9 Gadgets You'd Be A Fool To Buy Right Now 
Aussie IT Pricing Inquiry Now Taking Submissions 
What Are The Most Stylish Laptops And Ultrabooks? 
Laptop Buying Guide 2012: How To Find The Right Laptop For You 
Spotify Finally Makes Its Australian Debut 
Top 10 Pervasive Tech Myths That Are Only Wasting Your Time If you’ve got a fever for all things steampunk, as we seem to have had recently, then you might want to know how to turn a $300 Dell LCD monitor into something more, ahem, classy, with its brass and marble trim. Châpeau to that man for all his hard work, but in a funny way it almost makes me nostalgic for plastic. – Ad Dugdale
galleryPost('steampunklcd', 11, 'steampunklcd');
Steampunk LCD monitor [Steampunk Workshop]
I might have watched this, had it had Johnny Depp in front of the cameras, and Alfonso Cuaron behind it, as originally planned. Now the movie version of Speed Racer is being lensed by the Wachowski brothers with Emile Hirsh, Matthew Fox, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon and Christina Ricci. But we’re only here for the gears (and a view of the cockpit), aren’t we?
According to the American Dentists Association, the US Mime Artists Syndicate and this Random Good Stuff t-shirt, 9.99 out of 10 US citizens hate Geek Squad. Apparently the statistical error works for Geek Squad and doesn’t even love itself. In fact, not even Jesus loves them. Me neither. – Jesus Diaz
Pushy retailers [Random Good Stuff]
Sony’s finally upgrading my beloved Sony XBR3 LCD, so gorgeous, it was chosen as the display of choice by Playstation for the PS3 launch, and even Apple for their Apple TV demos. The new LCDs are 1080p, running a full 1920 by 1080 res, with 10-bit panels that can resolve color 64 times that of 8 bit panels. Important for the wider X.v.Color, or xvYCC color range.
The bottom line is that Wilson and Louis, at the Sony event, describe these new LCD TVs as the best looking TVs they’ve ever seen, inside and out.
The better XBR5 and XBR4 sets also have 120Hz tech, which Sony calls Motionflow, and 24 frame support at full high def.
The devil is in the details, and here’s that for all three TV lines.
To satisfy the interior decorator in all of us, Sony has continued its drive for “personalization” of TVs. That means interchangeable colour faceplates available for two of the new lines, the 50″ to 60″ A3000 SXRD rear-projection sets ($3000 to $3500) and the 40″ to 46″ XBR4 ($3,000 to $4,800).
Virgin goes all prick tease on mobile data lovers, inviting you in with a 1GB data offering for $10, and then locking you out in the hallway, naked, with only 300MB to show for it.
UPDATE: The good news is, if you were fast off the block, your 1GB plan will be honoured (no specific word on how long for). They actually dropped the plan back to 300MB two weeks after it launched, so it was a small window of time in which you could have nabbed that rate. Everyone else? 300MB is the best you’ll get from Virgin.
At their excess usage rate, that opens up a $10,500 chasm between you and a juicy 1GB limit. Compared to the competition (sans X-Series), 300MB / $10 isn’t bad, but if you were still thinking about it, now you just have to go back to dreaming instead.
Virgin told Gizmodo:
Even though Sony’s big push is LCD, the flagship of the show was actually not a flat panel at all, but the 70″ rear-projection SXRD model KDS-Z70XBR5. It’s a freakin’ amazing 40% slimmer than last year’s, and though it weighs 200 lbs, you can imaging hanging it on, or very close to, your wall. Best of all, it costs $6,000, far less than flat panels that come close to its size.
Sony lifted the curtain on its new line of Bravia TVs Wednesday night introducing 5 new slimmer SXRDs alongside 9 new LCDs. On the microdispay side, the new TVs shed some fat (they’re 40% thinner than previous models) and range in size from 50 inches to 70 with features like MotionFlow 120Hz (which keeps moving images clean when set on moving backgrounds) and Photo Mode (which smoothens out your digital camera’s pictures when viewing them on your TV). The LCDs (which include the XBR4 and XBR5 series) vary from 40 inches to 52. Full line up after the jump.
galleryPost('SonyBraviaShowNY', 4, 'SonyBraviaShowNY');
Bonus: All the new Macbook Pro HDDs, in every size, are now perpendicular drives.
I believe only a few were perpendicular before. What’s that mean? Better data density and performance. Want to know more? Watch this awesome cartoon. – Brian Lam
Notebook Italia is once again spilling the beans on a new laptop, this time around it’s Dell’s new Vostro line. You’ll want to take the news with a grain of salt, but the new laptop line will include a 15- and 17-inch model both powered by a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo. The notebook will have dedicated media keys and it’ll be able to play CDs/DVDs without booting up the OS. No other details are known, but it’s expected to arrive in July. – Louis Ramirez
Dell Leaks Vostro [Electronista]
