September 06, 2008

Acer Aspire One Netbook First Impressions

I just got the 8GB flash version with Linux this afternoon from Newegg for $329 shipped and was able to play around with it for couple hours.

Pros:
-Build quality is very good for a $329 device. Doesn't feel cheap at all.
-Screen is readable and bright. No dead pixels. Black levels aren't that great, but what can you expect for the price.
-Very silent. No hard-drive thrashing which is great.
-This is my first experience with Linux and it's very good. After I setup advanced mode, there are hundreds of free programs easily downloadable with a Red Hat program manager. Very well done easy-to-use user interface.
-I installed Skype and it works great with builtin webcame and mic. I mean the sound quality and video quality is "ok", nothing compared to the Macbook Pro iSight, but for $329 I'm absolutely amazed.
-OS seems very stable and the programs work just like their windows counterparts.
-Boot and loading times seem pretty peppy.

Cons:
-Only 3.6GB free of space. To be fair, Acer loaded a lot of preinstalled programs like Open Office, mPlayer, etc. You can also install an SD card to seamlessly expand the space.
-The keyboard is small and the travel depth isn't too deep. I'm typing on it right now. It's pretty accurate, but the feel isn't that great
-The trackpad is VERY small and the buttons are awkwardly placed and hard to press. However my wireless logitech mouse works perfectly, so that fixes this issue for me.
-They are using a Windows XP menu button theme. YUCK!

Overall I'm pretty happy with the purchase so far. It's an amazing value. It is so freaking small and light. This is my first experience with Linux. Color me impressed.

Questions from Arogan
- How is the scrolling using the track pad? Do you think you can get use to the button placement? I typically don't use a mouse with a laptop unless I'm gaming on it.

There is no scrolling that I know of. I just use the cursor keys and "thank goodness" page up and down keys. The trackpad is still TINY and the button placement is less of an issue vs. the size of the buttons and you really have to press it down hard to get it to work.

One neat function is you can double tap trackpad as a substitute for a left mouse button click. Frankly though it still is pretty hard to use when I'm surfing, it takes me a bit longer (extra 2 seconds) to surf around the tiny trackpad.

- How is the browsing experience? Do most websites fit fine in the 1024X600 resolution? Do you find the screen big enough, text legible?

The browsing experience, other than the inaccurate trackpad is pretty good. The screen is solid and 1024X600 seems fine for most websites I visit when I'm lounging around on the couch watching TV. The text is fine and readable.

I think the biggest problem for you is going to be the trackpad (tiny and hard to be accurate) and the mouse buttons.

All in all though, I don't mind too much. I love being able to browse on the web while watching TV, not having to worry about breaking the hard-drive if any movements. Trackpad is eh, but I'm starting to learn keyboard equivalents, so it's not bad.

I'm still pretty happy with it. Boot-time is awesome. 15 seconds from a cold start. Discuss

September 05, 2008

Microsoft Vista Seinfeld Ad for Vista



This ad is pretty weak. First of all, the mainstream viewer will have no idea it's an ad for the Vista operating system. The Mac/PC guy ads from Apple are simply better. Note to Microsoft, how about touting Vista's differentiating features like media center and more gaming software?

September 18, 2007

Santa Rosa Macbook Pro Impressions

I had the 15" 2.2ghz Santa Rosa Macbook Pro for a few weeks now and I can say I'm pretty happy. I had to return the first one because it had a lot of dead pixels, weird vibrations, and a random crashes. This current one is pretty good except for 2-3 dead pixels, which aren't in horrible places on the screen.

Going back to the Mac platform after a 1 year hiatus was like going back to the water oasis in the desert. OS X is a joy to use and much more stable than Windows XP. It is also great not to have to worry as much about typing in a mis-spelled URL which might install spyware or a virus on my machine. I love the touch and feel of the keyboard and the LED screen is growing on me. I haven't used a laptop as my primary PC in 10 years and its great being able to be mobile and write while having the baseball game in the background. Plus I get the best of both worlds as I recently bought the Dell 3007WPF 30 inch monitor, which works perfectly with the Macbook Pro. Moving from a home built 2.4 ghz Core2Duo PC, the speed at 2.2ghz is pretty similar. Everything is reasonably quick and fast. The only deficiencies would be the incredible amount of heat the computer generates after some use. I assuage this by using Rain Design's iLap, but still it is kind of ridiculous to feel the heated air after some time. The form factor with 15" screen and thin-ness is very attractive. I'm happy with the purchase and recommend the machine highly. Discuss

