Hi-tech Frontier

Samsung laptop-accompanying LapFit display Samsung has certainly carved out a curious niche for itself with its new LapFit display , which not only competes with regular LCD monitors, but laptop stands that accomplish the same basic goal for a fraction of the price. That said, the folks at TrustedReviews seem to think the display could still win its share of fans, especially considering its apparently low power consumption, and its more than reasonable sub- £100 price tag (or roughly $150 ). On the downside, however, it seems that the TN display is considerably lacking in terms of image quality, with it apparently displaying noticeable banding, poor grayscale performance, and a general lack of sharpness when it comes to text. The particular D190S model reviewed also just has a single VGA port, although the D190SU adds some DisplayLink over USB, and the LD190X tops things off with some wireless capabilities.

Gateway new gaming desktops While Gateway 's been on the laptop bandwagon of late, it's good to see the company doing its thang on the desktop front, too. Kicking things off is the bargain-priced LX6810-01, which houses 8GB of RAM, NVIDIA graphics, a built-in TV tuner and a $799.99 price tag. The even more affordable DX4200-11 gets going at just $609.99 and features an AMD quad-core CPU, ATI Radeon graphics, 6GB of RAM and a 750GB hard drive. Stepping things up quite significantly is the FX6800-09, which sports a Core i7 CPU and a $1,649.99 sticker. Rounding out the bunch is the $1,299.99 FX6800-11 and the currently unpriced entry-level FX6800-01e.

SanDisk multicard readers Okay, so maybe you've seen a multicard reader or two in your day that wasn't unsightly to the nth degree, but it's a rarity, let us tell you. Furthermore, SanDisk 's latest bunch are amongst the first we've seen that we'd actually feel somewhat proud to have sitting on our desks, and considering that there's only so much added functionality you can give these things, aiming for high fashion was probably a good move. The new line of ImageMate readers are currently shipping out to retailers in North America, with the All-In-One reader listing at $29.99 and the Multi-Card reader selling for $10 less.

Gigabyte M1022, S1024, T1028 netbooks Gigabyte said it'd be showing off a trio of new netbooks at CeBIT this week and, lo and behold, all three have now emerged from their less than secretive whereabouts and made their public debut, and the good folks from Engadget Chinese were on hand for an up close look. While all three pack more or less the same standard netbook specs, they do manage to differentiate themselves quite a bit from each other around the edges, with the M1022 "Booktop" in particular coming paired with a rather unique dock that holds the system vertically and lets you hook up a monitor and your choice of peripherals. The T1028 also takes things one step further by opting for a tablet form, as you can see above, while the ThinNote S1024 keeps things a bit more simple with a thin, more business-like design.

Slimmer Acer Aspire One After seeing the tiniest bit of evidence this morning of a slimmer Acer Aspire One, an anonymous reader has bragged to netbooknews.de that he's gotten some hands-on time with the laptop, and brought along some purported pics of it as evidence. Dimension-wise, we're looking at 0.95 inches thick, 10 inches wide, 7.28 inches deep . As for specs, it's pretty much what you'd expect from a netbook: 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 with 945GME graphics, 1024 x 600 resolution, 1GB RAM, 802.11 a/b/g, a 3-cell battery that's said to last a discouraging 3 hours or less, and "apparently" integrated UMTS -- no word on whether or not this thing's packing SSD. Overall, the mysterious individual with an enigmatic hat gave it positive impressions, with special props given to the keyboard and touchpad.

ASUS W90 gaming laptop ASUS' heavy-hitting W90Vp-X1 gaming-friendly laptop has shown up on Newegg. The 18.4-inch behemoth's sporting a 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9600, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2, WUXGA resolution, 6GB DDR2 RAM, 320GB HDD at 7200RPM. Of course, with specs like that, you weren't expecting it to come cheap, were you? The retailer's demanding a $2,200 ransom to take it home. Admit it, you're just happy it's an ASUS machine with no "Eee" in sight.

Dell G2410 LCD monitor Dell's new 24-inch G Series LCD , which was previewed during CES this year, has finally gone on sale at the outfit's website. The G2410 flat-panel is said to be one of the firm's greenest LCDs, as it proudly sports an EPEAT Gold rating and utilizes halogen-free laminates in circuit boards along with chassis plastics that contains 25 percent post-consumers recycled plastics. Other specs include a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution panel, 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 250 nits of brightness, VGA / DVI connectors and a 5 millisecond response time. It's all yours for $349, though there's no apparent discount for hugging a tree prior to pulling the trigger.

Nintendo's Wii Classic Controller Pro Now that you've had your fill of mocking amateurs with their Wii Classic Controllers , it's time to prove your skills by going pro. Nintendo Japan just listed the Wii Classic Controller Pro that brings a bit of Dual Shock schlock to the dual-analog controller -- that means grips and a two-row shoulder button configuration. It's expected to hit Japan sometime this Summer which could mean a Christmas-time launch elsewhere should the stars align.

Hyundai MB-490i Dolphin cellphone You know, when we first read the image-less text describing Hyundai's dolphin-shaped cellphone , our instinctual, caffeine-injected reflex was to launch into an angst-ridden assault on the MB-490i . Then we saw the pictures and, well, dammit, we kind of like it. Somehow Hyundai managed to make the aquatic scroll-wheel on the front mirrored by cascading waves of aluminum along the backside work. Even the pale blue eyeball on the side comes across as tasteful without kitsch. Spec-wise, we're looking at a 240 x 400 touchscreen display augmented by a swipeable touchscreen surface below, a 2.0 megapixel camera (no flash), Yamaha speaker, Bluetooth, and a €250 price tag when it launches in May.

