News for September 24th 2010

Kristofer Brozio | September 24, 2010 | Xbox | No Comments

Hello people, it’s time for the news once again from sites all over the world! Enjoy…

Storage Related:

MX-Tech’s Armor Series DDR3-1600 4Gb kit. MX-Tech has guaranteed that these modules are individually "hand-tested" … it’s quite a bold statement to make. They’re also armed with some mean-looking heatsinks/heatspreaders, which should help with heat dissipation during overclocking. Here’s a snip …

"In this review, we’ll be taking a look at the MX-Tech Armor Series DDR3-1600 4Gb Kit. They’re rated at DDR3-1600, that’s PC3-12800 spec with memory timings of 8-8-8-24, and supports XMP (for motherboards that have this option in the BIOS). They come with some mean-looking heatspreaders with aluminum fins. This should provide excellent heat dissipation. Interestingly, these modules are certified as being "hand tested" and comes with life-time warranty. It’s quite a bold statement to make. Let’s see how it compares with other memory modules in its class."

Read the rest of the review here … http://www.funkykit.com/reviews/3402-review-mx-tech-armor-series-ddr3-1600-4gb-kit.html

Plextor PX-B120U External BD-ROM Drive @ TechwareLabs

Quote: Plextor is a familiar name to many, and they’ve built their reputation on exactly one thing: optical storage. It should be no surprise then, that they’ve extended their line to embrace the latest in high-density optical storage. Today we’ll be taking a look at the PX-B120U, a USB-bus-powered BD-ROM drive geared for movie playback.
LINK: http://www.techwarelabs.com/plextor-px-b120u-bd-rom/

A-DATA Nobility N005 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive
QUOTE: "USB 3.0 will be one of the fastest adapted new technologies of 2010. At this time it appears that everyone is on board, even though Intel is struggling to get their butt in gear. Intel aside, USB 3.0 is all over the place and thanks to NEC, even Intel motherboards come standard now with the latest spec, truly universal standard. With the first half of the catch 22 in place, we can now start to focus on USB 3.0 devices to take advantage of the new USB 3.0 spec.
A-DATA is already onboard with USB 3.0 and is offering several new products that take advantage of the available bandwidth. One of A-DATA’s largest markets is portable thumb drives, so it was only natural for A-DATA to take a leadership role in rolling out USB 3.0 thumb drives and get them out at a reasonable price."

Hitachi LifeStudio Mobile Plus External Drive @ Benchmark Reviews

DESCRIPTION: Hard drive capacities are expanding so fast it is easy to think, "Who actually uses a whole terabyte!?" But as storage space increases, so does the demand for fatter content. Managing even a gigabyte of files can be a cumbersome task, just imagine what it will be like to corral 1000 times that many files. "Where did that file just get saved?" To address this growing problem Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has evolved the portable hard drive by marrying the hardware with built-in content management software. Benchmark Reviews got hold of a 500 GB version of one of these new drives. Model HLSMPUA5001ABB is part of the LifeStudio Mobile Plus series and geared towards small and large storage portability. Benchmark Reviews will analyze this new breed of storage technology to see what the LifeStudio line has to offer.

ARTICLE URL: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=613&Itemid=60

Synology Diskstation DS1010+ and DX510 Expansion unit review

Today we look at a very attractive pairing from Synology, the DS1010+ scalable 5 bay All-in-1 NAS server for small business users and the DX510 expansion unit which delivers another five hard drive bays for a two fold increase in capacity. These units combined allow for 20TB of storage which will more than satisfy the needs of any small business. These are not entry level products, the DS1010+ alone costs £725 inc vat, without any hard drives included so we will be ensuring they achieve justifiable performance levels.

