B&N Sued By Spring Design

Category: Mobile, Manufacturers
Posted: November 2, 2009 10:23PM
Author: Brentt Moore

In the large market for handheld eBook readers, it seems as if Amazon’s Kindle has always taken the most sales in the selective product lineup. The Nook, by Barnes & Noble, has been a new reader that has stolen the attention of many, with its two LCD display setup. Spring Designs however is filing a lawsuit dealing with the eBook product, stating that B&N were in the talks of a product like the Nook while under NDA agreements and that the company copied Spring Design’s product by offering two LCDs; though each screen has a different function in both of the products. It is not sure which way the lawsuit will go, but with the screens performing different functions in both cases, there does not seem to be too much of a debate, just similar design.

Apple Unveils Additions to Product Line

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: October 20, 2009 02:23PM
Author: Nick Harezga

On the heels of an excellent earnings report, Apple has unveiled new models in the iMac and Mac Mini lines. The new iMac will feature a 27 inch screen, a 3GHz Core 2 Duo, and 4GB of memory. The other major difference between it and the 20 inch model is the 1TB hard drive, double that of the smaller model. The 27 inch iMac starts at $1,699. The new Mac Mini comes with the Snow Leopard Server OS, and features 1TB of hard drive space. The model starts at $999, while the lower priced model starts at $599. A new wireless mouse will also be released, and will feature a number of multi-touch gestures to control your computer.

Intel Posts Better than Expected Q3 Results

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: October 14, 2009 02:41PM
Author: Ben Grantham

Intel's third quarter revenues beat analysts expectations of just over $9 billion by coming at $9.39 billion for the period. That figure is up $1.4 billion from the previous quarter, but doesn't reach the level achieved for Q3 of last year ($10.2 billion). Several areas of the company saw growth, including revenue generated by the Atom processor and Intel believes this shows how technology innovation plays an important part at the forefront of an economic recovery. Intel has more processor product launches lined up for the next two quarters, including 32nm parts and new netbook chips. It is predicting revenue of $10.1 billion (give or take $400 million) for Q4, though analysts are pitching it slightly lower than this.

Apple to compete with Google by means of a Map Service?

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: October 1, 2009 07:31AM
Author: kingdingeling

There has been a bit of confusion about why Apple would reject Google Latitude as an App, but rather restrict it to a Web-App. Apple's intentions are becoming clearer though, as news resurfaced that Apple has bought PlaceBase, a map service that is a direct competitor to Google Maps. Apple has not been very open about this, but there are a few clues. In July, Fred Lalonde, owner of Openspaces.org, a company that used PlaceBase's software, tweeted a message reading "Apple bought PlaceBase - all hush hush. Pushpin site taken offline. Hyperlocal iPhone?". The next clue came from Jaron Waldman, the CEO and founder of PlaceBase, when he listed PlaceBase as his "past experience" on his LinkedIn page. As his current occupation, he is a member of Apple's "GEO Team". Apple's move to compete with Google in more areas (Map Services and Operating Systems for example) also gives another reason for the resignation of Google CEO Eric Schmidt from Apple's board of directors in August (OCC News).

Dell Attempts Adamo Laptop Again

Category: Mobile, Manufacturers
Posted: September 9, 2009 02:06PM
Author: Brentt Moore

Back when Dell first released their initial Adamo product, consumers realized quickly how underpowered it was compared to its price. Apple continued after that to hold the crown in the ultra-thin laptop market with its MacBook Air, and sales continued to grow. This time around however, Dell seems to be going back to the drawing board considering the Adamo XPS and redesigning it, with the laptop measuring only 9.99mm thick all the way around. Other than this super thin design, nothing else is yet known about the new Adamo. Unfortunately, price will still probably be high due to the thinness of the laptop, but it will turn a few heads without a doubt when more is revealed.

