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This is being blown out of proportion.

The XEL-1 was discontinued in Japan because new TV sets sold this year will require a "V-chip" parental control, and a $2,000 11" TV doesn't justify a redesign to add that feature. The XEL-1 is still going to be sold in the US and Europe.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20100216_349284.html

Also, Sony is still going ahead with their 22B yen ($210M) investment in OLED
http://www.trustedreviews.com/tvs/news/2008/05/22/Sony-Boasts-of-22-Billion-OLED-Investment/p1

Moreover, at the 2010 CES Sony just finished showing off a 24.5" OLED set that does 3D.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/07/sony-oled-3d-tv-eyes-on/

As Mark Twain said, can be applied to OLED, "rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated"

Not at all. Actually if all you want is something small and portable to surf the web, a netbook makes more since than an iPad. All it adds is a tablet, but it uses a crippled OS. Actually after he saw a netbook in Target my brother-in-law asked me what I thought of it, he said he thought about getting one. But I hadn't seen one there so I couldn't say. I did tell him they were fine for causal web surfing and editing simple documents. Now I don't know if he got the one Target had but my sister now carries one around.

I've seen complete computer novices go out and buy those, and be completely fine with 10'' screens

I want something I can use for photography as well as development, a 10" screen does not cut it. Actually many photographers say the minimum size of monitor for editing photos is 21". Photo.net has a number of threads on monitors in it's forums, in some people ask what size monitor they should use, in some people say they use 27", 30", or bigger monitors that cost above US$2000. I want one 24" and am thinking of getting a 24" HP LP2475w, which costs about $600. It has an H-IPS panel, is wide gamut, and has been gotten good reviews from photographers. I'd then use my MBP's LCD to hold the panels and toolbars. That is when using my laptop. When using my desktop, er tower, PC I can use my 21" monitor, an old CRT, for them.

And I've never seen a website tell me to update my version of Flash, unless you're running an entire version behind. :P

I posted the Flash player version, 10,0,42,34, which is the latest. I even copied and pasted it from the Adobe test page I linked to.

• You Tube keeps saying i need to upgrade my adobe flash player but still cant play videos. Help!?
• "You need to upgrade your Flash Player by clicking this link" I did but still not working
• You need to upgrade your Flash Player

Google has many more results for need to upgrade flash player.

Falcon

True but the spec page specifically states "9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology". Cut and paste, there is no mention of LCD. On the other hand it does say it's an IPS which is an LCD technology. I wonder if it's the old IPS, H-IPS, or S-IPS.

I've been looking for an IPS panel monitor myself and have been thinking I'll get the HP HP LP2475w which is a 24" with an H-IPS panel.

Falcon

And to correct myself - Samsung has Android phones like the I7500. Should have remembered that. Seems like they are playing in all tables.

You're barking up the wrong tree if you want a "very good camera" in a mobile phone, it just can't be done, the optics aren't good enough.

Oh yeah?

Granted, it's more like a camera with a phone built in, but still.

Thumb drive.
Why not just use true crypt and keep every single file you think is critical on that thumb drive. You can even default set your MyDocuments and force the drive type to a specific drive letter, so its transparent when you boot.
Bonus points because if your laptop is stolen, odds are you still have the drive in your pocket or wallet. Don't think you can cram a thumb drive in your fat wallet. Try this one on for size.
http://shopping.trustedreviews.com/UK/product/88435015/Crucial_8GB_Gizmo_Jr/

http://www.linux-netbook.com/acer-aspire-one

http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/review/2008/06/14/Asus-Eee-PC-901-20G-Linux-Edition/p1

I think most people have already done that, which is probably why it appears they're beginning to abandon their retarded proprietary formats.

Actually, some of their formats are quite good.. it's just that they try to rule them with an iron fist.

How hard would it be to slap Moblin into Android?

Since Android is already running on a netbook, and already runs on ARM, I suspect this is not so hard.

