There it is, out side of the womb we call its package.
A picture of everything in the package, except manual.
We should have a review up with in a week or two so check back with us soon. For more info on the headset visit: http://www.myblueant.com/v1_voice_control.htm
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Seeing how small the system was, I began to think of all the benefits a system of this size would have for a small business, for example it doesn’t take up much space. If your business is growing, a system like this is a lot easier to pack up and move than a larger workstation and it’s so small you literally take it home with you after work if you felt the need.
The first thing I did when I unboxed this monster of a machine was find a wall and a monitor to plug it into and when I found both I fired up the machine. The initial boot took about 15 minutes including the time it took to agree to the Vista Business License agreement and the Windows Vista license agreement (I have no idea why you have to agree twice at least it is on the same page) and also filling out the registration info for HP. After all that the system loaded quickly and I am happy to report the only software pre-installed was a HP Recovery Software and other HP Tools to help you manage your system, a trial version of Microsoft Office 2007 and WinDVD, both useful. There was no sign of crapware, with the exception of an eBay link in the Windows Welcome Screen but that really isn’t a big deal and the AOL toolbar for IE which is easily removed, but no clutter on the desktop itself.
A note to HP, there is a HP Security Solutions Center link after the eBay link, the link does not work at least for me anyway.
I did test Office 2007 on the machine and all the applications fired up quickly and WinDVD also fired up quickly, I have to admit after I tried out how well the Machine Handled Office I did watch a DVD, I watched Finding Nemo for those of you who are curious.
It handled the DVD and Video Playback quite well, a lot of systems especially systems of this form factor have trouble with video playback but the dc7800 handled it well. I wanted to test some video games on it but I decided against it as the WEI is only 2.0. I am pretty sure it could handle WoW or Operation Mania but no Crysis on this baby.
After I fiddled around with Office and WinDVD and contemplated installing a Video Game, I stumbled upon a piece of software called HP ProtectTools Security Manager, from here you are able to restore your system, edit your BIOS, yes edit your bios from with-in the OS, encrypt your hard drive, and it will also handle any bio-metric security devices you may have attached to the system such as a finger print reader or retina scanner.
It’s pretty cool software, and nice to have everything centralized. The UI is also nice looking and easy to use. It wasn’t difficult to use at all. I was able to configure the system to boot up daily and shut down automatically all by my lonesome in less than 5 minutes with bios configuration in the HP Protect tools.
Everything is straight forward so even if you can’t afford an IT staff at your place of business you can probably figure it out yourself without even using the manual.
I know my way around a systems BIOS but am always worried about messing something up, and I think the HP ProtectTools Security Manager will make even the novice of IT people comfortable.
There is also software available to you free form HP called HP Client Manager, this piece of software will allow you to trouble shoot and maintain all of your systems from one system, with the software you can basically do everything you can do with the HP ProtectTools on the system itself.
Basically with this free download you can, inventory your systems, check the health of your PCs, diagnose and remove trouble systems, change the Bios settings, install updates and more.
Something really nice that I have noticed about this system is how silent it is, over the past few days that I have been using the system nonstop it is very quiet, which I am surprised for such a cool running system you’d expect a noisy fan or two inside but not the case. But not only does it runs cool, and is very silent it is also Energy Efficient meeting Energy Star Gold Ratings.
In fact I have taken the system apart to show you guys what is inside.
As you can see from the pictures above there is not much space left in the system and you can also see how small the system is. But it’s amazing in my opinion at how much power HP has jammed into this tiny machine.
Something else to note, this system is loaded with USB ports, it has a total of 8 USB ports. So imagine how many peripherals you can connect to this system. Speaking of attaching things to it, you can get an accesory that will allow you to connect a monitor to the dc7800 itself, saving you even more space.
It also supports monitors with DVI or VGA plugs.
Overall the system is great, and we award it our 5 Star Must have award, and recommend it for any small business, medium business and large corporate. In fact I think a system like this would be great to use in ton of those TV trucks at sporting events, or sound trucks at concerts. The system takes up so little space, runs cool you simply can’t go wrong.
The HP Ultraslim has a starting price of $708 USD, for more information on the system visit HP Business Website.
As you can see from the image above and to the right the placement of the LCD Touchscreen is simply beautiful and in my opinion perfectly locted.
