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Delta to Become First Airline to Offer WiFi on All Flights
A few airlines have already mentioned in the past few months their desire to offer Internet access on their flights, but Delta has gone ahead and put those to shame. After a predicted one-year rollout, Delta intends to offer WiFi on every-single plane in their fleet. The company needs new ways to drum up business, and I have little doubt that I’d try to get on a Delta flight myself, simply because of this addition.
Of course, what should be free never is, so for flights under three-hours in length, access will cost $9.95, while flights over three-hours will be $12.95. These prices are negligible if you really do have business to take care of, though. Time is money, and $12.95 for a 3+ hour plane ride will no doubt pay for itself for some people.
The service won’t limit too much, but I’m sure VOIP is going to be filtered to deny access. What will be allowed is e-mail, IM, VPN, the web of course, and also SMS messages. I assume the latter will be allowed via an internal protocol, and not via your actual cell phone. While the completed deployment will still take an entire year, this is one feature that should be worth the wait. Now if only other airlines would follow suit.
As Aircell notes in its product literature, computer users are accustomed to having to pay for access to public hotspots (generally including those at airports), opening their wallets for several hours of access is unlikely to seem as aggravating as doing so for a blanket and pillow.
AMD Fusion Details Leak – 40nm CPU, 32nm GPU
According to sources close to TG Daily, AMD’s Fusion might become a reality sooner than we thought. This is impressive, given the rough time AMD has had as a company since the acquisition of ATI, but it’s good to see that the first piece of joint technology the company boasted about after the acquisition didn’t go the way of the dodo.
Sources say that AMD engineers have been regularly going to the TSMC headquarters to discuss plans of the CPU+GPU hybrid chip, and also go on to state that the first version of the processor, codenamed Shrike, will consist of a 40nm Dual-Core Phenom CPU and a 32nm ATI RV800 GPU… not the least bit shabby, that’s for sure.
It’s still far too early to even begin to think of overall performance, especially from the GPU part of the chip, but the fact that it will support DX10.1 leads us to believe it shouldn’t be that bad of an offering, especially if it’s able to handle 1080p content. I’m getting ahead of myself, but it’s hard not to. Fusion, if done right, is going to be very exciting.
While Shrike will debut as a 40 nm chip, the processor is scheduled to transition to 32 nm at the beginning of 2010 – not much later than Intel will introduce 32 nm – and serve as a stop-gap before the next-gen CPU core, code-named “Bulldozer” arrives. The Bulldozer-based chip, code-named “Falcon”, will debut with TSMC’s 32nm SOI process, instead of the originally planned 45 nm.
DISH Network Posts First-Ever Loss of Subscribers
Being a digital cable fanboy, I didn’t realize until recently just how common satellite dishes still were. Last weekend, I visited a friend and saw his satellite setup and saw the great selection of channels and the gorgeous HD picture quality… it really does put my current digital cable setup to great shame. But it appears not all is well with satellite, if certain reports are to be read into.
Popular satellite television provider DISH Network has just posted a surprise quarterly loss of their subscribers, which is apparently the first-ever loss of subscribers by a major satellite company. The loss isn’t minor either, with the number totaling 25,000. Granted, those subscribers are a real drop in the bucket compared to their entire subscriber base, but it’s something to take note of regardless.
Analysts note that DISH has not done a good job of attracting new business, although their recently-launched campaign for the ‘Total HD’ service might help a bit. The company itself blames the weak economic conditions (a typical favorite) and also aggressive promotional offerings of their main competition.
Ergen told analysts that signal theft through illegal set-top boxes bought over the Internet or elsewhere was one of the factors that had a material impact on DISH’s customer churn during the quarter. He said the company is rolling out new security measures to prevent signal theft.
Steve Jobs Acknowledges MobileMe’s Flaws, Reorganizes Leadership
In an internal e-mail sent to Apple employees last night, Steve Jobs discussed MobileMe’s rough fate, and gives his input on what he believes should have happened. Jobs said that the service needed more testing, and the service could have been rolled out slowly (one feature at a time) instead of tiring the staff with getting the iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store out the door.