Unless I miss my guess, the PC ASP is for a box. No monitor, no camera, no sound, just a box. A Mac has everything you need built it

Searching for "all in one pc"

First result on a google search,
http://www.cadar.co.uk/
Second result on a google search,
http://www.trustedreviews.com/pcs/review/2008/09/29/HP-TouchSmart-IQ500-All-In-One-PC/p1
Third result on a google search,
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Blu-ray-Drive-Vista-Premium/dp/B001IDYW7A

I could go on, but you get my point. I don't really think you have much of a point there, I can easily get the same as a regular PC.

plus you don't have to suffer their damn UI.

I personally find OS X's UI annoying. So it doesn't fit my needs, never mind the fact the OS doesn't run some of the applications I use and others that it does run, it runs terribly.

I will give you that visio and photoshop is currently better than the oss solutions

That's very generous of you. Can I have Illustrator and InDesign too, if I ask really nicely?

Actually that depends on what you're doing. I don't know about Visio but photographers use both GIMP and CinePaint for photo editing. An open source program for editing vector graphics is Inkscape while Scribus is for desktop publishing.

Falcon

no, I know of no one in the photo world (I'm including myself) who uses crt's anymore.

Sorry, but you still can't beat CRTs for color and off-axis accuracy. That's not to say that there aren't some LCD panels that are adequate, like the NEC LCD2690WUXi. But the people who rail against CRTs that have cheap-ass $250 LCDs on their desk make me laugh. You really think a couple of fluorescent back-lights scattered through multiple layers of film can compete with a 22" cathode ray tube and a fine aperture grill? Ha!

The problem is that people have been repeating this mantra for the past 10 years, hoping and wishing and dreaming that if they just repeat it enough it will eventually be true. And in those years, the remaining display manufacturers have either closed up shop, or moved production lines to the far, far more lucrative LCD market.

Lucrative, as in, you (the consumer) is getting something cheaper, of inferior quality, that will operate for less time before you have to buy a new one.

Perhaps when LED monitors come out, I'll finally get rid of my NEC SuperBright Diamondtron. The good news is that my CRT will outlast any LCD panel by at least three lifetimes (something else flat-panel fans quickly forget).

It really depends.

At work I use a Microsoft Trackball Explorer which is probably one of the best trackball mice ever made, and are nearly impossible to find nowadays.
I know a few people that use the Logitech Cordless Trackman Optical and love it, but it didn't feel confortable enough for my own use.

At home, I use a Logitech G9 mouse and a Ideazon Fang for gaming sessions, but for everything else I tend to just rely on keyboard shortcuts to navigate around my desktop.

There are a lot of simple phones out there, and they out sell smartphones by several orders of magnitude.

It's just that they're not sexy enough for people to talk about.

Go buy a Nokia 1200 or something and leave us alone.

I got myself a pair of these headphones: http://www.trustedreviews.com/multimedia/review/2006/03/20/Acoustic-Authority-iRhythms-A-9900-Sound-Cancelling-Headphones/p1 - Acoustic Authority iRhythms which are noise cancelling. Pair it with my Samsung T10 and you have cost effective quality audio with sub 60khz bass to knock your socks off (if you like).

I reckon people turn up their earbuds so they can hear bass or treble but really anything out of an earbud is going to be tinny - especially if it's coming out of an ipod. I'm pretty sure if they got themselves a decent pair of equipment like those they wouldn't feel like compensating for anything with volume.

OCZ Core series drives come to that mark. RSP of $479 for the 128GB model. See their press release, or a news message

I guess you didn't RTFA, or that you missed this picture

The Microsoft Media Centre Keyboard is actually quite a decent keyboard for a HTPC.

It's not seen as a standard USB HID though, so I'm not sure about cross-platform driver compatibility.

The site with radar info won't be taken down. There is existing equipment with integrated GPS, a database of radar locations, GPRS to get new radar location data automatically and the ability to send updates about new sites back. This is "freedom of information" backed by corporate money.
http://www.trustedreviews.com/mobile-devices/review/2008/04/25/Road-Angel-Professional-Connected/p1

The real question Slashdot should be asking is "What is the next foreign government the US government will shut down?"

