A heads-up to any and all potential buyers of entry-level but infinitely practical notebooks – a well-known laptop from a well-known company, specifically Intel’s Classmate PC, has been re-named and has appeared in some Philippine store shelves. Nothing alarmist about this post, as this is all above-board and legal.

                                             Neo Xplore X1 sporting the distinctive Classmate PC strap. Photo courtesy of bravekn1ght.

This new Altec Lansing product reminds me of two things: one, Altec Lansing’s resurrected “The Voice of the Theatre” one-liner that was used by the company back in the 1940’s – 50’s, and KITT’s red running light-bar.  But instead of LEDs lighting up one after the other and a muted “whom-woom” sound, this bar speaker gets much, much louder. And looks cooler too.

                                             Altec Lansing is rightly proud of its longevity and continued success. 

What’s all the fuss about? This thought kept running around in my head as I examined the MSI PR200 Notebook twelve-incher. Conceived as a business ultra-portable, this 1.8 kg black-and-silver creation looks handsome and functional, and the specifications are quite satisfying.

To Apple, design has always been paramount. The products that come out of their collective creativity always carry a certain sleekness and simplicity that appeals to techie and non-techie alike. However, it is up to the modding community to come up with a creation that is equal parts cuteness and ingenuity, while still being guided by Apple’s two main design philosophies.

                                            The Mac Mini.

Only one in a thousand can be described as having “photographic memory”. These people are those who go to a place once and then can describe to you turn-for-turn how to get to the same place, what model car you drove, and even perhaps what clothes you were wearing on that day – even after a year. Well, perhaps that was a little bit exaggerated, but the opposite kind of person certainly needs no exaggeration.

The cassette tape has had a long and storied life, with notable events such as the Beta and VHS wars, the miniaturization of the physical cassette and the advances in magnetic reading technology. Although tape media undoubtedly still have life in it as a recording format, the signs have been starting to appear in recent years, the biggest of which is the advent of alternative recording medias such as DVDs, Hard Drives, and the subject of today’s Preview, Flash memory recording.

                                              The CX7 doesn't seem so small in this shot.
 

It’s been a long time coming, but a quick peek through the internet air waves reveal that AMD is getting back on track after being sidelined by a crippled buffer – related glitch way back in late December of 2007 – an eternity in the computer industry. Perhaps this heralds more than the CPU getting back on track.

Canon ImageNation continues Canon’s tradition of refreshing their product lines and bringing in some very significant and highly anticipated releases at the same time. ImageNation Summer ’08, aside from having an appropriately tropical theme, gives those in the media industry the same experience as all previous ImageNation events – that is, we’re still as excited as ever to cover everything’s that new in the Canon line-up!

                                             A bit more sand, some orchids leis, and a little bit of sun - a perfect image for summer!

While it’s no longer the month of hearts, I bring to you something that’s worthy of a romantic February 14^th evening in a swanky restaurant – with a little geeky twist.

                                             A "traditional" marriage proposal (maybe with pants and leather shoes instead?)

From my early work as a sales manager for a PC components retail shop in Greenhills, I can say with rule-of-thumb authority that the majority of Filipino buyers don’t actually know what parts to look for, and thus end up with (usually) the cheapest parts with the least number of features. This is not always a negative development, as many capable boards with low, low price points exist on the market.

                                              The font for the first two letters remind me of a certain manufacturer...

I can’t wait for the science-fiction worthy day when communication devices and their related screens get transferred into our body / eyes through nanotechnology. But that’s not the topic here. There are many advantages to having everyone not peer down at their mobile device’s screen, whether texting, checking their schedule, or looking through some media.

                                             A sharp lesson is about to be learned.
 

Perhaps it’s no longer incentive enough for a gamer to beat a game and call it a day. Games are left half-finished, cheats are found, work-arounds taken advantage of. It’s a sad state of affairs. It is fortunate then, that there are more and more people who choose a living out of producing products that immerse the gamer in their respective game worlds. The MindWire V5 is the latest creation of immersion, if I may create a pun (sorry – couldn’t help it).

                                             It's a Taser for your game console!
 

Being buried under cool stuff has its own disadvantages, like getting all of them to play nice on the test bench before the tester goes crazy keeping all of the benchmarks, settings, numbers and hardware straight, plus running the same benchmarks over and over, and over again.

                                              A pair of Palit 9600GTs due for SLI running waiting for their turn on the bench.

The recent flood of videocards based on Nvidia’s latest have not abated, but we deem it important not to get out of touch with the opposition, as it may be. Thus we dug up this Asus EAH 3850 OC Gear edition for you readers’ perusal – a supposedly mid-level card overwhelmed by the green team that is Nvidia.

Realism has long been an elusive goal for our games and game producers. It is true that many advances has been made in the visuals department of almost any game shipping today, and sound is a strong point of games, especially FPS types. While our eyes and ears are saturated, the rest of the body is left alone. With the FPS Vest, this no longer holds true.

                                             For the SWAT in all of us.