Sunday, November 08, 2009

Palm Pre price keeps sinking on Bell, down to $100

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/07/palm-pre-price-keeps-sinking-on-bell-down-to-100/

Just weeks after Palm's Pre sunk to CAD $149.95 on Bell, the outfit's first-ever webOS phone has now stooped to just CAD $99.95. That still requires a 3-year contract, of course, but man -- a single bill for a smartphone like the Pre? Anyone tossing out guesses on how long it takes Sprint to follow suit (and embarrass the Pixi)?

[Thanks, David]

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Palm Pre price keeps sinking on Bell, down to $100 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 2:45 PM

Creative's ZEN X-Fi2 touchscreen PMP now on sale

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/08/creatives-zen-x-fi2-touchscreen-pmp-now-on-sale/

Candidly speaking, we can't honestly envision too many of you fine folks running out and purchasing one of Creative's new ZEN X-Fi2 portable media players given the availability of such robust alternatives. That said, we'd be remiss of our duties if we didn't point out that the PMP which shocked us at IFA is now on sale directly from Creative. $129.99 buys you an 8GB model, while $179.99 nets you 16GB and $229.99 provides 32GB. We know -- that 3-inch LCD and integrated FM tuner look good from afar, but remember kids, it's all about the UI.

[Thanks, Tyler]

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Creative's ZEN X-Fi2 touchscreen PMP now on sale originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 2:45 PM

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Building a NAS? Skip the Performance Drives [Nas]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/kmd9yrY5Wk8/building-a-nas-skip-the-performance-drives

A while ago I was considering putting low-powered 5400 RPM drives into a NAS. I was worried about performance, but Tom's Hardware shows us that drive speed isn't the bottleneck, and how slower drives can even beat faster ones.

The main bottleneck in any NAS is the RAID engine. Since many NAS units don't include a dedicated controller, oftentimes the speed of the drive just doesn't matter. If you're using a blazing-fast hardware RAID card in your own custom built setup, then drive speed might make a difference. But for most consumer units, the controller is the bottleneck.

With that in mind, you can go with slower 5400 RPM drives that reduce power consumption, generate less heat, and will likely cost less up front too. Even if you have a dedicated RAID card that could let a 7200 RPM drive do it's thing at full speed, I'd consider the benefits of low-power drives to outweigh the marginal speed increase you might see.

This chart shows the difference between Samsung 7200 and 5400 RPM drives in various RAID configurations:

Not much, right? So think twice before you drop more than necessary on 7200 RPM drives for your backup unit. Check out the link for the full test rundown. [Tom's Hardware]




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Posted by Augustine at 3:24 PM

Best Buy stocking Nokia's Booklet 3G on November 15th

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/07/best-buy-stocking-nokias-booklet-3g-on-november-15th/

We knew good and well that Nokia's Booklet 3G was coming to Best Buy sometime "during the holidays," and now we've got something a bit more precise to share. Starting now, Reward Zone members can waltz into their local store and place a pre-order, while public availability is pegged for November 15th. As we'd heard, the 2.76-pound, Atom-powered netbook will be sold for $299.99 with a 2-year AT&T data contract or $599.99 straight-up. Oh, and if you're looking to get your order in early, we'd recommend printing out that image above just so you don't baffle anyone with your otherworldly request.

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Best Buy stocking Nokia's Booklet 3G on November 15th originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 3:22 PM

Inspiron Zino HD now configurable, available to order on Dell's website

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/07/inspiron-zino-hd-now-configurable-available-to-order-on-dells/

Dell may be focusing the bulk of its attention on the white-hot Adamo XPS, but it looks as if its attempting to slide the Zino HD into the wild without anyone noticing. If you'll recall, we snagged a little hands-on time with the box back in August, and now we've reason to believe that an official reveal is just moments away. The Zino HD is now listed on Dell's main "Desktops" portal (a screen cap is after the break), though the accompanying link leads to nowhere. However, one vigilant tipster managed to find a backdoor URL that allows you to configure and order your own Inspiron 400 (its "other name," just so you know) right now. We're seeing the machine available in a slew of colors ($10 to $30 options over black), a 1.5GHz AMD Athlon 3250e or 1.8GHz Athlon 6850e CPU, Windows 7 Home Premium, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, a 500GB (7200RPM) hard drive, 8x DVD burner, a 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4330 GPU, bundled keyboard / mouse and a 20-inch ST2010 LCD thrown in for good measure. The total package described above looks to start at around $807 with a November 27th ship date, though we suspect cheaper models will be available once things get ironed out.

[Thanks, Chuck and Douglas]

Read - Dell's desktop page
Read - Zino HD order page

Continue reading Inspiron Zino HD now configurable, available to order on Dell's website

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Inspiron Zino HD now configurable, available to order on Dell's website originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 1:32 PM

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