GadgetReview

Well, now I’m just plain old amazed.  We’ve all been here at one time or another and spilled something hot and flavorful–or maybe cold and flavorful–on our laptop keyboard.  And chances are, your laptop never behaved quite the same after that, even if you DID manage to keep it from complete laptop death.  Well, I just saw the new HP ProBook 6545b take incredible amounts of fluid damage and keep on ticking.

Everything about the HP ProBook is a fairly normal, plain vanilla sort of system (it’s an AMD system, even!) but what they’ve done is rejiggered the keyboard tray around so that liquid, rather than getting into the guts of the machine, merely spills out through the bottom without hitting any vital areas.

It’s not bulletproof, so don’t upend a can of Coke on this just to test it, but by all reports it handles small, occasional spills easily enough.  And since it costs just $798, about what a normal new laptop might cost, it’s definitely not out of line in terms of prices.

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Gateway has become a pretty small gang member in the laptop turf wars, but that doesn’t mean the company is devoid of leaks and what I dare say is anticipation.  There’s no official word as of yet, but according to a tipster this is their soon to be announced tablet PC, called the EC18T.  Specs wise were looking at an 11.6-inch LCD, Intel Core2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, Mobile Intel GS45 Express graphics chipset, and either Windows 7 Basic or Premium.  …Continue reading: Gadget Leak: Gateway’s EC18T Tablet PC

Sometimes you want nothing more out of life than to be able to step through your computer monitor and go live on that magnificent stretch of beach pictured on your desktop.  Google has sensed your plight, o cubicle dwellers, and offered up something to make it worse: a Google gadget called My Daily Hawaii.

My Daily Hawaii not only shows incredible beaches, but also offers up Hawaii trivia, history, travel tips and more.  If you actually answer the Hawaii trivia right, though, you win a “super cute puppy picture prize”, which actually makes some sense.

Admittedly, if you live in, say, a cold Northern climate, you may well consider My Daily Hawaii to be a huge dose of masochistic glee, but for those of us who just like to look at a sunny beach as a quick pick-me-up in the cold black depths of winter, then this is a great piece for us.

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Hewlett Packard’s just recently introduced a new software gadget designed to help you get a little more green with your daily computing and offers the Power To Change gadget, part of a whole lineup of said energy saving widgets from HP, Google and Microsoft, among others.

This gadget syncs up with various Windows power management features to shut down monitors and turn off unused computers completely throughout the day.  HP will let you download that gadget for free, as well a host of other companies offering a similar gadget.

This is actually a really good idea.  There’s more than a little potential for waste involved with computers, so helping users find a fast and easy way to save a little extra juice.  Once you save a little extra juice one day, saving it every day can really add up to stomething big, which just might be the way to help everybody go a little greener.

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Approaching a very DIY aesthetic, these new Lacie Sound2 Speakers are ready for compliments from your friends about how tight your set-up looks.  Designed by Neil Poulton, the speakers are specifically angled for computer use but can still be hooked up to a wide range of audio and video components.

Taking design cues from acoustic engineering company Cabasse’s loudspeaker technology, this system is capable of banging out 30 Watts at peak loudness.  Included is an integrated USB cord and will sell for around $142.  Where’s the dedicated sub I ask?  Now available at Lacie’s website.

[via UberGizmo]

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Toshiba is striking back at Dell today by announcing there very own set of lightweight and thin laptops, the T100 series.  Available in two sizes, the smallest of  them will weigh just 3.49lbs and measure less than an inch thick, which seems to have become so common these days it is the standard form for laptopping.

In any case, you can expect to get up to 9 hours of battery life thanks to Intel’s ultra-low voltage processors and Tosh’s 6-cell batteries.  Other features included are a webcam with face recognition, WiFi b/g/n, Windows 7, 2x USB 2.0 ports, a combo eSata/USB port, HDMI port, DDR3 RAM, 5-in-1 memory card reader and 250GB of storage.

Toshiba’s T100 series will start at $449.99 and will be available October 22nd.

