WD 2TB My Passport review:

The WD My Passport, the first-ever 2TB portable drive WD introduced last week, turned out to be pretty impressive.

Despite the top capacity, the new My Passport drive remains very compact and portable.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

Despite the fact that it offers the top capacity for 2.5-inch-based drives that use the current perpendicular recording technology, the drive is also compact and light. In fact, it's more compact than the My Passport Studio that offers just half of its storage space.

Originally, it was predicted that for 2.5-inch internal drives -- those housed inside portable drives like the new My Passport -- to reach 2TB, a new recording technology would be required. WD's My Passport is proof that that wasn't the case.

The new WD drive supports USB 3.0 (USB 2.0-compatible) and comes with just one standard USB cable that works for both data and power connections. In my testing, though it was not the fastest, the drive offered very fast performance.

The new WD My Passport also comes with useful software utilities for users to take advantage of its security features and use it as a backup drive.

For more on how the drive is totally worth its $250 price tag, check out the full review of the new WD My Passport Portable drive.

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Big-screen ultrabooks: The first wave

Larger, thinner...better? Check out the first 14- and 15-inch ultrabook-type laptops we've seen at CNET and decide for yourself.

What's an ultrabook, exactly? Is it a slim, portable 13-incher, or any laptop that's thinnish and cool-looking? The latest confounding trend in Intel's "ultrabook" brand creep has been the rise of 14- and 15-inch laptops boasting thinner designs and those same low-voltage CPUs that smaller ultrabooks have. Call them the return of the thin-and-light laptop, if you will, but ultrabooks have finally gotten supersized.

We've seen several of these already here at CNET Reviews: the HP Envy 14 Spectre, the15-inch Samsung Series 9, the Samsung Series 5 Ultra, and the Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3. The confusing thing about these larger ultrabooks is that some are heavier than others. Some have optical drives (the Acer Timeline Ultra, Samsung Series 5), others don't (the Spectre and the Series 9). One even has dedicated Nvidia graphics.

Some aren't even formally called ultrabooks at all, like Samsung's laptops -- which is confusing, because they certainly look the part in terms of size and processor. For all intents and purposes, I'm calling all of them ultrabooks here. Does bigger equal better for a class of laptop that prides itself, paradoxically, on being thin and compact? So far, two winners seem to have emerged: the HP Envy 14 Spectre and the Samsung Series

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Samsung Series 9 NP900X4B-A02 (15-inch)

Well, first, the price: the 15-inch Series 9 NP900X4B-A02 will cost $1,499 when it debuts in late April. That's less than the $1,600-plus for last year's Series 9 13-incher, but it's still way up in the stratosphere. It's not unreasonable for a larger laptop, provided it also has better specs and performance than a tiny ultraportable computer.

That's problem No. 2: under the hood, the 15-inch Series 9 is really just the same as its soon-to-arrive 13-inch sibling. It has a Core i5 processor and a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD), and even that big screen has the same 1,600x900-pixel resolution. An included 8GB of RAM is the only notably lofty spec. There's no optical drive (of course), and there aren't even any extra full-size ports like Ethernet and HDMI; you'll need dongles or special cables, and only the Ethernet dongle comes in the box.

Still, there's no denying that the larger Series 9 is a beautiful computer. However, is it worth the $1,499 price, especially when even a MacBook Air costs less, and perfectly capable if slightly less sexy full-size laptops can be had for half of that? That's up to you. After all, Samsung makes a less thin but equally powerful Series 5 Ultra that's still reasonably slim but costs over $500 less. Also consider that, for $100 less, the next-generation 13-inch Samsung Series 9 will offer much of the same functionality, in a smaller size with half the RAM. I certainly would love a 15-inch Series 9 if it fell in my lap, but it's a lot of money for what you get. In this instance, you're truly getting a super-size ultrabook. You're paying for thin.

