Archive for April, 2008

A look at the VUDU Set-Top Box

Published on April 21, 2008 in Entertainment. 0 Comments

The VUDU Box is labelled a TV’s new best friend and delivers thousands of movies and hot TV shows instantly, without the need for a computer directly to your television. This Gageet provides instant access to about 5000 movies and TV shows from any television. Movies and shows can be bought or rented.

It comes with high-def video, with video output of up to 1080i/1080p24 and looks very good on an HDTV. As for connections, it’s got HDMI, digital optical audio and other common options. It comes with a 250 GB hard drive to store movies. For connectivity, it has Ethernet and 2 USB ports for future storage options.

It also comes with various equipment and a quick start guide to get you watching movies on the VUDU quick and easy. VUDU requires a High-speed broadband Internet connection with a minimum bandwidth of 2 Mbps (3.0 advertised by ISP’s) for instant viewing of movies or less if you only want delayed viewing. You can check if your connection is good enough at http://speedtest.vudu.com/cdn1/.

It should be noted that VUDU are always adding new movies and TV shows to the available selection. The VUDU box is priced competitively at $295 which has been reduced since it’s 400$ release. It is a Gadget worth considering for the movie and TV show lover who wants to watch them instantly at good quality.

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The DELL XPS M1530 – An Excellent Laptop

Published on April 13, 2008 in Laptop. 0 Comments
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This laptop is a bigger and better version of Dell’s popular XPS M1330. It is thin and light and has a 15.4″ high definition widescreen. It is also a well designed, attractive and extremely functional Gageet.

It has a starting weight of 5.8 lb and a starting price of 999$. The screen lacks LED backlighting unlike the M1330. It has reasonable 3 hour + battery life and well-designed and responsive keyboard, touchpad and media buttons. The colour options available are Midnight Blue, Alpine White, Tuxedo Black and Crimson Red.

These laptops use an Intel Core2 Duo processor, which goes up to a 2.60GHz Intel T7800 processor. It can have 1-4 GB of RAM and a hard disk drive of up to 320 GB. You have the option of a 256MB Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT or a 128MB Nvidia Geforce 8400M GS for the graphics card. The former option uses high-performance GDDR3 memory. The M1530 includes a Biometric Finger Print Reader and has a built-in Web cam. For connectivity, it has Hyperband Multi-Antenna technology, Wi-Fi, and internal Mobile Broadband options.

Its limitations are the fact that it only has three USB ports. It also has noise issues with Slot-loading drive and the hard drive. Nevertheless it’s an excellent laptop and has great style and performance. It can definitely be considered an improvement over Dell’s M1330 in many areas.

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