I went back to just my headphones and iPod earlier today, and the sound wasn’t horrific, because I try and rip my music at 320kbps, but it was decidedly worse. Now I want my Clari-Fi back. So, one concern I had about it prior to receiving it was that it was going to be constantly coming disconnected since it added an extra connection between me and my music, however that is not the case, I can assure you that, so, if you were having the same doubts, I assure you that won’t be an issue.

One thing I tested out and found that it worked was that my FM Transmitter, an admittedly generic unit, would constantly have spikes in it while using it, and it would always have this quiet, but high pitched ringing sound in the background whenever using it. I attached the Clari-Fi to my FM transmitter and tried it again, thinking it might help, and sure enough it did, in fact it was so clear it was almost like as if I had a direct line-in into my stereo. So, if you have an FM transmitter already, and you are going to buy a Clari-Fi for your headphones, I definitely recommend using it with your FM transmitter as well.

Overall my time with the Clari-Fi has been pretty great. It does exactly what it says it does, it will clear up your audio, and I busted out the original headphones that came with my iPod and didn’t notice as much of a difference, so, if you’ve got $60 and are looking to improve your listening experience and you are still using the stock earbuds, I’d recommend spending it on some new headphones, they’ll have a similar effect on your audio as the Clari-Fi. On the other hand, if you’ve already got a nice pair of headphones, and you’ve got $60 that you are willing to spend on enhancing your audio, I’d definitely recommend the Clari-Fi, for that reason, I give it 3 out of 5 gears.

[rating:3/5]

This investigator was the lead over the entire preliminary investigation, had a case cancelled where TPB was suing several of the same companies for data trespassing, and has fairly extensive involvement overall. Then all of the sudden he goes and changes his employer to one of the Plaintiffs?

Seriously, how is this case still going on? I really didn’t want to do another story about the Pirate Bay a second day in a row, but this is a little bit much to be ignored. The whole case is nothing but an exercise in court theater, they still haven’t even managed to get around to determining whether what TPB is doing is unlawful or not, they are too busy digging in other areas that are totally irrelevant trying to find something to bust TPB on.

The bottom line is that what TPB does is not unlawful. However what Mr. Keyzer did very well could be, and if it’s not it should be, I mean talk about having a clear bias against the defendants. I already recognize that 90% of the time or more officers already have a bias towards the plaintiff or the defendant, but they usually manage to keep it at least somewhat objective, I’d say receiving a paycheck from either party kind of puts a nix on any level of objectivity.

[via thepiratebay]

For connectivity you get your choice of HSDPA, WiFi in 802.11 b/g varieties, and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. This MID will obey your every command, almost literally, it will as long as it recognizes the command.

There is also an option for GPS so you can knock that extra device out of your life with this thing. It uses BenQ’s G-Sensor for direct touch and free movement on the screen. Plus it looks like it has a custom MID OS, not some dumbed down version of Windows, which is actually kind of nice because it makes it easier to do the things that it’s actually convenient to do on these devices.

[via ITechNews]

With the 2100 Max you get Reality View which gives you a 3D photo-realistic view of difficult intersections and things like that. You also get DirectHelp which will give you quick directions to emergency facilities and/or contact numbers for those same agencies, so you can find the police station, hospital, pharmacy, or car service station that is closest to you.

You can also get live traffic information via an accessory for the 2100 Max, on top of that you can sign up to get FreshMaps which are 12 quarterly map pack updates, and ZAGAT Survey Ratings and Reviews for hotels and restauarants, those are the upgradable options and cost $99.99, $79.99, and $39.99 respectively. The Unit itself has an SD card slot which is occupied by the Maps card, a mini USB port which is only used for charging, a car charging cable and a USB charging cable as well as suction cup mounting brackets.

