"Portable media is all the rage nowadays and it just keeps getting bigger and smaller. Errr, what I mean by that is the capacity of these smaller drives is now larger than ever. Sigh. Corsair has raised the capacities of its Flash Voyager GT Series USB flash drives up to a whopping 128GB! That's about 250x the size of my first hard drive, well before flash drives were ever invented! It's amazing how far technology has come in a dozen years or so. Here's looking to the next dozen! *cheers* What I have for you guys today is the 32GB Flash Voyager GT USB Flash Drive from Corsair."

"The first thing that came to mind when we tore the Asus UL80Vt from its box was this: "Hmm, this seems familiar." Turns out, the UL80Vt isn't all that different on the surface than the 13.3" UL30A that we reviewed back in September, but just because Asus' latest is another model in the expanded UL range doesn't mean that this machine is just another me-too option. In fact, we'd argue quite the opposite. While many computer manufacturers are trying to force consumers into certain segments (netbooks, gaming notebooks, ultraportables, etc.), Asus is opting to broaden the spectrum and provide more "middle ground" choices. The UL80Vt is a perfect middle ground machine; it splits the difference between a 11" to 13" ultraportable and a 15" to 16" multimedia machine. But just because it's designed for a segment of consumers in dire need of more options, is it really one worth buying? "

"The Thermaltake BlacX Duet is a budget friendly dual drive SATA HDD docking station that provides fast, convenient access to 2.5” or 3.5" SATA or SATA II (SATA /300) hard drive contents through either USB or eSATA connections. The best part about this product is that you never need to open a computer case or mount hard drives in an enclosure."

"In the competitive gaming world of today, it is always a battle to have the latest and greatest. To keep up with the times, Razer released an upgraded version of the popular Death Adder. Will the differences between the old Death Adder and the new one amount enough to translate into extra kills, read on and find out."

"Today we are going to look at the ROCCAT Kova gaming mouse that is designed to provide an identical experience no matter which hand you use to grip it. It also features completely driverless operation all of its settings are configurable using the buttons on the mouse."

"We have a looked at a decent number of laptop coolers over the years; covering units that can be described as well designed and useful, to those that well, can't be described with such words. In this review we will take a look at the Cooler Master NotePal X2 laptop cooler to try to decide which category it fits in to."

"In my Office 2010 Preview, I mentioned some of the new product editions that Microsoft will be delivering to customers in this version of its venerable office productivity suite. Among them is Office 2010 Starter edition, which will replace Microsoft Works and only be provided to customers who purchase new PCs. This week, Microsoft surprised me by providing a downloadable Beta version of Office 2010 Starter, which also has the distinction of being the first public vehicle for Click-2-Run, Microsoft's new virtualization-based software deployment tool. (Click-2-Run was also discussed in the Office 2010 Preview article). So there are a number of things going on here."

"Now that we've had some time to play with the Office 2010 Professional Beta, we thought we'd share what's new and useful inside Microsoft's big suite. Take a gander at the pictorial evidence below.

Overall, Office 2010 is not the kind of leap forward that Windows 7 was from Vista (or, for most PC upgraders, from XP). It adds a lot of stuff that's previously been available only through plug-ins, makes performing the basic tasks of opening, printing, and sharing documents a good deal more convenient, and throws in a few new features that will expand the repertoire of those who really know their Office."

"The first issue on our plate Tuesday afternoon concerned Silverlight, and Microsoft's continuing efforts to entice developers to build Web sites around a platform that is not considered a "standard," and perhaps never will be. Some developers discount Adobe Flash as a "standard" for the same reason; while others suggest that Flash's ubiquity renders it a de facto standard. The questions for Web developers have centered around whether they can afford to evolve any portion of their forward-facing online assets around a proprietary standard (around Silverlight) and still have it be on "the Web," whose values are based around platform neutrality. Those questions do seem a bit more pronounced for Microsoft than for other platform developers. But how should Microsoft handle the delicate issue of developing for a platform that's "ours" versus one that is "yours?" (And what's the difference really?)"

"Summary
=======
The following bulletins have undergone a major revision increment. Please see the appropriate bulletin for more details.

* MS08-076 - Important

Bulletin Information:
=====================

* MS08-076 - Important

- http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08-076.mspx
- Reason for Revision: V5.0 (November 24, 2009): Added entries to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Related to This Security Update section announcing the re-release of this update for the Windows XP Embedded operating system. Customers using the Windows XP Embedded operating system should install this automatically offered security update at the earliest opportunity. Customers of all other operating systems who have already installed this update do not need to take further action.
- Originally posted: December 9, 2008
- Updated: November 24, 2009
- Bulletin Severity Rating: Important
- Version: 5.0"

"In the world of notebooks, Apple is an indisputable trend setter. Case in point, the 13-inch Averatec N3400 that we recently reviewed had an aluminum outer shell, while the Acer Timeline 4810T used island-style keys like those found on MacBooks. Not surprisingly, however, those two laptops are considerably less expensive than anything on Apple's product line.

