Awesome Computers

Ever wonder what would happen if you really kept getting dropped off the network? This skit from Awkward Spaceship puts a literal twist on all the things that happen to us in front of the computer.

A desktop PC that literally fits in the palm of your hands. The inexplicable reflection of fingers on the monitor while it’s “booting up” gives away that it’s fake, but it’s still a curious sight.

Blurring the lines between laptop and tablet, the Iconia has a pair of 14-inch multi-touch LED/LCD panels covered with durable Gorilla Glass. Powered by a Core i5-480 CPU and runs Windows 7.

Matthew Kim’s gutsy Hammerhead HMR989 PC flips conventional computer design inside out, offering bright blue LEDs and open-air cooling assisted by a dramatic Thermaltake “SpinQ” CPU cooler.

Jeopardy is elementary for IBM’s Watson. The computer bested former Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in a 3 minute practice match. The full match will be aired Feb. 14-16.

The Media Computing Group’s BendDesk concept integrates the physical and virtual desktop into one massive curved surface. Combine this with the Document Extractor and you’ve got a winner.

From the “why didn’t we think of this?” file comes a touchscreen display that doubles as a wide-format printer and a scanner. Byeong Min Choe’s design is only a concept, but it should be real.

Created by Xi3 Corporation, this 4-inch aluminum cube contains a fully-upgradeable modular PC. Runs an Athlon 64 X2 CPU, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, and offers plentiful ports.

Apple’s svelte unibody notebook gets 100% solid-state storage (64-128GB in the 11-inch, 128-256GB in the 13-inch), instant-on computing, a multi-touch trackpad, and battery life up to 7 hrs.

If you need a laptop that you can beat the crap out of, check out Panasonic’s S9, with its magnesium alloy case, it can handle 220 pounds of pressure on its lid, dirt, dust and drops. And it weighs just 3 lbs.

A blog with nothing but screenshots of computer interfaces in movies. Some of them are amusing, some make no sense and some feature large fonts so the audience knows what’s on the computer.

The sleek and sexy HD-ID33 and HD-ID34 compact PCs measure just about 7.4″ x 11″ x 1.5″, run an efficient 1.8GHz Atom D525 CPU, nVidia Ion graphics chipset, Blu-ray and an HDMI output.

This beastly gaming system maxes out with dual 6-core Intel Xeon x5860 CPUs, OC’d to 4.3GHz, quad SLI video cards and 24GB of RAM. Oh yeah, there’s a built-in water-cooled Xbox 360 Slim too.

The guys with the rights to the original Commodore name are releasing a new PC that looks just like an old C64. The PC64 will run on an Atom 525 CPU, and come with 4GB or RAM and a 1TB hard drive.

Since this particular electronic voting machine is easily hackable, security researchers from the University of Michigan decided to turn this one into something more productive – a Pac-Man machine.

While not as awesome as The Typing of the Dead, Key Hero does a good job of making typing tests fun. It uses interesting quotes, gives concrete feedback of mistakes and even has rankings.

Apple’s new Mac Pro desktop is a beast. The updated aluminum “cheese-grater” case makes for easy upgrades, and handles up to 12 CPU cores, thanks to a pair of 6-core Intel Xeons. Full system specs here.

Using advanced computing and emerging technology, IBM is building a natural language processing computer code named Watson to compete on the Jeopardy! show. (Thanks Hector!)

The Suunto Core Wristop Computer Watch has built-in temperature gauges, altimeter, barometer and compass; it’ll also let you know when it’s time to watch the sunset after a long day of activity.

This clever short film by the guys at meltmedia envisions what life might be like if everything we relied on computers for had to be dealt with manually, by human hands in the real world.

Sony’s latest all-in-one desktop PC tops out with a stellar Core i7-620M CPU, running at 2.66GHz, a 21.5″ 1080p touchscreen display, a 500GB HD, (7200rpm), NVIDIA 310M GPU, and Blu-ray.

Amidst all the buzz about the iPhone 4, Apple snuck out an update to the venerable Mac Mini, with all aluminum construction, faster CPU & GPU, HDMI output and user-upgradeable RAM.

MSI’s latest gaming laptop offers a beefy 1.6GHz Core i7-720QM CPU and a blazing fast ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 GPU. The 17-inch monitor doesn’t do full 1080p, but 1680×1050 isn’t too shabby.