Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, December 04, 2009

Intel's High-End Larrabee Graphics Card Won't Be Released Anytime Soon [Intel]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/UgeMxEk0P4Y/intels-high+end-larrabee-graphics-card-wont-be-released-anytime-soon

Intel just told us that its first Larrabee graphics card isn't ever coming out "as standalone discrete product," because they're behind where they'd hoped to be in development, meaning you won't be shoving one inside of your PC anytime soon.

And you have to figure that's pretty far behind, since the Larrabee launch timeframe was 2009/2010. The only way you'll be able to touch Larrabee now is as a development platform for graphics engines or high-performance computing, in order to develop for future Intel products.

Intel says they're going to announce new plans for discrete cards some time in 2010—mayyybe CES, where we talked to former Intel Chairman Craig Barrett about Larrabee last year? But, more likely at the Intel Developer Forum later in the year. [Intel]

Android 2.1-equipped Motorola Sholes tablet spied in China as XT701?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/03/android-2-1-equiped-motorola-sholes-tablet-spied-in-china-as-xt7/

No sooner do we get brief corner glimpses of the supposed Motorola Sholes tablet do we get tipped off to this writeup from Androidin.net which has a number of pictures of an eerily similar keyboard-less handset with a 3.7-inch screen, Android 2.1, FM radio, and interestingly enough, only a 5 megapixel camera -- last we heard it was going to be 8. Also debatable is a HDMI port, since the image that would show it is a tad too blurry. Otherwise, it seems to be about in line with what we expected, and it also seems destined for China Unicom as the XT701 (analogous to China Mobile's Motorola Android device). Now how about a few dashes of hope we'll see this stateside, eh Moto? Two more shots after the break.

[Thanks, yee]

Continue reading Android 2.1-equipped Motorola Sholes tablet spied in China as XT701?

Android 2.1-equipped Motorola Sholes tablet spied in China as XT701? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Asus Eee Box EB1501 gets unBoxed

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/04/asus-eee-box-eb1501-gets-unboxed/

With that fancy disc drive, NVIDIA Ion under the hood, and considerable aesthetic improvements, the Eee Box EB1501 has seemingly little to do with the Asus Eee Box of yore. So, is it as stunning in person as it is on paper? The folks at Blogeee.net have unwrapped the thing and stood it on its fancy metal stand, and they seem to be digging it -- of course, their impressions are written in French, so we can never be entirely sure. Now if only Asus could work in an internal Blu-ray drive we'd be set! Hands-on video is after the break.

Continue reading Asus Eee Box EB1501 gets unBoxed

Asus Eee Box EB1501 gets unBoxed originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Atom N450 netbook torrent undammed on January 11 next year?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/04/atom-n450-netbook-torrent-undammed-on-january-11-next-year/

Well, well, here's something to spice up that upcoming post-CES malaise. The second Monday of the first January of the 2010th year of the Gregorian calendar seems set to be the day Atom-powered netbook lovers have been waiting for. DigiTimes today reports that the long (much too long) awaited move to the Pine Trail platform is set to go off with a pretty major bang of vendor support come next month. Acer, ASUS, Lenovo, and MSI are all said to have lined up their N450 wares -- we know that for a fact with Lenovo -- and are now awaiting Lord Intel's predetermined date to start shipping. We're also hearing the even faster N470 chip will start making the rounds in March 2010, meaning that the first quarter of next year will see more netbook innovation than the last year and a half combined.

Atom N450 netbook torrent undammed on January 11 next year? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS Eee PC 1201N Ion-based Seashell ready for $500 Amazon pre-order

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/04/asus-eee-pc-seashell-1201n-ion-based-ready-for-500-amazon-pre-o/

It's a bit later than the mid-December target heard previously, but ASUS' 12-inch Ion-packing Eee PC 1201N is up for pre-order with an anticipated January 15 release. A penny short of $500 takes home a dual-core N330 processor clocking 1.6GHz on the Atomic clock, 2GB of DDR2 memory with room to expand to 8GB, a 250GB 5,400 RPM hard disk, Bluetooth, 802.11n WiFi, webcam, and fancy new 32-bit Windows 7 Home Premium OS -- none of that Starter Edition netbook nonsense. Here's the rub: are you really going to pull the trigger for a legacy Diamondville-class Atom lappie now knowing that the big CES event in January will likely be flooded with Intel's latest Pineview-class machines sporting new N450 Atom processors, of which, at least a few will offer HD video acceleration? Pre-order now if you want but we'd wait until January 11th to see what might get announced.