Larger-screen ultrabooks will be a trend throughout 2012, but I'm still not sure I get the motivation for larger, thinner laptops...even though this Series 9 is probably one of the best of them, if you're judging purely on style and feel.

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Best 5 printers

(Updated March 9, 2012 8:45 AM PST)

Justin Yu
Associate Editor

More often than anything else, we get the question, "What's the best printer for me?" It's a tough question to answer, because it all depends on what you want to do with your printer. Whether you want a high-quality printer, an all-in-one workhorse, a compact photo printer, or a simple single-function inkjet, we've got you covered. We've picked the five printers, across all categories, with the highest CNET rating from the past calendar year to satisfy your curiosity. If you're interested in specific categories, check out our top products lists on the left.

HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-All-in-One Printer

If you can find a desk to accommodate its large size, the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus all-in-one printer serves up top-shelf output quality at rapid print speeds, suitable for offices, home users, and photo enthusiasts hunting for an upgrade.

Price: $199.99 - $299.99 (check prices)

4 stars

Excellent

FULL REPORT 

Secrets of the iPad Camera Connection Kit.

After some testing, it's clear that Apple's Camera Connection Kit is equipped to do a lot more than it advertises.

Credit: Sharon Vaknin/CNET)

With the third-generation iPad's super-high-resolution Retina Display and the newly available iPhoto for iOS, editing photos and videos on the go is becoming more practical.

Specifically tailored for the iPad, Apple's proprietary Camera Connection Kit allows you to transfer full-resolution photos and videos from your digital camera to your iPad without the need for a computer.

The $29 kit comes with two components: a USB adapter, and an SD card adapter. Like its name implies, the intended use of these adapters is to transfer media from your camera to your iPad. But after a little tinkering, it's clear that these dongles can be used for much more.

Full report 

WD debuts 2TB My Passport portable external hard drive

WD debuts 2TB My Passport portable external hard drive

The new My Passport portable drives from Western Digital comes in 

white, black, silver, blue, and red, with capacities ranging from 500GB 

to, for the first time, 2TB. (Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)

Western Digital announced late yesterday the first single-volume portable external hard drive on the market that offers 2TB of storage, 500GB more than the second-highest-capacity portable drive of its type, the GoFlex Ultraportable of Seagate.

The new drive belongs to the My Passport family that, prior to this, offered up to 1TB of storage space. Despite the doubling of the capacity, the new 2.5-inch drive remains compact, bus-powered, and portable. WD says it supports USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, and is reformatted using NTFS but can be easily reformatted for Mac OS.

full report 

Asus N53SV LAPTOP

The N53SV is the laptop to get if you want power, but you're on a budget. We'd love a higher-quality keyboard, but this only a small bugbear in an otherwise excellent laptop.

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It's surprising the sort of quality that you can get on a budget these days. Take Asus' AU$1299 N53S — while the grey wrist rest with wood-grain pattern may be a matter of taste, the laptop is well constructed and of higher quality than you'd expect for the price bracket.

It still falls into the extremely common trap of providing a 1366x768 screen, though, something that with a screen size of 15.6 inches always seems a little too low. Still, the screen is reasonably bright, and the colour is just fine.

full report :

The New iPad Mistake Steve Jobs Never Would Have Made

Posted under: Technology, Apple

Good news for "new iPad" shoppers. Now that Apple (AAPL) has begun shipping its new uber-tablet, customers are discovering that the company has included -- totally free of charge -- a cooking "app." 

Turns out, the new iPad generates so much excess heat that you can fry an egg on it. (Almost.)

Comparing a new iPad running "GLBenchmark" with a similar iPad 2 running the same program, Dutch website Tweakers.net reported on Tuesday morning that the new iPad runs nearly 10 degrees hotter than the old -- 92.5 F, versus 82.9F for the iPad 2. 

Full report 

Apple making progress on work hours, but 'can do better'

Company says number of employees in supplier factories who work "excessive" hours is dropping.

