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Because you hold the PlayTouch vertically for shooting video, you don’t get the full 3-inch screen to frame your shot. Instead you’re stuck using a section that’s relatively small at roughly 2 inches diagonal. It’s not bad, just a waste. The touch screen is responsive, though it does take about a second for the interface to react when changing settings. And while I’m on the subject of settings, there aren’t a whole lot of things to adjust since these minicamcorders are made for point-and-shoot use. Along with the Glare Shield feature, you get three levels of screen brightness and an auto option for letting the device set it; gain control for the mic or mic jack; on/offs for its electronic image stabilization and face detection; a Safe mode that keeps videos and pictures from being edited, shared, or deleted; and Share for selecting what social networks and e-mail addresses are shown when you press the Share button in Playback mode. Lastly, there are four video recording modes to choose from: 1080p at 30fps, 720p at 60fps or 30fps, and WVGA. You can also shoot 5-megapixel stills.

On the main screen you get an icon for accessing the setting menu in addition to icons for going from shooting to playback, capturing stills or video, and turning on one of the three color effect modes. Again, the screen is responsive so it doesn’t take multiple presses to select things. This comes in particularly handy when you want to show off your videos. For playing content, you get the full 3-inch screen and there’s a mono speaker in front or you can connect headphones. Playback is straightforward with the onscreen controls, and a tap of the Share button lets you tag movies or photos for automatic uploading to sharing sites or sent off to selected e-mail addresses when you connect to a computer. The best part of having the touch screen is for editing, though. You can quickly trim clips, so cleaning up a movie before you share it is painless. (If only there were a way to select and join multiple clips into one movie on the device, but there isn’t.) You can also slowly navigate through a video and extract individual frames as 2-megapixel photos.

As we’ve said many times before, pocket video cameras such as the PlayTouch can’t compete with a full-fledged HD camcorder costing hundreds of dollars more. There are other factors that go into creating great video beyond high resolution. However, even in the world of minicamcorders, the PlayTouch’s 1080/30p video quality is merely average. When played back on an HDTV, you’ll notice compression artifacts, color banding, and aliasing. Color is good, but scenes seemed a bit contrasty. On top of that, moving subjects get a healthy amount of ghosting, and panning the camera results in noticeable judder. That’s not uncommon to minicamcorders, but it’s above average from the PlayTouch. Switching to the 720/60p setting helps some, but not as much as it should, plus the results are much softer than those of the 1080p. Using the digital zoom only makes things worse and it’s a bit jumpy, too. Low-light performance is good, all things considered, with just a slight increase in noise, artifacting, and banding. Lastly, the built-in mono mic is decent, but you can always add your own for better results. Also, in quieter scenes you may hear a low-level hiss.

Easily sharing the video is equally as important as shooting it with these devices. Stored on the device’s internal memory are ArcSoft’s MediaImpression for Kodak software for sharing and the Kodak Share Button app. Connect the PlayTouch to a computer via USB and MediaImpression will start installing. Be careful with your clicking, though, as the software will ask whether you want to use it as your primary application for viewing multiple types of photos and video. Once installed it will allow you to e-mail clips and upload directly to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Vimeo (after you’ve entered your account information, of course). There’s a basic editor for trimming and cutting along with adjustments for color, contrast, and brightness, dynamic lighting, and denoise. You can apply a handful of fun effects as well such as Watercolor, Negative, and Sketch. It can capture individual frames and also convert video for use on Apple TV, iPhone, and iPod as well as Sony’s PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3. The Kodak Share Button app is what handles uploading and e-mailing of photos and movies you tagged in the minicamcorder.

Unfortunately, one thing it can’t do is work on a Mac: MediaImpression is Windows only. If you own a Mac, you can install the Kodak Share Button app, so you can at least take advantage of that capability of the PlayTouch. For everything else you can copy your video and still images to your computer by dragging and dropping the files from the camcorder as you would with any USB storage device and then edit your video using iMovie.

Honestly, the Kodak PlayTouch isn’t a bad minicamcorder, it’s just not a very good one. That’s especially clear in comparison to past Kodak models. It seems like Kodak sacrificed video quality in the move to make a fun touch-screen minicamcorder. That’s a shame, because the PlayTouch is a fun device (you know, minus the design irritations) with some features you can’t get on other pocket video cameras.

