Tech News Updates

Earlier this summer, Sony closed another fiscal year of being in the red , but it’s starting the 2010/11 ledger with its quill dipped firmly in the black inkwell. For the quarter ending June 30, the Japanese megacorp clocked up

Site ChipChick nailed it when noting the similarity between this 8GB steampunk USB drive and Rosie the Robot of Jetsons yore. The drive’s creator, however, says it was inspired by a “narrow bridge” sign seen on a old country road. Really? Just look at that barrel-shaped cap staring down at you from atop a frilly gear collar; hands on hips in a tempestuous pose that makes us feel like we’ve somehow wronged her. Regardless, for $300 she’ll make a fine addition to your alternate-history abode. A steampunk USB drive that could clean H. G. Wells’ house originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Although foreshadowed , it’s hard to believe that the once mighty Ninty, a company with unshakable profits even during last year’s global economic downturn, just recorded a Q1 net loss of

Nokia claims it always prioritizes antenna performance over physical design , and we’ll take them at their word, but that apparently didn’t exempt one Espoo handset from Apple’s grip of doom. Here’s the Nokia N97 Mini going down for the count, from a full seven bars to two. Of course, Apple doesn’t mention whether calls or data drop when the handset’s held this way. Video after the break. [Thanks, Lyndon W.] Continue reading Apple shows Nokia’s N97 Mini can be force choked, too (video) Apple shows Nokia’s N97 Mini can be force choked, too (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

If your gear isn’t pushing the performance envelope , you typically have to resort to alternative means for attracting those precious customers. Sony’s newish VAIO E series is an exponent of just such a philosophy, with its lurid colorings and replaceable keyboard skins . The company’s decided to take things up a notch, however, by now offering a Color Combo site where we can combine the gnarliest hue mismatches this side of Colorware . The chromatic choices include the laptop’s case and keyboard as well as the additions of a wireless mouse and a reversible sleeve. Everything that isn’t bolted down to the computer will of course cost you extra, but will you really let a little bit of cash stand between you and that magenta dream machine? Sony thinks E Color is the new black, gives you a whole site’s worth to choose from originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 01:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Well, we’ve gone a full month since the last episode of NVIDIA’s and Intel’s ongoing public feud, but it looks like Intel has now stoked the flames once again (albeit inadvertently) in a paper presented at the recent International Symposium on Computer Architecture. That attempted to debunk the “100X GPU vs. CPU myth,” but it also contained the tidbit that GPUs are “only” up to 14 times faster than CPUs in running application kernels, which NVIDIA has more than a happily latched onto. In a blog post, NVIDIA’s Andy Keane says that it’s a “rare day” when a competitor states that their technology is only 14x faster, and that he can’t recall another time when he’s “seen a company promote competitive benchmarks that are an order of magnitude slower.” Of course, he then further goes on to note that Intel’s tests were done with NVIDIA’s previous generation GeForce GTX 280, and that the codes were simply run out-of-the-box without any optimization — but, still, he seems more than happy to accept this bit of “recognition.” In Intel’s defense, however, the overall finding of the paper (linked below) is that the performance gap between a GTX 280 GPU and Core i7 960 processor is actually just 2.5X “on average,” which NVIDIA hasn’t highlighted for some reason. NVIDIA thanks Intel for saying GPUs are ‘only’ 14 times faster than CPUs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Hey, what do you know — the Fusion lives! AMD’s CPU / GPU hybrid, which sounded so revolutionary back when it was first thought up , has finally shown off its Accelerated Processing grunt by chewing through a section of Aliens vs Predator live on stage at Computex. We can’t say we were exactly bowled over by the performance — the demo was just a leisurely walk through some leafy terrain, yet still seemed to dip below 30 frames a second at a few points, showing that the APU wasn’t all that comfortable handling the DirectX 11 tasks that were put upon it. This chip is targeted at ultraportables, however, and that’s a crowd with distinctly lower standards than your usual desktop gamer, so maybe there’s a future for this 2011-bound slice of silicon after all. We’ve got video of the full AMD presentation after the break — you’ll want to skip ahead 59 minutes to see the AVP runthrough. Gallery: AMD Fusion APU launch at Computex 2010 Continue reading AMD Fusion APU gets its first public demo at Computex (video) AMD Fusion APU gets its first public demo at Computex (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Good news for Nippon-based handheld lovers: from June 19, Nintendo will be selling the DSi at a new reduced price of

