Previews and Reviews

In case you hadn’t noticed, Google’s Android OS has a lot of momentum right now. With eight Android smart phones available in the U.S. this holiday season—most of them new–there’s a lot of excitement around this open and highly customizable platform. But there’s a difference between the stock Android interface on devices like the new Motorola Droid ($299.99), and others like the HTC Hero and Droid Eris (Sprint and Verizon) and Motorola CLIQ (T-Mobile).

That difference is a custom user interface that delivers more screens for you to customize and smarter ways of managing contacts and tapping into your social networking feeds. HTC calls its experience Sense, while Motorola dubs its service Motoblur. But what kinds of features do these skins on steroids offer, and how do they compare to the stock Android 2.0 OS? Read on to find out:

The holiday shopping season is upon us once again and that means it’s time for our Gadget Gift Guide, the only resource you’ll need to find the perfect presents for your tech-loving friends and family. Or, just shop for yourself (everyone does).

We broke down our top cell phone picks by carrier and by budget to help you find the perfect match:

AT&T Phones — Though the iPhone is still AT&T’s star player, the Nokia Surge offers a full QWERTY keyboard, access to the Web and e-mail, plus quick access to Facebook and Twitter for under $30.

Click here for our Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon picks.

On November 1st two years ago, the first Eee PC 701 arrived on American shores just a couple of weeks after its debut overseas. The 7-inch, Linux-based mini-notebook garnered a lot of attention and a great deal of praise. At the time, laptops that small usually came with soaring price tags. The Eee PC changed the game, offering true mobile computing for around $400.

This year we’re once again celebrating the birth of the Eee PC and the netbook revolution it began. In just two years the mini-notebook category has grown from a small family of computers running Linux to an entire category of systems running several different Linux distributions plus Windows XP, 7, even Vista. Screen sizes quickly shot up from 7 to 8.9 to 10, 11.6 and even 12 inches. Netbooks have changed the tech world from manufacturers down to journalists and, of course, consumers. The new category has taken 20 percent of the market in two years, and netbooks keep evolving.

Just as with last year, we wanted to mark the occasion with an Eee PC birthday bash at LAPTOP HQ. We filmed the occasion and took the opportunity to ask our writers and editors, who have viewed more 10-inch screens than most people, what netbooks have meant to them and what they expect from netbooks in the future. Click here to watch the video and learn how you can help us celebrate.

Bring on the Windows 7 ($74.99) netbooks– or, in this case, non-netbooks. The 12.1-inch MSI Wind12 U230, which popped up on MSI’s Web site, looks like a netbook, feels like a netbook, at 2.9 pounds, and has the same 160GB The storage device that holds your OS, programs, and data.
Learn Morehard drive. But it promises more powerful performance. It runs Windows 7 Home Premium, as opposed to the pared-down Starter Editon, and packs AMD’s Athlon Neo X2 platform, which delivers a bigger performance punch than Atom (albeit, shorter battery battery life).

In addition to a processor that’s faster than a netbook’s (but weaker than a dual-core Intel ULV system’s), it promises impressive graphics performance for the screen size, thanks to an integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics chips are responsible for processing all images sent to your computer?s display.
Learn Moregraphics card. Indeed, the notebook has an HDMI port for outputting HD content (the screen itself has a resolution of 1366 x 768). We’re looking forward not just to benchmarking the system’s graphics card, but to see what kind of games it can handle, and how smoothly it plays 720p video clips.

Again, the tradeoff for this Neo-based system is likely to be battery life.

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Hulu may be the face of the TV-on-the-Web movement, but the one aspect of  service that’s severely lacking is the movie selection. Sure, you can watch cult classics like the unintentionally hilarious Troll 2, but if you’re looking for Hollywood’s finest selections, Hulu’s a wasteland.

Enter Epix, a new premium cable TV movie channel (available to FIOS customers)  that’s a joint venture between Lionsgate, MGM Studios, and Viacom. The channel will also be accompanied by a web portal that will allow those subscribers to view content online. Epix will offer over 300 movies when it launches this weekend (including recent hits like Iron Man and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull), which will scale up to 720p resolution depending on a subscriber’s connection speed.

