High Technology Product Reviews | Trends and News

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...

Has someone already won the $2,000 bounty for delivering open-source drivers that work with Microsoft's recently released Kinect motion-tracking system? Odds are looking good! Here's the background. Adafruit Industries announced a $2,000 prize last week for anyone who managed to hack into the Kienct in an effort to unlock the device for use with hardware other than the Xbox 360. In short, here's the official challenge: "Upload your code, examples and documentation to GitHub. First person / group to get RGB out with distance values being used wins, you're smart – you know what would be useful for the community out there. All the code needs to be open source and/or public domain." Well, user AlexP over at the NUI Group Community Forums has posted a video that appears to show a Kinect being controlled via a standard PC interface. That's the only background we have so far, so it remains to be seen whether the potential submission will actually fulfill all ...

We meet again with Lenovo product reviews . The Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150 ($399 direct) is a simply designed nettop, made to be placed on your desk or bolted behind an HDTV or large LCD monitor. It's one of the best Web video/photo/music media consumption devices out there, once you've hooked up to a big screen. Design and Features At 6.75 by 0.80 by 6 inches (HWD), the Q150 is even more compact than tiny PCs like the Apple Mac mini ($699 list, 4.5 stars) or eMachines Mini-e ER1402-05 ($299.99 list, 4 stars). It has no distinctive features, easily blending in with any decor. The Q150 looks like a black silicone trivet you'd keep in your kitchen to prevent hot pans from damaging your table. Because of its slim form, you could bolt it to the back of a large screen monitor or HDTV with the included VESA mounting bracket. Once bolted to the back of a big screen, the display effectively becomes a large all-in-one PC. Specifications Type Multimedia, Digital Entertainment Syst...

If you're looking to spend $500 period, then the eMachines EL1352-10e ($499.99), a Costco desktop, is a complete desktop PC that includes a 20-inch widescreen monitor in a single box. It's more capable than other nettops in its price range, plus it's still more compact than most of the mini-towers out there. The EL1352 is a good example of a simple PC that can serve many functions for a decent price. Specifications Type Value Processor Family AMD Athlon II RAM 3 GB Storage Capacity (as Tested) 300 GB Graphics Card nVidia GeForce 6150 SE Primary Optical Drive Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Design The EL1352 is a compact, small form factor (SFF) desktop PC with enough space inside for a full-sized DVD burner and internal hard drive. Contrast this with the eMachines Mini-e ER1402-05 ($299.99 list, 4 stars), which is a nettop you can hide behind an HDTV. The Mini-e and nettops like it are so compact because it uses a noteb...

The Polywell MiniBox X5800x-3D ($2,099 street, $2,499 with 23-inch monitor) is a jack-of-all-trades desktop PC: It can be used for gaming, multimedia tasks, movie watching, and it's tagged with the latest of buzzwords, 3D. It has Intel's quad-core i7-930 CPU, Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 graphics, Blu-ray, and a very spacious hard drive. While it's a little pricey for a game box, nomadic gamers should look at this system for use at home and at LAN parties. specialized Otherwise you should look at alternative systems to save money or consider something with more expandability. Specifications ----------------------- Type Gaming, Mainstream, Digital Entertainment System Processor Family Intel Core i7 RAM 6 GB Storage Capacity (as Tested) 2000 GB RAID No Graphics Card nVidia GeForce GTX 480 Primary Optical Drive Blu-Ray Disc Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Design and Features At 9.12 by 7.12 by 9.25-inch (HWD), the X5800x-3D is compact compared w...

With a generous feature set and a sub-$1,000 price tag, the HP Pavilion Elite HPE-410y ($929.99 street) desktop, available at Best Buy, should meet the needs of a wide range of users. The 1TB hard drive can store tons of media, the Blu-ray drive can dish out gorgeous-looking high-def movies, and the Wi-Fi radio will let you work wirelessly. Application performance is decent as well; but you can find better performing desktops in the same price range. Specifications Type Gaming, Mainstream, Multimedia Processor Family AMD Athlon II RAM 8 GB Storage Capacity (as Tested) 1000 GB Graphics Card ATI Radeon HD 5570 Primary Optical Drive Blu-Ray Disc Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Design Nearly all HP Pavilion desktops apply a subtle variation on a theme of a black metal chassis with a glossy black plastic front bezel. The HPE-410y's mid-tower case follows suit, and, in fact, uses the identical design as the HP Pavilion Elite HPE-447c-b ($1,349.99 list, ...

Design and Features The i560-3910NBK is built into the same glossy black chassis that I've seen before in previous Inspiron 560 and 580 desktops. The optical drives, front USB ports, and media card reader are hidden behind a door, presenting a sleek front panel to the user. You will need a screwdriver to get under the hood, but once inside you have room for upgrades. There's space for one optical drive, one hard drive, two SATA ports for the drives, two PCIe x1 cards, a PCI card, and a PCIe x16 graphics card. Just about the only thing you can't upgrade is the memory, since all the slots are filled. However, 8GB should suffice for 90 percent of users out there. Out back, there are the usual ports: Audio, VGA, 4 USB 2.0 ports, and a port for the power plug. What's out of the ordinary is the included HDMI port, a rarity in entry-level desktops. The desktop comes with a 500GB (7,200rpm) hard drive, a capacity that used to be found only on expensive desktops, and more than ...