The email also said, according to Ars Technica, that the MobileMe team, and all Internet-related services at the company, will report to Eddy Cue. Cue will then report directly to Steve Jobs. It is not clear what happened to the the rest of the staff on the team, however.
Jobs finally said, “And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year.”
In an internal e-mail sent to Apple employees this evening, Steve Jobs admitted that MobileMe was launched too early and “not up to Apple’s standards.” The e-mail, seen by Ars Technica, acknowledges MobileMe’s flaws and what could have been done to better handle the launch. In addition to needing more time and testing, Jobs believes that Apple should have rolled MobileMe’s services out slowly instead of launching it “as a monolithic service.” For example, over-the-air iPhone syncing could have gone up initially, then web apps one by one (Mail, Calendar, etc.).
Are 64-bit PCs Finally Catching On?
Looking back to three years ago when I wrote an article entitled, ‘Windows XP – 32-bit vs 64-bit’, I have to laugh. As it stands, three years later, the majority of the computers on the market right now are still running 32-bit operating systems (OS X 10.5+ is the only one that’s 100% 64-bit), and past that, many common applications still lack native 64-bit binaries.
One thing’s for sure, though… things were far worse back when I wrote that article. Using Windows XP x64 was a chore, because so much hardware would simply not function, and most companies would laugh if you requested a compatible driver. With Vista, things improved quite a bit, and as long as you are not relying on very old equipment, then very little should get in the way of your computing experience. On my Windows machine, I have been running 64-bit Vista for quite a while and have found it far, far more stable than the 32-bit Vista, ironically.
A recent CNET blog entry references an official Microsoft blog entry posted earlier this week that stated 20% of new computers sold during June, connected to the Windows Update service, were running the 64-bit version of Vista. That is an impressive stat, and hopefully one that will encourage developers to hurry up and finally release native 64-bit software. It’s sure been a long wait thus far…
Among the factors leading to the shift are the fact that 64-bit machines, unlike their 32-bit brethren, can directly address more than 4GB of memory. Also, more 64-bit software is finally coming to market, as evidenced by last week’s release of a 64-bit optimized version of Adobe Lightroom.
Still No Demand for Blu-ray?
Remember CES earlier this year, when HD DVD was dying a seriously painful and drawn-out death? Well, Blu-ray fans immediately cheered, while the HD DVD supporters wept. But with recent survey reports, we have to begin to wonder if Blu-ray can be considered a ‘winner’ in the true sense of the word. Why? Lack of overall demand.
Given that Blu-ray is currently the only high-definition hard format available (ignoring high-def content available online), you’d imagine that support would immediately pick up, but not so according to ABI Research. Out of the 1,000 (year, seriously lame number here), half of the people said they’d like to purchase a Blu-ray player, with another twenty-three percent claiming they will purchase one by sometime during 2009.
Though I’m not a fan of Sony, per se, I do wish Blu-ray adoption would pick up, as it’s a true pleasure being able to watch movies at such a high-resolution. Once you do, it’s seriously difficult to go back to a standard DVD… at least with me. The glaring problem to me is the pricing, although Amazon does treat US citizens to some great deals quite often. When people see an older movie, like Training Day, available for $25 and a newer release, such as Casino Royale, for $35, it’s no wonder Blu-ray is slow to catch on.
“While you might think gamers purchase fewer movie discs than others, we didn’t see any significant evidence of that in our results,” said ABI principle analyst Steve Wilson. “PS3 console shipments will go a long way to help bring down manufacturing costs and drive down Blu-ray player prices.”
Cablevision Wins Network DVR Appeal
In March, 2007, Cablevision was sued by “several Hollywood studios and TV networks” when the company tried to introduce a networked DVR service. A New York court ruled against Cablevision when the judge came to the conclusion that the service would have been infringing to the plaintiff’s copyright. After the defeat in court, Cablevision appealed to the federal court.
Surely enough, earlier today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the State of New York ruled against the earlier decision, believing that the company’s proposed networked-DVR service could only hold the same concerns as a local DVR, even if the content is located on Cablevision’s servers.
The technology would provide the ability for customers to have a DVR-like service without having to upgrade to new hardware. In the future, this could mean that customers wouldn’t have to rent a set-top box at all, with the availability of cable card compatible televisions and a subscription to Cablevision’s service.