Read The review here : http://www.kitguru.net/site-news/announcements/zardon/synology-diskstation-ds1010-and-dx510-expansion-unit-review/

Hitachi/LG BH20L 6x Blu-ray Burner
Link: http://www.bigbruin.com/content/bh20lblurayburner_1
Quote: The Hitachi/LG BH20L is capable of burning Blu-ray discs up to 6x. While it is not the fastest Blu-ray burner available, it is cost effective and reliable. Add in the ability to write CDs and DVDs, as well as to label discs with LightScribe, and this is a well rounded Blu-ray burner. If you are in the market for a Blu-ray burner, the Hitachi/LG BH20L is worth considering.

LiteOn eSAU208 External Slim DVD Writer Review @ Vortez.co.uk
DESCRIPTION:
"In just a few days this is our second external slim DVD-RW drive. As I mentioned in the previous article with the ASUS Extreme Slim DVD-RW, over the past year there has been a big push amongst manufacturers to provide consumers with smaller portable computing solutions. The netbook is a fine example of this, giving fantastic functionality whilst on the move in such a compact manner has meant certain aspects of the machine has had to be sacrificed. No longer is there an optical drive, instead USB is the primary means of transferring data.
LINK: http://www.vortez.co.uk/review.php?id=220

Mobile Related:

The $0.01 iPhone 4 Case @ ThinkComputers.org

Review URL: http://www.thinkcomputers.org/the-0-01-iphone-4-case/

Quote: “It’s not often we find something we can truly say is a deal. Well a couple of weeks ago I saw someone post on my Twitter feed about ordering an iPhone 4 case for only $0.01. I was interested so I followed the link and it brought me to DefaultCase. And sure enough they were selling iPhone 4 cases for only $0.01! The cases come in 9 different colors and are the iPhone 4 cases designed to help call quality."

Cooler Master NotePal U3 Notebook Cooler
QUOTE: "Looking at a few different concepts of how companies are approaching cooling today’s laptops, I have gotten a grasp of what seems to work out and what doesn’t do more than keep your legs cooler. While that is one concern when looking to buy a notebook cooler of any sort, cooling the components inside is more important, especially with my Lenovo. There is also a third factor, and that is styling. If this stand is going to sit in the open while you are out with your laptop, you may also be concerned with how it looks on the desk while you are away.
The sample I just received from Cooler Master promises to do all of those three things. Raising the notebook off of your legs is going to keep your legs cooler and with the use of multi-position fans it should be able to spot cool many components inside. All of this is done while still delivering a simple, yet elegant look to the unit with the use of black anodized aluminum and grey rubber. There are also a couple other tricks built into this notebook cooler, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise yet."

‘Nokia N8 – first thoughts’
Destined for greatness or another iPhone competitor left in the dust?
The Full Article can be viewed at http://tbreak.com/tech/2010/09/nokia-n8-first-thoughts/

The New Look Dell Inspiron 14R

The Dell Inspiron 14R is a new variation of the popular Inspiron line, with a new design to help it compete with some of its more sexy competition. With a 14 inch screen and the choice of an Intel Core i3 or i5 processor, this is a good – if not outstanding – all-round, every-day kind of laptop.

The Dell Inspiron R range is available in everything from 14 to 17 inches, all of which sell on the reasonable end of the pricing spectrum. While it may not be the best value on the market, the Inspiron 14R does manage to pack a lot into its $800 price tag. The new design of this laptop certainly helps matters as well, with some new curves and colours that make it almost seem like a Studio series design.

Audio / Video:

Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player Unboxing Video @ eTeknix.com

Link: http://www.eteknix.com/reviews/peripherals/seagate-freeagent-theater-hd-media-player-unboxing-video/

Discussion: http://forums.eteknix.com/showthread.php?2127-Seagate-FreeAgent-Theater-HD-Media-Player-Unboxing-Video

Quote: Today we are unboxing the Today we are unboxing the Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player. This media player comes in a brown and red box showing you what the product would look like including details of the files supported. It also informs you that it works similar to a NAS box and lists the connections on the back of the device including USB, ethernet and many video connections. We are also told of the minimum system requirements for the media player and a bit of information on syncronizing the device with a hard drive.

