Gear Patrol

Screaming thunderbolt three times while hoisting a sword into the sky won’t do anything. The nifty technology embedded in Apple’s latest über monitor does, however, provide new Mac owners with a hassle free docking station, not to mention 27 glorious inches of display real estate. Specifically, connecting one MagSafe cable to the display, and one…

Mac heads are normally a pretty cohesive group — that is until you ask what “magic” product they prefer using. Both the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad have their respective advantages, but until recently, dealing with frequent battery changes was an issue for either side. Thanks to the Mobee Magic Charger ($50) the tides have…

In the saturated world of hard drives, it’s good to know that LaCie still pursues a goal of creating bewitchingly designed hard drives, even with something as pervasive and everyday as an external hard drive. But, they might have finally reached an apogee with their latest collaboration with Porsche Design. The drives’ telltale design element…

Taking advantage of speedy new Thunderbolt technology (courtesy, Intel) the all-new ultraportable Sony VAIO Z piles on the specs including a featherweight 2.6 lb weight, 256 GB solid-state hard drive, 1.3 megapixel webcam and a matte 1600×900 or optional 1920×1080 13″ LCD display. But what makes this svelte little machine truly interesting is its optional…

The glossy spawn of iMovie and Final Cut Pro, Apple’s new Final Cut Pro X ($300) is completely rebuilt from the ground up with an all-new interface, 64-bit fully parallel processing, raw video tagging, built-in color correction and a cool new editing method called Magnetic Timeline. Of course, the revolutionary software won’t transform your scripts…

After sulking in the corner for the last two years from lack of attention, the Time Capsule ($300-$500) has finally received an update from the loving engineers in Cupertino. Well, sort of. Now the line consists of a 2TB and beefier 3TB model, which are available at the price points of the old 1TB and…

IPhone and iPad owners lucked out when Apple made the find my iPhone application free. But what about other laptops or phones you might have? Recently, a company called Hidden made a big splash in the media world for helping an Oakland resident find his stolen laptop — but we prefer Prey. Why? Well, you…

The speculation started long before today, but now the folks in Cupertino have officially released iCloud, a new service designed to help consumers effortlessly store and access digital assets in Apple’s freshly-minted data centers. iCloud is free to all, and will launch in full with iOS 5 this fall — presumably to coincide with a…

The design of Dell’s new XPS 15z laptop ($999+) may seem familiar to Mac fans, but it’s still a welcome offering to P.C. users overwhelmed by cheap plastic. Touted by Dell as the “thinnest 15.6-inch laptop in existence”, the XPS 15z measures a willowy 0.97 in. thick while still packing plenty of firepower under its…

Get it straight people. HP’s new x2301 monitor isn’t thin, it’s Micro Thin. What exactly does Micro Thin mean? Well, we’ll skip today’s lesson on redundancy, and just presume it’s a new adjective for describing things measuring 9.8mm (0.39 thick) or less — because that’s how thin the x2301 is. It’s a pretty incredible spec…

The name ChromeBook sounds like something Lil’ Wayne reads in bed, but it’s actually the brand Google has devised for a new breed of internet-addicted laptops. Built to be cheap and speedy, they won’t replace the MacBooks or Dell’s of this world, but Google clearly envisions a future where they’re the go to device for…

A horde of tablets may want your casual digital attention like Hasselhoff wants a cheeseburger, but for those who still require a laptop for more than the occasional Youtube stream, Dell’s new Precision M4600 & M6600 workstations should be the beezneez. In their most ferocious forms, both models can sport an Intel Core i7 Quad…

The Acer Iconia-6120 14-Inch Dual-Screen Touchbook ($1,200) is the latest iteration of a budding computing form factor that wants to walk the line between tablets and laptops. Unlike the petite Toshiba Libretto W100, this king of the Iconia series sports two 14-inch Gorilla Glass touch panels that provide plenty of real estate for all manner…

A far cry from your high school TI-82 (or for you honors students, the TI-85), the TI-Nspire CX ($165) may. The new TI centers around a new 16-bit 320×240 high-resolution color display with powerful 3D graphing capabilities. A bevy of classroom and lab-centric features and adaptors will also be available including an in-classroom wireless network…

Let the onslaught of Thunderbolt enabled devices begin. And like clockwork, LaCie is at the head of the pack. The design-drive company’s venerable Little Big Disk (we actually have a couple of these around at GP HQ) will be receiving the Thunderbolt treatment this summer endowing it with workstation-class 10Gbps I/O. Huge audio and video…

