TriedIT - Software and Hardware News and Reviews

Unfortunately you can’t read the full article, but here are some details about a forthcoming 1 terabyte Blu-Ray recorder that has been announced by Hitachi. It will be $2000 Australian but I’m sure they will come down in price quite quickly. Hitachi was also the first to deliver a 1TB hard disk.

There have been a number of N95 reviews recently and here’s OSNews’ review. Part of me wishes I had gotten the Nokia N95 because it seems like it does a number of things a bit better than the Nokia N75 I just got yesterday from Cingular/AT&T. Unfortunately the Nokia N95 does not have 3G in the U.S. and is also quite an expensive phone. I got the Nokia N75 for $200 (after $50 mail-in-rebate which I have yet to do) and it has 3G (albeit UMTS not HSDPA). It is my first Symbian S60 phone and so far I really like it. I will write a formal review of the Nokia N75 in a few days.

The One Laptop Per Child computer is now $175 up from $100 and will also be coming to the U.S. officially. They also plan to support Windows. This will seriously change how OLPC was going to help Linux spread throughout the world. Considering that Microsoft plans to offer Windows and Office for $3, I can’t see many people choosing Linux over that.

In any case, check out the article.

One of the funniest things I’ve seen on the Internet in awhile is The Real Mouse Mouse. It is a fully functional mouse, made out of a formerly fully functional mouse. My girlfriend found it to be pretty disgusting. I think it’s awesome. Someone was bound to do it eventually. I wonder how you right-click though.

OzHardware takes a look at the slimmed down 8000-series line of Nvidia cards. While the 8500 and 8600 in no way compared to the performance of the 8800 cards, their price is less than half that of the currently top of the line Nvidias. Take a look a the OzHardware review for the benchmarks and conclusion of whether these cards are the best bang for the buck.

TrustedReviews takes an in-depth look at Intel’s Santa Rosa platform and what it will mean for mobile computing.

Santa Rosa will feature an all new Core 2 Duo chip with a number of enhancements over the outgoing processor. Like the Merom chip before it, the new Core 2 Duo will feature up to 4MB of on-die cache, but there are plenty of other changes. First up, the new chip utilises an 800MHz Front Side Bus, while the outgoing one was limited to a 667MHz FSB. This will speed up overall system performance, although there’s more to the new FSB than just its speed.

You’ll want to check out the entire article over at TrustedReviews.

[H]Enthusiast takes a look at the BFGTech and XFX GeForce 8600 GTS cards and puts them through the paces.

We found both GeForce 8600 GTS GPU based video cards to provide noticeably higher performance and image quality in every game compared to the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro. In Oblivion we were able to run at a higher resolution with full shadows enabled. With the XFX GeForce 8600 GTS XXX Edition we were even able to turn on full grass. With S.T.A.L.K.E.R. we had an option, either keep the resolution low and play with Object Dynamic Lighting or raise the resolution and use Static Lighting. We found that overall Object Dynamic Lighting makes the game look much better and preferred playing at 1024×768 to use it. With full lighting, shadows and view distances the game was very enjoyable at 1024×768.

The price gap between the 8600 GTS and the 8800 cards is not that great. Based on the article you might want to save up a few extra dollars and go for the higher performing 8800 series.

In any case, check out the full article and draw your own conclusions.

Looks like some details are out on the Nokia 6120, as mentioned on Engadget. I’m still awaiting the Nokia N75 which is hopefully due to be released any time now (as it has been for the last 6 months…) I prefer flip phones myself and since the N75 is supposed to be Cingular/ATT branded, I should be able to get it at a nice price. In any case here’s the details for the 6120:

• S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1
• quad-band GSM and WCDMA/HSDPA 850/2100
• 2-inch QVGA display
• A2DP stereo Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• 2 megapixel camera with flash
• MicroSD slot

Looks like the pre-tax price will be around $350US and will come out before the end of June. Assuming, of course, that all this information is correct. It looks like a really nice phone, but again I prefer the flip phones myself.

Read the rest of the article.

In other news, a new review should be up very shortly!

From tuaw.com (and confirmed on Apple’s Hot News) comes word that Apple is delaying the release of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) to October because of moving developers from Leopard to the iPhone to keep the iPhone release date on track.

All I have to say is… WTF. Ok, seriously, the iPhone is causing Leopard to be delayed? The day Steve Jobs announced the iPhone I guarantee I would have bought one that very day. I would have left work early and bought it right then because I was taken hold by the Steve Job’s reality distortion field. $500? Sure… take my money! But after having plenty of time to think about it I really don’t want an iPhone anymore. $500? Hell no! Besides, we all know that the first generation Apple product always performs sub-par compared to later offerings. And no 3G! Sure barely any of Cingular’s customers have it, but that is sure to change very soon. Where I live (Washington D.C. / Baltimore area) is completely 3G and being a power user I would use the 3G-ness constantly.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Apple’s products. I love my iPod nano (thanks Nancy!), I love my MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo (and before that my iBook), and I love Mac OS X. But I’m not gonna shell out $500 for a non-3G phone that is the first release.

Instead I am waiting for the constantly-delayed Nokia N75 to become available (yes, I use Cingular). I don’t need a touch-screen and this phone will have all the proven features that I want in my next generation phone. AND it has 3G.

I’m not convinced Apple will hit a home run with the iPhone… yet. It could happen. People underestimated the iPod’s success. And I could eventually get one. But it will not be my next phone. Nokia N75 please come out soon! Cingular and whoever is causing this phone to be delayed (since December!) need to stop this non-sense and get this phone out before it is obsolete. Otherwise I will not be spending my money on that either.

In any case, delaying Leopard for a cell phone seems lame to me. I can’t wait to upgrade to Leopard. But the iPhone can wait.

Read story here.

Ok, I’m an iPod user and don’t really care at all about the Zune, I’ll admit. In any case, found this article from digg and details of the next version of Zune have been leaked to a Zune Scene editor. Maybe. I’m a little bit skeptical that “the stars aligned” and next thing you know these two guys are talking about Zune 2.0. Just enough details are given and enough withheld that it seems plausible. I’m not trying to say the article isn’t legit, but how many times have “rumors on the internets” and leaks turned out to not be true? In any case, read the article from Zune Scene and decide for yourself.