PSP 2 We've lost count on the number of times we've heard from a friend of a coworker of a cousin whose girlfriend's stepfather happens to work at Sony and they're all but ready to launch a UMD-less PSP in 17 different color options bundled with a portable version of Street Fighter IV. Typically, we remain skeptical, but when it's veteran developer David "I made MDK and Earthworm Jim" Perry, we'll give him the floor to speak. Earlier this week, his Twitter account updated to say he's heard the PSP 2 is done and minus that disc drive. He later reaffirmed that comment to GameDaily, saying he can't reveal his source (naturally), but he feels certain UMD is gone. Is his source bunk? He's certainly a guy who'd know a guy, but we've heard this story far too many times to take a leap of faith now.

Microsoft Surface You heard right, folks. There's absolutely no need to wait until 2011 in order to buy yourself a personal Surface . Instead, you can grab one of Microsoft's multitouch phenomenons this June, but there's just one tiny catch: it comes attached at the waist with a multi-million dollar yacht. Down at the Miami Yacht & Brokerage Show this month, Lazzara Yachts showcased its soon-to-be-released LMC 76, which -- coincidentally enough -- comes loaded with a Surface along with software from Infusion Development. The boat (and by extension, the Surface) should be ready to take on the open seas in just a few months, but there's no indication yet on exactly how many New York banks you'll have to rob in order to make it happen.

Sony NW-S738FK and NW-S736FK Though not nearly as buzz-worthy as Sony's OLED-equipped NWZ-X1000, these two DAPs are still worth a look if you're both in Japan and really into pastels. The NW-S736FK and NW-S738FK only differ with respect to internal capacity, as the former carries 4GB worth of tunes while the latter hosts 8GB. Both will soon be available in the wonderful nation of Japan in gold, black, pink and red hues , and each will support MP3, WMA, ATRAC, WMV, MPEG-4, JPEG and AAC formats. You'll also find a 2-inch LCD, USB 2.0 connectivity, a 5 band equalizer, FM tuner and a battery good for 40 hours of audio playback (or 10 hours on the video side) . The new duo is set to ship on March 14th, and yes, those perfectly matching speaker docks seem to be included for your convenience.

Telus BlackBerry Curve 8350i The Telus Mike-branded BlackBerry 8350i Curve is a monstrous step in device technology for the Canadian giant as the only other BlackBerry in the lineup is the BlackBerry 7100i *cough*. So we'll start this off by saying goodbye to the year 2006, welcome Mike to the year 2009, and share a few thoughts -- and an enormous gallery -- about this new Direct Connect set.

Telus BlackBerry Pearl 8230 So, is the BlackBerry Pearl 8230 headed to Telus this month after all? Yeah, maybe. Best Buy's gone ahead and revealed a product page for the Telus-branded, CDMA-packing version of the Pearl flip, though you can't buy it online -- and until we hear otherwise, we're going to go ahead and assume that they're still plenty hard to find in stores. Pink or black, your choice, for $499.99 CAD (about $398) off contract.

Dev Phone 1 The Dev Phone 1 is good for many things that the stock G1 is not -- hardcore geek street cred, developing Android apps, exercising your 1337est hacking skills -- but one thing it's not good for is buying and enjoying paid apps out of the Android Market. It seems Google has disabled access to paid apps from Dev Phone 1s, likely in response to the almost-immediate discovery by users that rooted devices had access to the hidden folders where the apps were stored, effectively making pirating them trivially easy. In all likelihood, the move doesn't actually have anything to do with whether your phone is radio unlocked -- it's the rooting that's the concern, and frankly, we're a bit shocked at Google's naivete at thinking these things were going to stay protected without at least a glancing effort at real DRM. You'd think that developers willing to shell out $400 for the device aren't going to take too kindly to being locked out of the goods -- ...

LG Versa If you're the type of individual who can never decide between the Cobb salad, the lobster bisque, and the sesame prawns and end up ordering all three, take note -- your phone has arrived. The long-rumored LG Versa lets you have your cake and eat it too by starting life as a full touchscreen slate, and when the time comes for some serious emailing, texting, or notetaking, you just snap on the included cover that includes a full QWERTY keyboard. The cover also features its own OLED display -- handy, since the Versa's 480 x 240 main display is concealed while the cover's closed -- while the phone itself rocks EV-DO Rev. A with tethering capability, a 2 megapixel cam with face detection and video recording, microSD expansion, and GPS. It'll be available starting March 1 for $249.99 on contract before a $50 mail-in rebate.

T-Mobile MDA Compact V, Vario V We're thinking that HTC's Touch Diamond2 and Pro2 will be available all over the place by the time 2009 draws to a close, but if you want to be one of the first kids on the block to get in on that action, T-Mobile's European outposts are a good place to start looking. The carrier announced at MWC last week that Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK will all bet getting a version of the Diamond2 -- the MDA Compact V -- "by" June, while the Pro2 variant -- the MDA Vario V -- will launch more definitively "in" June . As usual, T-Mobile has chosen to customize its models a bit versus the standard fare that HTC is offering; opinions on the new look will vary, but if they're the first to launch, we think we can overlook some design niggles.

NHT Audio It's a sad day for fans of Now Hear This (NHT) Audio, best known for its speaker offerings -- the company is "going quiet." A letter from company co-founder Chris Byrne makes it clear that while the NHT didn't go bankrupt, there's been a sea-change in the audio market that needs a different approach. Them's strong words from a company that has a pretty solid reputation for doing things a bit differently. We remember, for example, when the NHT 3.3s came out -- that gangly narrow cabinet afforded good imaging from the front-firing drivers and the radical (at the time) woofer location on the side wall enhanced the bass response -- NHT definitely was quirky in a good way. March 31st will mark the end of NHT as we know it; here's to hoping we see it rise again in a new form with creative ideas to throw into audiodom. Not that we're counting on it, but it might just happen.