A worker at an Apple facility in Chengdu, China. (Credit: Apple)

Apple says it's making progress on working conditions in supplier facilities.

The company recently issued its monthly report on "excessive work hours" in supplier factoriesaround the world, saying that 89 percent of workers were in compliance with a 60-hour work week. In January, 84 percent of the employed workers were found to be in compliance.

According to Apple, the typical factory worker was on the job for 48 hours each week in February.

"That's a substantial improvement over previous results, but we can do better," the company wrote on its Supplier Responsibility page. "We will continue to share our progress by reporting this data on a monthly basis."

Apple has been under fire as of late over working conditions in supplier factories overseas. The company responded to the outcry by bringing in Fair Labor Association inspectors to investigate how workers are treated in Foxconn plants. After that investigation is completed, the independent inspectors will be moving on to other Apple supplier sites. 

Full report : 

London Olympics to be in 3D.

3D television under spotlight at MIPTV.

Published on Mar 19, 2012 by Euronews - Television professionals are gearing up for MIPTV, the international TV showcase held each year in Cannes.

The 49th edition will take place at the beginning of April and is expected to bring together nearly 12,000 participants from 100 countries with more than 4,000 buyers.

Samsung Galaxy S2 review.

There's very little to dislike about the Samsung Galaxy S2. This smart phone is astonishingly fast, with a gorgeous display, a good camera and all the power of the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system. And it's somehow all crammed into a case so slim and light that it seems to break the laws of physics. 

There's no doubt this is a phone that will impress the geeks in the room. But, if you're not so keen on expressing your geeky side by spending hours tweaking the seven home screens, deleting some of the app bloatware, and customising the millions of options, this phone may be more of a chore than a treat.

Full Review 

Seagate reaches 1Tb per square inch, hard drive to reach 60TB capacity.

Seagate says that it has reached the milestone of storage density that offers 1 terabit (1 trillion bits) per square inch, using Heat-Assisted Magnetic recording technology that promises a 60TB hard drive within the next decade.

The current highest-capacity internal hard drive that you can buy offers 3TB of storage space, which is huge. Soon you'll be able to put even more data on one, thanks to Seagate's recent achievement in data density.

The hard-drive maker announced today that it has become the first company to achieve the milestone storage density of 1 terabit (1 trillion bits) per square inch, promising to double the current hard-drive's capacity before the end of this decade. The company says its new storage technology will also allow hard drives to reach 60TB capacity within the next decade.

full report :

Top 5 solidly priced SSDs:

...The state of solid-state

CNET editor Dong Ngo picks the best solid-state internal drives right now that are also reasonably priced.

The prices of solid-state drives are getting lower as there are more and more options 

on the market. (Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)

I have reviewed a few solid-state drives in the last few weeks and it's now time to update the list of top internal storage drives.

This list will be updated on a semiregular basis as more drives are reviewed. These are the latest internal drives I'd recommend based on their performance, design, and most importantly (especially for SSDs) pricing. The good news is, prices for SSDs have been going down, with many drives now costing just around $1.30 per gigabyte. They're still not cheap, but considering the boost in performance, they are now definitely worth the investment.

If you have had a computer for a few years and have been thinking about getting a new one, migrating its current hard drive to an SSD might be the best alternative. This way you save time from not having to set up a new computer and transfer the data over, and you also save money from not having to buy new software. A 240GB SSD can now be had for around $350, which is quite a lot but still much cheaper than buying a whole new computer. And yet the performance gain from the upgrade might prove to be all you need.

While not all SSDs are created equal, they are all so much faster than regular hard drives in terms of overall performance that the differences among them are only noticeable to those who have always used SSDs, of which even I can't claim to be one. That said, if you have a tight budget, just pick one that offers the most capacity for the least money.

Without further ado, here are the new top-five SSDs that you would want to use as your computer's boot drive, with the most recently reviewed on top.

VIEW THEM ALL