We recently purchased a house out in the woods and ran into the same issue, no high-speed connectivity. The jist of it is take a 3G signal and convert it into a WiFi signal. There's a number of ways to accomplish this, but for mom and dad, the Linksys wireless router may be the best way to go.

Not any more, its a two piece power supply now. It looks like a figure-of-8 mains connection to the transformer, rather than a "kettle cord" or a clover leaf.

But on the other hand, if you go to a country with different mains sockets you can take a different cable rather than an extra adapter.... but in reality you're going to want your home country's cable too, just incase.

1080P doesn't sound like a reduced-quality rip... though he also said 10GB - I'd have to know whether the original movie used all the available space on the disk.

In any case, decryption (in addition to the h.264 decoding) adds to the load on the CPU, which doesn't help. Also, even laptop DVD drives use several watts during playback.

GB != Gb

And heck, screw the 832. I want the 1.6 TERABYTE version:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/storage/news/2007/11/22/BritMicro-Announces-1-6TB-3-5in-SSD/p1

Only thing is this one is 3 1/2" so it won't work well for a laptop HD

The DriveStation Quattro is in your price range and provides you with 750GB of storage using RAID 5 and it's in your price range.

I just got a 2TB buffalo terastation pro II for 1K and it's awesome. Here's a review of the 1TB model. They offer other options, but this seemed like the best one for me based on price, capacity, and reputation. True reliability means you probably want RAID 5 and that means 3 or more drives. If you don't want to fight with raid cards and configuring it from scratch, then this is a great option.

>>The single biggest problem with current video technologies is that it is not possible to have very long cables (50' +).http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/ 07/13/0515202

http://www.trustedreviews.com/displays/review/2007 /07/10/Matrox-Extio-Remote-Multi-Display-System/p1

This is possibly the most insightful comment in this entire thread. Everyone is so busy considering why American telcos "suck" that they're not stopping to actually carry through on the comparison made. For those of you in the dark, this is a Casio W41CA:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/mobile-devices/news/ 2006/01/20/Casio-Mobile-Rocks-For-Movies/p1

An impressive phone? Certainly. It's on the order of something like the Motorola Q phone, but with a better form factor. At the end of the day, though, the Casio is still just a phone. The iPhone, however, is a complete hand computer and digital assistant that hits a sweet spot in the market's needs. The iPhone may appear to have a similar feature list, until you actually get down to the nitty gritty of it:

iPhone - Casio
128MB - 70MB
4-8 GB Hard Drive - 2GB SD Slot
Visual Voicemail - ???
Auto-Landscape Mode - Manual Swivel
Phone Numbers from Webpages - No
Integration with Movie/Music Service - No
Easy "Pinch" and "Spin" Navigation - Phone Keypad
Auto-Threading of SMS Conversations - Standard SMS Mailbox
On-Screen Conferencing options - Play on-hold games with the phone
Safari Browser with "Zoom on Element" Features - Opera Mini with imprecise Zooming
Rich email client - ???
Smooth Integration with Google Maps, Youtube, and Mac Widgets - Some functionality through Opera. No Flash

Basically, it comes down to usability. The iPhone is a modest step from a pure technology and feature-set perspective, but it's a quantum leap from a usability perspective. While the iPhone's design does not meet everyone's needs, it meets the largest cross-section of users on the market. i.e. The people who are not technophiles and have little to no idea how to use all the bizarre and excessive features of a smart-phone. For the most part, people just want a phone. The iPhone gives them a phone + a comprehensive feature set that easily performs other daily tasks that people do (e.g. check whether, look up maps, etc.) and handily replaces several other devices that they might carry around.

Folks around here tend to laugh at Taco's initial assessment of the iPod. ("No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.") Yet they turn around and make the exact same mistake with the iPhone. It's an interesting trend to behold.

