Posted Feb 19th 2008 1:05PM by Nilay PatelFiled under: Desktops, Gaming We actually thought Skulltrail was a pretty slick name for a gaming platform, but it looks like the suits at Intel were afraid of having too much fun — say hello to the “Intel Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform.” Yep, it’s official, just announced at GDC. Based on the new $649 D5400XS mobo and a pair of $1,499 3.2GHz QX9775 Core 2 Extreme chips, Intel says prototype machines have been the fastest ever tested, with 3DMark06 scores of 6481 and Cinebench 10 scores of 20,160 when configured with a pair of CrossFire’d ATI Radeon HD 3870 cards — but don’t fret, the platform also supports NVIDIA SLI cards. (Read the full post about ‘Intel gets official with Skulltrail, gives it an incredibly dull name’…)

Thanko is at it again - this time with a USB Vacuum mouse. Since there is no data transfer, the Vacuum mouse is still stuck in the USB 1.1 era, featuring an 800dpi sensor while looking like any other standard three button mouse at a retail store near you. There is a small switch on the side that turns on the vacuum cleaner though - perfect for folks who subsist on a diet of pizza and crackers at their desk all day long and don’t want to trouble the office cleaning lady. I wonder if it can vacuum keyboards as well… Tags: buyers guides, consumer technology, digital, M4A (Read the full post about ‘USB Vacuum Mouse’…)

With today’s announcement that the hobbled format has finally been put out of its misery, there have been a slew of price slashes on HD DVD players. Go ahead, check ‘em out. Amazon particularly has some sweet deals but so do New Egg, and Tiger Direct. Toshiba players especially have been cut down in price. Tempted to buy one? Don’t! Well, don’t do it without thinking first. Yes, the siren call of $20, $50, $100 bucks off might be too much for the most hardcore bargain hunter to resist and many of these players can act as upscalers for regular 480p DVDs as well — which means that an HD DVD player is potentially useful for playing ordinary DVDs and making them look really good on your high-def display. (Read the full post about ‘With HD DVD Dead, Players Are Cheap — But Steer Clear’…)

It’s a boring week when no one’s thinking about who should buy AMD. After some rumors that AMD’s new mobile combination processor and graphics platform, “Puma,” had a bug, NVIDIA posted another quarter of record results and analysts got a bright idea.

Maybe NVIDIA would pick up one of its biggest competitors at a bargain price?

(Read the full post about ‘AMD Puma and NVIDIA’…)

This new ergonomic mouse, called the “Wow-Pen Joy” (which Gizmodo says possesses no wow, no pen, and no joy) is set to be released in North American and Sweden next month, by Korean company WOW Technology, makers of digital pens and ergonomic mice (including a pen-type mouse, which I suppose is the origin of the name). Aesthetics aside, I can see where the shark fin shape of the mouse would be a more natural fit for the hand, as well as the upright position which doesn’t force you to twist your wrist downward as with traditional mice. For $30, I’d be willing to give it a try. Via AVING.net. (Read the full post about ‘New ergonomic mouse - Wow-Pen Joy’…)

Posted Feb 19th 2008 11:14AM by Darren MurphFiled under: GPS It’s not exactly likely that we Americans will ever see NDrive’s G700 on our soil, but for folks overseas who can look forward to receiving it when it launches next month, here’s what you can expect. This navigator sports a 4.3-inch display along with a snazzy integrated GSM / GPRS module for connecting to the intarwebs and pulling down traffic, weather, local movie listings, etc. when cruising about. (Read the full post about ‘NDrive reveals internet-enabled G700 navigator’…)

I’ve been holding my breath for news of the release of iphone applications that will offer some of the smartphone features I lost when I gave up my Treo (which I was perhaps a bit hasty in doing). For starters, I’d settle for a simple password keeper (there are web apps for this, but I don’t want to send secure information into the big wide uncertainty of the web, and I’ve found that I’m too impatient to wait for pages to load). After that, something that lets me create and revise documents would be nice, and a program that syncs with Quicken. Wired predicts that the release of Apple’s iPhone software development kit will be followed by iTunes become a software store for the huge community of developers that will arise. (Read the full post about ‘iPhone apps expected to come to iTunes store’…)

Posted Feb 19th 2008 8:12AM by Darren MurphFiled under: GPS We’re not exactly sure what makes a navigator one that women swoon over, but hooking it up with a pink or zebra striped faceplate is probably a good start. The Carrera S350 is pretty neutral right out of the box, sporting just a white frame, a 3.5-inch LCD, integrated mp3 player, camera alerts and 2D / 3D maps of the UK and Ireland. But this piece gets all kinds of wild when the aforementioned fascias take over. (Read the full post about ‘Binatone’s Carrera S350 navigator is nail friendly’…)

Dell has once again added to the Ubuntu lineup. This time its the Inspiron 1525 notebook and it will come with Ubuntu 7.10 along with built-in DVD playback capability. The Inspiron 1525 will be immediately available for those in the UK, France, Spain and Germany. Those in the US will have to wait till later in February for availability. Read [Direct2Dell] Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed → Tags: home theater, video games, home cinema, DVD (Read the full post about ‘Dell announces the Inspiron 1525 notebook with Ubuntu 7.10 pre-installed’…)

Posted Feb 19th 2008 9:12AM by Darren MurphFiled under: Tablet PCs We’ll hand it to ‘em — we’ve yet to see a RippleNote emerge from South Korea that we didn’t think was at least marginally good looking, and the Ripple Tablet T8100 most certainly keeps the streak alive. Boasting a 12.1-inch 1,280 x 800 resolution touch panel, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 120GB SATA hard drive, DVD writer and a 2.1GHz T8100 (surprised?) processor, this beauty can act as a traditional laptop or convert into a tablet should the mood strike you. As for ports, you’ll find a trio of USB 2.0 connectors, built-in Ethernet, VGA, 4-pin FireWire, ExpressCard and audio in / out. Mum’s the word on a price at the moment, but expect it to pop up ’round Seoul anytime.[V (Read the full post about ‘RippleNote’s T8100 tablet looks good converted’…)