August 27, 2007

Sony VAIO LT PC/TV Specs



Sony announced their version of the Apple iMac today. It will come with a 22 inch LCD display, 1.3 megapixel camera, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and 2GB of RAM. It can also be used as an HDTV, Tivo like PVR using Windows Vista, and a Blu-ray player (optional feature). The cheapest model will cost $1900 and the HD model will be $2900. It is slated to be available in October, so count your pennies. Competition these days means steal your competitor's ideas shamelessly.

Acer Acquires Gateway


It's been a long way down for Gateway as the company got squeezed on the low-end by Asian companies and the high-end by the two PC clone stalwarts of HP and Dell. Acer announced today it will acquire Gateway for $710 million to jump over Lenovo and become the third largest PC maker in the world. The combined company will have over $15 billion in revenue with 20 million units sold annually.

The deal is expected to close sometime in December pending the approval by the Taiwan and U.S. governments. Acer said it will keep multiple brand names, but we wonder if they will bring the spotted cow boxes back?

July 18, 2007

PC Market Grows 12% in Q2 2007

IDC came out with their PC shipment numbers for the June quarter of 2007.  Worldwide PC shipments grew at 12.5% year over year.  Asia (ex-Japan) grew the fastest with 20% growth.  The U.S. grew 7.2% with laptops leading the way. HP was a big winner growing 26% .  Gateway was the big loser with -7% growth.  Apple came in as the 4th largest PC maker with 26.2% growth and increasing market-share from 4.8% to 5.6%.  Dell lost market-share from 34.1% to 28.6%, while HP grew from 20% to 23.6%.

July 09, 2007

I am Switching Back from PC to Mac AGAIN!

Two years ago I bought my first Macs, a Mac Mini and iBook for the wife, and made it my daily driver PC.  Although I loved OS X, the eye candy, stability, and ease of use, I started to get sick of the slow performance.  I eagerly awaited Apple's Xeon/Conroe driven Mac Pro.  However when it was released, the price was a ghastly $2499 for a base model with only 1 GB of RAM.  Knowing I would have to spend close to $3000 to get the performance I wanted, I switched back to PC for only $700-800 on a new home-built custom config with a Conroe 6400 2.4ghz processor and a ATI1900XT graphics card.

Now one year later, I'm getting sick of the PC's random crashes, ugly user interface, and most importantly afraid of the security issues/malware/hackers/viruses again.  So last night I ordered a 2.2ghz MacBook Pro with 160GB 7200rpm hard-drive to move back in Mac-land.  I'll let you guys know how it goes.  The PC will now solely be a gaming and video transcoding box. [Discuss]

The specs from the Apple Order Status site:

MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2.2GHz
2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
160GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
MacBook Pro 15-inch Glossy Widescreen Display
Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
Accessory Kit
Ships by: Jul 18 - Jul 23
Delivers by: Jul 20 - Jul 27

July 01, 2007

Steve Jobs God-Given Talents

I read an article few months back in Fortune about a consultant who travels around the world helping out CEOs.  He used Steve Jobs as an example on trying to be specific on what talents people have.  Read the passage below. Right on the button.

"A leader who does not produce leaders is not a great leader," he says. "If you agree, I'd like to put that in." (Gomber nods.) Charan is trying to help Emaar construct a document that will help its managers discern in others what he calls "natural talents," or "God's gifts." "Each of us has to be the best calibrator of natural talent of the people who work with us," he says. "What are the three to five most crucial natural-talent items that each person has? It has to be specific" - he taps the whiteboard for emphasis - "and very clear" - tap - "and repeatable" -tap!

"By the way," says Charan, "the last time I talked about Steve Jobs, remember? I've now verified from two directors of Apple, and they say it's right on the button." Gomber and Bartridge perk up their ears. "I asked, Well, tell me his three God's gifts. And they think about it, and they say first thing, this human being has a talent to figure out what the consumer really wants. This is a very valuable thing! No. 2, he has the will and the talent to find - no matter where it is! - the right technology that will deliver what they want. Nobody said he invented one! And third, he has the talent to create demand at the right time. I say, Where do you find those human beings? But he is one."

