CES 2010: Brian Heater
PC Mag Senior Editor Brian Heater stops by the TechVi booth at CES and chats with Randall. The duo discusses Steve Ballmer's keynote, HP's Slate, Project Natal, and more.
CES 2010: MSI dual-touchscreen notebook
Hands-on time is the biggest perk of a trade show like CES, and our crew scores some playtime with a brand new concept device from MSI. The dual-touchscreen notebook packs an Intel Atom processor - a chip designed for mobile internet devices and netbooks - and runs Windows 7 split between two 7-inch rotatable screens. Cool stuff, but still just a prototype for now.
ATI Radeon 5970 is the foot-long GPU champ: HotHardware
We sit down with our buddies from HotHardware, like we do every week, to talk graphic cards this time around. First on the list? ATI's gigantic Radeon 5970, which other than topping performance charts, also tips the price scales more than most cards. On the cheap end of the spectrum, we break down a new card from Zotac which is a low-power unit capable of fitting in well to a home theater without breaking the bank. Also, Adobe has added hardware acceleration support in its latest build of Flash, which is perfect for lower-end computers to play back hi-def Flash content. And, MSI has come out with a desktop that fits that mold really well, which has a touchscreen, Nvidia ION processor, and comes in at about $750. Check the show for the full details.
Guests:
- Dave Altavilla , HotHardware
- Marco Chiappetta , HotHardware
MSI outs new PMP
Source:
Via:
Permalink
Notebook manufacturer MSI has just announced their newest toy, the MT-V656, a portable media player. The device plays HD video on its large three inch screen, and is capable of playing XviD, WMV, DivX, and MPEG-4  video. Accompanying its video features, the device can play eight common audio file types, display e-books, and hook up to TVs. A conversion from Taiwanese currency to USD shows its price to be a low $42.
Netbooks: Not what people expect?
Geeks might know the under-powered under-sized notebooks offer more tradeoffs at a lower price, but according to an NPD survey, 42% of people are dissatisfied with their netbook purchase. Does that indicate people won't be back for another round at netbooks, and could the last few years of growth in the tiny computer market just be a figment of imagination? We talk to Nate Laxon of CNET UK and Mike Rose of TUAW.
Nate doesn't think the netbooks are all they're cracked up to be, and would much prefer a properly priced computer that offers adequate performance, but that being said he doesn't think they're going anywhere anytime soon. He sees the future of netbooks as pretty bright, especially considering how they're being bundled with cellular data plans overseas. Mike thinks as people learn more about what the devices do, buyers will know better what to expect from the machines, and as performance increases, some of the tradeoffs will go away.
What's your take, do you like netbooks? Do you think they're sticking around? Sound off in the comments and let us know.
Guests:
How low can computing power go?
One of the few growth areas of PC sales over the past few years have been netbooks. The low cost, low powered tiny machines have been a real boon for manufacturers like Asus and MSI, but now inexpensive machines look like they're hitting a whole new level, with a machine announced from Gecko that runs on AA batteries and costs $200. Is there a limit for how cheap we'll see these machines go?
Todd Haselton from LAPTOP and Seth Porges from Popular Mechanics join us to talk about the bargain basement of computers. Todd thinks we'll keep going down the slippery slope, and that the only bottom we'll see is when computers are on sale at 7-11. Seth concurs, but more to the point he's skeptical as to whether we'll ever see one of these machines hit the market.
On the other side, we talk cheap media centers and Asus' Eee Box. The machine is simple, a couple hundred bucks for an underpowered machine with an HDMI connection for hooking up to an HDTV, but hardware publication the Register says the machine can't play high definition content effectively, making the underpowered computer an odd fit for a media center. Seth is reluctant to believe the word of a single report, but that being said he'd still rather opt for a slightly more expensive computer, like one from Dell, that would more than enough horsepower to play HD content, and provide a better media center experience. Todd's take is similar, though naturally since he's a LAPTOP-er, he points out a $500 Gateway machine that also has HDMI, and in addition you can lug it around when its done playing movies.
For me personally, low cost machines never see much appeal in my household. I'd rather do the crazy out-of-the-box things that these machines lack, and while the concept of replacable AA batteries makes me think I'd appreciate a $200 notebook that I could travel with, I'm just as likely to appreciate the larger machine, since I won't have to struggle with a limited lappy.
What's your take? Do you think price trumps all, and it's better that more people can afford more computers? Or, do you feel like netbooks are too cheap, and can't do things you need to warrant a purchase?