If you’re a gamer on the move (and we think that you are), you’re probably eyeing some monster laptops. If you’re looking to bro-down with one in the near future, take a moment to familiarize yourself with Gateway’s latest 17-incher, the P-172X FX. The updated rig (a new riff on the similarly-themed P-171) features a Core 2 Duo CPU (the 2.4GHz T8300), 1920 x 1200 resolution, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800M GTS GPU (with 512MB of GDDR3 RAM), a DVD-R/RW/RAM optical drive, and a nasty mess of ports and card slots. We got to take the dude out for a spin, and performance was definitely up to par (translation: it plays Crysis), though the design left a little something to be desired, like… style. A cheaper, 2.0GHz version with half the drive space, lower screen resolution, and a gig less RAM is available, though it maintains the GPU and graphics memory. The P-172X FX is available right now for $1,999, and kid brother P-172S FX will run you $1,399. Check the gallery below for a full and proper look.

Remember that sweet little magnifying glass from the iPhone SDK demo? Well apparently we all weren’t having a shared hallucination — it’s in the enterprise version of firmware 2.0. Thanks to a tipster, we’ve now got shots of the search bar clearly hanging out at the top of the contacts list. While we’re unraveling mysteries, you’ll be happy to know that the little drawer button — which did nothing in the regular old firmware we had — is actually a meeting invitations folder, which displays the number of requests just like the SMS and mail icons. Other changes? Enterprise users don’t get the app store or iTunes store icons. Boo. Check out the gallery below to see just exactly what we’re talking about. Now, on to finding JFK’s real killer!

We’ve been waiting to get our hands on the Dash Express ever since we heard about it way back in 2006, and though we’ve seen a ton of photos and even toyed around with a beta version of the GPRS / WiFi-connected navigator, actually using the device for a lengthy period of time revealed some pretty interesting things. The main verdict: yeah, it’s way pricey, but if you’ve got the scratch, this is the GPS you want — and if the community features take off like Dash think they will, it’s going to be a game-changer. Read on for the full review!

The actual Dash Express hardware isn’t too remarkable at first glance — it’s a little larger than you’d expect, but other than that there’s not a lot to it, just the two touch-buttons on top and a power switch on the right side. We do appreciate the separate cradle power connection, which lets you just slide the Express in and out of its mount without any plugging / unplugging. There’s also a mini-USB port for home charging — it showed up as an “RNDIS / Ethernet Gadget” when we hooked it up to a computer, but other than that nothing really happened.

What’s really interesting about the Express is what’s inside — a variant of the OpenMoko GT0X reference design, the same kit that powers the Neo 1973 open-source phone. In fact, the Express was partially designed and is built by OpenMoko’s parent company, FIC, which also makes the Cloudbook and several Linux-based cellphones. That makes a lot of sense, since the Express connects to cell networks just like a phone, but it also means the Express’s Linux build and internals have been around the block a few times, and just like you’d expect, we never suffered and bugs or glitches while using it.

As far as the GPRS and WiFi radios go, well, apart from typing in our home wireless network SSID and password (there’s no auto-discovery, which is lame if you have a long network name), most of the nitty-gritty is hidden away. Either it says “connected” in the main menu or it doesn’t, and it seems to roam pretty seamlessly from one connection to another. We’re assuming the 90-day free service clock starts the first time you hit the network, since we didn’t have to activate anything or register with the portal — we were just up and running right away. Each unit has a Dash Device Number, or DDN, which you can register at the my.dash.net portal to enable all the slick community / push features, but it’s not required.

As far as the actual interface goes, well, it’s a GPS. If you’ve used a nicer PND before, nothing’s really going to shock you. That’s going to be the hardest thing for Dash to overcome, just as TiVo had to slowly educate users as to why they’d want to pause and rewind live TV: sure, it can work just like what you’re used to, but once you figure out how much it’s capable of, going back seems ridiculous.

Case in point, and probably the most-cited Dash Express network feature: almost every GPS can tell you where the nearest gas station is, but the Express actually looks up the latest prices for you and points you to the cheapest.

The same goes for movies, and, more importantly, for traffic. The Express uses three sources for its traffic displays: a commercial provider called Inrix, and Dash users themselves — “historical” data that’s displayed as a dotted line, and (anonymous) live data that times out after a while and gets added to historical pool. Since the commercial data is more or less limited to highways, it’s city streets that really benefit from Dash user data — and the more users there are, the better it’s going to get. More on that later.

