Freescale reveals 7-inch smartbook reference design, hopes to see it ship for $200

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/freescale-reveals-7-inch-smartbook-reference-design-hopes-to-se/

Freescale Semiconductor is helping to kick this year's CES off with a bang, as its latest reference smartbook design actually has somewhat of a sexy flair to it. Currently, the model is little more than a great idea, but the company is hoping to have it available for partner evaluation starting next month. In theory, at least, this "smartbook tablet" would boast an ultrathin form factor, weigh around 0.8 pounds and get powered by a 1GHz i.MX515 processor. Other specs would include 512MB of DDR2 RAM, a 1,024 x 600 touch panel, 4GB to 64GB of internal storage, a microSD expansion slot, optional 3G WWAN module, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, a USB 2.0 socket, audio in / out, 3 megapixel camera, inbuilt 3-axis accelerometer, an ambient light sensor and a 1,900mAh battery. We aren't quite sure what kind of bulk discounts Freescale is counting on, but it's hoping that this design will "enable a second generation of smartbook products with prices less than $200." We dig the ambition and all, but we're guessing OEMs will actually want to turn a profit should they sign on to sell something like this.

Gallery: Freescale reveals 7-inch smartbook reference design, hopes to see it ship for $200

Continue reading Freescale reveals 7-inch smartbook reference design, hopes to see it ship for $200

Freescale reveals 7-inch smartbook reference design, hopes to see it ship for $200 originally appeared on E ngadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

Intel's Arrandale and Clarkdale CPUs get benchmarked for your enjoyment

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/intels-arrandale-and-clarkdale-cpus-get-benchmarked-for-your-en/

Whoa, Nelly! Just weeks after Intel came clean with its new Pine Trial nettop and netbook platform, the company is today cutting loose with a few more. This go 'round, we've got the 32nm Arrandale (which consists of the Core i5 Mobile and Core i3 Mobile) heading for the laptops and the 32nm Clarkdale chips over on the desktop front. Starting with the former, most reviews found the CPU + GPU solution to be faster than rivaling Core 2 Duo + integrated GPU options, with the Core i5 being particularly potent in highly threaded applications. Better still, battery life didn't seem to take a hit even with the extra performance, though high-end, high-res gaming was still a lesson in futility when working without a discrete graphics card. Overall, the chip was a welcome addition to the fold, but we got the feeling that the first wave was priced too high and offered too little of a performance increase on the gaming side to really warrant a wholehearted recommendation. As for the Clarkdale? The Core i5 661 that everyone seemed to snag was found to be blisteringly fast, with most folks deeming it the outright champion in the dual-core realm. Unfortunately, the integrated GPU was -- again -- not awesome for hardcore gaming, and the questionable pricing didn't exactly thrill some critics. Do yourself a favor and dig into the benchmarks below -- we get the feeling we'll be seeing oodles of machines hit the wires this week with these chips within.

Arrandale reviews
Read - HotHardware
Read - AnandTech
Read - Tom's Hardware
Read - PCPerspective
Read - Legit Reviews

Clarkdale reviews
Read - NeoSeeker
Read - HotHardware
Read - HardOCP
Read - TechSpot
Read - AnandTech
Read - PCPerspective
Read - Legion Hardware
Read - Overclockers Club
Read - Bit-tech

Intel's Arrandale and Clarkdale CPUs get benchmarked for your enjoyment originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

ASUS UL30Vt-A1 pops up on Amazon for pre-order: silver, 5600mAh battery, $849

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/asus-ul30vt-a1-pops-up-on-amazon-for-pre-order-silver-5600mah/

ASUS' UL30Vt-X1 was largely hailed as the CULV machine to get when it finally went on sale just a few weeks back, and it has a Core 2 Duo CPU alongside a switchable graphics solution to thank. Still, the main two gripes on it were the inability to choose a color and the (comparatively) lackluster battery. Thankfully for those who managed to hold off, ASUS has quietly pushed its UL30Vt-A1 onto Amazon's pages, complete with a silver paint job, a capacious 5,600mAh battery (good for "up to 12 hours" of usage) and an asking price that's $50 higher than the X1. All other specs have seemingly remained constant, from the 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 CPU to the 4GB of DDR3 RAM to the 500GB hard drive. You'll also get a 64-bit copy of Windows 7 Home Premium and an NVIDIA G210M (512MB) + GMA 4500MHD GPU setup, but there's no telling when your order will actually ship. Here's hoping for sooner rather than later, yeah?

[Thanks, Paul]

ASUS UL30Vt-A1 pops up on Amazon for pre-order: silver, 5600mAh battery, $849 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Amazon  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

HSTi Wireless Media Stick nixes the need for dedicated storage drives

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/hsti-wireless-media-stick-nixes-the-need-for-dedicated-storage-d/

The banners aren't even officially up in Vegas yet, and already we're catching a drift of what all will be unveiled in the days to come. Take this Wireless Media Stick for example, which is HSTi's way of telling you that a dedicated storage drive beside your Blu-ray player or media player is completely unnecessary. Put simply, this device (and the accompanying software, we presume) plugs directly into any USB-enabled disc player or media streamer that's connected to your television; from there, you can easily stream media that's already shacked up within your main PC to your TV-connected device(s), which cures the problem of having your media fragmented between varying drives. We're still waiting to hear exactly what kind of technology this thing relies on (we're guessing 2.4GHz), but hopefully we'll find out more (along with a price and ship date) real soon.

HSTi Wireless Media Stick nixes the need for dedicated storage drives originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink ChipChick  |  CES  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

QNAP gets serious with Turbo NAS line, packing Pineview, iSCSI, and VMWare certification

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/qnap-gets-serious-with-turbo-nas-line-packing-pineview-iscsi/

QNAP is generally known around these parts for its ever shrinking line of NAS devices that pack plenty of goods in a small space. The company's latest series sets a new bar for functionality, but does so in a device you probably won't be wedging in on a bookshelf between your well-worn (but never finished) copy of Ulysses and your leaning tower of software boxes. The latest Turbo NAS series is intended for small businesses, available in sizes ranging from one to the eight bay monster you see above, each packing an Intel D510 processor with enough oomph to fuel virtualized environments, so VMware vSphere4 certification and Windows Server 2008's Hyper-V are on-tap. iSCSI is also supported, as is IPv6 and, in one small nod toward consumers, Apple Time Machine backups have been enabled. We're expecting to see the full suite of devices at CES just a few days hence, while they're all slated for retail release in the coming weeks at prices ranging from $599 for the two-bay TS-259 Pro all the way up to $1,499 for that eight-bay TS-859 Pro flavor. You didn't think all this professionalism would come cheap, did you?

QNAP gets serious with Turbo NAS line, packing Pineview, iSCSI, and VMWare certification originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  QNAP  | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...