Dell XPS M1730


When: December 2007 Worth: $4500


Gamers can buy special laptop that's skinned for Blizzard's World of Warcraft and comes with a bunch of extras.

Starting on Tuesday, Dec. 11, gamers will be able to purchase a premium edition of the Dell XPS M1730 that is emblazoned with custom World of Warcraft artwork and includes a variety of extras.

Customers who buy this special-edition laptop will receive a special "Quest Envelope" that contains access to items such as a "Golden Ticket" from FigurePrints, a company that creates custom figurines of players' individual World of Warcraft players.

Other unique features include original art by Blizzard artists on the back of the LCD display, World of Warcraft itself and The Burning Crusade expansion pack pre-loaded on the system, original desktop background artwork and screensavers and a World of Warcraft-themed backpack that includes a strategy guide and other expansion packs.

The XPS M1730 is one of Dell's premier gaming notebooks. It's a 17-inch HD system with dual Nvidia SLI graphics (that is, 2 graphics cards running in tandem) and a special AEGEIA PhsyX accelerator chip. The WoW-themed edition will retail for $4,500, about an $1,800 premium over the base M1730.

Fujitsu Lifebook S6510

When: November 2007 Worth: $1530

Fujitsu released a 4-pound version of its 14.1-inch LifeBook on Wednesday, shedding at least a pound off the normal 5-pound footprint. The new LifeBook S6510 is designed with thinner, lighter components for those who want the sizeable screen of a mainstream notebook (14-15 inches), but the lightweight feel like of an ultraportable (3-4 pounds).

The announcement underscores the growing preference toward lighter laptops across all categories. With Fujitsu's own line of LifeBooks featuring a U810 "Mini-notebook" that weighs in at a miniscule 1.56 pounds, the trend toward miniaturization is seeing reductions even in the 5-pound thin-and-light arena.

The S6510 slopes from an inch thin to 1.42 inches at its thickest point. Normal computing time is 4.5 hours, but an optional modular bay battery can extend that to 6. It sports a 14.1-inch LED backlit WXGA display encased under a magnesium-alloy lid.

Fujitsu also introduced the 5.2-pound LifeBook S7210, a mainstream corporate notebook that weighs slightly more but costs slightly less. Both the S6510 and the S7211 come with a biometric fingerprint swipe sensor, an embedded Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and a dedicated smart card for enhanced security that's meant to lure in corporate customers. Both notebooks are configurable with the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Bluetooth and Aheros Super AG Wireless LAN.

New Nokia N81 8GB

New Nokia N81 8GB

The Nokia N81 has dimensions of 102 x 50 x 17.9mm and weighs in at 140g. The screen is 2.4" QVGA TFT affair, supporting up to an impressive 16m colours.

There are two versions of the N81, one has a memory card slot supporting Micro SD memory cards, the other has 8GB of internal memory which we are using for our comparison purposes. Plenty of room for music, pictures and additional applications. There is a 2.0 megapixel camera included. Video clips are recorded at 15 fps, I couldn't find video playback stats, if anyone knows??

On the data connection side, the Nokia N81 is a tri band GSM handset and also offers 3G reception. There is also WiFi, Stereo Bluetooth, and USB 2.0 The N81 also offers EDGE and HSCSD.

The nokia N81 runs Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 v3.1 and fits in as a strong member of the Nokia NSeries family. There are plenty of applications available for the N81, as with the W960 you can find software for the N81 at the NSeries Mobile Software Shop.

On the music front the Nokia music player supports multiple formats including MP3 and AAC. There is also an FM stereo radio and the N81 also has a 3.5mm stereo jack for using your own headset with the phone.

Summary:
On the face of it the two handsets are very well matched. Both with 8GB memory, the W960 has better camera spec, and a touch screen. It is also 21g lighter and almost 2mm slimmer. Small measurements but noticeable in the world of mobile phones. On the other hand the N81 offers more data connectivity options, although HSDPA is a noticeable absentee from the spec of both phones.

It's too early to call a winner in this fight, so I'm going to give an honourable draw for now. Especially with the expected announcement of the European iPhone on Tuesday, it will be interesting to see if it offers specification to match the impressive W960 and N81.

Dell To Launch New XPS Laptop

Dell To Launch New XPS Laptop

According to reports emerging here, Dell is all set to announce a new addition to its XPS range of laptops. The new entrant will be the XPS 1730, which will feature a powerful range of specifications. It will be powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo X7800 (2.6GHz) processor, Nvidia GeForce Go 8600M GS graphics card with 256MB memory, system memory of up to 4GB RAM, a Blu-ray drive, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi support and Bluetooth.