Once you enter a location, the Express calculates three routes based on traffic, distance, and time, and you can pick which one you’d like. Surprisingly, we didn’t hit any major traffic while we were testing (so much for that karma), and we weren’t able to test the re-route features, but it’s there if you need it.

There were some quirks with the basic GPS functionality, though — initial signal acquisition took quite a while, and things got pretty wacky when we lost signal under bridges and between skyscrapers. At one point the Express was insistent that we turn onto the street we were currently driving on, and at another it decided that we had spun around 90 degrees but also said we had arrived at our destination. To be fair, once we got back to open sky, the Express jumped back on the signal almost instantly, and Dash says the Express is probably a little too honest about momentary signal loss — a future software update might tweak the unit so that it keeps barreling ahead like most of its competitors.

Hmm. We don’t remember getting there sideways.

There are quite a few ways to flex the Express’s GPRS connection, but most of them involve a visit to the my.dash.net portal. From the device itself, you’re more or less limited to generic keyword-based Yahoo! Local searches, which can’t really be refined in any way and are frequently rather literal in their results. For example, there are a ton of Mexican restaurants in and around our neighborhood in Chicago, but a search for “tacos” just brought up places with the word “tacos” in the name, some of which were several miles away. We only saw results like that a few times, though — searches for things like “WiFi” and “sushi” were far more useful.

Once you sit down at a computer and log onto my.dash.net, however, things get way more interesting. From there, you can access other users’ saved Yahoo! Local searches, share lists of interesting locations, and subscribe to GeoRSS feeds, which are currently pretty hard to find. After some searching, we found one for local music, and it was pretty amazing: a constantly updated list of acts at nearby venues. There are similar feeds for everything from dog parks to airport delays, and if the Express takes off, we can see GeoRSS going mainstream pretty quickly.

“If the Express takes off” is actually the major part of the puzzle, of course. While the Express is pretty great on its own, it’s only going to be really great if lots of other people are using it too, filling in traffic data and populating the my.dash.net site with content. That’s called the network effect, friends, and when we asked Dash, they were pretty upfront about it — although they’ve gotten solid traffic data in DC with just 20 beta testers and even better data in LA with 40, the goal is (obviously) to build a strong community of Dash users who frequent the portal and add to the traffic data pool, which can then start filtering out bad data and become even more accurate. In fact, Dash is so confident that the Express experience will get even better over time that they suggested that we test it again in three months, just to note the database improvements.

There are also some other, more tangible improvements to come over time: since Dash is always talking to your Express, things like firmware updates and feature upgrades can happen automatically. Dash says Express owners will eventually be able to do things like buy movie tickets and make restaurant reservations from their units, but once you start thinking about it, the possibilities are almost endless. We’d like to be able to tag and share interesting locations for later research, or bring up predicted future traffic information so we could plan trips better, or contribute back restaurant ratings on the fly or… you get the idea. It’s an always-on ‘net connection, we want to use the hell out of it, you know? For right now, though, getting the most out of the Express’s features requires frequent trips to my.dash.net, which is a little frustrating. (For the record, my.dash.net works fine with The Phone That Must Not Be Named’s browser, and yes, we felt like total nerds testing it out.)

The only other issue is price, which is just a little bit harder to ignore — actually, at $400 for the Express and $13 a month for the service, it’s almost impossible to focus on anything else. Even if you sign the two-year agreement which lowers the monthly fee to $10 / month, you’re still putting a $640 dent in your wallet. That might sound reasonable for those of you who pre-ordered the Express when it was still $600, but in a market that’s becoming increasingly saturated with inexpensive traffic-capable PNDs, it’s going to take some doing for Dash to convince consumers it’s worth it.

That brings us back to the TiVo comparison, actually. We were frequently struck by similarities to the TiVo experience as we tested the Express — everything from the “almost there” boot screen to the Linux foundations to saved searches seems familiar — and the more we think about it, the more Dash has almost exactly the same problem as TiVo: convincing people its product is superior enough to justify the monthly fee. Just like TiVo, the Dash Express is best-in-class at what it does, but that monthly fee is going to be a deal-breaker for a lot of people. If $600 bought you the Express and lifetime service, we’d be all over this thing; for now, we’re going to say that it’s revolutionary enough for road warriors and golden-pocketed early adopters to buy immediately, but we’ll eagerly await the day when the power of the Dash community makes us willingly pay to join the club.

