The sony vaio T notebook also includes a fingerprint scanner, Digital Tuner, Bluray and 802.11N wifi [Full specs here]. The model is currently available only in Japan and is approximately priced at $1400. Until, you folks can settle for netbooks at amazon.

Battery life:
Standard battery life: 6.5 to 11 hours battery Life
Capacity Battery Pack : 10 hours to 17 hours battery Life

With windows 7 reportedly doing pretty well, this windows 7 notebook could appeal extremely well in the eyes of travelers.

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Netgear ReadyNAS NV+

When it comes to NAS products there exists three distinctly different types of devices, single disk devices, dual disk devices and multi disk devices. Having a single disk device is a very small step upward from a standard USB connected disk, the only difference being the network connectivity. Having two disks in your NAS gives the possibility to use mirroring (RAID 1)  to secure your data. The most resource effective solution is having a multi disk solution with three or more disks. This will allow you to use a resource efficient configuration such as RAID 5, giving you good redundant configuration. Going for a multi drive NAS will bring you the highest storage capacity and generally the most features and one of the best in this class is the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+.

Features of Netgear ReadyNAS NV+

Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ have four hot swappable drive slots supporting SATA and SATA-II drives up to 1TB sizes. It has one 10/100/1000 Mbit Ethernet port and three USB 2.0 ports. Netgears’s patent-pending X-RAID technology provides a very simple way of configuring your disk. Normally, setting up a RAID system means that all disk have to be of the same size and there is no way of changing from a RAID 1 configuration to a RAID 5 configuration without a total reconfiguration meaning a total data loss. With X-RAID, you can mix any disk sizes and also start with fewer disks adding new disks when needed. X-RAID will automatically use the available disks in the most efficient configuration without your intervention. You can start with one disk and when you add one disk, the system will automatically switch to a mirrored mode to provide redundancy. Adding a third and fourth disk will make the system switch to a RAID 5 type configuration which provides the best balance between redundancy and utilization.
Expanding the disk sizes will be utilized in the best possible way by expanding the available storage when possible.

Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ with drives

Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ provides support for the following networking file services: CIFS/SMB (for Windows), NFS (for Linux/UNIX), AFS (for Mac), HTTP/HTTPS for web browsers, RSYNC and FTP/FTPS. This gives a very good multi OS environment support, with lots of flexibility in how to configure your network file sharing.
The core functionality of a NAS is of course to provide network file services but there are several other feature that a NAS can provide in an efficient way. Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ is no exception and it provides media streaming capabilities (supporting DLNA Compatible UPnP AV, Logitech SqueezeBox, SONOS Digital Music Center, Network DVD player compatible, Windows MCE compatible, Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft XBOX 360 and Apple iTunes compatible), print server capabilities, photo handling, built in bit torrent client and integrated backup capabilities.
Managing the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ is done through a well designed web interface that is both powerful and flexible.

The verdict

X-RAID promises a very flexible solution for redundancy and expanding storage, but does it deliver? The answer is yes, it does. Going through a cycle starting with one 500 Gb drive, adding another 500 Gb drive, and then adding two 750 Gb drives and then finally swapping the two 500 Gb drives for two 1Tb drives. The transition have increased the storage from 500Gb non-redundant to a 2Tb fully redundant configuration and has been done without having to move any data from the unit and without any hick ups or data loss. The print server works flawlessly and the media streaming capabilities have also proved to be very robust.

Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ is a very competent NAS that provides a unsurpassed flexible storage solution using the X-RAID solution. The hot swap/ hot insert capabilities provides a very redundant and secure solution. This combined with the rich feature set that the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ sports makes this a very compelling NAS that can only receive the highest recommendation.

http://netgear.com/Products/Storage/ReadyNASNVPlus.aspx

http://www.readynas.com/

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Samsung X360-34G - Lightest notebook

More people are swaying towards netbooks, and computer manufacturers visualize the need for lighter notebooks. Macbook Air was introduced as the world’s lightest notebook and the record kept teasing other notebook manufacturers. All records are meant to be broken, and samsung has implemented this strategy to introduce its notebooks for the business class audience. Its six months since the lightest notebook was released, Samsung X360 is one of the stylish and trendiest notebooks available, in par with the macbook air, at least in looks.

