High Technology Product Reviews | Trends and News

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...

It seems as if Google is concerned, once again, about developing a social network which will enable it to compete with Microsoft's conjunction with Facebook. This is going to be the comedy act of the year. Numerous articles floating around seem to promote the idea that Google may be unable to compete with the likes of Bing once the great social network of Facebook opens the kimono to Microsoft. The argument states: because there is so much personal information about me on Facebook (I actually don't have a Facebook account), that when I search for something on Bing, a cloud of personal information can be analyzed to improve search results. However, nothing could be further from the truth. First of all, it doesn't make any sense. If I am looking for a schedule of events in San Francisco, what does my Facebook data have to do with it? If I am trying to find the exact date Thomas Jefferson was born, then what does Facebook have to do with it? This entire gambit is unfort...

Windows Phone 7 is a brand-new thing. Microsoft's total mobile OS reboot is bold and fresh. It's also definitely a Version 1.0. Zune fans will be immediately impressed, but for everyone else, buying into Windows Phone 7 is taking a gamble that Microsoft will sand away the rough edges quickly. For now, Windows Phone 7 is arriving on six phones in the U.S.: the Samsung Focus ($199.99, 4 stars), HTC Surround ($199.99, 3 stars) and LG Quantum on AT&T; the HTC HD7 and Dell Venue Pro on T-Mobile; and the HTC 7 Pro on Sprint. Verizon has said it may support the OS in 2011, but hasn't made any clear commitments. All the initial Windows Phone 7 models have a lot in common. They run on the Qualcomm QSD8250, 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 chipset. They all have 800-by-480 screens, 5-megapixel cameras, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and FM radios. They vary in terms of hardware keyboards, phone performance, camera quality, preloaded software, and available storage. The Basic Interface Windows Phone ...

Sony E Series Walkman (NWZ-E353) MP3 player is very reasonably priced. Not only do you get 4GB of storage, a 2-inch screen, and photo and video support, but for far less than the new Apple iPod nano ($149; 8GB, 2.5 stars), which has a smaller 1.54-inch screen and offers no video support at all. Sony could have stopped there and had a modest-but-cheap product on its hands, and that's what the company did. The Archos 3cam vision ($99; 8GB, 3.5 stars) has a video recorder and Samsung's YP-R0 ($99.99; 8GB, 3.5 stars) has a better user interface and earphones than your average budget player, but the E Series is no-frills device. It's works well, but is a bit boring when compared with other low-price players. Specifications Storage Capacity (as Tested) 4 GB Player Type Flash MP3 Player Radio Yes Music Playback Formats AAC, MP3, WMA, Protected WMA Photo formats JPEG Video Formats WMV Dimensions 3.7 x 1.75 x 0.4 inches Design and Features Sony's E Series NWZ-E...

The $499.95 Fujifilm Finepix Real 3D W3 is a true 3D camera—it packs two lenses and two image sensors into a pocket-friendly build. The W3 snaps large 10-megapixel 3D images, and shoots 3D video in 720p24 high-definition that you can view in 3D on the camera's LCD, or on a 3D HDTV or a 3D-enabled PC. With the touch of a button, the W3 also becomes a capable (though expensive and somewhat bulky) 2D camera. The W3 is not a difficult camera to operate, but shooting photos that look good in 3D can be challenging. Not every image you shoot is going to look good in 3D—in fact, most images I shot during testing were very difficult to view, and some actually hurt my eyes to look at. Specifications Type Compact Megapixels 10 MP Media Format Secure Digital High Capacity 35-mm Equivalent (Wide) 35 35-mm Equivalent (Telephoto) 105 Optical Zoom 3 x LCD size 3.5 inches Wireless Connectivity No HD Video Capture Yes Design and Features Other than the two lenses, the camera loo...

Some multi-function printers (MFPs, aka all-in-ones or AIOs) deliver lots of features. Others emphasize high-quality print output. The Brother MFC-9320CW ($500 street) focuses squarely on speed, with the fastest overall time on our tests for its price class. If print speed is one of your key concerns, this may be just the color MFP you're looking for. The MFC-9320CW is an LED printer, a category that's usually grouped with lasers, because it's basically a variation on the same technology. The difference is that instead of using lasers, LED printers use LEDs to draw the image of each page as the first step in printing. Specifications Printer Category Laser Type All-In-One Color or Monochrome 1-pass color Technology (for laser category only) LED Connection Type USB, Ethernet, Wireless Maximum Standard Paper Size Legal Direct Printing from Cameras Yes Rated speed at Default Resolution (Mono) 17 ppm Rated Speed at Default Resolution (Color) 17 ppm Standal...