Yeah, we’re officially removing any “ultracompact” or “ultraportable” marketing speak that might have slipped in to describe the V100 from Lenovo, but there’s plenty else to love about this slightly bulky compact notebook. First off, at 1.25-inches thick and weighing 4.4 pounds, the laptop is no X60 (which doesn’t contain the DVD burner of the V100), but it does look positively skinny beside Dell’s new M1210. The V100 features a nice glossy 12.1-inch WXGA screen, and a built-in 1.3 megapixel camera that captured his smarmy mug much better than those featured on the M1210 and MacBook. Lenovo also doesn’t seem to have as much trouble keeping the Core Duo cool as Apple is; the V100 ran plenty cool even though it doesn’t have the low-voltage version of the chip run by its X60 brother. The plastic case build is a bit drab and not near as sturdy as a ThinkPad, but it should hold up fine. However, the 3 to 4 hour battery life seems barely acceptable. There’s an ExpressCard 54 slot, so you might want to hold off until an EV-DO solution comes along. The integrated graphics really limit the gaming options, but the V100 really does provide a lot of functionality for the price, especially if you’re not up for lugging an external drive around and want some of that Core Duo power.

CNET put AOpen‘s MiniPC Duo MP945-V through their usual tough testing regimen and came away mightily impressed, saying it’s “the clone that comes closest to the nearly flawless Mac Mini.” They especially dug the speedy Core Duo processor, multiple video output options, and the fact that it’s not much bigger than a Mini. On the downside, at $899 it’s more expensive than a Mini, it only has two USB ports, doesn’t have a remote control, and doesn’t include much bundled software. They also list the fact that it’s bring your own keyboard, mouse and monitor as a negative, although that apparently isn’t a problem for the “nearly flawless” Mac Mini. Go fig.

Digital Camera Tracker got a chance to check out Canon's PowerShot SD700 6 megapixel digital camera and came away impressed, giving it an 8.5 out of 10. Packing a 4x optical zoom in a sleek and sturdy body, they gave the camera high marks for its high quality images, great color balance and saturation, image stabalization, nice LCD, and high 800 ISO. On the downside, the camera is a mite bit expensive (about $500 list), the optical viewfinder apparently stinks, and apparently the auto focus a bit noisy. It's probably not a camera for the pros out there, but it seems like the more point-and-shoot inclined should be happy -- as they usually are with Canons -- if they can justify the somewhat hefty price tag.

[Via DP Blog]

NotebookReview.com got their hands on Lenovo's new ThinkPad R60 -- or should we say, one version of the R60, since you can basically configure it to your heart's content -- and put it through its paces. On the low-end, you can get an R60 with a Celeron processor for as little as $800 but, not suprisingly NotebookReview got something a little more tricked out for testing: one with a Core Duo 2.0GHz processor, 15-inch SXGA screen, EV-DO, ATI X1400 128MB graphics card, 1GB RAM, and a 100GB 7200RPM hard drive. That config will set you back about two grand, but whatever setup you choose, they think you'll be pleased, digging the usual powerhouse ThinkPad keyboard (and touchpoint), rugged design, refreshing lack of pre-loaded junkware and, of course, the endless configuration options. On the downside, it's not quite as sturdy as the T60 and it's a bit thicker and heavier than other notebooks in its class, but for the price and configurability that seems to be a reasonable trade-off for what's still one of the best laptops money can buy.

Even though Sony prematurely created — then killed — the UMPC market a couple years back  with their U-series ultramobiles. Many seemed stoked to learn that they’re back at their old tricks with their Vaio UX “Micro PC,” and none too soon with competition from Samsung, TabletKiosk, and Asus. DWT got their hands on a UX and gave it a thorough once-over; seems like they were quite enamored by the 4.5-inch 1024 x 600 display (that sometimes requires use of zoom keys to actually read that tiny, tiny text), and the Japanese version’s IC-card reader for SuiCa. Unfortunately the keyboard is supposedly quite terrible, with “almost no tactile feedback from key presses and typing is a real chore,” and the battery life wasn’t doing much more than 2 hours, dropping out at 1.5 hours under relatively heavy use. Basically it doesn’t sound like they’re recommending the UX all that much, but as with any Micro / ultramobile PC, if you really want to pony up the couple of grand to get one you’ve probably got a very decent reason why.