1. Text messaging is cheap in the US compared to Europe. Witness this British article cheering that text messaging will now only be 25p. i.e., about 50c per message.
2. The iPhone screen is not made of plastic as is the Casio's screen. Consequently it will not draw lots of scratches.
3. The retail price of the iPhone is consistent with manufacturing costs. That this guy could get a subsidized casio product for 41 dollars is not surprising.
4. This article plays on a disgusting pathology "all the best stuff is made in japan". No, Japan has been struggling through a crippling recession for ten years. What was true for Marty McFly in the 80s is simply dated now. And here's the kicker: some stuff is actually made for the US market first and then released to Japan. Ditto for Samsung in Singapore. You always release to your home market first to test out the waters.

is the guy in this pic 'manhands' from seinfeld, or could this laptop use a quarter as a rotating table?

http://www.trustedreviews.com/images/article/inlin e/4985-IMG6435s.jpg

Think of the chil^H^H^H^H young people, you monster.
The Classmate PC runs Microsoft Windows XP Embedded Version 2002, with Service Pack 2. There's very little installed other than drivers for the hardware and the basic Windows Accessories applications. Interestingly, the full suite of Windows desktop games were present - it seems that Intel is keen for children in the developing world to play solitaire when they're bored, just like the rest of us. http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review/200 6/09/28/Intel-Classmate-PC-EXCLUSIVE/p2

You could pick up a used Sidekick or last-gen Treo or Blackberry pretty cheaply on Ebay- just don't use the phone or email and you've got a great cheap messaging platform. You can even find a brand new Nokia 6822 there for about US$100 - pretty much the smallest package that you'll find with a QWERTY keyboard.

I actually went to the article and this is what greeted me: http://www.trustedreviews.com/images/article/summa ry/4414.jpg

This pup doesn't look that big to me!

I just snagged the Dell 2407WFP for about $800

Dell 2407WFP
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/06/23/Dell_U ltrasharp_2407WFP_monito/1.html

According to that review, it's generally the same as the Samsung 244T, though the Samsung has better color

Samsung 244T
http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=266 2

Chaos page in list

I remember this game only after reading that... and man, yeah it was great. I think I got the whole game free on a cover cassette of Your Sinclair!

That really brought back memories, and just for that I thank those guys for their lists. :)

Jesus, check their logo.

intel(r)
core(tm)
inside(tm)

This requires talent. I just hope we don't run out of words we can use seeing how businesses trademark them one by one.

It's on the last page of the review. And it's very bad (a laptop that can't even run 2 hours on a battery charge?)

As you can see, he was truly shocked.

/ probably at his sweet new ability to render metal nips
// i believe these figures from the article specify metal nipple rendering in the tera-nip range.
///totally sweet

As you can see, he was truly shocked.

/ probably at his sweet new ability to render metal nips
// i believe these figures from the article specify metal nipple rendering in the tera-nip range.
///totally sweet

As you can see, he was truly shocked.

/ probably at his sweet new ability to render metal nips
// i believe these figures from the article specify metal nipple rendering in the tera-nip range.
///totally sweet

You keep referring to the "tard-box" over and over again, but you insist it costs $600. Your bias is showing.

The so called "tard-box" costs $500. Get your facts straight. And I don't believe Sony ever once promised dual HDMI outputs.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/images/article/inlin e/2614-PS3.jpg

That was the first picture they released with the outputs. They did remove one of the gigabit networking ports since it was a feature that few people seemed interested in. However, you claim they "lied" about their specs.

The only fabrication of facts I'm seeing is in your post.

Dell, HP, Panasonic, and Sony all make crappy PC's compared to an Apple product. Apple is super stable and hold their resale value in ways that even a gold plated Alineware laptop can only dream of.

obviously you have never used a Panasonic Toughbook

You mean one of these?

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=779 /

Wow. That's the biggest bit of flamebait I've seen in a long time... Let's break it down, point by point.

Because your modern Windows machine will traditionally have a more powerful AMD processor.

