From BFF: A few months ago I won (via CrunchGear) a nice piece of hardware that now replaces the veteran hdd divx player I bought from Hong Kong about the same time last year. The enclosure was much more reliable than the other “made in china” (sic) stuff I bought back then, but somehow its remote died this summer and it’s not that fun to pause/play/stop using the built-in buttons. It works… → Read More
At first glance Allio’s 42-inch convergence media center seems like a dream, but after taking a look at few key specs I’m thinking I might to pass. Sure it has 1TB of on-board storage, an Intel C2D E8400 processor proc (4GB of RAM, 64-bit Vista), built-in Blu-ray player and other fine accoutrement to make a fine all in one, but I want a badass TV and a contrast ratio of 2000:1 just isn’t… → Read More
Does anyone even like Girl Talk? → Read More
If you really, really like racing games, you could plunk down a couple hundred bucks for a good wheel and pedal set made of plastic and rubber or you could really let everyone know that you’re serious with one of these Trackstar 6000 sets. It’s probably closer to the steering wheel and pedals in your actual car than anything else, as the wheel features fluid damped steering and cam and ball… → Read More
When you’re a Mac you’re a Mac/You’re a Mac all the way/From your first cigarette to your last dying day. Slightly NSFW. via BBG → Read More
This is the Phoenix. See how it resembles the mythical creature? As if being green were some passing fad, HP announced two new desktops and a display today. The HP Pavillion Verde Special Edition a6645f (really?) and Pavillion Phoenix SE a6655f have energy-efficient AMD procs and they’re Energy Star qualified. The SE desktops can handle up to 5GB of RAM, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit… → Read More
Blizzard named yesterday’s gigantic World of Warcraft patch “Echoes of Doom.” How prescient. Right, so Blizzard “dropped” patch 3.0.2 yesterday. Servers were done for a good 24 hours while the company’s elves did their magic. The full patch notes, as always, are available online. Among other things, Stormwind now has a harbor and my Hunter, Fredfresno, has a new hair cut; hints… → Read More
http://cdn.episodic.com/player/EpisodicPlayer.swf?config=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.episodic.com%2Fshows%2F21%2F226%2F10%2Fconfig.xml John Hodgman recreates spam emails verbatim and reads them in his best small-midwestern-college poetry reading voice. Does Apple know he’s doing this? Can’t they make him sign an NDA or sue him? → Read More
Remember back in November, we told you about Tivo jumping in the sack with Nero AG? Me either. Later today, presumably in the afternoon when everyone is awake, they will finally announce the software kit that will turn your PC into a Tivo box. Set to launch on October 15th, the Nero LiquidTV/TiVo PC will retail for $199, but those with a built-in TV tuner can opt for just the software, which will… → Read More
John Hodgman, the PC from Apple’s Mac vs. PC advertisements was recently caught in the act on the New York subway — “the act” meaning “using an iPhone”. This should actually come as no surprise since A) he’s part of the Apple ad machine and probably got the iPhone for free and B) he was on The Tonight Show one time and joked about the irony of playing the part of “PC” even… → Read More
Time heals all wounds? Not if you’re the Packard Bell brand in America. At the Acer dog and pony show today, the company’s execs went on and on about how its goal of using its three brands—Acer, Gateway and Packard Bell (they said little about eMachines)—makes total sense. Acer for the more high-end computers, and Gateway and Packard Bell for the more entry-level computers. → Read More
Acer, recently in the news because of its well-received Aspire One netbook, just held a press conference in Budapest—I’m only a two-hour flight away, hence my presence—talking about a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t necessarily apply to us here at CrunchGear. (Profit margins, possible acquisitions, sponsorships, etc.) One thing I want to immediately address is this slide… → Read More
It seems the rumors from yesterday about ME for the PC slipping to 2009 are true, but console owners will only have to wait till November 11th. EA and DICE announced today that a demo will be released prior to launch for Xbox 360 and PS3 owners, which will feature the prologue, tutorial and a portion of single-player story mode. If you’re feeling super anxious then you can pre-order ME… → Read More
Lenovo’s CEO William Amelio told reporters earlier today that his company had no interest in purchasing Dell’s factories. Makes sense considering Dell sold them to cut costs. Amelio went on to say that Lenovo was content with their capacity and that the global economy’s weakness would lead to less spending by tech companies. So that’s that. → Read More
I snuck onto the floor at NVISION08 a bit before the doors opened and, while most people were still setting up and not looking to talk, the folks from EA/Dice had just finished setting up the booth for PC version of Mirror’s Edge. Having watched a number of demo videos and developer walk through for Mirror’s Edge, I had always wondered how well the controls would work mapped out across… → Read More
