review

Phones

Callpod Pheonix Bluetooth Conferencing System Hands-On

Posted by Jason Chen at 3:39 AM on October 23, 2008

The Callpod Phoenix Bluetooth conferencing system is finally available, connecting up to five Bluetooth headsets at the same time. It's very much a business-class solution, targeted towards medical, emergency response, restaurant, retail, government, military and enterprise customers who need a teleconferencing solution that doesn't require people sitting around a table, smelling each other's foul breath. With the Phoenix you can make a shared phone call with all five participants sitting at their own desks—assuming their desks are within the 100 meter Bluetooth range.

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Peripherals

Lightning Review: Kensington's Wireless USB Universal Docking Station Is the World's First

Posted by Sean Fallon at 3:50 AM on September 18, 2008

The Gadget: Kensington's new docking station is the first to offer wireless USB connectivity. A DVI external monitor (DVI-to-VGA adaptor included) and up to five peripherals spring to life when your WUSB-enabled laptop PC comes within a 15 foot range.

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Portable

iPod Nano Hands-On Impressions

Posted by Jason Chen at 4:17 AM on September 10, 2008

The new, thinner and smaller iPod nano really is smaller, thinner, and feels much better in your hand. Brian, our hand model, has small hands, so you can see how relatively small the unit is. The aluminium is slick, but the clickwheel might be slightly too slick, and not as grippy as previous models. The UI though, is fast and responsive—maybe even more so than the previous fat nano generation. The scrolling album art on the main menu is at the bottom, and not on the sides like before.


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Entertainment

Review: The Magnetic Forcefield Tech in Batman: Gotham Knight

Posted by Brian Lam at 1:44 PM on July 16, 2008

Batman: Gotham Knight has been hailed as a collection of Batman short stories in Anime form. I enjoyed the highly stylized treatments of batman as a robot, a living shadow and a man, but I was surprisingly delighted to see the amount of high technology featured in one short in particular, Field Test, where Batman repurposes a satellite's failed magnetic gyroscope prototype into a bullet deflecting force field, shown in this video.

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Software

Review: Dell's Vista Dock Pretty But Lifeless

Posted by Matt Buchanan at 6:00 AM on July 4, 2008

I'm OCD about my desktop. I keep exactly six icons on it, tucked in the upper left hand corner. So Dell's OS X wannabe dock--actually made by Stardock and licensed to Dell, but let's not pretend it's not an Apple reaction--sounds like a great way to keep my desktop immaculate. Who originated the dock or why it came to be aren't really that important. The fact is, lots of people who never would've used a dock are now going to when Dell ships these out. And that would be awesome, if the dock weren't so dumb.

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Peripherals

Lightning Review: Moshi Zefyr MacBook Notebook Cooler

Posted by Jason Chen at 1:00 AM on July 2, 2008

The Gadget: The Moshi Zefyr, which is a collapsible USB-powered notebook cooler for the MacBook and MacBook Air (MacBook Pro version coming soon). The USB slot is pass-through, which lets you plug in another USB device so as to break even, and the whole thing can collapse into itself for easy transport.


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Home

Lightning Review: Oppo DV-983H 1080p Up-Converting DVD Player

Posted by Jason Chen at 3:00 AM on March 12, 2008

The Gadget: Oppo's follow-up to the fantastic DV-981HD up-converting DVD player with 1080p and Anchor Bay's VRS video tech (AutoCue, Precision Video Scaling, Progressive Cadence Detection and Precision Deinterlacing) and 7.1 audio with Dolby Digital Surround EX, DTS Digital Surround, Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro-Logic II.


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Peripherals

Lightning Review: ezSpace UFO Surge Protector

Posted by Jason Chen at 9:40 AM on February 20, 2008

The Gadget: The ezGear UFO, a relatively compact surge protector/power strip that holds six distinct AC adapters so they don't bump into each other.


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Computers

Everex Cloudbook Unboxed, Fondled, Declared Horrible So Far

Posted by Jason Chen at 5:10 AM on February 16, 2008

Those of you excited about that cheap, small Everex Cloudbook Wal-mart laptop as an alternative to an Eee PC might be slightly disappointed. Laptopmag just unboxed theirs, and found many things wrong with it. The pointing device is above the keyboard on the right, but the left and right mouse keys are on the left side, also above the keyboard. What the? Update: They've got a mini-review up.


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Software

Mossberg Reviews Vista SP1: "Don't Expect Much From It"

Posted by Matt Buchanan at 3:09 PM on February 14, 2008

Today, Mossberg takes a look at the lukewarmly anticipated Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista. It's an odd little beast of a review, its flat, monotonal surface covering a bed of barbs. (Most of 'em are true.) Here's the sharpest one (bold is mine):

SP1 doesn't resolve some of the most annoying flaws in Vista, including slow start-ups and reboots, and a security system that nags you too much and requires add-on anti-virus software. I guess these problems will either never be fixed fully or will have to wait for SP2.
That's a Stinger. Missile.


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