Find out more about how we test camcorders.

Previous page

Because you hold the PlayTouch vertically for shooting video, you don’t get the full 3-inch screen to frame your shot. Instead you’re stuck using a section that’s relatively small at roughly 2 inches diagonal. It’s not bad, just a waste. The touch screen is responsive, though it does take about a second for the interface to react when changing settings. And while I’m on the subject of settings, there aren’t a whole lot of things to adjust since these minicamcorders are made for point-and-shoot use. Along with the Glare Shield feature, you get three levels of screen brightness and an auto option for letting the device set it; gain control for the mic or mic jack; on/offs for its electronic image stabilization and face detection; a Safe mode that keeps videos and pictures from being edited, shared, or deleted; and Share for selecting what social networks and e-mail addresses are shown when you press the Share button in Playback mode. Lastly, there are four video recording modes to choose from: 1080p at 30fps, 720p at 60fps or 30fps, and WVGA. You can also shoot 5-megapixel stills.

On the main screen you get an icon for accessing the setting menu in addition to icons for going from shooting to playback, capturing stills or video, and turning on one of the three color effect modes. Again, the screen is responsive so it doesn’t take multiple presses to select things. This comes in particularly handy when you want to show off your videos. For playing content, you get the full 3-inch screen and there’s a mono speaker in front or you can connect headphones. Playback is straightforward with the onscreen controls, and a tap of the Share button lets you tag movies or photos for automatic uploading to sharing sites or sent off to selected e-mail addresses when you connect to a computer. The best part of having the touch screen is for editing, though. You can quickly trim clips, so cleaning up a movie before you share it is painless. (If only there were a way to select and join multiple clips into one movie on the device, but there isn’t.) You can also slowly navigate through a video and extract individual frames as 2-megapixel photos.

As we’ve said many times before, pocket video cameras such as the PlayTouch can’t compete with a full-fledged HD camcorder costing hundreds of dollars more. There are other factors that go into creating great video beyond high resolution. However, even in the world of minicamcorders, the PlayTouch’s 1080/30p video quality is merely average. When played back on an HDTV, you’ll notice compression artifacts, color banding, and aliasing. Color is good, but scenes seemed a bit contrasty. On top of that, moving subjects get a healthy amount of ghosting, and panning the camera results in noticeable judder. That’s not uncommon to minicamcorders, but it’s above average from the PlayTouch. Switching to the 720/60p setting helps some, but not as much as it should, plus the results are much softer than those of the 1080p. Using the digital zoom only makes things worse and it’s a bit jumpy, too. Low-light performance is good, all things considered, with just a slight increase in noise, artifacting, and banding. Lastly, the built-in mono mic is decent, but you can always add your own for better results. Also, in quieter scenes you may hear a low-level hiss.

Easily sharing the video is equally as important as shooting it with these devices. Stored on the device’s internal memory are ArcSoft’s MediaImpression for Kodak software for sharing and the Kodak Share Button app. Connect the PlayTouch to a computer via USB and MediaImpression will start installing. Be careful with your clicking, though, as the software will ask whether you want to use it as your primary application for viewing multiple types of photos and video. Once installed it will allow you to e-mail clips and upload directly to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Vimeo (after you’ve entered your account information, of course). There’s a basic editor for trimming and cutting along with adjustments for color, contrast, and brightness, dynamic lighting, and denoise. You can apply a handful of fun effects as well such as Watercolor, Negative, and Sketch. It can capture individual frames and also convert video for use on Apple TV, iPhone, and iPod as well as Sony’s PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3. The Kodak Share Button app is what handles uploading and e-mailing of photos and movies you tagged in the minicamcorder.

Unfortunately, one thing it can’t do is work on a Mac: MediaImpression is Windows only. If you own a Mac, you can install the Kodak Share Button app, so you can at least take advantage of that capability of the PlayTouch. For everything else you can copy your video and still images to your computer by dragging and dropping the files from the camcorder as you would with any USB storage device and then edit your video using iMovie.

Honestly, the Kodak PlayTouch isn’t a bad minicamcorder, it’s just not a very good one. That’s especially clear in comparison to past Kodak models. It seems like Kodak sacrificed video quality in the move to make a fun touch-screen minicamcorder. That’s a shame, because the PlayTouch is a fun device (you know, minus the design irritations) with some features you can’t get on other pocket video cameras.

