We were waiting for quite a while to announce the availability of the new 24 inch Apple Cinema Display. It’s November already and the LED-backlit display should already be available. And what do you know, it looks like it is! Despite the fact Apple has it displayed on its site as “ships: November”, there’s an “Add to Cart” button which means you can order yours now. The display costs $899 which you already know and it will get you a 1,920×1,200 resolution, DisplayPort, built-in iSight camera and microphone, integrated stereo speakers, a 3-port USB hub and a MagSafe adapter. A little too expensive sure, but then again, it’s an Apple product!

The Core i7 processor from Intel is something I’d want to test as soon as possible. It might not be as hot as some people say, but it’s certainly the processor we’ll be using in the future.

Dell has decided it was time it inserted it in some of its desktop systems. And let’s take a look at the first two, the XPS Studio and the XPS 730x. The Studio XPS desktop base model will get you 3GB memory, 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3450 GPU and a 500GB HDD for $949. Willing to pay more? $1,499 will get you 6GB of RAM, a 512MB2 ATI Radeon HD 4850, a 750GB HDD and a 24-inch S2409W Flat panel monitor.

The XPS 730x is gaming-ready. It can hold up to 6GB DDR3 memory, an updated thermal monitoring system and chasis and a choice between ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB and NVIDIA GeForce GTX280 1024MB. The 730x starts somewhere around $2,599 and no matter what hardware you choose, Vista and i7 will be there.

What do you think? Waiting for the Core i7?

The USB 3.0 might be closer than it appears. The USB Promoter Group finalized the “SuperSpeed” USB 3.0 specification today and we are to expect more details to emerge soon.

Flash drives and hard drives are expected to be the first devices to take advantage of the new technology but we’re at least 8 months away from an USB 3.0 product release. The second half of 2009 or even later will bring us the new USB 3.0 ready drives.

How fast is USB 3.0 you ask? Well imagine a 25GB HD movie. With USB 1.0 you would copy it in 9.3 hours. With current USB 2.0 you would do it in 13.9 minutes while with USB 3.0 the job is reduced to 70 seconds. We’re looking forward to a hands-on experience, whenever that will happen! Let’s see what Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Texas Instruments are going to do with the whole USB 3.0 thing!

Need protection when using your hard drives? Well than we have something new to play with from Hitachi. It’s the third generation 2.5 inch Travelstar hard drive, the Travelstar 5K500.B. It’s a SATA II drive that only spins at 5400rpm and it comes in capacities from 120GB to 500GB. Want it? There’s more!

The HDD designed for notebooks will consume less juice than usual while the enterprise version will get you the Enhanced Availability which will give 24 hours a day high-speed activity. The new drives will be eco-friendlier than the previous versions and it will come in halogen-free design.

And the Bulk Data Encryption is the encryption was talking about. With it on board your information will be scrambled with help of a key and it’s written to the disk. Unscrambling is simple as the same key is being used. Should the data encryption key be deleted the data will become useless. Make sure you order the BDE since it’s an optional feature.

We don’t have any prices and we still need availability dates. The general idea is that Hitachi is going to launch the new HDD some time next month.

via Crave

Not that we necessarily care to worry about Windows 7 right now, but we might as well peak into the inevitable future. The video above is quite old but still funny. It’s a banned commercial which showed us yet again the fatality that awaits any Windows user, the blue screen of death.

Getting back to Windows 7 here, and hoping that it won’t bring us any future blue screens of death, we found out that the new Microsoft OS is faster than Vista or XP.

Tested on an Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at 3.16GHz, with 4GB of RAM the three Windows versions pulled of the following numbers:

• Test Set 1: From Boot Choice to Fully-loaded User Desktop
  • Windows 7 Ultimate (Preview, PDC edition, 32-bit): 32 seconds
  • Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit, SP1): 33 seconds
  • Windows XP Professional (SP3):40 seconds
• Test Set 2: From Boot Choice to User Login Screen
  • Windows 7 Ultimate (Preview, PDC edition, 32-bit): 23 seconds
  • Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit, SP1): 24 seconds
  • Windows XP Professional (SP3): 29 seconds

So it looks like Windows 7 is faster than Vista and XP. Oddly enough, I am looking forward to checking Windows 7 myself.

via lifehacker

Feel the need of getting a new 23 inch LCD monitor? Dell has one which is almost ready to be sold. The 23 inch SP2309 model has been leaked and here’s what’s waiting for you:

• 2,048 x 1,152 resolution
• 80,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio
• 98% color gamut
• 2ms response time
• Built-in 2 megapixel camera
• Integrated microphone
• VGA/DVI/HDMI input ports

No matter if this model will be Vista 2 ready (yes we mean Windows 7) it would be sure fun to play with a new Dell LCD.

