digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/VIDEO_Apple_Nehalem_based_Mac_Pro_unboxing_and_hands_on’; Here she is, fresh off the Saturday Express. Apple’s latest Mac Pro is said to be significantly more nimble and entirely easier to upgrade than its Penryn-based predecessor, and while it’ll take us a few days yet to check out the former claim, we can already assure you that the second one is valid. Upon unboxing this beast (to be fair, it’s not all that monstrous), we immediately dug within the cover to see what was up with Apple’s new tray system. Rather than forcing users to squeeze their hands into unfathomably tight places just to pop in a new DIMM or add in a fresh 2TB hard drive, the engineers at Cupertino found a way to place all eight RAM slots on a removable tray, meaning that you can actually take that piece elsewhere and operate under better lighting. The tray was dead simple to remove and replace, and while it’s a small inclusion, it’s definitely an appreciated one. We’ll be stressing this thing out and writing up a more thorough review soon, but for now, enjoy the snapshots / video below and after the break, respectively.

Continue reading Video: Apple Nehalem-based Mac Pro unboxing and hands-on

Filed under: Desktops

Video: Apple Nehalem-based Mac Pro unboxing and hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that it’s official and priced, Panasonic seems much happier to show off its wireless HD-sporting, ultra-thin Z1 series, and it’s quite the sight to behold. The 54Z1 we got to look at was very strikingly clad in brushed metal gray — compared to the regular black of most of Panasonic’s TV lineup — and of course incredibly thin. The wireless HD receiver box was across the room and working flawlessly, and it was nice to see that the included remote is an RF unit, capable of non-line-of-sight channel changing — it’s starting to feel like the 21st century around here! The plasma picture was of course very good, and we’re really feeling those Viera Tools icons across the bottom. $6,000 though? That’s your call.

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Wireless

Panasonic’s ultra-thin 54Z1 plasma in the wild originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We were able to spot a few of Panasonic’s latest innovations in the home theater space back at CES 2009, but we got a much more intimate look at things during a recent New York showcase. The new Blu-ray decks look nice, if not a touch plain. Not that everyone wants an Alienware-esque BD deck or anything, but we digress. The Blu-ray HTIB systems were particularly of interest, as these things are perfect for sneaking BD into homes that are currently DVD-only, and while we longed for more information on the portable DMP-B15, the on-hand reps didn’t seem too anxious to gush over technical specifications with us. Their loss, totally.

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Panasonic CES 2009 Blu-ray / HTIB lineup eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already investigated every single nook and crannie involved in Sony Ericsson’s 12 megapixel Idou, but here’s something we haven’t seen: an associated stylus. It’s difficult to tell at the moment if SE plans to toss this in with the Idou (or whatever it ends being called) like Nokia did when it threw in a guitar pick with the 5800 XpressMusic, but either way, you can consider our interest piqued. Not that we’re fans of using a stylus over our own digits, mind you, but we are fond of random, if not unnecessary accessories. Save the lecture, we realize that’s odd.

[Thanks, Jesper]

Filed under: Cellphones

Sony Ericsson’s Idou stylus gets pictured, piques interests originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just nabbed one of Apple’s new button-free iPod shuffles, and in case you were wondering: yes, it’s really small. We’re gonna play around a bit with the VoiceOver navigation and get you our full impressions in a few, but at first glance we think this is totally usable, especially for the shuffle’s sweaty target demographic. Also: it’s really small.

Update: In-depth impressions are after the break, along with video!

Continue reading New iPod shuffle first hands-on (with video!)

Filed under: Portable Audio

New iPod shuffle first hands-on (with video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The nice folks at Gateway were good enough to send over a fresh-out-of-the-oven P-7808u FX, their newest entry into a now-long lineage of gaming laptops. This $1699 machine replaces the similarly-priced P7811FX that we took a look at a few months ago and, like its older brother, packs some serious gaming-for-your-buck. Who are we to keep you from some delicious unboxing and hands-on dirtiness?

The latest FX sits in the same case as the P-7811 FX, including the gaudy black and orange effects that remind us of an 80s Chevy Monte Carlo (look it up, you’ll see what we mean). We’re ready for Gateway to leave this design behind — the FX deserves a new dress, because, really, she has a great personality. Gateway has kept the 5-in-1 multicard reader, HDMI port, triple USB 2.0 plugs, and handy eSATA port while adding a 9-cell battery that provides longer portable gaming time of around four hours. Don’t expect to throw this giant into a backpack any time soon, as the P-7808u FX weighs in at a bag-busting 9 pounds while a 17-inch widescreen monitor sits above a full-size keyboard complete with numpad.

