by Thomas Ricker,
Well, well. Japan just scored an exclusive on this new multi-touch Studio One 19 PC from Dell. The All-in-One "entertainment PC" comes in a variety of colors to match your kitchen decor with specs that max-out on options such as a Core 2 Quad processor, 4GB of memory, 750GB hard disk, 6x USB, integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam, and NVIDIA GeForce 9400 graphics, and Blu-ray player. The 18.5 inch display features a 1,366 x 768 aspect ratio with touch or non-touch glass panels -- capacitive or resistive... that's the question. Prices start at about ¥149,800 which translates to a tax inclusive price of about $1,538 of the green stuff. Hey Dell, how about a shot from the side so we can measure the chub index?

Update: Helloooo chubby sexy! Profile and top-down pictures found (thanks LionelatDell!) and dropped in after the break and into the gallery. Who knew that the display was actually offset-forward from the main slab? Nice. And she sure is curvy.

Update 2: PC World got a demo of the new AIO and reveals a $699 starting price (now confirmed by an official press release) when it hits the US this Spring -- a lot more when you start adding the $100 touchscreen option, $200-ish Blu-ray, more memory, etc.

Gallery: Dell's multi-touch Studio One 19 PC makes exclusive debut in Japan

engadget.com

by Darren Murph,
Even Circuit City's CEO admitted that liquidation was a very real possibility if a sale of the company didn't occur by January 16th, and needless to say, time's up. According to a breaking report from the AP, the once colossal electronics retailer will indeed be forced to liquidate, which should bring happy times for bargain hunters and sad times for employees. Now that details are starting to flow in, we're told that it will liquidate 567 of its US stores after failing to secure a buyer or refinancing deal. For those who care, Great American Group LLC, Hudson Capital Partners LLC, SB Capital Group LLC and Tiger Capital Group LLC have been chosen as liquidators.

[Thanks, Doug]

engadget.com

by Darren Murph,
Our biggest gripe with the Peek email-only handheld has always been the incredibly annoying $19.95 per month data plan. If you jump in today, however, you can forget all about those recurring charges. It seems the suits at Peek have finally stumbled upon what could actually be a viable business model for this unique handset, as they're offering the unit up for $299.95 with data included for the life of the device. Unfortunately, the deal is a one-day only affair, but truthfully, we fully expect this option to become the norm in the not-too-distant future.

engadget.com

by Nilay Patel,
We don't have a lot to go on, but a machine called the VAIO GS just popped up in the FCC database, along with the usual nasty gub'ment photos. Doing some extremely rough back-of-the-napkin calculations, it looks like it's Sony's answer to the Dell Mini 12 -- 11 inches wide with a 12ish-inch 4:3 screen. We're also seeing an optional built-in optical drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, three USB ports, a PC Card slot (that's what it's marked -- let's hope it's really ExpressCard), a Memory Stick slot, Ethernet and modem ports, and VGA out. We're guessing the optical drive explains the netbook-ish hinge battery placement, but nothing explains how ugly this thing is -- let's hope the downgrade in style from the VAIO P comes with a corresponding downgrade in price. A few more shots after the break.

engadget.com

by Paul Miller,
We always loved us that Voodoo-designed HP Blackbird 002, but it was certainly a behemoth Now it looks like the duo are going for a more realistic size -- and hopefully pricepoint -- with he all-new HP Firebird PC 803 that just fell in our lap, a gaming tower which flips the disc drive and most other components on their sides to save on space. The resulting kit seems to have more in common with gaming consoles than desktop PCs in terms of design, with very little configurability or expansion available, but the leaked specs are still quite palatable to the modern PC gamer:

• NVIDIA nForce 760i SLI chipset
• Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz processor
• 4GB of RAM
• Dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800S cards
• Two 320GB SATA drives
• Blu-ray
• 5-in-1 card reader
• 6 USB, 1 FireWire, 2 eSATA, 1 S/PDIF and 1 DVI dual-link
• Bluetooth
• 802.11n WiFi

To save on space (and heat), the Firebird actually uses an external power supply, but we suppose the included wireless keyboard and mouse should help to make up for that clutter. As you've probably gleaned from the specs, those small form factor 9800S cards aren't going to be putting away the frame rates quite like the cutting edge cards from NVIDIA and AMD, and the seeming lack of expandability makes the (theoretical) up-front cost savings seem a bit less exciting, but for a certain type of gamer the Firebird could be a welcome respite from monstrous, unrealistic and just-as-quickly-outmoded performance towers.

P.S.: Rahul's dubious rant about the boutique gaming industry -- which Voodoo still serves -- makes a lot more sense in this light. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

www.engadget.com