I recently got this unit in for review, and I haven’t had a chance to actually put it to use, but it is extremely small for a GPS unit, not in a bad way, like the screen is unreadable, because it’s not, its 4.3-inches big and the voice reads off any and all directions to you so you don’t really have to look that much. Its small as far as weight and thickness go, I mean it’s about as thick as my Motorola Q9h and no thicker and it’s about as heavy too, it’s extremely easy to hold and use. The best part was that I handed it to someone who I don’t consider tech savvy, nor do they have any experience with GPS units, and it had a charge fresh out of the package and this person was able to use it and navigate the menus with ease, and most importantly without bugging me with a bunch of questions. So, without even having used it for navigation I can already say it’s worth the $300 asking price but I’ll report back with more.

I can’t quite confirm that its worth $60, but the documentation that came with it said you wouldn’t really notice the difference until you’d been using it for a couple weeks and then switched back to just headphones. However some initial tests did show a favorable correction of the audio from my iPod Touch.

By the way, the documentation also said that the better the headphones you are using the more likely you are to hear the difference so I am using my Bose Tri-Ports, which will hopefully be sufficient. Like I said, I have so far noticed a difference, it does in fact lower the volume, and it also has saved me a marginal, yet noticeable amount of battery life. So, I’m going to give it a couple of weeks and report back with my findings, but if you considered buying one, I definitely would not argue with you regarding the purchase.

Initial impressions are good, Vincent says that it doesn’t make it any less comfortable to hold or carry the iPhone upon first impression, which is good. One thing Mophie advertises is that its units are sold with a fully charged battery, but Vincent’s unit arrived with only about a 75% charge.

One thing Vincent really liked, and I like from the photos, is that just like your MacBook Pro there is a battery meter on the back with LED lights representing the charge and a test button, so you can quickly check how much battery life you have left. The Mophie Juice Pack leaves the buttons on the side open, doesn’t cover the top, and has a cut out for the camera. Furthermore, the speakers are left open and it connects to charge and to sync via a standard dock connector, so you don’t have to remove the Juice Pack to charge it, your iPhone, or to sync the iPhone with your computer.

[via iPhoneBuzz]

Anyways, something interesting to find out was that the mainboard, which seems disproportionate to the rest of the TV, is in fact the same board as those found in Sony’s Bravia line of TV’s, just shrunken down to fit into this amazingly thin TV. I must admit when I first saw the above picture I thought it was a weird motherboard with a lot of hard drives plugged in, but nay, it’s the back of the opened up XEL-1.

OLED is an amazing technology, and if you’ve never seen an OLED screen I assure you they are simply amazing to look at. Hopefully they can stop working on the thinness of the televisions and work on making them a more practical size for an affordable price, like something above 11-inches for something less than $2500.

[via HackADay]

You get your choice of processor speeds ranging from 2.26GHz, 2.4GHz, 2.53GHz and that’s it. On the Hard drive side you get your choice between a 32 and 64GB SSD drive.

Also, that 15.4” display isn’t your standard 15” display; it is FullHD with a 1920×1200 resolution. You also get WiFi in the form of 802.11n, sadly there are no pricing or availability details on this notebook, but I can tell you that this news comes from an Italian notebook website, so I wouldn’t really expect to see this outside of that region.

[via itechnews]

The wire on the switch is 1.5 meters away, but for that “luxury” you pay 20 Euros instead of the 3-4 Euros of a normal power strip where you have to bend over to flip the same switch. It does, however, appear to also have straps built in so you can easily mount it, it appears a bit sturdier than most power strips, and it seems to have rotating receptacles so you can fill up the strip instead of wasting ports because the plug is too large, so, it could be worth it.

Belkin’s design on the other hand came with a wireless switch that also looked cool, it also had more plugs on it, and it even had a pair that weren’t shut off, so you’d have the option to leave some things running like your TiVo and SlingBox or your Router and Modem. However the Belkin option probably costs even more.

[via RedFerret]

It has an 8MP CMOS sensor, new “face chaser” technology that even works underwater. It records in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 at up to 60 frames per second at a VGA resolution. You also get a 5x optical zoom so you can get close up to the things you really care about in a photo.