Quick Review: Arctic Sound P531 USB Headset
QUOTE: "The P531 from Arctic Sound is a well built and reasonably well designed surround sound headset that uses a USB interface rather than an analog interface in order to be a totally flexible solution. This is current to the trends we are seeing now, and USB is absolutely massive at the moment, especially with the newest unveiling of USB 3.0 recently which offers huge data rates and will not be bettered for universal appeal until USB 4.0 comes out, we suspect.
This particular headset features four drivers in each ear piece inside of a comfortable and well implemented design. The system also makes use of a small inline volume control to allow for control of the individual channels. The built-in digital processor actually has a big job ahead of it, because the sound coming out of a USB port is not going to be surround sound. So, one would imagine that this processor uses an algorithm much like ‘Dolby Headphone’ to create the surround environment."

Genaudio Astoundsound Audio Expander 3.0 Review @ Legit Reviews
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1413/1/

"Astoundsound Expander processes a single output of audio, and if you happen to have more than one output it allows you to choose the output you wish to use. It is much simpler to use than the SRS Labs’ HD Audio Lab; basically, all you really have to do is install it and it sits in your system tray and processes the audio. But please don’t take "simpler to use" as a negative, as that is just simply not the case. The audio sounds every bit as good as its competitor and it doesn’t require a ton of adjustments. Astoundsound Audio Expander 3.0 is equipped with the ability to change the settings to choose between whether you want to listen to movies, music or games, as well as the ability to change the actual intensity of the effects processing and it has a preamp feature that lets you add or take away gain from the audio…"

MegaTech Reviews – Wicked Audio Reverb Headphones

Just because you want a better music experience doesn’t mean that you need to break the bank. Interestingly enough, it also doesn’t mean that you should necessarily stick to big, well-known brand names. The Wicked Reverb full-size headphones carry a suggested retail price of just $30, making them a seemingly great value. But are you really getting a good deal or are you just throwing thirty bucks down the drain? Let’s find out!

Direct Link: http://www.megatechnews.com/megatech-reviews-wicked-audio-reverb-headphones/

Assorted Stuffs:

AMD to report Q3 loss – is this due to the iPad?

AMD have released a statement saying that they “expects revenue for the quarter ending September 25, 2010 to be in the range of down one to four percent as compared to revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter ended June 26, 2010″. This is a rather unpleasant situation for the company as earlier projections looked more positive.

While many would assume this is primarily due to the current limitations with AMD’s processors when compared to more impressive Intel solutions in both the performance and CULV sectors, we have a different theory. Apple.

Read The news here : http://www.kitguru.net/laptops/carl/amd-to-report-q3-loss-is-this-due-to-the-ipad/

Asus RT-N16 Wireless Router Review

These days, a good deal of ISPs include a router with their broadband packages to sweeten the deal and to make setup easier. But as they are usually included ‘free’, such routers are usually made very cheaply and only have the bare essential features. So there is still a sizable market for more advanced routers which have more to offer in terms of features and performance.

Today we are going to look at the Asus RT-N16 wireless router which has a plethora of different features to whet the appetites of more technical users.

Read The review here : http://www.kitguru.net/networking/henry-butt/asus-rt-n16-wireless-router-review/

The New-Age Nickel & Diming @ Techgage

Link: http://techgage.com/article/the_new-age_nickel_diming/

Quote: Over the course of the past couple of years, there’s been a growing trend that’s both frustrating and expensive to consumers. It also shows no sign of slowing down, and ironically, many of us contribute to it. As the title of this editorial suggests, this trend amounts to what I like to call new-age nickel and diming.

Asus RT-N13U Wireless-N Internet Router Review @ Tweaknews
Article Url: http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/asus_rt-n13u_wireless-n_router/
Article Snippet:
"Wireless connections are reliable and the range turned out to be better than I expected, and the interface has a fantastic layout with lots of features for the price."