Find out more about how we test camcorders.

Previous page

Because you hold the PlayTouch vertically for shooting video, you don’t get the full 3-inch screen to frame your shot. Instead you’re stuck using a section that’s relatively small at roughly 2 inches diagonal. It’s not bad, just a waste. The touch screen is responsive, though it does take about a second for the interface to react when changing settings. And while I’m on the subject of settings, there aren’t a whole lot of things to adjust since these minicamcorders are made for point-and-shoot use. Along with the Glare Shield feature, you get three levels of screen brightness and an auto option for letting the device set it; gain control for the mic or mic jack; on/offs for its electronic image stabilization and face detection; a Safe mode that keeps videos and pictures from being edited, shared, or deleted; and Share for selecting what social networks and e-mail addresses are shown when you press the Share button in Playback mode. Lastly, there are four video recording modes to choose from: 1080p at 30fps, 720p at 60fps or 30fps, and WVGA. You can also shoot 5-megapixel stills.

On the main screen you get an icon for accessing the setting menu in addition to icons for going from shooting to playback, capturing stills or video, and turning on one of the three color effect modes. Again, the screen is responsive so it doesn’t take multiple presses to select things. This comes in particularly handy when you want to show off your videos. For playing content, you get the full 3-inch screen and there’s a mono speaker in front or you can connect headphones. Playback is straightforward with the onscreen controls, and a tap of the Share button lets you tag movies or photos for automatic uploading to sharing sites or sent off to selected e-mail addresses when you connect to a computer. The best part of having the touch screen is for editing, though. You can quickly trim clips, so cleaning up a movie before you share it is painless. (If only there were a way to select and join multiple clips into one movie on the device, but there isn’t.) You can also slowly navigate through a video and extract individual frames as 2-megapixel photos.

As we’ve said many times before, pocket video cameras such as the PlayTouch can’t compete with a full-fledged HD camcorder costing hundreds of dollars more. There are other factors that go into creating great video beyond high resolution. However, even in the world of minicamcorders, the PlayTouch’s 1080/30p video quality is merely average. When played back on an HDTV, you’ll notice compression artifacts, color banding, and aliasing. Color is good, but scenes seemed a bit contrasty. On top of that, moving subjects get a healthy amount of ghosting, and panning the camera results in noticeable judder. That’s not uncommon to minicamcorders, but it’s above average from the PlayTouch. Switching to the 720/60p setting helps some, but not as much as it should, plus the results are much softer than those of the 1080p. Using the digital zoom only makes things worse and it’s a bit jumpy, too. Low-light performance is good, all things considered, with just a slight increase in noise, artifacting, and banding. Lastly, the built-in mono mic is decent, but you can always add your own for better results. Also, in quieter scenes you may hear a low-level hiss.

Easily sharing the video is equally as important as shooting it with these devices. Stored on the device’s internal memory are ArcSoft’s MediaImpression for Kodak software for sharing and the Kodak Share Button app. Connect the PlayTouch to a computer via USB and MediaImpression will start installing. Be careful with your clicking, though, as the software will ask whether you want to use it as your primary application for viewing multiple types of photos and video. Once installed it will allow you to e-mail clips and upload directly to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Vimeo (after you’ve entered your account information, of course). There’s a basic editor for trimming and cutting along with adjustments for color, contrast, and brightness, dynamic lighting, and denoise. You can apply a handful of fun effects as well such as Watercolor, Negative, and Sketch. It can capture individual frames and also convert video for use on Apple TV, iPhone, and iPod as well as Sony’s PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3. The Kodak Share Button app is what handles uploading and e-mailing of photos and movies you tagged in the minicamcorder.

Unfortunately, one thing it can’t do is work on a Mac: MediaImpression is Windows only. If you own a Mac, you can install the Kodak Share Button app, so you can at least take advantage of that capability of the PlayTouch. For everything else you can copy your video and still images to your computer by dragging and dropping the files from the camcorder as you would with any USB storage device and then edit your video using iMovie.