May 31, 2007

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Chat Session



Walt Mossberg's D conference had an excellent sit-down session with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. A must see. The full multi-part videos are here. Am I the only one that thinks this reminds me of the Mac commercials with the PC guy and the cool Mac dude. It's obvious Gates is a bit intimidated by Jobs' charisma, however Gates comes across as really smart too. I love the historical computer anecdotes back when both companies were startups.

March 23, 2007

Apple TV Innards - Internal Chips

Anandtech has dissected an Apple TV to figure out what's inside. The hard-drive was 40GB Fujitsu on a single 2.5 inch platter running at 4200 RPM with a 2MB buffer. Surprisingly Apple went with a discrete graphics solution, the GeForce Go 7300 with 64MB of GDDR3 Samsung RAM. Although they aren't entirely sure, they think the CPU is a ultra low voltage 1ghz Pentium M (Dothan core) running with a 400 mhz FSB and 2MB of L2 cache. The motherboard is an Intel Mobil 945G with 256MB of DDR system memory. For all the broo-ha-ha, it's just a cheap Intel laptop inside.

November 01, 2006

Best Wireless Router

I bought a 802.11b wireless router last year from Linksys for about $5 after rebate. I know I shouldn't be expecting too much at that price, but now it is crashing 3-4 times a day. This requires me re-booting the router each time by taking out the power cable. Normally it wouldn't be that bad, other than the fact we use Vonage as our phone service. So every time it crashes, our phone goes down.

So yesterday I went out to Staples and bought a Netgear WPN824 v2 Rangemax Wireless Router for $80 with free 512mb USB flash key. I'm pretty happy with it thus far. No crashes yet, the range for wireless connections seems improved. Moreover for whatever reason the wired internet connection on my desktop seems 2-3Xs faster. My only conclusion is the firmware and circuit board on the Linksys was dying causing the problems. You can read and discuss more about routers on our discussion thread.

October 18, 2006

Shining Apple Business

Apple just reported their quarterly results ending in September. The company sold an amazing 8.7 million iPods vs. 6.5 million a year ago. Mac computers had its best quarter in history with 1.6 million units sold. Notebooks were especially hot with 56% unit growth. Desktops only came in at 4% unit growth.

October 16, 2006

TheAngryIntern is Angry about Microsoft's Vista Licensing Policy

"The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time. If you reassign the license, that other device becomes the "licensed device," reads the license for Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, and Business. In other words, once a retail copy of Vista is installed on a PC, it can be moved to another system only once. - Infoweek

I'm sorry, but this kinda pisses me off. It royally screws the Enthusiast crowd, like me, who tend to upgrade quite frequently as the technology changes. What are you guys' opinions on this? - Discuss

October 15, 2006

Vista Upgrade Coupons Start October 26th

According to this article, most PC makers are going to offer Vista upgrade coupons starting on October 26th. Hardware companies hope this will let consumers buy now vs. waiting for Vista's consumer release early next year.

For instance, customers who buy PCs equipped with Windows XP Pro, Windows XP Pro Tablet PC Edition and Windows XP Pro x64 Edition are entitled to a free upgrade to Vista, sources said. Customers will be responsible for fulfillment costs.

Not all of the coupons will be for free upgrades. Customers who buy systems running Windows XP Home Edition can upgrade to Vista Home Basic Edition for a flat $49 fee and to the higher-end Windows Vista Home Premium Edition for a cost of $79.

The Windows Vista Technology Upgrade Program runs from Oct. 26, 2006, through March 15, 2007. Distributors are expected to have the new SKUs in house for system builders by Oct. 15.

October 09, 2006

Nvidia 8800GTX Specs

The new G80 series will launch in mid-November with the 8800GTX as its flagship.