[Thanks, Luke F.]

Update: We've been in touch with ASUS' UK team and can confirm that Blighty will be getting its chance at Ion-infused nirvana at a similar time, "mid-January" they say, and at the slightly higher price of £399 ($663).

ASUS Eee PC 1201N Ion-based Seashell ready for $500 Amazon pre-order originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Olympus E-600 reviewed, lives up to its billing as a top-notch entry-level DSLR

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/04/olympus-e-600-reviewed-lives-up-to-its-billing-as-a-top-notch-e/

Olympus E-600 reviewed, lives up to its billing as a top-notch entry-level DSLR

We were hoping for good things when the E-600 was announced back in August, and it looks like those expectations will be met. The camera is now shipping and has been put through its paces by Photography Blog, scoring very highly thanks to its great performance and a feature set only slightly cropped when compared to the already value-packing E-620, but at a price that makes it $100 more likely to fit in your budget. It's a lot of camera for an MSRP of $599, but surely you'll be finding it for a bit less than that soon enough.

Olympus E-600 reviewed, lives up to its billing as a top-notch entry-level DSLR originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SmartSynch intros GridRouter for smart meters and the electric companies that love them

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/04/smartsynch-intros-gridrouter-for-smart-meters-and-the-electric-c/

The last time we heard from SmartSynch it had inked a deal with AT&T to provide communications between its smart energy products and power companies. Now the company's back with a little something called the GridRouter, an IP-based device based that connects appliances, smart grids, and utilities -- no matter which communication protocol is used. The device is built on an open platform since the current grid is a mish-mash (or a hodge-podge, if you will) of proprietary hardware and software, and includes WiMax and Wi-Fi capabilities. Sounds like it just might be the thing for utilities struggling to catch up to the 21st century smarter energy revolution -- and those of you who are really, really into Google's PowerMeter beta. Want to give it a spin? Hit the source link to get in touch with the company. PR after the break.

Continue reading SmartSynch intros GridRouter for smart meters and the electric companies that love them

SmartSynch intros GridRouter for smart meters and the electric companies that love them originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia Booklet 3G review

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/04/nokia-booklet-3g-review/

You might think MikroMikko is the name of some Asian fusion restaurant, but it was actually Nokia's first computer line -- and in 1987, the MikroMikko 3 was a state-of-the-art MS-DOS machine with 1MB of RAM and 20MB drive. It's been about 25 years since Nokia's made a computer bigger than an N900, but it's back in the game with its first netbook, the Booklet 3G. Nokia's pitching the Booklet as a top-of-the-line machine with an all-aluminum chassis, integrated connectivity and GPS apps, and at $599 it's certainly priced that way -- although inside it's got a low-power Atom processor and 4,200rpm hard drive. The Booklet 3G is one of the best-looking netbooks out there, but is Nokia's entry back into the market a winner? Click on to find out what we think of the entire system in our full review.

Gallery: Nokia Booklet 3G Review

Continue reading Nokia Booklet 3G review

Nokia Booklet 3G review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Core Values: What's next for NVIDIA?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/04/core-values-whats-next-for-nvidia/

Core Values is our new monthly column from Anand Shimpi, Editor-in-chief of AnandTech. With over a decade of experience poring over the latest in chip developments, he's here to explain how things work and why our tech is the way it is.

I remember the day AMD announced it was going to acquire ATI. NVIDIA told me that its only competitor just threw in the towel. What a difference a few years can make.

The last time NVIDIA was this late to a major DirectX transition was seven years ago, and the company just quietly confirmed we won't see its next-generation GPU, Fermi, until Q1 2010. If AMD's manufacturing partner TSMC weren't having such a terrible time making 40nm chips I'd say that AMD would be gobbling up marketshare like a fat kid. By the time NVIDIA gets its entire stack of DX11 hardware out the gate, AMD will be a quarter away from putting out newly refreshed GPUs.