Samsung X360, not only matches Lenovo X300 and MacBook Air, in terms of looks, but also has plenty of meat to turn the heat on these two ultra thin, light portables. Spending $2500 can get you a notebook that is capable of getting you envied by people around you, but is Samsung X360 powerful enough? Read on.

The samsung X360 is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at just 1.4 Ghz, but is boosted by a 3GB memory (expandable uptp 4GB) and a 128GB solid-state hard drive. The solid state device makes the data transfers faster and cuts down on the boot time, but bloats up the price tag. On the graphics processor front, the X360 uses an Intel 4 Series Express chipset, Intel GMX4500 with 128MB shared memory. This, however is sufficient only for day-to-day computing needs and normal gaming, and may not be ideal, if you plan to play any high-end games.

Thinnest laptop - Samsung X360

The X360 has a rugged magnesium alloy chassis and a strength providing aluminium plate behind the LCD, which makes up the light weight, and is analogous to the unibody macbook. A ‘pebble’ style keyboard, much like the one in MacBook, is pretty comfortable to use. This light notebook also includes an 1.3 megapixel webcam integrated, Bluetooth, WLAN with draft’n’ and an HDMI port. Samsung claims a battery life of 10-hours, but in a test it lasted for only 8-hours.

Claiming to be the lightest notebook in the World, this one weighs well under 3 pounds, 2.8 lbs precisely. Like all other slim and light notebooks, Samsung X360 lacks the Optical Drive, and there are no solutions like the remote disc [ Are you kidding? Samsung is not as innovative as Apple!! ]. The 13.3″ screen supports a resolution of 1280×800 and an LED backlight that delivers about 33% extra brightness over other designs. The screen provides great visuals from all angles and under direct sunlight as well.

The keys are well spaced on the keyboard as Samsung uses keys that pop out through holes. The keys are very comfortable to use and provide good tactile feedback. For Security, the X360 also features a fingerprint reader. The sound quality from the built-in speakers is reasonable.

The Samsung X360 comes with Windows Vista Home Edition pre-installed and with one year international warranty.

Samsung X360 rebates

Buy Samsung X360-34P 13.3-Inch Laptop (1.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 Centrino 2 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 128 GB Solid State Drive, Vista Business) – $1799 (Actual price $2299, $500 rebate offer currently)

Buy Samsung X360-34G 13.3-Inch Laptop (1.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9300 Centrino 2 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, Vista Business) – $1449 (Actual price $1749, $300 rebate offer currently)

Thinnest laptop - Samsung X360

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Slim!!

Western Digital My Passport Essential - Midnight black

Gone are the days when files, Personal Computers, laptops were used to store all your required information, folders, documentations, presentations, music, videos, photos etc. The use of all these junk products as a storage devices have now been revolutionized by the use of portable hard drives, which has now become the most easy to use gadget that can be effectively brought into play and also fits smoothly into your pockets. On a larger market competition for such products, Western Digital has launched its new portable Hard Drive – “Western Digital My Passport Essential Portable Hard Drive”.

Western Digital My Passport Essential - Pocket drive

The look and feel of this portable hard drive is eye catchy. This stylish drive is light in weight and hence easy to carry. The size of this drives measures to 5″ * 3.1″ * .6″ by Length, Width and Height respectively. The end user has got an opportunity to express his own style by choosing the color of choice. The 320 GB drive comes in 9 attractive colors. Also, a minimum of 6 colors are available on other products of Western Digital that vary based on the storage capacity.

Major Advantages:

The Serial Bus Transfer rates of this Western Digital My Passport Portable Hard drive WDME3200TN is something amazing. One cannot believe that a transfer of about 480 MB of data can happen in just a second. On the installation side, this can just be used as a plug and play device. No effort is required to do a install/setup. Another major advantage on this product is that, this can be used as an USB drive. A USB 2.0 Cable comes along with the package and helps you connect your PC through a USB drive slot. Hence there is no room for a requirement of separate electric power supply. Also, the cable supplied in the package is a standard mini-USB which is of a common type and is benchmark for its flexibility, portability and high user friendly. This USB 2.0 Portable Hard drive product comes by default in FAT32 format which is an added advantage since many of the Operating Systems can read/write.