ASUS Reveals New Motherboards

Category: Motherboards, Manufacturers
Posted: September 8, 2009 05:34PM
Author: Brentt Moore

With the introduction of the new Intel socket, known as the LGA 1156 socket, motherboard manufacturers will have to produce new products to support the next age technology. ASUS, one of the major motherboard manufacturers alongside GIGABYTE and others, is introducing two new gaming platform products into the market, known as the ROG Maximus III Formula and the ROG Maximus III Gene. The Formula edition includes ten SATA 3.0GB/s ports, compared to the seven on the Gene, along with a discrete SupremeFX X-Fi eight-channel sound card, while the Gene comes with onboard eight-channel sound. Both boards feature CrossFireX and SLI support; fourteen USB 2.0 ports, one PS/2, one S/PDIF port, a clear CMOS button, as well as a ROG connect on and off switch. The ROG Maximus III Formula includes three PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots, while the Gene version comes with two, due to the Gene being mATX instead of a full ATX board as the Formula is. Neither price nor availability is known yet, but these boards should serve the gaming community well when they finally get launched to the public for purchase.

Microsoft Advertisement Racially Changed For Poland

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: August 31, 2009 08:05AM
Author: kingdingeling

Microsoft ads in the past have left some people scratching their heads if they were serious or not, but it seems that they have yet again topped themselves. Microsoft Poland used an image from a Microsoft USA advertisement which had a black man in it. The Polish then went to replace the black persons head with a white head, but left the hands the same. So now they had a photoshopped white person with black hands sitting in front of an Apple MacBook with the logo edited out, sitting at a table with a young woman that is sitting in front of a screen that is not plugged in. Maybe Micr's employeesinvest into a pair of Glasses for its employees...

New GPUs from GIGABYTE

Category: Video Cards, Manufacturers
Posted: August 30, 2009 04:06PM
Author: Brentt Moore

Overclockable cards are always what extreme computers users look for when buying a video card, along with a good and somewhat reasonable price. GIGABYTE, one of the top manufacturers of motherboards along side ASUS, is announcing that it will soon be introducing new graphics processing units named as the Super OverClock Series. These new video cards will be picked out from all the others for their performance, and then ran under multiple benchmarks from FutureMark in order to find maximum overclocking numbers. After selective testing, GIGABYTE also tests the cards for consistent power, insuring that pure performance is attained under any load that the consumer puts on it. The Ultra Durable VGA 5 branding will be placed on these cards as well, stating that the cards are built to last. A SuperClocked GTX 260 will be the first card introduced by the company to go under the new name sometime next month, though actual numbers for overclocking have not been released yet.

Apple Suggests You Do Not Stack MacBook Pro's

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: August 21, 2009 02:04PM
Author: kingdingeling

First of all, this is not a joke, but a real piece of information from one of Apple's Support Documents! The new MacBook Pro unibody laptops have built in magnets which sense if the MacBook's screen has been closed, in which case it will automatically go to sleep. If users stack one MacBook on top of another, the magnet from the one notebook can influence the other in a way that it thinks the screen is closed whilst it may actually be open. The bug may cause the top MacBook to randomly go into Sleep Mode, or may not let it turn on. All unibody MacBooks have this 'problem', so the 13" MacBook and all 13-17" MacBook Pro's. Now if this was the only problem with the MacBooks, I think we would all be using them already!

Acer Retries Predator Desktop

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: August 1, 2009 07:59PM
Author: Brentt Moore

Back when Acer released their first revision of their Predator gaming computer, many cases were reported when the computer would overheat. Some incidences were reported to even have fire as the end result in the overheating matter. Acer is at it again however, giving users more performance than most mainstream desktop computers on the market today. The new predator includes an Intel Core i7 950 processor at 3.06GHz, along with 6GB of DDR3 memory and two NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1GB graphics cards. A 1TB 7200RPM SATA hard drive is also included, as well as a Blu-ray optical drive and a bundled G15 gaming keyboard and G9 mouse. The most internet feature noted by most people is the special case design that Acer decided to go with on the Predator model. Oddly, the computer is only available in Japan right now, but hopefully it will make its way to American and European markets. Right now, the computer is selling in Japan for 259,800 yen, which converts to roughly $2,717.
 

