Crave

Boutique gaming PC vendor Maingear launched a brand new full tower PC Monday morning. The all-steel aluminum-wrapped, steel-skeletoned Shift takes a page from last year's limited-edition Voodoo Omen desktop by rotating the motherboard 90 degrees clockwise, facing the ports you normally find on the back panel up on the top of the system instead. The result, Maingear says, is improved heat management, as the design works with heat's natural tendency to rise.

Maingear's new Shift gaming PC

(Credit: Maingear)

Regardless of the heat benefits, (we've seen plenty of PCs work just fine with a traditional layout), the result of the rotated motherboard clearly makes an impact on the look and feel of the Shift. With monitor and peripheral cables plugged in to the top and hidden under a removable, vented cover, both the front and the back of the system cut a clean profile.

(More pics and starting price after the jump.)

(Credit: Microsoft)

2009 is suddenly a holiday of racers. If you don't believe that, consider the trifecta that have been unleashed upon us already: Need For Speed: Shift, Dirt 2, and Microsoft's holiday tentpole Forza Motorsport 3. All of them promise realistic physics, blazing speeds, and tons of customization, but NFS: Shift and Dirt 2 are multiplatform, while Forza Motorsport 3 is an Xbox 360 first-party exclusive. For my money, though, I'll take Forza 3. After playing all three, the newest Forza has, surprisingly, won me over--not with realism, but with fun.

I say surprisingly because "simulation racers" generally lie in a calcified place among the hearts of the mainstream gamers: the hundreds of factory-immaculate car models and pitch-perfect world racing circuits, along with the endless class licenses and intricate engine tune-ups, can turn most gamers off completely. Right here in the CNET offices, I told a colleague I was playing Forza 3, and that I actually enjoyed it. "Really?" he asked, somewhat disbelieving. It's assumed that Gran Turismo and Forza will be inaccessible to those who don't appreciate racers, just like Madden often erects a wall between NFL fans and gamers and the rest of the world.

I am a casual racer, and Forza 3 sucked me in.

Its first success was employing a calm British man to talk to me. Much like LittleBigPlanet, a gentle voice of authority (although in this case, not Stephen Fry) welcomed me, showed me the basic ropes, and told me everything was going to be all right. Rather than worry about detailed car controls and under-the-hood tinkering, a simple press of a few A and B buttons got me right into a season-long circuit of races. The voice tutorials gently tailed off naturally, until I had the ropes completely. Suddenly I realized that I had been playing for several hours, and was itching to complete just one more race challenge to unlock more credits. That's when I realized that, fundamentally, Forza 3 is a success. ... Read More

EA ramps up the realism for Need for Speed: Shift.

(Credit: EA)

We love racing games here at Car Tech. So we jumped at the opportunity to play a preview build of its upcoming Need for Speed: Shift when we were invited by EA.

Need for Speed: Shift is the first of a three-pronged split of the Need for Speed franchise that will also include Nitro--a casual, arcade racer--and World Online--sort of a racing sim MMORPG.

We were particularly blown away by the fully modeled interiors of the vehicles, which included fully functional gauges and mirrors. Having recently sat in many of the test vehicles, we were impressed by the level of detail. For example, the in-game Corvette featured the same head-up display as the 2009 Corvette Convertible we'd tested earlier.

Need for Speed: Shift is expected to be released in the fall for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. Check out our gallery with more photos and details.

Need for Speed: Shift preview (photos)

Canon on Tuesday announced two new perspective-controlling tilt-and-shift lenses, the TS-E 24mm f3.5L II and the TS-E 17mm f4L. Adding a wide-angle and an ultra-wide-angle in addition to the TS-E 45mm f2.8 and the TS-E 90mm f2.8. With TS-E 24mm f3.5L II replacing it predecessor released in 1991. These new tilt-and-shift lenses have been branded L series with its distinctive red band, signifyng their professional build quality.

(Credit: Canon)

The TS-E 24mm f3.5L II has been updated to feature UD (ultra-low dispersion) glass to minimize chromatic aberrations. Also specially coated aspherical elements to reduce glare. Both new lenses feature a new revolving construction design that allows it to rotated for both portrait and landscape shooting. The TS-E 17mm f4L offers ultrawide perspective controlled ability, allowing lots of creative possibilities. It also features UD glass to minimize chromatic aberrations. As well as revolving construction to easily change orientation. image

(Credit: Canon)

These tilt-and-shift lenses allow you to control the plane of focus, as well as control perspective in things such as the convergence of parallel lines. The lens elements can be tilted forward and back, and adjusted up and down just like the front of a view camera. Giving the photographer amazing control, especially architectural and product photography. These are manually focusing lenses.

They should be available in May with the TS-E 24mm f3.5L for $2,199 and the TS-E 17mm for $2,499.

The HTC Shift: Like a DVD case, but thicker.

(Credit: Michelle Thatcher/CNET Networks)

Amazon is quickly joining the FCC and U.S. Patent Office as a source for tech product leaks. Case in point: This morning the long-awaited HTC Shift showed up for preorder on the retail site, spoiling the company's plans to officially release the product Monday.

The device itself defies easy categorization; it could be described as either a larger OQO Model 02 or as a Samsung Q1 Ultra with a keyboard. Essentially, the HTC Shift is a small Vista tablet with built-in CDMA connectivity. About the size of a DVD case (though a tad thicker), the Shift weighs just over 2 pounds. Its 7-inch touch screen slides up to reveal a tiny keyboard with Chiclet-sized keys. The tablet also has a USB port, a headphone jack, and a VGA connection, plus an SD card slot.

