NEC and Toshiba hop on IBM's Semiconductor Alliance train for the ride to 28nm

IBM seems seriously intent to beat Intel to the tiny, 28nm processor punch, and has enlisted even more help to get there first. After securing deals with Samsung, Globalfoundries, and a few other merry chipmakers in April, NEC and Toshiba are now joining in on the Semiconductor Alliance fun to create next-generation processors before the biggest name in current-generation processors. Goals are smaller footprints, lower power consumption, and of course greater performance. Mind you, that greater performance is still likely two years away from anything we can hope to buy.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

NEC and Toshiba hop on IBM's Semiconductor Alliance train for the ride to 28nm originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 3GS Review Matrix: What Everybody's Saying [Review Matrix]

It's time for another roundup of pundits espousing heartfelt admiration and none-too-bloody criticism of a pretty hot Apple product. How did they—I mean "it"—do this time around? Have a look-see...

As usual, this matrix is just the tip of the molehill—if you want to really get in deep with these colorful characters, here's where to look:

• NYT - David Pogue

• WSJ - Walt Mossberg

• USA Today - Ed Baig

• Wired - Steven Levy

• Cnet - Kent German

• Engadget - Josh Topolsky

• Gizmodo - Jason Chen

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Popcorn Hour prices C-200 media streamer at $299, launches next month

Looking for a more official announcement than a forum post? Beyond the read link awaits Popcorn Hour's official press release for the C-200 containing some of the details we so desperately wanted, like a July release window and price of $299. Otherwise the details remain the same with support for nearly every codec we could ask for and a front mounted drive bay ready for HDD or optical drives of your choosing. We sent over a query about the Blu-ray and Blu-ray live support mentioned, but were unable to nail down any new details -- we'd bet on being able to play back your de-AACS'd rips & backups but that's about it. Any other questions that need answering once we score some hands on time with this do it all media box?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Networking

Popcorn Hour prices C-200 media streamer at $299, launches next month originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic unveils 85-inch plasma at InfoComm '09

Sure we'd love to see Panasonic mass produce that 4K 150-inch plasma, but so far we'll just have to be happy with a cheaper 103-inch HDTV and the latest model, an 85-inch 1080p display it's showing off at InfoComm '09 this week. All that super size flat panel building experience has been poured into a package that is 99mm thick and apparently 30 percent lighter per square inch than its 103-inch cousin, at a total of 130Kg. This one's coming through business channels to Japan and the U.S. this fall, 'til then you'll just have to live with your 4 x 42-inch matrix setup or for the cost conscious, a projector.

[Via AV Watch & Japan Corp (English)]

Filed under: HDTV

Panasonic unveils 85-inch plasma at InfoComm '09 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How to tether your iPhone running OS 3.0 without jailbreaking, for free

Is it simple? Yes. Risky? A bit. Legal? We'll leave that to the lawyers 'cause we know that you're aching to give tethering a spin over your newly downloaded iPhone OS 3.0 update. We've seen several guides to enable tethering ever since OS 3.0 was first released into beta (and into the wilds) oh so many days ago. However, these were always carrier/country specific and required a bit more command line tampering than the common man could stomach. Now an automated solution has come to our attention that just works, is global, and doesn't require a jailbreak. Essentially, you use your iPhone to browse to a site that you've never heard of (help.benm.at), download a file that promises to reconfigure your local carrier profile, and then switch on tethering as you would had you tithed a monthly tethering fee to your carrier. We've confirmed that it works on T-Mobile NL and on O2 UK. There's obvious risk here so be careful and backup your iPhone first before giving this a shot. And don't go nuts either -- remember, your unlimited data plan likely contains a "fair use" clause and you can bet that carriers won't be happy to see their bandwidth diminish without compensation. Now brace yourselves and hit the read link for the full procedure... ready, go!

Update: Some are reporting that this procedure could disable MMS and visual voicemail depending on your country and carrier -- a fair trade for many.

Update 2: Techradar reports that O2 UK has responded to tethering hack saying, "we reserve the right to charge customers making modem use of their iPhone or disconnect them." This assumes O2 can identify such customers.

Filed under: Cellphones

How to tether your iPhone running OS 3.0 without jailbreaking, for free originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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