-GPU will be clocked at 575mhz
-full DirectX 10 support with shader 4.0
-768MB of GDDR3 memory at 900 mhz
-128 unified shaders at 1350 mhz
-fill rate of 38.4 billion pixels/sec
-HDCP compliant with dual DVI and HDTV connectors - Source

August 09, 2006

Dell's Current Computer

According to this News.com interview, Michael Dell's current computer is a bit over the top to say the least, but when you're a billionaire I guess anything is game.

The one other thing I want to ask you is what you currently use, right now at home, as your home PC.
I am using a Dell Precision 690, which is our high-end workstation. It's a two-socket system and it's got two dual-core Woodcrest (Xeon 5100 processors) in there. It's got a port with 64 (gigabytes) of memory, but I have only got 32 (gigabytes) in there.

Come on.
And I have got two of our 30-inch monitors, so it's 8.2 million pixels of resolution, which is kind of nice. And I have managed to get a fiber connection to my house, so I kind of dig into that speed on the Internet.

August 07, 2006

Mac Pro Launched

Steve Jobs announced the Mac Pro today. For a base configuration of $2499, you get 2 dual core 2.66ghz Xeon "Woodcrest" processors (basically Conroe for servers), 1 GB of RAM, and a Nvidia 7300GT graphics card. I'm sure glad I bought my Intel Conroe upgrade/ATI 1900XT combo for less than $1000. It doesn't look like gamers who want Conroe performance will be able to get a good price/performance combo deal under the Apple banner in the next 6 months at least.

July 30, 2006

PC System Upgrade Discussion

With the advent of the insanely overclockable Conroe Intel chips (4 ghz anyone?) and the massive AMD price cuts, it is definitely time to consider upgrading your PC System. It is truly a once in a decade event for PC enthusiasts to get a screaming fast machine and a cheap price. Come wrestle with other First Adopters on what is the best option on our discussion forum.

July 16, 2006

Intel Mac Pro Specs - G5 PowerMac Replacements

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News on the G5 PowerMac replacements are finally trickling out. This Mac Pro specs table is making the rounds on the internet. Apple sure hasn't lost its penchant for premium pricing to the least. It also looks like they are going with the Intel Woodcrest server chips vs. the desktop Conroe iteration. Don't worry, they are basically the same thing except for a more multi-processor friendly Woodcrest design. The latest rumor is Jobs will announce the new Intel PowerMacs are "Mac Pros" the first week of August. Discuss

July 15, 2006

Intel Killing PC Gaming

The internet is aflame with debate over Mark Rein of Epic Software saying Intel is killing off PC gaming. I don't think you really can blame Intel for his. Most people just need basic 2D graphics to do web surfing, watching movies, and email.

Gamers really can get decent performance with a cheap $100 add-on graphics card too. Albeit you can't play the latest greatest eye candy shooters at 60 frames per second. The main problem is I think piracy. Games simply don't sell that much on PCs as Bit Torrents and cracks are so freely available. Console piracy is much less widespread. Also there is this small thing called World of Warcraft which is sucking literally billions of dollars out of PC gamer's pockets and the time sink too. Discuss [Thanks stupot42]

July 14, 2006

Intel Core 2 Duo and Extreme Review

The real deal launch reviews of the much vaunted Conroe chips are now out and they don't fail to impress. Intel has taken the performance lead at a lower price point away from AMD. The biggest question is now availability in the channel for the gamers who have been watering their mouths for months.

After years of wandering in the wilderness, Intel has recaptured the desktop CPU performance title in dramatic fashion. Both the Core 2 Extreme X6800 and the Core 2 Duo E6700 easily outperform the Athlon 64 FX-62 across a range of applications—and the E6600 is right in the hunt, as well. Not only that, but the Core 2 processors showed no real weaknesses in our performance tests. (I would say that Core looks like a more balanced architecture than Netburst, but at this stage of the game, Netburst just seems slow almost across the board.) No matter what you're hoping to do with your PC, a Core 2 processor should be a very solid choice.

July 05, 2006

New Eduction iMac for $899

Apple has released a $899 iMac for education buyers only. It will have a 1.83ghz Core Duo processor, a 80GB hard drive, built-in iSight video/web cam, 512MB of memory, 17 inch LCD screen, Mighty Mouse, and Apple keyboard. This means no more CRT Macs as LCDs have fully taken over.

