In the past, smaller speakers meant that you get a lower quality sound or a lower volume (the latter if you’re lucky or you got a high end system), but thanks to some technical advancements in the field, nowadays you can get almost the same sound quality and volume out of much smaller speakers, which is pretty impressive to see in action. Here are just a few compact 5.1 surround sound audio systems that can easily provide the sound quality and immersion you need for the best music, movie or gaming experience:

Polk Audio RM6750

The Polk Audio RM6750 provides a clean, loud sound without distortions in a compact package, and without breaking the bank. The polymer composite speakers in the satellites have a total RMS power of 100 watts, which is more than enough for any living room, and the subwoofer has an integrated amplifier, which lets you connect the system to practically any source without having to use an external receiver/amplifier. The 6.5x5x4 inch satellites can fit pretty much anywhere and they can be inconspicuous or noticeable, depending on how you want them to be.

Energy RC-Micro 5.1

The Energy RC-Micro 5.1 surround sound speaker system is one of the most popular 5.1 audio systems for those who want a compact setup that can put out a lot of volume and a high sound quality. The RC-Micro really sounds bigger than it is, and thanks to a full 240 watts of RMS power, you’ll be able to enjoy anything from music to action movies with full immersion. The 40Hz-23kHz range is industry standard, and you’ll be able to hear all the details without any distortions.

Mirage MX 5.1

The Mirage MX 5.1 is at the high end of the spectrum when it comes to price, but the sound quality and volume it provides is pretty spectacular for its size. The satellites have a special compact design that lets them provide the best high and mid ranges possible, and the dual-driver sub-woofer is practically unmatched when it comes to the bass it can put out.

Klipsch HD 300

Klipsch is a mainstay in the audio industry, and the HD 300 compact 5.1 system is one of their most attractive offers. The small and unobtrusive satellites will make you wonder how come they sound so loud and clear, while the subwoofer can easily compare with bigger and more advanced units when it comes to the range and volume of sound – for the price, this is truly a “must check out” audio system for anyone building a home theater setup.

There are actually quite a lot of compact 5.1 systems out there, but don’t be fooled by the advertising – most of the times, they’re just small speakers that provide a pretty low sound quality and/or volume. The speaker systems listed above are known for being on par with bigger and more expensive models when it comes to that – and you can see the difference right away if you listen.

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One of the newest tablets to hit the market is Toshiba’s Excite X10, and it looks like it has the two main things it needs to become a winner: a great design (it’s the thinnest tablet in the world, as well) and powerful internal hardware. I suppose the rest is up to the company’s marketing strategy, but it’s interesting to see it compared to the iPad 2.

The exterior design

Both the iPad 2 and the Excite X10 are made out of metal, and while the iPad 2 does look pretty good with its tapered edges and clean aluminum back cover, the Excite X10 has a more unique design. It has a brushed metal finish on the back with the Toshiba logo in big chrome letters (it looks better than it sounds, believe me), and there’s a groove around the frame that makes it look distinct from any other tablet. The back is also completely flat, which makes it look great on a table thanks to the 7.7 mm thickness. Still, the design is each user’s personal preference, and some might like the iPad better.

The internal hardware

The hardware specs of both the Apple iPad 2 and the Toshiba Excite X10 are actually pretty similar. Both tablets have the usual Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS set of adapters, a slew of different sensors needed for normal operation, USB and HDMI out, a 3.5 mm audio jack, as well as two cameras for photos and video calls.

The cameras are quite different, however: while the iPad 2 has a 0.3 megapixels unit on the front and a pretty pathetic 0.7 megapixels main camera on the back, the Excite X10 uses a more respectable 1.3 megapixels camera for the front and a 5 megapixels unit on the back, which can take pretty good photos and supports 1080p HD video recording (the 0.7 MP camera on the iPad 2 does support HD video, but only in 720p resolution).

