Gadgets | tSoNeV.com

Nook gaming and web browsing impressions

Posted by ts On 27.04.2010

The guys and girls at engadget got their hands on the lates firmware upgrade from Barnes & Noble on their Nook. Read on their first impressions from the upgraded device:

Playing some Sudoku and reading Engadget on our Nook? Yeah, we are! Obviously, after hearing about the Nook 1.3 firmware update this morning, us bookworms nabbed the latest software to check out the added features. The over-the-air update took about a total of ten minutes from start to finish, and when the e-reader had restarted the new Games, Wi-Fi, Audio, and Web shortcuts were more than obvious on the main menu.

The browsing experience, which is clearly marked beta, is very similar to that on the Spring Design Alex — you input the address on the touchscreen and an expanded view of whatever site you’re visiting appears on the E-Ink display. You can use the LCD to navigate the page, though the physical page turn buttons work as well, which is actually a nice trick. It isn’t the fastest browsing experience, but it’ll definitely be useful for quickly reading some news or checking the weather when you are near a WiFi network – we got a page not found message over 3G.

Visit engadget’s photo gallery of the all new device Nook 1.3 browser and games hands-on

Lenovo L Series, the recycled ThinkPad

Posted by ts On 23.04.2010

source – thinkpads.com by John Hobbes

Lenovo has officially announced their ThinkPad L Series. The greenest and most recycled laptop as stated by Lenovo.

Quick overview

Lenovo’s ThinkPad L Series:

14-inch L412 and 15-inch L512 models
powered by Intel Celeron, Core i3 and Core i5 processors.

With the Edge models replacing SL in the small business realm, this “new” L Series will be replacing the R Series for entry-level corporate models. These are intended to provide comparable functionality to the more expensive T Series, but with a lower cost design and some feature de-contenting to reduce cost. Lenovo will also sell these to the education market, serving primary and secondary schools.

Differences between L and T Series

Wider choice in processors, including Celeron, Core i3, Core i5; no Core i7
Optional ATI graphics on L, NVIDIA graphics on T
No SSD option on L
Both have ExpressCard/34, 4 USB 2.0 ports, multi-card reader, VGA & DisplayPort (w/audio); no Firewire on L
L has USB/eSATA combo port, T410 has separate eSATA
No ThinkLight, roll cage or swappable bay drive on L Series
ABS plastic on L; HEPC plastic on top, carbon fiber reinforced plastic on bottom of T410
6-row (non-chiclet) keyboard on L; standard 7-row on T
16:9 LCD on L, 16:10 on T410, 16:9 on T510

Differences between L and SL Series

Update to newest Intel processors on L
SL series have HDMI output, L Series have DisplayPort (w/audio output too)
Combo headphone/mic jack on L
L gets TPM chip, upgraded to Gobi 2000 WWAN

read the entire post at thinkpads.com

Velocity Micro’s Cruz Tablet

Posted by ts On 23.04.2010

source – engadget.com/ By Sean Hollister

Velocity Micro’s Cruz in both 4 x 3 and 16 x 9 configurations:

7-inch capacitive multitouch screens,
800MHz processors
expandable SD card storage
Android 2.1 (with Flash 10.1 support build in).
price under $300.

[Thanks, Kendall]

Check out engadget’s photo gallery of the Velocity Micro Cruz Tablet prototype

Dell Thunder – Android, 4.1-inch OLED screen

Posted by ts On 22.04.2010

source – engadget.com By Paul Miller

Dell Thunder unlike the Lightning is packing an Android 2.1 rest of the specs should be similar however unconfirmed:

4.1-inch WVGA OLED screen with Dell “Stage” UI
Facebook and Twitter social networking,
unconfirmed Flash 10.1 web videos,
an “integrated web video Hulu app.”
unconfirmed 8 megapixel camera

Check out engadget’s original breaking article on the Dell Thunder leak

and their image gallery:

Dell Lightning a Windows Phone 7 portrait slider

Posted by ts On 22.04.2010

source – engadget.com By Nilay Patel

Dell Lightning qwerty portrait slider leaked specs:

1GHz QSD8250 Snapdragon processor,
WVGA 4.1-inch OLED display,
AT&T and T-Mobile 3G,
five megapixel autofocus camera,
1GB of flash with 512MB RAM,
8GB of storage on a MicroSD card,
GPS,
accelerometer,
compass,
FM radio,
full Flash support including video playback.
perhaps an upgrade to LTE in Q4 of 2011.