Disadvantages:

- Though the shiny colors and smooth finish attracts one, yet it this product is easy to get scratched. There is also no case included in the package for this gadget.
- A shock to all iMac funplays is that not all of the USB outlets in Mac laptops have sufficient power to drive this external drive. So to be on a very safer side, its highly advisable to check if your iMac is compatible to drive this portable Hard disk.
- PC/Laptops that are three years old or even older than that may not have USB 2.0 ports. Hence this would again be a trouble in compatibility issues when trying to connect external hard disk.
- On a few occasions, the device fails to open or work, indicating for a very low power for it to be driven and hence would require an alternate cable to supply power from an external source.

Other features:

This portable drive can withstand temperatures in the range of 5 – 40 degree Celsius when it is in operation of transferring files/folders. During a steady ideal state (non-operating) state this can withstand a range of -20 to 65 degree Celsius . This product comes in 4 different models depending on the storage capacity, viz., 250GB, 320GB, 400GB and 500GB. The most effective and a moderate product would be a 320 GB which costs you 128 USD but at AMAZON you get this product for just 90 USD saving up to 30% of your expenses. Also, depending on the color of the product you chose on a particular model, the price also varies.

Buy Western Digital My Passport Essential 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive WDME3200TN (Midnight Black) – $93

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Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router

In this fast moving technological world, it has become a tough way to lead a life without getting connected to the internet, to see the outside world. This internet world has now become more advanced that even if you have one connection into your home from a broadband service provider, you can get connected to the internet through more than one PC or laptop. This in turn is made possible with an effective use of a router, be it wireless or wired network connections. Though there are many competitive products that play in the market, Linksys has launched recently its Wireless router, “Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router“.

The Look and Feel:
The appearance is really eye catching. It comes in black with a smooth finish that makes an end user use this product. The design of this product is something attention-gathering. The size of this router measures to 8″ * 6.3″ * 1.4”. This stylish router is light in weight measuring less than 290 grams and hence easy to carry.

Technical Specifications:
This all in one router has got the ability to connect workstations with & without wires. This has got a 4-port integrated switch with a frequency band of 2.4 GHz. Some of the latest data link protocol that can be used are Ethernet,  IEEE 802.11b,  IEEE 802.11g,  Fast Ethernet and few Network/Transport protocols like DNS,  DHCP,  L2TP,  PPTP,  IPSe,  TCP/IP, PPPoE, UDP/IP are supported by this router. There is also a RIP, Static IP routing features available in this product. HTTP and HTTPS are the remote management protocols that are supported.

This router is powered by two Antenna, both of which are internally integrated. An external power adapter comes along with this package that can be plugged for an external source to drive the router. Seeing the environment consideration, this wireless router can withstand a temperature of about 40 degree Celsius, and at the minimum, a frozen temperature of 0 degrees Celsius.

Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router

Pros:

• A very quick setup, no big installation is required. A wizard would quickly run through the installation steps and you are there ready to use, in minutes after the product has reached your place.
• The antenna provided proves for an excellent reception to your workstations.
• Many routers in the market find tough situations getting connected on an iMac, but Linksys beats all its competitors in working so efficiently. This Router is also compatible with linux and mac, unlike most routers, which work only on windows XP/Vista. If you are a Macintosh user, you do not even need a device driver or an install CD, You are connected the moment you turn your airport on.
• You can also connect your XBOX 360 or your playstation using this router.
• The antennas are internal, and hence the size of this router is very small and handy.
• The internal antennas are powerful enough to establish connectivity at a good distance and even at a basement.

Cons:

• Its very shocking to hear that many a times this Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless router, loses its IP connectivity if your workstation is kept ON for a longer time thereby, fails for a solid connection. You may have problems leaving the router permanently on.
• The length of the power cord that is supplied with this WRT54G2 is just half in size as compared to WRT54GS model.
• Working a powerful processor, the router gets heated up at room temperature and has to be turned off once in a while (about 30 minutes, every 24 hours). It is not possible to leave the router on permanently. If you use torrents a lot, you might want to attach a fan to the router.
• If you have a modest internet connection, this router may clog if you connect more than 4 devices at the same time.