The displays also differ, but not by much – the iPad 2 has a 4:3 format IPS screen with a resolution of 1024×768 pixels, while the Excite X10 uses a 16:10 format wide screen with a 1280×800 pixels resolution. Both displays looks pretty similar, which is to be expected since they’re both IPS, and have comparable color reproduction, contrast, brightness and viewing angles.

The performance should also be higher on the Excite X10, although the actual experience strongly depends on the software as well. Toshiba’s tablet uses a fast 1.2 GHz dual core processor, aided by a full 1024 MB of RAM, which means that it can power through anything and be smooth even when running dozens of apps in the background or having a few dozen tabs open in the browser. The iPad 2 also has a dual core processor, Apple’s own A5, running at a slower 1 GHz and only with 512 MB to back it up. It seems to be more than enough, though, with even iMovie (a video editing app) working perfectly fine.

The software

Obviously, the iPad 2 runs Apple’s own iOS, which is perfect for beginners, but not as good for advanced users who want more control over their device and more customization options. The Excite X10 ships with Android Honeycomb – an excellent mobile OS, but there will be an update available to the new and improved Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which is even better. The Android UI is slightly more complicated, but also more flexible and advanced compared to iOS – the apps are comparable, though, but I have to say that iOS apps do look better than their Android counterparts.

Overall, the Toshiba Excite X10 and Apple iPad 2 are pretty similar, however that makes the choice somewhat easier if you’re an advanced user – you should go with the Excite, of course. Android offers more customization options than iOS, but if you don’t care about that, either tablet would do the job just fine.

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The only thing the OS needs is better smartphones – single cores and no multitasking just isn’t going to cut it anymore. And Microsoft knows it, that’s why they’ve just announced the new version of the OS – Windows Phone 8, code named “Apollo”.

The new operating system uses the same kernel as the full, desktop version of Windows 8, which is just about to be released as a beta for testing. If you didn’t know, Windows 8 will supersede the current Windows 7 on x86 computers, and will also be available for ARM processors – that’s why the kernel exists in the first place.

Windows Phone 8 brings a lot of improvements, making it a true competitor to Android and iOS. The most important features that will allow phone manufacturers to use the latest and greatest hardware are the support for multiple cores, NFC sensors, multiple screen resolutions (notice how current phones all use the same 800×480 pixels resolution?), full micro SD card support (cards will appear as a separate drive, not integrate into the main storage space), and full on-device encryption (just in time for competing with Android Ice Cream Sandwich).

Those are all pretty important points that will make the OS more attractive to the everyday user, as well as corporations and businesses that need secure devices, which are also compatible with existing technologies and infrastructures. Windows Phone 8 will have much better support for Exchange servers – something that users have been complaining about Windows Phone 7 ever since it was launched.

Thanks to the use of the Windows 8 kernel, which has a long history behind it and is very advanced, Apollo will also be able to do things better and faster than Windows Phone 7. Its support for networking, security and multimedia is supposed to be unrivaled – the OS will be able to find and connect to wireless networks in less than 3 seconds, playback any video file with hardware GPU acceleration, and more.

At the same time, Apollo will be fully compatible with existing Windows Phone 7 apps, although developers will probably want to tweak a few things since the new kernel is slightly different. The full version of Internet Explorer is also present, having the best GPU-accelerated features yet, and a sleek and fast interface with support for Adobe Flash, HTML 5 and most of the new Web technologies. The browser is truly mature and can easily compete with Android’s Chrome or the iPhone’s Safari on equal grounds.

Microsoft also plans to tightly integrate Skype (their newly acquired VoIP service) and SkyDrive (their cloud storage service) with Windows Phone 8, giving users something akin to Apple’s iCloud or even better.

It really looks like 8 will be the most successful number in Microsoft’s history – both the desktop and mobile versions of the OS bring a lot of new features and improvements (more than any previous version!), and they’ll probably be around for around a decade, just like the undying Windows XP. I just hope that the company creates a better marketing strategy, since it seems that people hate their software too much without good reason.

