GALLERY: HP bosses to product team: "Release the mice!"

In a dark castle, somewhere in deepest Transylvania, HP’s bosses squint into a crystal ball. “What do you see?” says one. “Everyone’s in Barcelona at MWC” comes the reply. “Ah! So the last thing anyone would expect is for us to release five different mice and a webcam, with some targeted towards women!”.

Joking aside, here we’ve got four mice, a mouse-and-keyboard combo, and a webcam. They run the gamut of target audiences, from gamers to girls (not that two audiences can’t overlap) and they all look pretty, so I’ve stuck them in the gallery. Click on the flowery number below to begin.

Dell's XPS One 24 all-in-one desktop PC now on sale in the UK

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Dell has announced that its all-in-one desktop PC with whopping 24-inch display is now available in the UK.

To my taste, the profile of the XPS One 24 isn’t as nice as the iMac (which, rightly or wrongly, is what we all compare these all-in-one systems to) but it does benefit from a wireless mouse and keyboard and all the other connection ports neatly on the back of the display…

How to: Fix your parents' PC remotely with TeamViewer

Teamviewer did a fantastic job this morning when I used to it to help my Dad troubleshoot a network issue. Despite him living in a remote village in eastern France, I was able to quickly and securely view his desktop. If I’d wanted to, I’d have been able to conduct a presentation, transfer a file, or join a VPN.

All he needed to do was install a small program, and give me a userID and password. Seriously – if my Dad could manage it, then it can’t have been tricky. It’s free for non-commercial use, and very functional. I can’t recommend it enough.

Now all you need to know is how to actually fix the damn thing. For that, I recommend this guide from Lifehacker. Good luck, and don’t forget to set their homepage to Tech Digest when you’re done.

TeamViewer

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Medion announces new multimedia PC: Akoya E3300 D

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Medion has announced the latest in its like of “value” Akoya desktop PCs. The E3300 D offers a decent enough AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 dual core processor (which apparently runs at 2.7GHz), ATI Radeon HD4350 graphics processor with HDMI output, 640GB eco-friendly hard drive, 4GB of RAM, DVD writer, eight channel surround sound and Windows Vista pre-installed.

Connections include eSATA, multi-format card reader, FireWire, six USBs, DVI-I, VGA and HDMI. There’s also the usual array of trial software pre-loaded to bog down the PC from the word go…

Turn your PC into a home cinema with a USB to HDMI dongle

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Many laptops these days are starting to arrive with HDMI ports and Blu-ray drives, so you can use your new laptop to hook up your massive 40″ telly and enjoy HD content via your PC. Many people play PC games on massive monitors, too. But what do you do if you don’t have a graphics card with a HDMI output?

You buy one of these. Plug one end into a spare USB port and the other into your TV, and voila – a 720p, or 1280 x 720, display. It’ll take care of the sound too, via the HDMI cable. Best of all, you’re not limited to just one of these – you can plug in as many as you have USB ports. Fancy rocking seven in a row? 8960 x 720 resolution!

Lancerlink (via Akihabaranews)

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MSI's Windbox officially announced, available soon

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The MSI Windbox isn’t a playground name for part of your anatomy, it’s a nettop – one of those curious machines that is to the desktop what the netbook is to the notebook. The idea, and it’s a good one, is that it’s mounted to the back of your monitor using the VESA mount.

The specs aren’t whopping – an Atom CPU, capacity for 1GB of RAM, VGA-out, 3 USB ports, a card reader, Ethernet and Wi-Fi, and space for a 2.5″ hard drive. You’ll need to add your own RAM and storage to the proceedings, as well as an operating system of some sort. It’s rumoured to cost $250, which is £182 or so in real money.

Press Release (via CrunchGear)

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HP launching two Pavilion laptops, and one Firebird desktop

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HP has announced a couple of new notebook PCs in its Pavilion range, and a successor to its high-end Blackbird desktop – the Firebird. Let’s take a look at the notebooks first.

They’re named Pavilion dv2 and Pavilion dv3. The dv2 is a slim-and-light machine, with 3.8 pound weight, and thickness of just one inch. The full specs aren’t available, but it’ll include an AMD Athlon processor, 12″ display, “nearly” full-size keyboard, discrete graphics and up to 500GB of hard disc space. There’s an optional external Blu-ray drive, too.

Dell launches XPS-730X extreme gaming desktop with Intel Core i7

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Looking for an extreme last-minute present for a gaming freak? How about the Dell XPS 730X extreme gaming desktop featuring Intel’s powerful Core i7 or Core i7 Extreme processors and ATI Radeon 4870 X2 graphics card.

Also fitted is the Bigfoot KillerNIC gaming network card which offers more responsive online game play than a standard NIC.

Other features include internal lighting from a series of battery-powered LEDs, optional H2C high-performance cooled CPUs and chipsets, and up to 2TB of hard drive storage and 6GB of DDR3 memory…

Asus launches quad-core gaming laptop – claims 'fastest in the UK'

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Asus has just announced the UK’s first quad-core gaming laptop, claiming it’s the fastest gaming laptop that money can buy. It’s got an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 processor running at 2.53GHz, 4GB of RAM, a Geforce 9700M graphics card, and a pair of 250GB hard drives in RAID-0.

The beast packs a 17″ screen, with 1920×1200 resolution, and a smaller ‘VFD’ display too, which can show email notifications and framerates while in-game. It’s got a 2 megapixel webcam, 802.11n wireless, HDMI and eSATA ports, 2.1 speakers and a subwoofer, and ‘programmable chassis lighting’…

Sony launches VAIO NS1 notebooks and JS1 all-in-one desktop PCs

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Sony continues to speed ahead with the rollout of its new VAIO range of PCs, with the introduction of the NS1 Series of notebook PCs and the JS1 Series of all-in-one desktops.

Sony states that the PCs are designed for everyday home use, which would suggest that they’re not the most powerful systems the company has ever produced. They’re no pushovers either.

The NS1 Series of notebook PCs feature an Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, a Blu-ray combo drive, 15.4-inch X-black 1,280 x 800 LCD, and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3430 graphics unit…