Honestly, the Kodak PlayTouch isn’t a bad minicamcorder, it’s just not a very good one. That’s especially clear in comparison to past Kodak models. It seems like Kodak sacrificed video quality in the move to make a fun touch-screen minicamcorder. That’s a shame, because the PlayTouch is a fun device (you know, minus the design irritations) with some features you can’t get on other pocket video cameras.

Find out more about how we test camcorders.

Previous page

Because you hold the PlayTouch vertically for shooting video, you don’t get the full 3-inch screen to frame your shot. Instead you’re stuck using a section that’s relatively small at roughly 2 inches diagonal. It’s not bad, just a waste. The touch screen is responsive, though it does take about a second for the interface to react when changing settings. And while I’m on the subject of settings, there aren’t a whole lot of things to adjust since these minicamcorders are made for point-and-shoot use. Along with the Glare Shield feature, you get three levels of screen brightness and an auto option for letting the device set it; gain control for the mic or mic jack; on/offs for its electronic image stabilization and face detection; a Safe mode that keeps videos and pictures from being edited, shared, or deleted; and Share for selecting what social networks and e-mail addresses are shown when you press the Share button in Playback mode. Lastly, there are four video recording modes to choose from: 1080p at 30fps, 720p at 60fps or 30fps, and WVGA. You can also shoot 5-megapixel stills.

On the main screen you get an icon for accessing the setting menu in addition to icons for going from shooting to playback, capturing stills or video, and turning on one of the three color effect modes. Again, the screen is responsive so it doesn’t take multiple presses to select things. This comes in particularly handy when you want to show off your videos. For playing content, you get the full 3-inch screen and there’s a mono speaker in front or you can connect headphones. Playback is straightforward with the onscreen controls, and a tap of the Share button lets you tag movies or photos for automatic uploading to sharing sites or sent off to selected e-mail addresses when you connect to a computer. The best part of having the touch screen is for editing, though. You can quickly trim clips, so cleaning up a movie before you share it is painless. (If only there were a way to select and join multiple clips into one movie on the device, but there isn’t.) You can also slowly navigate through a video and extract individual frames as 2-megapixel photos.

As we’ve said many times before, pocket video cameras such as the PlayTouch can’t compete with a full-fledged HD camcorder costing hundreds of dollars more. There are other factors that go into creating great video beyond high resolution. However, even in the world of minicamcorders, the PlayTouch’s 1080/30p video quality is merely average. When played back on an HDTV, you’ll notice compression artifacts, color banding, and aliasing. Color is good, but scenes seemed a bit contrasty. On top of that, moving subjects get a healthy amount of ghosting, and panning the camera results in noticeable judder. That’s not uncommon to minicamcorders, but it’s above average from the PlayTouch. Switching to the 720/60p setting helps some, but not as much as it should, plus the results are much softer than those of the 1080p. Using the digital zoom only makes things worse and it’s a bit jumpy, too. Low-light performance is good, all things considered, with just a slight increase in noise, artifacting, and banding. Lastly, the built-in mono mic is decent, but you can always add your own for better results. Also, in quieter scenes you may hear a low-level hiss.

Easily sharing the video is equally as important as shooting it with these devices. Stored on the device’s internal memory are ArcSoft’s MediaImpression for Kodak software for sharing and the Kodak Share Button app. Connect the PlayTouch to a computer via USB and MediaImpression will start installing. Be careful with your clicking, though, as the software will ask whether you want to use it as your primary application for viewing multiple types of photos and video. Once installed it will allow you to e-mail clips and upload directly to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Vimeo (after you’ve entered your account information, of course). There’s a basic editor for trimming and cutting along with adjustments for color, contrast, and brightness, dynamic lighting, and denoise. You can apply a handful of fun effects as well such as Watercolor, Negative, and Sketch. It can capture individual frames and also convert video for use on Apple TV, iPhone, and iPod as well as Sony’s PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3. The Kodak Share Button app is what handles uploading and e-mailing of photos and movies you tagged in the minicamcorder.

Unfortunately, one thing it can’t do is work on a Mac: MediaImpression is Windows only. If you own a Mac, you can install the Kodak Share Button app, so you can at least take advantage of that capability of the PlayTouch. For everything else you can copy your video and still images to your computer by dragging and dropping the files from the camcorder as you would with any USB storage device and then edit your video using iMovie.