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But now they’re taking another shot at the mobile market, and this time they’re sticking with what they know best… more or less: the company’s new product is the SC1630 HD Smart Camera – basically a point and shoot camera with an integrated smartphone.

Design

The SC1630 looks quite different than other smartphones, especially when you use it as a camera. The whole device is thicker than your average phone – at 18.5 mm, it feels almost like you’ve reverted back to the pre-iPhone era, but that’s the price you pay for a working optical zoom. Yes, this Polaroid has an extensible lens with a 3x optical zoom, which is not much, but good enough for when you really need to zoom in on a subject.
The front of the device (or should I say back?) has a 3.2 inch display with a respectable 800×400 pixels resolution, and four navigation buttons for Android right below it, while the back (front?) has the huge lens housing and a Xenon flash. The back also has a nice leathery texture to it, which feels and looks pretty good.

Hardware features and performance

The SC1630 is a pretty good smartphone and camera, all things considered. The sensor is a 16 megapixels unit, and the lens has an aperture of F3.1-F5.6, 3x optical and 5x digital zoom, a shutter speed of 1/1400 and 3200 ISO – better than any other smartphone on the market, but obviously lower than even the least expensive dedicated point and shoot cameras. There’s also support for 720p video recording, and I bet it’s much better than other phones because of the bigger lens.

The Polaroid SC1630 makes up for that with pretty decent smartphone hardware – there’s a 1 GHz single core processor under the hood, with 512 MB of RAM and 512 MB of storage space. The actual photos are supposed to be stored on the micro SD card that the user buys, so you better get a fast one if you plan on shooting full size photos or continuous HD video. Among the phone’s hardware features you can count the standard Wifi and Bluetooth adapters, micro USB port, an assortment of sensors, and a 3.5 mm audio jack – strangely, there’s no GPS or HDMI out port.

Software

The Polaroid SC1630’s main feature is the Android OS – indeed, this smart camera uses the OS as a base for everything. The camera app is a custom version with more features, but you can find something even better on the Android market if you want. There’s no word on the version of Android used, but I guess (and hope) it’s Gingerbread – using Froyo would be a real deal killer. Obviously, you can’t expect an Ice Cream Sandwich update for this phone, but hope never dies . Overall, the Android interface is pretty standard – nothing much has changed aside from Polaroid’s custom apps.

Price and Availability

The Polaroid SC1630 will come to stores this spring, in April to be precise, at a cost of $299 with a contract – that’s pretty high for a smartphone, even one with such a good camera. If you need to take a lot of photos and absolutely can’t afford to carry a separate camera, I suppose the phone may be useful, but it really isn’t the best hybrid device otherwise.

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But now they’re ready to get in on the new action, and one of the first things that they announced at CES 2012 were a couple of Ultrabooks, among which the T430u stands out as being both very slim and light and having enough hardware power and features to compete even with full-fledged laptops, while still not being overpriced.

The T430u is of course part of the ThinkPad series, which means it’s made for business, and as such it has everything a professional may need. The build quality is pretty high, and there’s a little surprise waiting for you (especially if you’re a fan of the series and know how they’re built) when you take a closer look at it – instead of the usual ThinkPad metal frame with rubbery plastic on the outside, the T430u is made fully out of metal, just like the MacBook Air and the other Ultrabooks, but there are no shiny or brushed parts to be seen anywhere, because Lenovo covered everything with a special paint that feels just like the soft touch plastic on the previous models – very ingenious might I say.

The design of the T430u is subtly more modern than the other business ThinkPads, with the islet keyboard, big touchpad and slightly sleeker overall look being noticeable when you first open the lid. The red accents, hardware mouse buttons above the touch pad and the touch stick remain, and they’re just as good as on any other ThinkPad – after all, this is what the model is known for best.

The laptop is 21mm thick and 4 pounds heavy, which puts it a bit over Ultrabook specs, but you can forgive that if you consider the price and more importantly, the selection of ports, which includes an Ethernet port, a HDMI out port, an SD card reader, two USB 3.0 ports and an audio jack. There’s also a hidden SIM card slot, and a fingerprint reader on the side of the laptop for quick authentication.

