Gizmodo: Laptops / PCs

Wal-Mart Black Friday Update

tgrumet — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 11:17:15 EST

In the beginning of the month we alerted you to Wal-Mart's super low-priced PCs and laptops to be flogged on Black Friday. Now we've been told that it gets even better. For $378 without any rebates, you can get your hands on an HP Pavilion ze2108wm laptop, installed with AMD Sempron processor with PowerNow! technology. The best part of this laptop looks like its battery life, which should last about 3 hours on the 6-cell battery. Not bad for under $500. Now the question is, does it matter enough to mingle with the freaks who will be in Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving? You'll have to use your better judgement on that one.

Black Friday Laptops 2005 [Anandtech]

Macworld Coverage: Wednesday - Part III

johnb — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 13:35:54 EDT

The finale to Will Leitch's Macworld coverage in which Will discovers the magic of voice command the hard way.

Among the Believers with Will Leitch

Frustrated by the endless line, I turn away and literally knock into a pimply boy with a tie that's way too big for him; it looks like a bib, or maybe a backwards cape. He is standing in front of a screen displaying Microsoft Word and the following phrase:

MY VOICE SOFTLY CHANGE QUITE A MATE FROM MY TRAIN BE GIVEN 9 NORMALLY YOU.

"What s this?" I ask.

He explains that this is the new iListen product, which allows you to talk directly into your computer and have Microsoft Word dictate your words, lest the act of typing strain one's hamstrings.

"That phrase doesn't make any sense," I say. "Either your product doesn t work right, or you have a most curious cadence."

He chuckles uncomfortably and mumbles something about background noise. I ask him if I can play with iListen for a moment, and he looks around for help, finds none, then reluctantly agrees.

I turn to the microphone and am careful to speak slowly. "Hello. I am Will Leitch. I am here for Gizmodo.com. I am furious that the National League lost the All-Star Game last night. I am staying at a Howard Johnson s by Fenway Park, and it makes me feel very classy and special."

I watch at the screen lights up with my beautiful words.

HELLO AM LEASH I AM HERE FOR GIZMO DOTCOM FURRY NATION ALEAGUED LOST THE STAR GUMS NIGHT AM STAYING AT HOW WEIRD SON IS BEE FUNNY PARK IT MAKES CLASS SPECIAL.

I smile, the kid looks away and, all told, this class was special.

Exhausted already, I grab a sandwich, cookie and beverage for 12 bucks on special for the convention and then head back to my hotel room. Despite being armed with all this new techno expertise, I still can t figure out how to program the hotel television so it won t play "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper" on every station, all afternoon.

The End

MacWorld Coverage: Wednesday - Part II

johnb — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 09:39:17 EDT

A continuation of Episode I in which Will is lured into the back seat of a Lexus.

Among the Believers with Will Leitch

I am greeted by a 2003 Lexus in the middle of the display floor. It belongs to Michael Oh, the CEO of Tech SuperPowers, and the backseat is fitted with all kinds of digital editing equipment. The sign above the car screams proudly, GEEK MY RIDE! A Tech SuperPowers assistant named John DeYoung, who looks like he s a little annoyed that he couldn t make a career of going to String Cheese Incident shows, explains that this is Oh s actual car, rigged up specifically for this convention. DeYoung says, if one so desired, they could edit an entire film from the backseat.

I make a joke. Man, I thought the only thing you could do in a backseat involved a girl and a deserted road in the Midwest. DeYoung s jaw loosens for a millisecond as he stares blankly at me, and then he gets back on message. Well, yeah, it took us a few months to set this thing up, but if you really focused, you could probably do it in a couple of hours, he says. He offers me a seat in the backseat, but I decline.

When I told friends I was going to this convention, they all asked me to pick up some free crap for them, maybe an iPod or something. But nothing at the MacWorld convention is free. One exhibit, Delapod by Delarew Designs, sells designer iPod handbags, with a publicity photo of a woman modeling the merchandise. Apparently they don t use PhotoShop much at Delarew Designs world headquarters; the model has frighteningly large, protruding nipples desperately trying to escape her shirt. Another booth sells iPod holders, including iGuy, a squat Gumby-type thing with little deformed-baby flipper arms. It retails at $16.99, a discount special for this convention.