With a raft of updates including the ultra-fast Thunderbolt I/O port technology (a snub at USB 3.0), the new MacBook Pros hardly qualify as an average mid-cycle refresh. The 15″ and 17″ MacBook Pros ($1,799-$2,499) are endowed with up to 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processors with Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 technology capable of cranking…

Technology geeks bring up “the cloud” about as much as Mel Gibson drops slurs on voicemail. When you parse through all the hype and dreaming, though, securely accessing files remotely from any computer you come across isn’t exactly easypeasy yet. Owning an iTwin USB Remote File Access ($99) system can change that — as long…

Touch screens are all the rage with mobile technology, but touch-enabled desktops are still few and far between. HP originally led the way with the first TouchSmart PC back in 2008, and since then they’ve been continually innovating the line. The HP 9300 and 610 are the two latest additions to the family and the…

Home theater computer owners take note. If you haven’t already figured out how to turn your smartphone into touch pad mouse, the Logitech Couch Mouse M515 ($50) may be your best back-saving alternative. That’s because it’s designed to work on all manner of surfaces including blankets, cushions, carpets — or even the back of your…

Wireless router. Now that’s a pair of words completely devoid of sex appeal. Still, that hasn’t stopped Linksys from pushing the design envelope with its dual-band E4200 ($180) wireless router. In fact, on looks alone we’d expect its slick black silhouette to blast out beats from our iPhone. Its real purpose, however, is to deliver…

Love the idea of a tablet, but can’t bear to part with your keyboard? Well, Dell has heard your plea and developed the “convertible” Inspiron Duo ($550) netbook in the hopes of bringing you the best of both worlds.

The LaCie FastKey isn’t some plain ol’ flash drive you picked up as a conference tchotchke. The USB 3.0 enabled hot stick is capable of 260MB per second data transfer to its aluminum enclosed solid state drive that’s protected by full AES 256-bit password-based encryption. How fast is it in the real world, you ask?…

Are your job tools less hammer and nail, more Maya and MathWorks? Do you have nightmares of Photoshop status bars and history cache? Is your day’s productivity counted in fractals rendered? Well, if you’re a Mac Pro user then your graphics card has landed. The insanely fast Fermi architecture based NVIDIA Quadro 4000 ($1,200), not…

Remember in college when you were cutting edge with a laptop with the Intel Celeron processor, a Zip drive, and a magical 256KB thumb drive? Just like drunken mornings, pleated khakis and boy bands, those days are gone (mostly). In a world of 1080P HD video, 16 megapixel cameras and music libraries running wild, storage…

Well the folks at Engadget leaked it some time back, but now it’s official. The MacBook Air has received a much-needed update and emerged as the new belle of the laptop ball.

Network Accessible Storage used to be something only businesses needed to pay attention to. As the Napster turned BitTorrent generation continues to age though, the need to back up and maintain enormous libraries of digital photos, music, and videos has become much more of a mainstream consumer concern. That’s why storage brands like Seagate continue…

Sometimes less is more, and backpack design is no exception. Try finding one for your laptop that holds plenty of gear while not looking like part of an intergalactic space suit with enough straps and pockets to confuse Stephen Hawking. Introducing the new Timbuk2 Q Laptop Backpack ($100). It’s a bit more budget-conscious than the…

Wireless internet is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity. If you’re paying for internet service, then expecting to have full Wi-Fi coverage throughout your home or business shouldn’t be too much to ask. Unfortunately, unless you shelled out some serious dough for your wireless router, you’ve probably become all too familiar with Wi-Fi dead…

As much as you want to imagine someone handing one of those gleaming rainbow tubes off to Usain Bolt, they’re really 2-inch magnetically sealed subwoofers that come as part of the Edifier Aurora 2.1 Speaker System ($76). Now sold in nine different color patterns with comic book names like Liquid Silver, Luminous Yellow, and Stormy…

If the idea of owning a ludicrously big monitor is something you’d consider “luxury” then consider the Ostendotech CRVD Curved Display ($6,500) 100% pure excess. Distinguished by a 43″ diagonal viewing area and 2880×900 resolution, Ostendotech states that the CRVD’s seamless curved screen engages 75% of human peripheral vision, for an unmatched enveloping effect. Thanks…