02/12, 12:15am
We review Dell's smaller XPS performance notebook
The 13- to 14-inch notebook screen size is currently one of the hottest areas of competition right now: it's where Apple, HP, and others start off their higher-end models. Dell has certainly been one of the most active in this space and has brought its high-end XPS line to that space through the 14z. We'll check in our Dell XPS 14z review whether the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the Sony VAIO S, or comparable rivals will feel the strain.
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02/10, 9:55pm
Windows 8 on ARM to require HTML5 for advanced web
Microsoft's Windows leader Steven Sinofsky picked an interview this week to reveal that Windows 8 on ARM wouldn't support plugins. He explained to AllThingsD that Internet Explorer on these chips, even in the regular desktop, wouldn't run Flash or any similar browser add-ins. Mobile devices were moving away from Flash as a whole, he said.
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02/10, 2:05pm
MacBook Pro expected to slim across the line
On and off rumors of a major MacBook Pro redesign were supported on Friday with leaks supporting a complete overhaul. The AppleInsider hints had Apple's high-end notebooks being overhauled over the course of 2012 to more closely resemble the MacBook Air, dropping optical drives and slimming down. Rumors of a 15-inch Air were more likely references to Apple repeating what it did with the unibody MacBook Pro, where the 15-inch model led the redesign and other sizes followed later.
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02/09, 8:20pm
Intel gets away with minor payout to avoid lawsuit
Intel and New York state together stated Thursday that they had settled New York's antitrust lawsuit. The chip designer had managed to pay just $6.5 million and avoided having to admit or change its behavior over the wrongdoing. Its light penalty came after a district court judge had previously ruled that New York couldn't get tripled damages for willful violations and cut the statute on those affected by half, to three years.
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02/09, 6:20pm
Gaming laptop features 3rd generation Core i7 CPU
Samsung's new Ivy Bridge powered gaming laptop has popped up at the company's US website and is available for pre-order. The 17.3-inch NP700G7C-S01US is powered by a third-generation and so far unannounced 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM quad-core processor. It comes paired with a similarly unofficial, discrete NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M for graphics.
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02/09, 2:15pm
Microsoft outlines Windows 8 ARM support
Microsoft's Windows lead Steven Sinofsky in an elaborate breakdown Thursday ended rumors and confirmed that Windows 8 on ARM would support a conventional desktop. Users could still have access to the file system, desktop Internet Explorer 10, and "most" other core features as their x86-running counterparts. Office 15 would carry over, too, and would have touch and power optimizations despite running in the conventional desktop space.
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02/08, 11:20am
HP Envy 14 Spectre tackles Apple
HP on Wednesday began selling its most direct competitor to the MacBook Air, the Envy 14 Spectre. The pseudo-ultrabook starts at a relatively steep $1,400 with a 14-inch, 1366x768 display, a 1.6GHz low-voltage Core i5, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB solid-state drive. Options can take it to a 1.8GHz Core i7 and a 256GB SSD.
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02/07, 7:40pm
Desktop replacement sports 6-core Intel CPU
Cleveland-based AVADirect is accepting pre-orders for a new gaming portable that integrates one of the refreshed, Sandy Bridge-E Intel Core i7 desktop processors into a laptop form factor. The Clevo P270WM is a 17.3-inch desktop replacement that can come equipped with either a 3.2GHz or 3.3GHz Extreme Edition chip. It can also house dual NVIDIA mobile graphics chips in SLI.
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02/06, 9:00pm
Lion update includes sharper art assets
Skulking in Apple's Mac OS X 10.7.3 update has raised possibilities that Apple's on-again, off-again high-DPI support may be more established in the final version. Art assets found for mouse pointers by Marc Edwards both look different and scale to large sizes without the usual pixelated look. One claim had a Mac mini using HDMI kick into the normally hidden HiDPI mode after 10.7.3 was installed.
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02/06, 1:00pm
Intel SSD 520 carries 25nm speed and SandForce
Intel picked Monday to bring out its fastest solid-state drive so far. The SSD 520 mixes denser 25-nanometer memory with a specially created SandForce memory controller to get high-end speed. It can peak at 550MB per second for reads and 520MB per second for writes, while mustering as much as 80,000 I/O operations per second at peak and 50,000 in normal use.
