Apple MacBook Air review 2010

The good: Amazingly slim design; great keyboard/trackpad combo; new iLife '11 software included; decent graphics performance; 16:9 display.

The bad: Pricey for an 11-inch laptop with an older processor; lacks backlit keyboard and SD card slot.

The bottom line: Apple makes the MacBook Air both smaller and less expensive, creating an excellent ultraportable, but leaving out a few features along the way.

 

Review:

Two of the most common wish-list items from prospective Apple customers have been a smaller, sub-13-inch MacBook, and a less-expensive version of the ultrathin MacBook Air. The new 11.6-inch version of the MacBook Air kills both birds with one stone, as the smallest current Apple laptop (there were 12-inch PowerBook models as recently as five years ago), and also lowering the entry price to $999, coincidentally, the same as the white basic 13-inch MacBook.
The end result is a laptop that feels like a cross between a traditional aluminum MacBook and the wave of upscale 11.6-inch premium Netbooks

Google Instant Hits Mac Chromium, Exits Labs On Windows — Full Chrome Feature Soon...!!

A month ago, when Google unveiled Instant, their new search-as-you-type feature, I thought it sounded great except for one little thing: I don’t use google.com that often to search anymore. That doesn’t mean I don’t use Google — I do — I just use it in Chrome’s Omnibox (the URL/Search box that’s baked into the browser). And I’m hardly alone there. When asked when Instant would be making it to browsers search boxes, Google stated that it would come “in the next few months“. Luckily for Chrome, that’s happening much quicker.

That really shouldn’t be a surprise considering that Google also makes Chrome. But it was still impressive that just 9 days later, an Instant test started showing up in the Labs area of Chromium (the open source browser behind Chrome). Sadly, it was a Windows-only test for the past several weeks. But as of the most recent nightly builds of Chromium (which is already on version 8), it’s now working on Macs too. And based on the progress on the Windows side of things, it looks as if it’s getting ready to roll into Chrome itself shortly.

To enable Instant in Chromium for Mac, you have to type “about:labs” into the Omnibox, and you’ll be taken to a page with the various Chrome Lab options. Once you enable Instant here and restart your browser, it will be ready to roll. It works just as Instant does on google.com — you start typing and Google search results start to appear in your browser window. One thing I didn’t realize though is that if you type a URL such as: techcrunch.com, it will immediately take you there without you having to hit enter as well. Nifty.

Meanwhile, over on the Windows side of things, Instant has already graduated out of Chrome Labs as of today. It now exists as an entry in the preferences section of Chromium and when the box is checked to use it, an info box pops up to let you know more about the feature, as Google Operating System points out.

Both of these updates likely mean that Instant will soon be making its way as a standard (optional) feature in Chrome itself. As for other browsers, they’ll undoubtedly need plug-ins to make Instant work, and you can bet Google is working on them as we speak.

Alienware M11x adds Core i5, i7, Nvidia Optimus \m/

The good: Solid gaming performance in a very compact form; improves on the original Core 2 Duo version; automatic Nvidia Optimus graphics switching; impressive built-in audio.

The bad: The Core i7 ULV processor is still slower than normal Core i7 processors; higher-end configs get too expensive; no optical drive for installing games.

The bottom line: Equipped with Nvidia Optimus technology and new Core i5 and i7 processors, the updated 11.6-inch Alienware M11x has improved performance, but it takes a small step forward, not a quantum leap.

Review:

One of 2010's laptop surprises, the Alienware M11x offered something new to challenge the divide between gaming PCs and regular computers. Pairing gaming graphics with a compact Netbook-size body for a starting price less than $1,000, and battery life that was actually good, this travel-friendly "gaming Netbook" redefined our expectations of what a portable computer could offer.
There were a few drawbacks: in our original review of the Alienware M11x, we noted that the gaming capabilities were good but not great. With a Core 2 Duo ULV CPU, it was a far cry from the blazing speed of ... Expand full review

One of 2010's laptop surprises, the Alienware M11x offered something new to challenge the divide between gaming PCs and regular computers. Pairing gaming graphics with a compact Netbook-size body for a starting price less than $1,000, and battery life that was actually good, this travel-friendly "gaming Netbook" redefined our expectations of what a portable computer could offer.