If you like to buy products described by seasoned reviewers as "very good," "great," and "excellent," then you'll certainly want to check out iRiver's 2GB Clix DAP if you're in the market for a player that screams "iDon't." Everyone who's gotten his/her hands on iRiver's rebrand of followup to the U10 seems to be in love with the little thing, citing audio that's both accurate and loud, easy-to-use, intuitive controls and interface, its crisp, clear screen, a plethora of options for photo viewing, and even good video playback despite a maximum of 15fps. Other nice touches include relatively high bit-rate options for in-line, voice, or FM recording, a good selection of digital equalizer presets, and better-than-average earbud headphones included in the box. Out of all the reviews that we've seen, the only major knocks on this $200 player are for its use of MTP (as opposed to UMS) file transfers and its supposedly short battery life (at least compared to the U10), although PCMag managed to squeeze a respectable 27 hours out of their Clix in testing.

Read- PCMag
Read- Anything But iPod
Read- Cnet

You know, for all the talk about those greasy-hot, over clockin‘ MacBook Pros and their mysterious firmware updates, only now has PCMag completed a full review of the 17-inch flavor MBP. Alas, you won’t find any real surprises in the review of this “astounding” 6.8-pound, easy totin’ 17-incher. Yeah, it does indeed get “too hot” by the reviewers standards though apparently not as hot as the 15-inch model due to larger surface area to dissipate heat. And since this is PCMag, they installed Boot Camp as you’d expect, “without a hitch” giving them the same “impressive” (for a mac) gaming results in XP seen on the 15-inch sib. The reviewer calls the move to the 17-inch MacBook Pro a “no brainer” if you’re a creative professional working heavily in graphic design or movie editing. However, if you’re just looking for a “cool multimedia laptop” with plenty of screen then there are plenty of Windows-only systems available giving more bang, for that $3,099 as-tested, buck. Yeah, Mac fanboy enthusiasts, they’re calling you out with that one. Still, PCMag slaps on a 4/5 editors rating which ain’t too shabby?

Alright, after a week of everyone going crazy-go-nuts (or not) over those new MacBooks from Apple, we've got our first review from the boy at Ars Technica. They're rather glowing in their praise, but that might just be due to the high amounts of heat this things puts out. That's right, for all their laptop innovations Apple doesn't seem to have managed to figure out how to keep these Dual Cores cool, and it looks like you might have to resort to thermal paste shenanigans to keeps this thing cool enough to sit on your lap. Also, in Notebook Review's first impressions writeup of the MacBook they encountered serious instability from heat, making the laptop almost unusable. The only other serious problems Ars had with the MacBook were the relatively slow integrated graphics -- even though they were able to run more casual gaming titles just fine in OS X and Windows XP -- and the love it or hate it glossy screen. Otherwise, the laptop looks like quite the deal and a decent performer. Along with that redesigned keyboard, the MacBook has a wider trackpad (how big are these things going to get?) and has an ability to do a "right click" by placing two fingers on the pad and clicking. The iSight, MagSafe and Front Row aren't anything different from the MacBook Pro, which is to their credit. In benchmarks the MacBook performs much closer to the MacBook Pro than its iBook predecessor, and its easy expandability and multitude of pro-ish features make it fairly easy to recommend -- if you can stand the heat.

Read - Ars Technica review
Read - Notebook Review impressions

Personal Tech Pipeline got a chance to tour around with Mio's C310 portable GPS receiver with built-in DAP that we first spotted at CES, and claim that although the unit is a pretty good value, its performance is a bit underwhelming. Rather than building a product from the ground up like the Garmins and Magellans of the world, Mio has assembled a Windows CE-powered unit featuring software from Destinator Technologies and maps from TeleAtlas -- which, while not necessarily a bad thing, means some of the features aren't as polished as they are on vertically-integrated products. For example, PTP found that many important options were buried under several sub-menus, which made simple tasks like changing to night mode or selecting a new destination while driving more difficult than they should be, and probably more dangerous. The C310 seemed to perform its navigation duties fairly well, though, and even ships with ActiveSync for loading up your Outlook contacts' addresses, but little annoyances like a cluttered 3.5-inch screen and awful built-in speakers might be enough to convince most folks to put their $600 towards a more expensive model that operates a little more smoothly.

We know there are a ton of Brits anxiously waiting to hear whether Acer's 32-inch AT3205-DTV LCD, at only $1,888 dollars, is really such a bargain, so we won't keep you in suspense: according to Trusted Reviews, it most certainly is. Truth be told, the picture actually sounds like it leaves something to be desired -- black levels and fine detail aren't the best -- but they seem to fall in the acceptable range, and the 1366 x 768 screen apparently delivers vibrant colors and good brightness levels. Other plusses include the built-in Freeview tuner (no CI slot for adding subscription content, though), powerful-for-a-flat-panel sound system, and a plethora of connection options, including HDMI and DVI, component, three SCART ports, and digital audio out. So, if you can deal with some slightly gray blacks and a bit of a, um, bold design, then fear not, British friends, because your quid will be well spent on the Acer.