Things aren't much better on the chipset side either -- for all intents and purposes, the future of NVIDIA's chipset business in the PC space is dead. Not only has NVIDIA recently announced that it won't be pursuing any chipsets for Intel's Core i3, i5. or i7 processors until its various legal disputes with Intel are resolved, It doesn't really make sense to be a third-party chipset vendor anymore. Both AMD and Intel are more than capable of doing chipsets in-house, and the only form of differentiation comes from the integrated graphics core -- so why not just sell cheap discrete GPUs for OEMs to use alongside Intel chipsets instead?

Even Ion is going to be short lived. NVIDIA's planning to mold an updated graphics chip into an updated chipset for the next-gen Atom processor, but Pine Trail brings the memory controller and graphics onto the CPU and leaves NVIDIA out in the cold once again.

Let's see, no competitive GPUs, no future chipset business. This isn't looking good so far -- but the one thing I've learned from writing about these companies for the past 12 years is that the future's never as it seems. Chances are, NVIDIA's going to look a lot different in the future because of two things: Tesla and Tegra.

Continue reading Core Values: What's next for NVIDIA?

Core Values: What's next for NVIDIA? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola prepping 'La Jolla' low-end Android clamshell?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/04/motorola-prepping-la-jolla-low-end-android-clamshell/

It's a source code-palooza these days! Fresh off that huge HTC code name find, someone's dug into the Motorola CLIQ's source code and found references to a new Motorola device dubbed "La Jolla." Meaning "The Jewel" in Spanish, La Jolla apparently means "low-end Android clamshell" in Motorola-ese, with mention of a WQVGA screen, 528MHz processor and what seems to be a QWERTY keyboard. (What such a phone might look like is pictured above. Thanks, LG). In fact, a QWERTY Android clamshell (the clamshell bit was extrapolated from the display driver by the folks at AndroidandMe, but sounds reasonable) seems to be the perfect cure for the recent rash of QWERTY featurephones we've been seeing lately, perfect for the SMS / email junky that doesn't want to bother with high-powered apps or a big price tag or the resistive touchscreen-only typing of the HTC Tattoo. Now, if only could find some device source code that could solve our trigger shyness brought on by this steady stream of Android handsets -- not that we're complaining.

Motorola prepping 'La Jolla' low-end Android clamshell? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FTC moseys into Intel / NVIDIA dispute

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/04/ftc-moseys-into-intel-nvidia-dispute/

The dispute between Intel and NVIDIA has already reached legendary proportions, and it looks like now even the FTC is getting involved as a result of its longstanding investigation into Intel regarding another matter. While Intel just settled the antitrust fight with AMD that originally kick-started the investigation last month, the FTC is now reportedly talking to NVIDIA to see if its numerous complaints against the chipmaker actually hold water. While complete details are exectedly light and none of the parties involved are saying much on the record, some "people familiar with the matter" say that the FTC is trying to determine if a lawsuit filed by Intel earlier this year is nothing more than an effort to disrupt NVIDIA's business. Of course, things could well expand from there, considering what the FTC has waded into.

FTC moseys into Intel / NVIDIA dispute originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thursday, December 03, 2009

Ridiculous User Interfaces In Film, and the Man Who Designs Them [Design]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ooJsO7Hirf8/ridiculous-user-interfaces-in-film-and-the-man-who-designs-them

What do The Bourne Identity, Mission Impossible 3, Mr & Mrs Smith, Children of Men, and Agent Cody Banks 2 have in common? Absurd, futuristic, and totally fake software interfaces, designed in part by one man: Mark Coleran.

Designing a fake dashboard for an imagined supercomputer or a hovering control panel for a worldwide surveillance system is a different process than creating a genuinely usable UI. Your goal is to imply things: that a machine is powerful; that a villain is formidable; that the software is intuitive, but that the breadth of its powers borders on unknowable. At no point does real-world usability factor in, and nor should it—this is pure fantasy, for an audience raised on Start Buttons, desktop icons and tree menus. Here's a gallery of some of the most famous interfaces; see how many you recognize.

Coleran's UIs are a mix of proudly retro and boldly new, mingling compact pixel art, wireframes and the solid, militaristic reds, blues and blacks of software from the 80s with touch-free gesture systems and overelaborate visualizations. It's the kind of stuff you take for granted in action and sci-fi films, but rounded up in one place, it's a strangely impressive, almost cohesive view of the future of software, as designed by someone with no contraints. [Mark Coleran via Metafilter]

Now Available [Now Available]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/cPF3JQMHllM/now-available

In this installment of Now Available: Dell's snazzy Vostro 1015 laptop, WowWee's sweet-as-cinnamon pico projector, the not-so-hot Samsung Omnia II, and the Nokia N900, a smartphone that's so smart it's not even a smartphone.