I notice a crowd at the MacDirectory Magazine booth up ahead. I drift over and see that the magazine has two display tables. One is manned by a chubby man named Huntley Fields; no one s at his table. The other, however, has a long line of balding, paunched men waiting to hear all about this thrilling publication. A buxom, tight-shirted, GoDaddy-esque woman named Vanessa Carlisle explains how the magazine works and offers to sell official MacDirectory Magazine trinkets and garb. A man in the back of the line stands on his tiptoes and even hops a little.

The Final Chapter Cometh

MacWorld Coverage: Wednesday

johnb — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 17:12:20 EDT

We got there late, but we got there. Will Leitch, a special friend of Gizmodo, sends us a twisted missive from the heart of Mac Country. Will is not a techie. He's a journalistic pit-bull, a sports fan, and is coming to MacWorld with fresh eyes. He sees what we won't see. He'll bring back the blood, the glory, and the heart of the Mac Community. Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you:

Among the Believers with Will Leitch

BOSTON—A few years ago, some friends of mine and I came up with a little game, usually played while drunk. The idea? Take Internet phrases that we use on a daily basis, and imagine how ridiculous they would have sounded if we said them 10 years ago. Example: Hey, dude, are you having problems with your Yahoo? Mine s totally messed up. Or: Yeah, I ve been Googling myself all day. I Googled my mom too. And yours! It s a good time, for a few minutes anyway.

It was difficult not to feel like I was living 10 years in the past while covering the MacWorld Conference in Boston this week. I m no computer expert; sessions like Harnessing the Power of Your XGrid and Discussing Automator In Tiger make about much sense as listening to a professional cricket broadcast. Oh, a wicked googly!

Yet there I was, on a morbidly muggy Wednesday afternoon in Boston, hanging out in the Exhibit Hall and visiting with the locals. Hardcore Mac users who of course are crawling everywhere here; this place is 45 percent goatees tend to be Koresh-ian about their computers; a merchandise stand sold convention T-shirts (for $30 a pop!) with sayings like Once You Go Mac, You Never Go Back, It s a Mac Thing; You Wouldn t Understand and, my favorite, Who s Up For Some Mac-ing? (With a lipstick kiss splattered over the wording.) As a PC user who can t figure out how to work his Ethernet cable, I figured it wise to lay low on the first day.

A man named Bo Eriksson foils this plan immediately. He sees my MEDIA badge blogs are media, haven t you heard? grabs my arm and says, in an accent that s three-quarters Swedish Chef and one-quarter Bela Legosi, If you ll indulge me, I d like to engage a little guerrilla marketing. He smiles gnarled, ebony teeth, and I nod, sure, eyeing the exit a mere 20 feet away.

His company is called edgeBlur, his homebase is Washingtonville, N.Y., his nametag says Bo Eriksson, The Grand Pobohaa ( I might have spelled that wrong, yes? ) and his product is called the surFACE 1.5. It s essentially a TV tray for your laptop, or, as he calls it, a Desktop Replacement Machine. You set it on your lap while you re sitting in your La-Z-Boy, and then you set your laptop on top of that. It s like a tiny, unstable desk that moves; it s, seriously, a TV tray.

I ask him, considering he accosted me about 30 seconds after I walked in the door, how well the item is selling. Well, it s selling more in Europe, strangely, considering the shipping costs, he says. People here tend to spend the money on more RAM. But I m working on a new prototype that I m hoping will break through. He s starting to tell me about the upcoming executive version (with real wood!), but I excuse myself, walking backwards, hands in air, and head to check out some exhibit booths.

Look for Part II tomorrow.

Panasonic Color eBook

johnb — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 16:43:18 EDT

Move over B&W Sony Librie eBook, there's a new eBook in town. A color eBook. That's still a prototype. And may be available next year. But not here. Tough break, fans of eBooks. You better get yourself a pBook, which is a paper book.

Standard specs: 5.6 TFT, color screen, legibility.

Panasonic Prototypes eBook Reader Able to Display Full-color Picture [NikkeiBP via i4u]

SKYN Tones Laptop Skins

johnb — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 12:42:17 EDT

I don't know what's up with all these laptop adhesive things, but it's kind of silly. I suppose it might be good if you want to keep your aluminum Powerbook nice and clean, but why would you need one for a generic plastic beast?

These come in pastel colors, are reusable—I match mine to my underwear each day so today my laptop is pink—and cost $35 (!!).

