February 2005 Archives

Dell's second new laptop announcement is targeted straight at gamers who use laptops, not the largest market segment but a fast growing one as gaming capabilites of laptops exceed last years fastest desktop PCs.

The Dell Inspiron XPS 2 (second generation of the XPS) is big and heavy (8.6 pounds) but not as big or ugly as the previous XPS.

The XPS 2 is also a big leap forward over the XPS in terms of technology, sporting the Sonoma chipset (instead of a desktop P4 chip), DDR2 RAM, 256MB GeForce Go 6800 PCI-Express graphics, 17" 1920 x 1200 widescreen LCD, and a load of LEDs that you can change the color of (and presumably make the laptop run faster??).

The XPS2 laptop is available now from Dell starting at a substantially wallet breaking $2,749.

Current Dell Deals

Dell has just announced a pair of nice new laptops: The XPS2 and the inspiron 9300.

The Dell Inspiron 9300 is Dell's first Media Center Edition laptop (if you upgrade the OS when ordering) and can be supplied with an optional external TV tuner, but mostly this is just a very high spec, lots of bang for the buck, desktop-replacement laptop.

The Dell Inspiron 9300 replaces the Inspiron 9200 (yes, logic is one of our strong points) which has itself only been out short while. It features lots of new technology including the Sonoma chipset (the replacement for Centrino), 533Mhz DDR2 RAM, (optional) 256MB GeForceFX 6800 Go PCI-Express video, and a whopping 17 inch LCD that comes in two resolutions, 1152x864 or 1600x1200.

Equally whopping is the weight: 7.85lb so you wont be carrying around everywhere, but if you are an occasioanl traveler looking for a laptop this would be a great choice.

The Dell Inspiron 9300 starts at $1,599 and should be available on the Dell Site in mid-march.

Current Dell Deals

Technically it is known as the Sharp LC45GX6U, but to us it is 45 inches of High Definition LCD TV goodness.

We saw it in person at the CES show in Vegas, and opened our wallet. Yes, we didnt blag, beg, borrow, or steal this to review, we bought it, for you our loyal readers (well maybe we bought it for ourselves as well!).

Here's is the short review:

Wow! this thing f**king rocks!

A long review will follow next week.

So, we think a lot of people were disappointed by yesterday's iPod mini updates, especially as we had been hoping for a color screen.

Don't despair completely though, Think Secret has some speculation about future upgrades to the ipod mini line.....

8gb and 10gb 1-inch hard drives will be shipping later this year so they think that Christmas will see an 8 or 10 gb iPod mini with a color screen, and around the same time we should also see the regular iPod head up to 80gb storage.

Time to be good boys and girls and start writing to Santa to let him know what you want.

Think Secret Speculation

Along with today's iPod mini announcement Apple has announced a new iPod Photo, this is another evolutionary announcement rather than a revolutionary one.... maybe Apple sets the bar too high with their product releases but a lot of people were expecting more.

The iPod color now comes in two hard drive sizes, 30gb for $349 or 60gb for $449 and they have added a couple of new features such as the ability to directly import photos from your digital camera (using an option $29 cable).

Linky to Apple's Press Release

Ok, we love our iPod mini but considering that the only things keeping its sales up are the hype and its good looks we're amazed Apple did so little with the new version to help it compete with the multitude of competitors who have better software, larger hard drives, more features, color screens, etc etc.

So what do we get with the new version: hard drive size upped from 4gb to 6gb, better battery life (which it did really need), and the writing on the scroll wheel now matches the color of the mini. Oh, and they ditched the gold color no-one liked and made the green blue and pink brighter.

Someone catch me, I'm about to feint with all the excitement.

The new mini, priced the same as the old mini, $249.

(and if you still want an old mini they have cut the price on those to $199).