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, ruled that Cablevision’s proposed new service that allows movies and TV shows to be recorded on remote storage servers in Cablevision’s network “would not directly infringe plaintiffs’ exclusive rights to reproduce and publicly perform their copyrighted works.” The appeals court overturned a lower court’s decision that was issued in March 2007.
MSI Launches GX620 and GX720 Gaming Notebooks
MSI’s Wind sub-notebook has been doing a fantastic job of hogging the limelight of their product line-up lately, but their new gaming notebook releases might help pull some eyes away from the proposed Eee PC-killer. The GX620 and GX720 notebooks come in at 15.4″ and 17″ sizes, respectively, and are designed exclusively for the media-hungry gamer who’s often on the go.
Each one of these new models features a beefy 320GB mobile drive, and though the brand/speeds are not listed, we can be sure it’s a 5400RPM offering. The ‘media’ part comes in with the help of the Blu-ray drive, allowing gorgeous playback of your high-definition content. Granted, it won’t be at a full 1080p (the displays are 1680×1050), but it should still look mighty sharp as it is.
On the gaming front, the notebooks each include a 9600M GT from NVIDIA. I’ve not had the pleasure to test out such a card, but if it’s anywhere close to the desktop variant, then it’s certainly a perfect fit here. The larger of the two notebooks also features an advanced audio setup, offering 4 speakers and 1 sub. Both notebooks look very sharp though, and it’s good to finally see the lesser-known notebook manufacturers finally focusing on the gaming side of things. Not surprisingly, no pricing information has yet been revealed, but should be shortly.
MSI Computer, a leading manufacturer of computer hardware products and solutions, is pleased to announce the release of the new GX620/GX720 Gaming Notebook. Winner of a Best Choice Award at COMPUTEX 2008, the GX620’s Blu-Ray player, MSI’s VIVID Image Enhancement Technology, the NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 3D graphics card and Dolby 7.1 digital surround sound capabilities guarantee the ultimate gaming or movie watching experience.
EFF Releases ‘Switzerland’ Network-Testing Tool
No one likes it when ISPs take it upon themselves to shape how our traffic is used, but up to now, it’s been incredibly difficult to prove that any of these ISPs were doing such a thing. Luckily, the infamous Comcast case was one of the few instances where they couldn’t continue to deny their shady means, and thanks to a new application from the EFF, you yourself can now see whether or not your own ISP filters your traffic.
The tool is called ‘Switzerland’ and currently runs on many different OS’, including Windows, OS X and Linux. Right now, it’s all command-lined-based, so it’s not the most accessible tool in the shed, however with a little determination, you could surely become a master rather fast. I was unable to get it to function on my 64-bit Linux box, and for now, I’m going to assume that being 64-bit is the problem. Maybe your experiences will vary.
How the test functions is that it connects to one of their servers (or another server that’s running the server version of the client), and you can send certain packet-types back and forth. The Switzerland software will notify you if any of the packets have been altered during their travel and even show you the actual filtered result. Essentially, it’s a simple way to see what kind of traffic your ISP is filtering, if any. The tool is still in its alpha stage, but if you are feeling brave and are curious, definitely give it a shot.
Switzerland is designed to detect the modification or injection of packets of data traveling over IP networks, including those introduced by anti-P2P tools from Sandvine (widely believed to be used by Comcast to interfere with BitTorrent uploads) and AudibleMagic, advertising injection systems like FairEagle, censorship systems like the Great Firewall of China, and other systems that we don’t know about yet.
The Eee Box Gets Reviewed
When I first laid eyes upon the Eee Box at Computex, I couldn’t help but have an intense desire to pick it up and run off, but I figured swimming across an ocean to get back home wouldn’t be much fun. Luckily though, our friends at HotHardware have been able to give the new PC from ASUS a thorough testing.
Given the price point ($349) and overall size (8.5″ x 7″ x 1″), this is one PC that many people would crave to have beside their display. It’s roughly the same size as a Nintendo Wii, yet offers a fully-functional Windows XP rig, and as Dave found out, it plays 720p content just fine. It also includes an 80GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM along with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270.
