Dell has officially unveiled the Inspiron Mini 9 - a small, easy-to-carry device targeted at teens, tweens, travelers and "Tweeters".Calling it an Internet companion, Dell maintains that the Mini 9 can be fine-tuned to fit users' specific needs. With a starting weight of 2.28 lbs, the Mini 9 features a durable design, with sealed keyboard, solid state drive (SSD) memory storage, an 8.9-inch glossy LED display (1024x600) and standard built-in Wi-Fi, webcam and Bluetooth.

Dell has teamed up with Box.net to offer exclusive web-based file storage, access and sharing to Inspiron Mini users, including a free Basic plan with 2GB of remote storage space, expandable to 25GB.The Inspiron Mini will include a direct link to a Dell-exclusive home page on Box.net, providing users with a way to add incremental online storage space to manage their digital lives. Individuals can upload files of any type to their Box, including photos, videos, music, documents and presentations, and then access those files from almost anywhere on any device.

Box.net's service requires no software to download. With its OpenBox platform, Box.net enables people to edit documents and photos directly from their web-browser and post media to their blog or social networks, further enhancing the mobility and user experience on the Inspiron Mini.

Individuals have a choice of two colors for the device - Obsidian Black or Alpine White. They can also choose between Windows XP or Ubuntu 8.04. The Inspiron Mini with Windows XP Home is available immediately starting at $399.

Inspiron Mini devices featuring an intuitive Dell-developed custom interface are expected to be available in a few weeks with a starting price of $349.

The device also has an entire line of custom "Designed for Dell" backpacks, messenger bags and convertible cases from merchants including Timbuk2, though they are currently available in the United States, Canada and Europe only.

The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is available now on www.dell.com/mini in the U.S., Japan and select countries in Europe. Availability elsewhere will be handled on a country-by-country basis.

Coming this September 10, AMD plans to unveil its HD4600 series (RV730 XT / PRO) cards to directly compete with the Nvidia 9500 series. We will see two flavors brought forward as the HD4670 (RV730-XT) and the HD4650 (RV730-Pro). Both cards are manufactured on the 55 nm architecture at speeds of 750 MHz and 600 MHz. Each card will utilize 320 Stream Processing Units. Some of the other technical, and notable features of the HD4600 series are as follows:- PowerPlay 2.0 Functions
- Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD 2
- Direct-X 10.1
- Shader Model 4.1
- Physics acceleration & Dynamic geometry acceleration
- 24X CFAA Technology.
Another point worth mentioning is that new V3700 & V5700 FirePro specialized workstation cards are based off the RV730-XT (HD4670) technology. Both card editions will also have Macro Vision Detection (MVD) on them as well. Macro Vision Detection is a form a copy protection that is transparent while viewing media, but apparent when attempting to copy certain media from input sources. Typically the copied version has the quality substantially degraded.
Both the HD4670 and HD4650 utilize a 128-Bit memory bandwidth. No 256-Bit version has been mentioned as of current. The HD4650 coming with 512MB DDR2 and the HD4670 coming with a choice of 512 MB or 1024 MB DDR3. The HD4670 (RV730-XT) supports hardware crossfire while the HD4650 (RV730-Pro) supports software based crossfire at this time. It appears that there is a version utilizing the RV730-Pro technology that will support hardware crossfire, however at this time it is not set it in stone.

Power consumptions of the HD4600 series are relatively low at 70 to 80 Watts for the HD4670 and 50 to 55 Watts for the HD4650. It’s also worth mentioning the lack of external power connector on this series of card, which has its pros and its cons. Average systems housing 450 Watts or more should be just fine with this card. If you plan to run two cards in crossfire 550 Watts minimum is suggested.

It’s getting to be quite a pain keeping track of the Xperia X1's launch. From the beginning of this year, to anytime in the fourth quarter, to December, or Jan of ’09, it’s been speculation after speculation.
The same reports that earlier mentioned a possible delay in the launch have new information (that was also seemingly backed by Reuters) that the Xperia X1 will be back on schedule and we can expect it sometime in the next month or two at the latest.Quite frankly, I breathed a sigh of relief as I don’t think I can wait any longer to test it. Hopefully Sony Ericsson will show Tech2 another grand gesture and give us a pre-launch prototype to test.

Stay tuned for a possible preview.

Western Digital today announced the addition of 750GB and 1GB RE3 SATA hard drives to its enterprise lineup. The new drives boast a beefy 32MB cache buffer, enhanced vibration and shock tolerance, and what the company claims are "new electronics to increase performance approximately 20 percent and by as much as 60 percent in high-vibration environments."Rounding out the feature-set are a several marketing buzzwords, including StableTrac (reduces system-induced vibration and stabilizes platters), dual processor (better processing power), RAFF technology (corrects linear and rotational vibrations), IntelliSeek technology (calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise, and vibration), and several more.

Western Digital has the MSRP on the 750GB and 1TB models at $199 and $249 respectively. The drives are available now and carry a five-year limited warranty.