CES 2010 with Apple? Probably Not!

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: July 30, 2009 04:39AM
Author: kingdingeling

The Wall Street Journal has covered a story that Apple would be attending the CES 2010, referring to a dinner held by Gary Shapiro and journalists. Gary is the head of the organization that organizes the CES in Las Vegas each year. They supposedly have invited Steve Jobs to give a keynote address at the start of the show, but "nobody from Apple has gotten back to them yet". However, other sources such as Engadget state that the Wall Street Journal has got it all wrong and that Mr. Shapiro never even hinted at a possible participation of Apple in the CES. With or without Apple itself, the section of the CES floor related to Mac, iPod and iPhone hardware will expand from 4,000 square-feet to 25,000 square-feet, which is not very surprising given the increasing success of its products.

Intel Works With Microsoft for Windows 7

Category: Operating Systems, Manufacturers
Posted: July 25, 2009 07:51PM
Author: Brentt Moore

For the new Windows, Microsoft is aiming their operating system at not only features and functions, but as well as speed. Much effort has been put into making sure Windows 7 performs as it should, and does not turn into a downhill operating system like Vista did at its launch. Intel and Microsoft have been working together to figure out the best coding possible as far as speed is concerned. A new feature in the next Windows has been implemented because of this collaboration, called SMT parking, which provides additional support for the included Windows 7 scheduler while using Intel Hyper-threading Technology. The two companies have also used their combined efforts to analyze various boot, shutdown, sleep, and resume times on Intel platforms, so that Intel drivers, BIOS, and Windows 7 can be optimized accordingly.

New ATI Catalyst Drivers Released

Category: Video Cards, Manufacturers, Software
Posted: July 23, 2009 07:59PM
Author: Brentt Moore

With Windows 7 going into the RTM stages just recently, AMD has gone ahead and released its ATI Catalyst 9.7 drivers for the operating system. The semiconductor company is claiming that users of Windows 7 will find performance improvements with single and multiple graphics cards setups over Windows Vista, though any real gains will have to be tested for verification. The drivers have also been compiled into one package for both Windows Vista and Windows 7, so for those not yet currently running the new Microsoft operating system, the same installer will work. Along with the new Catalyst 9.7 drivers for Radeon cards, AMD has also made available the new ATI Catalyst 8.632 driver for ATI FirePro professional graphics cards.

Intel Appealing Against $1.45bn EU Fine

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: July 22, 2009 04:49PM
Author: Ben Grantham

Back in May, Intel was hit with a huge $1.45 billion fine by the EU for evidence of what appeared to be anti-competitive practises. Intel was said to have abused its dominant market position by offering incentives to companies for not stocking or postponing releases of chips from AMD, its main rival in CPU manufacturing. At the time of the verdict Intel said that they would appeal against the decision and is now following through on that promise. Chuck Mulloy, spokesman for Intel has also said that it still plans to pay the fine, but will get the money back from the EU if it wins the appeal. A spokesperson for the European Commission has called the decision "legally watertight." It took an eight year investigation to gather evidence for the decision, which Intel calls "wrong on many levels."

Gigabyte withdraws from GeCube's stock

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: July 22, 2009 07:08AM
Author: kingdingeling

Hardware manufacturer Gigabyte wants to sell it's 61.5% part of GeCube, who have sold their graphics card business. GeCube said they would be looking to compete in a non-video card market soon, but the reporting Chinese newspaper Apply Daily was unable to find out who that partner will be. GeCube used to produce ATI video cards, but was unable to sustain itself in the heavily competitive market, especially since with former NVIDIA only manufacturer XFX there is another big player on the block. In January of this year, GeCube video cards were in the papers again, as someone had been selling HD4000 series cards in the GeCube name as Hexus reports. The difference could only be spotted by checking the labels on the back of the card and matching them with the official list of GeCube cards.