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02/02, 4:10pm
AMD shares future chip plans, focus on 28nm dies
Computer chipmaker AMD took the opportunity at its yearly Financial Analyst Day to show off upcoming products for 2012 and 2013. They include CPUs and APUs (combined CPU and graphics) for ultrathin notebooks, tablets, all-in-ones, desktops, and servers, with most focusing on lower power use. Some are also designed with the developing world in mind and accessing the cloud.
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02/01, 7:35pm
Acer chairman sees core unity in notebooks
Acer chairman JT Wang made more comments at his company's Lunar New Year event that outlined more of how Acer planned to survive Apple and the computer market. He made the prediction that ultrabooks and netbooks would fold into a single category within the next 18 to 24 months. Digitimes didn't glean how this would happen, although the company had predicted $499 ultrabooks by 2013 that would leave little gap between the two.
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02/01, 8:10am
Seagate GoFlex gets DIY Thunderbolt add-on
Seagate has quietly updated its accessory page with a GoFlex Thunderbolt adapter. The add-on now lets any of Seagate's mobile GoFlex drives use the 10Gbps interface on a Mac or upcoming PCs. The storage designers claim that it's about 20 times faster than USB 2.0, although only if the drive itself can maximize the bus speed.
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01/31, 12:15pm
ARM up based on iOS and Android success
ARM benefited from the surge in mobile Tuesday after it saw fall revenue surge 34 percent to the equivalent of $217 million. It credited the gain both to getting more royalties from existing deals as well as to having customers licensing ARM for the first time. Its profits were also up 47 percent.
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01/30, 8:40pm
Windows 8 on ARM may arrive in sync with Intel
Multiple sources stated Monday that the ARM-native version of Windows 8 is in good enough shape to reach developers in February. The release was deemed "quite stable" by CNET contacts, which had been told by hardware partners to anticipate a release sometime in February. There was no indication that Microsoft planned to separate the Intel- and ARM-based versions of Windows.
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01/30, 6:40pm
May have dropped HD 3000 GPU from 3 new i5 CPUs
Intel has released seven new processors. All are based on its current Sandy Bridge 32nm architecture. The new CPUs include three desktop quad Core i5 processors as well as dual- and single-core Celeron processors for both the desktop and mobile.
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01/30, 2:10pm
Office 15 enters preview but may miss 2012
Microsoft corporate VP PJ Hough confirmed that the temporarily-named Office 15 had just entered the Technical Preview phase in what could create concerns for Windows 8 tablets. The stage sees a small group of customers get early access in secret to offer feedback as Microsoft moves towards a beta and an eventual release. Hough couldn't address rumors and leaks, but he did promise that it would be the first time Microsoft would simultaneously update Office's web, cloud, and server apps on both desktop and mobile.
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01/28, 1:55pm
Lenovo puts up IdeaPad Y470p for sales
Lenovo has stepped up its gaming credentials by quietly taking orders for the IdeaPad Y470p. The 14-inch notebook swaps out NVIDIA's low-end GeForce GT 520M video of the regular Y470 for a mid-range AMD Radeon HD 7690M, giving it an edge in 3D games. The 2.2GHz quad Core i7 and 8GB of RAM help keep the system running at full pace.
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01/27, 8:50pm
Israel joins Australia with national fiber
Israel has followed Australian footsteps in planning its own national broadband network. The country's Israel Electric Corporation plans a purely fiber-based network that will supply many of the country's homes with at least 100Mbps speeds. They picked fiber with the intention to scale and could theoretically hit 1Gbps in time.
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01/27, 7:20pm
iPad has firm footprint two years on
Friday signaled the second anniversary of the iPad's introduction and what has since been interpreted as the start of a shift in the entire computing space. Apple's tablet was unveiled this day in 2010 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco by its late co-creator, Steve Jobs. It would only go on sale April 2, but it proved to be polarizing from its unveiling, even for Apple loyalists.
