Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Before Asus even launches its own desktop Eee PC, its rival MSI has already rolled out a competing product. MSI’s small new wonder is called the Titan, which aside from having a small profile, will also be small on price - at only £235 or about $450 USD, give or take a few. It measures only 9.45 x 7.28 x 2.75-inches, and yet it features a 250GB SATA hard drive, 2 GHz VIA C7 processor, 1GB of DDR 2 memory and VIA’s CN700 integrated chipset. Two USB ports, VGA, TV out, 5.1-channel digital audio out, legacy PS/2 and serial ports, and a Gigabit Ethernet port are all built-in to round out this little baby’s set of I/O ports. While a dual-layer multi-format DVD writer is included to take care of your home theater needs. The catch? It doesn’t come with an OS, which at first of course sucks, but you can bag Linux (what the original Eee PC used to ship with) for free easily anyway, so it’s still kind of OK.

Via [Register Hardware]

Looking for a creative (albeit a bit expensive) way to banish your computer’s data? EDR Solutions might have just the right thing for you. Cleverly disguised as a seemingly hibernating war machine, the Hard Disk Crusher will offer to ‘drill’ through your hard drive’s spindles, effectively killing it just like how crunch waves do brain cells. A standard 110V outlet should be enough to give this monster some juice, but in the unlikely event that you need to use this where there’s no electricity available, you can use an emergency hand-pump and crush hard drives 15 pumps at a time. How much is one Hard Disk Crusher to destroy all your unwanted data easily? $11,500 (including a one-year warranty, at $995 per year extended). The comfort in knowing that nobody will ever find all your precious “YouTube videos?” Priceless.

Via [Oh Gizmo]

At the Fortune Green conference, Dell CEO, Michael Dell was kind enough to show off their latest attempt at an environmentally friendly PC. Though still in the development process at the moment, Dell has begun boasting of the PC’s potential features. Purportedly, the device uses 70% less energy than most other desktop models and it is also 81% smaller than most desktop PC’s. Additionally, the mini PC will be made of recyclable items, thus helping reduce its carbon footprint and saving the world.

Okay, so saving the world may be a little bold, but it is a cool idea, and its nice to see a big company making an effort. The device has yet to be named, but the price expected to be between $500 and $700. Keep reading for a few more images of Dell’s eco-friendly PC…

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Microsoft’s track record with regards to innovation isn’t something you can call spotless, but a recent patent filing puts them on track to beating the rest of the world in a classic case of “Why didn’t I think of that?” Their patent couldn’t get simpler. It’s called the Wearable computer pointing device, and is supposed to be an easier way to operate a mouse by wearing it in your hand. With the Wiimote and iPhone promoting all kinds of high-tech sensors, a device such as this just had to be concepted. Right? 

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eMachines has just rolled out two new desktop PC models, the T3646 and T5254. Both models are intended to offer power and yet still be “affordable.”

The T3646 will feature a 2.2GHz AMD Sempron LE-1250 processor, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive and run Windows Vista Home Basic. The T5254 will feature a 2.1GHz AMD Athlon BE-2350 (Dual-Core) processor, 2GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive and run Windows Vista Home Premium. Both models will offer an NVIDIA GeForce 6100 chipset, NVIDIA GeForce 6100 integrated graphics, a 16x SuperMulti drive, 6-channel sound and a 15-in-1 card reader. They will also ship with your basic multifunction keyboard and PS/2 two-button wheel mouse, and neither include a display.

The T3646 will retail for $299, while the T5254 will retail for $399, both models are currently available.

Read [Business Wire]

Everyone’s favorite small-form-factor PC maker, Shuttle, announced a new Media-centric PC with support for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD playback (does anyone really care about HD-DVD anymore?). The XPC G5 6801M features an AMD Athlon 64 X2 1 GHz processor, an nVidia chipset and runs Microsoft Vista. It packs the usual stuff for a media center PC, such as an LCD front panel and media center remote, 8-channel audio (7.1) and either dual analog tuners, dual T-DMB tuners or a hybrid analog-and-digital tuner, as well as a host of front panel ports, a 25-in-1 memory card reader and up to 4GB of RAM. Most importantly, the system runs cool and quiet thanks to its “Shuttle I.C.E. (Integrated Cooling Engine) advanced I.C.E. Heatpipe technology, linear controlled 92mm fan SilentX cooling and noise reduction technology with Active Airflow”.

Apart from being quiet, small and capable of playing both HD formats (one of which is now extinct), there really isn’t much to get exited about. The Shuttle XPC G5 6801M will be available soon in Europe (perhaps making it States-side in a few weeks) for 1,234 EUR or about $1950.

Product [Shuttle] Via [I4U News]

Asus has added a new addition to their product line, and for a refreshing change it does not fit in the Eee family. The newest addition is the Essentio CS5110 desktop PC, in which Asus is claiming that it is “the world’s smallest Desktop PC equipped with a fully embedded discrete graphic card,” which is an NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics card with 256MB of memory.

With the graphics aside, the CS5110 seems to be a decent offering, and one that would work equally well for a home PC or a media-centric PC in the living room thanks to the low 23.9dB sound output when idling. The CS5110 also has an S/PIDF out which offers up 7.1 audio as well as HDMI support.

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Everex has just announced their new mini PC, the MyMiniPC and have dedicated it to the “+100,000,000 MySpace users of the world.” The limited edition of the gPC mini (MyMiniPC) is running a special edition of gOS, called gOS Space 2.9 that has built-in support for MySpace. Aside from the built-in support for MySpace users Everex has also included some pretty solid features, which includes a 3D desktop and OS X style dock with a stacks like feature. Similar to other versions of gOS, the dock is pre-loaded with a mix of software such as Firefox and Skype, but now also includes a more media-centric stacks with links for MySpace, Music, TV & Movies, Fun and of course Work. 

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Together with its announcement of redesigned laptops in its Satellite series, Toshiba has also announced a new technology called Sleep-and-Charge USB ports. As you can guess from its name, this allows the USB port to charge up your mobile devices whether the laptop is powered on, shut off or in sleep mode.

The new USB port answer’s the shortcomings of today’s USB ports. That is, their dependence on the laptop or desktop for power supply. With the new Sleep-and-Charge USB ports, Toshiba has eliminated this problem. Now, for as long as the laptop or desktop where the USB port is plugged in to an electrical outlet, the USB port will continue to provide power.

If you find Toshiba’s Sleep-and-Charge USB ports a worthy reason for you to get a new Toshiba Satellite laptop, make sure to check out the Satellite model series – U400, M300, A300 and P300 as they are all equipped with the Sleep-and-Charge USB ports.

Read [Toshiba Direct]

Usually, when someone asks me what kind of computer would be a great buy, I’d just tell them to stay away from clunky desktops to make sure that they don’t get something that’s half-baked (a lot of desktop PCs are like that nowadays). Many desktop PCs are simply not worth the second look that they used to command. Plus it’s easier to work with a mobile. But in continuing its tradition of trying to bring back the sex in desktop setups, HP rolls out the Pavilion m9200t. It’s a media-centric desktop PC that’s so full of features, HP didn’t need to include a keyboard and mouse in the sales package… just kidding!

The m9200t can be called an entertainment powerhouse, and that would almost be an understatement. It features a 1TB hard drive, a Blu-ray Disc burner, built-in photo editing software, a digital TV tuner, TV recorder, and an Easy Backup Button that lets users quickly make back ups of their computer files. Right now, you can get it for $799, but you might also want to check out HP’s “recommended configuration” setup, and that one will set you back $1,429. You think the extra $600 goes to HP’s brilliant “configurators?”

Via [Crave]