What also impresses me is that during the video review, a Dell 24″ display is used at its full 1920×1200 resolution. This is contrary to what ASUS has told me in the past, that the Eee Box tops out at 1600×1200. I’m glad they were incorrect, because it certainly adds a lot to the rigs capabilities. Seems like one heck of an impressive rig for $349, to say the least.
 Credit: HotHardware |
In terms of its general performance profile, the Asus Eee Box delivered more than we expected for its size, power consumption and price tag. The machine provided a fluid experience in all but our full 1080p digital video playback test but held up to 720p playback with good quality. System boot time was easily as fast as a standard entry-level desktop or notebook system, with application load times that felt snappy and responsive throughout testing.
HeadRoom Announces The Audiophile Desktop
Last week, HeadRoom, a popular virtual retailer which specializes in audiophile gear, released what seems to be one of the most insanely expensive and probably one of the best sounding setups ever. The “Audiophile System,” which is said to provide “exquisite aural experience” while maintaining a practical and accessible workspace.
Separating you from your money gets you a pair of speakers, headphones, an AMP, cables and stands, which doesn’t sound like a lot until you realize that the base configuration starts at $3,631.50 along with shipping. The produces included have been available from HeadRoom and other manufacturers for some time now, but if you’re in the need for a setup that will surely provide you with audio bliss, look no further.
The package may be expensive, but as any plastic-holding audiophile will tell you, high-end gear will cost you, but those with golden ears will surely hear the difference. HeadRoom also gives you the freedom to pick and choose parts on an individual basis, so you can remove things you may not need, such as the $500 speaker stands.
Audio enthusiasts who sit in front of a computer all day and yearn for a high quality listening experience should turn off their computer speakers and listen to this. HeadRoom Corporation (a Bozeman Montana based firm) has recently redefined high-end computer workstation listening with the introduction of their Audiophile Desktop System which delivers what can only be described as a miniature high-end listening room experience on your desk.
Dell Announces Vostro 2510 Business Notebook
It was less than a week ago that I was lusting over Dell’s latest Inspiron and Studio Hybrid release, but their Vostro 2510 has done a good job of keeping my mind off of them. The latest Vostro model starts off at $899 on the official Dell website and includes a T5670 Core 2 Duo (1.8GHz), 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive. As you’d expect, putting some more money into the machine will vastly improve its like-ability.
The top rig, at a base $1,208 includes the same processor, an upgraded hard drive (250GB) and more RAM (3GB), but that’s only where the fun begins. As I looked through the available options, I noticed a display option to upgrade to a WUXGA resolution. For those unaware, WUXGA is equal to 1920×1200. Oh, did I mention that the Vostro 2510 utilizes a 15.4″ display?
That amazing spec aside, the notebook offers a single color… red, with black tones, but it looks good. While I would have liked to have seen a black or blue version (or even a black and blue!), it’s hard to complain when the styling is so clean and stylish… perfect for the business user.
The 2510 is also the first Vostro product to offer optional Blu-Ray technology. We know you don’t just use your computer for business, so now you can use travel time (or any time) to catch-up on your favorite movies and shows. Adding more style and features like Blu-Ray was something you asked for on IdeaStorm, and we listened. Other optional features you told us were important are continued on the 2510, like integrated fingerprint readers and Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2.
Amazon Has Sold Close to 250,000 Kindles
When Amazon first launched their Kindle book-reader, it didn’t take long to realize how popular it was. Or was it popular? It was actually quite difficult to tell, because shortly after the initial launch, it became increasingly difficult to acquire one of the book-readers. But, things couldn’t be that bad, right? I know personally, every time I visit Amazon’s site lately, it will show me a note about the Kindle and its limited supply. I admit, I figure it might have been a cheap move to just make the Kindle look more popular than it actually was.
According to recent numbers leaked to TechCrunch, I was wrong. Since the launch, Amazon has sold some 240,000 units, which is by all accounts incredible. It’s also nice to know that in this digital-age, there are still tons of people out there interested in relaxing to a good book. I fail in this regard.