When I first saw the Artisan 800 a few weeks ago I knew then and there I wanted one. You may have also noticed from image above there is a “Open CD Tray button”, it does not burn CD’s but it does have a CD printer, meaning if you have CD’s with blank faces that can be printed on the Artisan 800 will print on them.
The Artisan 800 also has cool activities built in, such as coloring book mode which will allow you to print your pictures with out the colors being filled in so you or the kids in your family can color, and yes I did say “you” because we all know that if you have one of these you will spend time coloring even if its on the down low.
Both the Artisan 800 and 700 will use Epsons high quality Claria Ink and a special print technology that will deliver quality print each time. Both printers will also auto correct images in a manner that is more accurate than the competition. Both also have two paper trays, one for photos and the other for paper so you do not need to switch out your 8x11 plain paper for photo paper and vice versa.
The Artisan 800 will sell for about $299 and the 700 for $199 and is currently available for pre-order at Amazon.com
When I got to the Disneyland Theme Park on Monday I had my camera and the Epson P-7000 with me. The Nikon D60 hung around my neck and the P-7000 fit snugly in my pocket.
As I explored the Park I took picture after picture after picture, each time checking out my work only on the D60’s LCD screen. Each picture looked good. In fact, Mike from themissingremote.com mentioned to me that one of the pictures looked great. I neglected to even use the P-7000 as I was excited to be in Disneyland and simply forgot it was in my pocket.
So after a 4 hour tour of my park I had an hour or so before my meeting with HP so I headed over to my hotel and while I got ready I remembered about the P-7000 in my pocket. So I immediately pulled it out and inserted my memory card into it. I backed up the pictures onto the 160 GB HDD in the P-7000 and I begin to notice something, while a lot of the pictures looked even better on the bigger screen of the Epson P-7000 when compared to the screen on the camera itself, many looked horrible.
Pictured that looked fine on the D60 were blurry and over/under exposed on the D60. Even though the histogram looked fine when viewed on a bigger screen the under exposure and blurriness was more visible. So I regretted leaving the park without checking the pictures on the Epson P-7000 before hand.
I did not make the same mistake when I had my meeting with HP in the Innovations Dream Home. As soon as I was done taking pictures of the exhibit I backed up the photos to the P-7000 and reshot some pictures beufore leaving, it saved my butt.
But don’t just think of the P-7000 as a glorified Picture Viewer, it does a lot more than just display the pictures to you. It also allows you to do minor edits like adjusting the color balance, brightness, sharpness, it also allows you to retouch the images you take according to predetermined settings on the device. You can even add a watermark to the image.
You can also zoom into the pictures and I have to admit the picture quality on the 4 inch screen with 16.7 million (94% Adobe RGB) colors is amazing. I don’t think the picture quality from my tx2500 is as good as it was on the P-7000.
You can also use the P-7000 to view the histogram of the picture, and it tells you all of the picture properties from Shutter speed to ISO, resolution, and the format.
But there is more, you can also view videos on the P-7000 and the quality is great, you can even play music. In fact I used it as an MP3 player on my flight from NY to Los Angeles.
If it weren’t for the P-7000 I would have been bored to death as the in flight entertainment system on my Delta flight was not working.
Overall the Epson P-700 is great. It does what it’s supposed to do and it does it well so if you are into professional photography this is a tool for you. It will help you determine if that perfect shot is indeed perfect.
I personally think it would be great for a wedding photographer or a nature lover. The wedding photographer can show the bride and the groom the shots before hand so they can see if they want anything changed and for the nature photographer he or she won’t need to carry a notebook or other heavy computer equipment with them.
For that we award it our 5 Star Must have award and I have to say I am depressed beyond belief right now because the P-7000 is going back to Epson tomorrow. The P-7000 has 160 GB of storage and will run you $799 USD, there is also a 80 GB model for $599 (P-6000). Both will be available in September.
For more info visit: http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63076681
The 6930, the unit where we get the 24 hours with the extended battery in neither an ultraportable or ultralight. It’s a 5 pound Notebook without the extended battery you need for the 24 hours. . We don’t classify it as ultraportable or ultralight. In HP terminology it’s a balance mobility category. For the rest of the world, it’s probably called mainstream. It’s your corporate 14” notebook
Fore more info on the HP EliteBook 6930p click here.
