Anybody looking for a computer that will help get critical work done, and needs superior graphics power, may want to forgo a standard desktop in favour of a different class of system, such as HP's xw4400 Personal Workstation.
Comdex is dead, long live CES: Las Vegas will be packed this week with products ranging from humungous TVs to home entertainment servers, smart cars, portable music and video players, and wireless devices. The 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show will draw over 120,000 attendees and more than 2400 exhibitors. Only the massive CeBIT show in Germany exceeds the sheer volume of attendees, exhibitors, and announcements expected at the 2005 CES show, which opens Thursday and runs through Sunday.
It has been a banner year for CPUs, and it's not over yet. Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. have blown past the 1-GHz milestone each company reached earlier this year. The latest speedsters: AMD's 1.1-GHz Athlon and Intel's 1.13-GHz Pentium III.
By now most of us know that employers may legally monitor or censor messages sent over company e-mail wires. But recently, some workers have successfully challenged blanket e-mail censorship by using, of all things, the 1935 National Labor Relations Act.
On a tight budget but want a notebook for all the basics--e-mail, Web browsing, simple word processing, and personal finance? Check out Compaq Computer Corp.'s new Presario 1200XL-450. At just US$999, it packs a good set of features for the price.
Casio Computer Co. Ltd. announced two new cameras this week that pack a lot of picture-taking power in a portable package, for a very competitive price.
Want a notebook that complements your business suits while satisfying your power needs? Hewlett-Packard Co.'s OmniBook 6000 comes resplendent in a sleek new silver-purple case with a handy grip, and includes an easy-on-the-eyes 14.1-inch screen. In addition, Intel Corp.'s Pentium III-600/500 SpeedStep CPU provides this beauty with plenty of muscle.
Clear the passing lane, there's a new speed demon on the road--IBM Corp.'s new ThinkPad T20, a lean, mean computing machine with Intel's latest mobile CPU, the 700-MHz Pentium III SpeedStep. Set to replace IBM's ThinkPad 600 series, the T20 line sports a new case and more features for busy travelers.
I ran up plenty of bills shopping online this holiday season; I didn't miss the sales tax. That said, I don't want to lose speedy response times from my local fire and police departments, reasonably prompt repaving of my local roads (this century, please), and other local services.
The speedy port technology known as IEEE 1394 or FireWire is not exactly a household name: Digital video camera vendors quickly adopted the standard, but mainstream PC peripherals (such as scanners) that incorporate it are only now shipping. The impending release of USB 2 products-which will work faster than today's USB peripherals-pits the two technologies against each other. Which is right for you? We examined two new 1394 scanners from Epson and Umax, and checked in on the standards battle.
I ran up plenty of bills shopping online this holiday season; being spared the sales tax was a blessing. That said, I don't want to lose speedy response times from my local fire and police departments, reasonably prompt repaving of my local roads (this century, please), and other community services.
For months we've been hearing about a technology from Intel Corp. called SpeedStep: It's a novel way to conserve notebook processor power. When your notebook is plugged in, the processor runs at its top speed, but when it's running on battery power, it "steps down" to a lower speed. The good news: After some delays, the technology has arrived--and it works. The three Pentium III notebooks we tested ran plenty fast, and battery life on two of the units was outstanding. The surprising news: The notebooks managed almost identical battery life running at either speed, so we see little reason to run them at the slower speed.
Intel Corp. unveils today a technology designed to push notebook processor power beyond its current limits. This novel way to conserve and extend the CPU is called SpeedStep, and more than a dozen vendors are ready with notebooks that take advantage of it.
Intel has announced its latest addition to the Pentium III line, a 1.13-GHz model that makes it--for now--the fastest CPU available for desktop PCs.
Sporting a new Pentium III-500 mobile CPU, 128M bytes of RAM and a slick, silver-topped case, the Tecra 8100 packs the power you need for mobile presentations or to replace your desktop. Toshiba improved its already good Tecra 8000 design, increasing performance and adding features. Yet -- for such a high-end machine -- it sells for the not unreasonable price of US$4,099. Like the 8000, the Tecra 8100 offers a sharp, brilliant 14.1-inch screen, enhanced by an upgrade to the S3 Savage/MX 3D graphics chip set with 8M bytes of SGRAM. Colors and focus were good during DVD playback, but action was jerky on our preproduction unit; Toshiba says it will include updated graphics drivers in the shipping model.