USB 3.0 is something we’ve been waiting for quite a while now. And it looks like we’re going to get the official specs later this month. USB-IF president Jeff Ravencraft said, at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Los Angeles, that the “final specifications to be made public on November 17″. Anxious to get them? Willing to change your current computer? We’ll find out more about the USB 3.0 at the SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference in San Jose in 10 days or so.

We were left wondering when the new iMacs and Apple Minis were going to be released after Apple unveiled its new line of MacBooks. And it looks like November 10 is the day we were waiting for. That’s when people say the new desktops will be released. That means we have 10 days to release lots of rumors surrounding the features of the new Minis and their prices. Stick around!

via Fudzilla

Kingston announced the HyperX DDR3 Triple-Channel Memory which was designed for those Intel X58 motherboards. The new memory runs at 1.375/1.8/1.86/2GHz and it comes in kits of three 1GB modules. The memory will meet the 1.65 volt platform recommendation for Core i7 and it will be Extreme Memory Profile ready. Pricing range varies from $132 to $334, depending on what you choose.

via SlashGear

Boy is this computer manufacturer working hard or what? HP is going to release guidelines for third-party developers in order for them to create TouchSmart applications. HP’s TouchSmart technology used in some of the latest PCs is waiting for more programs from developers. If you’re one heck of a good coder, maybe this is a possible future job for you.

HP won’t follow the Apple App Store model. All applications hosted on the TouchSmart Community will be free to download, although HP won’t block any developer to hos and charge for his or her application. Before getting all excited about this possibility you might want to kick back and wait for the multitouch Windows 7 to be unleashed. Multitouch applications will rock compared to single touch applications!

via Cnet

Think you have missed the whole Psystar-Apple trial? Well think again, the game is on and there’s no winner yet. But it looks like Psystar isn’t that interested in the whole Apple trial thing as they have just launched new Mac clones. The computers come equipped with Blu-rays and NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT graphic cards. The Blu-ray upgrade will cost you $310 more while the 512MB GeForce 9800GT will cost you $200 more than the usual Open Computer price. Probably you’ll get your money back when you will have to return the product! Oh yeah, that’s what I think about the Psystar-Apple predicament so far!

via MacUser

Microsoft has finally released Windows 7. Well not quite officially. But the company gave its first public demonstration of the new OS at the PDC today. And from what I see it looks just like Vista, or a more complicated Vista skin.

Windows 7 will not be as shocking as Vista in terms of changes. While transition from Windows XP to Vista is somewhat difficult and annoying, current Vista users will have little problems in adjusting to Windows 7. You should expect to have the same problems but hopefully Microsoft will make things run smoother in 7.
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Would you have bought a Mac Mini? Would you buy one if Apple reinvented it? Would you buy one if it looked like that? Well why not get a laptop. If a mini desktop looked like that I’d definitely choose an Apple laptop.

Anyhow, we don’t know what’s happening to the Minis from Apple. Sure they kinda look cute and they are highly portable. But they aren’t best sellers. So it’s either that Apple is cutting the whole Mini business or the Cupertino-based company is creating a brand new Mini.

via YankoDesign

Last time we spoke about the giant internet provider Comcast is, we were showing you how the FCC rules against Comcast constraining policies regarding Internet access and downloads. Today we see Comcast in a totally different light. It has announced that it will begin to deploy it’s DOCSIS 3.0 in residential homes and businesses in New England, the Boston Metropolitan region and southern New Hampshire. Philadelphia, New Jersey and the Twin cites are also included.

Comcast introduced new speed tiers for their high-speed internet service and doubled speeds for no apparent charge.

