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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Acer AC700 WiFi goes on sale, is your $350 ticket to the Chromebook club

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/11/acer-ac700-wifi-goes-on-sale-is-your-350-ticket-to-the-chromeb/

Good niches don't come cheap, but while $350 isn't exactly a steal, Acer's new AC700 will, at the very least, get you into the wonderful cloud-based world of Chrome OS for a good deal less than, say, Samsung's Series 5. Of course, there are certain sacrifices to be made for the sake of affordability, namely the fact that the current version of Acer's entry into the space is WiFi-only -- a 3G version is set to hit later this summer for, one assumes, a noticeable price bump. The AC700 has an Atom N570 processor, 16GB of storage, and 2GB of RAM, and best of all, is available right this very moment.

Acer AC700 WiFi goes on sale, is your $350 ticket to the Chromebook club originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maingear Clutch-15 gets upgraded with NVIDIA Optimus graphics switching

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/11/maingear-clutch-15-gets-upgraded-with-nvidia-optimus-graphics-sw/

It's been a while since we last laid eyes on Maingear's fine looking Clutch-15, and while it's still rocking that sexy exterior, the latest iteration has a little surprise for you under the hood. With the recent addition of NVIDIA's graphics switching Optimus technology, this portable's bringing the juice -- battery juice, that is. Aside from that, things look mostly the same, inside and out; you've still got your pick of Intel Core i3 or i5 CPUs, a 750GB HDD or 512GB SSD, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, and the same (still disappointing) WXGA display. This go 'round, however, the dedicated graphics have been bumped up a touch with NVIDIA's GeForce GT 525M GPU (1GB). If automated graphics switching is your thing, you can get your custom laptop on at the source link starting at $1,030. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Maingear Clutch-15 gets upgraded with NVIDIA Optimus graphics switching

Maingear Clutch-15 gets upgraded with NVIDIA Optimus graphics switching originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fossil won't ship the Meta Watch until August, Dick Tracy wannabes get antsy

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/11/fossil-wont-ship-the-meta-watch-until-august-dick-tracy-wannab/

Some of you with a James Bond complex might have been waiting on Fossil's Meta Watches, a duo of wristpieces that use Texas Instrument's CC2560 Bluetooth radio to pull in emails, Facebook updates, weather forecasts, and more -- depending on what else developers cook up for it, that is. On top of that, the SDK allows Android smartphones and tablets to register button presses and receive sensor data from the watches, and then respond by sending text or triggering the vibration motor. If you already set aside $200 when they went up for pre-order two months back, you're going to have to twiddle your thumbs a bit longer. In response to a tweet from a curious customer, Bill Geiser, vice president of Fossil Watch Technology, said that thanks to some part delays, the two are now on track to ship in August, not July. If this is all new to you, that means you've got some time to ponder whether you'd rather have the analog / digital version or the fully digital one with a larger memory-in-pixel LCD. Decisions, decisions, folks.

[Thanks, Alex]

Fossil won't ship the Meta Watch until August, Dick Tracy wannabes get antsy originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PROTECT IP Act called unconstitutional by bipartisan group of law professors

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/11/protect-ip-act-called-unconstitutional-by-bipartisan-group-of-la/

Turns out Eric Schmidt is not alone in his vehement opposition to the PROTECT IP Act, and the resistance is hardly partisan. A group of over 100 law professors signed a letter (jointly authored by Mark Lemley, David Levine, and David Post) arguing that the legislation working its way through congress is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that speech can't be suppressed without the speaker being given an opportunity to defend his or her actions. Yet, under the bill being advocated for by the RIAA the MPAA, a judge can issue a temporary restraining order that will essentially shutdown a site based only on evidence presented by the government. The letter warns that, not only could overseas domain owners be cheated of the right to due process but, plenty of protected speech could be censored based a single piece of infringing material. As we warned, this can only get nastier and this nascent battle is still only just getting started. Check out the full letter at the source.

PROTECT IP Act called unconstitutional by bipartisan group of law professors originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD announces the Radeon HD 6990M, has some pointed words for NVIDIA

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/12/amd-announces-the-radeon-hd-6990m-has-some-pointed-words-for-nv/

Here are five words you've heard before: "the world's fastest notebook GPU." Why, NVIDIA made just that claim two weeks ago, when it touted the GeForce GTX 580M as the nimblest card this side of Pluto. Not so fast, says AMD. The outfit just unveiled the Radeon HD 6990M with DirectX11 and HD3D support, and it insists this is the speediest GPU on the block -- specifically, up to 25 percent faster than any other GPU that's been announced to the public. And yes, AMD's well aware of that 580M. Just like NVIDIA came out swinging, making pointed comparisons to the Radeon HD 6970M, AMD's got some fighting words of its own: the outfit says the 6990M can whip the 580M in the benchmark AvP and games such as Batman Arkham Asylum, Dragon Age 2, Shogun 2, BattleForge, Left 4 Dead, Metro2033, Wolfenstein MP, The Chronicles of Riddick, and E.T.: Quake Wars. We don't need to remind you that these numbers merely represent the story each company wants to tell. Still, you get the idea: these are the top-of-the-line cards each has to offer at the moment, and they'll likely be competing for space in your next gaming rig.

As you can imagine, the 6990M joins other Radeon HD cards in supporting the company's Eyefinity technology, as well as GPU app acceleration. Let it be known, too, that while the 6990M supplants the popular 6970M as far as performance claims go, AMD tells us the 6970M will still be available for the foreseeable future. Speaking of availability, the 6990M will be offered in the Alienware M18x -- right alongside NVIDIA's 580M. Additionally, you'll find it packed inside Clevo's P170HM and P150HM. And you didn't think we forgot about specs, did you? Head on past the break to find the full PR, along with a handful of technical details straight from the horse's mouth.

Continue reading AMD announces the Radeon HD 6990M, has some pointed words for NVIDIA

AMD announces the Radeon HD 6990M, has some pointed words for NVIDIA originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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