pro

Buzz Out Loud 822: It's all about the benzenes

Stuck with a stinky new Mac Pro? Good news: it might be toxic! (No proof of toxicity has been determined.) Also, Tom Merritt reveals himself to be a ruthless murderer of Firefox downloads. And the state of Pennsylvania takes it upon itself to make the streets safer by making old people smarter. Love it! Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 822

Nintendo officially unveils Nintendo DSi and online store, coming Nov 1 in Japan for $180 http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081002-nintendo-shows-off-new-dsi-with-camera-app-store.html http://kotaku.com/5057870/nintendo-announce-new-ds-the-nintendo-dsi

Toxic fumes from Mac Pros? http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/02/1223203 … Read more

Palm Treo Pro and Satisfying User Needs

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about the new Palm Treo Pro, and I was fairly critical of the new smartphone. Why? Basically because I felt that it was good, but good isn't good enough in today's dynamic smartphone market. To delve a bit more deeply into this I thought it might be interesting to use the Kano model to examine this further.

The model, named after its inventor, Professor Noriaki Kano, provides a simple way to think about how products meet or exceed customer needs, and differentiate themselves against the competition.

The model consists of … Read more

Apple says no evidence of Mac Pro benzene emissions

Claims that Apple's Mac Pros emit benzene are being denied by the company.

A French newspaper called Libération.fr published the results of a study by a researcher at France's INERIS claiming that odors stemming from certain Mac Pros are the result of benzene emissions. Complaints have surfaced in the past about some sort of weird odor coming from Mac Pros, but it was thought the odor was related to small strips of plastic or material around the heatsink on the processor, depending on where you looked.

The study claims that the benzene fumes won't … Read more

Best Buy has the Velocity Micro - ProMagix E8500 Desktop for $999.99, after $500 savings.

Best Buy has Velocity Micro - ProMagix E8500 Desktop for $999.99, after $500 savings. >> Regular price is $1499.99 >> Sale price is $999.99 >> Savings $500 (33.33%) >> Click here for deal

Smartphones and U.S. availability: Ask the Editors

Q: I've been looking into getting the Nokia E71, but can't justify the price. Have you heard anything on it becoming available with a U.S. carrier. Also, a whole other box of worms, if you purchase an unlocked E71, are you mandated to a contract? --James via e-mail

A: James, you are not alone. I get quite a few number e-mails about the Nokia E71 and it's really no surprise why. It's a great smartphone that's loaded with features for the mobile professional, and it's packaged in a sleek little frame. Unfortunately, I … Read more

Is this the new MacBook Pro?

The Interwebs are atwitter with a single blurry cell phone shot of what may or may not be one of the newly redesigned MacBook laptops we've been reading about.

The pic briefly showed up on a French Web site, and just as quickly vanished, but not before several sites (from Valleywag to Wired) were able to grab copies of the photo. (The original post is now up again.)

Some Apple faithfuls are crying "fake!" while others think it's the real deal--we should all know for sure at Apple's next big press event in mid-October.

We … Read more

New MacBooks dropping plastic for aluminum

The MacBook redesign is just around the corner, and further proof has surfaced that it's going to look a lot like its siblings.

AppleInsider reports that new MacBooks and new MacBook Pros have been spotted by people-in-the-know, and that as expected the new systems will get aluminum-based exteriors similar to the ones found on the MacBook Air and iMac. This will give Apple some consistency across the Mac notebook lineup entering the holiday shopping season; for years, the MacBook has had a distinct look separate from the MacBook Pro.

One interesting part of the report also suggests that Apple … Read more

Slingbox Pro-HD: The Slingbox goes high-def

When Sling Media released a trio of second-generation models in the fall of 2006, the Slingbox Pro was at the top of the line. Unlike the entry-level Slingbox AV, the Pro had pass-through outputs, an analog tuner, multisource capability, and the ability to accept high-def video sources. Unfortunately, it also came with a handful of caveats: While it could accept HD video, it downcoverted that to 640x480 for streaming--and you needed to invest in a $50 dongle if you wanted to use a component video (HD) source. It was also an ugly maroon color, ensuring that it contrasted with everything else in your home-theater equipment rack. The third-generation Slingbox Solo appeared the following year, co-opted nearly all of the Pro's key features, making the need for an upgrade to the Pro even more apparent. … Read more

What is Intel vPro exactly?

Does Intel vPro ring any bells? Not for most people. The newest version of vPro software and accompanying Intel hardware introduced Monday won't command the attention paid to an Intel processor rollout.

Understandable because vPro is an under-the-hood, non-performance-driven technology that falls off many PC users' radar screens. In essence, vPro allows PCs to be fixed and maintained remotely, potentially saving businesses money because they don't incur the cost of IT staffing levels necessary if maintenance was done at each PC on site.

For example, a feature called Remote Alert will "call" IT on its own … Read more