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01/27, 11:45am
Apple, Google must face job poaching claims
Northern California district court judge Lucy Koh ruled late Thursday that multiple technologies can't dismiss a lawsuit over anti-poaching deals. Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar will have to face the allegations that they unfairly hurt compensation and job chances by making informal pacts to avoid recruiting each other's staff. Judge Koh's view echoed those of the raw evidence, which confirmed individual deals but didn't show that the industry at large was colluding against recruiting attempts.
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01/26, 3:00pm
Dell hopes XPS 13 picked first based on design
Dell is trying an unusual strategy to try and steer ultrabook buyers towards the XPS 13 on Thursday. Nicknamed the Ultrabook Challenge, the demo campaign Thursday amounts to a blind taste test for the thin-and-light notebooks. Starting in San Francisco first, those at the corner of Chestnut and Scott, and later at Fisherman's Wharf, are being asked to pick an ultrabook based on "look and feel" with all the branding covered up, ostensibly to avoid bias.
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01/26, 2:10pm
ThinkPad X130e up for pre-order, ships February 9
The delayed Lenovo ThinkPad X130e notebook is now available for pre-order on the company's website. Due to ship on February 9, the notebooks will start at $429. That price includes an 11.6-inch, 1366x768 display and AMD's dual-core, 1.3GHz E-300 Fusion processor.
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01/26, 10:00am
Intel makes key deal for RealNetworks video
Intel and RealNetworks made a crucial deal for video technology on Thursday. The semiconductor firm has paid $120 million to get a "significant" 190 of RealNetworks' patents. In exchange, Intel has agreed to team with RealNetworks to co-develop the latter's signature video codecs and will take on seven codec developers from its partner in the process.
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01/25, 5:05pm
Panasonic adds SX and NX, also intros J10
Panasonic today unveiled two 12.1-inch notebooks in its home country. The Let's Note SX1 and SX2 offer Intel Core i5 processors in a compact, ruggedized magnesium form factor with batteries that provide up to 16 hours of run-time. Panasonic is also offering the J10, a 10.1-inch laptop targeting business customers.
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01/24, 1:00pm
Juniper says ultrabooks to grow fast but trail
A new Juniper Research prediction made the claim that ultrabooks would rapidly close in on, but not overtake, the lead established by tablets. The long-term guess has the MacBook Air-inspired notebook category growing three times faster than tablets between now and 2016. Its small start, however, would see shipments of 178 million where tablets' early lead would put them at 253 million.
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01/23, 1:35pm
HP Mini 1104 marks netbook swansong
HP showed the changing roles of netbooks on Monday with the introduction of its first new netbook for 2012, theMini 1104. The 10-inch netbook is focused on schools and business and primarily adds Intel's faster Cedar Trail-era 1.6GHz Atom N2600 for faster graphics and overall performance. It comes with Computrace Pro and a TPM security chip to help track the netbook if it's stolen.
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01/23, 11:20am
QLogic's InfiniBand purchased by Intel for $125m
Computer chipmaker Intel revealed on Monday that it has began talks with QLogic to buy some assets of its InfiniBand division. For the $125 million cash price, the deal may also involve a large number of InfiniBand employees coming over to Intel. The move is part of Intel's commitment to create an Exascale supercomputer to meet DARPA's challenge by 2018.
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01/22, 11:20pm
Sony preps spring 2012 VAIO refresh
Sony in a post-CES update has tweaked several of its VAIO notebooks for the spring. The VAIO Z now has the option of 4G LTE access on Verizon, making it one of the first full-powered notebooks with the choice. The $1,950 ultraportable now comes in a Carbon Fiber Silver color and gets newer Core i5 and i7 processors from the late 2011 upgrade.
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01/22, 1:15pm
ASUS B23E ups business notebook design
ASUS has quietly slipped out a new pro-oriented notebook in admist the more home-focused designs of CES. The 12.5-inch B23E has a relatively sleek magnesium alloy chassis. Although 1.1 inches thick and 3.4 pounds, it's intended as a true complete replacement with a DVD burner, up to 750GB of storage, and as much as 8GB of RAM.