Honestly, the Kodak PlayTouch isn’t a bad minicamcorder, it’s just not a very good one. That’s especially clear in comparison to past Kodak models. It seems like Kodak sacrificed video quality in the move to make a fun touch-screen minicamcorder. That’s a shame, because the PlayTouch is a fun device (you know, minus the design irritations) with some features you can’t get on other pocket video cameras.

Find out more about how we test camcorders.

Previous page

Sprint’s WiMax network is currently available in 71 markets, including New York, where we tested the Evo Shift. We were able to get a 4G connection in most parts of Manhattan, though the signal was quite weak in Midtown. We averaged download speeds of around 4.57Mbps and upload speeds of 0.90Mpbs, peaking at 6.99Mbps down, 1.02Mbps up. CNET’s full site loaded in 18 seconds, whereas the mobile sites for CNN and ESPN came up in 3 seconds and 4 seconds, respectively. By comparison, the same sites loaded in 50 seconds, 20 seconds, and 22 seconds, respectively, over 3G.

We also streamed video from Sprint TV, as well as high-quality YouTube clips and Flash content from the browser, over 4G and load times were noticeably faster and playback was smooth. Over 3G, the Sprint TV clips were pretty murky and stuttered often, almost to the point of being unwatchable. Using the smartphone as a 4G hot spot for our MacBook Pro, we were able to upload a 4.1MB photo album in 40 seconds. Note that there is an additional monthly fee of $29.99 for the mobile hot-spot plan, but there is no data cap. Also, like Sprint’s other 4G devices (and now 3G smartphones), there is an additional monthly $10 Premium Data add-on charge.

Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth, and GPS are also onboard, and voice features include a speakerphone, speed dial, smart dialing, voice commands, conference calling, voice dialing over Bluetooth, and text and multimedia messaging with threaded chat view.

The Evo Shift 4G ships running Android 2.2 with HTC Sense. The latter gives you seven customizable home screens and various widgets, including HTC’s Friend Stream and Group Contacts, which you can read more about in our review of the HTC Evo 4G. Aside from the Google services and Froyo features, the Evo Shift comes preloaded with a number of HTC and Sprint apps, such as Peep (HTC’s Twitter client), Sprint TV, Sprint Football Live, and TeleNav GPS Navigator; these cannot be uninstalled from the device.

Other diversions include the Amazon Kindle App for Android, an FM radio, access to the Amazon MP3 store, and a built-in media player. The Evo Shift 4G also has a 5-megapixel camera, but it loses the front-facing camera, HDMI port, and kickstand that the Evo have.

The camera offers numerous editing options, including brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness controls, effects, and ISO settings. Picture quality was mostly good. Outdoor and nighttime shots came out sharp and bright, but there was a pinkish hue that plagued some indoor shots. The camera can also record 720p HD video, and we were impressed with the clarity and lighting of the clips.

Performance
We tested the dual-band (CDMA 800/1900) HTC Evo Shift 4G in New York using Sprint service, and call quality was good. On our end, the audio was clear with very little background noise or voice distortion. Friends also reported good sound quality.

HTC Evo Shift 4G call quality sample
Listen now:

Speakerphone quality was OK. The sound was mostly clear with just enough volume to hear callers in louder environments, but the audio was a bit tinny. We had no problems pairing the smartphone with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset or the Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones.

The HTC Evo Shift 4G has 2GB ROM/512MB RAM and like the T-Mobile G2, the smartphone is equipped with next-gen 800MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7230 processor. Though most high-end smartphones are running 1GHz processors, we didn’t find any negative effects to performance. The Evo Shift was responsive throughout our review period. Apps launched almost immediately, and we didn’t experience any significant delay when switching between tasks.

The HTC Evo Shift 4G ships with a 1,500mAh lithium ion battery with a rated talk time of 6 hours. We are still conducting our battery drain tests but will update this section as soon as we have final results. In general, we were able to get about a day’s worth of use with 50/50 3G and 4G use. We definitely noticed that battery life was better than the Evo 4G. According to the FCC, the Evo Shift 4G has a digital SAR rating of 0.72W/kg and has a Hearing Aid Compatibility Rating of M4/T3.

