Friday, November 13, 2009

Dell's Inspiron Zino HD on sale now in America: starts at $229, doubles as an HTPC

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/12/dells-inspiron-zino-hd-on-sale-now-in-america-starts-at-229/

Dell has taken its sweet time in bringing the 7.75- x 7.75- x 3.5-inch Inspiron Zino HD to market, but just 24 hours after it made its market debut across the pond, this little zinger is finally available to the Yanks in attendance. Starting at just $229, the mini PC is far more exhilarating than most ho hum nettops. Oh sure, the base configuration is fairly unexciting, but thankfully Dell enables you to add up to 8GB of memory, a 1.8GHz dual-core AMD Athlon Neo X2 6850e CPU, up to 1TB of HDD space, an optional Blu-ray drive, a 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4330 discrete GPU and WiFi to the mix. 'Course, speccing it out will obviously raise the price substantially, but it's always nice to see more power than anticipated within such a minuscule box. Of note, Dell also mentions that an optional TV tuner, wireless keyboard and mouse are available, but at least for now, the TV tuner is nowhere to be found in the configuration pages. Other inclusions are a 4-in-1 card reader, four USB 2.0 sockets and a pair of eSATA ports. Who says HTPCs have to breathe fire?

Update: We've just heard that the TV tuner won't be available at launch (sounds a lot like what happened with the Mini 10), so there goes those dreams of immediately gratifying your urge for a new HTPC of the smallest scale.

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Dell's Inspiron Zino HD on sale now in America: starts at $229, doubles as an HTPC originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 7:26 AM

AMD spells out the future: heterogeneous computing, Bulldozer and Bobcats galore

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/12/amd-spells-out-the-future-heterogeneous-computing-bulldozer-an/

Believe it or not, it's just about time for AMD to start thinking about its future. We know -- you're still doing your best to wrap that noodle around Congos and Thubans, but now it's time to wonder how exactly Leo, Llano and Zambezi (to name a few) can fit into your already hectic schedule. At an Analyst Day event this week, the chipmaker removed the wraps on its goals for 2010 and 2011, and while it's still focusing intently on Fusion (better described as heterogeneous computing, where "workloads are divided between the CPU and GPU"), it's the forthcoming platforms that really have us worked up. For starters, AMD is looking into Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) configurations, which "represent the combined capabilities of [practically any] two separate processors." We're also told that the firm may actually introduce its Bulldozer (architecture for mainstream machines) and Bobcat (architecture for low-power, ultrathin PCs) platforms more hastily than similar ones have been rolled out in the past, which demonstrates an effort to really target the consumer market where Intel currently reigns. Frankly, we're jazzed about the possibilities, so hit the links below for a deep dive into what just might be powering your next (or next-next) PC.

[Via Digitimes]

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AMD spells out the future: heterogeneous computing, Bulldozer and Bobcats galore originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 7:25 AM

Boxee inks deal with first hardware partner: a 'Boxee Box' is coming

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/12/boxee-inks-deal-with-first-hardware-partner-a-boxee-box-is-co/

Color us shocked and elated. Boxee, the white-hot startup that has risen from nothing to everywhere thanks to its internet TV software portal, has just announced that a deal has been inked between it and an undisclosed "hardware partner." If you'll recall, we actually heard that the outfit was mulling the production of its own set-top-box back in January, and now it looks like Roku, Apple TV and a host of other mini PCs will have yet another formidable rival vying for space underneath the tele. The firm isn't spilling any details whatsoever on the so-called "Boxee Box," but we are told that mockups and the like will be presented at the Boxee Beta Unveiling on December 7th. Oh, and as if you aren't excited enough already, chew on this -- the company has informed us that they believe "this will be the first of several living room devices you'll see running Boxee in 2010," so don't be shocked if your favorite game console or Blu-ray player gains an embedded Boxee app in the near future.

Boxee inks deal with first hardware partner: a 'Boxee Box' is coming originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 7:24 AM

Qualcomm chips promises 1GHz speeds in 'mainstream smartphones,' simultaneous HSPA+ / LTE support

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/12/qualcomm-chip-promises-1ghz-speeds-in-mainstream-smartphones/

Qualcomm's Snapdragon has brought about a new wave of possibilities for smartphones, but evidently those chips are just too exclusive to slip into so-called "mainstream smartphones." In order to remedy such a tragedy, the outfit has today introduced the MSM7x30 family of solutions, which uses an 800 MHz to 1GHz custom superscalar CPU based on the ARM v7 instruction set. The chips support 720p video encoding / decoding at 30fps, integrated 2D and 3D graphics (with support for OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenVG 1.1), 5.1-channel surround sound, a 12 megapixel camera sensor and built-in GPS. In related news, the outfit also announced that it is sampling the industry's first chipsets for dual-carrier HSPA+ and multi-mode 3G / LTE, which ought to make those champing at the bit for a speedier WWAN highway exceedingly giddy. Hit the links below for all the technobabble.

Read - MSM7x30 solutions
Read - Dual-carrier HSPA+ and Multi-Mode 3G/LTE chipsets

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Qualcomm chips promises 1GHz speeds in 'mainstream smartphones,' simultaneous HSPA+ / LTE support originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 7:24 AM

BlackBerry Storm2 hands-on and impressions

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/12/blackberry-storm2-hands-on-and-impressions/

For a company with the most starched, buttoned-up roots of any major wireless manufacturer, RIM's venture out of its enterprise comfort zone to the consumer space went amazingly smoothly thanks to the introduction of the original Pearl, a phone that's still sold in a variety of colors, configurations, and carriers to this day. At some point, though, it became clear that the industry was moving toward touch -- a space RIM had never dabbled in -- and the trend gave birth to the Storm, a product that had obviously been rushed to market with countless software bugs and a dodgy SurePress concept that caused more problems than it solved. With prototypes floating around in the wild mere months after its predecessor's release, RIM's message was loud and clear earlier this year: "we need to fix the Storm, and we need to do it quickly." Ultimately, it's ended up taking the company just about a year to get the Storm2 to market, a product that attempts to tweak Waterloo's touchscreen strategy just enough to undo a few mistakes and send it down the right path. Mission accomplished? Read on.

Continue reading BlackBerry Storm2 hands-on and impressions

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BlackBerry Storm2 hands-on and impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted by Augustine at 7:23 AM

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