Price Deals:
Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router is listed at a price of close to 75 USD, but at AMAZON, you get this product for just 45 USD thereby saving about 36% of your cost.

Buy Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router – $45

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Acer V series 17

If you are a gaming guy and have set your mind to buy an LCD Monitor at a very reasonable, unbelievable price and with less or zero pre-setup/installation work and with a very quick shipping time, then it’s the right time and decision to go head buying the new Acer V173B 17″ LCD Monitor. This monitor has been targeted for all those, whose expectations look for a very sharp and bright picture quality. It has also satisfied and proved to the best one for greater refresh rate with response times of less than 5ms when you play games and browse internet or do any office work.

This 17″ TFT LCD measures14.8″ * 14.6″ * 6.3″ in size, weighing just 3.8kgs has a maximum resolution of 1280*1024 with a high dynamic contrast ratio of 2000:1 and a Vertical and horizontal refresh rate/frequency of 55Hz-75Hz and 30KHz-80KHz respectively. The input signal of this LCD is a VGA mode. Amazingly the refresh response time taken is just 5 ms, which meaning means that within a flick of your eyes the page gets refreshed. This LCD comes in an eye catching black colored cabinet that can be mounted on a stand.

Acer V series 17

This product has hit the markets with an amazing 5 star rating, with many supporting extraordinary and unique features like highly bright, great refresh rates, sharp clear picture quality and in fact a product that can be dealt at a best price. To many end users who uses this 17″ LCD, the sharpness and brightness is as compared to a 24″ iMac which is supposed to be a benchmark that is set all time undoubtedly. Another striking positive side of this product is the amount of heat generation. It generates very little heat and has got a wide viewing angle, looks pretty nice.

The shipping and cost of the product now makes one, unpredictable. An end user can never expect this 17″ LCD to be brought at a very very low price. And as always, it is Amazon that is going to offer the best deal of all times. The actual price of this product goes to somewhere around 130 USD, but at Amazon you get a deal this for just 117 USD thereby saving 10% of your cost. The second big deal is the delivery period that is taken. All these LCD assures its end users not test their patience and reaches your place, the second or third day at the maximum, once you have ordered and made payments. The third and most important deal is being the installation process. Open your parcel, plug and play. These three simple steps make your work so simple and make you crazier to work on Acer LCD.

Buy Acer V173B 17 LCD Monitor – $116.99

Acer V series 17

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IOmega Prestige Desktop External Hard Drive

Are you the one who wanted to pack all your required documents, files, and folders into a sleek lustrous drive and push into your pockets? Here is then a significant solution that the helps answer for your requirement. IOmega introduces its latest “Prestige Desktop External Hard Drive 34270”. This would certainly function smart to hold all your day to day files and folders, be it fundamental or critical or even junk. This in fact is what is most required for today’s highly sophisticated scenarios.

The Look and Feel:

IOmega Prestige External Hard Drive 34270 looks stylish, pleasant and houses an appealing color of dark silver brushed finish. Attracted by the outer cover design and the shape that is given to it to sit on your table next to your PC is something that needs to be highly appreciated. The size measures to 4.4″ * 6.1″ * 8.9″ and weighs to about 5 pounds. This easy to use pocket-sized hard-drive works as a simple plug and play device and is guaranteed for a better environment with an Energy Star qualified adapter.

Positives:

Some of major and smart advantages of this product are that, this drive comes as an NTFS formatted one and so there are no headaches for software that needs to be installed or any initial setup. The noise and amount of heat that is radiated out is also very minimal even after a hard usage of transfer or read from/to the drive.

Yet another valuable feature, “Back-up” definitely helps anyone who has unexpectedly lost their valuable files/folders. This by default uses an EMC retrospect HD license for very safe backup. Hence all those junk or vital documents can be very easily retrieved, if lost unfortunately. Also, the connection to the PC can be done via USB which is a standard feature and assures to be a trouble free product. You also get a One Year warranty, when you buy this product.

IOmega Prestige - Cool looks

Drawbacks:

On the other hand, many iMac users have encountered problems while using this device. The device when plugged in an iMac has been reported to throw errors like “Delayed Write Failed… the data has been lost.” One might even get a CRC error in creating new folders and fail to read/write files many times.