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The biggest story in laptops over the past few years has been the incredibly popular Netbook. These 10- and 11-inch (and originally 7- and 9-inch) laptops came out of nowhere to capture the attention of a public tired of paying for too much computing power. After a couple of good years, however, Netbooks are being replaced by new systems that offer a little more performance for a little more money, first in the form of dual-core premium Netbooks and now in systems such as the HP Pavilion dm1 with AMD’s new Fusion platform.

The trade-up makes sense for two reasons. First, Netbooks, while great for specific tasks such as basic Websurfing and e-mail, simply aren’t suited to being full-time PCs, which is something many users discovered after buying one. Second, the PC makers who only begrudgingly released many of these Netbooks in the first place knew selling a low-power $299 laptop wasn’t exactly a money-making proposition.

AMD has been promising a hybrid platform for years now, combining a workhorse CPU with better-than-integrated graphics in a single package. It’s called Fusion, although confusingly, AMD doesn’t play up that name or the processor model number, instead choosing to label laptops outfitted with the technology with a sticker that says “AMD Vision.”

As the first of these systems to cross our desk, the $450 HP Pavilion dm1 is an interesting test case. It’s an 11-inch laptop, with a decent design, but one that doesn’t hide its budget origins. It’s about $100 more than an entry-level Netbook and $50-$100 less than previous premium Netbooks that had AMD’s previous low-end dual-core CPU.

In practice, it gets the job done, and certainly feels a world away from Atom Netbooks. At the same time, there’s no mistaking the experience of this computer for a high-end 11-inch, such as Apple’s MacBook Air (except when it comes to battery life, where the Pavilion dm1 was easily one of the best performers we’ve seen).

The biggest needle-mover may be the AMD graphics, which aren’t meant for serious gamers, but still offer a solid alternative to low-end solutions such as Nvidia’s underused Ion GPU. We played some basic games and full-screen HD videos with no problems, which is something Netbooks typically can’t do.

With Intel lacking a halfway point between its Atom processors and the mainstream Core-i-series (except for the too-expensive and underpowered ultralow voltage Core i3 ULV), there may finally be a spot at the table for AMD, which has been seriously underrepresented in laptops of late. Based on this one initial review unit, AMD-shy shoppers should at least give Fusion laptops such as this one a serious look.

The designs of 11-inch laptops run the gamut from plastic cheapies to brushed aluminum works of art, but the HP Pavilion dm1 is clearly more focused on what’s going on under the hood. The body is made of plastic, and looks and feels it, although it has a nicely curved shape and patterned lid that fits in with HP’s current design aesthetic. A large battery bump protrudes upward right at the hinge between the chassis and screen, and the entire package is thick and bulky. It isn’t actually ugly at all; it just feels a bit unwieldy. But perhaps we’ve been spoiled by thin ultraportables from Lenovo, Apple, and others.

The available space is put to good use, however, with a large island-style keyboard that goes all the way to the left and right edges of the keyboard tray and an oversized clickpad. The keys are firm and well-spaced, with large Shift keys and no keyboard flex. Some keys, however, get slightly lost in the shuffle. The page-up and page-down keys, for example, are completely unlabeled (they’re mapped to the Fn+up-arrow and the Fn+down-arrow).

The touch pad is of the same large clickpad-style seen on many recent HP laptops, and the design has its fans and detractors. We like the large surface area, but the built-in mouse buttons can be tricky to use, and the multitouch gestures don’t come close to Apple’s — although that’s a complaint we can level at every PC maker.

The desktop is crowded with links to bloatware and HP-branded services, from Snapfish to HP’s music store. After a few years of reduced screen clutter, it’s disappointing to see these icons starting to crowd the display again.

The 11-inch screen has a native resolution of 1,366×768 pixels, exactly what we’d expect for a laptop this size. The display gets bright enough and off-axis viewing is decent, but the glossy screen coating causes a good bit of glare, especially near windows. A thick gray screen bezel adds to the budget look, but at least the speakers are loud enough to make headphone use optional for movie-watching.

There’s a basic set of ports and connections here. HP sticks to its single audio jack standard for smaller laptops, and there do not seem to be any mobile broadband options available on HPs Web site right now, although that seems like a natural fit for such a portable system.

