Who can knock the monstrous NVidia off the king of the video market throne? I would say S3, but their newest card, the Chrome 430 GT, is made to be low powered and run cool (not a Geforce 9800 killer).
The card is made to compete with the current Radeon HD 3450 and the NV 8400 GS, and features sweet DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 2.1 support. In tests (3DMark 06) it creams both competing card by at least 20%. It does this with a low power 65nm fabrication technology from Fujitsu (and slow DDR2 memory).
It is refreshing (can you feel it?) to hear of a competitor to the big two, that can actually outperform them. S3 can do it, and it will only cost you $US59 for the privilege (to tell your friends you can’t run SLI or Crossfire).
For more info, click Fareast Gizmos.
AMD bought ATI and that seems to be going (not) well for them. Doesn’t it make sense that NVidia would make the same move for that other company that makes processors (it isn’t Intel)? It could be so with rumours growing momentum.
It makes good business for NVidia to make the same move their competitors are making. Companies like 3DFX missed the bandwagon when they didn’t implement the right technologies at the right time (onboard 2D render). With the world going CPUGPU, it makes sense that NVidia would be looking to do the same thing.
Imagine an UMPC with a low power VIA processor and with incredible graphics processing of a NVidia chip. If they could keep the price down, they could make some invincible portable and micro hybrid technologies.
For more info, spy over at Engadget.
Samsung have announced the worlds smallest 8 megapixel CMOS camera module. It is little at 28mm (height) × 15.3mm (width) × 8.5mm (thickness), making it great for small phones with higher megapixel shooting (and the fast burn of memory storage).
It isn’t just a megapixel upgrade either. It features anti-shake, a 1-cm macro, and face tracking technology.
Before you get to excited, I would like to take you away from your hires image fantasies and remind you that the camera is only as good as its lens. It isn’t a liquid lens, like so many scientists have promised us (works similar to the human eye), and it still won’t feature optical zoom.
Expect to see these in your more expensive camera phones by the end of this year, and in most camera phones next year. It won’t kill the digital camera market (like it did the PDA market), but it will make those emergency shots (like when you see a yeti) look that little bit sweeter.
For more info, click over to Engadget.
Shuttle are renowned for their small desktop PC’s. They aren’t known for being extremely cheap (or well made), but it is time for the tides to change with the official release of the KPC series of budget PC’s.
For a starting price of $US299, you get the K 4500 (there is supposed to be a Celeron version for $US199, but who cares about that?). Its insides include an Intel Core 2 Duo E2140, 1GB of RAM, 160GB HDD (limited time offer), Gigabit Ethernet, integrated graphics (Intel GMA 950) and “INTEGRATED 5.1 CHANNEL AUDIO W/DIGITAL PORTS”. With those specs, it will run the included Foresight Linux a treat (it’s a OS).
Yes, it is one of the new generation budget Linux machines, and you do seem to lose a lot of options in the process. The machine has no DVD drive or a space to put one. It only has 1 HDD bay. It only has 1 spare PCI slot, giving you no options for a better graphics option. To top it off, it isn’t really that small a PC, being around the same size as a fully featured Shuttle PC.
It won’t be a very good media PC. It will make an awful NAS box. It will make a pointless LAN gaming PC. On the other hand it will be a fantastic web surfing (or hosting) machine. Your mother will think its cute as she send her 3 emails a year (that all end with send to 10 other people for abundance). If they add a PCI-E slot, I will be on it faster then fat people at a free buffet.
For more info, click over to the lovely Engadget.
The new Acer Gemstones designed notebooks have been around a while, and truth be told, they aren’t that attractive. That will change soon with the upcoming Aspire 6920 and 8920G.
Both notebooks run a Penryn based CPU, with the standard array of memory and HDD options (the 8920 can hold 2 HDD’s). The nice additions are the Blu-Ray drives, NVidia GeForce 9650M GS and the unusual screen sizes. The 6920 comes with a 16-incher while the 8920G comes with a super weird 18.4-inch screen. Both screens are also capable of 1920×1080.
The real seller for me is the look. From the product shots they look a million dollars, but really range from $US900-1700 (I don’t believe that is possible). Lets hope Acer sticks to this design, and move around from corporate ugly (the standard for a lot of companies).
F0r more info then you will ever need, click over to Akihabara News.
I’ve been negative about technology for the last couple of days, but that is all set to change with MSI announcing the Wind. It is MSI’s competitor to the EeePC, with a few small differences.
It will feature a 10-inch display, a inch and a bit larger then the upcoming EeePC. It will use Atom architecture, and though the tests have shown it isn’t lightning, I’m confident the battery tests will be impressive. It will feature a 2.5-inch HDD, meaning the user should be able to put any size drive they want in there, as long as it fits. OS wise it features other Windows or Linux.
Some people are saying that “those features are for a notebook not a UMPC”, but the EeePC is a notebook.If the EeePC could do the same thing it would be an even more attractive package. If you consider what you gain, especially with an expected 7 hour battery life, the Wind will be more complete for the mobile user.
The price range is pretty crazy, with it being as low as $US450 and going to around $US1000. It really excites me to imagine a device that I could charge and use for a whole day without needed a second battery. No date as yet, but expect a rant when the product is released and reviewed.
For more info, hit up Gizmodo.
People have a misconception about the current state of technology. There has been a move of the last 50 years of trying to put as many things into one device as possible. An example could be the clock radio (which works well) or the Gas Powered Toolbox (they took stupid and added danger to it). I think the hype surrounding the PSP Phone is a good example of how merging devices could quite possibly work if made correctly, but chances are will fail horribly.