While AMD is indeed outselling Intel in the 'retail desktop' market, there is nothing 'traditional' about this, it's a recent turn of events. And by most counts, the Pentium-M and Core Duo are at least a match for the latest AMDs. Yes, the Pentium 4/Pentium D suck. That's why Intel is abandoning that core.

AMD's solutions, even the mobile ones, outperform Intel consistently at low prices.

Ah, AMD fanboy speak. I'm sorry, but Core Duo simply spanks any available AMD mobile solution. Check out some reviews (Core Duo 2 GHz, ATI X1400 scores 2092 3DMark05's, and... Oh, wait, I can't find any reviews of a dual-core mobile AMD with current-generation graphics... Sorry. The best I could find was 1203 3DMark05's for a 1.6 GHz Turion with AMD X700 graphics. I looked for over half an hour. Only one review of an AMD-equipped laptop without integrated graphics. And AMD doesn't offer dual-core mobile at any price.

It'll possibly have more RAM, better integrated graphics, and so on.

possibly? You can choose the amount of RAM you want... Better integrated graphics? Look again. Apple has X1600 at 128 or 256 MB of VRAM. I only found one non-chipset graphics on an AMD notebook, and it was 64 MB X700. Although I did find an Alienware with a desktop processor and video chip for significantly more than a MacBook Pro (when configured with the slowest dual-core processor, and all other specs equal to the MacBook.)

Moreso - it will be customisable and easy to optimise the hardware for gaming purposes.

Yes, and most of the customizations are necessary to bring it to the minimum level of the MacBook; and my 2.0 GHz Core Duo and 256 MB ATI X1600 will be just horrible for gaming. I mean, for crying out loud, the Alienware $2500 portable gaming monster only comes with 256 MB of system memory by default!

... it's still a Mac and they paid way more money for less computing power than the regular Windows...

If it's the same hardware, then it's the same computing power. You can install Linux on a Mac just as a Windows machine. And, again, configure the same between a PC company and a MacBook Pro, and you'll find that you're not paying 'way more' money. Maybe a little more, but as I like 'thin and light', it's worth it to me. (And, as I mentioned, if you configure an Alienware the same, it ends up significantly more expensive.) Nobody ever said Apple was a 'cheap' supplier. They're at the same level as Alienware, or Dell's XPS series. Or compare to a ThinkPad or a Sony. Those are the same 'level' of computer as a Mac. Don't compare to a Compaq or a generic.

OK, how about this? Sure it may not have a light up keyboard, but I think I can live without that. Comes with 2GB of RAM, a 120GB drive, 256MB of video ram, double layer DVD burner (take that Apple!), bluetooth 2, built in webcam, etc etc. It's about the same size, but does weigh a little more. The specs beat out the MacBook in pretty much every aspect, and it costs roughly the same.

Oops. Pasted the wrong link for Trusted Reviews; the correct direct link is here, and here's a link to Bit tech's review with a photo of the chip in question with its cover off, for those who get excited by such things... :)

But if you're naive about the net and you go online maybe once a month...then you're a raw piece of meat in a pool full of sharks.

I am one of those naive that really don't have a clue what hardware review sites to trust. My comfort is that I am probably far from alone, in this matter.

To assist me and other naives(sp?), please join this silly poll and review the following sites (regarding credibility) with a scale ranging from 1 to 10, where 1 is "No credibility at all" and 10 is "Perfect credibility, these guys wouldn't post a biased review for world domination":

About PC Hardware Reviews
Ace's Hardware
Anandtech
Ars Technica
Beyond 3D
Cnet Reviews
Dan's Data
Dev Hardware
Extremetech
Firingsquad
[H]ard|OCP
Hardware Analysis
Hardwarecentral
Hardwarezone
IT Reviews
OcPrices
Overclockers.com
ProCooling.com
The Tech Report
The Tech Zone
Tom's Hardware
TrustedReviews
Viperlair
Xtreme Resources

If you know only a few of them, give your opinion on those.

Maybe someone with the right facilities could set up an independent poll?