Features available on the Toshiba Satellite T115 include:

• 11.6-inch diagonal widescreen HD TruBrite™ LED Backlit display
• Windows® 7 Home Premium operating system
• Intel® Pentium® processor SU4100 or Intel® Celeron® processor 7435
• DDR3 RAM6
• Starting at 250GB (5400 RPM) HDD7
• 802.11b/g/n wireless8 10/100 Ethernet
• Toshiba Hard Drive Impact Sensor
• Touch Pad with Multi-touch Control
• Lightweight at only 3.49 lbs.2
• Long-life 6-cell battery delivering up to 9 hours of battery life3
• One eSATA/USB combo port with USB Sleep-and-Charge4 and two USB 2.0 ports
• HDMI port
• Built-in Webcam with Toshiba Face Recognition, stereo speakers and microphone
• Toshiba PC Health Monitor
• 5-in-1 Memory Card Reader Slot

Features available on the Toshiba Satellite T135 include:

• 13.3-inch diagonal widescreen HD TruBrite™ LED Backlit displa
• Windows 7 Home Premium operating system
• Intel® Pentium® SU4100 processor or Intel® Pentium® SU2700 processor[v]
• DDR3 RAM[vi]
• Starting at 250GB (5400 RPM) HDD[vii]
• 802.11b/g/n wireless[viii] and 10/100 Ethernet
• Bluetooth V2.1 + EDR (available on select models)
• Toshiba Hard Drive Impact Sensor
• Touch Pad with Multi-touch Control
• Lightweight at only 3.88 lbs.2
• Long-life 6-cell battery delivering up to 9 hours of battery life3
• One eSATA/USB combo port with USB Sleep-and-Charge4 and two USB 2.0 ports
• HDMI port
• Built-in Webcam with Toshiba Face Recognition, stereo speakers and microphone
• Toshiba PC Health Monitor
• 5-in-1 Memory Card Reader Slot

Yesterday Dell unveiled what they’re claiming is the world’s thinnest and lightest 16-inch laptop, measuring just over 1/2-inch thick and weighing just 4.5lbs.  But that isn’t all Dell’s newest Latitude Z600 laptop has to offer.  For an additional $199 Dell will toss in an inductive charging stand, which will surely lead to a set of commercials that have something to do with ‘look ma, no hands’.

But wait, there is a ton more.  They’ve also got another accessory, for the same price, that connects Dell’s latest laptop to an external monitor sans wires, as well as a set of customizable touch controls located on the laptops right bezel that can control brightness or volume, launch applications or even scroll through an Excel spreadsheet.  Using a second ARM processor, which is found in many cell phones, the Dell Z can do ‘instant on’ providing access to email, contacts and other low powered applications and sustain power for up two days, or just 4 hours when Windows is fully launched.

All this doesn’t come cheap, though, as the new Dell Latitude Z600 starts at $1,999 and doesn’t even include the aforementioned accessories.  It’s a bit frustrating to see these companies still claim wireless charging when in fact the pad that the product sits on uses a wire, but until Tesla’s vision has been fully realized we’ll have to settle on a variation there of.

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The price structure has been announced for the AT&T 3G MicroCell, a line of femtocells, devices designed to help AT&T customers get better reception inside buildings, as well as faster overall speeds.  Described as being “like having a cell phone tower in your home”, the 3G MicroCell is the first such publicly-tested device of its kind.

But the web community’s getting pretty torqued about the fact that you have to shell out monthly cash for this little beauty–about twenty bucks a month for unlimited use and ten if you subscribe to AT&T wireless and home phone.  Include the internet service in that last and you get the MicroCell free of charge.

It’s sort of a low blow, offering a device that’ll let you use the device you pay to use in all situations but then requiring people to pay for it.  For crying out loud, they’re already subscribers–why not just send everyone a free one to keep your base interested?

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You’ve heard about the cardboard gadget cover, and the cover you make yourself from old comic books, now try the newest thing in temporary gadget faceplating, the Wrappz system.

Wrappz are small self-adhesive packages that cover your gadgets and help protect against dust.  They come in a variety of designs, including Spongebob Squarepants, model Keeley, and Premier League sports teams.  Now you can cover your laptop with the damned United, and that’s not just a clever movie pun.

Plus, if you’re big into European soccer, you can advertise your love of the beautiful game with these covers.  Wrappz come in sizes sufficient to fit iPods, almost every major console except, for some reason, the Xbox 360, laptops, and the option to create a custom size Wrappz case in case your laptop model isn’t available.

Further, if you hurry, you can get fifty percent off your order by following the directions at the “via” link.

[via Daily Mirror]

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Well, if you’ve been worried about using your various Net-capable gadgets because of the lack of net neutrality law, then worry no longer.  Seems that the FCC is about to adopt net neutrality as a set of general principles soon.

Net neutrality, in case you don’t know, is a standard that requires all internet service providers to treat all information equally in terms of download speed.  For instance, Comcast recently decided to force BitTorrent users to accept vastly slowed download speeds as they gave precedence to other users.  Technically, that’s not illegal, but the FCC did scold Comcast, and now with net neutrality, such actions as Comcast took will be illegal in the future.

So download away, folks–your ISP can’t stop you any more.

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