NewsHands-On: HP's Athlon Neo-based DV 2 "Ultra-Thin" Notebook
Posted 01/09/09 at 06:00:47 PM by Nathan Edwards
We came, we saw, we set up a meeting via twitter (true story!) and we met with AMD's Ian McNaughton and Steve Howard at CES to check out the new "ultra thin" HP DV2, featuring AMD's new 64-bit Athlon Neo mobile processor, which we've heard so much about.
Initial impressions: it's surprisingly cool! Boasting the 1.6GHz Athlon Neo processor, 4GB of RAM, a 13" screen, and the comfortable keyboard that HP's getting increasingly good at (see the HP Mini 1001xx review in our February issue), the DV2 stakes out a spot somewhere just north of the netbook range. The DV2 carries a netbook-worthy price tag ($599), but comes with a whole host of things that netbooks don't: an HDMI port, slimline external Blu-ray drive, and optional discrete Radeon 3000 Mobility-series graphics. AMD says it'll get about 4 hours of battery life, thanks to a CPU and chipset that only draw 25W of power total.
AMD thinks the "ultra thin" notebook genre they're trying to create passes the "mom test," citing a 30% return rate on netbooks last year. They hope to snag some market share from people who like the portability and price of netbooks but are frustrated by their cramped quarters and lack of power.
We look forward to putting the DV2 and another, as yet unannounced Athlon Neo-based notebook through their paces when we can get our hands on them.
NewsAMD's Mobility Radeon 4000 Line Packs 800 Stream Processors in Your Notebook
Posted 01/09/09 at 05:31:00 PM by Andy Salisbury
AMD, still in heavy competition with Nvidia, has been looking for ways to gain ground on the graphics giant for some time. Now, it looks like they’re taking the fight to the mobile front with the announcement of their Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series.
The Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series is based off of the RV770 architecture. It will feature up to 800 stream processors, support for GDDR5 and GDDR3 memory, a 256-bit memory interface and CrossFire support (with the choice of switching back and forth between discrete and integrated GPUs without restarting).
Notebooks from Asus and MSI will reportedly be offering the chipset as soon as March.
NewsDell's Adamo Revealed to be Crazy Thin Laptop Line, Still Mysterious
Posted 01/09/09 at 04:55:47 PM by Andy Salisbury
As you may or may not remember, it wasn’t too long ago that rumors were swirling heavily about just what Dell’s Adamo would be. Many expected that it would be a MacBook Air rival, and today we know that’s just the case.
The boys over at Engadget finally got some face time with the machine, and it’s looking pretty hot. It’s nearly an inch thick, sports a 13-inch screen… and that’s all the information they could get (they weren’t allowed to start it up or anything, but plenty of pictures were taken!)
The machine itself looks really slick, and is very reminiscent of Voodoo’s Envy 133. Let’s just hope that Dell is able to release some specifics about just what’s under the hood, until then, ogle to your heart’s content.
NewsHands-on with Asus's 18.4" Gaming Laptop and New Netbooks
Posted 01/09/09 at 02:30:39 PM by Norman Chan
Asus is here in full force at CES, showing off their vast selection of netbooks and notebooks. We darted straight to the systems that featured the most updates to existing lineups, including the 1000HE, S121, and 101H tablet. We also got our hands on Asus's newly announced W90Vp gigantic gaming laptop. 18.4 inches comes close to Dell and HP's record of 20.1 inches in their previous lap crushers, and is still too unwieldy, in our opinion. Still, we admire the effort and can't help but be awed by the alleged 15000+ 3DMark 2006 score in this "portable" beast.
Much more after the jump!
NewsDell Shows Off Inspiron Mini 10 Netbook, Complete with TV Tuner
Posted 01/09/09 at 02:25:39 PM by Paul Lilly
Falling in line between the Mini 9 and Mini 12, Dell has unveiled the aptly named Inspiron Mini 10 netbook with an "edge-to-edge" 720p 10-inch display. Taking space-saving design seriously, Dell's new Mini 10 also sports an "edge-to-edge" keyboard.
Internal components are largely what you'd expect to find in a modern netbook -- Intel Atom Z530 processor, for example -- but not everything is strictly cookie cutter. The Inspiron Mini 10 also packs a built-in TV tuner, adding another functionality to a market segment thriving on basic tasks. A built-in GPS also comes standard, as well as a gesture sensing touchpad and expanded design studio choices.
No word yet on pricing or availability.
NewsDemand for Windows Beta Downs Microsoft's Servers
Posted 01/09/09 at 01:47:50 PM by Paul Lilly
Have you been anticipating the public launch of Windows 7 beta? You're far from alone. At the Microsoft CES keynote two days ago, Steve Ballmer announced the upcoming OS would be made available in beta form to the general populace today, but the high demand temporarily knocked out both the Windows 7 download page and Microsoft's homepage, TGDaily reports.