There will be two options for the 14 inch display – the standard 1366×768 panel and a high resolution 1600×900 pixels panel, which would make a better choice for any serious work. There is still no word on the final internal hardware specs, but the T430u will be shipping with a Core i5 or i7 processor (the new Ivy Bridge 22nm chips, so there will be plenty of power to go around), 4 or 8 GB of RAM and a 128 or 256 GB SSD – pretty much the standard choices that you’d expect to have on an Ultrabook.

The price of the Lenovo ThinkPad T430u will be lower than its brother’s, the X1 Hybrid, starting at $849 – that is a pretty low price point for the quality, and the first units will start shipping in the third quarter of 2012, so it’s quite a while until we actually see them in users hands.

image source: Engadget

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Blackberry London screenshots leak ahead of schedule

The much awaited (by Blackberry fans, anyway) Blackberry London finally got a few leaked screenshots of some promotion materials, and it looks like the phone has changed a bit from its dummy prototype unit, which had a distinct gray color and angular design. The leaked shots show that the final version will be black and have rounder edges, but still sport a slim profile and a new design that is distinctly different than any previous Blackberries. The handset will also run the as-of-yet unannounced Blackberry10 OS, which promises a whole new experience for the user.

via Crackberry

Apple’s updated Time Capsule and Airport stations are coming soon

Apple is releasing an updated version of their Time Capsule and Airport Express and Extreme network backup devices. The new models are fully wireless, just like their predecessors, and bring an increase in storage capacity, integration with iCloud, remote access support and a few fixes with the wireless performance that have plagued some of the previous models.

Nikon releases a couple of new semi-professional cameras

Alongside with their new consumer point and shoot cameras, Nikon has also announced the release of a couple of fixed lens, super zoom semiprofessional cameras for photography beginners and enthusiasts who don’t need or want the full power of a true dSLR. The Coolpix P510 sports a 42x optical zoom, wide lens, a 16 megapixels sensor, 921K resolution 3 inch display with a hinge, 1080p video recording support and dual mic array.
The other camera is a cheaper model – the Coolpix L810, which still presents its user with a respectable amount of features, including a 26x wide angle zoom, the same 16 megapixels sensor and 3 inch display as on the P510 (except it’s fixed inside the housing), but only 720p video recording support and a few other restrictions in features. The L810 will cost a nice $280, while the P510 will be more expensive, with the price as of yet unknown.

Spark brings Plasma Active UX Linux OS to the market

There are plenty of Android tablets out there, and for the less tech-savvy, there’s the simple but great iPad, however if you want something truly unique and you’re a Linux fan (or more specifically, KDE fan), the Spark tablet may pique your interest. The affordable tablet will resell for only $270 and it brings the Plasma Active UX OS, which is based on Linux (and more importantly, doesn’t run inside a Java VM like Android) and has a very unique and beautiful interface. The tablet is aimed at developers who want Linux tools on their tablet, and the specs are pretty standard for a budget tablet – there’s a 1 GHz CPU, Mali 400 GPU, 512 MB of RAM and 4 Gb of storage space plus a micro SD card slot for expansion.

Samsung Galaxy S III will be revealed in late May at a separate event

Bolstered by the success of the Galaxy S and S2, Samsung announced that they will be revealing the new Galaxy S3 (yes, it’s coming and it sounds like it will be amazing) in May-June this year, not at the Mobile World Congress next month. An interesting decision, but judging by the rumors and the popularity of the previous two handsets, I’d say that Samsung is right in thinking that their new phone will get a lot of coverage even if it’s launched with its own special event, kind of like the iPhone.

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The company that is producing the Xappr says that this laser gun accessory will work for iPhones, Androids, and Windows handsets and that it will be available in June. However, those who are interested in pre-ordering the gadget ahead of time can go ahead and do so. The cost of this laser gun will be about $30 and shipping to individuals in the United States will cost nearly $15, totaling about $45.

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