Averatec Introduces Another All In One PC

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: July 17, 2009 07:59PM
Author: Brentt Moore

With the recent news of the new Dell Vostro all in one computer that is set to be released in the United States by next month, another company by the name of Averatec is bringing out their own model. The computer model, known as the D1005, that the company is pushing out retails for just $599, and is sporting features such as a 22-inch display widescreen display, 3GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, Windows Vista Home Premium, as well as a DVD burner. These specifications will fall in between the already made 18-inch D1133 and 25.5-inch D1205 that Averatec already is selling to consumers looking for a all in one computer. The system can be purchased as a variety of websites, such as Best Buy, TigerDirect, as well as Newegg.

New Vostro PC Emerges

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: July 16, 2009 07:59PM
Author: Brentt Moore

Business users, as well as all consumers for that matter, have been attracted to the highly detailed side of the Vostro series from Dell. All of the models in the series have proved to be very business like and sleek in their form factor. Dell is now producing an all in one system under the model name, and will be releasing it to North America next month on the eleventh. The personal computer come with either Core 2 Duo or Pentium dual-core processors, along with 160GB of hard drive space, 2GB of RAM, and a 19-inch display. The included kickstand for the computer can be taken off, and the unit can then be used with an optional VESA mount of the user wants to free up some space. Even though North American consumers will not be able to buy the product yet, those in Chine and Japan can pick one up now for $629 from Dell.

Laptop Hunters Campaign Gets to Apple

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: July 16, 2009 03:44PM
Author: Nick Harezga

If you watch television at all, then you have likely seen the Laptop Hunters ad campaign from Microsoft, a response to the “I'm a Mac” ads from Apple. These ads depicted consumers who were given a budget looking for laptops. If they remained under the budget, Microsoft would buy them the laptop. These ads were clearly an attack on the price premium that is paid when buying a Mac, a point which Apple tried to remedy with recent price cuts. However, Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer at Microsoft, revealed that Microsoft was contacted by Apple asking that the ads no longer be run. Turner claims that it is a clear indication that the ads are working. Another way to look at the situation is that Apple no longer wanted Microsoft to run outdated ads that could be misleading to consumers.

NVIDIA Develops New Tegra Chip

Category: CPU's, Mobile, Manufacturers
Posted: July 7, 2009 11:58AM
Author: Brentt Moore

After the recent NVIDIA news dealing with new graphics processing units, the green company has stated that it has been working on improving its Tegra chip, and is planning to release a second revision of it as early as this fall. The new computer-on-a-chip will be known as Tegra 2, and is reported to have twice the amount of power as its predecessor. Currently, it seems as if only the Zune HD is featuring the current Tegra chip, but it is also rumored that numerous amounts of smart phones will be supporting the technology later on this year. With the idea of Tegra 2 around the corner however, it seems even more viable, depending on its energy usage of course, that more smart phones as well as netbooks and possibly even notebooks will use the product. The present Tegra as of now is powerful enough to run Windows CE, and with Tegra 2 reportedly sporting around twice the performance, some manufacturers may possibly use it in certain netbook systems. For now though, the use of it in mobile phone situations is the most feasible option due to many specifications of the new computer-on-a-chip not yet being release by NVIDIA.

MSI MOA Qualifiers Now Open

Category: Video Cards, Motherboards, Manufacturers
Posted: June 29, 2009 07:51PM
Author: Dale Shuck

The MOA 2009 qualifiers are now open with Phase I selection scheduled to last from June 29 through July 19. The first round is open to all overclockers in the US, Canada and Mexico. The top 10 teams will move on to Phase II which runs July 25 through August 2nd. The top two scores earn teams the right to go to the Grand Final in Beijing as guests of MSI. The clock is ticking so head on over to the MOA web site and get your scores in. Who knows, maybe we'll be cheering for one of OCC's own in Beijing this year!

