Lenovo has began offering its 11.6-inch IdeaPad U150 notebooks in the US. Available in two models, the PCs use CULV processors and run the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium along with an integrated Intel GMA 4500 graphics chipset. They also share an 11.6-inch, 1366x768 resolution display.
Intel is planning to almost completely overhaul its Atom processors with an early Pine Trail unveiling and a near complete replacement of its most important models, a leak suggests. The company reportedly plans to introduce its next-generation designs on December 21st and have PC makers shipping finished products by January 4th, when many had expected the initial unveiling. On that day, Intel is reported by Xbit-Labs as planning to scrap its long-serving 1.6GHz Atom N270 and 1.86GHz N280 chips almost immediately.
Atheros claimed a minor breakthrough on Monday through a new addition to its ROCm chips. The AR6003 is billed as not just a rare single-chip 802.11n Wi-Fi part for smartphones and other handhelds but also the fastest of its kind. It takes advantage of features that aren't always used in 802.11n to boost the maximum speed up to 85Mbps in real situations when on the 5GHz band. The technique has the side benefit of increasing the usable range of a handheld compared to older 802.11g wireless.
A rumor today claims that Apple is developing software to expose FM radio tuning for certain models of the iPhone and iPod touch. The software would likely have the same feature set as the current iPod nano and could tag songs to buy them in iTunes; the Internet connection would appropriately give the option of buying the song immediately instead of waiting for the next computer sync. Though not discussed by the source, the DVR-like live pause mode is a probable addition as well.
ASUS' Eee Keyboard is nearing production status, as it has been spotted in an FCC filing recently. The Eee PC is a fully functional PC into the form factor of a large wireless keyboard and integrates a 5-inch, 800x480 resolution touchscreen. The PC has already been slated for an October release date as of this summer.
The IEEE standards group today officially ratified 802.11n, the most recent standard for Wi-Fi. The move officially takes the wireless spec out of the draft status it has been in since 2006 and lets companies develop 11n hardware knowing that it will work properly with any device that supports the technology. Officials plan to publish the final standard in mid-October.
Apple's new iPod touch has a partly neutered 802.11n Wi-Fi chip inside, according to a find by repair house iFixit. The media player is officially listed only as supporting 802.11g, but the Broadcom BCM4329 (PDF) chipset inside can technically use the much faster, 300Mbps maximum wireless standard. It also includes an FM transceiver and could theoretically support both radio stations as well as beaming audio to a car.
Executives at Chumby have said on Thursday that they plan on bringing the gadget's software to other consumer electronics via a series of partnerships. The Chumby can so far bring weather, music, news, photos and trivia to living rooms from the Internet. According to a Thursday Forbes report, the company's chief executive, Steve Tomlin, has established partnerships with Sony, Samsung, Broadcom and Marvell to bring the open-source operating system into TVs, Blu-ray players, clock and tabletop radios and other consumer electronics, with some expected for a release before the end of 2009.
The Mini 110 XP netbook from HP is now available in two new color options, pink and white, and, more importantly, is offered for the first time with Broadcom’s Crystal HD Enhanced video accelerator. The $30 option allows users to play back 1080p HD video files on the Mini 110 XP's standard 10.1-inch, 1024x576 resolution screen or optional 1366x768 screen. The Broadcom card is bundled with ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre, which needs to be used to play back the HD video files.
Dell on Tuesday announced it will add mapping features to its Inspiron Mini 10 netbooks starting next week. The Wireless 700 add-on combines both an internal GPS card from Broadcom and Wi-Fi triangulation technology from Skyhook Wireless to find its own location, which allows it to operate both indoors and outdoors. Indoors, Wi-Fi access points are used to determine the location via their respective and mapped hardware addresses. Outdoors, or when the line of sight to a satellite is available, it reverts to the assisted GPS chipset for a more accurate, network-independent view.
Apple's newest iPhone actually costs slightly more to make than the older version in spite of the more modest update, iSuppli says. The iPhone 3GS' total bill of materials amounts to $178.96 for a 16GB model, or slightly more than the previous $174.33 of the 8GB iPhone 3G. Some of the cost difference is attributed to recent rises in the prices of NAND flash memory; although 16GB costs less to make than it did a year earlier, a small rebound due to economy-driven supply cutbacks means Apple has had to absorb some costs to double its storage.