Continue reading Gateway P-7808u FX gaming laptop unboxing and hands-on

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

Gateway P-7808u FX gaming laptop unboxing and hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s really not enough to say about Apple’s newly spec-bumped iMac to warrant a full-on review — sure, it’s got faster processors and some newer video cards, but in day-to-day use it feels like basically the same machine first introduced in August of 2007. In fact, apart from the switch to mini DisplayPort and the removal of FireWire 400, we’re pretty sure you could swap in this new model for the older 2.4GHz 24-inch aluminum iMac we use as one of our daily drivers and we wouldn’t even know until we tried to render out some video or do some gaming — the marginal increase in power just isn’t all that noticeable in day-to-day tasks. If you ask Apple, they’ll tell you that the big story is that $1,499 now buys you a 24-inch screen — which, considering the historical lameness of the 20-inch iMac screen, is good news in more ways than one. We wanted to put our older model head-to-head with its modern analogue, though, so we opted to test the $1,799 2.93GHz version with GeForce GT 120 graphics — we didn’t quite get upgrade fever, but we’ll admit we thought about pulling a switcheroo once or twice. Read on!

Continue reading iMac (early 2009) in-depth impressions

Filed under: Desktops

iMac (early 2009) in-depth impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amongst many, many other things at CeBIT, ASUS also found time to showcase two new Eee Top all-in-one PCs, though it completely failed to make any deal of it at all. In fact, it didn’t even bother hosting up specifications placards, leaving us curious as to what these offer over the existing (and smaller) Eee Top machines. Aside from boasting 22- and 20-inch panels (respectively), NotebookItalia noticed that the ET2203 and ET2003 both included an HDMI socket and a Blu-ray optical drive, not to mention a natural affinity towards kitchens. We’ll keep an ear to the ground for more on these in the coming weeks, but for now, you’ll have to let ye old imagination handle the hard work.

Filed under: Desktops

ASUS showcases HD-minded Eee Top ET2203 and ET2003 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While wireless USB hasn’t exactly, um, taken off, there’s definitely still some promise here. We swung by the USB-IF’s booth today at CeBIT in order to have a look at a new single-chip Fujitsu Siemens’ solution along with IOGEAR’s recently released Wireless USB Audio / Video Kit. The former is mostly a European version of the Wisair Wireless USB Display Adapter Set, and while the latter seemed to work perfectly fine in the demo, the resolution was decidedly not 1080p. Nowhere close, actually. We reckon this stuff will get some real traction if and when two things happen: 1) the industry embraces it and begins embedding it into products (no one likes dongles, sorry!), and 2) when prices fall to reasonable levels. Can we get somebody on that, or what?

Filed under: Peripherals, Wireless

IOGEAR Wireless USB Audio / Video Kit, more wireless USB eyes-on at CeBIT originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A lot has changed in the TV widget world since we first caught wind of Intel’s CE 3100 processor and Gigabyte’s connected box that took advantage of it. Mainly, a metric ton of new players have emerged, and many companies are simply shoving the widget functionality within the HDTV and bypassing the extra set-top-box altogether. Nevertheless, Gigabyte had its Yahoo! Widgets box (the MD300) on hand this year at CeBIT, so we sashayed over to snap a few shots. At this point, it’s tough to say just how viable this thing is. On one hand, it’ll be nice to give existing HDTV owners the option of adding access to widgets; on the other, Gigabyte has to know that the appeal is limited now that almost every HDTV hitting the market has this functionality baked right in. Have a peek below, won’t you?

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

CE 3100-powered Gigabyte / Yahoo! widgets box eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ready for the duel of the 18.4-inchers at CeBIT? Just yesterday we took a look at Acer’s ginormous Aspire 8930, and today we popped in at Clevo’s booth to snap a few shots of its mammoth M980NU. While the girth was impossible to not notice, the palm rest, keyboard and top control panel were downright ritzy. Yeah, the all-gloss finish was a fingerprint magnet, but we can’t say it wasn’t drop-dead sexy when wiped clean. Regrettably, we couldn’t figure out how to get that incredibly annoying plastic lock thing off of the keys, so we can’t personally verify whether this thing can handle the stresses of Quake I. Sorry, we tried.

Filed under: Laptops

Clevo’s beastly 18.4-inch M980NU gaming laptop eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Storage

Pretec 32GB SDXC, 666x CF card and 64GB ExpressCard SSD eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We caught up with ASRock’s new entrant into the netbook world yesterday, but today it was all about the nettop. On display at the company’s CeBIT booth was this gem, the NetTop S330. Showcased in white and some strange, unusual other hue, the box was powered by an Intel Atom 330 processor and supports up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM. Other specs include a Super Multi DVD burner, gigabit Ethernet, 160GB 2.5-inch hard drive, audio in / out, VGA output and GMA950 graphics. We have to say, the design here is about as unimaginative as a nettop can get, but ASRock representatives informed us that it’ll be aiming at a lower-end market as the box should list for $399 or less depending on options. Anywho, feel free to poke around in the gallery below, and if you dig what you’re seeing, you can pick one up in America this April (or May if you’re in Europe).

