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Desktops Commodore USA puts the new C64 up for pre-sales, unveils far-less-retrotastic VIC-Slim By Sean Hollister posted Apr 6th 2011 8:43PM Now that Commodore USA has sufficiently piqued your curiosity with a revamped Commodore 64 prototype, it's ready to capitalize on the idea. Quite literally, we might add. $595 buys you the basic basic model with an 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Atom D525 chip, NVIDIA ION 2 graphics, 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive -- which it promises to deliver by "early June" -- with hundred-dollar increments adding premium features like an additional 2GB of memory, a Blu-Ray drive, up to 1TB of storage, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth. However, if you're simply looking for a compact keyboard computer (rather than reliving 80's nostalgia) there's another option on tap -- a likely rebadged thin wedge of a machine that Commodore's

You can do quite a lot with a sufficiently large catalog of semi-popular footage, but original content is king, and today the Wall Street Journal is reporting that YouTube will sink $100 million into original programming. The idea, according to the usual anonymous sources, is that Google will reshape the home of Keyboard Cat into a television network of sorts -- with channels for different topics -- and a good number of them featuring "several hours of professionally produced original programming a week." That sounds like a drop in the bucket compared to the raft of footage that YouTube's amateurs put out, of course, and it wouldn't be the first time we've seen Google invest in original work, but we'd be lying if we said we wouldn't enjoy kicking back with even a smidgen of the pulse-pounding possibilities that some 4096-pixel-wide footage could offer. YouTube is reportedly attracting talent right now, say the WSJ 's spooks, and intends to eas

Google got a lot of flak for withholding the Android 3.0 source code, and plenty more when Businessweek sources claimed the company had set aside its open stance to dictate from a throne, but today the man who would allegedly sit atop the royal seat says it isn't so. Andy Rubin, the man in charge of Android, says that "there are no lock-downs or restrictions against customizing UIs" nor "any efforts to standardize the platform on any single chipset architecture" as have often been rumored before, and that when Honeycomb is finally ready for phones, Google will indeed release its source code. Overall, he claims that Android's position when it comes to open source hasn't changed since day one -- which is nice for those who would like to believe that Google's still sticking to its motto -- but that's not likely to appease companies cut out of the loop simply because they weren't part of the early adopter club. If Google's methods

Yes, laptops and tablets are all the rage these days, but there's still quite a few of us who enjoy the expansive screen real estate of their sedentary computing brethren. That's why Acer's unleashed a sleek and svelte new all-in-one dubbed the Aspire Z5761. This latest AIO keeps the same fabulous form factor of its cousin, the AZ3750, but sports a larger 23-inch Full HD display, your choice of Sandy Bridge Core i5-2400s, Core i5-2500s, or Core i7-2600s CPUs, up to a 1.5TB SATA II HDD, a Blu-ray or SuperMulti drive, NVIDIA GeForce GT440, GT435M, or GT420 graphics, and a hybrid TV-tuner card so it can do double duty as your boob tube should you be so inclined. Connectivity comes courtesy of gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, and eight USB 2.0 ports. In addition, the system's preloaded with the company's Clear.fi tech, so you can grab multimedia content residing on other Acer devices (assuming you have any) with the greatest of ease. Touchi

Okay, so Nikon kind of spoiled the surprise with this one, but we can now enlighten you with the full details of its upcoming midrange (or "advanced beginner" as Nikon calls it) DSLR refresh. The D5100 takes the spot of the venerable D5000, but follows the previous generation's recipe for success pretty closely. The D5000 was a stripped-down D90 in a simpler, smaller package that came with an articulating LCD, and the D5100 just so happens to feature the same mighty 16.2 megapixel sensor as the D7000 (Nikon's current high-end consumer DSLR) augmented with a flipout screen. Having the D7000's internals helps the new shooter churn out 1080p video at 24fps, 25fps, or 30fps, depending on your preference for up to a maximum of 20 minutes. The D5000 is only capable of five-minute bursts of 720/24p video and isn't able to continually autofocus, which the D5100 can. The D5100 also betters its predecessor in terms of physic

