If October 10th is too far away, but you have an insatiable urge to play with Ubuntu's upcoming release, you're in luck. The beta for Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" has been uploaded to servers, seeded as torrents, and is ready to find its way onto your computer.   

Before you throw Canonical's latest on a CD or USB drive, here's what you can expect from the 10.10 desktop and netbook editions.   
 
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Last week we brought you the details on Samsung’s worst-kept secret, the Android-powered Galaxy Tab. The new tablet PC will be gunning for the iPad, no doubt, but Samsung’s big reveal left one important question: how much is the device going to cost? Samsung plans to launch it in Europe before bringing it to the US, and early pricing speculation has been exorbitantly high.

If any of the reported numbers turn out to be true, Europeans could be paying around $1000 for a Galaxy Tab. For instance, word out of France has the Galaxy Tab pegged at €699 (about $900), which is the price of a 32GB 3G-equipped iPad. But Germany is reporting a price of €799--if Samsung is matching Apple’s pricing, they’re offering half the storage for the same amount! 

Here’s what we want to know--how much would you pay for a Galaxy Tab? How about $200? It's possible.

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The greatest trick the computing industry ever pulled was convincing consumers that multifunction printers were worth their money. These are big, monolithic machines that wouldn't look out of place on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey. They are slow. They perform a hundred damn functions, most of which are never used.

The problem is that we see perceived value in the things we don't necessarily need. Why buy just a printer, we might argue, when we can get one with a scanner, copier, SD Card reader, fax machine and mini fridge built in? Those things could come in handy one day, so it's better to have them than not — or so the thinking goes. 

But in reality, that's not so wise. The simple fact is, a multifunction printer — and perhaps printers in general — just aren't worth your time.

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PC gamers love to lord blistering framerates, buttery-smooth anti-aliasing and precise mouse+keyboard controls over their console brethren, but sometimes nothing beats the feel of a sturdy controller in your hands. For a long time, good PC gamepads were a rarity, and you could forget about games easily supporting them out of the box. Thankfully, times have changed, and plenty of computer games easily recognize controllers like the Xbox 360 USB gamepad. In fact, all three current-gen console controllers work on Windows and OSX without too much hassle.

Eager to lure gamers away from the controllers they’re so familiar with, Logitech has launched a new line of gamepads that look like typical third-party renditions of the Dualshock, though the candy-colored face buttons could have been plucked right off an Xbox 360 controller. 
 
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Video posted by AHR on Sept. 5, 2010

Print a Mystery Object - The Makerbot Gets an Upgrade

This week, the trusty Tested Makerbot goes into the shop for an upgrade. How will the brand new MK5 Plastruder work?

Video posted by will on Sept. 5, 2010

The Tested Video Mailbag Returns

This week, Will tackles tough questions on geography, premium motherboards, and Android apps. Plus, drinking water.

If you follow me on Twitter, you already know that I spent today cleaning out my garage and assembling a new grill. My question for you guys this week is simple. What kind of digital home improvements have you done to your home or apartment? What would you like to do? 

What exactly is a digital home improvement? Well, it's simple. It's anything that adds 21st century technology to your home. Have you run Ethernet to free yourself from the tyranny of wireless networks? Did you install a streaming music solution, like the ones from Sonos or Logitech? Have you explored smart power, to more accurately tell when and how much power and gas you're using on a minute-by-minute basis? What about home automation? Are there any digital home improvements you'd like to see us tackle and write about? 
 
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Video posted by will on Sept. 4, 2010

Apps of the Week: iPad Games and More!

Will and Norm play the latest iPad games and take an amazing new Twitter client for a test spin.

We all know that guy — the one who jumps on team chat spewing more static than an electrical storm. Your friends may be attempting an enjoyable game of Team Fortress 2, but LickitungNorm92's awful mic is making the whole experience a futile one. You could mute him and move on, but there will be more — some with even worse audio than the last. 

Getting decent audio from your headset or mic isn't hard — and not just for gaming, either. Podcasts, annotations, narration and more require good sounding audio too, but there's a few simple ways you can improve the quality of your own recorded audio. Here's how.

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Put on your party hats, everybody--Chrome officially hit the two year-old mark today, and Google has ushered version 6.0 up to the lofty perch of stable release. The Chrome developers also took some time to get all misty-eyed in a look back at Chrome’s history. Chrome has tripled the speed of its Javascript engine since 2008, helped drive HTML5 support, and taken a page out of Firefox’s book by adding an extension library.

Version 6 of Chrome combines its two menu buttons into one, moves the Favorite star to the right side of the URL bar, and tints the entire browser an impressively dull new shade of gray. Never fear, though--there are still plenty of themes to spice it up. If you’re a Chrome user and like to wait around for the stable releases, you can grab Chrome 6 right now. Or you could get ahead of the curve with Chrome 7 and check out some new features like GPU-acceleration.

We’re antsy to see Chrome’s web store launch, and then there’s Chrome OS to look forward to. Basically, we’re just super excited about HTML5 games. Version 7 and beyond can’t come soon enough.
We've recently written about new OLED TVs, Nano Lighting LED screens, and other improvements in display technology. One of the advantages the Nano Lighting LED screens poses over OLED is that it's theoretically easier to integrate into existing manufacturing processes. A new innovation in color filters for LCD displays is hoping to capitalize on this same advantage.  
 
Researchers at the University of Michigan, lead by L. Jay Guo, have designed an optical film that transmits more light, improving the display's power consumption. Here's how it works.  
 
 
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You might think that I’d  have multiple systems in my lab that I use. You’d be wrong. I do have multiple systems in my basement lab, but when it comes to actually using a system, I use one system most often. I often refer to it as my “production” system, but that’s a misnomer. It’s true I write articles on the system, but I also use it for a multitude of other purposes.
 
One of those purposes is PC gaming. Every couple of years, I think to myself: “Self, you should have a separate system just for gaming.” Since I only have time for games a few hours a week, having a system for gaming and another for working would actually be more efficient. I could use a fairly low power system, so the thinking goes, for writing. The gaming system, which would have the big graphics cards, boatloads of memory and high end CPU, would be turned off when I’m not using it. That would, in theory, save me lots of power. Heck, I could even use a laptop as the main production system.

I try this, and it lasts until I load up a memory card with 500 raw images, and then try to process them – which usually involves a lot of waiting… and waiting. So the beefy gaming system ends up as my main system once again. 
 
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This time last year Microsoft was doing its best to usher in a new era of Windows with 7, sweeping the Vista mess quietly under the rug. Microsoft bolstered sales of Windows 7 with lots of early discounts and limited-time offers that made upgrading an affordable proposition. For the first birthday of Windows 7 next month, they’ve announced the return of the popular Windows 7 Family Pack, which nets you a Home Premium upgrade license that can be used on three systems for $149.99.

A single Home Premium upgrade currently retails for $119.99, which makes the three license Family Pack a savings of more than 50%. The bundle will include both 64-bit and 32-bit install discs when it’s made available in the US on October 3rd--all you need is a valid installation of Windows XP or Vista to upgrade from. Microsoft has also guaranteed that the Family Pack will be available in several markets outside the US--including Canada, the U.K., Australia, Germany and France--by Windows 7’s first birthday on October 22.

Unfortunately, the Family Pack will only be available for a limited time. Last year, Microsoft sold through their supply in about six weeks, and that was that. If you’re still looking to upgrade, jump on this deal before it disappears.
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