The Pavilion dm1 represents our first shot at AMD’s new Fusion platform. Launched at CES 2011, the Fusion APU (or “Accelerated Processing Unit”) uses a single die to contain, according to AMD, “a multicore CPU, a powerful DirectX 11-capable discrete-level graphics and parallel processing engine, a dedicated high-definition video acceleration block, and a high-speed bus that speeds data across the differing types of processor cores within the design.” In plain English, it’s a CPU combined with better-than-integrated graphics.

In our CNET Labs benchmark tests, the 1.6GHz AMD E-350 CPU performed well, beating lower-end Intel Atom CPUs, but falling behind high-end 11-inch systems such as the MacBook Air and Acer TimelineX, which have Intel Core 2 Duo and Core i7 ULV processors. The E-350 in the dm1 was slightly slower than AMD’s previously comparable (but more expensive) low-end dual-core chip, the Neo X2 L625, as seen in the Lenovo X100.

In practical use, the system felt much more responsive than even high-end Netbooks, and we ran into only occasional slowdown and sluggishness. At the same time, it wasn’t as smooth an overall experience as one gets with the 11-inch MacBook Air (which also costs twice as much).

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Blufigs, the Carrollwood restaurant with a Mediterranean bent, will close at year’s end, the owner announced today. Theo Angelakos said he hopes to find a new location soon.

“The restaurant has been a labor of love for me and my staff and we will miss serving you, our loyal guests,” he wrote in an e-mail announcing the closure.
 
He plans one final “Happy Blu Year Party” before closing the doors at 15463 N. Dale Mabry Hwy. He added that he is “aggressively pursuing a new location.”

The restaurant opened in June in 2009. The figs in the name was for France, Italy, Greece and Spain. Former Times food critic Laura Reiley called it remarkable in a July 2009 review. “Each dish is elegantly composed, often with striking textural, color and flavor juxtaposition,” she wrote.

Vue Sushi and Martini Bar (200 Central Ave, St. Petersburg) has opened Phase 1 of its plan for what used to be the Bank of America building. The lobby level sushi and martini bar opened last week. It opens at 11 a.m. for lunch, and is open through dinner, and until 3 a.m. on the weekends. Plans are still in the works for a panoramic-views lounge on the 19th floor that will be open as a nightclub through the week, and for brunch on Sundays. That is expected to open in February or March.

The opening of Grattzi, which is under construction at the site of what used to be Pacific Wave (211 Second Street S, St. Petersburg), has been delayed a bit. Plans are now for it to open next week. Grattzi closed last year after nine years in BayWalk. The new incarnation will have a similar menu, but be more casual and have lower prices.

This week’s review is on Burger 21, a new spot in Westchase where Chris Ponte did the menu for a presumptive chain backed by the Melting Pot folks. At Burger 21, Ponte solves one of the greatest problems facing our generation: a proper condiment for sweet potato fries. Okay, okay, there were bigger problems facing our generation. But at least the sweet potato fry condiment thing is solved. So now we can really concentrate on those other ones. Here is a link to the review, and here is a link to the the Burger 21 site.

Funny thing happened right after I wrote the part mocking stratospherically priced burgers designed to make headlines: I got a link to a Wall Street Journal post about a burger by Hubert Keller that costs $5,000. Apparently, at least part of that price tag accounts for the bottle of 1995 Petrus that comes in the combo with it. (I wonder if you can supersize that?). But the burger features … wait for it … Kobe beef and foie gras. It also has black truffles on top, which I forgot to mention in the review, but that’s pretty standard on these kind of burgers, too. The burger is available at his new restaurant in Las Vegas, which explains it at least a little bit. Hoping to separate people from found money.

The most expensive burger I’ve had from this class was Daniel Boulud’s $32 burger at db Bistro Moderne in New York, and it was good enough that I’m willing to say that it was worth it, considering all the factors. It wasn’t Kobe, which is fine, but its hook was that the ground sirloin was wrapped around braised short ribs, and there was a slice of seared foie in the middle of the short ribs. The result was less of a burger and more of a big meatball on a nice brioche bun. Presumably, there were black truffles on top, but on mine they were a rumor. There was an option for additional truffle, but that took the price to $99, and $32 was already stretching the bounds of rationality for a burger, as far as i was concerned.

