I’m not really sure why the other gadget sites have been mocking and maligning this thing. I personally think its kinda cool, even if it does look like a feature-free phone. The new Kodak Zi6 HD-quality handheld video camera, which is not quite available just yet but up for pre-order, captures in 720p, has a 2.4″ color display, and an integrated USB jack for YouTube uploads. The unit comes with 128MBs of RAM and an SDHC slot for up to 32GBs more space. My biggest concern is jiggle, a good thing in some situations, but not always. It does have a standard tripod mount on the bottom, though. Pricing is set at US$179.95.

written by Tyler Regas

Addonics is now selling their new Portable Dual Drive RAID Enclosure. Its a small, black box which holds two 2.5″ SATA drives or, with an adapter, four CompactFlash drives. Once drives are installed, the enclosure supports RAID0, RAID1, JBOD, and some things called BIG, SAFE50, and SAFE33. It sports USB 2.0 and eSATA 3GB/s ports on the back and a range of tools built in. Its available now for US$99.99 each.

written by Tyler Regas

In what can only be called an odd choice for Lenovo, the news is that they will only be pre-installing Windows XP Home Edition for the US model. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to waste a netbook on Windows, but what’s worse is that we in the US are forced to pay the Microsoft tax just to get one. Sad. I still want one.

written by Tyler Regas

Are you in need of a rugged, compact, Linux-powered tablet? Arbor might just have what you need in the cumbersomely named, ruggedized Gladius G0710 tablet PC. Its powered by what is becoming the ubiquitous Atom processor in speeds from 1.1 or 1.8 GHz. It also features 1GB of DDR2 RAM (in one SO-DIMM slot), a 7″ touchscreen display in either 800×480 or 1024×600 resolutions with a daylight-readable option, 1.8″ HDD and SSD options, Gigabit Ethernet, B/G wi-fi, Bluetooth 2.0, a 3800 mAh battery pack, and ships with Linux, Windows XP, or possibly even Vista. There’s no pricing or availability information just yet, but Arbor does have the unit up on their site.

written by Tyler Regas

ASUS has really been making its mark on the mobile computing market with its hotter than hot Eee series of netbooks, and now its expanding the line to the desktop with the Eee Box B202. The unit is a sleek vertical white device which looks like a thinner Mac Mini standing on its edge. For the very reasonable US$349 is sports a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, an 80GB HDD, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n wi-fi, Intel GMA950 video with a single DVI port, two USB 2.0 ports, an SD/MMC/MS card slot, an S/PDIF port, and comes with Windows XP Home installed. It even comes with a copy of StarOffice and an almost completely useless copy of Microsoft Works. HotHardware has a really detailed and glowing review of the device. I’m looking forward to reviewing one myself.

written by Tyler Regas

Mobile Internet Devices, also called MIDs, are starting to pop up now that CPUs are getting more powerful and more power frugal at the same time, most notably Intel’s Atom line. UMPC Fever, the Chinese site dedicated to gadge nerds like me in Asia, has received their Aigo.MID and unboxed it in pictorial form for your envy-based non-pleasure. I’ve included the Google translated link here. I have to say, I’m a little more than surprised that it looks one hell of a lot like Nokia’s N810 MID, as far down as the camera position and the keyboard style. Clearly they aren’t identical, but they hella close.

written by Tyler Regas

The Giz is tracking the story on Lenovo’s newly announced, Atom-based IdeaPad S10 micro lappy starting at (presumably) US$399. The device sports a 10″ (in some countries a 9″) 1024×600 display with an LED backlight, a 1.3 MP camera, will come with an 80GB or 160GB platter drive, 512MBs of 1GB of RAM with room for 2GB, a multi-touch trackpad, an 85% keyboard, integrated B/G wi-fi and Bluetooth, 10/100 Ethernet, an ExpressCard slot, runs at 1.6GHz and features Intel’s own 945GSE chipset. If and when it hits the States (considering they got prices in US dollars) you can also get a 3 or 6 cell battery pack. It comes pre-loaded with Windows XP, but not in all regions. Lenovo also says they have a special UI which allows for faster access and improved power conservation as well as a heatsink system which draws heat away from the user. If all this is the case, it will certainly be interesting to see how nice it really is.

written by Tyler Regas

Based on the latest, Dell is now officially supporting Ubuntu 8.0.4 on consumer machines, and I can prove it. They are offering a handful of systems with Hardy Heron pre-installed and all of the hardware works. The time it took between when 8.0.4 was available and these Dells came out is explained by the hardware, so these new systems support the in-built cameras, fingerprint scanning, and everything else out of the box. Pretty sweet. Prices for desktops start at US$459 and lappies at US$549. There’s even an XPS model in there starting at US$949.

written by Tyler Regas

I’ve seen some large lappies before, but these new Acer Aspire GemStone Blue models take the cake. As you can see here, they feature 18″ displays. What the shameless self-promotion doesn’t talk about is the humongous case and its meaty 9 pound heft. Sure, it sports a Core 2 Duo CPU, up to 4GBs of RAM, space for two hard drives with the max configuration offering twin 320GB units, an nVidia GeForce 9500M or 9650M GS with up to 1280MB of TurboCache (meaning 512MBs of dedicated VRAM and up to 768MBs of shared system RAM), and a plethora of other features generally expected on modern lappies. Prices start at US$3,000, but you can bet that the fully loaded models are quite a bit more.

written by Tyler Regas