Gizmodo Australia » ultra portable

Voodoo Envy Impressions Roll In

John Mahoney — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:30:53 +0000

Laptop and Maximum PC have gotten their hands on Voodoo/HP’s Envy 133 thinnest-of-the-thin power notebooks and had some light hands on time. Nothing too shocking has been uncovered–it looks as good in person as it does in pictures, is almost as light as the Macbook Air, and all the rest, but Laptop was able to test one of the Envy’s more interesting features, the Splashtop instant-on Linux kernel.

Voodoo calls their version the IOS, which they claim can get you onto the web from a cold start in less than five seconds. Laptop found that power-on to surfing with the modified Firefox browser took around 15 seconds–still not too bad, compared to a 50-second boot time for Vista. Other open source apps like Pidgin, Skype, and basic photo and media players are also on board. One interesting thing is that the main filesystem is unavailable in IOS mode on the model they tested–files must be saved to a USB stick.

Maximum PC had more of a gropefest than hands-on, but they did note the glossy case tends to pick up a lot of fingerprints (hence the included microfiber shammy, of course). They also didn’t detect much of a difference weight wise with a Macbook Air, even though the spec sheet gives the Envy and extra half pound.

[Laptop, Maximum PC]

The Mvix MV-2500U: An Ultra Portable, HDD-Based High-Def Media Center

Sean Fallon — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:35:00 +0000

Mvix has announced their new, mini MV-2500U media player, which supports a 2.5-inch hard drive but can still cram in most of the features of its big brothers (the MX-780HD and MX-760) in a package about the size of a PDA. It can also support drives as big as 250GB, which should be enough to store about 100 DVD-quality movie titles. Other features include: 480p, 720p, 1080i compatibility and support for MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4, DVD (VOB, IFO), DivX (3/4/5/6), Xvid, BivX, VCD (DAT) formats. The MV-2500U is available now for $149. Press release after the break.

MvixUSA Launches Ultra Portable HDD-based Hi-Def Media Player
Mvix (USA), Inc., a leader in HDD-based, portable media playback solutions, announces the launch of yet another hi-def media decoder now in ultra small size. The new Mvix MV-2500U supports the small 2.5-inchhard drive, but boasts of most of the key features of its predecessors like MX-780HD or MX-760. It can support HDDs as large as250GB hard disk, enough to carry 100 DVD quality movie titles.

Fairfax, VA (PRWEB) May 1, 2008 — Mvix (USA), Inc., a leader in HDD-based, portable media playback solutions, announces the launch of yet another hi-def media decoder now in ultra small size. The new Mvix MV-2500U supports the small 2.5-inch hard drive, but boasts of most of the key features of its predecessors like MX-780HD or MX-760. It can support HDDs as large as250GB hard disk, enough to carry 100 DVD- quality movie titles.

Introducing this next generation portable gadget in MvixUSA’s corporate office in Fairfax, VA, Mike Mallon, the Business Development Manager of MvixUSA commented, “MvixMV-2500U is the perfect companion for the people on the move. People, who enjoy travelling on RVs or boats, can virtually carry their entire home theatre collection in this tiny marvel, and enjoy the same hi-def video quality. What differentiates our product from other portable video devices are the quality of video output and versatility in terms of video and audio formats support.”

Extremely competitively priced, this black beauty fits everyone’s pocket, both in terms of size and dollars
MV-2500U comes in a stunning black look and just measures under 5×3x0.5 inches in dimension, almost the size of a PDA. “Extremely competitively priced, this black beauty fits everyone’s pocket, both in terms of size and dollars,” commented Mike.

Mvix MV-2500U uses a 2.5″ PATA / IDE HDD and supports large-sized hard drives (250GB). When connected to the PC, it works just like an external USB 2.0 hard drive. It comes with a highly functional and ergonomically-designed IR remote control. It is capable of storing and decoding hours of standard or high definition digital video (480p, 720p, 1080i) in over a dozen file formats. Video file formats supported include files encoded in MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4, DVD (VOB, IFO), DivX ® (3/4/5/6), Xvid, BivX ®, VCD (DAT) for both PAL and NTSC systems.

The news of Mvix MV-2500U comes within three months of launch of MvixUSA’s flagship model MX-780HD (introduced during CES in January). MvixUSA foresees a very positive response for MV-2500U from the market, particularly in mobile entertainment segment. “MV-2500U is our exclusive product for the mobile community, who wants to maintain the quality of their digital lifestyle, even when they are on the move. We continue to innovate in products and features, catering to different markets and supporting our customers with our unmatched technical support platform,” Mike added.

[Mvix]

NVIDIA Motorcycle Casemod is the Fastest Computer On Two Wheels, Kinda

Gizmodo US Edition — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:59:51 +0000

There are roadwarriors with their ultraportables and then there’s master modder Dennis Ilyin, who took computing on the go literally with this ambitious motorcycle casemod. While the two-wheeled computing wonder lacks an engine, it more than makes up for it with massive LED-lit water tanks and what’s sure to be ample processing power. The compu-bike was part of an NVIDIA-sponsored modding contest and actually came in second to this green thing. Fair? Unfair? Take a look at additional pics after the jump and you tell us.

[TopMods, via TechnaBob]

MSI Wind Laptop to Make Eee PC Cry, “Eeek!”

Haroon Malik — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:50:00 +0000

Check out the latest entrant in the UMPC race, the MSI Wind, which we missed at CeBIT earlier last week. Toting a 10-inch display, Intel Shelton’08 platform, with variable processor speeds from 1.0GHz – 1.6GHz; 2.5-inch HDD or SSD, 1GB RAM, a reported 7-hour battery life and running either Linux or Windows operating systems, it seems MSI’s offering holds a lot of promise.

As we have yet to see an active screen shot from the MSI Wind we expect that it is still at prototype stage, but that has not stopped MSI churning out blue, silver and pink iterations. The styling is certainly a step up from the Eee PC, but perhaps that Eee body rework we heard about earlier will throw off the new competition. The Wind is expected to be priced between €299 (US$458) – €699 (US$1072), depending on options chosen. All in all, the sizable keyboard, price point and decent display size have our attention for sure. There is no word on a release date as yet, but we’ll keep you posted. [PC World Italia via Notebook Italia]