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Friday, April 08, 2011

Manual for Alienware M11x with Sandy Bridge confirms NVIDIA GT540M graphics

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/08/manual-for-alienware-m11x-with-sandy-bridge-confirms-nvidia-gt54/

If the previous Alienware M11x R3 spec leak got you all giddy, then we have some good news for you: according to a manual dug up by one of our eagle-eyed readers, it appears that this year's M11x refresh will indeed be coming with second-gen Core i5 ULV and Core i7 ULV options, along with a faster DDR3 bus (1333MHz instead of 800MHz), a higher-res webcam (2MP instead of 1.3MP), an HD TrueLife LCD, and optional 3G / 4G mobile broadband. But of course, the real meat on this laptop is its graphics card, which turns out to be an NVIDIA GeForce GT540M with either 1Gb or 2GB of dedicated memory -- not bad for a laptop of this size. Unsurprisingly, no dates or prices are mentioned here, but given the early start of inventory clearance, it shouldn't be long before Round Rock reveals all.

[Thanks, Matt]

Manual for Alienware M11x with Sandy Bridge confirms NVIDIA GT540M graphics originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 03:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel licensing Kno hardware for partners with manufacturing knohow

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/08/intel-licensing-kno-hardware-for-partners-with-manufacturing-kn/

A month or so ago, we reported that Kno was looking for a way out of the tablet hardware business and intended to transition itself into a purely software-centric operation. Well, now Bloomberg and All Things D tell us that a deal has been worked out to make that desire a reality. A $30 million investment round led by Intel Capital has reportedly been arranged, whose stipulations include granting Intel a license to the hardware designs and blueprints of the original dual-screen tablet. Chipzilla's share of the new buy-in is estimated at around $20 million, though before you start fantasizing about what the company's financial and R&D muscle could do for the platform, we should note that it apparently doesn't intend to build any tablets of its own. The goal is simply to obtain the knohow and share it with its OEM partners (while inevitably tying that gesture of goodwill to more chip orders). As to Kno itself, it'll try to exploit the new cash in its continued efforts to become an educational software delivery platform benefiting from its many partnerships with academic institutions. Knowledge is power, after all.

Intel licensing Kno hardware for partners with manufacturing knohow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 04:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS releases Eee Pad Transformer source code, physical bits to come later

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/08/asus-releases-eee-pad-transformer-source-code-physical-bits-to/

We're still sitting here playing with our Decepticon and Autobot toys, Jetfire and Starscream continuing their battle for airborne supremacy. It's how we entertain ourselves whilst waiting for ASUS to release its Transformer tablet on the world, but now we can at least get our hands on what makes it tick. The source code for that 10.1-inch tablet with its IPS screen and Honeycomb flavor has just been lobbed up onto the company's site and, with just a few clicks, you can continue its trajectory right onto your storage device of choice -- though you'll need to run it through an unzipper before it can really have any impact. What you do with it after that is up to you, but you're going to have to wait a bit longer before you'll have anywhere to deploy the results of the included makefile.

ASUS releases Eee Pad Transformer source code, physical bits to come later originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 07:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer's Iconia Tab A500 soaks up the WiFi rays, hits shelves April 28th for $450

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/08/acers-iconia-tab-a500-soaks-up-the-wifi-rays-hits-shelves-apri/

Ladies and gentlemen, the days of spending $600 for an Android Honeycomb tablet are nearly done -- on April 28th, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 will wash that price away with waves of brushed aluminum. That's when the WiFi-only version of Acer's Android 3.0 tablet will hit Best Buy and online retail for $450 sans contract, but with the same basic raft of specs as the WiFi-only Motorola Xoom: a dual-core 1GHz Tegra 250 SOC, a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 LCD screen, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of flash storage, a 5 megapixel camera around back and a 2 megapixel imager up front, HDMI-out, not to mention a pair of 3260mAh batteries that Acer claims are capable of eight full hours of life while playing HD video. Sure, it's a wee bit thicker and heavier, too, but if you're attracted to shiny things, look for our review in the coming weeks -- or wait until this summer to get one with AT&T. PR after the break.

Gallery: Acer Iconia Tab A500 press shots

Continue reading Acer's Iconia Tab A500 soaks up the WiFi rays, hits shelves April 28th for $450

Acer's Iconia Tab A500 soaks up the WiFi rays, hits shelves April 28th for $450 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thursday, April 07, 2011

RockYou Promotes Lisa Marino to CEOâ¦.And Sheâs Excited about It (TCTV)

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/07/rockyou-promotes-lisa-marino-to-ceo-and-shes-excited-about-it-tctv/

Forgive the snarky headline, but history has shown that navigating a once-hot consumer Web company through the trough of the hype cycle is one of the hardest jobs in Silicon Valley. And very few come out with a billion winner on the other side. (Cough, cough, MySpace, Digg, Six Apart…)

But if anyone is going to pull a turn-around off at RockYou, it’s Lisa Marino. Marino joined RockYou in better days, when her husband Ro Choy was the company’s head of business development. Choy left to start his own thing, but Marino stayed on, continually taking on more and more sales and executive responsibility as the company began to crumble.

She took over as chief operating officer nine months ago, managing layoffs (including possibly RockYou’s founder Lance Tokuda) while she successfully recruited new gaming talent starting with senior VP of games Jonathan Knight. Likewise, she spent nine months cutting expenses dramatically, while managing to grow the top line more than 40% in the fourth quarter. Typically, those two don’t go hand-in-hand.

Presented with a much leaner, faster-growing social gaming company with plenty of cash in the bank, the board was pleased enough with Marino’s job to give her a promotion to CEO. But will these early victories be enough to turn the company around and differentiate itself from larger, sexier players like Zynga?

Marino tells us her hopes and fears for RockYou in the clip below.

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RockYou

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