SKYN Tones Laptop Covers/Skins [GadgetMadness]

Infill T3: Big Time Car PC

Joel — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 10:22:01 EDT

It's big and it's brawny and it wants to live in your car. No, it's not your mother—it's the INFILLL T3, a double-tall car in-dash car PC with a 1.6GHz CPU, a 40GB hard drive, GPS, and a lot more (although maybe not Wi-Fi, which seems miraculously shortsighted). Price and availability is still up in the air, but it looks like a beast. Too bad it's retarded to watch movies while driving.

INFILL T3 The Ultimate In-Car Entertainment PC? [eHomeUpgrade]

Schtickers LapSchticks

Joel — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 10:11:28 EDT

What makes the LapSchticks Schtickers more appropriate for laptop decoration than other stickers? Not much—except the $20 stickers can be easily applied and removed, allowing you to swap out and customize your laptop as the spirit moves you. The designs aren't amazing, but they aren't terribly gaudy, either. This 'DJ Turntable' Schticker, for instance, is actually pretty slick.

Of course, we're now spoiled by design-by-community sites like Threadless, so we think that should be Schtickers' next schtep.

Product Page [Schtickers via I4U]

IBM Launches Dual-Core PowerPC 970 Chip

johnb — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 17:01:50 EDT

With all this Intel stuff, I'm surprised IBM is still even TALKING to Apple, but whatever. That boy is just asking to get his heart broke. Apple is like SO over IBM and he comes out with some crazy dual core G5 like nothing ever happened and we all know something happened namely Intel was totally almost doing Apple at Jamie's party last week.

I saw IBM hanging out at Lester's Bagels yesterday, waiting for Apple to start her shift but she called in sick and you and me totally know why she called in: she and Intel went camping with Trey and them and nobody told IBM. Harsh.

IBM introduces dual-core PowerPC 970 chip [TheInquirer]

Silly Customer! Verizon is Evil Part Deux

johnb — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 11:58:24 EDT

Reader Eric writes:

Considering the torment Verizon provides you (and me and the rest of us poor buggers) they've got a number of ads on Gizmodo. They're brave enough to have a banner advertising FIOS at Home so I clicked. I entered my phone number, clicked GO and eagerly awaited the results of my super-cool 15 Mbps fiber connection. The result: Online Ordering is Currently Unavailable We are unable to check Fios availability and process orders due to a system error. Please try again later. If this problem continues, please call your local Verizon business office to speak with a Verizon Online representative. We apologize for the inconvenience. I consider this a sign from God that it's in my best interest to continue avoiding Verizon.

Antec Sonata II Reviewed (Verdict: Once You Go Black...)

Joel — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 12:49:38 EDT

We normally steer clear of commodity PC parts (except video cards, because, well, those make everyone happy), but I've had an Antec Sonata case for the better part of a year and am a big fan. It's quiet, it's nice looking without being fruity, and it wasn't expensive as these things go. Now Antec has the second generation 'Sonata II' out, with a even quieter design (they ditched those punched holes in the side) and a better power supply. If you're looking for a top-shelf case that might help your PC from sounding like a whirlwind, check it out (just don't plug in the eye-searing front LEDs).

Son of Sonata: Antec Sonata II [ExtremeTech]

Motion Computing LS800 Mini Tablet PC

Joel — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 10:59:25 EDT

Some of you are going to be very happy about Motion Computing's new LS800 Windows Tablet PC. It's small, for starters—just a 8.4-inch screen. And it's reasonably powerful, with a 1.2GHz Pentium M (certainly strong enough to get any business computing done). But by being so tiny, it might not serve as the laptop-replacement some people want, despite an optional plug-in keyboard and dock. Whatever—we prefer options in form factors over 'do everything' devices any day.

Product Page [MotionComputing]

Friction Free Lube

johnb — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 16:50:49 EDT

Those dirty Japanese have discovered an almost friction-free lube. Before you get all worked up about the future possibilities in the realm of hentai tentacle porn, it's actually designed for fans and other machinery. The lubricant is made of an array of fullerene molecules between thin films of ~~granite~~graphite [Blame this on the Intern from Kansas (IfK)- Ed.]. The force of friction created is under .4 nanonewtons. That's like the light touch of a butterfly against your pasty skin.

Near friction free lube discovered [TheInquirer]

iPod Mini Everywhere

johnb — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:40:19 EDT

This interesting piece of patent marginalia shows a potential iPod Mini stuck inside a potential PowerBook. This is actually probably just Apple's way of covering its arse when someone comes out with a similar notion of an MP3 player built into a laptop, something about prior art or whatever, but the premise is compelling. The iPod acts as the laptop's touch pad and, like some other laptops we've seen, the screen supplies handy info like battery life, grayscale pr0n, and track listings. Will it ever be made? Naw. But it's nice to know someone is thinking out in Cupertino.