Word is, this camera is almost exactly like the DMX-CA65 but waterproof. Akihabra News said they’d like to see a 16:9 and 720p version in the future, and they just might get it, but only time will tell. No word on price or availability but the guys over at Akihabra said they were only just now even allowed to talk about it, so it could be a while.

[via AkihabraNews]

So, there are two bricks, each has a male USB connector and a female headphone jack on them. The USB port on both is used to power the devices and that is all, the headphone jack on one is an input, on the other, an output.

These two devices work on the 2.4GHz band, but use a protocol that isn’t affected by WiFi, microwave ovens, Bluetooth, mobile phones, cordless phones, or any of that other stuff that normally buggers things up. You get one USB charging block for your home outlet to plug one of them into, the speakers they are intended for have powered USB ports on them, so presumably you’d plug the other one into that, then you get a pair of headphone cables with male connections on both ends and one Y-splitter with RCA jacks on the other end.

So, setup is pretty basic and almost completely self explanatory which is nice. So, you hook one end up to your speakers or stereo and the other up to your iPod, computer, cell phone, whatever you want as long as you can jack it into a headphone jack, the downside of this system, and there is pretty much only one considering the range is 100ft. and it can transfer data at up to 340Mbps, is the price which is $149.99.

[via the-gadgeteer]

With ship dates being pushed back at an alarming rate in today’s tech industry, be it due to production issues, shipping delays, or quality assurance problems, almost every major product that gets a release date along with its announcement gets that date pushed back. That’s not even the real issue at question here, what do you do when you pre-order the latest, greatest, and best product there is and then a similar product comes out before your pre-order is shipped?

Things are actually happening that fast, gone are the days when the next best product is announced around the same time as the product you ordered is being delivered. Now new products are being shoved out the door so fast and so competitively that in some situations, due to delays, the next best thing is already being sold at brick and mortar stores by the time your product gets shipped.

Take for example the CloudBook, it was hyped up to the hilt all the way until its release date, then less than a week later, while shipments were still suffering delays in China, it was already being made old news by the new HP 2133. How do manufacturers deal with such adversities?

My best recommendation is to make launch dates and announcement dates a lot closer so your product doesn’t lose all its hype before you can actually sell the damned thing. On the consumer side you are stuck with the same dilemmas, how do you as a consumer determine whether you should go ahead and get what is possibly the subpar product or do you cancel your order and go with the new widget?

I can no longer base my major electronics purchases on the actual products because they get bested by competitors so quickly. These days I’ve been driven to base my decisions on which product I think more other people will buy or which product will have the largest community of users behind it or which one is from the more reliable, consistent Company. No longer can I make my purchasing decisions based on such arbitrary things as which product is actually the better product.

What do you think manufacturers could do to solve or help eliminate some of this overlap? Or, do you think this type of overlap is better for the market and shouldn’t be ended, but encouraged? Most importantly, if you were put in a situation where you had to choose between going with the product you’ve already ordered and the one coming out in a couple weeks, what would/have you do(ne)?

So, all in one day Mac Pro users get a new graphics card option from NVIDIA, the best graphics card manufacturer there is on the planet, and a new memory upgrade option from Corsair, the best memory manufacturer on the planet. I’d say any Mac Pro user must be feeling extra important today, all things considered they are already using the best desktop computer there is on the planet.

Corsair also has a Mac notebook memory line as well, if you are a Mac Pro and a MacBook Pro owner looking to upgrade the RAM on both. These two kits however were tested at Apple’s laboratories in California to make sure everything works and is up to snuff, and they do work, the price isn’t bad either at $165 for the 2GB kit and $225 for the 4GB kit.

[via Corsair]

Personally I think both of these notebook look simply amazing, however word on the streets is that wood isn’t the most lightweight component you can make something out of, so I don’t want desktop replacement weight with Eee like performance just for the sake of what looks good. Also, that green keyboard and trackpad is rather ghastly.

