Acer has announced the latest offering in its Revo product group, namely Revo View. From all that we can see I would have to say that the Revo product range are shaping up to be great option for home media hub. Whether you want more versatility with Revo nettops or just a plain media player with View, the options are there.
Revo 2
The new Revo offers something of a great package, with size and performace, but there is one thing that makes it stand out and should position it as an incredible option for media PC. The Revo Pad, that will replace mouse and keyboard in a nice and handy package that will not spoil the look of your coffee table. Windows Embedded might be a turnoff for some but I think it looks and works great for a media PC that connected to TV.
RL100 and Revo 3700
Are more mainstream machines and should arrive in shops in near future. They will be and act as the regular PC, however they should also offer great home media centre options. To an extent they could be more than just a box that lets you watch TV and movies. While 3700 offers updated Atom experience of true and tested nettop, RL100 will show of in AMD flavours. And that is not all that will distinguish it as that should also laucnch with RevoPad!
Revo View
View seems to be a competitor of WD Live series and similar, but with optional? HDD and really attractive price point seems like a great offer. As long as they get the interface right and flawless playback of 1080p it should be a great package. As it notes it will have spare USB ports and network LAN connection as well as optional WiFi (there is me hoping for an internal solution and n flavor). It would be great if the internal HDD could be managed from the main PC through the network. That indeed would make it an outstanding package.
Sources:
Engadget (Revo 2)
NetBookNews (Revo 3700)
NetBookNews (RL100)
We Got Served (View)
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
a touchy feeling
Windows Mobile 7 is around the corner and UI videos have been emerging.
But watching them all I somehow feel that the interface and functionality is all flash and not much more. I can't say that it looks bad, heck no, it looks amazing. But is it usable. I really wonder how much testing have been done with the end user for extended usage periods?
I will not lie and say that I love the iOS, but I see the appeal as it is clean and very simple to use. One of the things Apple advocates is that it just works and is simple. No setup or anything is needed. Android on the other hand has completely customizable home screens which enables user to have exactly experiece that he/she wishes.
I have hard time seeing where exactly WM7 tiles fit in there. And more importantly how will they succeed at targeting people that are more of the social grid.
But watching them all I somehow feel that the interface and functionality is all flash and not much more. I can't say that it looks bad, heck no, it looks amazing. But is it usable. I really wonder how much testing have been done with the end user for extended usage periods?
I will not lie and say that I love the iOS, but I see the appeal as it is clean and very simple to use. One of the things Apple advocates is that it just works and is simple. No setup or anything is needed. Android on the other hand has completely customizable home screens which enables user to have exactly experiece that he/she wishes.
I have hard time seeing where exactly WM7 tiles fit in there. And more importantly how will they succeed at targeting people that are more of the social grid.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
HTC Desire impressions
I have had my Desire for over a month now and I thought it is time to write up a little review and my impressions of the phone. I should note that I am not really a power user or a connected person. By that I mean that I do not use Facebook and Twitter as much, but we'll get to that.
The Hardware
My impressions of the hardware are good overall. It has a powerful internals that drive the performance. The build is good. There is nothing falling of or sticking out where it shouldn't. It is not metal, of course, so it does feel less rugged. I do feel that the cover, even though it feels rubbery, does not offer enough grip at times. I have never dropped it but it makes holding it uncomfortable at times. Taking off back cover reveals that it is not that sturdy and do offer much support on its own. Every time I take of (peal of) the back cover I have a feeling that I will snap of few of the 'legs' that hold it in place and will not be able to fit it back again. Luckily that has not happened yet.
The screen is definitely not scratch resistant. In less then a month I noticed small scratches on the screen. So I recommend getting a screen protector along with the phone. HTC's screen protector fits great on the screen and has cutouts for the sensors on the screen to make sure they function correct. I failed to put it on correctly and now I have a small bubble between one of the holes and the edge. The weirdest thing is that they made a hole for notification light in the screen protector. There might be some sensor there but it does seem strange. I should note that the protector I got is a huge fingerprint magnet. But that is not something that bothers me.
The Software
The software is a broad field, and very much down to individual preferences and usage patterns. Overall I am very happy with the use of it. It goes back to what I said about not being a power user. The phone comes with HTC Sense interface, that I have grown accustomed to by now and find it hard to switch. Even though Sense does a good job of offering great deal of user friendlyness out of the box, I found that Android Marketplace will have to be your friend to make the phone work for you. There are some thing which many might look at as basic that are not available out of the box, and sometimes are only available after the root access is gained. The biggest annoyance for me was the inability to remove preinstalled applications. As I said earlier I do not use Facebook and Twitter much so I would have loved the option to get rid of these applications among many others.
I found SlideScreen to be a great app, but after removing all the unneeded slides, I was left with only few Slides and half of the screen unused. Another home screen alternative I tired was LauncherPro, which was great to the point that I was already too used to Sense. I kept looking for things that were not there. I have not given up on it yet, as I might try it again at a latter stage, especially because it let's me hide all the apps that I do not use.