OCZ Extends Specific SSD Warranties

Category: Manufacturers, Storage / Hard Drives
Posted: June 23, 2009 11:09AM
Author: Brentt Moore

After recent news of OCZ releasing an OLED gaming keyboard, the company had made a somewhat quiet announcement, revealing that it is extending the warranties on its Vertex and Summit solid state drives. Currently the company offers a two year warranty on both products, but will now be offering three years of a warranty for the storage drives. Some users are rumoring that OCZ has found a problem in the products, and is extending the warranty to calm down the overwhelming number of people that will be making claims to the company in the future. But the rumor is false, according to OCZ, as the company has stated that the warranty time has been extended for the sole purpose of appealing more to consumers stuck between purchasing a traditional hard drive and a solid state drive.

Lenovo Laptop Roadmap Leaked

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: June 19, 2009 04:48AM
Author: Rpbert Bergem

A new roadmap showing Lenovo's laptop lineups through March 2010 has been leaked. The roadmap shows the R, SL, SLc, X, T, and W laptop lines. The next laptop scheduled for release is the T400s which is scheduled for July. Following the T400s are the SL410 and the SL510, both of which are slated for August. Perhaps the most interesting section of the roadmap is January 2010. It displays eleven new laptops that will use Intel's new Calpella platform. Since these roadmaps have not been confirmed by Lenovo, they are subject to change. However, they should provide a pretty good idea of what is coming in the near future from Lenovo.

Intel Shows Off New Brandings

Category: CPU's, Manufacturers
Posted: June 17, 2009 07:59PM
Author: Brentt Moore

While the i7 name stunned a large number of people who first saw it, Intel is continuing the trend with the already announced i5 processors, and now, with the i3 processors. These new names mark the ongoing process of titles that the company is coming up with for its new processor lineups. The i5 chips will follow the mid-range area and probably take over most of the Core 2 Duo platform, while the i3 processors will be used for lower-end computers. Arrandale will fall under the i3 platform, while the Clarkfield mobile processors will be labeled with the i7 branding. Intel will also be cutting names such as Centrino, along with Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad in its recent naming scheme, though the Celeron, Pentium, and Atom names will be staying in the product lineup for the semiconductor company.

SAMSUNG Introduces the R720

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: June 10, 2009 07:59PM
Author: Brentt Moore

The R720, which is the successor to the popular R710, has just been announced by SAMSUNG to the general public. The 17.3-inch laptop will feature an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650, stereo speakers with some form of integrated subwoofer, a numeric keypad next to the keyboard, and Windows Vista Home Premium. Also with the notebook is four USB 2.0 ports, as well as the screen being a LED-backlit panel. SAMSUNG is not releasing any pricing numbers, when it will be released, or how large the hard drive will be, but hopefully those pieces of information will be available soon at a later date.

NVIDIA Wants More DirectX

Category: Video Cards, Manufacturers
Posted: June 5, 2009 07:36PM
Author: Brentt Moore

While claiming that it would wait until DirectX 11 to upgrade its cards from DirectX 10, NVIDIA is now announcing that it will be producing new 40nm desktop graphics cards that will support DirectX 10.1. ATI has already had cards on the market that support this version of the Microsoft standard for some time, and NVIDIA has been stating that the minor revisions did not concern them, though they are now supporting it. Oddly enough, DirectX 11 is set to be used in Windows 7, and while still in the Release Candidate form, it is right around the corner in terms of its release date. The green team still obviously plans to support the new revision of the standard that will be used in the new operating system, though all together, it seems odd for NVIDIA to wait so late in the game to start supporting DirectX 10.1.