The bamboo design that Asus has was along the right idea as I hear that wood is extremely lightweight. Maybe Fujitsu should look to them for guidance, but if Fujitsu can fit a decent laptop inside a wooden shell for a remotely reasonable price I’m sure they’d sell like hotcakes.

[via geekologie]

The purpose of the exercise was so that if the heights or shapes of certain parts of the cavern changed, a precursor to collapses or other trouble, the people running the operation would be able to notice it ahead of time and either support the area or keep everyone away from it. So basically this robot has the potential of saving lives.

This is just one use for this particular machine though. I’m sure now that its proven itself worthy its uses will be greatly expanding, it may not be an R2 unit or C3-PO, but its nice to see robots being used in places where you never thought you’d see them.

[via DVICE]

They make some of the best audio components on the market and as such most of their kit hits well over the thousand dollar price point for each component. Occasionally you can catch one of their cheaper HTIB systems for a reasonable price but those only give you a small taste of what the company’s entire offerings are capable of.

Now, back to these three units, they all push out either 130 or 140 watts per channel which should be more than enough to drive your speakers, they all have 3 HDMI inputs, and they support the following audio technologies: Dolby Digital EX, Dolby ProLogic IIx, DTS-ES, DTS 96/24, and DTS Neo:6. The top of the line of the three, the TX-SR606 also supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio as well as Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD, Bi-Amping capabilities, and video upscaling to 720p or 1080i.

All of the receivers are optimized for MP3 and AAc tracks and include Audyssey Dynamic EQ loudness correction, so your audio sounds less crappy when compressed. All of them are also iPod-Compatible and the TX-SR606 also has RIHD functionality. All three will be available next month in your choice of Black or Silver, for a quick price recap, the 606 is about $800, the 576 is about $600, and the 506 is about $500.

[via TechDigest]

So, basically the TV’s themselves aren’t that big of a deal. However, they were designed to match Mr. Armani’s upcoming 2008/2009 furniture line, so if you plan on investing in that stock, this TV would help your entertainment room match completely.

As I said, the logos of both Samsung and Armani are on the front of the TV and have 4 different colors they can be lit to that you get to select. The 46-inch model will be dropping in Europe sometime this summer; the larger model won’t be seen in your local retailer until later in the season. So they aren’t bad TV’s by far, but they are best suited in rooms with one or more of Armani’s other pieces in it.

[via reghardware]

Best of all is that it comes with pre-loaded software that you can use to convert your media into more game console-friendly formats. It will save you the trouble of searching the same torrent sites you got the content from for an app that will do just that for you.

Plus, for a 160GB USB bus-powered external hard drive, the $120 or 99 Euro asking price isn’t too terribly bad, it’s about on par with other major HDD manufacturers. The difference being that if you really are going to use this drive solely for its intended purpose it’s color scheme will blend with any game console and it comes with some software that will be useful to you.

[via Pocket-Lint]

Normally such an operation would require your choice of putting the compute next to the TV to directly connect it, a separate Set-Top-Box that is a Media Center Extender, or and Xbox 360. Now none of those things are needed, you just set up your TV pair the two together by adding the Extender to the Media Center PC, and you are off and on your way streaming the best of what you have downloaded to your new TV.

The two TV’s come in 42 and 47 inch models and have both Ethernet and WiFi connections. The downside is that the TV’s are priced respectively at $1900 and $2400 for their meager sizes, sure they have 2000:1 contrast ratios and are 1080p capable, but you can do better than 47-inches for $2400. For those with older MediaSmart TV’s, HP has put out a firmware update that will magically grant you the same capabilities.

[via Gizmodo]

The first, the one that goes for $300, is the T3646 and has 1GB of RAM, and AMD Sempron LE-1250 processor, a 160GB HDD, and it comes with Vista Home Basic. That might be a bit of a stretch on the hardware side for Vista, but an upgrade to XP or Linux should pull a premium with that configuration.

