High Technology Product Reviews | Trends and News

When I think of high-end mainstream laptops, brands like Apple's MacBook Pro, Dell's XPS, and Asus's U-Series are usually what come to mind. Another rising star in this category is the HP Envy 14-1110NR ($1,050 list), found at Staples. As its name suggests, it's the 14-inch version of HP's Envy line, lavished with features such as a glass-covered screen, a backlit keyboard, and some of the fastest components available. There are some lingering issues with the gesture touchpad, and the system is a little on the heavy side. Otherwise, the Envy 14-1110NR is a viable mainstream laptop for sophisticated users. Design Anodized aluminum is the recurring theme in HP laptops. The Envy 14 is covered in it, whereas laptops like the Asus U45Jc-A1 ($867 street, 4.5 stars) and HP Pavilion dm4-1160us ($849.98 list, 4 stars) only use it on the cover and palm rest area. The design concept is similar to the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz) ($1,199 direct, 4 stars), i

There's no doubt that the Apple iMac (Core i3) ($1,199 list, 4 stars) and its brothers have affected all-in-one desktop design. The HP Compaq 6000 Pro All-in-One Business PC ($1,109 list) takes some of the iMac's most distinctive design features, and puts it on an enterprise-class PC. It has the power to produce everything from Web sites to Word docs to digital photos. If you're looking for an all-in-one desktop to spruce up or save space in your office, then take a long hard look at the HP Compaq 6000 Pro. Design and Features The HP is encased in a black plastic chassis rather than the sleek aluminum found on the Apple iMac. Its 21.5-inch widescreen display has a 16:9 aspect ratio. The screen has tilt movement on a single-piece arm, just like on the iMac. The open design of the arm allows you to place the wireless keyboard under the screen for easy storage. This feature, in my opinion, should be mandatory in other all-in-one desktops, especially when users are space-con

You know that thing where you just tap your credit card to pay for stuff at the store? That functionality will be coming to smartphones in the U.S., this time apparently for real, via a national phone payment network called Isis, spearheaded by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Besides negating the need to pull out your credit card, the "mobile wallet" in your phone is planned to incorporate reward cards, coupons, tickets, and transit passes. Isis will use near-field communication (NFC) technology to make payments. NFC encrypts data for very short-range transmission – a matter of inches. When you need to pay, just launch the Isis app, wave your phone over the machine and you've paid up. The idea of using your phone to make payments isn't new -- Japan's FeliCa has been around for years – but it's been slow to take hold in America. There have been many pilot programs for cell phone payments over the last decade, but none have gained traction. This time, thou

A two-headed calf might cause a sensation at the State Fair, but two-headed antivirus tools are more and more common. The concept makes sense. By integrating two antivirus engines into a single product you get better detection without the potential conflicts from using two separate antivirus tools. TrustPort Antivirus 2011 ($34.10 direct) integrates two well-known antivirus engines, but doesn't demonstrate any real benefit from the pairing. Double Anti-Spy Professional v2 ($29 direct, 4 stars) another twin-engine antivirus, labels its two engines "A" and "B" (though it's no secret that A comes from Sunbelt and B is a combination of Agnitum and VirusBuster). TrustPort clearly identifies its engines by name. One is the engine behind AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 (Free, 3.5 stars), and the other powers BitDefender Antivirus Pro 2011 ($39.95 direct for three licenses, 3.5 stars). Specifications Type Personal OS Compatibility Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows

To the casual observer, there's nothing particularly slim about the new Sony PlayStation 3's ($299.99 direct) sleek black housing—it's only when you compare it with its nearly three-year-old counterpart, the previous-gen PS3, that you see how much smaller it is. The bigger news here, however, is the $100 price drop; the original PS3 retailed for $600 when it launched in 2006, and up until last week, the least-expensive PS3 you could buy was $400—and that was for a console with an 80GB hard drive. A more-reasonable $300 now buys you an incredible gaming device that's more compact, sports a roomier 120GB hard drive, and is one of the best Blu-ray players you can find. In general, the new PlayStation 3 offers a near-identical experience to the previous-generation console, which, incidentally, is still available, but for $100 less. It's also $299.99, but with the larger case and a smaller hard drive (80GB), it's hard to see why anyone would opt for it over the PS3

The first Windows Phone for T-Mobile, the HTC HD7 ($199 with contract) is a big, beautiful device well-suited for media and gaming. Like AT&T's Samsung Focus ($199, 4 stars), it steps out of the way to let Windows Phone 7's beautiful graphic design take center stage. But the HD7 still needs a few improvements, and we still recommend T-Mobile's more mature Android devices over this first-generation Windows phone. Physical Features and Call Quality The HD7's defining feature is its huge, 800-by-480, 4.3-inch LCD screen. It's big, all right, but it's no higher-resolution than any other Windows Phone 7 screen (even those that are physically smaller), and it's dimmer than the Samsung Focus's AMOLED screen. The phone itself is big at 4.8 by 2.7 by 0.4 inches (HWD), but not quite as big as Verizon's huge Motorola Droid X ($199, 4.5 stars). At 5.7 ounces, it's plenty hefty as well. Specifications Service Provider T-Mobile Operating System Wi