Gallery: Dash Express in action

Not much has changed since we got to play with a beta version of the OpenMoko-powered Dash Express GPRS / WiFi-connected GPS unit, but the packaging is quite nice and the final hardware feels top-notch — and there are some thoughtful details like a separate cradle power connection so you can just grab and go when you get to your destination.

A recently unearthed patent filing shows Apple is thinking beyond its current living room video vending machine, the Apple TV. Among a number of new features, the design specifies how DVR information could be sent to a portable remote control similar to Apple’s existing iPod and iPhone, taking integration among its products to a new level.

And it’s not just working together for the sake of some superficial “better together” marketing angle. How many times have you heard friends discussing some great new show that you missed? With the capabilities Apple illustrates, one could perhaps call up the TV listings right from their iPhone and schedule to record the next episode. What’s unknown is how Apple would transfer recorded DVR shows to an iPod or iPhone — would recordings by synced through iTunes? And, if so, would they be tied to an authorized account to discourage internet redistribution?

In fact, while the addition of DVR features might raise questions about Apple retreating from selling TV shows, it would really reflect the reality of these show purchases being opportunistic (as well as perhaps serving as a tactic to bring NBC back to the bargaining table). Besides, DVR integration with the iTunes store could lead to more revenue opportunities. In the aforementioned scenario, the DVR could offer the opportunity to buy the episodes missed so far.

While patents don’t necessarily portend market entry, would TiVo be able to withstand a market entry from Apple better than the Rio or Treo did? The DVR pioneer has stepped up its service offerings significantly over the past few years; few broadband-delivered TV entertainment services have escaped its partnership purview. These have included internet information and casual games, TV shows and movies on demand, subscription music services, video podcasts and more. No US TV platform offers a more versatile array of services, but the jack-of-all-trades approach still hasn’t brought sustained profitability or enough pull from TiVo’s simpler and cheaper cable competition.

Apple would be well-positioned to supersede even TiVo’s functionality if it offered an SDK for Apple TV (or a DVR-enabled successor) as it has for the iPhone. In addition, Apple could gain a significant marketing advantage versus TiVo – and indeed the cable companies — if it stuck to its subscription-averse philosophy, or perhaps rolled the subscription fee into .Mac. The latter could provide online TV listings for remote scheduling similar to the way MSN offers the feature for Windows Media Center.

Apple could clearly bring a lot to the DVR. The question is, what could the DVR bring to Apple that would motivate it to play in this extremely competitive market? (This is not a new question to Switched On readers.) However, an opportunity to bolster its offerings in portable electronics markets that it leads (iPod) or where its share is growing (iPhone) might persuade Apple to see the living room as a more strategic support environment for its iCosystem and less of a cash cow.

As with Pleo, many may argue that Chumby is simply too cute to tweak. But if you can manage to shuffle your emotional attachments to the side for a tick, we’re confident there’s quite a few things you’d like to see changed. Sure, this totally unique hodgepodge of glanceable information and bedroom mainstays can handle quite a broad variety of tasks right out of the box, but considering that it’s built on an open, hackable architecture, it’s just begging for someone to come along and do things better than its creator. So, now that you’ve had ample time to roll this critter around your domicile, enjoy its abilities and install that hefty firmware update, what’s left to be done? Tell the world below, we’re all listening.

We know you need it. Now you’ve got it. ASUS’ 7- and 9-inch Eee PCs lined up for a side by side comparison. The new 9-incher is clearly the bigger brother to the shorter original. Too bad too ’cause that chunky bezel on the 7-inch already offers plenty of room for screen-estate growth. You can also clearly see the bigger touchpad and beefier display hinge of the new 9-inch. Check the gallery to see all the hot 9- on 7-inch action.

If you hadn’t guessed from the headline, and as rumored just an hour ago, there’s 9-inches of LCD on this thing. Actually, 8.9, but who’s counting? We found out that and a few other little tidbits about this Eee PC “New Generation” at the ASUS booth just now, but for the most part the 9-inch Eee PC is quite similar to its 7-inch forebearer. Anything past that ASUS is saving for tomorrow’s press event when this laptop will become officially official, but whatever they end up calling it (Eee PC 900 is rumored), it’s certainly for real. The battery impact of the new display is said to be “negligible,” with 2.5 to 3 hours of battery quoted. ASUS wouldn’t let us turn it on since it’s all so very secret at the moment, but they did confirm some release details. The 9-inch Eee will hit in the “middle” of 2008, with that €399 pricetag for the 12GB version, but other capacities available (we saw an 8GB on display). No word yet on US pricing, but we’re trying to pry it out of them.