If you’re looking for a relatively cheap way to enter the world of digital SLR photography, the UK’s DigiCam Review thinks you could do a lot worse than the Pentax *ist DL, which despite its unpronouncable name, came out a clear winner in their testing. Successor to the company’s *ist DS, the 6.1 megapixel DL impresses on many fronts, including image quality, response times, ergonomics, and, perhaps most importantly to a DSLR newbie, ease-of-use. Specifically, the DL — which was tested with the optional 15-55mm Pentax DA lens — captured pictures with good contrast, detail and color, low noise except at the highest ISO setting, and a general lack of purple-fringing or red-eye, while providing a lot of features, such as RAW support, auto ISO, and a 2.5-inch display, for its $740 price tag. The only real knocks here seem to be the lack of image stabilization or CF card support — meaning storage is limited to the most capacious SD card available — but since this model is certainly not targeted at pros, those issues may not even matter to most.

Let's face it, plasma costs a lot of money, and for the general buying public the price differential between similar sized LCD HDTVs is hardly enough to justify the increasingly marginal benefits the more expensive set offers. Still, we know we can count on Sony to drop a good 50-inch HDTV like their KDE-W50A12U, which TrustedReviews took a look at and for whatever reason declared Sony's last plasma (which we thought was a misreported rumor refuted years ago). Still, the TV has as a native 1,366 x 768 pixel count with HDMI, component, and three SCART inputs, and a digital tuner to boot. But while TR seemed to think it was a great display, a 50-inch Sony TV that could run you as much as £4,500 (about $8,400 US) is becoming increasingly difficult to justify in the world of affordable home theater rigs that in their entirety wouldn't cost as much as this display alone.

We sure wish we'd had Linksys' WTR54GS travel router a few months ago at CES, where press room Ethernet connections were few and far between, and the single venue offering free WiFi seemingly devoid of techs to keep the network running. Mobile Tech Today also seems to think that this 802.11b/g router would have served us well, providing both basic SecureEasySetup-compatible WEP and WPA encryption along with more advanced Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) and browser-based fine tuning options for regulating traffic. With four out five stars from MTT, the only downside to this 5.2-ounce router is its range, due mostly to the internal antenna, but when you're sitting five feet away from it in your hotel room that probably won't matter too much.

Despite Cingular's claim of being "the network with the least dropped calls," PC Mag's Sascha Segan finds that T-Mobile's version of the BlackBerry 8700 smartphone, the 8700g, actually outperforms its 8700c cousin in terms of call quality. Other improvements upon the Cingular model are T-Mobile's addition of two key software features: the OZ semi-universal IM client (no Gtalk, and AIM users are restricted to their small mobile buddy group) as well as the first implementation of the Yahoo!/RIM partnership we heard about last month, in the form of a handy Y! Mail icon pre-loaded in the launcher. Besides these small differences, however, Sascha finds the 8700g to perform almost exactly the same as the 8700c -- that is, very well. Email and texting are a pleasure, attachment support is good for all but PDF files, and the crisp screen delivers web pages cleanly (albeit at EDGE speeds), making this seem like the new go-to device for the Mob's business clientele.

Those of us who type for a living are perhaps more attuned to keyboard minutiae than the average computer user, so any ‘board that promises to improve our WPM without resorting to a frustrating realignment of the keys naturally piques our interest. The DAS Keyboard II includes several “enhancements” that may or may not improve your typing speed by up to 100%, most noticeably the keys themselves, which, while arranged in the traditional QWERTY-configuration, are completely blank. Supposedly the lack of even a single symbol keeps the user from “cheating” and looking down at his/her hands, but Extreme Tech instead found themselves habitually mistyping and wasting time referring to character maps. Ultimately, since the letter-less keyboard only improved the seasoned typists’ speed by about 10%, it’s the other features of the DAS II that may entice consumers, including high-end,”clicky” keys rated to 50 million keystrokes which are differently-weighted to compensate for variable finger strength. Overall, TR gives the blank ‘board a seven out of ten, harshing on the rather steep learning curve, but suggesting that first-time typists might benefit from practicing without the traditional “crutch” of illustrated keys.

We won’t deny
that we’re a little jealous CNET Asia got their chance to fool around with href="http://www.engadget.com/search/?q=e10">iRiver’s 6GB E10, which we’ve been eyeing with lustful eyes for a
little while now. Sounds like interfacing with the clicky buttons wasn’t always expeditious in navigating the UI, so
iRiver added some programmable shortcut keys; the 32 hour battery life and Flash Lite video support are also niceties.
Unmentioned was codec support, PlaysForSure compatibility,
etc., but what they weren’t too fond of was the proprietary connector (so what else is new?), the non-user-programmable
182 TV brand IR remote function (which if you ask us kind of seems like a haphazard feature thrown in from the concept
device heap), as well as the fact that while it does also support MPEG-4 video, that’s about all it supports. Yeah, no
device is perfect, but we’re not about to give up on this thing yet, no sir.