Here are the new plans and prices:

• Extreme 50 : offering up to 50 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 10 Mbps of upstream speed at $139.95/month. (new)
• Ultra : offering up to 22 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 5 Mbps of upstream speed at $62.95/month. (new)
• Performance Plus : offering download speeds to up to 16 Mbps and up to 2 Mbps of upload speed at $52.95/month. (existing plan that was upgraded)
• Performance : offering download speeds to up to 12 Mbps and up to 2 Mbps of upload speed at $42.95/month. (existing plan that was upgraded)

But let me get this right. Doesn’t more speed mean more downloads? What will happen with the 250GB bandwidth cap which Comcast has established after the FCC ruling?

The DosPara Prime SSD-RAID is probably one of the most expensive desktop computers you’ve seen in recent weeks, thanks to the $9,300 price tag and the use of a SSD-RAID system.

By using six units of an Intel X25-M Mainstream 80GB SSD drive, the total storage capacity goes up to 480GB, and the reading speed hits the top at 1119.73MB/sec. On top of the high-speed read/write speeds, the (close to) $10,000 PC boasts an Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 at 3.16GHz, 4GB on the RAM memory, a normal SATA2 Hard-Drive with 80GB, and a NVidia GeForce 9600GT.

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Gateway is pretty popular thanks to their powerful laptops, and they have announced 2 new desktop models: the FX6710-01 and LX6200-01. The first one is made for gamers, while the second is made to have a better multimedia experience.

The FX6710-01 is a real beast, featuring an Intel Core 2 Quad Processor, and an uncommon amount of RAM memory set at 6GB. The graphics card is powered by an ATI Radeon 4850, while the operative system is the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium, with service pack 1.

The hard-drive storage capacity is huge - 750GB - and the extras include 6 USB ports, 2 located in the front and 4 in the rear, an eSATA port, and a 15-in-1 media card reader. Priced at $1,200.

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Acer has added a new Consumer Desktop to their Lifestyle Line, named X3200. The computer is available in two configurations and its price starts at $680.

Both versions feature an AMD Phenom Triple-Core X3 processor, 4GB of RAM memory, and a NVIDIA GeFoce 8200 graphics card. The only difference seems to be the hard-drive that varies from 500GB to 640GB, and the inclusion of a 22-inch LCD.

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If you’re still not impressed with any of the latest MacBooks, you might want a desktop like the Alienware Aurora from Dell. The new gaming PC will come exclusively from Best Buy for an exclusive price of only $1,699.99. For that exclusive price you will get some exclusive components like the AMD Phenom X4 9550 2.2GHz quad-core processor, the dual ATI Radeon HD 4850 video card with a total of 1GB GDDR3 RAM and the 4GB DDR2 RAM. The exclusive hard drive is a 500GB spinning at 7,200rpm. Other features are gigabit Ethernet, no less than 8 USB 2.0 ports, 2 Firewire ports, 2 S-video ports and 4 DVI ports.

The exclusive Aurora has Windows Vista on but it will probably be a mean gaming machine. So go get one if you’re a hardcore gamer looking for a new gadget.

We’re waiting for the first touchscreen Eee PC netbook to arrive sometime next year and it’s probably going to see everyone’s netbook getting a touchscreen. If you want to experience the touchscreen Asus PC in about a month or so, head on over to England. Play.com is taking preorders for the Eee All-in-One Touch-Screen PC. The PC costs $399.99 or about $681 and it’s going to ship on November 20.

The Eee All-in-One Touch-Screen PC will have the following features:

• 15.6-inch display
• a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU
• 1GB of RAM
• a 160GB hard drive
• a Webcam
• Windows XP
• a single (not multi) touchscreen display
• a wired keyboard and mouse
• stereo speakers
• an optical drive
• 802.11b/g/n WiFi
• Gigabit Ethernet.

Would you buy one?

And the world moves one step closer to a hard drive-less existence.

Seagate has announced that it will enter the market for solid-state drives next year, slowly replacing hard drives. The company is defensive of the move, stating that it will take things slowly, first targeting corporate customers. Once it has won over cubicle commandos, it will then target consumers.

Despite all this, the company comes late to the party, as Intel has already started shipping SSDs for both enterprise and consumer markets, and Samsung is now the current consumer market champion. However, Seagate is a big company and a major player in the HDD market, so let’s see how well things play out for them.