Online retailer Meijer is offering the first sub-$100 Blu-ray disc player with its listing for the $99.99 Curtis Mathes CMMBX130. The device will play back Blu-ray movies at up to 1080p resolution and also upconvert DVDs to an unspecified HD resolution. There is an HDMI 1.3 output, optical digital audio output and an Ethernet port for servicing and performing firmware updates.
HP today acted on two of its planned system updates by launching them through its online store, including an unannounced processor. The new dv2z costs slightly more than promised at $625 but now has a white color trim option and starts with a single-core 1.6GHz Athlon Neo, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive with Radeon X1250 integrated video. Adding a dual-core 1.6GHz processor costs $25; in a surprise, an option now exists for a 1.6GHz Turion Neo that likely boosts performance still for an additional $75.
Efforts to solidify very high-speed, short-range wireless gained steam today with the creation of the WiGig Alliance (site active soon). The organization is meant to produce a common standard for sending data over a 60GHz link and to streamline developing computers, handheld devices and home theater equipment that can use the wireless link. The ultra wideband technology is fast enough to run about 10 times as quickly as an 802.11n connection -- effectively, 1Gbps -- and has the headroom to not just stream HD video but also to allow for previously impossible features like fast wireless displays and syncing entirely over the wireless connection.
After weeks of trying to reach a settlement and put an end to the long-standing legal battles between them, lawyers at rival chipmakers Broadcom and Qualcomm came to an agreement, with Qualcomm agreeing to pay $891 million to Broadcom over four years. This marks the second payment Qualcomm will be making to the smaller Broadcom in lawsuits, though the first, at $19.6 million, was significantly smaller. Reuters reported the first payment of $200 million to settle the supposed patent infringements will be made in the current quarter.
Adobe has devised a new version of its Flash animation standard which should allow TVs and other electronics to stream content directly, according to an announcement. Called the Flash Platform for the Digital Home, the technology is now being licensed to OEMs and should ship in products scheduled for the second half of 2009. Some companies which have agreed to support the platform include Broadcom, Comcast, Disney, Intel, Netflix, Atlantic Records and the New York Times.
Apple's next iPhone should have improved Internet access, SAI claims. A "plugged-in" tipster in the cellular business has told the publication that a "significantly faster" connection will be part of the update without mentioning other details. It's not known whether the unnamed insider is alluding to the cellular access or to Wi-Fi, either of which is potentially upgradeable with the update.
Healthy netbook sales in China, India and other emerging markets for Realtek Semiconductor have the networking IC designer increasing its 802.11n Wi-Fi chip orders, spurring a shortage manufacturers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), according to a report in the Taiwan-area Commercial Times newspaper. Realtek has reportedly ordered one fifth more Wi-Fi chips in March than in February, and the shortage will last until June, according to a Chinese Commerical Times story. More than 8,000 Wi-Fi chip orders will be ordered in the second quarter.
Broadcom announced on Monday that the Chumby platform will be made available for the company's Internet connected devices that include digital TVs, set-top boxes and chips uses in Blu-ray players. The cooperation between the companies will allow users to tune to Internet radio stations and podcasts as well as access other personalized Internet content. Via widgets, users can access social networks, including Chumby's own, in addition to streaming video or audio content offered by its media partners.
Infineon yesterday quietly introduced a new transceiver chip that may dictate the future of the iPhone and other handsets. The SMARTi LU is touted as the first single-chip radio to include the new Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard for 4G Internet access and does so through a smaller, 65 nanometer assembly process that keeps the design small. It also includes the advanced HSPA+ standard for 3G as well as legacy support for 2G-era EDGE data and GSM calling.
Apple may be turning to Broadcom for the cellular hardware in future iPhone models, say Taiwan-area manufacturers allegedly aware of the changes. Although the company currently uses Infineon chips for the phone's core functions, the insiders claim to have seen circuit boards for either revised or future iPhones with unnamed Broadcom parts for the cellular baseband and RF functions. The swap could suggest a partial or complete replacement of Infineon for the next wave of Apple's devices.
Broadcom has developed a new communications processor that should finally bring 802.11n Wi-Fi to cellphones without the extra power normally needed for the technology. Called the BCM4329, the chip allows the wireless link on the 2.4GHz or 5GHz bands up to 50Mbps in real-world conditions but actually uses less power than earlier parts limited to the older 802.11g standard. It also uses a technique known as space time block coding to more reliably hold a connection on the fringes of the network.
Despite a recent overturning of a ban on Qualcomm chip sales, the company is once again found in contempt of an injunction of 3G cellular phone chip patents held by wired and wireless semiconductors maker Broadcom. Broadcom announced on Tuesday that a federal judge on Monday found Qualcomm in contempt of an injunction agreed to last November preventing it from shipping products using two Broadcom patents.
