Crenk » computer

Dell Inspiron Zino: Sexy Dell Home Theatre and PC Option

Steven Finch — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:06:26 +0000

Last summer Dell mentioned they were going to launch their tiny Inspiron Zine PC and now its here. It looks like an excellent addition to any home theater or desktop, especially if you configure it with a terabyte of hard disk space, 8GB of RAM, 64-bit Windows 7, a 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4330 graphics card capable of blasting out 1080p, and its upcoming optional TV tuner. Sounds like hot competition for Apple’s newly updated Mac Mini.

There’s no Intel Atom processor or the NVIDIA Ion platform on board as we had hoped, but we’re still satisfied with the highest-end processor available on it, the 1.8GHz dual-core AMD Athlon Neo X2 6850e. Decked out with all this goodness, the Zino’s not the cheapest home theater PC in the world, but its price of around $700 fully configured ain’t bad. Or if you go with its basic trim, you’ll have a fully functioning PC for a rock-bottom $229.

10 New Points About The New Apple Tablet: To Be Announced in January 2010

Steven Finch — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:47:32 +0000

Over at iLounge they have got a tip from a very reliable source about the specifics of the new Apple Tablet that a lot of people have been talking about. On Crenk we first talked about the Apple tablet back in May and then again in August. The iLounge source also correctly called the iPod nano 5G, iPhone 3GS and Chinese iPhone 3G months ago.

Apple has created at least three separate prototypes of its tablet computer. Let’s call it “iPad.”
Version 1 was designed with a 7” screen, which was judged to be too small. The latest version has a 10.7” screen.
It runs iPhone OS.
There have been reports that it looks like an iPhone. They’re sort of true. It looks like an iPhone 3G, complete with a curved back.
It will come in two different variations: one with 3G networking capabilities, and one without 3G networking capabilities. Think of the 3G version as a bigscreen iPhone 3GS, and the non-3G version as a bigscreen iPod touch.
Screen resolutions will obviously jump considerably from the iPhone and iPod touch 480×320-pixel displays, enabling easy reading of full-sized book and magazine pages, plus cropped newspaper pages. Expect something like 5-6 times the resolution of an iPod touch or iPhone screen (720p or thereabouts) and 7 times the touchable surface area.
It is designed to expand the iPhone and iPod touch media concept to its next potential level: as a slate-like replacement for books and magazines, plus all of the media, gaming, app, and web functionality of the iPhone and iPod touch.
It is not meant to compete with netbooks. It’s an iPhone OS media player and light communication device.
Apple is currently planning to announce it on or before January 19, 2010, and to use an iPhone-like hype buildup period to start selling it in May or June.
It is apparently awaiting a final green light from Steve Jobs; chances of it appearing in the market are believed to be 80% at this point.

Courier: New Microsoft Tablet PC Which Looks Amazing!

Steven Finch — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:58:18 +0000

Gizmodo had an exclusive regarding the new Tablet PC from Microsoft. The tablet will be call the Courier and man does it look good.

The Courier is currently in “late prototype” stage of development and not exactly a tablet, its more of a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. They’re connected by a hinge that holds a single iPhone-esque home button. Statuses, like wireless signal and battery life, are displayed along the rim of one of the screens. On the back cover is a camera, and it might charge through an inductive pad, like the Palm Touchstone charging dock for Pre.

The Courier user experience presented here is almost the exact opposite of what everyone expects the Apple tablet to be, a kung fu eagle claw to Apple’s tiger style.

It’s complex: Two screens, a mashup of a pen-dominated interface with several types of multitouch finger gestures, and multiple graphically complex themes, modes and applications.

To check out more information about the Courier and also to view the intro video click here.

FileHippo: How to Maintain All Your Freeware up to Date

Guest — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:05:41 +0000

FileHippo.com is a great web site from where you can download a lot of freeware and some shareware. The page is organized in the following categories of software:

- Browsers and Plugins

- Anti-Spyware

- Audio and Video

- File Sharing

- Firewalls ans Security

- CD and DVD Tools

- Messaging and Chat

- Anti-Virus

- Cleaning and Tweaking

- Desktop

- File Transfer

- Compression and Backup

- Imaging

- Office and News

- Benchmarking

- Drivers

- Developer Tools

- Networking and Admin

And also two interesting categories, one is Latest updates and the other is Most popular downloads, very useful.

You can apply the following filters to the software shown: No Beta versions(very useful if you need stability) and Freeware Only(useful in my case, I don’t buy software).

And the best of the site(but still in beta) is that you can download a Client Agent program(called Update Checker) to maintain all the software that you install from this page to the latest version. You can download the Update Checker in two versions, Installer and Standalone.

I found this web page very useful to maintain all my freeware tools up to date. I’m actually using it at work, and found no issues.

The GOOD:

- Has a RSS, e-Mail and Twitter notification system.

- Almost all the useful freeware is listed.

- Has few advertisement.

The BAD:

- Only software for Microsoft Windows systems.

- The Update Checker still’s in beta.