// didn't RTFA :-)
//// no interest in trustedreviews.com either, just thought the name was funny
////// sosumi

So it's a phony UL certification label.

UL tightly controls what appears on a UL label. Only authorized UL label printers can print them, and only when UL authorizes a specific label. UL even insists on approving the label layout. No way did that label go through UL approval.

If you look at the Taiwan Youngyear line of power supplies, you won't find anything that matches the Ultra XConnect unit. The UltraXconnect has a bay of power outlets for DC power, and all the Taiwan Youngyear supplies have the usual cables and connectors hanging out.

Ultra may be buying Taiwan Youngyear power supplies, opening them up, modifying them by adding their own connector bay, and relabeling the product. But that makes them a manufacturer. They have to get their own UL certification after they've moldified up the box.

And for good reason. Remember, this power supply blew up when loaded to its rated load.

• The HIPER HP3S350 appears to be the first of the phonies. The label has the UL "recognized component mark" (the reversed-R U symbol), but there's no UL certification number. That's an indication of a phony; all UL marks must be accompanied by a UL certification number, an E followed by digits. Certification numbers can be easily checked with UL here.

  Looking up HIPER in the UL database, HIPER has a few products listed, but none of them are computer power supplies. So that's a brand to avoid.

• Jeantech's power supply label also has the UL component logo without a certification number. They're not in the UL database at all. Uh oh.

• The Seasonic SS 400-FB power supply has a proper UL marking, and the certification number E104405 is in the UL certification database. There's not an exact match on model; an SS-400FS was certified and this is an SS-400FB. That's sloppy, but this company is clearly trying to comply.

• SilentMax has no UL logo at all. It blew up under test. It's clear why that one doesn't have a UL certification.

• The Ultra Xconnect blew up under test. There's a UL marking, but no file number, on the label. Ultra Products has no listings in the UL database. So that's another phony.

Consistently, every power supply with a valid UL mark passed. And every power supply that blew up lacked a valid UL mark.

UL tests power supplies by loading them up to their rated load at their maximum rated temperature and running them for hours or days. They also test for safe behavior if short circuited, overloaded, or overvoltaged. They're not concerned with power quality, just safety. The device must not blow up or catch fire, even after a single component failure.

Report phony UL marks to UL at 1-877-UL-HELPS (854-3577). They arrange for seizure at U.S. Customs, and catch about $12 million a year of hazardous components, which are then crushed.

• The HIPER HP3S350 appears to be the first of the phonies. The label has the UL "recognized component mark" (the reversed-R U symbol), but there's no UL certification number. That's an indication of a phony; all UL marks must be accompanied by a UL certification number, an E followed by digits. Certification numbers can be easily checked with UL here.

  Looking up HIPER in the UL database, HIPER has a few products listed, but none of them are computer power supplies. So that's a brand to avoid.

• Jeantech's power supply label also has the UL component logo without a certification number. They're not in the UL database at all. Uh oh.

• The Seasonic SS 400-FB power supply has a proper UL marking, and the certification number E104405 is in the UL certification database. There's not an exact match on model; an SS-400FS was certified and this is an SS-400FB. That's sloppy, but this company is clearly trying to comply.

• SilentMax has no UL logo at all. It blew up under test. It's clear why that one doesn't have a UL certification.

• The Ultra Xconnect blew up under test. There's a UL marking, but no file number, on the label. Ultra Products has no listings in the UL database. So that's another phony.

Consistently, every power supply with a valid UL mark passed. And every power supply that blew up lacked a valid UL mark.

UL tests power supplies by loading them up to their rated load at their maximum rated temperature and running them for hours or days. They also test for safe behavior if short circuited, overloaded, or overvoltaged. They're not concerned with power quality, just safety. The device must not blow up or catch fire, even after a single component failure.

Report phony UL marks to UL at 1-877-UL-HELPS (854-3577). They arrange for seizure at U.S. Customs, and catch about $12 million a year of hazardous components, which are then crushed.