ConsumerIT - For Europe's High Volume PC Retailers, Distributors & Builders

Planet Computer, the company behind the Cosmo Communicator, returns to crowdfunding with another PDA-- the Astro Slide 5G Transformer, a device the company claims is "the most powerful 5G smartphone and pocket computer hybrid."

The Astro Slide appears to satisfy both modern and old-school sensibilities, since a "revolutionary" RockUp slider hinge reveals a physical QWERTY keyboard beneath the 6.53-inch touchscreen. The hinge even allows one to flip the display up when they slide out the keyboard, turning the device into a mini-laptop. Planet Computer says the keyboard makes the Astro Slide ideal for emails, messaging and editing documents, and the device runs on Android 10 with a multi-boot option offering Linux support.

HP announces a means for SMBs to stay productive even while working from home with the Neverstop Laser, a line of monochrome laser printers promising toner capacity comparable to that of tank-based inkjet printers.

According to the company, the first three Neverstop models ship with enough toner for 5000 pages, x7 more than comparable products from rival vendors. Once toner is required, customers can order lower-cost refill kits with 2500-page capacity. HP says the the refill kit are unlike traditional laser printer replacement cartridges. Whereas traditional cartridges contain both a print drum and toner, Neverstop refill kit only contain toner. Installation is also simpler, since users simply need to snap the device in the receptacle and lower a plunger to transfer toner from the kit to the printer.

EK Water Block presents a variant of the extent compatibility high-performance water block designed for Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards based on the reference design-- the EK-Quantum Vector Direct RTX RE Ti D-RGB.

The version of the water block has the terminal removed. Instead the fittings are screwed directly into the top, allowing for a narrow enclosure and adding compatibility with space-constrained cases. The water block still uses the EK single-slot slim look, and covers the entire length of the PCB. The base of the block is CNC-milled out of nickel-plated electrolytic copper, while the top is machined out of cast acrylic. EPDM O-rings ensure the sealing, and pre-installed brass standoffs allow for easy installation.

Embedded systems specialist DFI reveals what it claims is the smallest single-board computer (SBC) using an AMD Ryzen Embedded processor-- the GHF51, a highly integrated motherboard the size of a credit card.

Unsurprisingly, the GHF51 brings to mind the Raspberry Pi micro-PC, even if it promises the capabilities of a modern PC. The 1.8-inch platform carries the AMD dual-core Ryzen Embedded R1000-series SoC, together with a Radeon Vega GPU. The GPU carries three compute units (192 stream processor), and offers built-in H.264, H.265 and VP9 decoding. Users can add 2/4/8GB of single-channel DDR4-3200 RAM and 16/32/64GB of eMMC storage to the board. Further features include a mini PCIe slot for add-in cards, an 8-pin DIO header, x2 micro HDMI 1.4 inputs, x1 USB-C port, x1 GbE connector (controlled by an Intel I211AT or I210IT chip) and an fTPM 2.0 chip.