If Dell’s vision of a mainstream Android device for 2011 ends up materializing, we’re not sure we even need a high end anymore. Okay, that’s not true — we’ll obviously be power freaks to the bitter end — but the so-called “Flash” that we’ve just caught wind of (no relation to the Adobe product of the same name, as far as we can tell) looks to be a lovely piece of kit. Dell plans to fashion this thing out of a slice of “curved glass,” topping out at 11mm thick with a 3.5-inch WVGA LCD, 850 / 1900 / 2100MHz HSPA topping out at 14.4Mbps down and 5.6Mbps “or better” on the upstream, a 5 megapixel autofocus cam with image stabilization and smile / blink detection, 512MB of RAM and ROM with microSD expansion up to 64GB (Dell’s clearly assuming there’ll be 64GB microSD cards by next year), WiFi, TV-out, 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth 3.0, and a Qualcomm MSM7230 core humming along at 800MHz. As you might recall, the MSM7230 is part of Qualcomm’s next generation lineup of midrange smartphone cores, a series that looks to bring Snapdragon-class performance to the masses with HD video out capability and — hopefully, anyway — the performance you’ll need to make Flash 10.1 fly. Dell plans to load this bad boy with Android Froyo , presumably with the same kind of custom skin that it’ll start pushing with the Streak series this year; we’re seeing references to a so-called “Stage UI,” and we think that’s what it is. This one’s mentioned for a first quarter ‘11 release on AT&T and globally, though it’s not clear whether it’ll be AT&T-branded or simply be offered as an unlocked device compatible with AT&T’s 3G bands — but either way, you can count us in. Don’t change a thing, Dell. Gallery: Dell Flash to offer Android Froyo in a ‘dramatic’ package Dell Flash to offer Android Froyo in a ‘dramatic’ package originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Six cores. Twelve threads. A new flagship processor in Intel’s stable. Here at GDC in San Francisco, the world’s most widely recognized chip maker is dishing out its latest desktop CPU , and to say it’s a niche device would be greatly understating things. We spoke to a number of Intel bigwigs at tonight’s media event, and everyone confessed that the Core i7-980X Extreme Edition was a low quantity, high performance device aimed specifically at gamers and content editors that simply refuse to live anywhere other than on the cutting edge. Intel’s planning on selling these in retail, standalone form for $999 (MSRP), while they’ll soon be available in a variety of gaming rigs from the likes of Dell, Alienware and whoever else wishes to keep with the times. As for Apple? The company stated that Steve and Company “sort of call their own shots,” and that we’d have to dig at Apple if we really wanted to know what their refreshed Mac Pro would hold. We chuckled, nodded in understanding, and then learned that this here slab of silicon is a bit ahead of the software out there, with Intel noting that only games optimized for 12-thread use and benchmarking utilities that did likewise would really demonstrate the performance boost. ‘Course, anyone who spends a great deal of time multitasking will appreciate the extra headroom, and power users can always find ways to make use of more horsepower. Oh, and for what it’s worth, the company stated that this will be its lead desktop chip for some time to come, and if you’re looking for a mobile version in the near future, you can keep dreaming. As for the critics? Just about everyone with a benchmarking license managed to get one of these in-house, and everyone seems to feel (mostly) the same way. There’s no denying that this is Intel’s speediest consumer chip ever, but you won’t find 50 percent boosts just anywhere. Yet . When the software catches up, though, there’s no doubt that this chip will make even the other Core i7s look downright sluggish. 50 percent more cores and 50 percent more threads than the prior kings of the line leads to fantastic gains when serious number crunching is involved (audio and video editors, we’re staring at you), with some tests showing upticks in the 30 to 50 percent range. As a bonus, the power consumption here is also extremely reasonable, with the shift to 32nm enabling it to even use less power in some circumstances when compared to the Core i7-975 Extreme Edition . Dig into the glut of reviews below if you’ve got a cool grand with “chip upgrade” written on it — you’ll be glad you did. Read – Hot Hardware Read – AnandTech Read – Techgage Read – Computer Shopper Read – Bit-Tech Read – PC Perspective Read – Neoseeker Read – Hardcoreware Read – TweakTown Read – PC World Read – TechReport Read – Benchmark Reviews Read – Hardware Canucks Read – Overclockers Club Intel’s Core i7-980X Extreme Edition ‘Gulftown’ review roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink