Gadget Train

AMD, a company not exactly known for meeting its own deadlines, seemed to be trying to avoid news of painful delays for the Phenom II by simply not letting anyone say when the thing would be available. Now the chip is apparently in the hands of one lucky gamer at the HardOCP forums, Table21, who was kind enough to run it through its paces. The Phenom II 940 running at 3GHz scored a 4,091 on 3DMark06 and, once OC’d up to 3.85GHz, delivered a score of 5,086. It’s rather too early to draw any conclusions from these numbers, and we don’t know what he paid for the thing, but that performance does fall well behind Intel’s Core i7 Extreme that was similarly benchmarked last month, scoring 6,608 at the same clock speed. That’s quite a gap — but nothing a little liquid nitrogen won’t fix.

[Via PC Perspective]

Filed under: Desktops

AMD Phenom II processor bought, benchmarked, coveted originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Vulcan EBF-25 nerf gun is already a pretty formidable weapon on its own, although there is nothing quite like a little bit of invention and mischief to create something more potent. Case in point, this modded Vulcan EBF-25 is able to fire up to 500 rounds-per-minute. We need not point out that this toy weapon ought to be used responsibly, and you should never, ever point this at somebody’s face unless you’re willing to be sued for accidentally blinding someone during your more zealous, juvenile moments.

Permalink: Vulcan EBF-25 Nerf Gun On Steroids from Ubergizmo (US, FR) | Good deals | Hot: Nokia N97

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Disintegrator, meet you match. The wild ‘n zany hackers over at ManaPotions have taken the Vulcan EBF-25 to heights that no one at Nerf could have ever imagined by transforming a relatively harmless foam dart gun into a bona fide chaingun. Post-hack, the weapon could fire “about as fast as a 7.62mm M60 Machine gun,” which — for those rusty on their ammunition specifications — equates to 500 rounds-per-minute. The entire mod is laid out in dangerous detail down in the read link, though even the creators admit that you’ll likely fry the motor and melt at least a few critical components after a fair amount of use. Check the vid just past the break for a scene sure to make your jaw drop.

Continue reading Nerf dart gun hacked into pulverizing chaingun

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Nerf dart gun hacked into pulverizing chaingun originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know, we were hoping for a Nokia knock-off to poke fun at this morning, but what we got instead was a comprehensive five page review of a vaguely N810-ish, Linux-based handheld called the MID-2008. The 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 touchscreen phone / media player features a 628MHz processor, 128MB RAM and supports a 16GB expansion card, WiFi and Bluetooth. A host of apps are bundled in with the thing, such as Firefox, document readers for MS Office and PDF files, a YouTube app, the Pocket Oxford Concise English-Chinese dictionary and several games, including our personal fave, “Crazy Parking!” Unfortunately, the phone was disabled on the demo unit so there’s no telling how the thing works as a handset, but as a media player the device was praised effusively. Of course, that could be saying more about the “new hope” that “Chinese-made phones” bring to the reviewer than the device itself. At any rate, we don’t have a manufacturer or a price on this one yet but we’ll keep you posted.

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Video

N810-ish, Linux-based MID pops up overseas, brings hope to at least one reviewer originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bagtv is range of handbags featuring an integrated 7″ DVD/MP3 player and digital photo viewer. Available in range of colours and finishes, Bagtv ensures you’re never without stylish accompaniment and entertainment anywhere you go. It has 2.5 hours of battery life and you can connect it to a PC for uploading your pics and vids [...]

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Oh, HTC. Why do you tease us? For the legions of phone fanatics not located in Russia, the images hosted up in the read link are about as close as you all will ever get to Yota’s HTC MAX 4G. The world’s first GSM + WiMAX handset has been acquired by an evidently affluent individual who reportedly threw down around $1,300 in greenbacks in exchange for this gem. Those familiar with the HTC Touch HD won’t find too many dissimilarities, but we’ll stop bothering you with these “words” and allow you to give the images some careful attention.

[Via wmpoweruser, thanks Daniel]

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC MAX 4G gets a proper unboxing in Russia originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We caught wind of this dual-screened ThinkPad last week, but now we’ve got some more details to get your mouths watering — and your wallets running for cover. The W700ds comes with your choice of Intel Core 2 Quad processors and combined with the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M GPU. RAM maxes out at 8GB and you can stuff a total of 960GB of SSD / HDD storage into this bad boy. The primary 17-inch screen is supposedly the brightest on the market, and if there wasn’t already enough to make you drool, it packs an integrated WACOM digitizer as well (like its single-screened sister, the W700). However, this 11 pound package starts at $3,600, so you’d better be ready to break out the piggy bank come January when this beast is set to ship. Don’t pout though, it probably wouldn’t have fit under the tree anyway. Check out two more pics after the break.

[Thanks, Brian K]

Read – Lenovo to release ThinkPad laptop with 2 LCD screens
Read – Lenovo Mobile Workstation Now Offers Dual-Screen Display

Continue reading Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds dual-screen laptop details and pics unearthed

Filed under: Laptops

Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds dual-screen laptop details and pics unearthed originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We greeted the promising Pasen REI-16 with lots of skepticism, and truthfully, this thing still has some work to do to shake the dreadful shackles of the Pasen brand that we’ve always known. However, the video hosted up after the break does a fairly awesome job of proving that the firm’s new owners are serious about producing quality kit. The unit demonstrated is described as an “almost final sample,” and so far, we’re really digging the interface. Everything looks satisfactorily intuitive, and on the real, we actually caught a whiff of envy watching those thumbs go to town. Don’t let us down, Pasen — we think you’ve got a winner on your hands here.

[Via B4Tech Blog]

Continue reading Pasen’s REI-16 PMP gets examined on video

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Pasen’s REI-16 PMP gets examined on video originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Dec 2008 09:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell VP of Communities and Conversations Bob Pearson is ragging on Apple for its MacBook “Greenest Family of Notebooks” ads. In a post titled “The Real Meaning of Being Green,” Pearson accuses Apple of not discussing environmental issues, making inaccurate claims and stating no goals, while touting Dell’s energy efficient Latitude E-series and use of PVC / BFR-free components. Of course, the PC maker has had its fair share of eco-unfriendly practices over the years, including accusations from the ever-fickle Greenpeace last month that the company has withdrawn from its commitment to stop using PVC / BFR in its computers by the end of 2009 — but why let little details get in the way of a good schoolyard fight?

Filed under: Laptops

Dell VP criticizes Apple’s ‘green’ initiatives, pot and kettle laugh in unison originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Dec 2008 02:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumors of a new Mac mini or iMac have been floated (and denied) for a while now, but one ferocious investigator’s feasted his eyes on a few pieces of rather telling evidence recently. A poster on the InsanelyMac forums found some code in his new MacBook which referred to “iMac9,1 and Macmini3,1″ which would seem to indicate that a newer version — current iMacs and Mac minis are marked iMac8,1 and Macmini2,1 — if both products are on the horizon. The new identifiers also list both as having “CFG_MCP7″ chipsets — the same NIVIDIA set used in the new Macbooks (current minis have Intel GMA 950 chipsets while iMacs have NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS GPUs). So… we’ll see you at Macworld, then?

[Via CNET]

Filed under: Desktops

New iMac, Mac mini looking more probable after minute discovery originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Dec 2008 21:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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