Apple Tablet in 2010

Steven Finch — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:32:30 +0000

There has been a lot of talk this morning about Apple producing a Tablet computer by 2010. Business Week’s Peter Burrows recently received word of Apple’s plans to build a tablet-based device, to be released in 2010. Now Gene Munster,of reputable investment bank and securities firm Piper Jaffray, has published a note reinforcing the plans.

“We expect Apple to fill the gap between the iPod touch and the MacBook with a new tablet device (not a netbook) priced at about $500-$700. Apple will likely leverage its multi-touch patents to differentiate its product from the typical netbook. We are anticipating a new category of Apple products with an operating system more robust than the iPhone’s but optimized for multi-touch, unlike Mac OS X. The device’s OS could bear a close resemblance to Apple’s mobile OS and run App Store apps, or it could be a modified version of Mac OS X.

As the App Store is currently in record profits and a new iPhone release on the way there is no rush for Apple to release a tablet computer. Of course it aims to fill the market between the iPhone and Macbook, but I cant see this device replacing a computer any time soon.

WinSplit Revolution: Spilt Up Your Screen Space into Several Windows

Steven Finch — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:37:57 +0000

If you constantly have 2, 3, or 16 windows open on your computer, WinSplit Revolution can help you organize your space. This little Windows utility automatically resizes and relocates windows making it easy to stack your programs vertically, horizontally, or in little boxes.

The program isn’t really that useful if you’ve got an 800 x 600 pixel display, but if you’ve got a high resolution widescreen monitor, WinSplit Revolution can help you make the most of your space. You can assign keyboard shortcuts to various positions. For instance, one hotkey can maximize the current window, while another can unmaximize it and drag it to the left side of the screen.

Will Apples ‘Brick’ Project Be The Worlds First All-Screen Laptop?

Steven Finch — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:19:54 +0000

This is such an interesting concept design I just had to write about it. The project is called “Brick” and is from Apple and could potentially be the world’s first all-screen laptop. The project is currently being designed by Yves Behar and some concept designs are to the left.

Once seeing this project it automatically looks like a hybrid between the iPhone and a Macbook-Air.

Apple’s “Brick” would be a hybrid laptop/tablet/ebook that dispenses with a physical keyboard and trackpad in favor of a virtual, adaptive UI that blends multitouch, gestures and its own orientation to switch between different modes:

Laptop — When the Brick is held horizontally with the two screens at an angle, the bottom screen turns into a virtual keyboard and touchpad. There’s no tactile feedback for touch typists, but never mind, corrective text handily makes up for the myriad errors. The top screen acts like a regular laptop screen, except that it also is touch sensitive, and is responsive to multitouch gestures like double-tap to zoom, pinching and scrolling.

Tablet — When the two halves are opened fully they snap together in the middle to make a tablet with a continuous touch-sensitive screen. This mode is best for surfing the web, browsing and editing photos, and displaying mind-altering music visualizers.

eBook — Like laptop mode but held vertically. Each screen transforms into an electronic page for easy reading. Displays eBooks, eMags or specially laid out websites. Readers navigate by swiping the screen to turn the pages.

Tabletop — Like tablet mode but for two people. When an onscreen button is pushed, the screens are oriented for two users sitting opposite each other. Great for collaborative tasks and especially games.

And why’s it called “Brick”? Because it smashes Windows!

The New Apple iMac Hits The Market

Steven Finch — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:08:38 +0000

Just when you thought iMac had everything, now thereâ€™s even more. More powerful Intel Core 2 Duo processors. And more memory standard. Combine this with Mac OS X Leopard and iLife â€™08, and itâ€™s more all-in-one than ever. iMac packs amazing performance into a stunningly slim space.

Im not too sure why I am really posting about this new product offering from Apple, but I thought it looked very sexy and I simple just want one!

Digg Casemod Up For Sale!

Steven Finch — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:48:27 +0000

Holy cow. The extreme modders at Computer Choppers are selling their behemoth of a casemod – the Digg case. For those of you who havenâ€™t been keeping tabs on the modding comunity of late, you probably wonâ€™t know all the details – but Iâ€™ve gone to the liberty of posting â€˜em up here for all too see. More photos after the jump.

The Digg case mod is a one-off project by Computer-Choppers.com finished in April 2007. It was modeled from the Digg.com logo (popular social news website) and has been used as a show-computer piece for most of the summer at various computer events in the northwest. It has just about 30 hours of use on it in total. The system will be featured in a future issue of CPU magazine later this year or the start of 2008. The case is fabricated from the ground up using MDF (fiberboard) and has been finished with a blue pearl custom paint job. The letters on the front of the case light up in blue and can be switched off and on at any time. A newsreader under the lettering takes the top news stories from Digg.com and displays them on the front of the case.

Bidding currently stands at only $2,500! For the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor inside, youâ€™d expect to pay more than this for even just a basic rig, let alone a super-modded component-packed master model like this. Iâ€™d place a bid, but a rather daunting several thousand dollar shipping bill to the UK doesnâ€™t sound all that appetising.

Via: Techzi