June 29, 2006

Microsoft Delays Office 2007

Microsoft announced they are going to delay Office 2007 from October to early 2007. Looks like the beta-testing hasn't gone well. I took a look at the new user interface and let me tell you, it sure looks different. All those old secretaries around the world are going to shudder at the fact they are going to have to re-train themselves.

"Based on internal testing and the beta 2 feedback around product performance, we are revising our development schedule to deliver the 2007 system release by the end of year 2006, with broad general availability in early 2007," a Microsoft representative said in an e-mail. "Feedback on quality and performance will ultimately determine the exact dates."

June 07, 2006

Windows Vista Beta 2 Download

Microsoft is out with the Beta 2 for Windows Vista. Be careful because it is Beta. Use it only on your experimental machine.

June 06, 2006

Fix for Macbook Overheating

Directly from the Apple support site:

MacBook may run warm because rear vent is blocked. Some MacBook computers may appear to be running too warm, with the fan running consistently and heat emanating from the top and/or the bottom of the computer. If this happens with your MacBook, check the rear vent of the MacBook to make sure it's not blocked. Some MacBooks may have left the factory with a thin piece of clear plastic covering the rear vent. This is used in the factory to prevent dust from getting into your computer. If your MacBook has the plastic still over the vent, simply remove and discard it.

Review: Nvidia Geforce 7950 GX2 Graphics Card

SLI sandwich on one card. Great idea. Here's the review.

This card takes up no more space, draws no more power, and generates no more heat or noise than a Radeon X1900 XTX, but its performance is in another class altogether. The multi-GPU mojo generally happens transparently, too, thanks to a healthy collection of SLI profiles already established in NVIDIA's drivers. Putting two GPUs on a card has allowed NVIDIA to overcome the limitations of its present GPU designs and of current fab process tech to achieve new performance heights in a single PCI Express slot.

May 21, 2006

Microsoft Windows Vista System Requirements

Straight from the horses mouth. The specs don't look too crazy as my current 2-3 year homebuilt PC meet them without any problems.

A Windows Vista Capable PC includes at least:

* A modern processor (at least 800MHz1).
* 512 MB of system memory.
* A graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable.

Windows Vista Premium Ready PCs
To get an even better Windows Vista experience, including the Windows Aero user experience, ask for a Capable PC that is designated Premium Ready, or choose a PC that meets or exceeds the Premium Ready requirements described below. Features available in specific premium editions of Windows Vista, such as the ability to watch and record live TV, may require additional hardware.

A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:

* 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor.
* 1 GB of system memory.
* A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero2.
* 128 MB of graphics memory.
* 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
* DVD-ROM Drive3.
* Audio output capability.
* Internet access capability.

May 20, 2006

Apple CEO Steve Jobs Interviewed in NYC Apple Store



Great interview. Although Jobs doesn't say much, the interviewer knows how to ask all the right questions from iPhone, to expanding marketshare to 10%, and why the processor decision was made.

April 30, 2006

Steve Jobs will Stay at Apple

When Pixar got bought by Disney, there was a lot of speculation that Jobs was vying to take over the top job at the Magic Kingdom. Steve told shareholders of Apple he had no intention of leaving and even said he will spend MORE TIME on Apple after Pixar gets acquired. That is good news for Apple consumers as Jobs is the best at creating and managing innovative products. [Discuss]

April 22, 2006

MacMall Selling Macs with Windows Pre-Installed

That sure didn't take long. MacMall has become the first store to sell Macs with both OS X and Windows operating systems pre-installed. I don't know if Cupertino wants this already, but the cat is out of the bag. [Discuss]

April 08, 2006

Boot Camp - The Target Market

Daring Fireball talks about what the true target market is for Boot Camp.

"So even if Apple only has 2 percent of the total market today, it’s 2 percent from the best part of the market. And if they add another percentage point or two or three, that’s going to come from the juicy part of the market as well. (I’d wager a large sum that Apple’s share of the profits in the total PC industry are significantly higher than their share of units sales.)"[Discuss]

New Silent HTPC PVR System Guide Build

I'm building a new silent HTPC box. I just want a basic analog dual tuner system in the smallest possible reasonable form factor at the lowest price? Also it has to be very quiet.

