The Zone

Dell recently launched the world's thinnest laptop, the Adamo. Featuring scalloped keys, a backlit keyboard, solid state drive (SSD) hard disk drive and carved out of a solid block of aluminum with a clear glass screen, these laptops are targeted at the ultra-premium market especially people who place as much importance on how awesome a laptop looks as how good it performs. Check out the event and more details on the Adamo in our latest issue of HWM.

If you've seen the Pulse Smartpen in action and wondered when or if you'd ever get your hands on this mini computer - translator - digital transcriber - audio note taker device then wonder no more. K-One recently signed a partnership deal with Livescribe, the company that first made the Pulse Smartpen such a big name. For more info on the event, check it out in our latest issue of HWM.

HP recently launched their new Pavilion dv2 Series entertainment notebooks in the flavours and colours of high-grade coffee. Coming in Espresso Black and Moonlight White the new 12" screen notebooks are powered by AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 processors and features AMD-ATI 3000 series graphic cards. As an added plus these new performance ultra-mobile notebooks come with their own external DVD drive at a price of RM2399. For a full report on the event check it out in our latest issue of HWM.

Hot on the heels of NVIDIA's littlest brother in its GTX 200 performance series graphic cards, we managed to snag an engineering sample for the up and coming GTS 250. With just the card sent in, we didn't have a chance to see what else came with the complete package but it definitely seems to be one of the higher end models. This is mainly because it comes with a custom Zalman fansink, built-in HDMI, DVI and VGA ports and about 1GB worth of GDDR3 memory. Here's our first sneak peak at its performance for both 3DMark06 as well as 3DMark Vantage. For a full in depth review check it out in our latest issue of HWM (HWM April 2009).

We managed to get our hands on a Samsung X460 and take it for a spin. Featuring an ultra slim design that may give the Macbook Air a run for its money, this new addition to Samsung's line of notebooks holds plenty of promise. Like its NC10 netbook counterpart, it is also rumoured to be competitively priced. Couple this with its excellent performance and we may have a sleeper hit on our hands. Check out the PCMark05 score it gave us below. For a full review, pick up the latest copy of HWM (HWM March 2009).

As part of Samsung's renewed attempt at piercing the personal computer market they have introduced their take on the netbook. With a classy design and ultra light casing, the Samsung NC10 looks great. Rumoured to be priced much more competitively (as in cheaper!) to get into the already saturated market, this 10" netbook will be something to watch when it comes out in force. We managed to lay our hands on an advance version. So far we found that the NC10 has an awesome battery life, stays cooler under pressure and has more than reasonable performance. For a full review of the Samsung NC10, pick up a copy of HWM (HWM March 2009).

We finally managed to get our hands on one of those miniscule projectors that you can fit into your pocket. As you can see above, it really is small enough to fit into your pocket. From the few test spins that we've taken we've managed to ascertain that the RCG Virtual Vision 5100 Pocket Projector has a built-in fan (so it should stay cooler than its fan-less compatriots), its based on a 10 Lumens LED lamp (so it should save oodles on electricity) and on top of having a built-in speaker also has touch-sensitive controls. For a full review check it out in the latest issue of HWM.

Dutch outfit SPRANQ creative communications Utrecht has created a new font which purpotedly saves you ink and consequently, the world. Dubbed Ecofont, the font style which looks like Dutch holey cheese (as seen above) uses approximately 20% less ink, just by introducing holes into the facetype! After using it for a couple of days, we'll have to say that it takes time getting used to, and fonts below 10pts might look as though they're been nibbled by a rat. A must-try if you want more ways to save costs, especially during in these tough times, you can download Ecofont right here.

With the release of the GTX 295 it was only a matter of time before NVIDIA went and overclocked their most powerful single GPU graphic card the GTX 280 and this is exactly what they have done with the release of the GTX 285. We managed to get our hands on one from one of the big boys and have proceeded to do a hands-on right here. Check out the 3DMark Vantage score below but for a full analysis and report check it out in our latest issue of HWM.

Burnout Paradise is easily one of the best racing games of 2008, and we're looking forward to its PC incarnation next month. Taiwanese motherboard company Elitegroup Computer Systems appears to be equally excited too, which may explain the rather obvious "homage" of the game on the box cover of one of their latest motherboards. The similarity is quite uncanny, don't you think?

Once upon a time to set up a hotspot you'd need a wireless access point or router, some network cables, an Internet connection and a computer with all the networking know-how required to set up such a thing. We recently managed to get our hands on a mobile 3G hotspot device that makes a hotspot using your HSDPA 3G or 3.5G USB modem. All you need to do is plug and play! For a full review check it out in our latest issue of HWM.

AMD's latest 45nm 'Deneb' chips or the Phenom II series has just come in. After our brief foray with Intel's Core i7 which raised the performance bar, AMD is looking to up the ante by offering quad cores that can overclock even better. With an overclock speed of 6.3GHz (only achievable with Liquid Nitrogen) and a tougher internal architecture (that can withstand and be more stable with that level of overclocking) the Phenom II processors are set to become major players on the enthusiast scene. Will it be enough to compete against the i7? How will this overclocking performance translate to normal performance? Find out with our indepth review of the Phenom II in the latest issue of HWM. Check out a little view of its standard non-OC PCMark05 Score below:

It's that time of the year again, and with the advent of Christmas, PIKOM's PC Fair proved to be another hunting ground for computer users looking forward to great bargains on tech products as well as computer components. The highlight of this edition of the Fair would definitely be the digital camera bargains as well as really affordable memory and storage products on offers. Antivirus companies were duking it out too in an effort to boost sales with licences going as low as RM40 per year! Check out more happenings and also our booth babe coverage after the jump!

We managed to get our hands on HP's yet to be released 2nd gen netbook, the HP Mini 1000. HP's first netbook, the HP Mini-note 2133 was one of the top netbooks in the market, owing especially to its business netbook-like nature and extremely comfortable keyboard. HP's Mini 1000 retains the keyboard but makes the netbook slimmer, lighter, more energy efficient and more powerful. It looks even better than before with its glossy black imprint lid. For a more detailed run-down of the Mini 1000's better attributes (and better pics) check out our latest issue of HWM (December 2008).