Having such close Hollywood ties means Epix will receive content faster than rival channels; you can expect movies to show up 9 months after their theatrical runs, as opposed to a year with HBO. Epix will also include behind the scenes interviews and features, as well as original content.

One of Epix’ coolest features is the  ability for a FIOS subscriber to watch a movie with up to five other friends, even if they aren’t FIOS customers. The host has the ability to control the video playback.

Intrigued? You can sample Epix by requesting a three-day pass here. It’s not quite cutting the cable cord, but service does present more options that traditional movie channels.

[Hat Tip: Read Write Web]

If streaming media is in your blood, Roku has announced two new products that may grab your interest: The Roku SD and Roku HD-XR. Both players deliver content from Amazon, MLB.TV, and Netflix, but contain subtle differentiators.

The Roku SD player ($79.99) connects to your TV using composite cables for enjoying DVD-quality visuals. The box also includes 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and an Ethernet port.

The Roku HD-XR ($129) has a dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi radio that enables it to stream high-definition content, as well as HDMI, component, composite, and S-Video connections. It also includes a USB port (Roku hasn’t stated the port’s exact purpose, but we suspect that it will eventually allow you to plug in an external drive so you can playback your own media).

The original Roku player ($99.99) still lives on, and it’s virtually identical to the Roku HD-XR except that it has 802.11g Wi-Fi, and lacks the USB port. Roku also announced that it will launch the Roku Channel Store this fall, which will allow customers to add new content channels.

With so many options available for receiving streaming video content, do you think it’s time to cut the cord?

Plastic Logic announced today that their large-form eReader, the Que proReader, will be sold in Barnes & Noble stores and online at bn.com, just like the Nook. Though the Que might not get to share the Nook’s fancy display kiosk, book-browsing customers will get a chance to see, touch, and play with both in the store, which should help drive sales. The other B&N allied eBook device, the IREX DR800, will so-far only be sold at Best Buy.

Will the bookstore atmosphere be more beneficial to the other two devices, or will Best Buy’s gadget-lover lure prove the biggest boost? We won’t have to wait long to find out. The Nook and the IREX will be out by the end of the year, and Plastic Logic will debut the Que at CES on January 7th.

With weeks to go before we kick off the holiday shopping season with Black Friday, Lenovo announced two affordable notebooks in its IdeaPad U Series (that’s “U” as in, “ULV” or ultra low voltage): the 11-inch U150 (starting at $585) and the 15.6-inch U550 (starting at $650).

Both notebooks have 16:9 1366 x 768 displays, wireless-N,  optional 3G, 1.3-megapixel webcam with face recognition, and can accommodate Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Both have VGA and HDMI output, headphone and mic ports, an Ethernet jack, and a 4-in-1 memory card reader, but the U150 has two USB ports whereas the 15.6-inch U550 has three. In the case of the 11.6-inch U150, one of those USB ports double as an eSATA port.

The differences between the two begin with design.

Lenovo announced three new Windows 7-powered IdeaPad laptops today – the U150, U550, and Y550P. The first two emphasize portability and long life, but the Y550P’s focus is power. Sporting Intel’s new Core i7 processor (which includes Turbo Boost technology), up to 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce 240M Graphics chips are responsible for processing all images sent to your computer?s display.
Learn Moregraphics card, the Y550P is looking to capture the hearts of gamers and multimedia mavens. Lenovo claims that this is the most powerful laptop with Core i7 inside.

The 15.6-inch system incorporates a 1366×768 HD display and the option for including a Blu-ray drive. Though we often find laptop speakers lacking, the promise of an integrated sub-woofer is intriguing, as is the automatic theater quality audio/video optimization.

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So we got in an NSB/NSS messenger bag and sleeve from Case Logic. It comes in a Brake Light Orange that reminds me of nothing more than Northern Exposure, and its puffed-up, feather-down-vest appearance* just reinforces the reference.

But hey, it’s really comfortable to sleep on.

No, really. We’ve been calling it the Sleeping Bag, and that’s what it looks like: a sleeping bag for your laptop. I can’t exactly say I’d want to sleep on it while I had my laptop in there, but it’s quite comfortable—and convenient—as a makeshift pillow if you’re in the airport or taking an afternoon nap in the office.

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