Adobe today said it would develop optimized versions of its AIR and Flash 10 apps for ARM11 and Cortex processors. The update will be part of the Open Screen Project initiative and is meant to bring both complex Internet apps as well as more advanced web video to more than desktop computers. The partnership specific to ARM includes a combination of chipmakers such as Broadcom, Freescale, NVIDIA, Samsung and Texas Instruments and should use both a newer, faster generation of ARM processors as well as OpenGL ES 2.0-capable graphics hardware to handle tasks that were previously impractical for lower-performance devices.
A ban on Qualcomm chipsets has been partly overturned today by a US appeals court. A federal judge has ruled that the International Trade Commission's halt on imports of cellphones with certain Qualcomm 3G cellular chips overstepped the organization's authority by banning parts that weren't directly named in Broadcom's patent violation lawsuit against Qualcomm. Broadcom hasn't responded to the decision.
Chipmakers Broadcom and Qualcomm are taking their fight to court yet again, as a Wednesday report has the former filing a patent misuse complaint in federal court against the latter. This is the latest development in the ongoing legal battles that date back to 2005 over mobile phone technology licensing between the two wireless device chipmakers. Broadcom claims Qualcomm’s misuse of patents allows it to collect double the royalties it is entitled to, hurting the wireless industry and its consumers. The filing was made in a San Diego, California US District Court on Tuesday.
Apple's widely discussed mystery product transition will involve dedicated movie processing hardware, according to a claimed tip on the subject sent to Silicon Alley Insider. The rumor would have at least some of Apple's products carry a chipset that would accelerate both decoding and encoding video, offloading much of the work from the main system processor. The source doesn't name which products would receive the update, which if true would appear before the end of September.
Apple is preparing significant changes to the iPod nano as it prepares a dramatic ramp-up in iPhone 3G shipments, according to a report by FBR Research analyst Craig Berger. The investment expert now anticipates an updated, lower-priced iPod nano in the near future on top of refreshes for both the iPod classic and iPod touch. Further details are unavailble, though Apple has traditionally increased capacities of the iPod in August or September as flash memory and hard drive technology improves; the company took the unusual step this year of doubling iPod touch capacity to 32GB just a few months after the product was introduced.
Despite Intel's claims that Centrino 2's official appearance is due in August, some of the company's notebook processors and platform will appear in mid-July, according to reports. The chipmaker is now anticipated to launch all its mainstream mobile processors, including 2.53GHz and 2.8GHz full-power chips as well as 2.26GHz, 2.4GHz, and 2.53GHz low-power models, on July 14th. Mobile chipsets for notebooks using dedicated graphics will also be available at the same time.
Computer-oriented Blu-ray drives should quickly drop in price to where such drives are easily practical for both desktops and notebooks, SonyNEC Optiarc says. The joint venture estimates that desktop Blu-ray combo drives, which can only read the HD format but can burn DVDs and CDs, should reach the key $100 price point by the holidays this year. Slim drives for notebooks will be more expensive to build but should still reach the $150 price point, according to the device maker.
A GPS receiver will indeed be in the 3G iPhone, and the technology will be supplied by Broadcom, according to anonymous sources. Contacts cited by GigaOM say that Broadcom has secured a contract with Apple, beating out older, more established competitors such as SiRF, whose SiRFstar III receivers are used in a vast number of navigation devices. Broadcom normally provides chips for cellular communication, and only acquired GPS resources with the buy-out of Global Locate in June of last year.
Living up to an earlier promise, Dell started the weekend by introducing what it says is the first notebook below the $1,000 mark to come with a Blu-ray drive. The 15.4-inch Inspiron 1525 now has the option of either a Blu-ray combo drive limited to burning DVDs and CDs or else a full Blu-ray burner; with the former option, the system price can dip as low as $879 while still supporting HD movies at 720p, Dell says.
Qualcomm will avoid a potentially damaging Broadcom-related ban through its own inventions and a special exemption-, both a federal judge and Qualcomm itself have revealed. After failing to dismiss claims by Broadcom of patent infringement for video compression and network technologies, Qualcomm is required to stop selling some chips in the US which use the WCDMA technology at the heart of AT&T's 3G network. However, the federal court has now granted a stay that will let Qualcomm sell some of these chipsets through January 2009 as long as it pays royalties for the technology.
