Daily Reviews Summary 09/19/09

The WinTV-MiniStick HD offers good image and sound quality both in TDT and TDT HD. I love the fact that WinTV7 uses the graphics card to diminish the load on the CPU. I am also very impressed by the included software, especially by how easy it is to operate.

There's no attempt to disguise itself as anything other than a full-on entertainment laptop. Even when it's closed, the dark brown, rounded plastic case is good looking, but it's when you open it that you get the feeling the U500 is mostly about having fun.

Today I am going to check out the Astak EZ Reader Pocket Pro eBook reader. The device is a small and compact digital reader along the lines of the Amazon Kindle, but without some of the features Amazon packs in to its machine. If you are in the market for a low cost eReader, the Astak EZ Reader Pocket Pro may be perfect for your needs. Read on for all the details.

On September 1st, 2009, Western Digital announced two new 2 TB hard drives that belong in the Caviar Black and RE4 series, which are 3.5" hard drives that feature four 500 GB platters. The WD Caviar Black 2 TB (model WD2001FASS) and WD RE4 2 TB (model WD2003FYYS) hard drives feature 7200 RPM spin speed, 64 MB cache, dual stage actuator technology, SATA 3 gigabits per second (GB/s) interface, and an integrated dual processor to deliver ultimate performance in a maximum-capacity drive. WD’s RE4 2 TB drive is designed for enterprise-class applications, so we won't be looking at that one today. We will be looking at the brand new WD Caviar Black 2 TB (model WD2001FASS) hard drive and will be comparing it to the WD Caviar Green 2 TB (model WD20EADS) hard drive.

Heatsinks seem to have a similar situation, where you have square and rectangular heatsinks, and then you have your circular or oval ones. It seems like the majority have gone the way of the rectangle, making them bulky and cumbersome, but with performance that was better than their circular counterparts. Interestingly enough, the circular designs are stilling being produced, yet now, some are outperforming the previously unstoppable rectangular ones. The Thermaltake MaxOrb EX is a horizontal flow, circular heatsink designed for high air flow. The Thermaltake MaxOrb EX features six copper heat pipes for improved heat exchange performance. The circular design allows for a lower profile than most stacked heatsinks, but is optimized for maximum air flow and cooling characteristics.

In our 2009 Notebook Buyer's Guide, we discussed the merits and perils of CULV based notebooks. This suddenly popular and quickly growing sector looks to bridge the gap between the bargain basement netbook and the full-size notebook. It makes sense to think that a swath of 13.3" to 14" machines would be needed for those who find 10.1" netbook displays too tiny and 15.4" rigs too large, and that's exactly the sweet spot that Asus is attempting to hit with its new UL30 range. The particular model that we're looking at today is the UL30A-A1, though a handful of other configurations will be available as well. This 13.3" machine looks to offer more power than a typical netbook, yet provide nearly the same level of portability and battery life.

The UL30 was just introduced last week along with a few other CULV machines, which stands for Consumer Ultra Low Voltage. This moniker refers to the Intel processor within, which is a more powerful chip than the Atom options found in most netbooks, yet isn't quite as potent as the full-fledged Core 2 Duo CPUs found in most full-size notebooks. Again, this whole machine is about splitting the difference, and we have to admit, it's a fine line to walk...

Once upon a time, when beige PC towers ruled the earth, your average PC user was rather limited for their choice of mouse pad -- most were abominable little plastic rectangles backed with some kind of spray foam that served little purpose other than accumulating years of rotting spillages. Thankfully that time is no more and coMPanies have been churning out mouse mats of every conceivable shape, size and colour to cater to the needs of PC users for years. Today we take a look at Jetart's new addition to its MousePal line-up, the MP2000, to see if it's worth your hard earned pennies.

Docking stations for laptops have been around almost since the existence of laptops themselves. The problem is that not all laptops have a docking port built in. Usually only the business class notebooks, which are often more expensive than their consumer grade counterparts, have provisions for connecting to a dock. The product we have for review today is a universal laptop dock featuring DisplayLink technology. Although this device carries the HP brand name, its design allows it to work on just about any computer that has a USB 2.0 port. Freed from traditional docking station restraints of specific brands and/or models, the HP USB 2.0 Docking Station allows external connection of VGA, DVI, USB, SPK, MIC and NIC devices and shares these peripherals through one standard USB connection to the host computer.