Today we'll be taking a look at the X-Slim X340, a very slim notebook from MSI that's been labeled by many as the budget alternative to the MacBook Air. Currently selling for $600, MSI hopes to lure potential buyers with its svelte design and extended battery life."

"Personally I feel that ATI / AMD have this certain level of respect for NVIDIA and what they're able to achieve. Until September there was no reason for us to think that the GT 300 series from NVIDIA wouldn't be here; the green team had come out many times saying that everything was moving to plan. In the mean time ATI was moving to plan with the HD 5000 series and it looked like both models would launch around a similar time.

So why does this matter? Well, because I personally think that while ATI was confident in the model they were producing, they also felt confident that NVIDIA wouldn't be holding back either. For this reason the company decided not to create as many of the HD 5000 series models because they didn't want to get lumped with them at a high price. This is fair enough and in the business world a smart decision; it all went pear shaped, though, and quickly."

"Dubbed the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series, this newest piece of silicon comes in two flavours: The high end is represented by the 5870, and the mid-range the 5850, which is what we're looking at today. This latest chip is supposed to support the new DirectX 11 features that will hopefully be fully exploited in Windows 7."

"Looking to make a splash in the slim midrange digicam point-and-shoot class, the Samsung DualView TL225 / ST550's headline feature is that it sports not one, but two LCD screens. With class-competitive specs including a beautiful wide touchscreen, this new stunner really bridges the performance and fashion needs of the demanding consumer. Alas, the truth still lies in the user experience and the pictures, and for answers we must delve deeper. Come with us as we spend some quality time with our new mate to see if she's as easy to live with as she is to talk about."

"It seems that Cooler Master has done what many budget chassis makers have been trying to do for some time now, to produce an inexpensive case that has the right stuff in the interior and some high style to boot. Their Elite 310 case will house your hardware, keep it fairly cool and look good doing it for the miserly sum of around $35-40 US."

"Thermaltake is a household name. That is, if your household is one of the growing number of households where discussion of enthusiast-level computer parts is normal. Thermaltake makes everything from cooling devices, to power supplies, to chasses, and more. This review covers the Thermaltake Element V, a full tower chassis with a multicolor personality and plenty of space inside for a high-end gaming rig. However, its not without its faults. Read on for the ThinkComputers review."

"Nokia's latest Smartphone takes a giant leap into becoming a full-fledged handheld PC. We take a detailed look at the N900 and find its features and flaws."

"Travel often? Need a full-featured router, but not its full-featured size? If so, the TEW-654TR deserves your attention. Despite its small size (smaller than an iPod classic), it delivers a lot of functionality, including the ability to act as an AP and also a wireless card. It also happens to offer great performance, and a price tag of under $60."

"This article is all about answering one question: how well does the Radeon HD 5770 scale in CrossFireX performance tests. Benchmark Reviews has already investigated and published two reviews for video cards based on the HD5770 "Juniper" chip; an engineering sample from ATI and a production card from XFX. They both acquitted themselves quite well, and we included some CrossFireX test results in the XFX review, using two cards strapped together on an Intel P45 platform. This time we take a look at how 1, 2, and 3 cards work together on our new Windows 7 test suite, with an AMD 790FX motherboard."

"The OCZ Black Edition 4GB DDR3-1600 memory modules allow users with an AMD Black Edition Phenom processor and supporting motherboards to take advantage of the advanced features that are possible with AMD's OverDrive utility. With these Black Edition memory modules, you can download and update profiles that wil automatically optimize your settings. While diehardenthusiasts may prefer manual settings, this can be very helpful to novicesthat aren't entirely confident with the abundane of tweaking that OverDrive has to offer."

"The QNAP TS-419P Turbo NAS features space for 4 hot-swappable SATA hard drives with up to 8TB of total capacity and supports 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch hard drives. The QNAP TS-419P is also fairly powerful as it uses a Marvell 1.2GHz CPU and 512MB DDRII memory. Read on to see how it does!"

"Both the XFX HD 5870 and XFX HD 5850 are powerful cards and both earned good marks here at OCC, but when paired in CrossFire the performance boost gained was enormous for some of the test programs. Both video cards operated happily at 1000 MHz core speed with software that could adjust the core voltage easily. The memory overclock was hindered by the 5850 which couldn't go as far, but could at least match the 5870."

"While ATI's HD 5800-series have been in high demand and consequently extremely hard to find, HD 5770 and HD 5750 cards are widely available and represent great value for your money. In this review we take a look at Sapphire's custom cooled and overclocked HD 5750 Vapor-X which promises to bring a long list of features to the table while offering increased performance to boot."