Another Company Set to Make and Sell Mac Clones

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: May 30, 2009 08:37AM
Author: Nick Harezga

A company set to open its doors on June 1, Quo Computer, will be selling Mac clones. This puts them in the same situation as Psystar, the company which did the same and was sued by Apple and recently declared bankruptcy. Quo says they will try to mimic the Apple computers as closely as possible, and will be offering three desktop systems. Quo hopes to succeed where Psystar failed by opening a physical store location in Los Angeles, instead of limiting themselves to online sales. The founder of the company expects to be sued by Apple, which makes you wonder why they would even try.

Overclocked GTX 260 Introduced By GIGABYTE

Category: Video Cards, Manufacturers
Posted: May 27, 2009 06:45PM
Author: Brentt Moore

Other manufacturers have released many versions of the GTX 260, as it is one of the most popular graphics options available right now on the market since the GeForce 9800 model. GIGABYTE, maker of mostly motherboards and other computer hardware, is currently announcing its own overclocked NVIDIA GTX 260 graphics card. Though the card will actually use the reference cooler, the company is equipping the NVIDIA GPU with a blue PCB that will come with 2oz. of copper, as well as Japanese solid capacitors. This allows the card to be classified under the Ultra Durable VGA specification from the company. Even though the product is being announced by GIGABYTE at the moment, a release date is not yet known, and neither is a price point.

Psystar Files Bankruptcy

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: May 26, 2009 02:29PM
Author: Brentt Moore

The popular contender to Apple, though its legality was obviously questioned because of the license agreements that follow the Mac operating system, Psystar is now reported to be filing for bankruptcy. Though Apple has a suit filed against the company already due to their production of systems that run the Macintosh operating systems. While they are nice systems and are also more expandable than Apple made computers, not many people supported the company with purchases. Now, it has to file Chapter 11 from its low revenue gains over the time that it has been selling its Mac systems, and will be going down as a company.

NVIDIA Complains About Intel Atom Chip Pricing

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: May 19, 2009 03:02PM
Author: Ben Grantham

NVIDIA and Intel hardly appear to be best buddies, at least if the recent history of license disputes and claims that the GPU is essentially the future of computing are to be believed. It therefore doesn't come as much of a surprise that NVIDIA CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang has been calling the pricing of Intel's Atom CPUs "pretty unfair". The argument is that the Atom CPU, which NVIDIA uses in its Ion platform, costs $45 as a stand alone item, but once you purchase it combined with an Intel northbridge and southbridge (the parts the Ion platform replaces) that price drops to just $25. While on the surface that does seem to be a pretty major price discrepancy, it may be somewhat understandable when you consider that the Atom three-chip package (with the CPU itself generally soldered to the motherboard) has become a ubiquitous part of many netbooks and similar systems. That means it has been shipping in large volumes. I'll leave it up to you to decide if the price difference is a fair one (after the recent EU fine, it may be easy to accuse Intel of similar practises elsewhere). An Intel spokesman responded to the claims with the following statement:

We compete fairly. We do not force bundles on any computer makers and customers can purchase Atom individually or as part of the bundle. If you want to purchase the chip set, obviously there is better pricing.

Could Apple Be Coming to a Wal-Mart Near You?

Category: Manufacturers
Posted: May 19, 2009 01:54PM
Author: Nick Harezga

Wal-Mart has been expanding the technology section in its stores with high definition televisions and Blu-Ray to hopefully pick up some of the Circuit City crowd. But are there other motives at work here? Someone at Barclays Capital believes so. It is believed that Wal-Mart is hoping to bring more Apple products within its walls, specifically Mac computers. Wal-Mart currently sells iPods and iPhones, and Best Buy is an already an authorized Apple retailer so it is definitely a possibility. Despite the fact that being carried by Wal-Mart would have the potential to greatly expand the reach of Macs, it seems unlikely that a company that features discounted prices would carry such expensive computers. Compromise would likely have to occur between the two parties, and Apple hasn't been one to reduce prices over the years.