The adapter that this iOmega hard drive product uses has witnessed a number of cases registered for failure or causing damage too due to minor voltage fluctuations that might indeed destroy the hard drive piece. Even the customer support of this product doesn’t turn to be satisfactory for the callers who seek solutions for their complaints.

Though all these negative aspects sound to be occurring for just 1% of users, most users have found this product to work miraculously. Iomega drive proves to be a very helpful device as it is always easy to use and highly durable. IOmega Prestige External Hard Drive comes in two models based on the storage capacity. The 500 GB product can be bought at a very affordable rate of just 80 USD and a 1TB product costs just 120 USD.

Buy Iomega Prestige 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 34270 – $79.99

Buy Iomega Prestige 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive 34275 – $119.99

P.S. – You might want to consider the Iomega Limited Edition 320 GB Hi-speed USB 2.0 External Hard Drive. The label reads the same price, but with lesser space and better transfer speed.

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samsuing NC10

Many users have ditched the 7 inch screens and are moving towards bigger screens. Samsung seems to have read the requirements clearly. Samsung NC10 sports a good 10.2″ screen with 1024 x 600 resolution. The two models NC10-14GW (white) and the NC10-14GB (blue) are exactly similar except for the skin. Both the samsung netbooks are powered by a Intel Atom processor N270 with a clock speed of 1.6 GHz. Standard memory is 1GB (DDR2 800MHz), expandable up to 2GB, which is reasonable because of windows XP Home SP3.

samsung NC10 blue

While most netbooks have been scanty in memory, the samsung NC10 netbook breaks from fetters and provides a huge 160GB hard disk. The 2.5″ HDD makes the samsung NC10 netbook more like a notebook. The camera is quite good with 1.3 MP,considering the fact that most netbooks dont have one. The other standard requisites like the USB ports, bluetooth, Ethernet and audio jacks do not leave a hole anywhere. To power up the processor, there is also a 128MB shared Graphics Memory. Compare with specs from Toshiba NB100, this netbook is power packed as well as bigger at the same time.

The samsung NC10 notebook is 2.8 lbs in weight (1.33 Kg) and there is a 6 cell Lithium ion battery. What makes the samsung NC10 netbook very special is the 8 hour long battery life (as claimed by samsung). With wireless powered internet surfing should leave the netbook with 5 hours battery life, which is pretty good.

If you are looking for a netbook with bigger hard disk capacity and longer battery life, samsung NC10 is a pretty good choice. Though no support for linux has been mentioned in the netbook, installing Linux should make the netbook only better.

Samsung NC10 specs :

[TABLE=4]

Samsung NC10 Price :

NC10-14GB (blue) – $491.98 – buy at amazon – sold directly by samsung

NC10-14GW (white) - $487.99 – buy at amazon – sold directly by samsung

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Toshiba NB100 netbook

Desktops are passe. Laptops are the current trend, Is Netbook the future? With portability really becoming a demand, and technology driving the chips smaller and cheaper, netbooks have become a fast selling product in online stores. Check out the Toshiba NB 100 review.

While the reason for moving to a netbook can be portability, i have found numerous users who buy netbooks are using it only as a additional or secondary PC. The majority of these users possibly run a browser and a audio/player player, nothing more. It is quite unsurprising to see that the Toshiba NB 100 is powered by a Intel 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor. The Toshiba NB100 netbook comes in a couple of memory specs – 512MB and 1GB. The hard drive capacity is up to 120GB. Additionally the Toshiba netbook NB100 also comes with a webcam (0.3 MP) and inbuilt wifi capacity. The system will house 3 USB ports, i guess two would suffice.

The keyboard is reported to smaller than the frame, with additional unused space on either ends, which should possibly be avoided in the next releases. Also the trackpad should be made bigger. While most people moving for netbooks use it as a auxiliary laptop, the manufacturers tend to keep the prices down. One upshot due to this is the usage of linux (Ubuntu 8.04 – hardy heron). Users may also prempt for windows Xp for additional cost.

[TABLE=2]

Two cents: There are better netbooks than the Toshiba NB100 for a better price, may be you should wait for the second model. This model is however very stylish.

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