Apple to partner with LG on OLED-equipped iPhone, netbook?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/19/apple-to-partner-with-lg-on-oled-equipped-iphone-netbook/

A new rumor from SmartHouse is making the rounds today, with alleged sources claiming LG has partnered with Apple to make OLED displays for a new iPhone and iPod touch, a Taiwan-manufactured netbook that's reportedly already in working prototype stage, and a device with a wafer-thin screen that would link wirelessly to a content-providing box similar to Apple TV. Sure, some of that makes sense, but let's add a good bit of context here. This article in question was written by SmartHouse veteran David Richards, who in the past has brought us such winners as PlayStation 4 launching in 2008, a Xbox 360 equipped with HD DVD, and our favorite, Apple producing its own soap opera series exclusively for the iPod. We're not saying the Apple-LG partnership is entirely out of the realm of possibility, but this guy doesn't exactly have the best track record. Furthermore, this doesn't jibe with two separate reports from Dow Jones Newswire and Commercial Times / DigiTimes that Quanta is providing the screens for an upcoming Apple netbook launching in Q3. Lastly, with today's announcement that LG is licensing Kodak's OLED technology for future devices, we get the feeling the company isn't the best suited to meet Cupertino's demands. Seems like this week's barrage of Apple news has gotten to people's heads, honestly -- keep a sharp eye!

[Thanks, everyone; image courtesy of Frunny]

Read - Re! port on Apple / LG OLED partnership
Read - Articles from David Richards

Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Apple to partner with LG on OLED-equipped iPhone, netbook? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New SMM exploit targets Intel CPU caching vulnerability

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/19/new-smm-exploit-targets-intel-cpu-caching-vulnerability/

This one delves pretty deep into head-scratching territory, but it looks like the folks at Invisible Things Lab have discovered an exploit that could open the door to some potentially serious attacks on certain Intel CPUs paired with some popular motherboards. Of course, the exploit that they've actually released is completely harmless, but it demonstrates that the CPU cache can be "poisoned" to let folks read and write into the otherwise protected SMRAM memory. As NetworkWorld notes, that could lead to some more nefarious folks developing a SMM rootkit, which would be all the more perilous considering that the user of the infected computer would have no way of detecting the attack. For its part, Intel is apparently well aware of the problem, and it has already fixed the vulnerability on some newer boards like the DQ45, but others still in widespread use (like the DQ35 pictured above) have seemingly been left hanging waiting for a fix of some sort.

[Via Network World, thanks Andrew]

Filed under: Desktops

New SMM exploit targets Intel CPU caching vulnerability originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS W90 gaming laptop gets put through its paces, 'raises the bar'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/19/asus-w90-gaming-laptop-gets-put-through-its-paces-raises-the-b/

Suffice it to say that Computer Shopper was really really into that ASUS W90Vp-X1 gaming notebook that popped up on Newegg recently. This nearly 12 pound behemoth, the reviewer exclaims, not only sets "new 3D-graphics and productivity-speed records," but its 18.4-inch (1,920 x 1,080) LCD is "gorgeous," sporting "incredible color quality and wide viewing angles." Also singled out for praise was the Turbo Gear app that lets you overclock the machine by as much as 17 percent (for speeds up to 3.28GHz) and a "robust" 4.1 speaker sound system. Of course, any machine will have a few quibbles, although in this case they seem to be relatively minor: no Blu-ray (though it's supposed to become available at some point in the future) and a 2 megapixel webcam with "grainy" image quality (although "it's more than adequate for Skyping and chatting"). But that ain't all -- hit the read link for all the lurid details, including the hair-raising results of the Company of Heroes DirectX 9 test (spoiler: the word "blistering" was used).

Filed under: Laptops

ASUS W90 gaming laptop gets put through its paces, 'raises the bar' originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba's auxiliary speaker cancels noise from main speaker

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/19/toshibas-auxiliary-speaker-cancels-noise-from-main-speaker/

Er, something like that. Reportedly, Toshiba has conjured up some sort of newfangled technology that's able to more accurately reproduce sound by using a noise canceling auxiliary speaker. Specifically, the tech utilizes "sound from an auxiliary speaker to eliminate noise generated from the main speaker," and in case your wild guess wasn't good enough, it relies on "opposite-phase sound waves generated from the auxiliary speaker attached to the main speaker" to make it all happen. We know, our head is spinning just as fast as yours here, and it's all the more difficult to comprehend without an actual product to demonstrate. That said, Tosh is planning to conduct research and development in order to implement this into its own products, so hopefully we'll be seeing something a touch more tangible real soon.

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Toshiba's auxiliary speaker cancels noise from main speaker originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UFO Spotted Over China [Ufo]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/30MdAawgzNs/ufo-spotted-over-china

Chinese officials have reported a UFO sighting while they were on an airplane and, in case anyone thought it was just a case of baijiu-induced hallucinations, they snapped pictures of it too.

In a report from Xinhua, the government-sponsored news agency, a group of journalists and officials were on a Southern Airlines flight in late February when one of them noticed an unusual luminous object traveling alongside their vessel.

After excitedly pointing it out to everyone around him, one journalist managed to snap a few photos before the object suddenly changed directions and swerved north east. The witnesses debated whether it had been a plane – but later, another plane did appear and everyone agreed that it looked nothing like the unidentified object they'd just seen.

Altogether, the alleged UFO sighting lasted about a minute. Any idea what it could have been? Aliens? Solar flares? AMERICAN SPIES?! [Xinhua]

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