Filed under: Robots

Back in November, we knew things weren’t looking up for the twin Mars rovers, but it seems that both Spirit and Opportunity will still be doing their respective thangs after a letter foreshadowing their doom was rescinded. Reportedly, the entity was tasked to slash $4 million from the project’s budget just yesterday, which would have forced Spirit into hibernation and limited Opportunity’s opportunities by mandating that commands be sent up every other day (versus everyday now). As it stands, NASA has issued a confirmation that neither creature will be affected, but given the apparent belt-tightening, we’re curious as to whether Scarecrow will still see liftoff next year.

[Via Physorg]

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Filed under: Laptops

Sure, Acer may be marketing its Extensa lineup to small business owners, but there’s nothing that says bargain hunters can get in on one, too. The 14.1-inch Extensa 4620 comes loaded with Windows XP Professional (sorry, Vista aficionados), 1GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive, dual-layer DVD burner, 802.11a/b/g WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, a 56k modem, GMA 3100 graphics chipset and a six-cell Li-ion good for around two hours. The first of the two 4620 iterations (that’d be the 6294, break out the pencils!) sports an Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 CPU, while the 4620-4054 rocks a T2310. According to Acer, both of the lappies are available now throughout North America for $799 and $699, respectively.

[Via I4U News]

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Filed under: Displays

Ingram Micro just kicked out an oddball, budget monitor under their V7 brand. How budget? Very. The 24-inch D24W33 has an MSRP of $459. That takes home a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution, 1,000:1 reported contrast, 250cd/m2 brightness, 160-degree viewing angles, quick 2 millisecond response, and choice of analog VGA or HDMI inputs. Yes, HDMI… no DVI or DisplayPort in sight. So if you want a rich, digital link from your laptop or PC you’ll have to get a DVI to HDMI cable and burn that HDMI port. Too bad, ’cause that leaves nothing for your game console or other HDMI video source. Dell’s own budget $469 E248WFP features the same 24-inches and analog VGA input but with HDCP-enabled DVI, a slower (5-ms) response, but brighter (400cd/m2) image. So what will you do when it ships in January?

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Laptops

Although it’s no $300 Gateway, Fujitsu’s LifeBook V1010 does manage to come with a bit more oomph than the aforementioned cheapie. Designed for “price-conscious markets,” this machine can be had starting at $799, and it offers up a 15.4-inch WXGA panel, 1.86GHz Intel T2130 processor, Windows XP, GMA 950 graphics set, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 120GB SATA drive, 59k modem / Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g support, a dual-layer DVD writer, and a six-cell Li-ion rated for 2.25-hours of usage. Granted, you can spend more than eight Benjamins if you’d like, but at least the base configuration won’t break the bank too badly.

[Via Laptoping]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!