DELL Inspiron Zino HD

Introducing the new InspironTM  Zino HD mini desktop computer. You’ll be amazed by how many powerful features are inside such a perfectly small 8" by 8" square.

• Personalize with 10 optional interchangeable colors and designs
• Genuine Windows®  7 Home Premium 64-Bit
• Its small form factor conveniently fits just about anywhere
• Watch your favorite movies with the built-in HDMITM  port and DVD-RW
• Optional discrete graphics, more memory and larger hard drive storage for amazing performance
• Meets Energy Star®  5.0 Standards

Not So Ordinary

Feast your eyes on the new ultra small and light Inspiron™ Zino HD mini desktop. Its modest design breaks the mold with a mighty offering of features that reinvents your home entertaining experience.

A Perfect Square

Designed to fit just about anywhere, the Inspiron Zino HD packs power and entertainment into a 8" by 8" package. And with the option to interchange a choice of 7 vibrant colors plus 3 unique designs, the Zino HD can either blend in or stand out. Choose the standard Piano Black finish or customize yours with one or more of these optional styles: Flamingo Pink, Formula Red, Tangerine Orange, Plum Purple, True Blue, Spring Green and a choice of 3 patterns by artists Derek Welch, Mike Ming and Brittany Waldner.

Foxconn nT-3700 small and exquisite

New nano-PC barebone by Foxconn.
Small and slim size, noiseless is the best choice of being placed at home or office.

• CPU type: AMD E450 APU
• Memory: 1x DDR3-1333 SODIMM Slot, Max capacity up to 4GB
• Hard Drive: 1x 2.5 inch SATA2 HDD
• Audio: Built-in Microphone & Speaker; Combo Analog & Digital
• Video: AMD Radeon HD 6320 
• LAN: Integrated Gigabit Ethernet Controller, 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN
• Ports: 4x USB 2.0 Port; 2x USB 3.0 Ports; 1x DVI Port; 1x HDMI Port; 1x RJ45 LAN Port; 1x Microphone-in; 1x Headphone-out
• Card Reader: 5-in-1 Card Reader, Supports SD/SDHC/MS/MS Pro/MMC
• AC Adapter: 65W, 19V, 3.42A
• Color: Black
• Dimensions: 190.0 x 135.0 x 25.0 mm
• Weight: 450.0 g

The Mini-Itx Form Factor Is a Great Space and Money-Saver

The mini-itx form factor has come a long way since the days when it was a mere hobbyist product confined to the back of the computer fair and hovered over by the geek and the nerd of us. It was going to be a rough ride to establish it as useful in the house because when first developed it required an entirely new form of motherboard that would fit this new size. At the time, motherboards were huge beasts that needed all that space to fit the inevitable shopping-list of extra bits that would make their way from the computer store to the PC.

The huge size of these cases meant that even if had just modest requirements for your system (say you wanted a PC to run some software quietly in the background) then you had to have a huge system anyway. Most of it was full of air but that didn't matter, you needed the motherboard and the case and they were designed to house a huge amount of equipment.

So, the mini-itx form factor came to our rescue and we now have systems that are tiny by comparison to their older cousins. If you needed multiple PCs to run software, you can now easily fit them all into a racking system and save some of that valuable server room space.

Obviously there are other uses for these versatile little beasties beyond running the account's month end and they have since found themselves into a wide array of applications from vehicle uses (engine management for example) through to ship-board systems. Coupled with the fact that more components are being embedded into the motherboard (including graphics, memory and controllers) and you have a neat package that could be used in challenging environments for communications, tracking and navigation, data control and CCTV.

Obviously there was the huge problem of the operating system needed to handle the basics of the system and this has also been addressed with the use of Windows Embedded. This is an operating system on a chip and requires no hard disk to operate. It's an instant-boot system that enables you to use software that would not be available in normal use.

This obviously keeps costs down too as Windows-based software running on standard hardware (standard in that it works in the same way as normal size equipment) means there is already a huge pool of developers waiting to create the software you need.

So if you want to keep space usage and costs to a minimum, consider a mini-itx based system for you next upgrade.

