Netbook Review: Acer Aspire One D255

Is there still a place for netbooks in what's starting to seem like a tablet-mad world? Acer thinks so. At a time when the Apple iPad is at the top of so many shopping lists and product after product is being evaluated as a potential "iPad-killer," Acer is betting on enough prospective buyers still looking for the more notebook-like experience, but with the smaller size and price tag, that a netbook offers. And so it's kept right on refreshing its netbook line, with a recent example being the unit we're looking at today: the Aspire One D255.

With the D255, Acer has upped the ante by going with the Intel Atom N550, a dual-core processor that is clocked at 1.5GHz. And with a price tag of $329, it's still priced around where units sporting single-core processors had recently been. But do more cores translate into more performance and better value? Let's take a look and find out.

Perhaps the hardest part for those of us used to desktop and laptop PCs is getting used to the Acer's 93-percent-full-sized keyboard -- the A through apostrophe keys that span eight inches on a desktop cover 7.5 inches on the D255. Obviously, however, it's an easier adjustment than typing on a phone, tablet or other diminutive device.

As mentioned above, the D255 is powered by the 1.5GHz Intel Atom N550, a dual-core processor that comes with 1MB of L2 cache. A rarity among 10.1-inch netbooks, this would seem to offer a distinct advantage over competing models. But while the D255's CPU does indeed perform admirably in comparison to single-core Atoms, the difference isn't enough to knock anyone's socks off. In PCMark Vantage, the D255 posted a score of 1,603, while in Cinebench 11.5's CPU test, it was able to render the sample scene in 14 minutes and 23 seconds.

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10 Things We Hate About Apple

It's high time we unloaded on the high-and-mighty Mac maker.

Narasu Rebbapragada and Alan Stafford, PC World

The company formerly known as Apple Computer and now called simply Apple, Inc. is unique in many ways--including in its ability to drive even folks who admire it positively batty. It makes great products (usually), yet its secretiveness about them borders on paranoia, and its adoring fans can be incredibly irritating. Simply being a member of the club still means you must endure unending jabs from the other side of the socio-political-techno aisle. But do they have to wear their suffering as a badge of honor?

Today, we--that's us, Narasu and Alan, veteran Mac users both--are going to get some stuff off our chests. We've enumerated ten things we hate about Apple (or its followers, or simply about the experience of using its products). But in the interest of fair play (not to be confused with FairPlay, Apple's DRM technology) we're also publishing another list--Ten Things We Love About Apple.

Apple pressured the sites to reveal their sources, and even worse, pressured the sites' ISPs. In May 2006, a California court said no way, ruling that online journalists enjoy the same First Amendment rights as "legitimate" offline journalists. Seems silly in today's world, doesn't it? Recently, the court ordered Apple to pay the sites' legal fees--about $700,000.

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Best Laptops for Gamers

If you're into games, your laptop has to meet special requirements: great graphics and CPU performance, plenty of RAM, and a good display. These are the best laptops we've reviewed for gamers.

Sony's VPCZ137GX balances portability, ergonomics, and performance in a way that's hard to beat. It's not quite as light or as small as the average ultraportable, but it offers a 13.1-inch, 1600-by-900-pixel display, great ergonomics, and an onboard DVD burner. On the other hand, it's smaller and lighter than a typical all-purpose 14- or 15-inch laptop. And finally, it looks great and performs superbly.

The downside is price: The VPCZ137GX costs a whopping $2300.

One reason for the high sticker price is a 256GB solid-state drive. This expensive component gives the installed 64-bit Windows 7 operating system a snappy feel that a standard rotating hard disk can't match, even when aided by a CPU faster than the VPCZ137GX's highly competent 2.53GHz Intel Core i5 460M. Sony also provides 4GB of 1066MHz DDR3 system memory and a discrete Nvidia GeForce GT 330M GPU with 1GB of video memory.

On our WorldBench 6 test suite, the ultraportable earned an excellent mark of 118, as well as fantastic frame rates in our reference games. 1080p HD video played smoothly on the gorgeous display and the audio was surprisingly clear and spacious sounding. Bass was lacking, but that's common in laptops.

