Acer Aspire TimelineX finally launches stateside

Thin and powerful, yes, it’s possible

IT’S TAKEN ACER a good few months to get the Aspire TimelineX series of notebooks to the North American market, but for anyone wanting a thin and light, yet powerful notebook with decent battery life for an affordable price, then this is what you’ve been waiting for. Acer is offering models ranging from 11.6 to 15.6-inches with a selection of Core i processors and even discrete graphics in some models.
Read more

CULV notebook pricing in free fall, getting replaced

Notebook manufacturers favours full fat CPUs

CULV NOTEBOOK PRICES started falling a while back and in Taiwan “high-end” models with SU7300 processors have been sold at what must be close to cost from less well known notebook manufacturers such as ViewSonic. Now the big brand names are following suit and we should see this price and stock dumping take effect in other markets as well within the near future.
Read more

1

Bulldozer, Bobcat, Westmere-EX and Power shine at Hot Chips

The chip conference of the summer

THE HOT CHIPS 22 conference has released their lineup of talks this year, and it once again looks really good. If you haven’t been to one yet, it is one of the best conferences about chip architecture out there, and well worth attending.
Read more

Marvell working on “free” hybrid SSD/HDD solution

Not exactly free, but…

THE NEXT BIG thing appears to be hybrid drives, although Seagate’s new Momentus XT failed to impress most reviewers, despite offering some clear advantages over a traditional hard drive. The downside here of course is that we’re talking about a 2.5-inch notebook drive, but what if you want a hybrid drive for your desktop PC? Well, Marvell might very well have the solution to this problem with its upcoming “free” HyperHDD solution.
Read more

Intel getting ready to launch four sub $150 desktop processors

Dropping some prices too

LOOKING FOR A cheap Intel processor? Well, Intel is getting ready to launch a range of new affordable options over the next few months, as well as some price drops on several other models. A few more expensive parts will also make an appearance, with emphasis on ‘few’. Most of the new and price cut models are oddly enough LGA 775 processors, so it seems like Intel believes there’s still some life in its old platform.
Read more

Toshiba launches 128GB NAND Flash memory chips

Yes, that’s GB, not Gb and it’s in a single package too

MOST SMARTPHONES ARE still only shipping with a measly 512MB of storage memory at best, there are exceptions, of course like Apple’s iPhone and a couple of devices from Samsung to mention a few. However, Toshiba seems set on getting more storage memory into our mobile devices, as the company has launched 128GB e-MMC compliant NAND Flash memory chips today.
Read more

1

OnLive Game Service Taps Dell to Provide Server Hardware for Launch

Using both ATI and nVidia hardware

Unless you’ve been locked in your mother’s basement, blissfully tapping away at your Atari 2600 paddle for the past 32 years, you’ve probably heard about the upcoming OnLive game service that officially launches today.  While we’re reasonably sure that the majority of our readers have progressed beyond the latest game technology from the 70’s, we’ll elaborate anyway.
Read more

The Epic debate Part 3: Humor does not cross oceans

GDC 2010: Graphics, busses, chunking data, Tim and Andrew

PART THREE OF the ‘Epic’ debate follows our intrepid heroes, Tim Sweeney and Andrew Richards, through the wilds of a GDC conference room, in the heart of the Moscone Center forest. The topic: Graphics hardware and it’s future, programmable or more fixed hardware?
Read more

AT&T scores 10 times as many iPhone 4 pre-orders

Compared to iPhone 3GS pre-orders

IT WAS ONLY yesterday that the iPhone 4 became available for pre-order, but it appears that both AT&T and Apple have run out of handsets for the launch day. According to a press release issued by AT&T, they’ve had 10 times as many pre-orders for the iPhone 4 compared to the iPhone 3GS.
Read more

ASRock launches Core i mobile powered tiny barebones

Plenty of features, not a lot of product design

ASROCK HAS STARTED to make all sorts of products after the company severed most of its ties along with Pegraton from Asus earlier this year. Its latest addition is the Core 100HT which based on the same design as its ION 330HT boxes, but with one huge, important difference the Core 100HT features a choice of mobile Core i processors.
Read more

Tim Sweeney and Andrew Richards talk consoles and divergence

GDC 2010: An Epic debate Part 2

IN THIS PART of the GDC conversation/debate between Tim Sweeney and Andrew Richards, they go into game consoles, divergence, convergence, and of course hardware vs software rendering. Can the game console makers afford to diverge in the next generation?
Read more

Razer announces StarCraft II peripherals

Keyboard, mouse and headset

STARCRAFT II IS COMING and the game is only about a month away, but it seems like we’re already seeing the first licensed peripherals arriving from none other than Razer. Blizzard and Razer’s collaboration was announced in August last year, but it’s taken this long for Razer to release any details on the new peripherals. A new keyboard, mouse and headset have been announced and all three are, of course, adorned with StarCraft II motifs.
Read more

The new Mac mini is here

Thinner, more powerful, more features and user upgradeable

APPLE SURPRISED US TODAY by launching its new, completely overhauled Mac mini. The actual hardware specs haven’t been given a huge boost, but the rest of the system isn’t the Mac mini as you know it. Apple has somehow managed to shrink it down to a mere 1.4-inches (3.6cm) tall, compared to 2-inches (5.1cm) for the previous model. However, this is a small feat compared to the rest of the changes.
Read more