Andy Calloway is the online marketing director at Calloway Green Ltd, a website design and optimisation company based in Wolverhampton in the UK. Calloway Green take fantastic website design and turn it into a marketable and usable product that will actually make you money. They specialise in Web Design Birmingham for West Midlands based organisations that are looking to sell their products to a wide audience.

The company also has a wide range of SEO training courses available and are able to help companies that are looking to train their key staff in order to promote themselves online. We can also help you with your new career.

Andy Calloway
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The Household HTPC (Home Theatre Computer) - It's Not As Confusing As You Think

Before I start I want you to leave any HTPC based negativity behind, people think the HTPC is a confusing beast, well it doesn't have to be.

What is an HTPC? Do you have media all over the place, pictures on your laptop, music on your MP3 player/CD's, films on your desktop? Well you can pull all this content together into a single place using an HTPC and have it all viewable on your PC for the entire family to share, controllable from a wireless keyboard or even an Infra Red TV remote.

My definition of an HTPC is a hub of your media + other media available for anyone sat on your couch.

The Hardware Overview Building an HTPC doesn't have to be difficult or expensive, if you are a bit of a geek like you me you probably have spare parts lying around the house that the wife would 'love' to see get put to use or maybe your computer isn't keeping up with the day to day grind and needs an upgrade but would be perfect for sitting under the TV? Many people re-use old parts on their first build and then realise the power of the HTPC and decide to build/buy a dedicated machine. Of course if your are not comfortable building a computer then you can buy almost any computer that will fit under(or beside) the TV to do the job as well. These machines don't need to be all that powerful, just able to play a video to the standard that you need, most likely HD.

The Software Overview HTPC software comes all different breeds but if you are new to the game or havn't tried anything other than windows before then I suggest you stick with that, however if you are a linux or mac fanboy you could spare the cost of a windows license and stick with what you know best.

Most versions of Windows include what is called Windows Media Center (except maybe starter or embedded editions), Windows Media Center will soon become your new best friend.

Hardware There are several main differences in HTPC hardware compared to your conventional PC:

Case: Now that your shiny toy is on show to everyone under the TV you want it to look nice. In fact there are several large HTPC Cases available that can house even a full ATX sized motherboard, or if you are doing things on the cheap like many then any old case next to the TV will do. Once you realise how great the HTPC is you will go out and buy a nice case anyway.

Controls: Who wants a long lead running to a keyboard and mouse on the couch? Controls are most commonly just a wireless keyboard or mouse set. If you really want a wife friendly machine look into an Infra Red remote so that it is just like using the sattellite box.

Sound outputs: Obviously you have a nice surround sound setup, right? If you tick that box you will need to look into an optical connection to your speaker setup or even audio over HDMI if your kit supports it, think about this when looking at Graphics cards.

Power Requirements: They don't need to be very powerful, in fact some people do fine with an old Dual Core processor or at a push and with no HD content a Pentium D! The only requirement really is at least 2GB memory and a HD capable Graphics card which can be picked up VERY cheap these days. Remember though that you want it be quiet, nothing worse than a loud whirring noise while trying to watch a film (trust me).

Storage: This all depends on your setup, if you will be streaming all your content across a network then you will probably only need a small Hard Drive to just run your operating system. However if everything will be stored on the magical box itself then you will need lots of space.I will mention one extra word though......backups.

Software: As I mentioned above I suggest sticking to the system that you know best, which is windows for most of us. Once you have windows installed ll you need to do is setup Windows Media Center to begin on startup of the computer and play around, that really is all there is to it. Obviously I can't fit the playing around bit on here as it would go on forever because everyone is different.

Thomas Bale
http://www.tomology.co.uk
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AMD launches Trinity A-Series APU

Before AMD launched its first-generation Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) last year the only real option you had for a small, low power PC was an Intel Atom solution. Unless you combined the Atom chip with Nvidia’s ION chipset (or a discrete card) it was rather lacking in the graphics department. That’s where the APU shone due to its inclusion of a Radeon GPU.

Today, AMD launched its second generation 32nm A-Series APU named Trinity, and it promises to give a major performance boost to HTPCs, nettops, desktop machines, and laptops.

