Cool Tech Reviews

Gateway has two new entries in the ultraportable market, the NX100X and the E-100M and Digital Trends has a detailed review:

The Gateway NX100X and E-100M are a 12″ 3.15 lb ultraportable notebooks that are 1″ thin with an external optical drive. This form factor is perfect for the road-warrior who needs a notebook for PowerPoint presentations or writing documents and isn’t interested in duplicating the features of a high-performance desktop or a DVD player. The nearest competitors in this 3 lb class are the Lenovo ThinkPad X60/X60s and Fujitsu Lifebook Q2010. Although the Dell Latitude X1 and Toshiba Portege R200 are both very good ultraportable notebooks, these use the older Intel Pentium M processor. The Lenovo ThinkPad X60/X60s, Fujitsu Lifebook Q2010, and Gateway NX100X all use the new Intel Core Solo “Ultra Low Voltage” edition, with the ThinkPad X60s supporting the Low Voltage Core Duo. The NX100X and E-100M are virtually identical; the E-100M is targeted for business users and features a hardware TPM encryption module whereas the NX100X does not. Depending on the current promotion, the NX100X usually offers better value for “upgraded systems” while the E-100M offers the chance to get a basic setup at a lower absolute cost.

The conclusion:

When it comes to the main strength of the Gateway E-100M and NX100X, it’s price. The NX100X starts as just $1400 (with instant rebate) while the E-100M starts at $1200 (with instant rebate). When you factor in the small and lightweight form-factor, the best keyboard we’ve tested to date (despite its size), and exceptional build quality, this is a notebook that clearly could have been sold at a far higher price. Our only complaints? Battery life and the lack of an integrated drive – things that are generally true for all 12″ ultraportable notebooks that are less than 1″ thick.

Hit the link for all the details, but in this class of machine you aren’t going to find big technical differences so price is as good a differentiator as any. The CNET review of the NX100X and the PC Magazine review of the E-100M echo the same strengths and weaknesses. From the latter:

Finally! An ultraportable that’s thin, sleek, gorgeous, and affordable—well, at least reasonably priced. The Gateway E-100M successfully marries a shockingly thin 0.9-inch magnesium-alloy chassis with a low price tag, something rarely done in this category. And though its performance won’t rock your world, it’s good enough to get you through your day successfully. … Unfortunately, the E-100’s ultrathin chassis and low price tag come with some drawbacks. Perhaps the greatest—at least to some—is its lack of an internal optical drive. An external optical drive is available for an extra $199.99.

They look like a good choice to me for this specific niche and the price is right.

Bill Ray at The Register:

Newly launched website GameJump.com is to provide mobile games free of charge.

The service, which went live on Wednesday, makes money from pop-up adverts that appear for a couple of seconds when the game starts and ends.

Select a game on the site and you’ll receive an SMS with a link to the download (if you’re in the US). Otherwise, you can download the game to your PC and install it yourself. No registration is needed, and if you choose to download the games directly, you don’t even have to give out your mobile number.

As the site’s FAQ puts it: “We think mobile games should be like the web and like TV: free and supported by advertising.”

When you load a game it connects to the Internet to download new ads, so it isn’t completely free, but nearly so. I’m not really a fan of playing games on a cell phone, but it seems to be increasingly popular and I’m always in favor of free.

Tsu Dho Nimh has a list over at Associated Content and it’s pretty good even if most of the items aren’t particularly surprising. However, the best part of such lists is finding something new and here’s one that I was unaware of:

AVS Disc Creator – CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc burner.

I have several computers, each with a different brand or model of CD/DVD drive, and I frequently move hardware from one to another. Instead of keeping track of which software goes with which hardware, and trying to remember how each one works, I use this CD burner for all of the computers.

URL: http://avsmedia.com/DiscCreator/index.aspx

A common problem for multiple computer owners and an inexpensive solution. Check out AVS Disc Creator and the whole list.