http://www.hardwaregeeks.com Tech News and Reviews Blogs and More en Michael@hardwaregeeks.com Copyright 2009 2009-07-01T17:34:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/win_a_dx9000_business_touchsmart_pc_developer_contest/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/win_a_dx9000_business_touchsmart_pc_developer_contest/#When:06:36:00Z HardwareGeeks.com along with Ask The Admin, Absolute Windows and HP are giving away 3 (1 on each site) dx9000 TouchSmart PCs. All you have to do is create an application that will work on the dx9000 or other TouchSmart PC’s from HP.  The application can be of anything, I personally would like to see an app designed for hospitals where you can pull up a patients chart and view their files and even x-rays and are able to zoom in and out using your fingers. But your application does not have to do that, it can do anything. It can be like the Time 100 Application for the TouchSmart, or something similar to what is set up at O’Hare airport in Chicago. Just create something useful and fun and have fun doing it. HP dx9000 2009-06-30T06:36:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/nzxt_debuts_sentry_2_touch_screen_fan_controller/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/nzxt_debuts_sentry_2_touch_screen_fan_controller/#When:17:34:00Z It seems everything has a touch screen now a days, from your phone to your desktop to PC, not even peripherals for your desktop has a Touch Screen. The New NZXT Sentry 2 Fan Controller has a touch screen so you can control up to 5 Fans. The Sentry 2 fits into a 5.25” drive bay and is compatible with any fan that uses voltage control. The touch screen will display the fan speeds along with the temperature around the fan. “Sentry 2 enables Enthusiasts and Gamers to maximize performance gains from effective air cooling” said Johnny Hou, Chief Designer at NZXT. “Its unique touch screen and intuitive controls provide an ergonomic, best-in-class user experience.” News 2009-07-01T17:34:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/up_to_12_processor_cores_available_on_hp_xw9400_workstation/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/up_to_12_processor_cores_available_on_hp_xw9400_workstation/#When:16:22:00Z HP today announced that their xw9400 workstation is now available with dual Opteron 2400 Series Processors giving it up to 12 cores. The HP xw9400 is also the first professional workstation according to HP that will provide you with up to 12 cores, and with that many cores the system is perfect for digital content creation and other processor hungry task. “HP understands the immense pressure its customers are under to deliver more return on investment in a shorter period of time,” said Jeff Wood, director, Worldwide Marketing, Workstations, HP. “By providing the most extreme combination of technologies – up to 12 cores in one workstation – HP continues its commitment to bringing customers leading-edge technologies.” AMD 2009-07-01T16:22:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/blackberry_tour_available_july_12th_from_sprint/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/blackberry_tour_available_july_12th_from_sprint/#When:15:07:00Z Earlier this week Verizon announced they would have the Blackberry Tour Starting the 12th of July, just now Sprint pushed out a release saying they also will make the Tour Available on the 12th of July online and via their direct business sales team. The Blackberry Tour which I recently had the chance to play with is much faster than my Blackberry Curve and navigating is also much easier. It pretty much has the same user interface as the curve and other Blackberry devices but navigating with the trackball is a lot smoother than on previous Blackberry devices I have used. Sprint 2009-07-01T15:07:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/pre_order_windows_7_on_amazoncom_for_4999_upgrade/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/pre_order_windows_7_on_amazoncom_for_4999_upgrade/#When:05:38:00Z The Upgrade for WIndows 7 is available on Amazon.com for Pre-Order and it will only cost you $49.99 for Home Premium a savings of $70 from the suggested $120 or $99.99 a savings of $100 for Professional. From my understanding the upgrades available for pre-order on Amazon.com are for both 32bit and 64bit versions of Vista. So if you feel like ordering your copy upgrade of Windows 7 now visit Amazon.com. You may also notice that the Microsoft store is down as well, we can only assume it is being updated. (may be live and updated when you read this post) Update 2:07 am EST: Microsoft has updated their store, and are offering Windows 7 at 50 and 58% off. Visit the Microsoft Windows 7 Section here. Microsoft 2009-06-26T05:38:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/a_little_nostalgia_from_fujifilm/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/a_little_nostalgia_from_fujifilm/#When:19:01:00Z On Tuesday I attended a press event and FujiFilm was in attendence, and for the first time I got to see their new Instax 200 camera, which by the way I found out I won today in a contest they were having. For those of you who miss good ol poloroid, check out this little or shall I say big beauty. News 2009-06-25T19:01:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/review_mybook_world_edition_ii/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/review_mybook_world_edition_ii/#When:12:00:00Z Last week we received the 2TB model of the MyBook World Edition II which has two 1TB Green edition hard drives in it formatted in mirrored (redundant) RAID1. The advantage of RAID1 over using both drives as a single volume (RAID0/JBOD), is that if and when a hard drive does fail you still have a complete copy of your data and can ensure your data is safe and secure. The World Edition II makes disaster recovery for small business and home offices simple and cheap. In the event that disaster does befall, the World Edition II has a very simple method for swapping out the dead drive for the new drive and then will automatically rebuild the live drive onto the backup drive making a complete disaster recovery solution.  