]]>Dell needs to provide more info on their benchmarking before I can say if they are actually beating HP’s 15 hour battery life or if they are just throwing a number out there. For all we know they turned the system on and laid it on a desk for 19 hours in power saver mode and performed no real work on it.
]]>In the video I compare the HP VIVERA and Epson DuraBrite Ultra Ink. Both are the best inks available from the two compaies.
These new notebooks should be available from HP now.
]]>The 8430w and 8530p both have 15.4 inch displays and the 8730w a 17.0 inch display. I had the chance to play with the three systems briefly and they were all amazing, they all look a like and are thin and nice looking, they seemed a bit on the heavy side at 6 to 7 pounds but I wouldn’t mind lugging around any of these three machines.
With a 17 inch screen 8730w is probably one of the few if not the only business notebook with a screen of that size, and my first comment to HP when I saw it was “This is for the work-a-holic who is a under cover gamer” I got a chuckle and a few nods.The system although meant to be a mobile workstation would work great to play a game of crysis or something while you sit in an airport waiting for your flight.
The systems will be powered by Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Core 2 Quad mobile processors, the systems will also have DriveGuard which will lock the harddrive in case the system is dropped. This helps protect your data.
You can get the system with Windows XP Professional, Vista Business, Vista Home Basic or Vista Ultimate. You can also get Vista Business or Windows XP only in the 64bit version.
I do not have confirmation on the prices for these systems and will let you know as soon as I have a set price. The systems will be available directly from HP soon.
]]>They will also be available on Windows Update in the near future.
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I previously had a 500 watt PSU in my system and it simply did not support the 8800 GTX I had in conjunction with the various paripherals and CPU in my system. I also constantly had USB power failed errors. I was hoping the Antec PSU could also get rid of the constant USB Power errors.
The first thing I did was unbox the PSU, (you can check the unboxing out here) and as you can see from the pictures it’s a really sexy looking piece of raw power, it was also packed nicely.
After I unboxed it I removed my old PSU cleaned out the dust from my system and installed the Antec Signature Series PSU.
The Signature Series PSU is somewhat Modular. It comes with the bare minimum cables pre attached such as the motherboards connectors, 1 PCI Express plug and some 4 ping and SATA power plugs (Sata and 4 Pin plugs share 1 cable.) You can add more Power Cables and PCI express cables if you need to. The modular feature is good in helping eliminate cable clutter which in turn helps keep your system cool. The cables are also wrapped with a mesh like material that is easy to bend and manipulate.
After I installed the Power Supply which was simple, I powered the system up and my Windows Vista Index rating went from 4.9 to 5.9 thanks to the Antec PSU being able to power my 8800 GTX. Now I can game like a pro!
During game play I had no power issues what so ever, with my previous CPU and Video card, I often had the system shut down on me because of technological hiccups due to the power supply.
Overall the PSU is great, it is energy efficient so it will help keep your utilities bill low and you won’t be wasting electricity, it’s also looks nice and powered up my 8800 GTX.
We award it out 5 Star Must Have award, and we recommend it to everyone who has a need for more power in their system, with a MSRP of $249 - $299 for the 650 and 850 watt versions respectfully it may seem a bit expensive, but what you will save over time on your power bill will be well worth it. .
I will get you pics of this machine as soon as I can.
