Which Is The Best 1TB HDD? March 18, 2008

Read more Gadgets , Gizmodo UK , PC , Storage , Technology

Not so long ago, 1TB hard disk drives (HDDs) were the stuff of dreams but now we have a slew of 1TB PC drives out there. But which is the best?

ExtremeTech took seven of the leading ones on the market and put them through their paces to see which one is stood out.

Samsung’s Silent Vacuum Cleaner: Master Chief Lookalike March 18, 2008

Read more Appliances , Gadgets , Gizmodo UK , Technology

Noisy vacuum cleaners ticking you off? Then you may want to check out Samsung’s new Silencio dirt-buster, which also happens to look more than a little like Master Chief’s helmet from the Halo games series.

Well, silent is probably too strong a word since it still has a decibel rating of 73dB but, in real terms, Samsung says:

“You can now talk on the phone or watch television whilst vacuuming. Samsung has achieved this by not only reducing the noise level of the motor, but by removing irritating high frequency noises throughout the whole system.”

Acer Unveils Gemstone Blue Laptops March 18, 2008

Read more Blu-ray , Entertainment , Gizmodo UK , HD , HDMI , Laptops , Mobile Devices , Movies , Music , Online , PC

Acer has added a couple of sexy new Blu-ray drive-equipped laptops to its line-up, called Gemstone Blue.

The multimedia laptops sport unusual screen sizes of 16in and 18.4in respectively and, that’s not all, since Acer has also changed the aspect ratio. Most widescreen laptops come with 16:10 aspect ratio screens but these are 16:9, or proper widescreens, which means your HD movies and other widescreen video content should fit a lot better. Both come with HDMI ports too for hooking them up to a HDTV.

Underwater Fitness Spa Takes The Fun Out Of Relaxation March 18, 2008

Read more Entertainment , Gadgets , Gizmodo UK , Sport , Technology

I always thought the idea of slipping into a hot spa was to relax but I’m obviously way out of touch with developments in the spa sector.

This is the Aquatic Fitness System, designed to make you work your ass off before you earn the right for a little bit of R&R at the end.

DivX Support For Blu-ray Players Grows March 18, 2008

Read more Blu-ray , Entertainment , Gizmodo UK , HD , Home Cinema , Home Entertainment , Movies

Now that Blu-ray has won the high-def format war, vendors are keen to cram as much technology support into their Blu-ray players as possible.

DivX support has been added to many decent DVD players and now the Blu-ray camp are keen to add it too with Philips and Panasonic adding it to their new Blu-ray spinners. DivX have said that Denon will also be adding to its four new upscaling DVD players. DivX is the most popular video compression technology used for shrinking movies into more manageable sizes for use online.