The Hardware
My impressions of the hardware are good overall. It has a powerful internals that drive the performance. The build is good. There is nothing falling of or sticking out where it shouldn't. It is not metal, of course, so it does feel less rugged. I do feel that the cover, even though it feels rubbery, does not offer enough grip at times. I have never dropped it but it makes holding it uncomfortable at times. Taking off back cover reveals that it is not that sturdy and do offer much support on its own. Every time I take of (peal of) the back cover I have a feeling that I will snap of few of the 'legs' that hold it in place and will not be able to fit it back again. Luckily that has not happened yet.
The screen is definitely not scratch resistant. In less then a month I noticed small scratches on the screen. So I recommend getting a screen protector along with the phone. HTC's screen protector fits great on the screen and has cutouts for the sensors on the screen to make sure they function correct. I failed to put it on correctly and now I have a small bubble between one of the holes and the edge. The weirdest thing is that they made a hole for notification light in the screen protector. There might be some sensor there but it does seem strange. I should note that the protector I got is a huge fingerprint magnet. But that is not something that bothers me.
The Software
The software is a broad field, and very much down to individual preferences and usage patterns. Overall I am very happy with the use of it. It goes back to what I said about not being a power user. The phone comes with HTC Sense interface, that I have grown accustomed to by now and find it hard to switch. Even though Sense does a good job of offering great deal of user friendlyness out of the box, I found that Android Marketplace will have to be your friend to make the phone work for you. There are some thing which many might look at as basic that are not available out of the box, and sometimes are only available after the root access is gained. The biggest annoyance for me was the inability to remove preinstalled applications. As I said earlier I do not use Facebook and Twitter much so I would have loved the option to get rid of these applications among many others.
I found SlideScreen to be a great app, but after removing all the unneeded slides, I was left with only few Slides and half of the screen unused. Another home screen alternative I tired was LauncherPro, which was great to the point that I was already too used to Sense. I kept looking for things that were not there. I have not given up on it yet, as I might try it again at a latter stage, especially because it let's me hide all the apps that I do not use.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Valve's three secrets
According to various Gaming news portals Valve's Gabe have said that we can expect three big surprises from them within next 12 months.
It has brought up lot of speculation and so on, but in the end the big question is - does this include HL2 - ep3?
One one had everyone expects them to release it in near future anyway so when they announce it it more likely be a sigh of relieve then surprise.
On other hand the fact that they announce the game will be surprise, as I am starting to give up hope that it will get released.
Personally I would like to see them update the engine. It has served well over the years and is a scalable engine, but it is still DX9 and DX11 looks like something that might stick or at least have brought enough to the table to warrant an update.
On some sick level I have a feeling that one of the surprises will be HL3. Essentially that the EP3 has taken so long because it have actually turned into HL3.
I would really like to see them announce another big new IP. Portal was great, L4D is good, but I still want more.. :D But we should not forget that adding another IP to the mix will mean that it will take even longer till next HL. It is a tough world we live in!
It has brought up lot of speculation and so on, but in the end the big question is - does this include HL2 - ep3?
One one had everyone expects them to release it in near future anyway so when they announce it it more likely be a sigh of relieve then surprise.
On other hand the fact that they announce the game will be surprise, as I am starting to give up hope that it will get released.
Personally I would like to see them update the engine. It has served well over the years and is a scalable engine, but it is still DX9 and DX11 looks like something that might stick or at least have brought enough to the table to warrant an update.
On some sick level I have a feeling that one of the surprises will be HL3. Essentially that the EP3 has taken so long because it have actually turned into HL3.
I would really like to see them announce another big new IP. Portal was great, L4D is good, but I still want more.. :D But we should not forget that adding another IP to the mix will mean that it will take even longer till next HL. It is a tough world we live in!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
DLC vs episodic gaming
It has been a long long time.. Even too long.
Either way, I was thinking about the DLC as that seems the fad of the year or even the last couple of years. All the big games need to have one. At some point people were talking that episodic gaming might be it and only Valve really ended up doing it and burning bad doing so. I am not going to repeat the old news, but 4 years on and we are still waiting for just ep3. Sure Valve puts in the effort and delivers great experience at the end, but this is time frame I would like to wait for a full retail game.
Now looking at DLC I see all the unfulfilled expectations from episodic content realized in these DLC packs. Or at times just lazy developing (or eager publisher). Borderlands seams to be a good example to the former, as the game was one would expect out of a retail game and some of the first DLC packs improved and extended it to some lengths, while the best is that we see a pack year after the game launched. And let's not forget that all the newcomers to the game will have to buy the full retail game which should be cheaper by now so this is a great way to stimulate the second sales wave of the game.
On the other hand something that really gets in my pants are modern multiplayer FPS games. While the games are great and so forth, they come with choice of 3 weapons, and 3 maps. A week or month later, whenever you get tired of the choices, you get a DLC that gives you that little extra to keep you playing and paying. I miss the day when games came with multitude of options. Also, I do not want to say that the mod community has died down, but the developers really should embrace this by offering more community maps in these updates.