The second one, the T5254 which retails for $400, comes with a dual-core Athlon processor, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB HDD, and Vista Home Premium. So basically it doubles everything, and is far more likely to actually be capable of running Vista smoothly than the previous system. Since you were wondering, neither comes with a monitor, but it has NVIDIA’s 6100 graphics chips integrated to output video.

[via i4u]

No word on what hardware configuration the XP system will come with though. So there is a chance it will be available as an option across the board, and at the price Microsoft is offering it to manufacturers of these “Budget” PC’s it would be a smart move to do so.

I have to admit though, the 2133 was hot a while ago, but it may already be losing its flame by some of the other new notebooks being announced. That’s to say just prior to the actual announcement of the notebook and all of its details I definitely would have bought one, but now I’m waiting for something else, they are taking too long.

[via laptoping]

First off, it’s funny that a Swedish-based branch of IFPI is suing Swedish citizens yet not referring to the amount of the claim in Swedish currency. So, clearly the IFPI is just doing this as a publicity stunt, much like the RIAA (it’s like they’ve exchanged notes).

You might be curious to know how the IFPI got their numbers, well, that’s an interesting story all its own. Basically what they did was they went to all of the download pages on TPB for the files that they are responsible for defending and looked at the download counter (number of downloads: xxxxxx ; you know, that thing) and added them all up to get their mythical figure. Some things they didn’t consider are the sources of those numbers and how reliable those counters are, and the fact that on several occasions the torrents were uploaded by the artists who created the content.

In some cases, the content IFPI is suing for hasn’t even been made available for purchase, so the only option was to download it “illegally”. Then there is the fact that all studies and cases have shown several things starting with the fact that file sharing has, in almost all cases, increased the amount of money made by the industry, so if anything IFPI should be paying TPB. Then, IFPI’s whole case is based on the idea that each download is a lost sale that TPB should have to pay for, that logic has been proven ill-founded as well in studies where it was shown that most of the time, a person who downloads something isn’t entirely likely to purchase it if given no other choice, and at the same time, several people who download music listen to it once, if that, and then ignore it, which means that wouldn’t have been a sale in the first place.

The best part of all of this has to be that TPB will be countersuing, and if they win, which they likely will since they don’t actually serve up the files themselves, they are going to use the money to start a fund. The fund will be used to compensate artists who put their music up on TPB, thus sticking it to the IFPI in two ways.

I personally am a big fan of The Pirate Bay, mainly for what they are doing in the industry to change the way things are looked at, and to make things more freely available. Lastly a quote from another one of the TPB’s crew’s websites “We do whatever we want, whenever we want. If it doesnt suit you, you can start your own empire.” If you’d like to fact check any of this yourself BrokeP’s blog would be a good place to start.

The new .3mm display is the same 11-inch size as it’s really, really pricey predecessor. It has a resolution of 960×540, an infinite contrast ration, and brightness provided by the display itself instead of a back light which usually causes some ugly bright patches on the screen.

Now, if they could blow that up to about 42-inches or larger, the resolution would obviously follow which would probably put it near Quad-HD resolutions and a reasonable price and I’d be happy. They haven’t even named this new display, so there is no price or availability info, but its 11-inch XEL-1 brother is selling right now for $2500, so this new model, right now, would probably fetch five figures for an 11-inch model.

[via Gizmodo]

So, this might not be a bad idea for say and Asus Eee where the loss would be felt, but not that big of a deal. However putting one of these on a thousand dollar plus notebook would likely be one of the worst ideas ever.

What does the company offer up as reassurance, they more or less say since it’s a multi-thousand dollar notebook dangling from your arm you are going to be really anxious and paranoid that it might get damaged or stolen that you’ll take extra care to make sure it doesn’t. So, the strap costs $25, but you might also want to go get an insurance policy for your notebook while you are at it.

[via Wired]

Word is the little record player thing, which is coincidentally what I thought this was at first glance, shoots water out and an alarming rate, a sonic rate if you will, and cleans stuff. I have no idea how well this little bugger actually works, but I do know, that as far as dish washers go, this is by far one of the best looking ones I’ve seen that wasn’t human.