There were a few drawbacks: in our original review of the Alienware M11x, we noted that the gaming capabilities were good but not great. With a Core 2 Duo ULV CPU, it was a far cry from the blazing speed of its full-fledged and more expensive big brother, the Alienware M15x, and the processor's general capability to multitask was considerably slower than even the lowest-end versions of Intel's new Core i3/i5 laptop processors.

Dell's new iteration of the Alienware M11x, equipped with Intel Core i5 and i7 ULV processors and automatically switching Nvidia graphics with Optimus technology, are now available alongside the original M11x for a slightly higher price. The specs raised expectations for both increased speed and battery life in our review unit, which had a Core i7-U640 CPU and cost $1,299.

Though the new Core i7 ULV version of the Alienware M11x does offer improved operating speeds and frame rates for games, it's not a quantum leap. It's better than its predecessor, but its higher price may scare away mainstream gamers or people looking for better laptop value for their money. Still, if you want a nearly unmatched size-graphics combination, this could be the hybrid you're looking for. If you'd like to save a few hundred dollars, consider giving the still-available Core 2 Duo version of the M11x (which starts at $799) a look. The new Core i5/i7 iterations of the M11x start higher, at $949.

Well, for all thoz looking out for the N8....here you go....

Nokia's reputation as a leader in the smartphone market has been under increasing pressure in recent years, as a string of 'high end' handsets have failed to capture the minds and wallets of the phone-buying public.
So to fix that, Nokia's gone back to the drawing board to bring out the Nokia N8, featuring a new OS and a huge amount of high end tech packed under the hood.
Having announced the phone back in April, Nokia has been holding off on release to make sure the user experience is as good as possible.

But it needs to be very good indeed seeing as most other brands announce a phone then release it within weeks – we've been waiting nearly half a year for this one.

The underlying software has been improved and Symbian^3 builds on the previous iterations of the OS seen on the likes of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia X6, but adds in multiple home screens, widgets and an improved UI.
Hardware-wise, Nokia has pushed the boat out too with the new N8, offering a full metal chassis with anodised scratch-proof paint to give the phone a really high end feel.
It really is scratch-proof - rubbing keys on it produced no ill-effects, although the slider switch on the side can get its paint rubbed off over time.

However, with a 12MP camera with Xenon flash bolted on the back, it's not a super-slim device - it fits in the hand well enough but the dimensions 113.5 x 59 x 12.9 mm aren't going to rival the likes of the iPhone 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S, especially when being forced into more tightly fitting trousers.

The Nokia N8 also doesn't have a removable battery either - the full metal chassis is completely enclosed so unless you've got a very particular screwdriver, you're not getting in to replace any innards.

To that end, Nokia has put two hinged gates on the side of the N8, giving access to the microSD card slot and the SIM card port - both are quite hard to pull open (which isn't a bad thing as you're probably not going to be opening them very often) and clicking cards in can be tricky too without long fingernails.

The rest of the Nokia N8 continues the higher-end feel: the 3.5-inch capacitive OLED screen really pops with colour (although doesn't quite match the impressive sharpness of Samsung's Super AMOLED) and the minimalistic design sees only one rather functional-looking button on the front, eschewing the extra soft keys Nokia has implemented for so many years.

The right-hand side of the phone houses the camera key, which has staggered press levels to allow you to only push it down partway for autofocus. There's also a volume key with raised buttons, although these are fairly far away from each other, so can be hard to hit when you're not looking and trying to work out which one you're pressing.

There's also the slider switch on this side of the Nokia N8 - if you're a fan of physical unlocking, then this is a good example of that, although we prefer the on-screen offering, where a short tap unlocks the phone and works far more easily and effectively in our opinion.
The left-hand side of the Nokia N8 is a little more sleek, with only the aforementioned gates for microSD and SIM, as well as the uncovered microUSB slot, which may perturb some who are used to their Nokia phones having a gate on top to prevent dust creeping in. But has anyone really ever had a dust-destroyed port in the past?

The top of the N8 is where it mostly happens though - there's a mini HD port, the 3.5mm headphone jack and the power switch, which is also used to quickly change profiles when buzzing through the N8's interface.
The bottom houses the charger port - and it's a standard 2mm 'new Nokia charger' port, which initially seems like an odd choice when you can also charge through the microUSB port too, like all other phones, even when connected to a PC.
We can only assume that Nokia has done this so that when you're streaming over USB on the go (more on that later) you can keep charging the phone too.

But as we said before, the Nokia N8 sits in the hand well enough and allows you to access all the functions pretty easily and you don't need to jiggle it around in your palm too much.