Integrated iPod mini in Apple Notebook [101Reviews]

SilverStone LC18

johnb — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 11:01:32 EDT

Case designs have been leaning towards the "pimp-my-mobo" side of things recently and this is no exception. THe SilverStone LC18 has an external LCD monitor on the case and looks like the bastard spawn of a MacMini and ThermalTake death-beast. Featured at this year's C3, the LC18 is an interesting mix of elegance and over-the-topness that I can't quite get my head around. I wonder about heating issues with a phat LCD inside a tight overclocker's case.

I won't be able to make it into the city to visit C3 this week, BTW, so anyone with any info, please drop us a line. You can be a citizen reporter aka unpaid freelancer!

SilverStone Sneak Peak: New Cases at C3 [XYZComputing]

Adventures in the Sysadmin Trade

johnb — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 09:59:20 EDT

John here. Got back from the NOC last night—the NOC is in DC and I'm in New York, so it was kind of like visiting the reclusive Uncle rather than a fun road trip—and I rebuilt MOST of the system. Now I need to get my MySQL DBs back out of an image of the disk that failed. I ran mke2fs -S on it, ran fsck, but now I have five million files in the lost+found. Anyone know any way to dig them out without ending up with a mess?

Now, back to your regularly scheduled gadget coverage.

Incredible New Ebay Phishing Mail

johnb — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 09:51:28 EDT

This is a bit off topic, but it's a fascinating study of what happens when Phishers get a book on Javascript.

First off, I don't specifically understand what's going on here. Ping me if you'd like to get the link and do some forensics. Essentially, you go to the typical locked-down Apache site with lots of fake Paypal material. It asks you to click another link and then you get some sort of strange mini-browser that causes your main browser to auto-supply your email and password. I stopped the script before it could do any harm, but clearly they are piggy-backing on a real site here.

The header of the mini-browser appears above. Click it to see the full screen. I wouldn't normally post these but this one was so unique and I haven't had my coffee yet. I got so freaked that I went and changed my Paypal password. I changed it to 1234.

UPDATE - Slashdot picked up the trail as did Bachelor Ben. Thanks, faceless horde!

Motion LE1600TC Tablet

johnb — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 14:13:39 EDT

Finally. Motion has rethought its previous trade dress—let's make it look as chintzy as possible and easily breakable—and gotten with the program. Although case color doesn't mean things are going to be better at old Motion, we do hope they've learned a bit over the umpteen years they've held onto the same gimpy chassis.

Generally, this is a standard Motion tablet with hardware-protected encryption and fingerprint reader. This model costs about $1,899.

Motion LE1600TC Tablet PC [MobileWhack]

Nvidia Geforce 7800GTX Review Round-Up (Verdict: The Bestest Yet)

Joel — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 11:12:14 EDT

The NDA wraps come off Nvidia's super-hot new 7800-series graphics cards today. The short take is this: it's really, really fast—so fast, in fact, that most modern games aren't going to take advantage of the power a single card offers, let alone two cards in an SLI configuration. The first cards will show up on the market next week, so if you've got $600 or so sitting around, it'll certainly be the latest and greatest. But chances are you'll have to roll in our selected manner, and sate your desires with the massive load of previews showing up around the web today.

At least the launch of the 7800GTX should drive prices down for everything else, including ATI's offerings. Considering how choppy Battlefield 2 runs on my machine, I'm going to need a price break on a good video card (and motherboard, and processor, and...) really soon.

Links and more (actually, just links) after the jump.

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX Preview [HardOCP]
Chaintech Releases First 7800GTX Card [TrustedReviews]
Evesham Axis 64 Decimator 78 - G70 (7800GTX) Revealed [TrustedReviews]
Nvidia Editor's Day June 2005 and Hands-on 7800GTX Preview [HTPCNews]
Nvidia Kicks Ass With 7800 GTX [TomsHardware]
NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GTX Hits The Ground Running [AnandTech]
NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GTX graphics processor Power MADD [TechReport]
GeForce 7800 GTX: Nvidia's Nuclear Option [ExtremeTech]

Toshiba Looks Back, Forward, Gets Dizzy, Sits Down

johnb — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 10:34:52 EDT

Toshiba held a bit of event in Australia and talked about their coming line-up including the Hershey's-Kiss-sized Libretto U10 and the Qosmio U20. They also talked about their sales numbers: 11K sold in 1985, 7 million in 2005. You've come a long way, baby!

