Acer shows off K11 project at pre-Computex event

Tiny, yet feature packed, although not HD capable

LOOKING FOR A really small projector? Well, Acer’s K11 might not be the smallest projector out there and despite Acer calling it a pocket projector, you’d need rather large pockets to actually fit it in one, but it does beat the competition in just about every sense when it comes to features. One drawback of LED projectors is the fairly low resolution, but Acer is still better than most here.
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First four port USB 3.0 host controller announced

Courtesy of VLI

IT LOOKS LIKE we’ll be seeing a lot of USB 3.0 hardware at Computex this year, although after yesterday’s competitive announcement by Fresco Logic, it now seems like we have the solution just about everyone has been waiting for, a four port USB 3.0 host controller and it’s about time too. The VL800 host controller comes from VLI, also known as VIA Labs, Inc, a subsidiary of VIA.
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Seagate launches Solid State Hybrid Drives

The Momentus XT comes with 4GB of SLC NAND flash

WANT A FASTER hard drive but can’t afford a SSD? Well, it looks like Seagate might’ve just come up with the solution that all of us have been waiting for, hard drives with a built in SSD. It’s a tiny SSD though, well, at least compared to the kind you’d stick in your system as a hard drive replacement, but at 4GB it’s still big enough to work as a really fast cache which is still large enough to store just about any application you’re running.
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Google announces Google TV

Google search, new hardware and Flash support

NO, IT’S NOT April fools, Google really did announce Google TV at Google I/O today and although it might sound utterly daft to incorporate Google search into a TV, the demos shown were quite impressive, when they worked. It’s early days as yet, but it seems like Google has managed to drum up enough support from a wide range of key players to make it a success, a huge success at that.
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Asus announces its first 3D displays

First model available in July

ALTHOUGH ASUS ALREADY has a notebook with 3D Vision support, today the company announced its first 3D Vision compatible displays. The first model which will be available from next month sports a 23.6-inch panel, but Asus will also launch a 27-inch model in the fourth quarter. Also set to launch is a “professional” P-IPS based display in the fourth quarter alongside the 27-inch 3D display.
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Google launches WebM open source video codec

Based on VP8, Ogg Vorbis and Matroska

THERE’S CURRENTLY SOMETHING of a disagreement going on between the various web browser manufacturers with regards to which video codec is going to become the standard for HTML5 and it seems like we just got another alternative courtesy of Google and its new WebM video codec. The interesting thing here is that apart from Google, both Opera and Netscape are backing an open source option for HTML5, so it looks like the battle for the next gen video codec for online video just warmed up.
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Netbooks set to get larger screens

Intel eases specification restrictions

IT’S ABOUT TIME that Intel has gotten around to removing one of its dumbest restrictions on netbooks, screen size. Up until now netbooks have been restricted to 10-inch displays or below, well, at least if the manufacturers wanted to get special pricing from Intel for the CPU’s and chipsets. There have been a few larger models in the market, but most of them have used Nvidia’s ION chipset, so those models have fit into a slightly more expensive product category.
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Asus launches new bamboo notebook range

With Core i processors and GeForce 310M graphics

ASUS LAUNCHED A range of new bamboo notebooks late last week in Taipei, Taiwan and we were on location and snapped a few shots of these so called environmentally friendly models. Although the lid and wrist rest on all three models are made from bamboo which can be considered quite environmentally friendly, the rest of the notebooks are using more common notebook materials.
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Possible Project Natal pricing leaked

Thanks to Swedish online retailer

PROJECT NATAL IS set to be announced at E3 next month and should launch in October or November, at least in some parts of the world. There are still many parts that are unclear, including the pricing of what is set to be a potential winner for Microsoft in the console war. Now a Swedish online retailer has gone and posted a price of the upcoming Xbox 360 accessory and might prove to be a bit more expensive than expected.
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