The Best Computer Upgrade Ever

Forget about a faster processor. Splurge on a bigger screen.
by Paul Boutin
Slate
9.09.06- Whether you're a PC or Mac user, the humongous 24-inch iMac that Apple unwrapped on Wednesday drives home a point: Speed is good, but spread is better. For the past year, I've been working at two offices. Office A has a fairly new 17-inch Mac I bought so I could crank out more freelance work without having to turn off iTunes. But lately, I find myself making the longer trek to Office B to use an older, slower machine. Why? Because a generous Office B colleague updated the slowpoke with a 23-inch monitor.

Speed freaks are stoked that Intel has finally replaced its aging Pentium processors with a speedier design called Core 2. Apple went for broke and stuffed the new iMac with a dual-core Intel processor and a 24-inch monitor. But it'll cost me $2,000-plus to buy my dream machine. PC users get a choice: Dell will sell you a Core 2-powered PC for $1,200 or a 24-inch flat-panel monitor for around $700. If you're feeling stymied by your computer, buy the monitor now and wait until Windows Vista comes out to upgrade the rest of your PC. You'll get more Core 2 for your money by then, and you'll already have a panoramic screen to let Vista live up to its name.
Read More. . .

First Drive: The Tesla Roadster

by Ben Stewart
Popular Mechanics
8.23.06- We’ve taken a look at the Tesla Roadster from afar and we’ve taken a ride in the spunky electric sports car too. But recently we had a chance to pry the keys away from a Tesla engineer and climb behind the wheel of a hand-built $350,000 Development Prototype Tesla Roadster.

Slide into the thinly padded driver’s seat of the Tesla and it looks and feels very familiar. That’s not surprising since the car’s chassis and many interior bits are shared with Lotus. But twist the key and things get strange. Of course my brain knows this is an electric car but I still wait for a starter to crank over a highly stressed internal combustion sports car engine. It doesn’t happen. It’s all quiet until a small dash light illuminates and tells you its “on” and a faint “click” from behind my head says it’s ready to go. Weird.

The Tesla’s transmission has two speeds but for our drive, the car was purposely locked in Second. Step on the gas, whoops, I mean the accelerator, and it scoots away nearly silently in a rush of instant torque. First gear would essentially double that torque, but unless we were racing a Vette or a Viper, Second is enough. Even without the lower First gear the Tesla really hauls. Tesla’s claim of running 0-60 in around 4 seconds sounds plausible.
Read More. . .

Sony recalls laptop batteries en-masse

by Simon Aughton
Computer Buyer
10.03.06- Sony has now advised a dozen laptop makers to recall batteries, as the true extent of the overheating fault the led first Dell and then Apple to offer to replace batteries becomes clear.

Over the weekend Toshiba announced that it had extended the scope of its recall, adding batteries supplied with Qosmio, Satellite Portege and Tecra models to the Dynabook units it had already begun replacing and bringing the total size of its recall to 830,000.

Fujitsu followed by confirming the recall of batteries supplied with 19 laptop models, though it declined to say how many were being replaced.

Meanwhile Dell added another 100,000 batteries to the 4.1 million it had previously recalled.
Read More. . .

Hard Disk Hi-Fi

Red Ferret
8.31.06- Don’t let its old-school look fool you. The Wharfedale 40GB HDD Micro System will automatically rip and convert your CDs to mp3s as you play them, pulling track listings and info from an integrated database of 1.9 million albums. You can store up to 80,000 tracks on the system's 40GB HDD and transfer music to portable players via USB. The Wharedale also features a FM/AM PLL digital tuner with 20 station presets and the usual stereo controls. It can all be yours for $380.

# 2 x 30 watts RMS. # FM/AM PLL digital tuner with 20 station presets. # CD-R/CD-RW/MP3 playback. # 40GB internal disc drive stores up to 8,000 tracks. # Create playlists, instant MP3 download of track. # Album/playlist, MP3 upload via USB, Auto CD ripping, Auto disc and track label from CD database. # Bass/Treble control. # LCD display. # 2 way speakers. # USB port.