This isn't our first encounter with the Nokia T7-00, but this time around we're getting a whole bunch more info thanks to some detailed pics leaked by PCPop . In a nutshell, the T7-00 appears to be a downgraded version of Nokia's N8 imaging flagship for the Chinese market. The phone is identical to the N8 in appearance, except for the missing camera pod in the back. Gone is the phenomenal 12 megapixel autofocus Zeiss shooter with xenon flash -- instead, you'll find an 8 megapixel camera (likely EDoF, like its E7 and C7 cousins) with dual-LED flash mounted flush with the body. In addition, the micro-USB connector finds a new home behind the plastic door that normally conceals the mini-HDMI port on the N8. Under the hood, the existing pentaband 3G radio gives way to China's proprietary TD-SCDMA standard, and the ARM 11 processor gets a 20MHz speed bump to 700MHz. Considering the vast numbers of mobile subscribers in China, the T7-00 is sure to help Nokia re

If you dig the stylish look on the Linksys E4200 802.11n router but prefer something more wallet-friendly, then Cisco's latest range of home routers and switches will likely suit your taste. Gone are the curved grooves and blinking LEDs on the top, but these routers -- ranging from $59.99 to $159.99 -- still go about their usual wireless business at up to 300Mbps, with additional simultaneous dual-band support on the pricier E2500 and E3200. Like their predecessors, you'll also find a refreshed, feature-packed Cisco Connect software suite in the box, which promises to make installation and management a whole lot easier. Also notable is the upcoming virtual USB feature that connects printers and storage devices to the network -- the E3200 and E4200 are expected to receive this update in the summer. As for the switches, you have a choice of three new models going from $29.99 for five 10/100Mbps ports, all the way up to $74.99 for eight gigabit connections. All thes

Whoa, Nelly! AMD, a company that has struggled to nail its ship dates in years past, has just pulled the ultimate 180. If you'll recall, we heard last month that its quad-core Llano APU was on track for a Q3 2011 release, but now, we've word straight from the equine's mouth that the action will be going down far sooner. In fact, AMD's Singapore plant just celebrated the first shipment of the company's 32nm Llano A-series APUs, complete with discrete-level graphics and a promise to change the way we think about netbook / nettop / ultraportable performance. Of course, just because these chips are headed out to OEM partners doesn't mean that they'll be gracing the pages of your favorite PC maker tomorrow; Chief Financial Officer and Interim CEO Thomas Seifert notes that AMD is looking forward to seeing Llano-based machines during this quarter, but given that Q2 just got going, we may be waiting awhile still. Nothing like a little Zacate to tide you

As sure as snow in winter or sun in summer, AMD has yet another refresh to its graphics card portfolio this spring. The Radeon HD 6790 is only a couple of misplaced digits away from the far more illustrious HD 6970, but you should be able to tell the two apart by another, altogether more significant spec: the new mid-tier card retails at $149. Predictably, its performance offers no threat to AMD's single-GPU flagship, but the 6790's 840MHz graphics and shader clock speeds plus 1GB of GDDR5 running at an effective 4.2GHz data rate don't seem like anything to sniff at either. Reviewers agreed that it's AMD's slightly delayed answer to NVIDIA's GTX 460, and with the latter card exiting retail availability to make room for the (oddly enough) less powerful GTX 550 Ti, AMD's new solution looks set to be the better choice at the shared $149 price point. Alas, being limited to 800 Stream processors and 16 ROPs does expose the HD 6790 to being cannibalize

What's this, you ask? The next generation of Xbox 360 development, that's what. With a shockingly small amount of fanfare, Microsoft has ushered in a striking new Xbox Development Kit, which is purportedly designed to increase efficiency and reduce cost for Xbox 360 dev teams. Aside from boasting an undisclosed uptick in RAM, built-in flash memory, a more capacious hard drive and a slimmer form factor, this XDK will also be sold at a "significantly reduced price from its predecessor." 'Course, the folks in Redmond aren't saying what exactly that sticker will look like, but those interested in taking the plunge regardless will also have the option to license a Sidecar attachment that enables debugging and disc emulation. We're told that said accessory can be shared among multiple XDK consoles, and in turn, it should lower the overall price to create, test, debug, and release an Xbox 360 or Xbox Live Arcade game. It's still a guessing game w

