he planning?

Should we be scared?

Is it gonna cost us money?

TechFlash via Valleywag

Word on the interweblogsphere is that the Mac Mini will not be shipped to stores from today!

There is no word as to when or if the tiny mac box will ever ship again.

The Mac Mini was designed to be the cheapest Mac but, unfortunately, the Mini sold very poorly and word is that it’s either going to be refreshed or become redundant.

More word as I get it……

3D printers are mainly used by industrial designery types.

Many of these folks get their companies to buy the not so cheap versions of Star Trek styled replicators which is all very well for them but not so cool for regular types like you and I.

Objet’s Alaris30 3D desktop printer is no bigger than a regular printer/scanner combo and plugs into a regular power source, connects to any office network and ships with simple drivers and software that let your send CAD files to be produced from modeling plastic in dimensions up to 11.57 x 7.72 x 5.9 inches.  Alriiiight!!!!

Unfortunately that price is still gonna hovver around the $40,000 mark and still can’t create an army of clones.

If you happen to have that kinda cash check out the details on Objet’s site.

You can marvel at an example of the printer’s capabilities at BBG.

Objet

Mr Jobs refuses to make one so Amex Digital has stepped in to give new MacBook / MacBook Pro owners the ability to watch and burn Blu-ray Discs.

You get a choice of black or white for this external drive but it is pretty much the Blu flavour of the portable Super Multi Drive that Amex Digital released back in July.

It’ll burn BD-RE / -R (single-layer) discs at 2x, while dual-layer versions will only toast at 1x; as for blank DVDs, they’ll get done at a rate of 4x to 8x.

It can be yours for $289.

Amex Digital

You got £400 and would like a touch-screen desktop puter?

How about this little thing from ASUS.

Another machine from the ever increasing Eee range is finally showing signs realisation thanks to a pre-order page hosted up at Play.com.

The all white slab packs a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, 15.6-inch LCD, Windows XP Home, a 1.3-megapixel camera, built-in stereo speakers, WiFi, a range of ports and an integrated graphics set.

The current release date is set for November 20th, though we all know how those go.

Slap down £399.99 ($685) and you should get one in just over a month.

The average British household will work its way through more than 250 electrical devices over a period of 60 years, according to a new survey.

The poll of 3,000 households by Reevoo.com shows that electrical items rarely last longer than six years - and the kettle is the item Brits use and replace the most.

Over sixty years, each household will get through 20 kettles and spend approximately £1,000, which works out as a new kettle every three years.

The most expensive item is a home PC, replaced around 4 years at a cost of around £500 while the average oven costs more at £545, but lasts around 6 years.

In total, Reevoo.com reckons Brits will fork out £48,940 on electrical devices over their lifetime.

I for one am linked to way too many social networking time leeching sites and find myself jumping from app to app throughout the day just to check what’s going on or who is online.

Well, good ol’ Century Japan have just introduced something that could increase my productivity.

Namely the LCD-4300U USB mini screen.

So why would you want a tiny second screen?

Simple my friends - if you’re working on something important, let’s say that overdue report, you can concentrate on your main screen, with your ’social’ stuff on the second screen - no more screen flicking.

All you need is to have a USB socket spare and this 4.3-inch screen will plug right in.

It offers WVGA resolution with LED backlighting but it’s also asking £120 (plus shipping from the far east).

Is it worth it?

GeekStuff4U via Akihabara News

I heard about this monster and that was well over a year ago.

Finally, the Blackbird 002 from HP has finally flown the nest and landed in the UK - does it deserve the name that it shares with a powerful Honda motorbike and the fantastic spy-plane otherwise known as the SR71?

Well, the recipe looks promising as The Blackbird is loaded with HP technology as well as Voodoo DNA (Voodoo is well known for its own gaming machines and is now owned by HP).

The design has been pretty well thought out with its aluminium chassis, internal water cooling system as well as the tool-less architecture, which means that the owner can add new components without resorting to wielding the screw driver and soldering-irons.

If you wobble down to Harrods you’ll see the version loaded with an Intel Core 2 quad processor, two 500MB ATI Radeon HD3870 dual GPU Graphics cards, 500GB, and five internal hard drive bays if you want to add more memory…..of course you do!

The machine also comes with a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer audio card, 15-1 memory card reader and is loaded with Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition with service pack 1.

Prices start at £3199 for this gaming beastie and it also comes with a 1 year warranty.

This is one of the few ‘ergonomic’ controllers that actually looks like it could make a difference.

The oddly named Hippus’ HandshoeMouse was developed at two medical universities in Holland and not in someone’s shed over a weekend of cheap booze and reggae roll-ups.

They have performed “extensive medical studies” that “support the concept” which enables the user to “place the whole palm of their hand on the mouse without having to cling on to it”.

It comes in three fittings so you should be able to find one for you, whether you’re Hell Boy or not.

You can comfortably grab one now in black or white for €120 ($166).

When I saw Sony’s new all-in-one desktop lineup spotted at CEDIA 2008 even I could see that Sony’s designers must have worked long and hard.

The reviewers over at CNet managed to grab a VAIO VGC-JS190J (near the lower end of the range) and put it through the paces.

It seems that it pleased the critics who exclaimed that it was the “best deal” going for an all-in-one desktop with an inbuilt Blu-ray drive.

They were also rejoycing over the fact that they found it “relatively free of software clutter.”

One point that they brought up was that 20″ is not enough to be watching Blu-ray on.

To finish they underlined the review with ”no other all-in-one, including Apple’s iMac, could do as much, as fast, for the same price.”

Sounds impressive to me.

CNet Review

Asus’s Eee Box mini desktop is a sweet mini PC but it is missing that optical drive.

If you love the spinning silvers then shout hurrah! for Acer is about to launch its own mini PC - and this one’s got Blu-ray!

The X3200 is a mini desktop with lots packed into that small frame: in addition to the hi-def compatible drive, there’s an HDMI for lashing it up to a TV or projector, a quad-core AMD processor, Nvideo GeForce 8200 graphics chip, up to 4GB of memory and up to a terabyte of storage.

I can’t help but suspect that the price is gonna be a tad more than the £200 asking price of the Eee Box.

Acer (via TechRadar)