Check out Engadget original post on the leaked Dell Lightning: the ultimate Windows Phone 7 device leaks

and engadget’s gallery

Maingear eX-L 15 fastest gaming laptop

Posted by ts On 21.04.2010

source – engadget.com By Donald Melanson

The “fastest 15-inch HD gaming notebook on the market” specs:

CPU Intel Core i5 and i7 Processors
Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
Display 15.6″ 16:9 LED back-lit 1600×900 with 1920×1080 option
up to 8GB of RAM Memory Premium dual-channel DDR3-1333
whole range of different hard drive / SSD choices
Optical Drive DVD and Blu-ray burner options
OS Windows 7 Premium
price – $1,599 to $4,000

MAINGEAR’s Web site www.maingear.com

HP Slate

Posted by ts On 21.04.2010

source – liliputing.com

HP is working on a slate PC with an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor. We’ve known that much for ages. What we haven’t really known is how the Windows 7 tablet will stack up against the competition, because all we’ve seen to date is the information HP wants us to see. But the folks at Conecti.ca got their hands on a real, pre-production model and the verdict is… that it’s alright, but nothing too special.

I have to say, I’m disappointed but not surprised. I’ve spent some time with a number of convertible tablets with Intel Atom processors and various versions of Windows, and they tend to suffer from a couple of problems. The operating system just isn’t that easy to navigate using touch-only controls — even with Windows 7 Home Premium’s advanced multitouch gesture support. And they tend to feel sluggish when performing some tasks, such as auto-rotating the display. I suspect this is at least partially due to the low power processor.

What is interesting is that the Spanish site conecti.ca has removed their early review of the HP Slate from their site by a direct request of Hewlett Packard Mexico. What this could mean is lets hope HP will do a little more work to improve the performance of the Slate. It turns out in the end that close cooperation between Software and Hardware producers is vital for delivering a good product in the end(as is the case with Apple and the iPad).

iPhone 4G: is this it?

Posted by ts On 19.04.2010

source – engadget.com/ By Joshua Topolsky

Is this the iPhone 4G (or iPhone HD)? There’s no way to tell for sure, but these photos which made their way into our hands certainly do a convincing job of making us think that’s very much the case. Apparently the phone was found on the floor of a San Jose bar inside of an iPhone 3G case. Right now we don’t have a ton of info on the device in question, but we can tell you that it apparently has a front facing camera (!), 80GB of storage (weird, right?), and isn’t booting at this point (though it was previously, and running an OS that was decidedly new). It’s not clear if this is definitely a production model, or just a prototype that found its way into the world, but it’s certainly a compelling design, no matter how you look at it.

There may be a chance to get some more face-time with the handset, but we wanted to get these photos to you guys ASAP. Stay tuned, we’re working on more details as we type — for now, enjoy the gallery below!

Update: As a number of observant commenters and tipsters pointed out, this looks almost exactly like a Twitpic posted by TUDream on February 20th, which we’re throwing after the break if for whatever reason the source link goes down. It’s low-res, shows an indiscriminate bit of the inside, and some mysterious button / possible SIM slot in the middle of the other side. The mic holes on this pic seems to be larger, too.

iPhone 4G hands-on

Viliv S10 Delayed Until May

Posted by ts On 19.04.2010

source – netbooked.net/

The Viliv S10 tablet netbook series, originally slated for an April 22 release late this month has been pushed forward to various dates listed below, as seen on Dynamism. One customer who ordered a Viliv S10 received an email with the reason “delayed by the factory”. This might also explain why it hasn’t shown up at Best Buy like other Viliv products have.

Atom Z530 CPU, 64GB SSD models -> April 27
Atom Z530 CPU, 32GB SSD models -> May 5
Atom Z530 CPU, 60GB HDD model -> May 7
Atom Z550 CPU models -> May 10

A little more time to save up those pennies for the $1,000+ Atom Z550 / 64GB SSD / 3G / Windows 7 HP model!

Source: Engadget, SlashGear