Better yet, battery life hardly suffers at all from the great performance. The VPCZ137GX lasted 6 hours, 20 minutes in our rundown test.

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SanDisk, Toshiba one up Intel, introduce 19nm flash memory

SanDisk and its partner Toshiba announced this week a 64Gbit NAND flash memory chip using 19-nanometer (nm) technology, a process one size smaller than the memory chip Intel and Micron announced last week.

SanDisk made marketing hay with the announcement by trumping Intel and Micron's 20nm chip, which was announced by their joint venture last week. SanDisk called its chip "the most advanced memory process technology node in the world."

"We are excited to introduce the world's smallest and lowest-cost NAND flash chips based on industry-leading 19nm process technology in our ongoing collaboration with our manufacturing partner Toshiba," Yoram Cedar, chief technology officer of SanDisk, said in a statement.

SanDisk and Toshiba will be changing over from the 24nm chip that they currently manufacture at their four fabrication facilities in Asia. In an earnings call this week, SanDisk CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said he didn't anticipate that the recent earthquakes and tsunami in Japan would cause any "meaningful changes" the conversion at the plants.

The new memory chip will be used for data storage in mobile phones, tablet computers and other mobile devices, SanDisk said.

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Mac OS X: Make Snow Leopard (and other cats) roar like Lion

With a second preview version now in the hands of app developers, Apple's next generation of Mac OS X, called Lion (Version 10.7), appears to be on track for its planned release to the public this summer. The company has announced several new features for the upcoming Macintosh operating system (some of which are lifted straight from iOS, Apple's mobile platform) including the following:

• A feature called Launchpad for organizing and launching apps, similar to the iOS home screen.
• A new Mission Control feature that combines the existing Mac OS X Dashboard, Exposé and Spaces features, as well as full-screen apps.
• The ability for apps to auto-save and auto-resume as in iOS, and a feature called Versions that saves multiple copies of files over time so you can easily revert to a previous iteration after you've made changes.
• Easier, more secure file sharing among Macs, with a feature called AirDrop.
• More advanced use of multitouch gestures (in the OS itself and available to app developers).
• An updated interface and improved search capabilities in Mail, Mac OS X's built-in email client.
• The ability for more apps to run in full-screen mode for a distraction-free experience, as Apple's iPhoto and iMovie do now.
• A curated Mac App Store that offers one-click app installation.

Although Lion is still months away, Mac users don't need to wait to get advances similar to the ones planned for the new operating system. In fact, several third-party applications and services already exist to meet the same challenges that Apple is aiming to address with Lion. 

Most of the apps work with Snow Leopard and Leopard (Version 10.5); some are available for Tiger (Version 10.4) as well. I've also included a section on app store alternatives for Leopard and Tiger users, who don't have access to the Mac App Store.

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Dell Launches New SMB Server and NAS Options

As part of its ongoing focus on providing enterprise-class technologies to small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), Dell Thursday rolled out two servers as well as a pair of storage solutions meant to meet rigorous customer demands.

In addition, Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) is also emphasizing two new, energy-efficient PowerConnect switch families that the company says are appropriate for SMB use.

The move is part of a continuing strategy by the Round Rock, Texas computer products maker to make its enterprise-class products more competitive among SMBs.

"The emphasis on the server, storage, and networking as an [integrated offering] makes sense," Justin Jaffe, senior analyst at researcher IDC, told InternetNews.com.

For one thing, it helps keep Dell in the running with HP (NYSE: HPQ).

"I think the unified approach is a good one that's going to be appealing to SMBs," Jaffe added.

On Dell's list of SMB-oriented products are an entry-level server dubbed the PowerEdge T110 II and a mid-level offering, the PowerEdge R210 II, the company said in a statement.

Cost- and energy-conscious companies have the option to out fit the two PowerEdge servers with Intel's new, energy efficient Xeon E3-1200 CPUs, which are optimized for use in SMB servers, as well as with Intel Core i3-2100 CPUs, or with Intel Pentium processors.

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