Lenovo is readying a new slinky laptop that it hopes will steal some of thunder from the super-thin, stylish, yet crippled, MacBook Air.
Details of the forthcoming X300 have been leaked on the Web and, first and foremost, it’s important that we clear something up first: it’s not as thin as the MacBook Air. Not anorexic, no, but certainly underfed. That said, it’s 0.5lb lighter and crams more in to boot.
Weighing in at just 2.5lbs, the X300 sports a faster 2GHz Intel LV Dual Core processor, double the memory at up to 4GB of Dram, a 13.3in display and, unlike the Air, an ultra-thin optical drive (7mm). There’s a 64GB SSD drive - like the Air – but unlike the Air, you are not limited to Wi-Fi only connectivity. It sports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and support for Wimax, alongside an Ethernet port and three USB slots.
There’s a fingerprint reader, camera and microphone and, I’m reliably informed, it will be cheaper than the Air when it launches in March.
To be fair, it loses the beauty contest hands down. It’s not a design classic like the Air either but then, functionality and value for money are far more important than looks to many people.-Martin Lynch
laptop notebook macbook
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One of the UK’s biggest DVD retailers, Woolworths, has decided to dump the HD DVD movie format in favour of its rival, Blu-ray.
This makes it the first major UK retailer to exclusively back Blu-ray and comes just a few weeks after key movie studios Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema defected to the Blu-ray camp. Rumours abound that Paramount – one of only two studios still backing HD DVD – could jump ship soon too.
The decision by Woolies was based on the fact that the Blu-ray movies outsold HD DVD movies by a factor of 10-to-1 over the Christmas period. Woolies claimed that high-def (HD) movie sales are rising by 40% every month while DVD sales remain ‘flat’. Only Blu-ray movies will be stocked in stores from March while HD DVDs will only be sold online.
“Sales figures clearly show that the market is moving towards one format of high definition DVD,” says Woolworths DVD buyer Steven McGunigel. “The main reason is the success of Sony’s PlayStation 3 machine. Because it plays Blu-Ray discs, there are over 750,000 homes in the UK that can view the new high definition format. There is no where near that number of HD-DVD players around. Switching to Blu-Ray only will provide one clear offer to customers in the format they want to watch high definition movies in.”
Sad to see a format dying off – and that’s what’s happening here – but the sooner there’s only one the sooner consumers can start buying HD movies without fear of them becoming obsolete in a year.
Now if only the Blu-ray camp made affordable players it would be perfect.-Martin Lynch
HD DVD blu-ray movies
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The mouse has remained largely unchanged for some time now. Sure, it’s gotten smaller, wireless, had buttons added and buttons removed and now, it’s gotten a microphone and a speaker.
This is the unsurprisingly named, 3-in-1 Mouse with Speaker and Microphone, an average 800dpi mouse with the new add-ons designed to let you make and take Internet-based phone calls, using software like Skype, MSN etc. The mic, you’ll be happy to know, is detachable so you can use the mouse without the extra appendage in between all those VoIP calls. It looks like the mic can actually be plugged directly into your laptop which would make it a little less cumbersome to use.
Still, let’s remember that including postage ‘anywhere in the world’, the , 3-in-1 Mouse with Speaker and Microphone costs less than a tenner here so it’s hardly the biggest online shopping mistake you’ll ever make.-Martin Lynch
[Slashgear]
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Setting up a broadband connection should be a snap but, of course, it isn’t, with more than 1 million UK households spending up to 6 hours trying to set up, or troubleshoot, their new broadband service.
The stats come from a new O2 Broadband survey of 1500 broadband Brits, with 1-in-5 claiming that they had to call their service providers at least three times to get it sorted.
The survey set out to see what ticked off broadband users the most and speed – or lack thereof – topped the poll. Nearly a quarter complained about the lack of speed but then, the survey did also discover that half of the survey had no idea what speed service they were paying for in the first place.
Poor customer service really bugged 20% of the survey, with many saying just getting through to the providers was a chore, followed by grumbles about having to use Premium Rate numbers.
“It’s clear from previous studies and backed up by this research that UK broadband customers have low overall satisfaction and are not having an easy ride when it comes to set up, maintenance and customer support of their service,” said Sally Cowdry, Marketing Director, O2 UK.
Finally, for some, broadband was the straw that broke the typical user’s back with over half admitting that they had lost their temper and took it out on their poor computers.
Shocking, but as regular Gizmodo readers have told us, UK broadband ain’t all that it’s cracked up to be.-Martin Lynch
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Not Halo 3, it seems, which is one hell of a surprise. According to Activision, using stats from The NPD Group, Chart Track and The GFK Group, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare shifted 7 million copies in just two months, following its launch last November.
Microsoft might have a word or two to say about that though since it recently claimed that Halo 3 topped 8.1 million sales in 2007. The question I guess now is which figure relates to actual sales to gamers and which one to unit shipments to retailers?
Regardless, 7 million is beyond healthy sales and it’s quite remarkable that the makers did it by taking a risk, situating Call Of Duty 4 in today’s world, and outside of the comfort zone [if it could be called that] of its World War 2-based predecessors.
“We're very excited about this achievement especially given so many competitive titles this year," said Will Kassoy, senior vice president, global brand management, Activision Publishing, Inc. "Consumer and critics agree that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is one of the best games ever created and further establishes Call of Duty as one of the premier brands in the industry. This ground-breaking game and franchise continue to establish new standards by which all other action games will be judged."
I guess that means we’ll be seeing Call of Duty 5, 6 and 7 then.-Martin Lynch
games xbox console PC
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