Sony announces world's first OLED TV

Sony XEL-1
The 11-inch, 3mm-thick display hits the streets of Japan in december for $1,743.

Sony has announced they are adding a new category to their TV business, launching the "XEL-1," the world's first organic light emitting diode (OLED) TV in December of 2007. OLED, a light-emitting display technology based on electroluminescent organic materials, allows extremely thin design parameters to be achieved. With its low power usage, it is also extremely environmentally friendly. Sony first produced full-color OLED panels in 2004, focused mainly on mobile products. The XEL-1 boasts a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 960 x 450 resolution and 2 x 1W speakers, with USB, Ethernet and HDMI inputs. An 11-inch model will be available in Japan on December 1 for an MSRP of around $1,750.

Pantech PX-500
Score: 75% Worth: $1 - $200

One of the first connection cards to support Sprint's high-speed EV-DO Rev. A network, is it fast enough for your on-the-go life, or does it move at a snail's pace?

Setup - Very Good

Setting up the Pantech PX-500 Type II PCMCIA card on our Dell laptop (Latitude D420) was very easy; even the shakiest tech-neophyte could handle it. We simply installed the Sprint Connection Manager software, inserted the card and clicked the "Go" button. Once everything was installed, reconnecting was a simple matter of firing up the Connection Manager and clicking “Go” again -- nice, though we wish the app would connect automatically when you insert the card. For the most part, connections were successful on our first attempt, but there were a few occasions during our tests in New York when we had to try several times before a connection was established. The biggest headache the card gave us was in Las Vegas, covering CES 2007, when our laptop went into standby mode. Our connection was lost and could not be reestablished until we restarted the computer. Fortunately, the problem didn't reoccur on subsequent hibernations.

Signal - Very Good

Signal on the PX-500 was nice and strong and rarely dipped below three bars during our tests in New York, New Jersey and Las Vegas. Reception on the mobile broadband card was often stronger than on our Samsung SPH-M500 and our Samsung MM-A900, which both run on Sprint's EV-DO network. During our testing, we took the PX-500 with us on our commute from the North Jersey suburbs to New York, and found that traveling on the turnpike and through the Lincoln Tunnel didn't disrupt our signal; it remained consistent throughout our bus ride.

Speed - Good

While the PX-500 doesn't offer the same speed that we get from the wired broadband connection in our office, we were impressed by the speed we saw on Sprint's EV-DO Rev. A mobile broadband network. The numbers in our tests obviously varied depending on our location, but our downloading speed averaged 745 Kbps and peaked at 884 Kbps, which exceeds Sprint's claims of 800 Kbps average. Our uploading speed was about 256 Kbps on average and topped out at 562 Kbps, which is truly impressive, especially compared to the lagging upload speeds you'd expect from EV-DO rev. 0. Though these numbers don't seem all that high compared to the 24 Mbps download speed we get on our office connection over Ethernet, the Pantech PX-500 trumps all the speed we could eke out of our Palm Treo 700p, when tested simultaneously. In practical terms, this means that it took us about four minutes and 18 seconds to download a 4MB song off of iTunes (the same song took us about eight seconds over Ethernet). To the PX-500's credit, it was able to adeptly handle YouTube videos, regular e-mail checks and standard Web browsing without any hitches

Google Android

Google, joined by companies such as T-Mobile and HTC, today unveiled its new open platform for mobile devices, called Android.

A broad alliance of technology and wireless companies today joined forces to announce the development of Android, an open platform for mobile devices. Google, T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola, Sprint and others have collaborated on the development of Android through the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders.

This alliance shares a common goal of fostering innovation on mobile devices and giving consumers a user experience that rivals current solutions. By providing developers a new level of openness that enables them to work more collaboratively, Android aims to accelerate the pace at which new and compelling mobile services are made available to consumers.

"With nearly 3 billion users worldwide, the mobile phone has become the most personal and ubiquitous communications device. However, the lack of a collaborative effort has made it a challenge for developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers to respond as quickly as possible to the ever-changing needs of savvy mobile consumers," says Google.

Through Android, the OHA initiative hopes that developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers will be better positioned to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost. The end result is claimed to be an unprecedented mobile platform that will enable wireless operators and manufacturers to give their customers better, more personal and more flexible mobile experiences.

Thirty-four companies have formed the Open Handset Alliance, which aims to develop technologies that will significantly lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services. The Android platform is the first step in this direction -- a fully integrated mobile "software stack" that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications.

