Stories by: Chris Jager

Microsoft today announced a price drop for the XBox 360 video game and entertainment system in Australia.

The meteoric rise of the widescreen TV has robbed home theatre projectors of much of their former allure. Once considered the ultimate in cinematic luxury, they have since become something of an endangered species -- rather like the bearded, middle-aged men who swear by them (you know the type we’re talking about: most of them are also fans of Betamax and/or LaserDisc).

Yesterday, Heroes fans in Sydney got up close and personal with Milo Ventimiglia and Masi Oka -- two of the lead stars of the hit sci-fi TV show.

The HP Compaq 6730s (FV305PA) is an entry-level business notebook geared towards unpicky professionals. Characterised by a workmanlike performance, moderate price tag and fearsomely dull design, it’s not the sort of notebook that jumps out at prospective buyers.

In recent years, car enthusiasts have been treated to a veritable showroom of automobile-sponsored notebooks, including the Asus Lamborghini VX2s (AK039G), Itronix Hummer VR-1, Acer Acer Ferrari 1100 and Toshiba Portege R500 (okay, so the last one isn't actually a car, but it sure does sound like one). It seems that as long as there are millionaire-wannabes in the world, there will be sports car laptops.

The Linksys NAS200 is an affordable network-attached storage enclosure aimed primarily at home users. With its twin SATA hard-drive bays, pre-installed backup software, built-in media server and HTTP/FTP client capabilities, it certainly appears to have all major networking requirements covered. However, the absence of a Gigabit Ethernet connection hamstrings transfer speeds; an oversight that will deter many users. Furthermore, a range of design and interface flaws reduces its overall appeal.

The Netgear Storage Central Turbo SC101T is a rather curious entry into the network storage market. Utilising SoIP technology, the device appears in your My Computer window as a regular external hard drive (as opposed to a 'mapped' hard drive over your network connection). While this makes for an easier set up process and eliminates the need for complex security measures, it also means you can't run applications from it or access the Internet. As such, the SC101T is really only suitable for people who require a single storage space for multiple PCs.

Chris Jager unpacks the latest smartphone from Nokia - the new N95 8GB

Thanks to the versatile nature of modern technology, consumers now have the luxury of tailor-fitting a notebook to meet their specific needs. Whether you want the bare-bones edition of a particular model or a powerfully decked-out alternative, the range of choices on offer is usually there for the taking.

The emerging threat of global warming has changed various aspects of our everyday lives - from the world's political landscape to the way we view a light switch. However, when it comes to using our PCs, many of us ignore energy conservation for the sake of business or convenience. This is a mindset that we all need to break.