Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Monday, July 12, 2010

Twelve flavors of GeForce GTX 460 now shipping from Newegg (update: official)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/11/twelve-flavors-of-geforce-gtx-460-now-shipping-from-newegg/

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 460 hasn't even been officially announced, much less reviewed, but that won't keep you from buying the company's latest Fermi-based graphics card anyhow. Over at Newegg, usual suspects ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI and Palit have fielded twelve models in all, most with slightly different features, thought it seems the base configuration has 336 CUDA cores (down from 352) and a mere 768MB of GDDR5 memory. Interestingly enough, this silicon's actually rated faster than its older brother the $280 GTX 465 with 675MHz graphics and 1,350MHz processor speeds, and a 3.6GHz effective memory clock. All your frames are pushed through a decidedly narrower 192-bit memory interface, though, so we'd guess that for around $200, you won't be getting (much) more than you pay for. Let's just hope they run cool.

Update: The card's official, and it seems there's a 1GB, 256-bit version of the GTX 460, too. Hit the break for the full press release, filled with all the puffery a video game marketing team could want.

[Thanks, Polytonic]

Continue reading Twelve flavors of GeForce GTX 460 now shipping from Newegg (update: official)

Twelve flavors of GeForce GTX 460 now shipping from Newegg (update: official) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mimo goes giant with 10-inch iMo Monster USB-driven monitor

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/11/mimo-goes-giant-with-10-inch-imo-monster-usb-driven-monitor/

Who says the USB monitor fun has to end at seven diagonal inches? Not Mimo, that's for sure. The famed secondary display company has issued its latest device, and this one's a looker. The 10-inch iMo Monster is aptly named, offering 10 full inches of touchscreen real estate with a native 1,024 x 600 resolution panel. The whole thing weighs just 1.77 pounds and it fully supports both Windows and OS X platforms; best of all, a single USB 2.0 cable provides all the power and connectivity you'll need. Mimo throws in a stylus, 4.5-inch USB cable and a boatload of bragging rights, but given the "limited availability," you may want to part ways with your $259.99 right away if you're looking to pick one up.

Continue reading Mimo goes giant with 10-inch iMo Monster USB-driven monitor

Mimo goes giant with 10-inch iMo Monster USB-driven monitor originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Entelligence: Time for Microsoft to once again embrace and extend

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/11/entelligence-time-for-microsoft-to-once-again-embrace-and-exten/

Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

A core part of Microsoft's strategy from days gone by was known as embrace and extend. With a reboot of their mobile platform due later this year, is it time for Microsoft to think about moving some of their services and applications to competitor's platforms? To some degree, it's already happening. Microsoft licenses the ActiveSync protocol which allows Android, iOS and other platforms to wirelessly sync with Exchange. It's developed Bing and Live Messenger apps for iOS and also done a deal to bring mobile Office apps to Nokia's platforms. One could argue that in some of these cases Microsoft has given competitors access to what could have been key differentiators for its own mobile efforts. I'm not sure I disagree with that analysis, but now that it's happening, I think Microsoft should think even more broadly about porting some applications and services. Here's what I'd like to see made available for other platforms.

Office Mobile: Sure, there are other solutions for viewing and editing Office documents on almost every platform, but none of them carry the Microsoft Office brand. A version of Office for mobile (including a touch-enabled version of OneNote) would be an instant best seller on every platform and a become the de facto standard for mobile office applications. A combination of free document viewers and a suite of applications at a reasonable cost would put Microsoft at the top of mobile productivity and at the same time help continue to drive Office sales for PCs and Macs.

Continue reading Entelligence: Time for Microsoft to once again embrace and extend

Entelligence: Time for Microsoft to once again embrace and extend originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 becomes everyone's favorite midrange graphics card

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/12/nvidia-geforce-gtx-460-becomes-everyones-favorite-midrange-grap/

It's rare to come across a universally lauded product nowadays, but NVIDIA's fresh new GTX 460 is just that sort of exceptional creation. Contrary to its GTX 465 elder brother, the 460 isn't a chopped-down top-tier part and is instead built on the new GF104 core. This smaller core, designed from the start to perform humbler functions, has ameliorated the famed power inefficiency that has been a Fermi signature so far, and has resulted in AnandTech describing the new card as "the $200 king." You'll get 768MB of onboard RAM at that point, but we'd splurge an extra $30 to make that a round gigabyte and enjoy some extra L2 cache and ROPs on the card. Either way, the GTX 460 seems to have completely killed off the market for the 465 and is stepping all over ATI's toes with its competitive pricing and, for once, decent heat and power metrics. Oh, and apparently it "overclocks like a monster" too -- hit the links below for the full reviews.

Read - AnandTech
Read - HardOCP
Read - Hot Hardware
Read - Tom's Hardware
Read - PC Perspective
Read - Bit-tech
Read - Guru 3D
Read - Legit Reviews

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 becomes everyone's favorite midrange graphics card originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android App Inventor lets you be the developer (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/12/android-app-inventor-lets-you-be-the-developer-video/

Google is following in Nokia's footsteps today by offering its users a simple-to-use DIY app maker. Employing a design scheme that relies on visual blocks rather than oodles of arcane code, the App Inventor -- still in Beta, of course -- has functions for "just about anything" you can do with an Android handset, including access to GPS and phone functionality. All that's really missing is the raw creative talent, which we're sure you'll be happy to provide. Hit the source link to get involved or skip past the break for an educational video.

Continue reading Android App Inventor lets you be the developer (video)

Android App Inventor lets you be the developer (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 04:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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