Microsoft, apparently jealous of Apple’s touch sensitive iPhone iNterface, decided to unveil some touch based computing magic of its own in the form of the Microsoft Surface, a Minority Report style coffee table that is supposed to revolutionize the way we interact with our computers.
If it’s anything like the demo reel, it should be nothing short of spectacular, though it’s going to be a few years before anyone who can’t afford a Ferrari can afford one of these. No word yet on weather or not it can precog.
Axiotron picked up Mac’s slack with their new ModBook, a tablet style MacBook mod. Retaining most of the original specs of the MacBook donor, the ModBook adds a built-in GPS module, and the Penabled Wacom digitizer for all of your inputing needs. The pen input “runs at 20x display resolution, with 256 pressure levels and zero battery use, and the MacBook’s LCD is protected with some chemically strengthened glass, complete with a paper-like texture and anti-reflective coating”. Apple’s own built-in Inkwell technology handles the writing ability, and the slot-loading disk drive makes this the only slate-style tablet computer with a built in CD/DVD drive. If you’ve been waiting for a tablet Mac to hit the shelves, wait no longer, you ModBook is here.
Shuttle’s new 1337 Series SDXI crams some serious gaming power into their notoriously small form factor PC platform. The offering include a fully internal liquid-cooling system, an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor, two AMD ATI Radeon X1950 Pro CrossFire graphics cards, two 10,000 RPM 150GB hard drives, and 2GB of Crucial ballistix DDR2 memory, all covered in an awesome flame job from Smooth Creations. If you consider yourself among gaming’s 1337, then this is the PC for you. N00bs need not apply.
Sony Australia got a little jealous of Apple’s very creative Get A Mac advertising campaign, and decided to do a little spin-off of their own. Apparently, Sony feels that their Sony VAIO line should not be considered a PC, is definitely not a Mac, but instead, deserves its own category. Unless Sony plans to offer their own software, or do more than just put some pretty curtains up to cover the Windows though, I think their differentiation goes about as far as creating a few cute little ad rips and calling it a day. Maybe that’s their intended slogan: “I’m a PC, and I’m a Mac, and I’ve got no originality”.
If you’ve ever wondered what’s going on inside your hard drive as it’s spinning and clicking away, serving up your illegal MP3s and whatever else your computer gets used for, this video should take a little bit of the mystery away from the silver box. Done with an old hard drive (aka, probably not a good idea to try this with that brand new 500GB behemoth you just bought), a few simple actions such as cutting and pasting and deleting a folder are performed, giving you a pretty good idea of the speed these things are working at. It’s impressive how quickly and accurately a hard drive does its thing, and definitely something I’ve wanted to see for some time now.
Logitech has created a keyboard that they consider more a piece of art than a computer peripheral. Called the diNovo Edge, it’s laser-cut from a single piece of Plexiglass and set in a brushed aluminum frame. Only 11 mm thick, the Edge features the PerfectStroke key system that distributes typing force evenly across key surfaces, making every stroke natural and fluid (whatever that means). The TouchDisc scrolling touchpad gives you scrolling, selection and cursor control all from one location. They keys are backlit so that they light up when in use and fade into the background when not. Wires would definitely take away from the cutting edginess of such a device, so none are included and instead you are blessed with a Bluetooth connection for up to 30 feet of typing freedom. And if you’re going to drop $199 on a keyboard, you don’t exactly want to stash it away in your desk when it’s not in use, so the Edge features a charging base/vertical display stand to keep those Li-ion batteries up and running while you show off your uber cool input device. Sadly, Mac users once again get the shaft on this one, as the Apple Key is not one of Logitech’s friends.
Cars and computers captivate my heart and my wallet more than anything else, so anything that combines the two is a match made in heaven. If you’re going to have a colossal computer or a killer car, nothing says eye candy like a little bit of customization. Enter the BOSS FX-57, a modded out computer with styling cues taken from the 1969 Boss 302, including the bright orange color scheme, Boss striping, and a custom hood scoop to keep everything cool. The exhaust fan grilles on the back are recycled RC car wheels, and a real air filter tops the CPU heatsink fan to give each piece of the computer a little bit of car to complete the car theme. The design also features a perfect blend of car and computer terminology. “FX-57” is a reference to the AMD Athlon processor that provides the ‘horsepower’, and on the scoop, “Supercharged 6800GT” references the machine’s video card. He’s even painted the keyboard and mouse to match the case, since no dream computer is complete without the appropriate accessories. My hat is off to this master of the mod, with his beautiful tribute to Mustang muscle.
Ever wanted to watch a movie, work on a spreadsheet and browse MySpace all at the same time, and not be bothered by the break between your multitude of screens? Me either, but if I did, this would be the monitor to do it on. From the website:
The Radius 320 incorporates three 20.1″ LCD panels into a continuous display system with a total resolution of 5.76 million pixels. With the individual panels wrapping around the user, the Radius 320 provides an ergonomically friendly viewing experience across a 50-inch diagonal.
This behemoth is compatible with any operating system, and the only requirement is a computer with enough video cards to support three DVI outputs at 1600 by 1200 resolution. Now if they would just give World of Warcraft support for multiple screens, these things would fly off the shelves.
