Nvidia Ion Supercharges Netbooks With 5X Faster Graphics and Full HD Video [Nvidia Ion]
Nvidia calls its new platform—Atom + GeForce 9400M (the same chipset as the aluminum MacBooks—Ion. Performance-wise, Nvidia is promising 5x faster graphics and 10x faster video transcoding than a standard Atom-powered netbook running on Intel's current platform. The Call of Duty thing, I still want to see before I totally believe it, but they promised 25-30s running at 1024x768 resolution. Not amazing but playable. Before you ask, it'll run Crysis, though the results would make you hurt—which is still better than the current netbook crop. (If you proceed to ask anyway or if it will blend, I will ban you.)
So, it'll run graphics faster, better, meaning netbooks that won't cry when it comes to video tasks, like playing 1080p Full HD video. And you'll see more performance benefits as OSes and apps take advantage of GPU acceleration—like Windows 7, Snow Leopard (Hackintosh power!) and any other CUDA or OpenCL app (admittedly not super common yet). Yeah, you'll be able to actually run Vista Premium and Windows 7 and not hate life (if you've got the RAM too, anyway). Supposedly all with comparable battery life to current systems.
Bad news? We won't see Ion netbooks until about midway through 2009, and when we do they're going t! o cost a bit more than other netbooks—"within $50" of standard netbook pricing, since Nvidia is positioning them as "premium" netbooks, whatever the hell that means. And this still doesn't help netbooks' other serious shortcomings, like multitasking or crummy keyboards.
But at least they'll suck just a little bit less. [Nvidia]
We've seen webcam-based augmented reality before, like in 
What appears to be little more than a black and white advertisement in three recent German automotive magazines becomes a 3D holographic model of the Mini Cabrio through a webcam and the Mini website. Sure, it still takes a good deal of effort on the user's part (they have to go somewhere other than the main ad to really see the ad), but I'd do it for the next year or so before the novelty wears thin. [
After a grueling eight-city coast-to-coast test of the 3G networks run by AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, we've come up with some clear-cut test results. Think you know who has the best network? Think again.
The USB dongles we used for testing were typical 3G cards from the carriers: AT&T's Sierra USBConnect 881, Sprint's Sierra Wireless Compass 597 and Verizon Wireless's Novatel USB727. We used both a Lenovo and a MacBook Pro, but at any given time the cards were being tested on one or the other, in order to keep hardware from being a comparative issue. (After all this extensive testing, we don't think results have much to do with your platform or laptop of choice—even the USB dongles' antennae didn't have as much relevance as sheer position to cell tower.)
These results aren't so random when you plot them on the map. Besides proving that Sprint is a serious contender in almost any location—and should be taken seriously as a 3G and 4G data service provider, no matter what your feelings are about its basic phone service&! mdash;we have confirmed what we thought, that the regional Bell heavies hold their own where their real estate holdings are most vast.
While Konami's announcement of Metal Gear Solid for the iPhone is tough to be topped, the company will also be releasing a few of their other big franchises as well, including Silent Hill and DDR.
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