The only downside I could see is that depending on the number of dishes you are doing at a time, this could be a real water waster, and the other is that if it sprays water hard enough to clean dishes without soap, it could probably quite easily hurt someone. Lastly, most machines I know of capable at pushing water out at rates fast enough to clean things are really loud, and that’s highly unattractive.

[via ShinyShiny]

The two batteries, motor, motor controller, and thumb throttle are all from an electric scooter, not the same one as some of those parts he ordered off the Internet and others he picked up at a local scooter shop, but none the less from an electric scooter. The board he bought new and from the same place he bought a brake kit for the board.

He used the brake kit for brakes obviously, but he also used it for the hole pattern for the sprocket and to run the wires for the throttle control as the brake kit included a handle and cord that ran from the brakes up to it so the guy just used the handle to mount the throttle and the cloth tubing that came with the brake kit to run the throttle wires up through. It’s pretty ingenious if you ask me, he couldn’t give us exact speed, range, or battery life numbers, but he said he’s ridden it for 45 minutes without having to charge it, he also said he would have made it a bit faster in hindsight, but it’s still pretty nice as is.

[via HackADay]

With the new NFC technology integrated into these speakers all you have to do to connect your device is to touch it to the speaker and viola! You are good to go. Inside there is a Class D amplifier, which is the class that brings you some of the best quality audio, and the pair operate at around 6 watts maximum.

6 watts may not sound like a lot, but my 12 watt Altec Lansing 2.1 system overpowered my 500 watt home stereo, it’s all about how you apply it and Parrot is quite ingenious with their audio equipment. The 650 gram weight of this little pair of speakers includes a rechargeable battery that’s built in and will last you roughly 8 hours of playback before needing a charge. The cost will be £79 sometime this summer when it’s released.

[via Pocket-Lint]

Up next is the new VA1903wmb 19” LCD monitor with a widescreen aspect ratio. The downside of this monitor is its relatively low 800:1 contrast ratio, but it has a snappy 5ms response time and a native resolution of 1440×900. Then there is the VA903mb, which is a standard letterbox LCD monitor coming in with a 1000:1 contrast ratio, 300 nits of brightness, and a 1280×1024 native resolution on 19-inches of screen real estate.

Lastly there is the VA703mb with its 17-inch LCD, 1280×1024 resolution, 8ms response time, and 700:1 contrast ratio. The monitors, in order, are priced at $245, $235, and $209. All of these products are targeted at government and educational uses, but they might find a place inside your home as well.

[via ViewSonic]

There is also a camera on the front that you can use for video conferencing. There is a microphone jack, and antenna jack, dedicated camera button, headphone jack, USB host port, microSD card slot, and mini USB port.

It can play videos; do navigation, which means it will likely have GPS built in. For a size reference, the screen alone is slightly larger than the entire iPhone. It has WiFi and will have a 3G internet connection. It uses Mozilla for the web browser. That’s pretty much it for info on this device right now, the version shown was a pre-production version so they’ll probably add and/or subtract features from it as they go.

[via UMPCPortal]

It starts with raw or green coffee beans, it roasts them, and then it sends them to the grinder and grinds them. From there it uses water, presumably at least filtered if not purified, and brews you your coffee, quite literally from start to finish.

The best part is that it does all of that, from start to finish, in roughly the time it would take you to get your coffee at Starbucks, probably less. There are 13 glass tube-shaped bins for the beans, 6 hold green beans, the other 7 hold roasted beans, and each one has a scale built in which is probably used to let the employees know when the green beans need refilled and to keep the machine from roasting more beans than are being used so that they are fresh as possible. Pneumatic tubes are used to move the beans to the grinder, kind of like your bank, it’s all a pretty cool system just to get you your coffee.

[via BornRich and Micheal Galpert]

FingerGlide is apparently exactly what you thought it was, Asus’ version of gestures on the touchpad. On the Windows you’ll get Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Messenger pre-installed as well as Microsoft Works (oxymoron?). The Linux OS is the same one they’ve been installing, nothing new to see here.