The Kindle is far from done with the profits, however, and analysts predict that the growth will only continue, with a possible 2.2 million units sold by 2010, ultimately generating over $600 million in revenue. That assumes that each owner purchases a handful of books, but given they own the unit, we’d expect nothing less, right?
 Source: TechCrunch |
Scott Devitt, an analyst at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., predicts that Amazon is on track to sell 500,000 to 750,000 more Kindles over the next four quarters (including this one). He estimates that Kindle owners will buy an additional $120 to $150 worth of books and other content for each device…
Craving Some Larrabee Info? We’ve Got It!
We first learned the basic details of Larrabee early last year, with much more information discovered earlier this year at the spring Intel Developer Forum. Well, Intel has gone ahead and released even more information about their upcoming graphics processor, and we of course have the goods.
Included in our look is information on what will set Larrabee apart from the competition and we also take a look inside the processor itself to see how things are structured. As it stands, we can have high hopes for the new architecture, but the real proof will be in the pudding when we can give the new GPU a hands-on test. Of course, there’s no sense of thinking about that since it’s a ways off…
Regardless, why Larrabee is so interesting is that it uses numerous Pentium-derived cores to deliver overall performance, rather than sticking to one or two massive GPU cores, as seen on current ATI and NVIDIA graphic cards. What will prove more effective won’t be known for a while, but in our article, we can at least keep you up to date and give you a better understanding of how Larrabee is designed.
The L2 Cache in Larrabee is designed a little differently than how it’s implemented on a normal desktop CPU. Rather than being ‘banked’, the Cache is divided into sub-sections where each section is directly connected to a specific core. If one core is reading data not being written by the other cores, it’s stored in its local cache, which improves latency and also bandwidth.
Source: ‘Intel Opens Up About Larrabee’
Xbox 360 60GB Model Slated to Hit $299?
Whew, two weeks have barely passed since the ‘official’ price-drop of the Xbox 360 Pro 20GB model, and already rumors are floating about that real price-drops are right around the corner. For those unaware, the first price-drop wasn’t so much a price-drop, as the 20GB models were simply marked down in order to be cleared out.
The proper price-drop is speculated to put the 60GB model in place of the current 20GB, so it will sit at $299. If you were about to run out and pick up the 20GB model, it might pay to wait, if you can happen to have a ~months worth of patience. What could be considered an even bigger deal is the Xbox 360 Arcade, which will sit at $199. Sure, it doesn’t include a hard drive and other goodies like the Pro/Premium models, but it’s $200!
VGChartz investigates how Microsoft could still profit from such insane price-drops, but the fact of the matter is, part prices have vastly dropped as well since the console first launched in late 2005. Plus, we all know that console sales are not where the big bucks are. It’s in the software, and that’s one area where the Xbox 360 excels.
Using Moore’s Law , it is believable that the Xbox 360 has reduced it’s price a further 35-50% from the November 2006 pricepoint, and could be manufactured for (after the Jasper revision) $140.15 to $182.19 before other cost considerations (such as cost of delivery) are applied. This would fit in perfectly with Microsoft’s goal to be profitable with the Xbox 360, as costs should be lower, or just at, the price of sale to distributors and retailers.
Lightsmark Updated to 2008, Adds Linux Support
Lightsmark, the popular OpenGL real-time lighting benchmark, has just seen a new release, which includes few new features, but many refinements. What is new is a faster engine, better image quality, a more stable score system and native support for 64-bit OS’. Most notable might be the addition of Linux support, both in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors.
Linux support isn’t as simple to get running as the Windows version, as a few dependencies are required. If you happen to run a Debian-based or Red Hat-based distro, the included script will attempt to install them for you. If not, you’ll have to rely on your package manager, or hunt down ‘libfreeimage3’, ‘libglew1.5’ and ‘libglut3’ yourself. In Gentoo, installing both ‘freeimage’ and ‘glew’ gave me all that I needed, so you can see if your package manager uses similar naming.
We are currently evaluating the prospect of including Linux-based benchmarks in our graphic card reviews, and if the latest Lightsmark proves to be a worthy benchmark after our in-depth testing, it will surely be included in our line-up.
