Posts in Notebooks
Quad-core gaming laptop coming your way
Darius Chang | Oct 08, 2008
Though it is not the first gaming machine to sport dual graphics cards, the ASUS G71 has something else to crow about. According to the Taiwanese company, the G71 desktop replacement claims to be the first gaming machine to sport the new quad-core Core 2 Extreme QX9300 processor running at 2.53GHz with 12MB of shared L2 cache.
No doubt the graphics card is the key to rendering eye candy, but Intel claims that the role a processor plays is important as well. The chip is responsible for calculating complex physics, articial intelligence and particle systems that impact the gaming experience. Though not all games support quad-core processing, this Core 2 Extreme chip is a future-proof choice for upcoming titles.
The ASUS G70 is already available in stores, but ASUS has yet to confirm if the G71 edition will be hitting Asian shores in the near future. We'll keep you posted as more information is released.
i-sleep for office naps
John Chan | Oct 08, 2008
Credit: Universitat der Kunste Berlin
Ever dozed off at your desk and woken up only to see a long line of rubbish letters on your text document, thanks to your cheek lying on the keyboard? Working when sleepy is a pain and this concept product, the i-sleep, seeks to make things a little better.
Here's the idea. When you feel sleepy, just close the laptop and this pillow will automatically inflate using air from the notebook vents. You can then safely take a short nap without worrying about oversleeping because an internal alarm wakes you up after 10 minutes. But based on what we know about laptops, we suspect their air vents probably won't blow out enough air to inflate the pillow, especially since most notebooks will power down everything when closed.
There's another problem it doesn't address, either: Bosses don't understand the concept that a 10-minute nap is not laziness, but in fact aids productivity. Though that doesn't really matter since this is just an idea for a school project and not a real product. But if they ever make an i-sleep that works, I know I'll be getting one.
Charge your laptop in 10 minutes
Darius Chang | Oct 07, 2008
Image credit: Aving News
Though there was only one paragraph accompanying this image, it was enough to bring our attention away from hydrogen fuel cell and silver zinc technology. Toshiba has developed a prototype power cell which it calls Super Charge Ion Battery (SCIB), and that can reach 90 percent charge in 10 minutes. It was unveiled during last week's Ceatec 2008 in Japan, but there is no news on when this technology will become commercially available.
Via Aving
Study: Huge growth in Wi-Fi devices expected
Marguerite Reardon | Oct 07, 2008
Embedded Wi-Fi chips could end up in almost a billion consumer electronics devices by 2012, according to market researcher In-Stat.
In-Stat said that more than 294 million consumer electronics devices with Wi-Fi shipped in 2007. But that number is quickly growing and will likely reach 1 billion by 2012. The fastest-growing embedded Wi-Fi segment is mobile handsets. By 2011, dual-mode cell phones will surpass PCs as the largest category of Wi-Fi devices, the In-Stat report said.
Several factors are driving adoption. Over the past few years, prices on Wi-Fi hardware have come way down. And the battery life for devices using Wi-Fi has improved dramatically, making it possible to embed Wi-Fi in handheld devices like cell phones. Today, many smart phones, like Apple's iPhone, come equipped with Wi-Fi.
Read more »
Windows XP gets another lifeline
Ina Fried | Oct 06, 2008
Bowing to continued demand, Microsoft has again extended the life of Windows XP.
Although the largest PC makers can't sell XP anymore (except for ultra-low-cost machines), they can sell Vista Ultimate and Vista Business machines with XP discs in the box, or even Vista machines that are "factory downgraded" to Windows XP.
That option was supposed to go away early next year, as Microsoft was going to stop supplying Windows XP media after January 31. However, the company now says it will offer the discs through July 31, giving the option a six-month extension. (Update: PC makers will also be able to sell the factory downgraded machines online as well.)
In a statement provided to CNET News, Microsoft tried to put the best face on the move.
Read more »
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