Something that is interesting is the storage capacities, how they were added to the system, and how the two different capacities were allocated. For some reason, the less storage intensive OS (Linux), gets the larger storage capacity, the 20GB of flash storage with the 12GB going to the Windows machine. The interesting part is that Asus has made the decision to only embed 4GB of that storage onto the machine’s board this time, likely for a separate OS partition/drive. The remainder of each storage capacity is plugged into the mini PCI card slot, making for an easy upgrade if you can get a hold of that type of storage.

The Processor’s operating speed wasn’t given out which is weird, but I read somewhere it will be the same 900MHz Intel chip as previous models. They’ll be available in Black and White, and everything else is the same including the fact that they still weigh in under a kilogram, although just barely at .99kg.

[via Asus]

The answer is simple, the User Experience, level of security, and quality that goes with the Apple/Mac/OS X name has only built up to what it is today due to the care Apple has given to choosing its computer’s hardware components and controlling how they work together, how they’re built, basically controlling everything. Changing that would be a detriment to Apple’s reputation and would drop OS X’s reputation as what is quite possibly the easiest operating system there is to use.

Sure, I’d love to own a Mac, and sure, the reason why I don’t is because they cost so much, but I’d much rather not have one that not have the experience the way Apple built and designed it. When I get a Mac, and I will, it will be, at the time, the pinnacle of today’s hardware and software efforts bringing me the best of both worlds, the reason is because Apple won’t allow it to be anything less.

All of that hard work on Apple’s part will quickly go down the drain if any yahoo is able to throw OS X on any old machine he throws together of what is likely to be subpar hardware. Then the OS starts throwing errors due to incompatible hardware, things become as glitch and as sketchy as Microsoft Windows, and it’s not because Apple created a weak OS, it will be because the system builder made a crap computer, but much like Windows, Apple will get the blame, not the guy who built the crappy computer.

So although I do like the idea of Apple’s OS running on some cheaper hardware, I also really hope that Apple wins all future cases to keep their software off of subpar hardware. So, what are your thoughts on this matter? Are you and Apple purist or are you browsing this site using your custom built hacked OS X system right now? Hit me up in the comments, I love to hear what you all have to say.

The screen will be able to be rotated converting the notebook into a tablet, and it will be a touchscreen, it will respond to a stylus and the software will include handwriting recognition software for taking notes. The whole system will be powered by an Intel ULV processor with Intel’s 945 GU Express chipset.

Other features of the notebook include a 1.3MP camera, 1GB of DDR2, a built-in touchpad, two mouse buttons, scroll, directional pads, dedicated softkeys for things like WMP, speakers, WiFi, Ethernet, and a full sized keyboard. This is shaping up to be the Tablet PC I’ve been dreaming of but with the price of a budget PC at about $425 when converted. I hope to God this thing makes it to US shores, I know I’d buy one if it works half as well as it sounds.

[via techtree]

Psystar is no longer just targeting Apple’s Mac Mini and iMac lineups, with the new OpenPRO they are even going after the Mac Pro, a computer which, from Apple, has a base price of a fair amount over $2000. The OpenPRO can be had, maxed out with a 1TB HDD, an 8800GT with 512MB VRAM, 8GB of RAM, and a nice case with 3 120mm fans inside and OS X installed for you for $1929.99.

Then there is the Open Computer, or OpenMac as it was formerly known, that is selling for $399 with a plain white case, a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 processor, 2GB of RAM, integrated Intel Graphics, a 20x DVD burner, 4 USB ports and a 250GB HDD, that’s $200 less than the cheapest Mac and running hardware more comparable to higher end Macs. OS X installation is $155 extra on each machine and includes a copy of the OS as well as the installation being performed for you, you can also get the OpenPRO configured with a number of OS’s including Windows XP Pro, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition, OS X, and even Ubuntu. I must say I’m impressed, and the company is even rumored to be willing to fight Apple’s EULA terms in order to get the OS installed on their hardware.

