Gadgety News

After the initial reports that the  Mac mini was being killed off a new version is rumoured to be appearing at MacWorld 2009 according to Gadget Lab:

Apple will launch an upgrade to its low-end desktop, the Mac Mini, at January’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco, according to an Apple corporate employee who contacted Wired.com.

The source, who wished to remain anonymous (to keep his job), could not disclose details about the Mac Mini other than its upcoming announcement at Macworld Expo, which begins Jan. 5.

Wired is backing this info but is unable to bolster it with any other good solid follow-up meat.

A guesstimate on the specs include the likes of an aluminum brick design (in a desktop? why?), DisplayPort, and 4GB of RAM maximum, with 2.0-GHz Core 2 Duo and a 2.3-GHz Core 2 Duo.

Have you heard anything about this?

Let me know

Wired

Sorry - this MacBook Nano has probably never seen an Apple let alone Cupertino!

Whether this is a little custom hack or there’s someone is making a living churning these funked MSI U100 types out from a lock-up “sarf of the river” I have no idea.

But these shiny-but-fake Mini Mac’s do come complete with Mac OS X installed and to be honest I think I’d have one - if only just to confuse everyone else!

Granted - whoever is dishing these out needs to give them a little more tweaking but I’m intereseted - contact me yeah? 

They come in black or white (guess which one I want) and here are the specs:

MSI U100 MacBook Nano
Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz
2G DDRII
10″ WSVGA LED (1024×600)
320GB SATA
1kg
MMC/SD/MS 4
Windows XP Pro + Mac OSX Leopard

Flickr via Gizmodo

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……

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

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)

First thing that has caught my eye is this tiny puter.

I do have a soft-spot for the little micros that you can hide away and still are usable if you’d prefer a desktop when at home.

This two-inch-square Space Cube computer has apparently been making the rounds in Japan for quite a while but PC Pro have finally managed to sneak one into the UK!

The little stow-away is packing a 300MHz NEC VR5701 processor, 64MB of RAM, a 1GB CompactFlash card, and a special version of Red Hat Linux, along with a single USB port, VGA out, built-in Ethernet and, most importantly for its target market, a SpaceWire port, which is used by the likes of NASA and the European Space Agency.

The bad news is that the initial price was quite a reasonable $325 looks as though it may be heading more to the region of £1,500 (or over $2,700)!

Slashdot

You fancy an mini/slim pc but love the DIY aspect - you probably made your own desktop before already.

How about going and getting yourself a barebone MSI Wind system from Newegg for $140?

No, not the laptop!

It’s one of the first desktop systems to use Intel’s power-sipping Atom processor (1.6GHz).

You’ll need to add RAM (it uses laptop RAM) and a hard drive to this kit, and maybe even a little Wi-Fi card as it has a mini PCI slot if you’re feeling like going the whole hog.

The board itself has an internal Compact Flash slot that shares an IDE channel, so you could stick a big CF card in there instead of a hard drive.  Sweet!

Here’s the linkage: MSI Wind PC Intel 945GC 1 x 200Pin Intel GMA 950 Black Barebone

Acer are flashing around their three mini-PCs that are rather port-tastic.

With dimensions of 10.6″ x 4″ x 14.4″ (the old “same as a hardcover book” sizing) the X1200s have an HDMI port, two PCIes, nine (yup, 9!!) USBs, FireWire, front and back audio jacks, a DVD SuperMulti drive and a 14-in-1 card reader.

That should keep you going I reckon.

It runs with 4GB RAM as standard which powers the AMD dual-core processor with Nvidia GeForce 8200 integrated graphics and runs Vista (with SP1).

The PCs are out now for $450 to $700 including a 500GB drive and 22″ LCD monitor.

Hello there!

I’ve been snooping around to find some more info about the very cool looking EeePC.

Not only did I find something, I found a whole bunch of press photos!

Thanks to EeePCNews.de we have all these and more to feast our eyes upon! :0)

If all that wasn’t enough go and check out their Flickr set ;0,

Engadget have scored some pics of a new version of the Mini PC that Dell flashed around in April.

It’s going by the name of the Studio Hybrid.

The bamboo of the original gets binned in favour of orange Plexiglas and the system boasts an Intel chipset, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, WiFi, a DVD+R drive, five USB ports, an HDMI port, S/PDIF, DVI, and a memory card reader.

They’re short of release and pricing details but apparently Dell had pencilled it in for the end of the year for between $500 and $700.

Check the gallery below for a few more spy style shots of the gizmo.

Gallery: Dell Studio Hybrid mini PC leak reveals specs, new casing

Hurrah!!

Asus has officially announced that the Eee Box PC is coming to this fair isle.

It will come with Windows XP Home and has an 80GB hard disk drive, Intel Atom 1.6Ghz CPU, 1GB DDR2 memory, and a built-in card reader.

Thanks to the Asus “Express Gate” fast boot gubbings the machine can be up and running in 7 seconds.

With Wi-Fi 802.11n wireless standard and quiet (26dB) computing the Eee Box’s energy-efficient performance claims to reduce power consumption by up to 90% so this PC will be a hit with the eco warriors.

On the subject of saving the planet Asus says the Eee Box is made with only “earth-friendly” materials for reduced CO2 emissions and conforms to RoHS and WEEE standards.

It is said to be as slim as a paperback novel and aimed at users who want a “stylish, low-power computer with a minimal footprint”, the company says the Eee Box will replace today’s “bulky and boring PCs”.

Pricing and exact availability is yet to be confirmed but keep coming back so I can letcha know :0)

I like Denon.

I’ve had seperates in the past and at the moment a little DM-31 rocks out in my bedroom through a pair of Q Acoustics 1020’s.

Now Denon are annoucing a little star that wont hurt your wallet; The D-M37DAB.

It shares its looks with the other DM’s and it can come along with or without a pair of Denon SC-M37 speakers.

As its moniker suggests it is packing a DAB as well as FM radio.  It also provides a CD player that’ll read MP3 and unprotected WMA discs, a USB socket for playback of music stored on flash drives and a socket out back for hooking up one of their Pod docks as well as a remote.

Now with Denon’s name I’d expect to be having to fork out between £400-£500 with speakers - oh no, the D-M37DAB will cost you £300 with speakers or £230 without.

It should be out by the end of this month!

Asus has another tiny offering to add alongside the EeePC EP 20

The Nova Lite Mini 2L measures in at 9.09- x 7.24- x 2.00-inches and weighs just a few fag-papers more than the X300 I’ve just previously mentioned (3.3-pounds for those taking notes).

Word on the street is that this box was designed to simply “meet everyday computing needs” while keeping noise to a minimum

Asus has 3 fabby flavours for you to choose from.

Packed within, you’ll find up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, an 80GB or 160GB hard drive, DVD burner, Ethernet, WiFi (on selected models), built-in speakers, four USB 2.0 ports, DVI / VGA and audio in / out connectors.

As per usual there’s no word on a price, release date or any of the useful info that we all crave.

Logitech’s groovy looking diNovo Mini Bluetooth thumboard is finally ready to to give you control of your PC based media and even your PS3 - from the comfort of your sofa.

It has a 2 colour backlit QWERTY keyboard  and a touchpad and is “the perfect size for your coffee table” - apparently.  It will last about a month between charges.

Yours now for $150.