The Zone

Hot on the heels of its 14" screen cousin, the Samsung NP-X360 flew into our arms for a little hands-on this month. With a 13.3" screen and doing its best to beat the Macbook Air with its ultra slim design, the X360 revealed a startling statistic in comparison to a normal 13.3" notebook of the same class. Read all about it in our latest issue of HWM. (HWM July 2009)

UK-based DataSlide are introducing a storage technology which could be the next logical step after SSDs. Dubbed the Hard Rectangular Drive, the system makes use of several hundred read/write heads which are stationary, but data is written and read using media which oscillates on a plane. It's a bit sketchy on how they will achieve the final product with data transfer issues now faced, but the technology is capable of 160000 random read/write instructions and a 500MB/s transfer rate - all while consuming 4W of power! More to come soon as we keep an eye out on this technology.

We managed to get some hands-on time with the apolco P3, another teeny tiny LED projector. After having seen the early adaptors (and been forlornly disappointed by them) we were quite happy to see one that finally seems to work. More or less about the same size as a thick cigarette pack, the LED projector seems to be the perfect companion for today's netbook toting presenter on the go. Check out the full review in our latest issue of HWM.

Over the past month, Transcend has released some interesting gadgets for all gadget lovers around the world. Of course, being Transcend, they are all related to storage one way or another :D

More after the jump!

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.

From left to right; Li Chang , Deputy Secretary General of the Taipei Computer Association and Walter Yeh, Executive Vice President of TAITRA answering questions from the media during a press conference about the upcoming COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2009

Computex Taipei 2009 is going strong despite the current global economic downturn. Taking place from 2^nd to 6^th June at the Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC) Nangang Exhibition Halls and Taipei International Convention Center (TICC), the show will host 1700 exhibitors using 4600 booths to showcase their best products and solutions and is expected to attract 35,000 international buyers. Products from wide-ranging categories will be found in such dedicated areas as Components & Parts, Data Storage Devices, Software, Computer Systems, Peripherals and Displays & Digital Entertainment Products. This year’s show will also feature a 700-booth WiMAX & Communication Products area to paint a clearer picture of a more wireless future.

The Computex 2009 show is expected to be an important technology and product launch platform for numerous IT giants such as Intel, AMD, ASUS and Acer. Two “New Product Launch Sites” both located in TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall and Hall 1 will be set up to accommodate the growing needs of exhibitors from home and abroad to stage their new products. Altogether 40 companies are to demonstrate their new products in these dedicated areas. This new service can also help buyers and the media to easily discover the hottest products and latest trends.

Another highlight of this year's event is the dedicated pavilion for China, a driving force in the computing market, thanks to the country's vast resources as well as manufacturing abilities. Computex 2009 will feature a dedicated area where wares and services from 100 Chinese companies will be showcased, in a total area that spans 200 booth spaces. It is definitely a show not to be missed!

Transcend has proudly announced that its StoreJet 25M and StoreJet 25C portable hard drives have been awarded the prestigious "Red Dot" award for excellent design quality by the International Jury of 2009 Red Dot design competition. The judges commented favorably on the StoreJet 25M's superior shockproof design concept that incorporates an attractive anti-slip silicone outer shell and advanced military grade anti-shock technology - a combination that not only offers excellent protection against impact damage, but also prevents the drive from slipping or falling in the first place. The eye-catching StoreJet 25C was praised for its luxurious polished stainless steel case with piano-gloss finish connection panel that makes it a truly fashionable piece of technology. The judges also noted that the distinctive textured backing of the StoreJet 25C not only provides a stable non-slip base for resting the drive on a table, but also added character and enhanced tactile feel.

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.

Hard Drive maker Seagate has taken quite a bit of flak lately from members of its own forum when instances of their 7200.11 hard drives, particularly the 1TB model have been failing due to a firmware problem. Till date, the company has not released a new firmware although you can check if your drive is affected using SeaTools. 

More information on the forum threads below;

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=3668

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=4452

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?