How many people reading this own a mobile phone with a camera? Do you also own a digital camera? Chances are you said yes to both, and with good reason. 1. Why would you take pictures with your phone when you know they will turn out crap (fixed lens, with tiny pinhole to let light in)? 2. Your phone has a rated 5 hours of talk time. Now remove the battery life required to use you camera frequently and what do you have? You have a phone with shitty pictures accompanied by shitty battery life.
What has all this got to do with the marvellous PSP Phone? The PSP gets like 3-5 hours depending what you are doing on it (videos or games). Add the phone functions to the mix and it will cut it down considerately. You sit on the train, play your PSP Phone, then make a call to work saying you are running late, then message that girl from the club who said if you come 10 feet from her she will call the cops, and what you are left with is not much battery life. That doesn’t even include the pirated Lost episodes (or Scrubs if you have taste), and your music library (which is completely legitimate).
It seems to be about the device that do everything. Your mobile can already play games, and surf the net, watch videos and play music. When you actually watch your battery disappearing you will understand what I mean.
There are a lot of points I can use to further display a distaste for the PSP Phone, but I would miss the positive possibilities of the system. The PSP Phone could say, feature some incredible battery, OLED screen and a Cell processor that together will bring you a new generation of mobile goodness. The chances of that happening are about as high as the chances of Hillary Clinton becoming the next President (won’t I look silly if she wins).
Sony are talking about doing the iPhone thing with the touch screen that can change depending on function. Has anyone tired running emulated games on an iPhone with touch screen controls? Utter crap is all that can be said for it. How do you emulate a joystick on a touch screen, without giving you big freaking blisters?!.
The PSP can’t sacrifice anything more if it wants to compete against Nintendo. If it loses screen size, it will fail. If the controls get any more acquit it will fail. If the games take longer, run slower or look worse, guess what will happen? It will fail. Keep them separate, and sit with me while we watch N-Gage fail once again.
I am not always negative about technology, but the second announcement today has be to be viewed objectively. Asus has announced Windows XP for the EeePC.
It could cost an additional $US30-60 for the Microsoft OS, and will come pre-installed with software such as Live Mail, Messenger, Photo Gallery and Family Safety (for parental lock). These are all great, except that you will need to have internet to really take advantage of the ‘Live’ services.
It doesn’t come pre-loaded with office, and of course you will be stuck with IE, unless you install Firefox (or Opera). It also means that you have a OS that can do everything, on a machine that clearly wasn’t created to do everything. In other words I don’t think Windows XP should go anywhere near the EeePC.
It isn’t all bad news. Giving you the ability to install your favourite Windows applications to your portable companion is great. It opens up options to use peripherals that aren’t supported for Linux, and makes it easier to be hacked by the hardcore Windows geeks.
On the other hand, those things don’t balance the fact that Windows XP is a heavy OS that will take up a lot of space to do less then the Linux OS can do. It will need more memory and won’t run very nicely on a 900MHz Celeron processor.
There are advantages to many people to have Windows XP on such a device, but the device was never created for that purpose. Microsoft really need to make a lightweight OS that does a little less, but handles the lower speed processors and plays nicer with SSD’s. Meanwhile I will keep reading my Linux For F##king Idiots Books (adults version, with swear words and naked women).
For more info, click over to DailyTech.
One of the biggest let downs for Apple fan boys world wide was the lack of SDK with the original release of the iPhone. Apple are trying to make things right with the official announcement of the upcoming SDK and version 2.0 of the iPhone firmware. Doesn’t it sound to good to be true?
Ok, instead of writing about the people who are already announced programs for the iPhone and Touch (Salesforce and Will Wright’s Spore), or the new additions that Apple are adding to the new firmware (Exchange support for the corporate user), lets think of ways Apple will turn this against the user.
Apple have this fantastic way of making people pay for everything. If you didn’t know, Apple were the people who started removing the power adapter from the iPods, that caused most other companies to adopt the habit. Now they are releasing a SDK, but you will have to buy new software through the iTunes store. Not just a video, sound and game distribution platform any more.
That isn’t all either. To publish an application you have to pay Apple a fee of $US99, and 30% of sales. It means that if you were planning to make open source software with the SDK, you better think again.
What other evils are Apple planning with this software package? Other then the licensing of ActiveSync for the corporate world (which is utter crap), they have hinted about unlocked phones losing access to the store. This will also include any hacked devices, that are quite happily enjoying free software addons already.
Apple have taken the ability to modify a potentially great device, taking away the ability for consumers to crack it open and change the way the device is used, and turned it into a money making machine for large companies to overcharge people for software that should have come standard with the device in the first place. You will be able to enjoy your Apple induced prison around June of this year.
For more info, click over to DailyTech.
That is the question the new GeCube hybrid device would be asking (if it had a father). The GC-GENIE-JR aka the Genie PC, is a Linux tablet computer, but at night when no one is watching, detaches its screen and becomes a digital photo frame.
While the little device doesn’t have a touch screen, it does mount the mouse on the back of the screen, which will give you the ability to do the basics without the keyboard. It will also feature an unknown 300MHz Intel processor (didn’t know they had plans to make one either), 256M of ram with 2G of storage.
It also comes with rubberised keyboard (water proof maybe) and will of course come with a wireless standard built in. While it isn’t going to replace your desktop, for a measly $US229, it is almost disposable.
GeCube also have plans to take over the EeePC market, with a 10.2-inch ultra portable notebook, running a VIA C7, 512mb of ram and the option to run Linux or Windows. That little guy should start around the $US279 mark, and my guess would be, to grow from that point with memory and storage upgrades.
All-in-all the options from GeCube will be very interesting. Whether they come to fruition is another question.
For more info, click over to The Inquirer.