Windows 7, which many are hoping will atone for Vista's sins, has gotten off to a rocky start in its pre-release form. MSDN and TechNet subscribers got first crack at the Windows 7 beta build 7000 yesterday, but some downloaders reported receiving errors when attempting to request product keys for the OS. But if the final product -- which Microsoft won't commit to a 2009 launch -- makes common complaints with Vista a thing of the past, most enthusiasts would agree it will be well worth the wait.
Protip: It might be in your best interest to snag a copy of Windows 7 beta and actively test the OS, even if beta testing really isn't your bag. Official beta testers who downloaded Vista back when it was in beta form and submitted at least one bug report ended up being rewarded with a free copy of Vista Business or Ultimate. That doesn't guarantee Microsoft will do the same with Windows 7, so decide for yourself is the risk is worth the potential worth reward.
NewsAsus Leaks Pic of Mysterious Eee D200 Box
Posted 01/09/09 at 11:20:58 AM by Paul Lilly
News site Engadget has posted a pic it claims was sent to Engadget Chinese talking about the high level of interest Asus is receiving at CES. But what makes the pic particularly mysterious is that it shows an as-yet unnanounced Eee D200 PC in what the news site surmises is a booth not open to the public.
Despite the intrigue surrounding the new box, a spec sheet visible in the pic reveals most of the details. The D200 appears to come configured with Intel's Atom N270 processor, 2GB of DDR2-533 RAM, 512MB Flash ROM, two 3.5-inch SATA II hard drives for up to 2TB of storage space in a RAID 0, 1, or JBOD array, 802.11n, and the typical assortment of ports.
Also shown on the sleek D200 is a 3.5-inch LCD touch panel. Combined with the vast amount of storage options and 802.11n, could this be a media server? We don't know, but you can bet we'll post an update just as soon as we find out.
FeaturesWardriving and You: An Insider Guide to Using inSSIDer
Posted 01/09/09 at 11:00:00 AM by David Murphy
Did you know that more Wi-Fi networks are out there than what your computer can normally see? It's true. But depending on the security settings of the wireless network and its overall signal strength, you might not see these alternate options pop up in the standard Windows network settings dialogue. That's where Wi-Fi scanning applications like NetStumbler or inSSIDer come into play. That, and they're the best way you go about cataloging all the hotspots in your neighborhood from the passenger seat of your moving vehicle.
Click the link, and we'll show you how you can use inSSIDer to find out valuable information about the wireless networks floating around you right now!
NewsDell Debuts Reasonably Priced XPS 625 Gaming PC
Posted 01/09/09 at 10:24:52 AM by Paul Lilly
With competition from Gateway and HP, affordable gaming boxes are becoming all the rage and Dell has every intention of participating. The OEM has just launched the XPS 625, a sub-$1000 desktop with a modest spec sheet.
Dell, a longtime lover of Intel, turns to AMD this time around. The affair breathes hot and heavy with AMD's Dragon platform, including configuration options of the fresh out of the oven Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition processor (3.0GHz), dual ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics cards, up to 8GB of memory, a10K RMP hard drive (interestingly this can only be added as an "additional hard drive"), and Windows Vista 64-bit. Dell says the entire system is overclockable through AMD's performance tuning software, and as just configured, it's all going to cost a shade over $2000.
To keep things under a grand, the XPS 625's base configuration consists of an AMD Athlon X2 5600+ Black Edition processor (2.9GHz), 2GB of DDR2-800 RAM, 500GB hard drive, ATI Radeon 4670 videocard, DVD burner, and Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit.
The XPS 625 is available now.
NewsAMD Hopes to Bring Gaming to the Cloud with "Fusion Render Cloud" Supercomputer
Posted 01/09/09 at 10:03:38 AM by Paul Lilly
After the thrashing Intel doled out with its Core 2 and now Core i7 platforms, one might accuse AMD of having its head in the clouds for the past couple of years. Now AMD really is looking to the cloud, but not the way you probably imagined. The struggling chip maker announced at CES a plan to shake up the "deployment, development, and delivery of HD content" by building a massively-parallel supercomputer that will give home to the "AMD Fusion Render Cloud."
"Seven out of 10 of the world’s fastest machines, including the fastest two computers on the planet, are powered by AMD hardware,” said Dirk Meyer, AMD President and CEO. "Today, AMD is pleased to announce a new kind of supercomputer unlike any other ever built. It is being designed to break the one petaFLOPS barrier, and to process a million compute threads across more than 1,000 graphics processors. We anticipate it to be the fastest graphics supercomputer ever."
AMD says its scalable graphics supercomputer will make it possible for content providers to deliver videogames, computer apps, and any other graphically intensive application through the Cloud to mobile devices with a web browser, and without sucking the battery life out of the units since both the movie and gaming chores will be rendered server-side.
Looking at the hardware, AMD says its Fusion Render Cloud will include AMD parts (duh) like the newly minted Phenom II processors, AMD 790 chipsets, and ATI Radeon 4870 GPUs.
Do you see this as being a game changer for AMD, or game over for a company with enough on its plate already? Hit the jump and sound off!
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