Honestly, I don't have giant hands--the keyboard is just small.

(Credit: Michelle Thatcher/CNET Networks)

HTC sent us a Shift review unit last week, and I've found myself using it more like a smartphone--albeit one wrapped in a permanently attached brown leather folio--than a laptop. I seem to reach for it primarily when I'm away from the desk and want to pound out a quick e-mail or browse the Web (though, given the screen's small size, there was a lot of scrolling to be done). But when possible I've reserved more substantial work for when I got back to the office, mostly because the Shift's keyboard is a bit too large for comfortable thumb typing and a bit too small for standard 10-finger typing, especially given my medium-length nails.

That's a problem for a device that costs $1,499--though, to be fair, the pricing is competitive with UMPCs and similar small tablets. I'm still working out the finer points of comparison, so keep an eye out for the full review this week.

This blog was updated at 10:30 a.m.

Beginning in the next few weeks, Dell notebooks and desktops will be for sale at Best Buy, the companies announced Thursday.

(Credit: Dell)

Several models of XPS and Inspiron PCs will be available at 900 Best Buy locations, including the XPS M1330 in white, the Inspiron 1521 in blue and black, the Inspiron 1420 in black, and the all-in-one XPS One desktop. Other available desktops will be the Inspiron 530, 531, and 531s. More models and colors will be added in the next few months, Dell said.

This is a huge step for the company that strictly sold PCs and peripherals directly to consumers for the first two decades of its existence. Now Dell, which pioneered the model that cut out the PC retailer, will be just one of the other names on the shelf at retail--right next to Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Gateway, Acer, and Toshiba.

Of course, Best Buy is not the first retailer Dell has partnered with, but Best Buy is different than Wal-Mart or Staples. It's the largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S., and this announcement marks a huge cultural shift at the Round Rock, Texas, PC maker.

"It's a big step for them. It's risky, but it's a gamble they had to make," said Richard Shim, PC market analyst for IDC. Dell has been ceding market share to HP for several quarters. As of the third quarter of this year, Dell shipped 27.8 percent of PCs sold in the U.S. HP is right behind with 24.1 percent of PCs shipped.

Chief executive Michael Dell said last week during the company's earnings call with investors that more retail partners would be announced in some of the largest countries in the world. The Best Buy deal brings the number of retail locations that sell Dell PCs to more than 10,000 worldwide, Dell said.

All of those retailers have been added in the last six months, since the company first announced it would establish a retail presence, beginning with Wal-Mart and Sam's Club in May. Since then, it has added Carphone Warehouse in the U.K., Bic Camera in Japan, Gome in China, and Staples.

"It's going to be hard for them to make this change," said Shim. "(Dell is) used to having a very intimate relationship with customers." Part of that relationship is upselling customers on additional Dell items. "Now it's no longer Dell saying, 'Hey, buy our printer.' Now it's a retail sales guy saying that if you buy a Dell system you can buy any one of these (other) printers."

(Credit: SCI FI Tech)

Many of us are more than willing to do our part to fight global warming, but not everyone is quite ready trade the family gas guzzler for a Prius or a diesel Honda. Yet you can still take a small step toward lessening your environmental guilt with a new shift knob designed to promote fuel efficiency.

The "Gaslock Indy Cater" has an LED indicator that reminds the driver what gear the car is in. Some might think it's about as useful as the "qStart"--the gadget that tells you which side of the road you're supposed to be driving on--but SCI FI Tech says the knob can help cut fuel consumption by 15 percent if its directions are followed religiously.

And the money saved on gas can go toward the fund for the next knob upgrade, the $150,000 Bentley model.

Increasing memory capacity and reducing the footprint of mobile phones is akin to taking one step forward and one step back. The two sort of cancel each other out.

Instead of trying to do both, CMWare is introducing a service called myMobileMedia, a PC-based place-shifting technology that streams media content to MP3-enabled phones. Other companies, like Orb Networks and Avvenu, have the same idea, but myMobileMedia's hook is its ability to stream even DRM-protected content.

CMWare's proprietary technology allows all music files, including those purchased from Apple's iTunes Store, to be played without violating any DRM rules, CMWare co-founder Steve Ott said. When played on a phone, each song is identified by file extension. If an iTunes song is played, myMobileMedia remotely launches iTunes on the owner's PC for playback. The song is then captured and transcoded to MP3 or AAC+ format, and played, but never copied to the phone.

Users aren't limited to music--video and photos can also be streamed to Java- and Symbian-based handsets using the service. MyMobileMedia's technology also has the ability to continually analyze the network connection and adjust the stream accordingly to reduce interruptions in service.

MyMobileMedia is currently available in Europe, and will be launched in the U.S. as a subscription service this summer through mobile operators, or as a direct download. Though CMWare has not announced pricing yet, it has said there will be a free and premium version of the service.

(Credit: HTC)

HTC, maker of high-concept phones (excuse us, "Microsoft Windows Mobile-based smart devices"), such as the T-Mobile Dash, is bringing Windows Vista to UMPCs with the HTC Shift, announced this morning at CTIA 2007.

The company describes the device as about the size of, "a couple of DVD cases," and it sports a 7-inch wide-screen display, 30GB hard drive, and every flavor of wireless connectivity you can think of, including, "Tri-Band UMTS/HSDPA, Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0 and WiFi."

We've already seen Windows Vista in the promising, if not entirely practical, Sony VAIO UX390 UMPC, so we're eager to see what the Shift can do to raise the bar on ultramobile PCs.

Pricing and more detailed specs (such as the CPU) are still forthcoming, but the HTC Shift will be available in the U.S. and Europe in fall 2007.