If you aren’t familiar with Penryn, don’t worry neither am I. I had a quick look up on good ol’ Wikipedia, and they said it is basically an upgrade from the Merom of old (basically the T5000 and T7000 series of mobile processor’s). So if you haven’t worked it out, this is pretty big business for Intel. The Merom’s are freaking awesome (poor AMD never had a chance) and will be dearly missed (though they will probably be seen in notebooks for months/years to come).
You can’t pick one up in a store quite yet, but soon you will see offering from HP, Sony, Fujitsu, Acer and surely many more (Asus will release info any second now). From HP you will see the 6820s (17-incher with a Core 2 Duo T8100 CPU at 2.1GHz or T8300 at 2.4GHz), Sony will have their FZ31, SZ71, CR31 and AR61, Fujitsu will have Amilo Xi 2550 and 2428 and Acer will have an array of five with the 2920, 4920, 5920, 7720 and 9920.
The new processors will use less power and run cooler, meaning thinner quieter notebooks with longer battery lifes. When the benchmarks start coming in it will be interesting to see if the new Intels can create as much of a storm as the old. I will try and keep you up to date as more companies announce more notebooks.
For more info, click over to the Gizmodo and Laptoping Websites.
It’s apparently for real people and it will guarantee break you old hacks and give you didley squat. Gizmodo have said “the update breaks unlocks and third-party apps, patching previous vulnerabilities at the same time.” If it is anything to go by, it seems it is the end of the world… at least for people with unlocked iPhones (unless they don’t upgrade and/or wait 10mins for someone to hack it after it is officially released).
For more info, click over to the Gizmodo Blog.
For the poor people out there who can’t get a Wii, I would like to show you these numbers. Amazon, one of the biggest online retailers in the world, on December the 10th was selling 62.5 items per second. Now compare that to the fact that when Amazon had the Wii in stock it was being shifted at 17 items per second. Lastly, ask yourself why Nintendo haven’t really dropped the price on the Wii yet?
For more info, click over to the Gamasutra Website. Thank you Kotaku for the picture.
I’m a car person, but not really a car geek. From my knowledge I understand that a rotary engine can be damn fast, but I don’t recall ever hearing of a rotary powered super car. That is exactly what Mazda have shown off, with the super car prototype of the Mazda Furai.
The Furai, which means “sound of wind” (insert fart joke here), should be viewable at the 2008 Detroit Motor Show, and is going to be 100% E100 ethanol fuelled. The E100 will be running through the veins of its three-rotor 20B rotary engine, pushing out a massive 450 horsepower.
It does look very hot, but it is definitely an extension of you know what. Look at the side, it is even ribbed for your pleasure.
For more info and pics, check out Autoblog.
If you happen to be in the car market for a medium side sedan or hatch and haven’t really decided what you would like, the guys over at Australian Car Advice have done a fantastic review on the 2008 Subaru Impreza. They seems to have liked it giving the Impreza a 4 out of 5 steering wheels. They said “If you’re thinking about buying a new small-medium car, go drive the new Impreza range. You won’t be disappointed.” Seems impressive enough for me.
For the complete review click over to the Car Advice Website.
As I recall Sony also quit plasma development a few years ago and then brought it back because they weren’t as outdated as first thought (check out Pioneer plasma’s vs all other TV’s). Starting February Sony is stopping production at its three RPTV (rear projection televisions) plants, which will then focus on OLED and LCD displays.
Don’t bet on this being the end of rear projection. If someone can create a technology to make them a little thinner, lighter and cheaper to produce while keeping there monstrous size and you can bet your life they will bring them back faster then a Ubuntu install (it installs really damn fast ok). Till then you can sure to put up run out prices on their current range.
For more info, click over to the Engadget Blog.
From what I’ve read the S710 is actually a good performer, but that doesn’t stop Asus from releasing a product that will compete directly with it. This product is the M930W communicator, which does carry some similarities to the Nokia Communicator of old. Otherwise it is a Windows Mobile 6 Professional based smart phone, with 2 screens, a dial pad plus a separate QWERTY keyboard.
The other internals include a 3.2MP digital camera (with auto focus), Triband GSM, 256 MB ROM, 128 MB of RAM, Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth (2.0 + EDR), MicroSD port (HC compatible) and a Mini USB port (1.1 unfortunately). It supports GPRS, EDGE, 3G (2100 Mhz) and HSDPA at 3.6 Mbps for all your wireless data requirements.
Isn’t much of a looker, with the black plastic around the internal screen looking a bit cheap, but it is full featured (expect for GPS). No info on release or price.
For more info, duck over to the NaviGadget Blog.
It is the time of the year where every geek has there fingers crossed that their partners, parents, friends, family and random strangers, may just get them that piece of technology to play with, which they have read the review for a million times, but don’t really have a need for it (I really do need a Nokia N810 you know). It is also the time when Christ did something or other and Santa Claus invented christmas trees (I think it has something to do with that?).
What I want to know is what did you guys and girls get that fits into the category of pretty much useless but very very cool? This year I was lucky enough to get a new PC, which included a Chinese case special, with an Intel E4500, 1GB DDR2 RAM, ASUS Mobo, Nvidia 8600GT and a Seagate 320GB HDD (for ‘legit’ downloads of course). I also was lucky enough to get a sweet set of Hardon Karmon SOUNDSTICKSII that I may even do a review of, though I am far from a sound expert to really give expert advice. Otherwise I got a big pile of cloths and other cool nick nacks (I love all gifts, even if they are movies made by Uwe Boll).
If you happen to stumble along my lonely little blog and have some time on your hands, please put a little blurb of the gadgets or cool things you got and what you think about them.
Want a cheap video camera and brand name doesn’t matter? Why not try a Exemode DV580HD? This little guy supports 720P, which slides on down to its 32mb inbuilt or SDHC memory card slot (16 or 32 GB coming soon). It features an 8 megapixel CCD for taking shots but unfortunately doesn’t come with any optical zoom. Michael Bay won’t be using it to film Transformers 2, but for $US220 what do you expect?
For more info, click over to the Akihabara News Site.
You can guess the purpose of the rear view camera on your car, and that is so you don’t have to turn your head to reverse (therefore making you even lazier then before) plus other safety options (like not backing over your kid). What is the purpose of it on a bike? No, not a road bike, but a simple peddle bike!
Cerevellum have created a rear view camera for your peddle bike, which displays what is going on behind you on its 3.5 inch screen. The system also features a 4 hour battery life, 32 mb of storage for workout data, and 4 USB ports for expanding the device with modules (GPS maybe?). The cost of this handle bar mounted device will be around $US200, but is still currently a concept.
If you have ever ridden a bike on the open road, you will know how dangerous it can be so this could be a logical solution. When you are travelling at higher speeds, turning your head to check around you could be dangerous, but is it enough to rely on a electronic device? What do you guys think?
For more info, click over to the Engadget Blog.