Generally, I like Toshiba's work. Compared to other well-known Japanese brands—er, brand—a lot of the Toshiba notebooks have a nicer suite of software and some very interesting features. The original Qosmio pissed me off because I had to carry it home once to review it and it weighed about 500 pounds but hopefully these newer versions will be lighter. Or then you can get the U10 and hide it under your hat.

Toshiba celebrates 20 years of notebooks [GeekZone]

Gigabyte GV-3D1 Reviewed (Verdict: Overpriced Dead End)

Joel — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 09:23:21 EDT

Gigabyte's GV-3D1 is a neat graphics card: it stuffs two Nvidia 6600GT cores onto one card and stitches them together in SLI, without any fussy wires or dual slots. That's the good part.

The bad part is that Gigabyte has made the boneheaded decision to only bundle the 3D1 with a motherboard, which also boneheadedly happens to be the only motherboard that the 3D1 can run on. That might be a technical limitation, but with no promise from Gigabyte that the 3D1 will work with any future motherboards and a price premium that puts the bundle at around $100 more than buying two 6600GTs and a motherboard from Newegg, it seems mostly like a nifty bit of engineering that isn't worth actually spending money on.

Two 6600GT s in One: Gigabyte s 3D1 [Sudhian]

Zalman Reserator Plus 1 Passive Cooling Tower

Joel — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 09:00:15 EDT

Zalman has officially announced its Reserator 1 Plus passive water cooling system, a hulking black upgrade to the blue model first released over a year ago. The new model includes new CPU and GPU cooler designs as well as providing an anti-corrosive water additive in the box. I hope they changed the internal pump they used on the previous model, as I discovered the 1 Plus while searching for solutions to quiet the clattering propeller in the original Reserator sitting on my desk.

Since Zalman's website doesn't really have good information on the Plus 1, have a look at this pre-production model "review" on Hexus (really more of a 'we saw this thing at a show'). The release model isn't blue, but black, and will cost $300. Despite the noise problems I'm having with my current one, I sort of want to upgrade, but only because that would be a convenient excuse to build a whole new gaming rig.

Zalman's Reserator 1 Plus [Hexus]
Purchase Page [QuietPC]

Carbon Fiber Asus V6V

johnb — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 13:10:50 EDT

There's a rule in the tech industry—making something out of carbon fiber makes it cooler. I don't care if it's a toilet plunger or a car hood, carbon fiber just sounds more interesting than "shiny plastic." Therefore, we aren't surprised to see that Asus is giving it a go in the carbon fiber notebook niche.

A few other folks have gone this route, but Asus seems to have hit a sweet spot. The V6V isn't too ostentatious. It's got a nice Pentium M-based chipset, and it's acceptably light—a 15" screen at 5.5 pounds—to warrant the carbon fiber.

Asus V6V Notebook with Carbon Fiber Chassis [MobileMag]

Mushkin Redline Performance Memory

johnb — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 14:30:23 EDT

The concept of overclocking has flown by me in the past and still does. [This was written by Intern Travis. Please yell at him. - Ed.] For those people who enjoy pushing their computers to the absolute limits, Mushkin has a new type of memory for you. They have released their appropriately named "Redline" performance series memory. One of the big kickers is that this RAM is rated to run around 3.4 volts, which could be considered "redlining" on many motherboards. To counter this, the memory also requires active cooling. This memory is available at $179 for 1GB.

Net Reviews: Mushkin Redline PC4000 [CompReviews]

Shuttle XPC SN25P

johnb — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 14:15:25 EDT

Shuttle is expanding its line of SFF PCs with the SN25P. The size of the case itself is bigger in size, allowing for better airflow and easier access inside. The motherboard uses the nForce4 Ultra chipset and has everything you would need already integrated, including 7.1 audio. One of the best new features is an external clear CMOS button. Maybe this will help the Shuttle line appeal to the more overclocking friendly techies.

Shuttle XPC SN25P - Small Form Factor Barebone [TrustedReviews]

Toshiba Tecra A5 sub-$1000 Notebook

johnb — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 12:41:02 EDT

Toshiba is introducing a nice 14-inch business laptop for the grey flannel suit set. It's a standard Centrino chipset with optional NVIDIA GeForce Go 6200 and a nice WXGA screen, and it weighs about five pounds. Nothing to get to excited about. Just a plain old workhorse.

