Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1 gets handled, photographed

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/313178457/

The lucky chaps over at Boy Genius Report have managed to get their hands all over Sony Ericsson's latest and greatest -- the hotly anticipated Xperia X1. Early word is that the 800 x 480 screen, optical joystick, and speedy HSDPA data are all very welcome, but the keyboard (which looks like it would be a joy to type on) leaves a lot to be desired. Of course, the OS should come as no surprise, and they don't seem to have any shots of Sony's "panel interface," so for now you'll have to make do with some nice looks at the exteriors of the device. Hit the read link and check it out yourself.

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NVIDIA unveils second-gen Tesla GPU-based workstation cards

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/313242009/

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

NVIDIA's Tesla GPU-based high-performance computing workstations and add-in cards have been on the market for a whole year now, and to celebrate, they're getting birthday cake, balloons, and an upgrade to GT200-based chipsets. Like AMD's recently-announced FireStream 9250, the new T10P processing units are capable of breaking the teraflop barrier, up from the first gen's paltry 518 GFlops, and they're up to 240 cores from the first gen's 128. You'll have to shell out to get all that horsepower, though: the entry-level, 900GFlops C1060 PCI card will sell for $1699, while the four-GPU 1U S1070 blade will sell for $7995 for two PCIe-interface version or $8295 for the single PCIe connect model. The standalone Tesla workstation has been discontinued, as customers were increasingly buying the cards, so it looks like those are really fast collectors' items for now. So, who's going to be the first to add one of these bad boys to the Engadget Folding@Home team?

[Via Tom's Hardware, thanks Matan]

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AdderLink X-DVI KVM sends DVI / USB over single CAT6 cable

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/313351500/

Filed under: Peripherals

Apologies for the onslaught of acronyms up there, but here's the skinny: Adder has just loosed its AdderLink X-DVI, which claims to be the "world's first extender to send both USB and DVI signals over the same CAT6 cable." Reportedly, the KVM supports the extension of USB keyboards / mice and high-definition video over distances up to 165-feet, and just in case any updates make their way down in the future, the unit is "fully flash upgradeable." There's nary a mention of price, but it should be available through various worldwide distribution partners this fall.

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Fujitsu T5010 tablet PC breaks cover at university bookstore

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/313323249/

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Fujitsu doesn't seem to have gotten official with it just yet but, if the Virginia Tech University bookstore is any indication, it looks like the company is all but set to launch its new T5010 tablet PC. Assuming their specs are on the mark, you can apparently look forward to this one packing a 13.3-inch LED backlit WUXGA display, 2GB of RAM, an unspecified 45nm Core 2 Duo processor, a 120GB hard drive, the usual integrated Intel graphics, and a built-in DVD burner -- plus the standard built-in webcam and fingerprint reader. All that'll set you back $1,999 (including an HP all-in-one printer). While there's no word on an exact release date, the bookstore will apparently have models on display in July, with units available for pick-up in time for the August move-in.

[Via GottaBeMobile]

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NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 280 gets cracked open and reviewed

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/313288373/

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

It's not all that often we see a video card get dissected, but it's also not very often that we see a card with as much hardware as NVIDIA's new top-end GeForce GTX 280, which proved to be enough to get the folks at Custom PC to crack one open for a looksee. As you can see above, after removing more than a few screws, they were able to take a peak at the card's lone, massive GPU, which not surprisingly produces enough heat to require the huge cooler and heat sink that conceals it. Of course, they also put the card through its paces and, while they did find that it's bar-none the fast single GPU card out there, the performance compared to a GeForce 9800 GX2 makes the situation a bit murkier, especially given the GTX 280's hefty price tag and lofty system requirements. That apparently wasn't enough to keep it from getting their seal of approval, however, with it earning a more than respectable 84% rating.