News 2009-06-24T12:00:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/hp_introduces_mini_5101_and_probook_4310s/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/hp_introduces_mini_5101_and_probook_4310s/#When:03:50:00Z Today HP announced the new HP Mini 5101 a netbook so sexy and stylish, once you see it you will want one. HP gave the Mini 5101 a look and feel similar to their ProBook line, and because of that the Mini 5101 looks bigger than what it actually is. HP also introduced the new ProBook 4310s and at 13.3 inches the smallest ProBook available from HP. HP is combining style, durability and power to deliver what I think its the perfect line of notebooks for any type of business user. HP Hewlett Packard 2009-06-24T03:50:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/called_sprint_tech_support_got_transfered_to_porn_ad/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/called_sprint_tech_support_got_transfered_to_porn_ad/#When:03:05:00Z So my Blackberry Curve 8350i for the second time in the 5 months I have had it is not getting service, the first time they swapped my phone and told me if it happens again to call Tech Support that they may have a fix for the issue in the future since it was an unknown issue then. I call Tech Support and was told they will call me back in an hour, after 8 hours I call back and get transfered to a porn ad several times. I have multiple videos to post if you guys don’t believe me but I just posted one. Sprint 2009-06-23T03:05:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/who_needs_a_computer_to_print/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/who_needs_a_computer_to_print/#When:16:10:00Z HP today announced the HP Photosmart Premium with Touchsmart Web, a printer that essentially eliminates the need for a computer to print. Via the touchscreen on the HP Photosmart Premium with Touchsmart Web (yes I know a long name). The printer from a video I saw on it during the products annoucement is an elegant black and similar design to other HP Photomsart Printers. It does look 10 times better than the HP C8180 their previous touch screen printer. The printer will basically allow you to install apps, such as apps for coupons.com or fandango and essentially allow you to print coupons and movie tickets with out ever having to power up your computer.  HP Hewlett Packard 2009-06-22T16:10:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/kodak_vs_hp_the_challange/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/kodak_vs_hp_the_challange/#When:18:48:00Z Over the past several months I have seen commercials from Kodak, where they target HP directly claiming you can get more prints from their product than from an HP product. One of the commercials that stuck in my mind was one where they are at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles and they are on a ladder and drop a wallet of pictures showing how much more prints they got with their printer in comparison with the HP printer. Kodak in my opinion has issued a direct challenge at HP, some of their commercials fell short of guaranteeing you and I will save over $100 dollars in ink a year if we were to use their printers, ink and paper. Recently HP has fired back with their own commercials claiming that people who use their printers, ink and paper save more money. But whats the real truth? Who will I really save money with? So I decided to put both HP and Kodak to the test, I purchased two printers one from each company, both costing $199 and I used their value packs (Ink Paper combo). The value packs depending on where you buy them range in price from $24.99 - $32.99. News 2009-06-13T18:48:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/for_every_download_of_ie8_microsoft_will_donate_8_meals_to_feed_the_hungry/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/for_every_download_of_ie8_microsoft_will_donate_8_meals_to_feed_the_hungry/#When:19:30:00Z Microsoft on June 8th started a somewhat admirable thing, for every complete download of IE 8 from Browseforthebetter.com Microsoft will donate 8 meals to feeding America. The promotion will run until August 8th 2009. However what is confusing is Microsofts Math. They claim they will donate 8 meals per download, however their fine print reads “ Microsoft® is donating $1.15 per download to Feeding America® up to a maximum of $1,000,000” While I could never afford to give 1 million dollars to any charity, I for one have no idea how $1.15 equals 8 meals unless they consider a meal a piece of bread and water. But never the less the donation itself is admirable, but I wish companies were a bit more honest when it came to these types of contributions. Microsoft 2009-06-12T19:30:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/windows_update_is_intelligent/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/windows_update_is_intelligent/#When:22:43:01Z This post is nothing but a rant about how incredibly backwards update priority using Windows Updates is. I just did a fresh install of Vista x64 on my development machine yesterday, and I had it go ahead and download updates off of our local WSUS server. Now I’d personally expect Windows Update to go and install the Service Pack first, since all updates up to the point of SP1’s release are included in SP1. No, I’d be wrong. Instead it grabbed roughly 3.5GB of updates and addons (86 in total), none of which were the service pack. So I went and spent the next 3 hours letting those install. Reboot and run Windows Update again. 