Either way, I was thinking about the DLC as that seems the fad of the year or even the last couple of years. All the big games need to have one. At some point people were talking that episodic gaming might be it and only Valve really ended up doing it and burning bad doing so. I am not going to repeat the old news, but 4 years on and we are still waiting for just ep3. Sure Valve puts in the effort and delivers great experience at the end, but this is time frame I would like to wait for a full retail game.
Now looking at DLC I see all the unfulfilled expectations from episodic content realized in these DLC packs. Or at times just lazy developing (or eager publisher). Borderlands seams to be a good example to the former, as the game was one would expect out of a retail game and some of the first DLC packs improved and extended it to some lengths, while the best is that we see a pack year after the game launched. And let's not forget that all the newcomers to the game will have to buy the full retail game which should be cheaper by now so this is a great way to stimulate the second sales wave of the game.
On the other hand something that really gets in my pants are modern multiplayer FPS games. While the games are great and so forth, they come with choice of 3 weapons, and 3 maps. A week or month later, whenever you get tired of the choices, you get a DLC that gives you that little extra to keep you playing and paying. I miss the day when games came with multitude of options. Also, I do not want to say that the mod community has died down, but the developers really should embrace this by offering more community maps in these updates.
Monday, June 9, 2008
computex '08 girls
Cause I wasn't there, there are no pics from me, therefore here or some links to girls of Comutex:
Tech ARP - have multiple galleries
VR-Zone - 1, 2, 3
Expreview
The Tech Zone, 2
ZOL
TweakTown
Future Looks
MadSrhimps
Tech ARP - have multiple galleries
VR-Zone - 1, 2, 3
Expreview
The Tech Zone, 2
ZOL
TweakTown
Future Looks
MadSrhimps
Thursday, June 5, 2008
External laptop graphics
Today I wanted to reflect a bit on not a new concept but a concept that soon should be come a real product and has working prototypes available. Product at hand is external graphics solutions for portable - laptop computers. As you should know, laptops are not know for their graphical capabilities and most outstanding gaming performance.
While there are gaming laptops out there they do not match the performance of todays higher end graphics cards for desktop PCs. While CPUs are also not on same performance they do seem to be closer to their desktop counterparts.
To solve this problem and bring more joy of gaming to laptop owners 2 solutions are expected to be on the shop floors by end of summer.
ASUS XG Station. The concept and the prototype has been around for some time, but it seems that is finally reached the point where it is ready to be launched soon. It is to use Nvidia Geforce 8600 GT card as the power behind it. While 8600 GT is not the beastliest of things out there ASUS had to work around the limitations of existing ports on laptops.
Other solution comes from AMD -> ATi XGP, which means that it should bring more power behind it. From what I can see they use a new port that offers PCIe 2.0 8x speed with it and therefore should allow more powerful solutions then 8600GT. Fujitsu already have a box out there which uses mobility Radeon HD3870. Since there have no benchmarks out there it is hard to say what is the performance. I can see this becoming the dominant solution, as long as the newly developed port is not AMD laptop only port. PCIe 2.0 8x port should be enough to bring really high end graphics to laptops in near future.
The biggest problems about these solutions (not usre about ASUS one) is that they will require an external screen. What this means is that if you wanted a LAN gaming system, then you should get a desktop or hold out for a while longer. As Fudzilla reports (including picture) ATi in their solution plans to have it some time next year.
I would say that what we need now is to wait and see how these things stack up with each other... I can see this being a future as long it will allow to use laptops screen for gaming :)
While there are gaming laptops out there they do not match the performance of todays higher end graphics cards for desktop PCs. While CPUs are also not on same performance they do seem to be closer to their desktop counterparts.
To solve this problem and bring more joy of gaming to laptop owners 2 solutions are expected to be on the shop floors by end of summer.
ASUS XG Station. The concept and the prototype has been around for some time, but it seems that is finally reached the point where it is ready to be launched soon. It is to use Nvidia Geforce 8600 GT card as the power behind it. While 8600 GT is not the beastliest of things out there ASUS had to work around the limitations of existing ports on laptops.
Other solution comes from AMD -> ATi XGP, which means that it should bring more power behind it. From what I can see they use a new port that offers PCIe 2.0 8x speed with it and therefore should allow more powerful solutions then 8600GT. Fujitsu already have a box out there which uses mobility Radeon HD3870. Since there have no benchmarks out there it is hard to say what is the performance. I can see this becoming the dominant solution, as long as the newly developed port is not AMD laptop only port. PCIe 2.0 8x port should be enough to bring really high end graphics to laptops in near future.
The biggest problems about these solutions (not usre about ASUS one) is that they will require an external screen. What this means is that if you wanted a LAN gaming system, then you should get a desktop or hold out for a while longer. As Fudzilla reports (including picture) ATi in their solution plans to have it some time next year.
I would say that what we need now is to wait and see how these things stack up with each other... I can see this being a future as long it will allow to use laptops screen for gaming :)
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