Before Lightsmark, realtime global illumination was limited to small scenes, small resolutions, small speeds, specially crafted scenes with handmade optimizations. Lightsmark breaks all limits at once, running in reasonably sized scene (220000 triangles) in high resolution (1680×1050) at excellent speed (100-400fps). Lighting is computed fully automatically in original unmodified scene from 2007 game World of Padman.
NVIDIA Denounces Rumors of Chipset Market Pullout
God bless the newshounds over at The Tech Report. Upon discovering a DigiTimes article alleging that NVIDIA planned to pull out of the lucrative motherboard chipset market, they went straight to NVIDIA platform products PR chief Bryan Del Rizzo for a fact-check. NVIDIA quickly released a statement denying DigiTimes’ allegations, calling the story “groundless” and reaffirming that NVIDIA continues to maintain greater than 60% market share in AMD platform IGP solutions, and that their SLI platform continues to be the “preferred” platform for multi-GPU gaming, likely riding on NVIDIA’s dominance in the market for enthusiast video cards.
So, why might such a rumor have been so believable? Many anticipate that Intel’s Nehalem and AMD’s Fusion CPU products will take direct aim at integrated-graphics motherboard chipsets, leaving them essentially irrelevant. Back in January, NVIDIA told journalists that all their new chipsets would henceforth include an integrated GPU and be Hybrid-SLI capable, a feature that would be unnecessary for CPUs that offer their own integrated graphics cores. In addition, Nvidia’s SLI solution isn’t the most well-regarded when it comes to Vista compatibility, and the company’s stock recently took a hit when they admitted that a large number of GeForce 8-series onboard and integrated graphics products were ‘defective’ – mainly having to do with thermal issues causing their untimely demise.
Still, NVIDIA’s motherboard chipset lineup is one of the best things the company has going for it in the all-important consumer sector, and we expect to continue seeing NVIDIA integrated-graphics chipsets for a long time to come.
To add to Nvidia’s statement, we remember Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang stating in April that customers will find value in Nvidia “motherboard GPUs” once Intel releases Nehalem processors with built-in graphics cores. According to Huang, lengthy processor release cycles will leave plenty of room for quicker and more feature-rich integrated graphics chipsets.
Defective NVIDIA Notebook GPUs Outed by Manufacturers
Back in the beginning of July, NVIDIA’s stock tumbled because the company released information saying “significant quantities” of their laptop GPUs were defective. The problem essentially resulted in higher than normal failures in production, and over heating from the company’s GPUs that were included in notebooks which were already shipping.
Now, Dell and HP have released a list of affected machines, which include the GeForce 8600M and 8400M, the GeForce Go 7000 and 6000, as well as the Quadro NVS 135M and the Quadro FX 360M. There is another potential problem in the fact that this isn’t a definite list, and more GPUs may have the same issues; only NVIDIA knows which ones are affected.
Something needs to be done at NVIDIA’s camp, whether it include offering a recourse for computer manufacturers or a solid driver fix, if more problems show up down the road with pertaining to this heat issue, the company may have a bigger problem to maintain.
So now that HP’s joined Dell in releasing information on which laptops have those defective NVIDIA GPUs, we can sort of piece together which chips are faulty — and just as had been rumored, it looks like basically every Geforce 8600M and 8400M chip is affected. That’s not good news for NVIDIA, which has been saying that only “previous-generation” chips were problematic — unless the chipmaker is planning on updating the hugely popular 8×00 series sometime, say, now, that’s not exactly true, now is it?
Sony Laptop Does Cross-Platform Hybrid Graphics
When we heard rumblings of the first ‘hybrid graphics’ systems, we simply thought GPU manufacturers would use the feature as a way to capitalize on the power savings afforded by hybrid graphics systems and sell more of their own products to PC and motherboard makers. For those coming late to the party, hybrid graphics systems save power and decrease idle thermal load by disabling the system’s discrete GPU and reverting to a lower-power GPU, typically integrated into the motherboard’s chipset. To this end, NVIDIA recently announced that all their chipset products would feature an integrated graphics processor, termed a “Motherboard GPU,” or mGPU.