Filed under: Desktops

ASRock debuts Atom 330-powered NetTop S330: eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There it is, folks — the BeBook 2. We knew Endless Ideas was bringing its next-generation BeBook to CeBIT, but we had no idea it’d be this well under wraps. We chatted with the company’s CEO and managing director a bit about the direction of the BeBook as a whole, and they’re very much believers in keeping format support wide open and giving readers the choice of where to pull content from. We were blessed with a few minutes of hands-on time with the new and improved e-reader, and while the software was still not finalized (thus our inability to photograph it more), we were impressed with what we saw.

The next iteration of the BeBook should be a serious contender in the e-reader market, particularly in Europe where Amazon’s Kindle has yet to invade. The inclusion of WiFi and 3G is a good move (great move, actually), as those two additions open up all sorts of possibilities that non-connected readers simply can’t access. As for the device itself? We’re digging it. The build quality felt remarkably sturdy, the aesthetics were beautiful and the thinness was certainly notable. The e-ink display has also stepped up the greyscale level from the original BeBook, and battery life should remain the same despite not being as bulky. As you can tell, the screen also supports doodling, and it tracked inputs as well as we could’ve hoped. We still couldn’t pry out a price, but you can be on the lookout for this to drop worldwide somewhere in the Q3 to Q4 2009 time frame.

Filed under: Displays, Handhelds

BeBook 2 e-reader revealed and in the wild at CeBIT 2009! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer’s mammoth Aspire 8930 was on hand at CeBIT, and all 18.4-inches of it demanded an entire end of a pedestal. This one’s been rolling out to homes for a month or two now, but given just how ginormous this thing was, we couldn’t resist snapping a few shots and sharing ‘em with the masses. So, is this thing actually too big? Depends on the square footage of your domicile.

Filed under: Laptops

Acer Aspire 8930 gaming laptop eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Although it’s not the first 512GB 2.5-inch SSD we’ve heard of, A-DATA’s latest solid state drive is still in a rare class. We stopped by its booth today to see if the unit was on hand for CeBIT, and sure enough, there she was. We took a few shots and put ‘em down below — you know, just in case you don’t have the nerve to dissect your next SSD-equipped laptop.

Filed under: Storage

A-DATA 2.5-inch 512GB XPG SSD eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Peripherals, Storage

Corsair launches Voyager Port at CeBIT: eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A number of you bemoaned the fact that MSI’s WindBOX lacked an oh-so-necessary HDMI port, so maybe the better option for you is an LCD mounted Eee Box 206. Yep, the HD-minded mini PC was set up here in Hannover, with one of the units hosted up nicely on the rear of a flat-panel monitor. The fit was flush and the connections were easily accessible, so those looking for a nice, if not underpowered media center should definitely give this one a glance. Speaking of glances, you do cast some right now in the gallery below.

Filed under: Desktops

HDMI-equipped ASUS Eee Box 206 eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yesterday we took a peek at Acer’s hotly designed Altos storage box, and today we’re getting up close and personal with its easyStore H340 Windows Home Server. Generally speaking, the box looks almost identical to the aforementioned Altos, except it replaces the totally boss front cover with an entirely more drab and entirely more glossy replacement. Take a look within just there in the gallery.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Storage

Acer easyStore H340 Windows Home Server eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, well, what have we here? Yet another entrant into the decidedly oversaturated netbook market, that’s what. While waltzing through OCZ Technology’s CeBIT booth today, we happened upon the company’s very first netbook: Neutrino. After chuckling for a few at the empty Beck’s bottle beside it (hey, we’re in Germany!), we scoped out the specs (and chatted with an on-hand rep) and found that it will be shipping Stateside within nine or so weeks in two variations. The first is a “DIY” model, which will be “priced competitively” compared to similar sized netbooks and enable buyers to select their own RAM, HDD, etc; the alternative is an OCZ‘d-out edition, which will cater to high-end users who won’t mind the undisclosed price premium. The 10.1-inch machine will come loaded with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, a 945GSE chipset, up to 2GB of RAM, an optional 250GB OCZ SSD, 1,024 x 600 resolution LCD, VGA output, Ethernet, twin USB 2.0 ports, a 4-cell (2,200mAh) battery, WiFi and a 1.3 megapixel webcam. It’ll weigh in at 2.86 pounds and come with Ubuntu or WinXP, and while we weren’t thrilled with the trackpad performance, the keyboard was one of the nicest we’ve touched on a netbook, even nicer than the well spaced one on ASUS’ Eee PC 1000HE. Check out the gallery below for more looks.

Filed under: Laptops

OCZ launches first netbook with Neutrino, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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