src="http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/05/sonos_bundle.jpg" alt="" />Looks like HomeTheaterView got themselves a
hold of a couple of Sonos href="http://www.engadget.com/search/?q=zp100">ZP100s and a controller and put the spurs to ‘em to see how the
system works and performs in a real home environment. We have a Sonos we’re currently checking out (expect more on that
soon), but HomeTheaterView found the devices to work admirably out of box with a clean, labor-free setup, and simple,
intuitive interface, which we won’t deny. The concept behind the Sonos isn’t a terribly complicated one, so outside
decent codec support, wireless range, and the aforementioned (setup and interface / use), there’s not a lot else to
look for in an in-home wireless audio distribution system. Fortunately the Sonos nails the codecs (outside not
supporting PlaysForSure), but while the range wasn’t mentioned, and they wished there were versions outfitted for
in-wall installs and wetter environs like bathrooms, they seemed to find the system an excellent choice that fulfills a
need otherwise unmet by the other out of box consumer home audio distribution systems on the market.

We know we've been giving the UMPC -- specifically the Q1 -- a lot of face time, but we have to admit, even though we're unimpressed with the first generation of these devices both in capabilities and having played around with 'em, we're still interested. And to our surprise an English site called Personal Computer World not only got and reviewed a Q1, but gave it some very high marks, citing its quiet fan, sleek form factor, and bright, clear display as high points for the device. In fact, they only knocked on it for having a "standard" battery life (huh? 2.5 hours is now standard?), smallish drive, and, of course, sucky Celeron-powered under-performance. Will all those 4/5-star ratings they laid down be enough to get users to plunk down £799 (about $1450 US) for one of their own? We don't know, but we didn't exactly find it encouraging that Samsung told PCW only "hundreds" had been pre-ordered.

[Via UMPC Buzz]

Playlist took Roku's SoundBridge Radio for a spin on everyone's behalf, in case you were thinking of making the a purchase on a wireless audio streaming device, perhaps for a bedroom or den. For a device whose main purpose is wireless music we're a little surprised it doesn't have RDS (Radio Data System) or WPA support, and requires manual hex WEP key input instead of ASCII. But if you an look past that and the quirky interface, the SoundBridge's UPnP support, built-in configuration web server, bright fluorescent display, iTunes library sharing (so long as it's not Apple Lossless or FairPlay DRMed audio), PlaysForSure, Rhapsody, and Windows Media Connect support, and SD slot are all to be appreciated. Which must be why Playlist gave it a four out of five, um, playlist icons, even despite that $400 price tag.

VK Mobile seems like a very flashy company to us, what with their fashion-over-function ethos, their, shall we
say, liberal
"borrowing" of design elements from some of the sexier phones on the market, and who could forget the
airbrushed nude models that they employed to hawk their products at CeBIT this year? We think PC Mag would agree that
the company’s quad-band GSM VK2020 musicphone — that, like the models, we also href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/03/12/live-from-cebit-hands-on-with-vk-2200-4-megapixel-cameraphone-a/">spotted
at CeBIT — falls in line with this assessment, as their review highlights the handset’s RAZR- and SLVR-killing
thinness and "wow factor," but knocks it on nearly every aspect important to people who actually like their
stuff to function properly. Among the laundry list of flaws reported are this model’s small, dim screen, barely
acceptable MP3 and call audio quality, lack of even EDGE-speed data, sub-four-hour battery life, limited filetype
support, and flaky Bluetooth connection. Still, PC Mag’s Sascha makes a good point when he compares the VK2020 to a hot
date, in that you’re a lot more likely to accept its faults just because it looks so damn good. If you’re the type that
rushed out to buy LG’s silly href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/03/16/lgs-style-i-hands-full-headset/">Style-i non-hands-free, non-headset
Bluetooth headset when it href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/04/26/lgs-style-i-hands-free-headset-available-from-verizon/">became available
from Verizon this week, then you’ll probably be just fine with forking over $400 to Dynamism in order to sport one
of today’s hotter-looking imports.

We got our chance to have a little
private time with TiVo’s
new 80-hour dual-tuner Series2 (TCD649080) last week. There isn’t a whole lot we can tell you about the unit that
you didn’t already know (dual analog tuners, single digital, no CableCARD, no high def, integrated Ethernet, etc.). In
other words, for those expecting something to ease the pain of the absentee href="http://www.engadget.com/search/?q=series3">Series3 box, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere for something
to meet your needs, perhaps a Media Center PC. But if you have analog cable and were thinking about snagging a TiVo,
you might want to take a second look.

border="1" src="http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/04/tivo08.jpg" alt="" />