Synology promised us speed, speed and more speed with their new DiskStation DS411+ NAS, and so we had to take them up on the challenge. A four-drive RAID array targeted at demanding home users or SMBs, the DS411+ may look sober on the outside but with the spec sheet promising read rates of 112MB/sec and write rates of 106MB/sec, it’s hardly an unattractive proposition. Can Synology back up their claims? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
Toshiba’s Portege R705 is an unexpected addition to the company’s ultraportable range. Based on the Portege R700 unveiled as part of Toshiba’s 25th anniversary for notebooks, the R705-P25 is a Best Buy exclusive with an MRSP of $889.99 but a street price that scrapes in at under $800. That makes it the cheapest Portege to date, and Toshiba would like us to remember it’s also the lightest 13.3-inch notebook with an integrated optical drive (outside of Japan, at least). Light in the bag and light on the wallet: is the downside lightweight performance? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
As storage goes, the choices for your new drive have generally been pretty straightforward. On the one side there are traditional HDDs, mechanical drives offering plentiful capacity but with performance and ruggedness compromises; on the other, there are SSDs, which address the speed and sturdiness questions, but are far more expensive per gigabyte. Into the middle comes the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid, a platter-based HDD paired with flash memory that, the company promises, can give SSD-style performance with the relative low cost of an HDD. Too good to be true? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
Augen's oddly named "The Book" ereader has gone on sale, eschewing E Ink in favor of a color LCD display in a Kindle-style casing. Available at kmart in limited numbers for just $89, the ereader runs Linux 2.6.4 on a 400MHz ARM CPU - which means no Android, unlike the Pandigital Novel - complete with WiFi b/g, 2GB of flash memory and an SD slot content with cards up to 8GB in size.
There's also apparently a web-browser, text-to-speech engine and a media player for images, audio and video. Augen have been pretty ambitious in their ebook spec support, too; The Book will apparently display TXT, PDF, HTML, CHM, RTF, FB2, EPUB, PRC and MOBI files.
Update: The Ebook Reader picked up Augen's The Book from their local kmart and has already reviewed it; more details after the cut.
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Consumer Reports got a few name-checks at yesterday's Apple conference, in fact the independent reviewers even managed to get onto Steve's big screen with their "The Bumper solves the signal-strength problem" quote. Unfortunately, if Apple thought that giving all customers a free Bumper would placate the reviewers, they'll be disappointed; Consumer Reports say that it's good but not good enough, and they're still withholding their "Recommended" award from the iPhone 4.
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Nanovision’s MIMO range of USB companion displays are no strangers to the pages of SlashGear, and we’ve reviewed our fair share of them over the months. Standing proudly on the test bench today, though, is the company’s biggest to date, the 10-inch touchscreen iMo Mini-Monster. A titan among USB secondary displays (and a Tinkerbell among regular LCDs), the iMo Mini-Monster promises the same ease of connectivity as its smaller siblings but with the same resolution as a 10-inch netbook. Worth the $259.99, then, or has Nanovision overestimated exactly what consumers want from their companion LCDs? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
It’s a tough world for a consumer desktop PC. Laptops have stolen all the glamour; you need to offer something special if you’re going to stand out among the rank and file of stationary computing. Acer’s Aspire X3400-U2012 may not be a true portable PC but, with a small-form-factor (SFF) chassis paired with desktop components does the grunt-for-the-footprint balance make it a sensible buy? Check out the SlashGear review after the cut.
Able Planet have carved something of a niche for themselves, with a range of headphones that mix together active noise cancellation you’d usually see on high-end travel headphones and prices you’d expect from the highstreet. Their latest are the Extreme XNC230W headphones, an entry-level pair that promise more portability while still cutting out background audio. Check out the full review after the cut.
Consumer Reports have been playing with the iPhone 4, and the judgement is clear: while the fourth-gen Apple handset scores high enough to sit at the top of their smartphone tree, it loses out on a coveted "Recommended" rating because of the antenna issue. The independent testers also cast doubt on Apple's open-letter to iPhone 4 owners, in which they blame incorrect signal meter calibration, and say that "AT&T's network might not be the primary suspect" for the smartphone's patchy performance.
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Huawei's S7 Android tablet - slotting neatly in-between the Dell Streak and the Apple iPad - has been previewed briefly ahead of its launch in the UK later this month, and we have to say the coverage leaves us in two minds about the 7-inch slate. For a start, the capacitive touchscreen we've seen before was replaced by a resistive panel in the preproduction units tested (as by Zol.com.cn) and Onliner.by aren't too keen on how the custom UI has been left more appropriate for either screen size or touch-technology.
Video demo after the cut
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External hard-drives are only getting larger, and manufacturers are pushing for the adoption of faster interfaces that will allow users to shuffle their data around with less delay. On the SlashGear test bench today is the Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive, complete with 500GB capacity and a USB 3.0 port; the company also sent over their new Skin Hard Drive, which takes a USB 2.0 unit and dresses it up with a colorful finish. Check out the full review after the cut.
If you can judge a firm’s faith in their products by the length of warranty they offer, the Saddleback Leather Company‘s 100 year cover for their Thin Carbon Black briefcase has to suggest almost overwhelming confidence. Still, at $411 and up, we’d expect no small amount of longevity. Is the faith founded? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
![JH Audio JH16 Pro with Freqphase Custom In-Ear Monitor Review [2013]](http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/P2111170-sg-320x80.jpg)