What we didn’t expect, however, was that manufacturers might try to combine multiple GPU platforms in their hybrid-graphics systems. We’d figured that GPU manufacturers would try to lock their discrete GPU products to their own integrated-graphics chipsets for hybrid-graphics applications, but Sony has managed to combine the integrated Intel GMA X4500 graphics core on an Intel G43 chipset with an NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS discrete GPU. It’s an intriguing solution, but it virtually rules out the possiblity of the two graphics cores operating in tandem via Hybrid SLI.
Sony lists the graphics system as “Hybrid Graphics” with a “Dedicated Hybrid GPU Switch” based on the Nvidia 9300M GS graphics chip and Intel 4500MHD integrated graphics silicon. What makes this unique is that the switch can be done on the fly.
Psystar Hires Experienced Lawyers to Face Apple
Instead of backing down and ceasing to sell their OS X bundled Open Computers, and recalling every one sold as part of Apple’s request, Psystar has hired three lawyers to represent the company, Colby Springer, Robert Yorio, and Christine Watson. Both Yorio and Springer have experience defending another company in court against Apple with the Burst.com lawsuit, when they forced Apple to settle with $10 million out of court.
Apple charged Psystar with allegations of copyright and trademark infringement, as well as “breach-of-contract, unfair-competition, and violating the Mac OS X end-user license,” according to AppleInsider. This case could be an important one in the technology industry because it relates to the legal validity of user license agreements in court.
In this legal battle of David versus Goliath, it would seem that Apple has the upper hand as far as the facts go. Still, with the determination and resolve Psystar has shown thusfar, this contest could turn into a real struggle for the hardware giant.
A pair of attorneys representing Psystar in its legal bout with Apple are already familiar with the Mac maker, with whom they’ve clashed before and came out on top.
Microsoft Unveils the Mojave Experiment
Microsoft finally released information about the company’s new advertising campaign, called the “Mojave Experiment.” The main idea of the ads, primarily designed to compete with Apple’s Get a Mac ads, is to conduct blind tests with people who are told they are seeing features from a new operating system from Microsoft called Mojave. The ruse, which is finally uncovered by the end of the ad, is that this new operating system is in fact Windows Vista in disguise.
The campaign seems to take an effective approach at marketing the operating system without attacking the company’s competition. it’s hard to deny that there is a lot of misinformation and pure speculation from potential customers who haven’t even tried the operating system, but hold their negative opinions solely based on what they’ve heard from others. It will be interesting to see whether or not the ads have a prominent effect on Apple’s sharp increase in market share.
However, the advertising blitz doesn’t end there. Not long ago, Microsoft said they were planning on $300 million to combat Apple’s ads. Mojave, which is excluded from that estimate, will be the first sign of Microsoft fighting back.
What do people think of Windows Vista when they don’t know it’s Windows Vista? We disguised Windows Vista as codename “Mojave,” the “next Microsoft OS,” so regular people who’ve never used Windows Vista could see what it can do – and decide for themselves.
KDE 4.1 is Significantly Better than 4.0
From what I gather, the excitement level was rather low when KDE 4 first launched. Although it was a rather significant upgrade over 3.5, bugs seemed prevalent and not too many people were completely sold on the new design, like myself. I have never installed it personally to use on a day-to-day basis, but have used Live CD’s, and even then I didn’t understand why I should upgrade.
According to Ryan over at Ars Technica, KDE 4.1 more than fixes what was wrong with the initial version, and he even goes on to say that his skepticism experienced with the earlier version is completely gone. That’s quite a statement, and one that is actually tempting me to finally give in and install it.
I still can’t help but shrug off the new design, though. It’s glossy, like a toy. I’m all for eye-candy, but here, it’s almost like they tried too hard. Some of the features offered are fantastic though, so it might very-well be worth an upgrade for those alone. I just wish it was possible to keep most of that functionality while mimicking the 3.5 environment as closely as possible.
The most notable improvement is the addition of the folder view plasmoid which displays icons representing the contents of a specified folder. It provides all of the same functionality as the conventional desktop icon display from the 3.5.x series, but it allows users to place several of these folders on the desktop at once, thus providing immediate access to more locations in the filesystem.
Apple to Skip Intel Chipsets in Upcoming MacBook Lineup?