Dell's Vostro 1015, the rare business laptop that brings a halfway elegant design to the boardroom table, is now available. The base model of the 15.6" laptop costs $429 but only comes with a 2.2GHz Celeron 900 processor, so you will likely want to make the jump to the $629 model which sports a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo T6670. You know, to ensure that Excel performs snappily. Or at least for making sure you can snappily Alt-Tab back to Excel when the boss strolls by. The $629 price tag also gets you 3GB of RAM, a 320 GB HD and Windows 7 Professional. To check out more details on the Dell Vostro 1015, head over to Dell.

The Samsung Omnia II is now available at Verizon for $200. Though the Omnia II sports a pretty 3.7" touch screen, that beauty is only skin-deep; John thought just about everything else was a hot mess. The phone runs WinMo 6.5 mucked up with Samsung's 3D-Cube TouchWiz 2.0 UI and i! s the fi rst phone to feature Swype input technology, which may or may not save you some time when you're texting all your friends to tell them that your new phone sucks. The Omnia II packs a 5-megapixel camera, an 8 GB HD, and supports both social networking widgets and Microsoft Office Mobile. To be the first person to submit an expense report via Swype, head to Verizon.

The Nokia N900 Maemo which, Nokia will have you know, is mobile computer and not a smartphone, is now available. For $570 you can fetch an unlocked N900 with a 600 MHz processor, a 32 GB hard drive, a 5-megapixel camera capable of capturing 800 x 400 video, and all the other expected bells and whistles. The N900 has a slide-out hardware keyboard for all your texting—err, mobile computing—needs, supports playback of a wide range of both audio and video file formats and offers VoIP integration. All of this is packed into Nokia's Debian-based Maemo OS which the company's announcement boasted as offering "computer-grade performance in a compact size". Ooh and ahh at the impressive N900 and its correspondingly grandiose website here.

The Cinemin Swivel Pico Projector by WowWee, a $300 pocket-size projector designed for use with other pocket-size devices, is now yours for the having. The Cinemin swivels on a 90-degree hinge for versatile projection without a tripod, which is sweet like cinnamon but only offers 480 x 320 resolution, which ! is like the minimum of cinema, thus Cinemin. That might not be what they had in mind with the name but I'm sticking to it. You can get your hands on the little guy over at Amazon.

Intel Developing App Store for Netbooks [Apps]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/B1XMl9KSsvE/intel-developing-app-store-for-netbooks

Intel this week announced a beta SDK for Atom-powered netbooks, with an eye towards having an app store preinstalled on both Windows and Moblin systems in 2010.

The business model will follow that of the iPhone app store, with developers getting 70% of the revenue and 30% going to operational and partner costs. Potential applications will also go through a similar vetting process to Apple's, although hopefully a bit more transparency.

Intel hasn't yet said how many developers are actually working on netbook-specific applications, and they were vague in a CNET interview about what exactly we might see, other than promises of social networking-type capabilities. And of course, there's an easy way to keep 100% of your netbook software sales, and that's by just selling it as, you know, software. In any case, there's no clear timeline for the store other than 2010, but Intel seems motivated to get this done quickly. Soon, I hope... I'm curious to see what form this takes. [CNET via Apple Insider]

The Incredible Shrinking Dell [Charts]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Xe4o-h_53AA/the-incredible-shrinking-dell

Not too long ago, Dell was one of the fastest growing companies in the world. Now, it's the only major PC manufacturer actually getting smaller.

iSuppli's quarterly report on computer shipments is a little dry, but today's report that Dell's shipments declined 5.9% caught our eye. It's easy enough to blame the economy, but not when your major competitors are all growing, and especially not when Acer knocks you out of the number two spot. It's true that netbooks and pricing are big factors in Acer's success, and that Dell's still second—barely—to HP in total shipments. But someone in Round Rock needs to realize that what's true for plants and populations is also true for computer companies: if you don't grow, you die. [iSuppli via Electronista]

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