Consumers should expect the first phones based on Android to be available in the second half of 2008.

The Android platform will be made available under one of the most progressive, developer-friendly open-source licenses, which gives mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products. Next week the Alliance will release an early access software development kit to provide developers with the tools necessary to create innovative and compelling applications for the platform.

Sony Ericsson W960


When: November 2007 Worth: $600

Touch screen, musically inclined, loaded with gigabytes of flash memory and designed by one of the heavy-hitters in the consumer electronics industry. Think we're talking about the iPhone? You're only half right, as Sony Ericsson's recently-announced W960i Walkman phone has all those features and more. Whether its an iPhone competitor may be a moot point, as the W960i is going to be a Europe-only phone, while rumors have been circulating that European carriers have balked at Apple's stipulations for selling the iPhone. So the question may not be which phone to choose, but rather which continent. We size up both models, feature for feature, and decide which phone is the one to keep an eye on.

Interface

If there is one true innovation in the iPhone, it's the interface. Besides the multi-touch screen, the interface is filled with nice little effects that add up to a more visceral experience, made for the tactile navigation. The Sony Ericsson phone, on the other hand, will use UIQ, which is a Symbian-based interface. We last saw UIQ on the Sony Ericsson P990i smartphone, and, frankly, we weren't impressed. Many icons were abstract collections of spheres and cubes, with little relation to their actual purpose.

The one to use: Apple iPhone

Design

We are seriously concerned about the lack of a keyboard on the iPhone, for every aspect of the phone. In our experience with Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices, the touch screen keyboards, even simple numeric pads, just don't cut it. They can be inaccurate, insensitive and distracting to use, especially while driving. Still, just look at the iPhone and you want it. It has all the design appeal of the iPod, simple and clean with a symmetrical look and one-button design. The Sony Ericsson W960i is a very nice looking phone, very slim and glossy, and we're generally fans of Sony Ericsson's designs. Still, the iPhone is something completely different.

The one to hold: Apple iPhone

Platform

We were relieved when The New York Times reported, inaccurately, that Steve Jobs would release a software developer's kit (SDK) for the iPhone. Instead, Apple announced compatibility with Web-based apps, and simultaneously launched their preferred Web browser, Safari, on the PC. It's an intriguing step, but with Symbian OS support, the W960i is definitely going to have more third-party software available at launch, especially our favorite third-party app, SlingPlayer. Sure, Google's Web apps might work on the iPhone, so you might be able to open Microsoft Office documents, but proven apps for Symbian already exist, so W960i won't have to worry about possibilities.

The one to develop: Sony Ericsson W960i

Video playback

We're not exactly sure what sort of videos the W960i will be able to play, and though Sony Ericsson is touting "TV quality," we aren't expecting true DVB-H for mobile television. Assuming it will use a similar standard to the iPhone, which will play h.264 video files like the iPod video, we still think that videos on the iPhone will look better, for a couple of reasons. First, the iPhone's 480 by 320 pixel screen has twice the resolution of the Sony Ericsson phone. Second, the iPhone's screen is nearly an inch larger, diagonally, than the W960. Even with the increased size, Apple has improved pixel density to 160ppi, which is better than most computer monitors.

The one to view: Apple iPhone

Music playback

The iPhone has iTunes, with the accompanying music store, so it must be the one to watch for music, right? Not so fast. Sony Ericsson has a slew of interesting music features coming soon, notably the recently announced support for the MusicStation software. MusicStation is basically a subscription-based music store with over-the-air (OTA) downloads. An early criticism of the iPhone has been its lack of OTA access to the iTunes store, which always seemed to us a strange omission, as the iTunes software uses many of the same core elements as Safari for access to the massive catalogue. Eventually, we expect to see the iTunes store on the iPhone, but probably not until the device gets a 3G upgrade. Beyond MusicStation, we're interested in seeing some of the new music organization features on Sony's Gracenote-powered Media Manager software, like smart playlists that group songs by mood and tempo.

The one to listen: Sony Ericsson W960i

Camera

We're not going to make assumptions about the lens quality of the Apple camera, though we hope Apple doesn't go the route of other manufacturers by including a cheap, plastic lens that takes pitiful snapshots, albeit at a respectable, though uselessly high, resolution. We do know that the Sony Ericsson phone's camera will feature a flash, but more importantly will have auto-focus capabilities. In the past, we've been pleased with the image quality from Sony Ericsson's Cyber Shot phones, which use Carl Zeiss lenses, so the W960i is the one we're keeping an eye on, in terms of camera.