When Apple first jumped onto the Intel bandwagon, fans cheered. Making the move to an x86 processor meant great compatibility, and given Intel’s most-recent track-record, it also meant getting a much faster product. Well if recent reports are to be believed, then Apple might be considering a shift away from Intel, where chipsets are concerned, and ultimately, who knows.
The report mentions that the upcoming MacBook lineup will skip over using an Intel-based chipset, instead relying on another, although no one knows at this point which. Both VIA and NVIDIA offer mobile chipsets that can support Intel processors, so in all likeliness, it would be one of those. If it does indeed happen at all.
Some might be led to believe that the recent acquisition of P.A. Semi has something to do with this, but given that their products were designed for the low-end and mobile segments, it’s virtually impossible that they will be part of this shift. That could very-well change in the future, however. Whether or not this is to happen or not, it likely has Intel a bit frustrated, especially since they’ve bent over backwards for Apple on numerous occasions in the past.
It appears that a couple factors may be driving Apple’s possible departure from Intel chipsets. One is power consumption. Intel’s integrated graphics and chipset offerings are overly power hungry according to some analysts. Another factor is unique capability — Apple may be looking for unique features that Intel cannot provide it.
Nintendo Says “Game Over” to DS Piracy
If you own a Nintendo DS, chances are good that you’ve at one point heard mention of the R4 Revolution, a special cartridge for the handheld that introduces new functionality. In addition to allowing MP3 playback, Internet browsing and the ability to play homebrewed games, it also opens up the ability to play pirated games. So no surprise, Nintendo (and 54 other companies) are none-to-pleased.
According to a Japanese press release, all 55 companies have paired up to issue a lawsuit towards companies that import the special device. As I feel like I’m the only one who has never purchased one of these cartridges, I have a feeling this lawsuit is way, way too late.
Nintendo and the others request that all marketing, distribution and importation of the device halts, as it’s causing “severe damage to our company and software markers”. It’s impressive to me that piracy on consoles used to actually be difficult. Now, it takes literally no time before a unique piece of hardware is available just for that purpose. Nintendo is going to have a hard time keeping this one under control, that much is certain.
The R4 allows gamers to load and play Nintendo DS ROM files downloaded from the Internet. The ROM cartridge fools the Nintendo DS into believing a real cartridge has been plugged in to the DS and are only limited by memory capacity in terms of how many games can be loaded. The R4 has a small slot that a Micro SD card goes into.
Dell Announces Cheap 13″ Notebook, Hybrid PC
I have to admit, it’s been a while since Dell has released something to truly impress me, but today, they launched two different products that take care of just that. First is the 13″ Inspiron notebook, which will retail for under $800 and without even seeing the specs, I already want one. The style is similar to the Studio line-up launched not long ago, so the color scheme is vibrant and the overall style is superb.
I’ve become a huge fan of small notebooks over the past few months, and if the specs at all match up to the great style of this one, then I’ll have to seriously consider a purchase. It will not have locked specs, so upgrading certain components will be a sure thing. All I hope to see is an extended battery, and with a $1,000~ price tag, it should prove to be one killer option in the notebook scheme of things.
Also announced was a brand-new PC called the Studio Hybrid. Similar in size to ASUS’ Eee Box, this PC is small… so small, that it would fit beside your modest-sized monitor and actually look good. Although the bubbly-design doesn’t quite sell me, the color schemes are absolutely sweet, especially the bamboo, which will -actually- become available (you hear that, ASUS?) once fully launched. I highly recommend taking a look at these new products on Dell’s Flickr site.
I also recommend checking out the press release as linked below, because there is a lot more information I couldn’t stuff into three short paragraphs.
As with Dell’s recently announced Studio laptops, the Studio Hybrid was designed to enhance personal expression and creative living. Dell’s smallest desktop PC, about the size of a collegiate dictionary, can fit just about anywhere. Depending on the location or decor, the Studio Hybrid can be set up in a vertical or horizontal orientation, and be personalized with a choice of seven optional, interchangeable external finishes or color sleeves: Bamboo, Emerald, Quartz, Ruby, Sapphire, Slate, and Topaz.