Read - Custom PC, "Taking apart the GeForce GTX 280"
Read - Custom PC, GeForce GTX 280 Review

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HP Blackbird 002 Exhilaration Edition nabs NVIDIA GTX 280 graphics

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/313362302/

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Alienware was making some noise earlier today about being first out the gate with NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 280 cards, but HP's gaming division isn't about get shown up: it's launching the HP Blackbird 002 Exhilaration Edition which features two GTX 280 cards in SLI today, and it says it'll be shipping almost a month sooner than Alienware for $6,600 -- just over a thousand dollars less than a similar Area-51 setup. That's fightin' talk, people -- hopefully these two will get their prices down to something actually reasonable by the time this is all over.

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Gaze Interaction interface tweaked for gaming

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/313397281/

Filed under: Displays, Misc. Gadgets, Gaming

Remember that Gaze prototype we showed you, oh, not even a week ago? Turns out, a similar setup has received a healthy amount of funding from the EU, and unlike sluggish systems of the past, this one may enable people with severe motor disabilities to engage in 3D gaming. Communication by Gaze Interaction (COGAIN) is designed to speed up the eye-computer interfacing by recognizing when users look off screen; in doing so, the system can switch between modes or perform any number of tasks not easily accomplished by simply peering in a different direction. Reportedly, Stephen Vickers (the creator of this fantastic stuff) is hoping to begin software trials within the next dozen months, though future implementation still remains somewhat fuzzy at the moment.

[Thanks, Iddo]

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HTC developing Atom- and Snapdragon-based MIDs?

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/313427577/

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

HTC's hit us with some sexy new handsets lately, but a new report from DigiTimes says that the juggernaut ODM is getting ready to make some MID waves, and soon. Apparently inspired by the success of the Eee (who hasn't been?), HTC is rumored to be prepping devices based on Intel's Atom and Qualcomm's Snapdragon platforms, as well as up to 10 new phones in the second quarter of the year -- which, conveniently enough, is this quarter. There's no word on what we might be seeing apart from some new Diamond and Touch Pro handsets, but hopefully we'll see soon enough -- or just be left broken-hearted by yet another unsourced DigiTimes rumor.

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Intel spearheads SpectraWatt spin-off to create photovoltaic cells

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/313512832/

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Famed chip maker Intel is doing more than just buying up Renewable Energy Certificates like they're going out of style. It's cranking things up with a spin-off outfit that will soon be creating photovoltaic cells for solar module makers. Intel Capital is pouring some $50 million into SpectraWatt Inc., and it's being joined by Cogentrix Energy, PCG Clean Energy and Technology Fund and Solon AG. Aside from making that dough, the new company will also "concentrate development efforts on improvements in current manufacturing processes and capabilities to reduce the cost of photovoltaic energy generation," and if everything goes smoothly, it should break ground on its manufacturing and development facility in Oregon in 2H 2008 (with product shipping in mid-2009).

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AMD's Cinema 2.0 demo: "you won't just play movies, you'll play in them"

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/313566920/

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

That's a bold promise AMD. Nevertheless, a cinema-realistic gaming experience is exactly what they demonstrated yesterday in San Francisco. Cinema 2.0, according to AMD, is "a milestone achievement in ultra-realistic and interactive visual computing." Perhaps, but then the marketing-speak launches into unnecessary hyperbole with AMD calling its new teraFLOPS chip at the heart of the demo -- the RV770 GPU -- "more powerful than every generation of game console every brought to market combined." Really AMD? Last we counted there were about 13 million Cell processors scattered across the PS3 terra firma. But we'll assume that you're referring to a mythical mashup of a singular PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, etc. with a little Magnavox Odyssey sprinkled on top. Still, you might find the hype warranted when you realize that the demonstration was powered by a single PC loaded with a pair of (future) consumer-grade AMD RV770 graphics cards, Phenom X4 9850 processor, and 790FX chipset. Take a look for yourself in the video after the break.

Continue reading AMD's Cinema 2.0 demo: "you won't just play movies, you'll play in them"

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