What’s the most you’ve spent for a burger? Would you do it again?

Times photo by Lara Cerri photo

By Janet K. Keeler, Times Food and Travel Editor

Posted: Dec 23, 2010 02:30 PM

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For many of us, vacations are the highlight of the year. Travel takes us away from the everyday and expands our world. It also, unfortunately, lightens our wallets. In these tough economic times, travel budgets have been pinched and we’ve been staying closer to home. • So in 2010, we looked for deals, among them cheap hotels, bargain cruises and airfare that didn’t require a second mortgage — as if we could get one anyway. The year might be best remembered for what we hoped wouldn’t happen. We had our fingers crossed that we wouldn’t be directed to the full-body scan booth or get an uncomfortable pat-down from airport security personnel. We wished as hard as we could that oil from the massive Gulf of Mexico spill wouldn’t wash up on Florida’s pretty west coast beaches, then find its way to the Keys, around the peninsula and up the eastern seaboard. And we certainly hoped our cruise ships wouldn’t get tossed around like the Brilliance of the Seas in the Mediterranean or the Clelia II in Antarctica. Or have to be towed back to port after a fire, as the Carnival Splendor was on a recent Mexican Riviera cruise. • Still, in a year when we watched our pennies and kept an eye on global travel mishaps, there were golden experiences to report, some of them driving distance from Tampa Bay. Here are memories from the road this year.

Janet K. Keeler can be reached at jkeeler@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8586.

Best place to take stock

Watching person after person go close to the edge of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and fling up their arms in tribute, below. The glory of nature continues to shock and awe there, and deep breaths, along with deep thoughts, are required.

Most surprising rooftop bar

In 2004, Punta Gorda was devastated by Hurricane Charley. The resilient town has bounced back with aplomb. We checked it out, gin and tonic in hand, from the rooftop bar of the Wyvern Hotel (101 E Retta Esplanade; (941) 639-7700), which overlooks pretty Charlotte Harbor. It’s hard to tell that a Category 4 storm ever blew through.

Best hotel lobby for getting away from it all

Grabbing a rocker by the oversized fireplace or claiming a comfy sofa at the Lake McDonald Lodge in Montana’s Glacier National Park. Then staring up at the three-story lobby supported by massive cedar logs and decorated with mounted big game and American Indian-inspired chandeliers. We didn’t want to leave. Ever.

Cheapest cheap thrill

The 350-voice Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing patriotic songs in rehearsal in Salt Lake City for its Fourth of July performance. The stirring spectacle is free to the public every Thursday night, and so is the Sunday morning live radio broadcast. It’s difficult not to join in from the audience even if you know your voice isn’t good enough to join the choir.

Best place to see a celebrity whose name isn’t Kardashian

Former President Jimmy Carter teaching Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga. Along with a Bible lesson, there was talk of politics and other world affairs. Besides Carter, Plains also pushes peanuts.

Most literary blast from the past

Watching Tom Sawyer and his beloved Becky walk the streets of Hannibal, Mo. The young re-enactors serve as town ambassadors in this milestone year for Mark Twain, which includes the 125th anniversary of the publication of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the 100th anniversary of the author’s death. The view from Hannibal likely hasn’t changed much.

Best place to get your streak on

The new NASCAR Hall of Fame Museum in Charlotte, N.C., allows the mere mortal to discover what it’s like to drive a car at mama-told-you-not-to speeds.

Easiest ship to get lost on

The Norwegian Epic boasts an ice bar, two bowling alleys and 20 restaurants on its towering 19 decks. Many OMG-sized ships have been launched in recent years, and who really knows or cares which one is the champion behemoth at the moment. But we enjoyed the game-changing Epic for all of the over-the-top reasons, including the hold-on-to-your-bathing-suit waterslide.

Iconic tourist attraction still worth seeing

Yellowstone National Park’s Old Faithful spouts scalding water more than 100 feet every 80 minutes or so. Seeing it on TV or in a movie doesn’t compare to watching the geyser blow in person. It’s most beautiful early in the morning or as the sun is setting.

Most astounding travel moment of the year

Realizing that a pair of 6-inch scissors accidentally left in a camera bag had made it through carry-on airport security checks in Tampa, Las Vegas and Sacramento, Calif.

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