In terms of price, these guys will be sub-$1000 and available this month.

Toshiba Launches 14-inch Widescreen, Sub-$1,000 Notebook [NetworkWorld]

Some Possible Office Pranks

johnb — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 10:56:44 EDT

As a public service, we're bringing you a list of interesting and topical office pranks from Pocket-Lint. I think my favorite, which appears above, involves clover seeds (?), a keyboard, board chow, and a bit of water. The resulting chia keyboard made me pee a little.

If you would like to amuse me today, please send your images of office pranks to tips at giz. We'll post the best few.

Office pranks on the increase [Pocket-Lint]

Security Watch

johnb — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 09:51:14 EDT

Buddy of mine posted a wee tidbit on his site in regard to security and damn foolishness. The exchange is immortalized here:

I purchased a Dell server today for work, through our account representative at Dell. At the end of the order process, just before confirmation, the Dell representative said:
"Federal law requires that we ask what will this server be used for?"

I asked, incredulously, Why the hell does the federal government care? to which the Dell representative replied PATRIOT Act .

Maybe they were worried he'd run x86 OS X with special Goatse attachment.

I'm pissy today so I expect only tips and praise to be sent to the tips line, no spelling/usage tips. That means you, BJ.

Security Through Stupidity [Skippy.net]

In-Depth Interview With UI Expert Larry Yaeger

johnb — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 10:41:13 EDT

This guy seems to have done it all—early computer graphics on the Cray, designing the handwriting recognition for the Newton, building software that simulates life, and generally doing more cool stuff than anyone has any right to do. Reader Jeff interviewed him for Ars Technica and the resulting three-part discussion kind of made me a little happier today.

So while I thought the original, sweeping Newton concept was exciting, and even the reduced vision of what first shipped was intriguing, I had my doubts about whether it could succeed. I also, at various points and with others, lobbied for a smaller form factor, but never seemed to have any impact. (Very, very late in the game I got the then-CEO, Shane Robison5, to agree to investigate what we now call a palm-sized device, but it was too late, as Newton was soon to be reeled back into Apple and killed off.)

In the Loop with Larry Yaeger [ArsTechnica]

MacInDell Part Quatre - The Ruby Goldmine

johnb — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 09:57:14 EDT

I've been lax this morning because the OS X Intel torrent finally downloaded. I approached my computer with apprehension and palpable turgidity—could this be the fabled x86 OS X ISO? Had I found the Grail of legend, the last disk from which Steve Jobs accessed data before he passed from this world into the darkling plain of the superego?

I cut open a fresh CD-R and my optical drive ejected, its open maw awaiting the sweet release of burning. The CD-R was too small. What magic was this? I opened a window to release the foul vapors that were emanating from the computer, a mix of sulphur and goat-smells that predated man's early walk with the Woz, our Savior, He of the 8-bit Instruction Set. I was turning from a mere mortal to an OSXomancer, a dark priest with control of both the living and the dead. I would walk in a land that for 5 years ran parallel to our own, a land formed by the the wizened crones of Cupertino who every night at midnight burned two copies of each build—one for the humans and one for the gods.

More after the jump.

Burning. I had never felt so much longing. Burning. Verifying. It was verifying. The burner was churning and I prepared to boot my PC. My Mac Mini, faithful to a fault for almost four months, seemed to cringe. It knew that its time was up. This was the end of the road, fair PowerPC-powered friend. The Mini ejected the foul disk and the smell grew stronger. I saw shadows flicker behind the bookshelf and the mouse seemed to be greasier, wet with my anticipatory glee.

Time to press the button.

The PC churned to life. The fans whirred and it was as if my PC was a hovercraft that would take me to a new and beautiful country. There I would frolic with Aqua, Steve would wave to me from the water and beckon me in. He would be standing on the water, I would be in a boat. I would float towards him and he would show me such secrets, such beautiful secrets. They would be more than just Splat-X and Splat-V. They would be more than just "ps -ea." I opened my PC's optical drive. It was time to Switch.

My KVM chirped. Windows 2000 appeared. Out foul beast! Make way for your Master! Make the roads straight and herd the Wild Eep! For He Comes! He Spins Up! No! My optical drive isn't booting first. It's going to the HD, that fetid land of the Accidental OS. Bill Gates never had to fight his way out of a garage, he never had to pick apples to build his first computer, he never had to deal with poorly made PowerPC clones, he never had to think about just the right color for the trash can. Away with thee, Windows 2000. Darken this keyboard no more. A pox on all your business units! The fumes were overpowering.