First, Alienware's M17x got a bit of spit and polish with a new Sandy Bridge CPU and a 3D display, then the M11x got Intel's speedy new silicon too. Now, the middle alien child appears to have gotten a similar makeover. Christened the M14x, rumor has it that Alienware's newest portable rig packs an Intel Core i7-2820QM 2.3 GHz CPU, up to a 750GB 7200RPM HDD, 256GB SATA2 or SATA3 SDD, a robust NVIDIA GT555M GPU, LTE or WiMAX connectivity, and your choice of 14-inch screens: either a 1366 x 768 display or a Full HD 1920 x 1080 LCD. Following its big brother's lead, the M14x also rolls with a pair of Klipsch speakers for hi-fi fragging. No word on when this mothership lands, but with those specs, we wouldn't mind making first contact -- would you? Geek Dell News and more , ZOL

While the US government hasn't issued an outright ban against the use of 'conflict minerals' coming from the Congo, it has passed a law that will require companies who use them to tell all of us when our gadgets have been paid for (in part) with blood. Looks like Apple and Intel weren't too keen on the bad PR that would come from such disclosures, and joined the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition and its Conflict-Free Smelter program. The program requires mineral processing plants either prove that they don't fund the ongoing hostilities in central Africa or peddle their war-supporting wares elsewhere. For now, that means that the folks in Cupertino and Santa Clara will have to find other sources for the three Ts (tungsten, tin, and tantalum) needed to sate our technological appetites. Fast Company Bloomberg

We're no strangers to amputees moving stuff with their minds -- for that matter, a thought-controlled prosthetic isn't really new to us, either -- but the pneumatic arm you see here isn't like other intelligent limbs. Unlike most mind-operated prosthesis, the Artificial Muscle-Operated (AMO) Arm doesn't require invasive surgery, and according to its inventors, it costs a quarter of the price to make. Here's how the thing works: the host human wears a headset that sends brain signals to a chip in the arm that then matches those signals to a database of related actions, triggering a series of pneumatic pumps and valves to move the limb. Thus, if the wearer thinks 'up,' the arm moves up. The AMO Arm's creators, a pair of undergraduate biomed students, say that not only is their invention a steal to produce, but it also takes just minutes to acclimate to, which has us wondering, do you have to be missing an arm to get a hold of one of these thing

Talk about slamming down on the left of the wheel. Quite frankly, we haven't seen a veering this drastic since ZeeVee decided to shelve its consumer plans in favor of more professionally oriented wares, but we're willing to give Thinkflood the benefit of the doubt here. The same folks made famous for their IR-beaming iPhone remote dongle have just come forward with something completely out of the ordinary -- the RedEye Pro. The company claims that this newfangled A/V accessory works exactly like the original, attaching to one's home network in order to control a gaggle of devices. Everything from your iPhone to your PC can be dictated, and with eight dual-purpose 3.5mm infrared emitter / contact closure sensor ports, all but the hugest of mansions should be taken care of. We're guessing that the install is only for the brave (and the jobless, given the time away from work that you'll need), but it certainly sounds like an appealing option for those who'

Remember that 3D Hero expansion kit we ogled back at CES? How would you forget is likely the superior question. At any rate, GoPro has just announced the general availability of that very module, with $99.99 getting you a waterproof 3D expansion kit for the insanely popular HD Hero camera. For those who've forgotten, the kit allows a pair of 1080p lenses to form a single 1080p 3D camera, and it's waterproof to 180 feet, too. In related news, it seems as if GoPro has also taken this opportunity to snap up CineForm, and it's wasting no time in putting the outfit's compression and workflow technology to good use. Customers can surf over to to GoPro's website in order to suck down a gratis copy of CinaForm Studio, which makes it easier on 3D shooters to create, watch and share their three-dee imagery. The app also converts 2D material into 3D H.264 files, and for the price mentioned here, it ain't a half bad inclusion. PR's after the break, if you&#

Dell's Rosemount tablet is similar to the HP Slate in that it's a 10-inch, business-centric Windows 7 tablet whose launch has been bumped back further than originally expected. To be clear, this isn't an explicit delay, since Dell has never given official indication for when in 2011 it'll launch the slate device, but a leaked tablet roadmap back in February suggested it would be with us in the warm and breezy days of June. Now, Forbes is reporting insider info that states the Rosemount won't be hitting shops until fall, September at the earliest, meaning it'll miss the back-to-school sales period but arrive with plenty of time for the holiday shopping rush. Let's hope all this time taken leads to a finger-friendly software overlay for Windows 7 -- we love the OS' multivariate functionality but it was never designed for control with the imprecision of fleshy digits.