AMD is claiming that the new Trinity APUs offer up double the performance of the previous generation while retaining the same power use. The new Piledriver CPU means higher clock speeds and performance gains of up to 29%. As for graphics, you should be able to enjoy smooth gaming and media playback due to the inclusion of a Radeon 7000 series GPU offering a 56% performance gain over Llano.

Although there are performance gains across the entire range of APUs, it looks as though laptops using Trinity will see the most gains. AMD has cut power use down to 17 watts for the dual core and 25 watts for quad-core chips. Llano used 35 watts and 45 watts respectively. AMD is claiming up to 12 hours of battery life in the equivalent of an Ultrabook running the new APU, but that’s clearly going to vary depending on the hardware.

In total, five Trinity APUs have been unveiled today, which are detailed in the tables below :

As well as updating the hardware, AMD has also introduced some new technology to the mix. The new APUs will support an Eyefinity multi-display setup without requiring a discrete graphics card. Another clever move is AMD Radeon dual graphics, meaning you can add a discrete graphics card to an APU system and benefit from enhanced performance through CrossFire using both GPUs.

We can expect to see both Trinity laptops and desktop machines appearing later this year. Hopefully we’ll also see a number of mini-ITX boards appearing allowing us to build our own nettops and HTPCs.

through http://www.geek.com/

Raspberry Pi 14-megapixel camera module unveiled

The makers of the £22 ($35) Raspberry Pi computer will launch a plug-in camera module for the pocked-sized PC later this year.
The company has released the first pictures of, and taken with, the camera which is presently rocking an impressive 14-megapixel sensor.
However, that may be downgraded somewhat to keep the accessory affordable.


The launch of the Raspberry Pi has been one of the tech stories of 2012 so far. The credit-card sized device offers a 700MHz processor, 256MB RAM and a GPU capable of playing HD video.
The unit offers just two USB ports and an SD card slot, but the camera will plug into the exposed CSI pins in the middle of the device.
Super-duperness

A post from Liz Upton on the Raspberry Pi site says: "We may downgrade the super-duperness of the camera to something with fewer than its current 14 megapixels before release; we need to keep things affordable, and a sensor of that size will end up pricey.
"Before you ask (I know it'll be the first question most of you have), we don't have a price for the camera module yet; we'll need to finalise exactly what hardware is in it first, but we will, of course, be ensuring that it's very affordable."
She adds that the camera will make it possible for the creation of robotics and home automation apps that "people have been wanting to build."
You can check out all of the pictures on the Raspberry Pi website.

through Techradar.com

Zotac Announces Intel 7-Series Mini ITX Motherboards for Ivy Bridge

If Intel's Ivy Bridge ultimately crumbles, it won't be for lack of vendor support. While the tech world waits for Intel to launch its 3rd generation Core processor family, motherboard makers and system integrators are busy pushing out upgraded platforms that support the upcoming CPUs, everything from big and bad notebooks to little motherboards like Zotac's new Z77-ITX Wi-Fi and H77-ITX Wi-Fi, a pair of Intel 7-series mini ITX boards intended for anyone who wants to pack big performance into a small footprint.

The Z77-ITX Wi-Fi is built around Intel's Z77 Express chipset. It has two DDR3 DIMM slots with support for up to 16GB of RAM. There are two HDMI ports, a mini DisplayPort, two SATA 6Gbps ports and two SATA 3Gbps ports with RAID 0, 1, 0+1, and 5 support, four SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports (two on the back panel and two via a pin header), eight USB 2.0 ports (four on the back panel and four via a pin header), dual GbE LAN ports, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, 8-channel audio, and overclocking options.

Zotac's H77-ITX Wi-Fi is similarly spec'd, but built around the H77 Express chipset and includes a DVI-I port (along with a single DisplayPort and HDMI port), an extra SATA 3Gbps port, and just one GbE LAN port. Both boards also boast a single PCI-E x16 3.0 slot and mSATA slot.

No word on when these small form factor motherboards will ship or for how much.

through http://www.maximumpc.com/