34 new updates show up, again, no service pack. I would just go onto the WSUS update share and grab the service pack there, rather than download the 700MB+ x64 edition service pack off of Microsoft’s website, but WSUS uses near random GUID’s for the filenames of every update rather than the KB# with version. So I’ve now spent about 4.5 hours waiting for windows to install updates and I haven’t even gotten to the service pack I wanted to start with! Is it really so hard to give priority to roll-up packages and service packs? 2009-06-11T22:43:01-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/never_get_locked_out_again/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/never_get_locked_out_again/#When:03:47:00Z If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you might of noticed this past Sunday I was locked out of my place when I got my from my trip to e3 and a little vacation to Washington DC to check out the sites. I waited nearly 10 hours for the emergency locksmith to show up, and so I thought is there a solution that would of made my life easier so that I wouldn’t of had to wait outside for 10 hours for a locksmith. I knew there was but I forgot what the company was called, that is until today when I came across them at the Digital Downtown event here in NYC. The company is Schlage, and what they offer is a product called Schlage Link an easy to use remote locking system for your home. News 2009-06-11T03:47:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/e3_alienware_introduces_m17x/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/e3_alienware_introduces_m17x/#When:02:35:00Z During this years E3, Alienware had men in black walking around with a silver briefcase no one really knew who these guys where or what they were carrying that is until about 1PM EST on the 2nd of June. Here is a video I shot of the unveiling. Enjoy Dell 2009-06-11T02:35:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/unboxing_the_kingston_ssdnow_vseries_desktop_kit/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/unboxing_the_kingston_ssdnow_vseries_desktop_kit/#When:22:17:00Z So today I got my hands on the SSDNow Vseries Desktop kit and I put together an unboxing video. I plan to stick the drive in my desktop and use it as the OS and Application drive, thus speeding up load times etc. I plan to use the 2.5 TB platter drive I have as storage. General Annoucements 2009-06-09T22:17:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/hp_artist_edition_notebook_pc/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/hp_artist_edition_notebook_pc/#When:18:56:00Z HP today launched a new HP Pavilion dv6z Artist Edition 2 notebook PC with a new design inspired by the Sea and Sky in Okinawa Japan that worn first place in the 2008 HP MTV “Engine Room” Design Contest. The Artist Edition 2 notebook PC was designed specifically by youth for the youth according to HP and combines a bright colorful design from Hisako Sakihama and a unique collection of software that will offer new levels of inovation and creativity for the user. HP Hewlett Packard 2009-06-09T18:56:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/how_microsoft_handles_bugs/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/how_microsoft_handles_bugs/#When:22:52:00Z I always like getting reminded why I’ve basically stopped bothering to submit bugs to Microsoft. Namely because they’re all closed with no real feedback or reason given. They also no longer typically give real builds of the software, rather they generally do forks for major milestones so a bug you submit may have been fixed in an interim build months ago. But below has to be one of the best responses I’ve ever gotten. Doing build to build upgrades of 2008 Beta (build 7000) to RC (7100) does not work. Nor does a domain upgrade from 2008 SP2 to 2008 R2 RC work either. But instead of testing or looking at the bug I submitted instead they sent me what you see below. I just absolutely love knowing precisely where testers stand. 2009-06-08T22:52:00-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/e3_half_the_size_of_what_i_remember_but_double_the_fun/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/e3_half_the_size_of_what_i_remember_but_double_the_fun/#When:14:37:01Z E3 is half the size from what I remember the last E3 at the Los Angeles Convention center was, but it is more fun this time around than last, and I am not sure if its because its smaller and we feel (Radiris and Nina from CuteGeek.com are with me) we can conquer the entire floor while we are here, or because it’s just that so much fun. We have yet to see everything at E3 yet and I promise you guys we will have pictures and videos up soon we just have really bad internet in our hotel, and combine that with Youtube having issues last night we weren’t able to get some videos up that we recorded. Gaming 2009-06-03T14:37:01-05:00 http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/new_athlon_ii_and_phenom_ii_processors/ http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/new_athlon_ii_and_phenom_ii_processors/#When:00:57:00Z Today AMD announced two new dual core chips, the AMD Athlon II X2 250 and the AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Processor the faster dual core CPU from AMD at 3.1 Ghz. With the addition of the newest Phenom, the dragon platform now has Dual, Tri and Quad core CPUs. I have had a chance to play with both chips for the past two days, and while I won’t have a review until the week of the 9th I can tell you right now that the Athlon II X2 250 is the coolest running CPU I have used in the longest of time if it isn’t the coolest of all times. AMD 2009-06-02T00:57:00-05:00