[via Psystar]

What happened was the gentleman’s notebook battery exploded and caught the notebook on fire, they sued because the guy’s fingers were burnt as he carried the flaming notebook outside of his house in an effort to at least save that. His wife also claimed shock, and apparently the carpet was damaged, likely by the melting plastic components.

Their original suit was for $19,700, so Apple and Sony got off for a little bit less than originally thought. It’s nice to see a reasonable lawsuit settled for a reasonable amount instead of someone getting several billion dollars for some hot coffee. In related news, Sony has so far recalled almost 10 million of their Li-Ion batteries.

[via MacObserver]

This notebook is actually packing an old school Apple IIGS motherboard. No OS hacks or fakes going on here, Ben went with the real thing. One compromise he did have to make was with a CompactFlash hard drive instead of the traditional hard drive that came with the systems.

There is even a IIGS logo above the keyboard that stays lit up blue and flashed yellow as the disk access light. I have no clue why anyone in their right mind would want to go back to an old Apple IIGS, but as a piece of art I’d put Mr. Heckendorn up there with the greats.

[via engadget]

You also get the DTS-HD Master Audio support for Blu-Ray movies that allow the PS3 to output audio in high-bitrate form to up to 7.1 channels. Obviously that was a feature pushed by Home Entertainment geeks, not so much gamers.

Other updates are likely to include bug fixes and performance tweaks that aren’t exactly listed by Sony. The new firmware is available for free and coincides with the release of GT5 Prologue which can be bought through the online service or as a physical retail copy.

[via Electronista]

Then they added some little features that make a big difference including adopting the touch sensitive LED backlit keys of some of the XPS systems. The notebooks are now noticeable thinner and lighter and have some other features that road warriors are likely to appreciate, but they still maintain the same low price and they come crap-ware free.

The 1310 is a 13.3” notebook that you can get with up to a Core 2 Duo chip or as low as a Celeron processor, base price is $749. The 1510 and 1710 are 15.4 and 17 inch notebooks respectively and cover the same choices in processor as the 1310, the differences being that they are larger laptops with the 17-inch model aimed at users seeking a desktop replacement solution, the 1510 has a base price of $599 with no base price for the 17-inch model given. The 1310 and 1510 are available today throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; North American and South American markets will get these two notebooks come May 1st with Asia getting them on May 5th, later in May the 1710 will launch globally.

[via notebook review]

It has a large high-res LCD screen on the phone as well as a full keypad which can be used to type your messages. No longer will you have to choose between sitting at the computer all day and using the precious capacity of your mobile’s data plan, you can now go outside and enjoy the weather and not miss the message from your friend you are waiting on.

The phone is ENERGY STAR rated, RoHS compliant, and comes with 100% recyclable packaging. It has caller ID, call waiting, recordable ring tones, voicemail indicator, a 50 name/number programmable phonebook/directory, and works with your choice of headsets. This amazing home phone is a mere $99.95 and can be bought online or at Best Buy.

[via VTech]

This MP3 Player comes in two capacities, a 4GB version and an 8GB version, both of flash memory. You can also get this player in a range of colors including Solid Black, White, Sky Blue, and Pink, best of all it weighs a mere two ounces!

The player supports a plethora of audio and video formats, Rhapsody, Napster, and Yahoo subscription services, voice recording, text viewer, photo viewer, and more. The full list of A/V formats are as follows: MP3, WMA, ASF, FLAC, and OGG Q10, MPGE, WMV9, and XVID. The battery lasts for 5 hours of video playback or 17 hours of music. So, you get 8 or 4 gigs of storage space integrated, then you get a microSD card slot so you can expand that even further, or play movies recorded from your phone and view pictures taken from your phone. This is a fairly amazing MP 3 Player and it has a reasonable price at $109.99 for the 4GB model or $159.99 for the 8GB version.

[via iRiver]