I switched the BIOS to boot from the optical disk. I restarted. The disk churned and a strange, beautiful light enveloped everything. I almost fell asleep. I could have rested now for eternity. My purpose was complete. I closed my eyes and lay back and let it wash over me. It was a feeling of peace, of joy, of absolute serenity.

The disk was booting!

Seconds passed. Each one was an eon. 1... the paramecium are born in the briny waters of early earth... 2... the dinosaurs roamed among the ferns and the grasping vines... 3... the early mammals skittered under the onslaught of fire... 4... man is here, his first paintings and drawings, the first inklings that he had a kernel, a soul... 5... great philosophers, great thinkers, great authors all appear, warriors take huge tracts of land, monks toil over manuscripts, Bill Carris writes Inside Atari Basic, the Apple II appears, a supernova, and walking towards me on a knife edge of light, this strange being, luminous and thin, the ultimate expression of our evolution, a Debian-powered angel awaiting my orders...

Then the goatse guy appeared. Must have been a hoax. MAC OSX TIGER X86 READ NFO.torrent is a dud. Anyone else have another torrent?

Evesham HTPC Review (Verdict: Nice)

zmcnulty — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 15:13:15 EDT

Evesham has released a new innovative media center computer. Radeon X700, 200GB SATA hard drive, 1 GB of ram, TV tuner card, DVD burner and 5.1 audio are all nice features. Why, it even has s-video and composite outputs integrated into the motherboard. Appearance wise, this Evesham Axis is built into a smaller form factor case that can easily be placed on a desk or fit into an entertainment center. This machine would be ideal for the dorm rats and studio apartment livers.

Evesham Axis 64 X700 - Media Center PC [TrustedReviews]

MacinDell Part Trois

johnb — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 12:46:13 EDT

I know I'm harping on this, but I will soon be vindicated, fear not, you VNC-loving freaks.

Reader Dennis, among others, sent me a torrent file that appears to be legit. My assistant, Nhoj Sggib, who lives in Sweden where torrents are very legal, is downloading it for educational purposes only and we shall soon see who will laugh last.

As Alex writes:

Regarding your "MacinDell" story. What's wrong with these doubters? Don't they realize that MacOS is essentially NeXTstep (even many of the icons and applications are identical) and that NeXTstep was running on Intel chips (not to mention Sparc, Alpha and a number of other processors of the time) way back in the 486 days?

It's not only not shocking to think that MacOSX runs on Intel hardware but in fact it's a bloody no-brainer. The technical aspects are yawn yawn news. The real news is that with the announcement of the use of Intel chips in some systems they've officially let the cat out of the bag and one has to wonder will the MacOS become a truly hardware independent OS the way any modern OS should be and, if so, what does that mean for the computer hardware business in general. We all know that Apple makes the best consumer grade desktop hardware and will continue to make the best hardware of that type, only now with vastly greater options since they aren't tied to the PowerPC architecture any more.
Off with the debunk-y and on with the funky. Let's get to talking about what other hardware one might see the MacOS running on. How about a 128 CPU Sun Primepower 2500 running OSX? How about MacOSX running in distributed processing mode on a rack full of IBM/Intel blade servers? It's all already in there. Has been for years.

Woo, I can almost see the future from here. Of course, I'm in Tokyo looking out over the Shinjuku skyline but, well, you know what I mean.

HAL9000 Case Mod

johnb — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 12:31:59 EDT

I like everything about this funky case mod except for the little action figure floating around inside of it it. I suppose you can't have everything. Part of ExtremeTech's Sci Fi case mod contest, this mini-HAL has liquid-cooled innards and uses a cube server unit to recreate the murderous computer from such films as 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2005: OK, So Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke Got it Pretty Much Wrong But that Motorola Video Phone Ojo Thing is Kind of Futuristic. And We Eat Space Food Like Red Bull and Dippin' Dots..

The Second Case Mod Winner: HAL9000 [ExtremeTech]

MacInDell Part Deux

johnb — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 10:10:40 EDT

Ok, you filthy petards, explain this with your Pear OS X/QuickTime full-screening hoax-busting. Look at the above image and then pop past the jump for what Pear looks like in the wild.