Specs:
]]>Operating system Preinstalled:
Genuine Windows Vista® Business 321
Genuine Windows Vista Business with
downgrade to Windows XP Professional custom installed1, 12
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic 321
FreeDOS
Supported:
Genuine Windows® XP Professional
Certified:
SuSe Linux Enterprise Desktop 10
Processor Intel® CoreTM2 Duo2 (up to 2.8 GHz, 6 MB L2 cache);
Intel Celeron (up to 2.16 GHz, 1 MB L2 cache)
Chipset Mobile Intel GM45 Express Chipset ICH9M-Enhanced
Memory9 DDR2 SDRAM 800 MHz, two slots supporting dual channel memory, 1024/2048/4096 MB SODIMMs, up to 8192 MB
total11
Internal Storage6 120/160/250/320 GB 5400 rpm SATA hard drive (with HP 3D DriveGuard)
Removable Storage3 Fixed 12.7-mm SATA optical drive: DVD+/–RW SuperMulti DL LightScribe Drive, DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive, DVD-ROM Drive
Display 12.1-inch diagonal WXGA (1280 x 800), 12.1-inch diagonal WXGA BrightView (1280 x 800)
Graphics Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD, up to 384 MB of shared system memory 7
Audio High Definition Audio, stereo speakers, stereo headphone/line out, stereo microphone in, integrated dual-microphone array
Wireless support4,5 Intel 802.11a/b/g/n draft 2.0, Broadcom 802.11a/b/g/n draft 2.0, b/g, Bluetooth™ 2.0, HP Wireless Assistant
Communications Marvell Ethernet (10/100/1000 NIC), 56K v.92 modem
Expansion slots 1 ExpressCard/34 slot, Secure Digital (SD) slot
Ports and connectors 3 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, VGA, stereo microphone in, stereo headphone/line out, power connector, RJ-11/modem,
RJ-45/ethernet
Input device Full-sized keyboard, touchpad with scroll zone
Software HP Recovery Manager (Windows Vista only), Roxio Creator Business 10
Security Standard: HP ProtectTools, HP Fingerprint Sensor, Enhanced Pre-Boot Security, HP Spare Key, HP Disk Sanitizer, Enhanced
Drive Lock, Drive Encryption for HP ProtectTools, Credential Manager for HP ProtectTools, File Sanitizer for HP ProtectTools;
Optional: Kensington lock, McAfee Security Solution10
Dimensions
(h × w × d)
1.10 (at front) x 11.57 x 8.90 in / 28 (at front) x 294 x 226 mm
Weight Starting at: 4.07 lb / 1.85 kg (weight will vary by configuration)
Power 4-cell (37 WHr) Lithium-Ion battery, 65W HP Smart AC Adapter, HP Fast Charge7
Expansion Solutions8 HP Adjustable Notebook Stand
Warranty Limited 3-year,1-year and 90-day warranty options available depending on country, 1-year limited warranty on primary
battery. Optional HP Care Pack Services are extended service contracts which go beyond your standard warranties. For more
details visit: http://www.hp.com/go/lookuptool.
“Over the years, Epson has established enduring relationships with world-renowned photographers,” said Paul Warren of product management, Epson America, Inc. “This dialogue gives us insight on how to improve our technology to better meet pro photographers’ needs in the field. The Epson P-6000 and P-7000 are products of this relationship and cater not only to professional photographers, but also advanced amateurs and photo enthusiasts with a range of valuable features.”
The photo viewers has an innovate 640x480 (VGA) LCD screen, which embeds color elements into the LCDs pixels giving you a crisper image and more dynamic color range than traditional LCDs especially those found on your DSLR like my Nikon D60. The photo viewers also encompas (to use Epsons word) 94 percent of the Adobe RGB color gamut
I had a chance to play with one a few weeks ago for 15 minutes or so and the interface was pretty easy to understand, which made it very easy to navigate, it also supports both RAW and JPEG and will allow you to zoom in to either.
The P-6000 and P-7000 are also a lot faster than previous models.
Availability and Features:
Available in September for an estimated street price of $599.99 (P-6000) and $799.99 (P-7000), the Epson multimedia photo viewers offer the following key features:
Large 4-inch LCD with new, exclusive Epson Photo Fine Premia technology displays over 16.7 million colors, encompassing 94 percent of Adobe RGB color space for superior color accuracy
80GB (P-6000) and new 160GB (P-7000) high capacity hard drives
Faster download speed – up to 35 percent faster than previous models
New convenient jog dial to quickly scroll through images
Wider LCD viewing angle
Zoom function to confirm image focus and fine detail
RAW and JPEG file support
Built-in CompactFlash and Secure Digital memory card slots with many other cards supported via third-party adapter
Compatible with high-speed UDMA CompactFlash cards
Rechargeable lithium-ion battery lasts up to three hours for extended shoots
High-speed USB 2.0 interface for device to device backup
Audio/video output to present customized slideshows
Travel Pack for enhanced portability (P-7000 only; includes dual battery charger, car adapter and more)
We hve requested one for review from Epson, so check back with us soon.
Random Images of the P-6000
