Hardware Geeks

Intended for the educational market, the HP mini-note is a sleek looking tiny notebook pc built to withstand the day to day bump and grind of the public school system, but it’s appearance and form factor appeal to the masses, as I have spotted it in Starbucks and Airports around the county being used by young professionals to executives.

Weighing in at 3 pounds 4 ounces with its extended battery (6 Cell about 4.5 hours of battery life in our test), the Mini note 2133 is very light weight, and while it is not as thin as the HP Voodoo Envy it’s has one of the smallest form factors around.

Today Antec introduced a new Super-Premium line of power supplies designed specifically for enthusiast and gamers in mind.

The new line of power supplies will be called the Signature Series are built to last and according to antec only uses top of the line parts in it’s construction, they also pass 80 plus standards (80 Plus Bronze for maintaining 82% efficiency at 20% and 100% of rated load and 85% efficiency at 50% of rated load), which make the power supplies energy efficient. 

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen is finally in stores soon, Amazon.com will have the Smartpen starting the 1st of July and Target Stores Nationwide will have them in stores on the 13th of July.

The Smartpen is basically the adult version of the FlyFusion Pentop computer from Leapfrog. But unlike the FlyFusion which was speaker based, the FlyFusion is both Speaker and LCD screen based, so if you do not want the pen to talk or make and sounds you can silence it and just use the LCD screen on the side of the pen.

I saw a demo of the pen last week, and it basically worked the same way as the FlyFusion Pentop computer, but it had a more sophisticated look. 

Rahul Sood stunned Apple users when he posted pictures of himself using a MacBook Air to cut his Birthday cake on his blog, and since then some speculated that something big from Voodoo and HP was on the Horizon.

Then the Voodoo website went up in flames. So we knew something was cooking, just in-time for HP’s Connected World 2008 in Berlin. But no one really knew what it was. (I did just couldn’t tell ya)

Today Western Digital introduced the My Book Mirror Edition External Hard Drive. This new product will back up your data easily and it will back it up twice essentially mirroring the previous back up. Hence why it’s called the Mirror Edition.

The new drives with 1 TB or 2 TB of storage and are formated for Microsoft Windows. The drive will mirror data (RAID1) for added security. This is great if you have a large photo collection or just need to back up your important files.

“Personal and business content are extremely valuable – both emotionally and financially. Our new My Book Mirror system helps users sleep easy, knowing that their data is safe.” said Jim Welsh, vice president and general manager of branded products and consumer electronics groups for WD.

I have reviewed a lot of notebooks, and have used many more and because of that experience I can honestly say that the HP dv6000 is one of the most stable systems out there and I recommend it to all. I do however tell them to avoid the AMD based ones because of some bad experiences I myself and friends have had with those.

So the dv6885se is a great machine, it does what you want and it does it the way it is supposed too. You can’t ask for much more than that from a laptop. Or can you?

The HP dv6000 Special Edition which is only available at Best Buy, delivers the power you expect from the notebook but, also a sophisticated stylish look.

While Sprint has no iPhone they now have the Samsung Instinct. The Instinct is similar to the iPhone as it’s has a touch screen and no buttons except for the power, camera and volume buttons. The phone is very sleek and stylish and I have to say at first I did not like it but the more I play with it the more I’ve come to like it. It is the second phone Sprint has to offer that challenges the iPhone but probably the first that actually has a chance to compete with it.

Here are some unboxing pictures I took earlier today, you can expect a full review in the coming week. 

Today Toshiba announced the expansion of the Qosmio line, with the Qosmio G55, X305 and F55. The new laptops were specifically designed for gamers and movie loves who need that mobility.

I have seen all three notebooks in person and I was blown away by their beauty. Toshiba put a lot of effort into the design of these notebooks and I have had the pleasure of seeing some of them as wood mock-ups and now final products. It was quite interesting to see how things progressed and changed over time.

“The Qosmio has long been the standard of excellence in the multimedia laptop space, in both styling and entertainment capabilities,” said Jeff Barney, vice president and general manager, Digital Products Division, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. “In an effort to take this standard to the next level for gamers and multimedia enthusiasts alike, the three new Qosmio models have been tailored specifically towards their personal interests, while staying true to the incredible user-experience that the Qosmio family is known for.”

I reviewed the R500 a while ago, and I have to say then I was pretty impressed with this ultra portable machine, and I have always said if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Well Toshiba went ahead and fixed it. But don’t worry they didn’t ruin it they made it a whole lot better.

“With seven world’s first technologies the Portégé R500 series has served as a technology launching pad and redefined the ultraportable marketplace with its world’s first technologies and ‘green’ attributes, such as a transreflective LED backlit indoor/outdoor viewing display, the industry’s highest rated EPEAT Gold laptop and Energy Star 4.0 compliance,” said Jeff Barney, general manager and vice president, Digital Products Division, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. “First to incorporate a 128GB solid state drive is another major accomplishment for Toshiba and illustrates how the company is committed to delivering solutions that meet the needs of our customers.”