Either OS X-Intel, codename Revolver Ocelot, has been leaked and pirated or somebody is shooting snaps of Beta developer's copies or whatever, but the truth is out there. The first person to point me to a torrent of OS X Revolver Ocelot gets a slightly used Tamagotchi that may have been in or near my colon. Think about it: Apple now has a ready-made group of haX0rz who will download and dual-boot OS X on their k3wl compy 386es. They have a ready-made audience. Don't you see? Soylent green is people!

Click either image for a larger view.

UPDATE after the jump.

What is it with your haters? Can't you just accept that maybe there exists Intel OS X somewhere?

For example, Brian says:

I didn't believe it myself, so I looked at the pictures. NOTICE THE MAC MINI in the background. The guy probably hacked the about to say Intel... and has the mac mini displayed through his laptop screen. Then a little picture overlay to make it look like it is a dual boot system. I'm not buying it and the Mac Mini definitely makes it look that much more suspicious.

Screenshots[Macuser.de]

Flybook A33i

johnb — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 18:41:05 EDT

The link between the PDA and the notebook is getting even closer with the Flybook. Dialogue presented its fully-functional 9 x 6 laptop at Computex. The Flybook weighs in at 2.6 pounds, will have a 1.1-GHz Pentium M Dothan chipset and up to 512MB of RAM. Bluetooth, SM card slot, and built in WiFi capabilities are also included.

Like everything else that has come out of Taiwan, it is available in multiple different colors and prices begin at $2,000.

Must have a Flybook [i4u]

Sony VAIO VGN-T2XP (Verdict: A Midget Workhorse)

johnb — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 15:32:51 EDT

Weighing in at a lightweight three pounds, this Sony small laptop packs a lot of punch. Low voltage 1.2 Pentium mobile chip, DVD writer, 512MB memory, Bluetooth, Memorystick slot, 60GB hard drive, integrated wireless, 10.6 screen, PC card slot, USB 2.0, firewire. The benchmarks are coming back showing this little beast topping out in the next best in most categories. All this could be yours for a mere $2,700 dollars.

Sony VAIO VGN-T2XP [TrustedReviews]

casefancasefancase...

johnb — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 17:25:11 EDT

Some people go to the extremes when dealing with their computer temperature. We've seen it all—water cooling, vapor cooling, 900mm fans, etc. But here's a new one: the casefancasefancase...

There is a good chance that this case could act as a hover craft. There are 70 fully functional fans that cover 95% of the case. They are all zip tied together and mounted together.

Performance wise, it wasn t that cool. The motherboard temperature idled around 23 degrees Celsius and there was little affect on the CPU temperature so all that twist tying was for naught. Next time make the entire case out of ice.

Casefancasefancasefancasefancase... [PeterEdge via BoingBoing]

Hush M MCE PC

zmcnulty — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 15:05:00 EDT

Hush Technologies unveils their latest in set-top box style PCs today with the "Hush M MCE PC." In the Hush tradition, the system is fanless and features a swell 3" profile. Specs include a 1.4 or 2GHz Pentium M Celeron, some memory, a hard drive with a couple gigabytes of space, and all the fun that is Windows XP Media Center Edition. It's also one of few PCs to be available in "Bronze" from the factory.

HUSH Intros M-Series MCE Set-Top PCs [eHomeUpgrade]

Sharp Mebius HTPC

zmcnulty — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 12:21:20 EDT

Sharp also announced their new HTPC today, called the "AV Center PC Mebius." They announced it, but couldn't be bothered to actually tell us any of its specifications so we can decide whether or not it's crap. We do know it has a 32" LCD with the dual display feature we addressed earlier today, but I'll point out that the screen is not the 32X2. If you have WiFi and media playback capabilities in the computer itself, there's not much of a reason to throw them in the LCD as well. The press release say the machine doubles as a hybrid recorder and mentions a 250GB hard drive, so at least we know that much.

Press Release [Sharp]

IE Gets Tabbed Browsing, Maintains Suckitude

johnb — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 11:08:36 EDT

Call me a big OS X/Linux hippie or whatever but come on—aren't they about ten years too late? Consider the fact that while Mozilla/ Firefox/ Monkeytooth and Opera and everyone else in the entire world has had tabbed windows since 1937, IE has been stuck in the Dark Ages. Overall, this doesn't help my opinion much. Listen: just use Firefox. Stop downloading browser bars and pop-up blockers and adware destroyers all that claptrap. We'll see what IE 7 has to offer, but I'm not holding my breath.

Microsoft Launches Tabbed Browsing Tool [InternetNews]