My first crack:

Silverstone Black SG01 Media Cube Case - $144.99
Seasonic S12-330W - $59
Hauppage WinTV-PVR500 (already have one)
512MB of PC2700 RAM (already have one)
300GB Seagate HD - $135 (probably pick it up cheaper during a rebate sale)
Zalman CNPS 7000-ACLU CPU fan - $29.99
ASRock 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250 ATX AMD Motherboard - $48.99
AMD Sempron 64 2600+ - $68.00
USB-UIRT IR blaster - (already have one)
Tivo Remote Control - (already have one)

I would love comments? [Discuss]

April 03, 2006

Apple Fixes some MacBook Pro Problems

Apple has started fixing some of the initial MacBook Pro problems. It's probably still better to wait a few more months for all the bugs to be fixed.

Dell Launches UltraSharp 2007WFP 20 inch LCD Monitor

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Dell started selling the 2007WFP, which will replace the 2005FWP. The new monitor will support 1680x1050 resolution, 800:1 contrast ratio, and include D-Sub/DVI-D/S-Video/Composite connectors. So far it looks like 3 models with 3, 4, and 5 year warranties. It is a wide-screen monitor perfect for DVD viewing.

Dell Launches UltraSharp 2007FP 20 Inch LCD Monitor

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Dell has started selling the 2007FP, which will replace our beloved 2001FP. It will run at 1600x1200 resolution with 16ms response time. The contrast ratio has been raised to 800:1 which should generate a sharper, wider viewing angle image. It will come with USB/Analog/DVI-D/S-Video/Composite Video connectors and be sold with 3-5 year warranties.

April 02, 2006

Macworld Boston 1997

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This is the historic Macworld speech where Steve Jobs rejoins his company after a 12 year hiatus in the wilderness. You can feel the goose-bumps as Jobs cleans house in terms of the Board of the Directors and announces a huge partnership with Microsoft. Bill Gates comes onto the screen through a satellite downlink can gets boo-ed and snickered. Afterwards Jobs scolds the crowd in saying Apple needs Microsoft to succeed. In one of the great business moves of all-time, Jobs was able to convince Microsoft to invest $150 million in cash and promise to release new versions of Microsoft Office for the next 5 years. This was when Apple was in a precipitous decline and could of easily gone bankrupt.

Steve Jobs Demostrates Nextstep Release 3 OS

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This is a great video on Steve demonstrating his OS baby. This is where many of the user interface features of OS X came from and a lot of it sure looks familiar.

Cringely Bashes Microsoft

What else is new? Cringely writes how Ballmer and Gates connived behind Paul Allen's back to get his shares if he died from his disease. He also brings back old memories how Gates even out-foxed his partner, Allen, into getting a 64% share of Microsoft. All this being said, there is no-one better in pure business skills than Bill Gates. Paul Allen may be a great guy in the Steve Wozniak type of way, however Gates and Jobs are the guys that really drove the success of their respective companies. What Paul Allen is famous for is taking a $30 billion fortune and losing most of it in bad investments down to $8 billion in 2003. He should thank Gates for his fortune.

March 14, 2006

Microsoft Vista Release Date - November 2006

This Microsoft blog written by a Microsoft employee accidently said Vista will be launched in November. It now says second half of the year. Is it me or do the screenshots look like OS X in terms of finger licking candy graphics user interface?

Dell Acquires Alienware?

CNET is reporting according to their sources, Dell has acquired the leading gaming PC maker Alienware. Rahul Sood, the CTO of VoodooPC, speculated that this would happen on his blog some time ago. It totally makes sense as Dell is looking for places to add revenue growth as their core commercial business is slowing down and their foray into consumer electronics has given them a black eye.

March 12, 2006

2560x1600 Gaming Performance Benchmarks

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Firingsquad has the skinny on 2560x1600 gaming goodness. It looks like you really need an SLI solution to have playable first person shooter frame-rates. I think 30 inches is over-kill for gaming as I like my 2001FP gaming just fine. 1600x1200 with better graphic detail is fine for me.
If you saw our GeForce 7600 and 7900 articles yesterday, you’re probably not too surprised by our final results at 2560x1600 – the overall winners and losers didn’t change much at the higher res, just the margin of victory. For instance, NVIDIA clearly dominates in Quake 4 and Pacific Fighters.

