Archive for the ‘Desktops’ Category
It’s been awhile since we heard any word regarding what we should expect from USB 3.0. But apparently, Intel has just recently provided us with some additional information on the topic that is sure to get people excited for it’s inevitable release. Dubbed the USB SuperSpeed, USB 3.0 will be offering quite a bit for everyone to enjoy taking advantage of.
First off, it will be completely backwards compatible with USB 2.0 (got a device older than that? Throw it away!) and will be able to offer a transfer rate ten times as fast as USB 2.0. That means that instead of transfering at 480Mbps, you’ll be transferring at 4.8Gbps. Unreal.
The upload and download transfers will actually be kept on separate lanes, making the cables thicker but allowing for these increased speeds and faster charge times over USB for certain devices.
We’ve still got a while to wait, but we’ll keep you posted!
Intel has been passing around the Atom name on a few of their different processors over the past several months. There have been two Atom processors as of late: the Centrino Atom (known in-house as the Menlow chipset) and the Atom (known as either the Silverthorn or Diamondville chipset).
What does this mean for you? Well besides sounding like a fool to the 4 people who know what’s up in the entire world, nothing. The Centrino Atom, used in MIDs and UMPCs is now nameless while the Atom itself gets to keep the name. As Intel figures out exactly what they’re looking to do name wise for the formerly mentioned Centrino Atom, we’ll keep you posted.
It’s been awhile since we’ve heard any more breaking news about the Microsoft Surface. So when we stumbled upon this commercial, we figured we had to share it.
It’s a little over the top even for Microsoft, but it does show you a little bit more of how the Surface looks in action (even if it’s a theatrical style presentation). So as these nifty devices start making their way to Sheraton Hotels, will this be the type of surfing we see on them, or will it be a lot more disturbing?
Watch the full video after the break.
Those expecting to pick up the CherryPal Cloud PC this month for the low low price of $249 will unfortunately have to wait even longer. The device set to launch this month will now be delayed due to a little software issue that isn’t allowing newer SSD’s to properly function. Considering that’s a bit of an issue, CherryPal is working their behind off to solve this problem and get their solid little desktop back to the shipping bay.
CherryPal is attempting to get this resolved in the next two weeks, but as this issue has yet to be pinpointed, it will most likely take more time than expected.
The netbooks have taken over and what’s worse is that many of them have tried their hands in a desktop version. While crappy desktops such as the eMachines series have existed in this price range for quite some time, no one has managed to find a mini-desktop in a low price range that has even been worth considering.
That is, of course, until the Asus Eee Box B202.
This device has been put through the wringer and is still kicking. Requiring little more energy then an Eee PC 900, this device has done everything satisfactorily or above on every level it claims to handle (baring intense or even moderate gaming) except for displaying full 1080p digital video. For a nettop (lets see if it sticks!) running you $299, the Asus Eee Box B202 can handle just about anything you need and not break the bank.
KNGT’s icom MK1 will make your dashboard cry in pain and glee. This complete car computer dashboard setup is pretty intense, with it’s 6.95in 800 x 480 resolution LCD screen, on screen QWERTY keyboard, WiFi, and mobile TV tuner (T-DMB).
Now comes the customization: 40GB/80GB hard drive and up to 2GB RAM. The system offers a few USB ports as well as runs Windows XP on it’s 1.6GHz Intel CPU.
If you’re looking to become the ultimate geek and you feel that taping an Eee PC to your car just isn’t worth the trouble anymore, you may want to check out the KNGT icom MK1.
Those looking to pick up a brand new video card but are short on cash are in luck. NVIDIA, makers of the ever popular GTX 280 graphics card have just revealed their GeForce 9500 GT PCIe 2.0 compatible card at less than $100. The core specs of the card include a 550MHz core clock, 1,400MHz shader clock, 32 stream processors, 800MHz memory clock, twin dual-link DVI ports, and a choice between 256MB and 512MB of video RAM, depending on how much you want to spend.
The initial reviews have placed this card faster than the Radeon HD 3650 and put it on par with the GeForce 8600 GTS. If you don’t mind being a few steps behind the cutting edge, this is the perfect video card for a budget build.
It’s always nice to see a company rally around their modding community. Especially when that modding community most certainly means that the company will have quite the upper hand on the rest of the industry.
Take for example Nvidia. Their decision to provide the SDK and other support to the modders looking to port over the PhysX engine to ATI cards has kept a beady little smile on their face. Why is that exactly?
Well, ATI will look like the bad guy if they don’t help out too, and worse yet if they do support it, there goes all that money spent on the Havok engine licensing.
So while Nvidia sits their, smiling that devious smile of the leading graphics card company and graphics engine, we’ll just have to wait and see what the rest of the community does or doesn’t do.
Firefox 3 became officially available for download yesterday, and the guys and gals over at Mozilla even attempted to break a world record for day 1 downloads and installs. Unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to inform you about all that jazz yesterday, but we do have the chance to tell you a little more about Firefox 3.
User Experience. The enhancements include a "smart location bar," also being called the "Awesome Bar." The Awesome Bar learns your browsing habits, tags and site history and then allows you to find sites by typing a single word in the bar.
Performance. Firefox 3 needs less memory and has some technical changes that allow it to run twice as fast as Firefox 2.
Security. Mozilla claims the new browser has additional protection against malware, phishing and viruses by adding a site ID feature that allows a user to verify the safety of a site before actually visiting.
Customization. The hallmark of the Firefox browser is the add-ons and extensions built by third parties. A new add-on manager will help keep this organized.
Also, the wonderful people over at Microsoft sent a congratulations cake?
With people just conforming to PCI Express 2.0, it makes complete sense that the word would hit the streets that 3.0 was right around the corner. Expected to launch in 2010, with the process being finalized a year earlier.
Luckily for those with PCI Express 2.0 cards or those of you who are now cursing your motherboard, the PCI Express 3.0 slot will be identical and fully backwards compatible. Great idea, considering how rarely that actually happens on the end product.
Speeds of 8-gigatransfers per second will be enough to quiet the masses, but we’ll have to see how much that’ll cost us and how much the hardware that uses it will as well.