While Valve and EA have never divulged an actual launch date other than “November 2008″ for L4D, Gabe Newell made it known on video at GC that the game would launch on the 10th anniversary of Half-Life. “Left 4 Dead is going to be released on the tenth anniversary of Half-Life, our first game, so that will be on November 20th, the third week in November.” We’re… → Read More
All the specs were leaked earlier in the month and it was just a matter of time before the FCC divulged the rumored tablet from Lenovo. Well, the wait is no more as the X200T is now in the FCC database. The FCC filing shows that the X200T will come with UWB, so I wonder if those supposed specs from earlier are real? It shouldn’t be too long before Lenovo officially announces it. Update: An… → Read More
Grand Theft Auto IV comes out for the PC this fall, but Rockstar’s in Leipzig showing it off at the Games Convention. It’s the same game you’ve already played to death, but running at a much higher resolution. Like, 2560×1600. Gaming in 1080p on a plasma isn’t so impressive when you’re a PC gamer. (But I’m not so it doesn’t bother me.) Other than an… → Read More
Some how this managed to fall through the cracks yesterday, so our sincerest apologies. Bethesda revealed to the world that Fallout 3 would be available in North America on the 28th of October while Europe will have to wait until the 31st. The demo I saw at E3 blew me away and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. Look for it on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. → Read More
When HP first introduced its TouchSmart PC line of desktop computers in 2007, it was a novel idea, but it also had enough flaws to keep many away from buying it. The TouchSmart was primarily meant for the kitchen, mainly because of the interactivity behind it, but also because it’s probably where the family interacts most in the home. This new iteration of HP’s TouchSmart series (the… → Read More
Back in June HP unveiled their TouchSmart PC and they’re looking to implement their touchscreen technology into other products including laptops. Thanks to the hype created by the iPhone, HP wants to capitalize on the consumer’s curiosity and believes it can release a touchscreen notebook in 18 months, which would put them ahead of Apple if Gene Munster is to be believed. “We’re… → Read More
Rockstar Games has just announced that Grand Theft Auto IV will be coming to a PC near you on November 18. Those of you across the pond in Europe will be able to purchase it on November 21. → Read More
Flickr’d All these small form factor laptops? Turns out they’re not too great for the companies making them. Companies like Asus with its EeePC and Acer with its Everex (and Dell’s future netbook) are now finding out just how little they actually make by selling the small laptops. Margins are so thin on these devices that other traditional PC maunfacturers have decided to sit out… → Read More
I’m not sure what it is about E3, but I’m slowly getting the itch to play me some RPGs and RTSs, but more on the latter later. Let’s rap about the former and first up is Obsidian’s (They created Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II The Sith Lords and Neverwinter Nights 2) Alpha Protocol, which is an RPG with a fair amount of action gameplay thrown in to keep you interested. It’s a… → Read More
HP has announced the availability of a new line of AMD quad-core processor-based workstations. Starting at $579, the affordable HP xw4550 workstations were announced as part of the company’s efforts to promote its technology in schools. HP says: “The xw4550 workstations can run the high-performance applications pertinent to learning advanced subjects such as digital forensics, mechanical… → Read More
Today marks a new day for Lenovo with the announcement of its first desktop, the IdeaCentre K210. For all intents and purposes, it’s just a desktop but it pulls a couple things from the laptop line that are unique and cool, like Veriface facial recognition technology. It also includes an anti-microbial keyboard and “Bright Vision”, which detects how far you are from the monitor and adjusts… → Read More
When the 9800GX2 cropped up, I thought, “That’s ridiculous. Who could possibly need that much power?” Yet now NVIDIA has eclipsed its dual-card beast with a single next-generation wonder, and people are already asking for two of those. HP’s Blackbird 02 gaming computer recently got refreshed, but no one saw this coming. Configurate here. [via UberGizmo] → Read More
Laptop has some first shots of the Asus eee 901. Instead of a lab, the unboxed the sucker on a bed and next to a breakfast tray, suggesting that Laptop is more attracted to their review products than we initially realized. I do know that Laptop publisher Ed Brown successfully mounted and procreated with an IBM ThinkPad back in 2002, but to see it happen again is perverse. How did they get it? They… → Read More
Can’t get enough eee? How about an eee SUPER mini PC and an eee monitor, both clad in pearlescent white and delicately stuffed with the latest in circuitry. Some spies at Computex grabbed a shot of Asus’ roadmap pointing to two new devices. The eee monitor should launch in september but there is no word about the supposed mini mini PC. → Read More
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