So we spent the weekend playing with Time Capsule and we’ve discovered some interesting answers to all your questions, as well as a few accompanying annoyances. Our main takeaway? It’s a solid product, but you shouldn’t expect it to do anything more than back up your files — and Apple really needs to step up and enable general NAS support for Time Machine. Read on!

Obviously the Time Capsule hardware itself isn’t all that interesting — after all, it’s basically just an Airport Extreme with a hard drive inside. It’s quiet, but definitely not silent. It does have a fan that vents out the bottom, but overall it gets and stays pretty warm — almost hot, even. Using Time Machine is just the same as if you were using a local drive, just a little slower depending on how fast your connection is. Over 802.11n WiFi the hit was only slightly noticeable while searching, and almost non-existent over Ethernet, large transfers excepted. There is one potentially troublesome issue, however: since OS X doesn’t appear to prioritize network activity out of the box, Time Machine absolutely slams your network interface when it starts up. Although browsing and other casual activities are relatively unaffected, there is definitely a noticeable impact. Just to isolate what we’re talking about, this is how fast our Ethernet-connected iMac was able to send data over the LAN when it was in the middle of its initial 10MB/s backup:

If you’re editing huge files all day long, that could be a problem since Time Machine kicks in every hour (unless you hack it to slow down). If not, though, you probably won’t even notice the switch from a local drive to Time Capsule — we didn’t experience any similar slowdowns after that initial backup. No, the big changes are in how Time Machine handles the Time Capsule drive, and the new, refined Airport Utility.

So what’s the big change in how Time Machine handles Time Capsule drives? Nothing, apart from the fact that it actually sees them. Just like the computer-connected shared drive we’ve been backing up to for months, Time Machine mounts a sparse disk image from the TC drive, backs up, and unmounts it — no secret sauce or voodoo involved, as far as we can tell.

Since both OS X and Windows see TC drives as regular shared drives, it’s even more frustrating that there’s no general NAS support in Time Machine — Airport Extreme owners, in particular, are likely very unhappy, especially since Time Capsule has no problem using external USB storage for backups. We asked Apple about it and got a non-answer; we hope they eventually do the right thing.

The just-a-drive nature of Time Capsule also means that it can’t do a lot of the things a lot of readers asked about: sure, you can put your iTunes library on it, but it’s not a media server, and pointing several computers to the same iTunes library is asking for trouble. Similarly, you can’t stream directly to an Apple TV or 360 or whatever — it just doesn’t show up.

The new Airport Utility is very slick, walking you through all kinds of network setups (including complicated dual-5GHz / 2.4GHz systems and WDS chains) and even providing semi-real-time diagnostics:

Disk management options are limited, however: you can erase the drive and change some access settings, and that’s about it. You certainly can’t partition it or change the formatting or anything. You can enable WAN access if you care to expose all your data to the outside world.

Overall, Time Capsule does exactly what Apple told us it would do: make it easier for the vast majority of users to start backing up regularly over their network. That’s to be commended, and if you’re a Mac user and you’ve got the coin, there’s no reason not to consider a Time Capsule when the time comes to replace your router — we’ve always found Airport devices to be rock-solid, and Time Capsule is no exception. But if you’re using a PC, it’s not like you need the Time Machine support — and if you own an Airport Extreme, you have every right to be peeved about the fact that what’s essentially the same hardware won’t let you back up to AirDisk. Let’s hope 10.5.3 makes Time Capsule a little easier to swallow.

We’re still waiting for the official press release, but that’s ASUS first gaming desktop attempting to intimidate you from the CeBIT floor. The ARES CG6150 is said to offer “breathtaking performance in a menacing armor-cladded case.” We’ll see. One thing’s for sure, they’ve taken more than a few design hints from Alienware. Republic of gamers, unite!

Update: Details are in. Under the armor you’ll find a Core 2 Extreme CPU with support for up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, NVIDIA’s 3-way SLI graphic technology, up to 4 Terabytes of hard disk, Dual Power power modules and liquid cooling. Grrr.