March 11, 2006

Via C7-M ULV Processors

Via announced a new line of low power microprocessors. These might be perfect for your silent living room media PC/PVR.

VIA C7®-M Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) processors are custom tailored for a new generation of ultra small form factor x86 devices with leading performance-per-watt operation and the smallest footprint in the industry. The VIA C7-M ULV processors are available in frequency's from 1.0-1.5GHz with a full featured design, while boasting power consumption as low as 3.5 watts, and the smallest CPU package on the market measuring just 21mm x 21mm to enable designs with thinner and smaller components to reduce device weight, size, and thickness.

March 08, 2006

Intel Conroe Benchmark Debate

The internet is going bonkers over Anandtech's benchmarks of the new Intel Conroe CPUs slated to come out in 6 months.

1) Anandtech's Conroe Benchmark article

2) CTO of Voodoo PC's response

What do you guys think?

February 20, 2006

Intel Says new Chips will be 20% Faster than AMD

Intel is bragging that the new Conroe and Merom chips will be faster than AMD's offerings in the second half of this year. Big talk from a company that has been behind for a while, we'll see it when we see it.

Intel expects its forthcoming Conroe and Merom chips to deliver a performance advantage of at least 20 percent over chips from Advanced Micro Devices that are slated to be released at the same time, an Intel executive said Friday. "We believe we'll be able to open a major gap," with the new processors, Eden said. Eden led the design team that created the original Pentium M processor, which is credited as the inspiration for Intel's embrace of low-power design philosophies and the model for Merom and Conroe. Merom and Conroe are expected to launch for notebooks and desktops, respectively, in the second half of this year.

17 Minute Interview with Bill Gates

This is the best interview I've seen ever with Bill Gates. A real heart-to-heart on Microsoft's technologies and what he does day-to-day. He reads Engadget, News.com, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and recently overviewed all the video TV offerings. Bill also generally doesn't watch TV, but catches the occasional DVD like 24. He also likes jumping on trampolines. Oh the life of a billionaire.

February 19, 2006

Microsoft to Offers 8 Different Versions of the Vista OS

You can't make this up. Inside Microsoft there is a marketing consultant who actually thinks having 8 different versions of a operating system is a good idea just like the horrid chrome user interface we saw a couple days ago on the next version of Outlook.

On the line up are Windows Starter 2007; Windows Vista Enterprise; Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista ultimate, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Home Basic N and Windows Vista Business N. The "N" releases are those which do not include Media Player.

February 18, 2006

Tour of NewEgg Warehouse

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First Adopters have been using NewEgg for years for great service and low prices. I never had issues with this company and a swear by using them for all my PC upgrades. I once had a hard-drive that clicked when it arrived and they replaced it no questions asked. Anand got to spend some time in one of their warehouses and learned how it all works.

February 14, 2006

Intel to Cut Price 13-50% on Dual-Core CPUs

Digitimes has sources in Taiwan that say that Intel will cut prices on their dual-cores by up to 50% in April. 65nm production must be treating Intel mighty fine these days.

Intel will lower prices for its 65nm Pentium D 9xx-series processors by 13-50% on April 23, sources at Taiwan motherboard makers indicated, noting that the price cuts are aimed to accelerate the migration to dual-core processors. Intel is also scheduled to launch the Pentium D 960 CPU, which will be priced at US$530, on April 30, according to the sources. The new dual-core processor will feature a 3.6GHz clock speed.

February 09, 2006

New NYC Apple Store will be 24/7

Appe's new mid-town New York City store will be on 59th and Madison in the General Motors building. Staying true to the city that never sleeps, it will be the first store open 24/7.

Apple's upcoming midtown Manhattan retail store will mark a first for the company as sources report the location will be open 24 hours a day. The store, located in the underground retail plaza of the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Street will also be among the first stores to offer customers an iPod Bar. The 25,000-square-foot store will dwarf Apple's SoHo location and will be capped by a 32-foot glass cube that will stand in front of the building and house the stairs and elevators that will take customers underground to the Apple retail store. Sources report that construction of the store is on track to be completed in April, with the store expected to open by the end of May.