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01/20, 12:15pm
Intel picks new COO, PC group leads
Intel on Friday shook up its executive structure at both technical and formal levels. To reward Dadi Perlmutter's responsibility for the chip architecture group, he would be promoted to the spot of chief product officer to take up responsibilities given by newly full-time executive chairman Andy Bryant. He would still head up architecture, but would take on a wider responsibility.
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01/20, 8:55am
DOJ shows no hiring conspiracy, but small deals
Newly publicized evidence in the wake of an agreement to stop no-poaching deals among Silicon Valley technology companies has shown that several firms did ultimately have deals but stopped short of colluding on a larger level. Although short on details of the supposed Apple-Google agreement, an e-mail message from Adobe Senior VP of human resources Theresa Townsley confirmed that Adobe and Apple had an informal rule against hiring each other's staff. At least in 2005, Adobe chief Bruce Chizen and Apple's Steve Jobs had blocked attempts to get each other's staff.
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01/19, 6:10pm
PC client group revenue up 17 percent
Intel has posted its full-year financial details, pointing to a record year with $54.2 billion in overall revenue. The chip maker's profits were up nearly six percent in the fourth quarter, as its PC client division posted a 17-percent jump in revenue for both the fourth quarter and the entire year.
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01/19, 2:15pm
Unlocked Core i5, i7 overclock warranty offered
Computer chipmaker Intel has just launched its Performance Tuning Protection Plan meant for users who want to overclock their unlocked Core i-series CPUs without worrying about the consequences if they go too far. The plan will replace a single processor if it fails when taken outside of Intel's specifications. This is in addition to Intel's standard three-year warranty, but does require owners to pay a separate fee.
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01/17, 11:55pm
Alienware X51 biled as smallest gaming PC ever
Dell's Alienware badge ventured into small form factor desktops for the first time late Tuesday. The X51 is billed as the smallest gaming PC desktop ever at no more than 13.5 inches at its largest dimension. Even with a 3.7-inch thick width, it can not only fit up to a GeForce GTX 555 desktop graphics card but replace this, the hard drive, and the RAM as new technology comes through.
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01/17, 4:40pm
Ideum 65-inch 3D Presenter made for public spaces
Ideum, which makes Microsoft Surface-like computer tables such as the MT-50, has now revealed its 65-inch MT65 Presenter display that hangs vertically, on a wall. The multi-touch 3D display is meant for public consumption and is thus covered by tempered glass. It can recognize and track up to 32 touch points.
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01/16, 9:05pm
We look at Sony's Hybrid, ultrabook at CES
Sony had a surprisingly large number of prototype devices at CES 2012, including a pure tablet. Those were only a small piece of its prototypes. We revisited to catch the rest as well as to see just how Sony was gearing up what looked to be a more direct challenge to Apple for 2012.
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01/16, 11:10am
Microsoft to insist on Windows 8 only for ARM
Microsoft's Secure Boot feature will be mandatory on ARM-based Windows 8 tablets, according to a discovery in Windows hardware certification documents just found this weekend. While it will be optional on x86, disabling Secure Boot "must not be possible" on ARM. As described, it would prevent any unsigned operating system from running on the resulting hardware, including Linux and variants on it, like Android.
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01/16, 7:55am
intel, Microsoft may start W8 tablets at 599 plus
An insistence on earlier pricing policies from Intel and Microsoft may put Windows 8 tablets out of contention, notebook PC builders getting into the field claimed Monday. Intel was reported by Digitimes contacts as unwilling to cut profit margins on its Clover Trail-based Atom chips, while Microsoft wasn't planning on trimming its Windows 8 price. As such, Intel-based Windows 8 tablets might start at a minimum $599 and scale up to $899, all well over the benchmark $499 price of the iPad.
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01/15, 3:20pm
Samsung 9 Series desktop, WB150, and QF20 at CES
Samsung had a few extra stand-out devices at its CES booth this past week, and we got to try many of them. The Series 9 All-In-One PC is effectively Samsung's answer to the 27-inch iMac. Whatever you think of Samsung's affinity for Apple design, the 9 is certainly unique just from aesthetic perspective: it uses Samsung's distinctive asymmetric look and tucks all of the computer into the base, leaving the display itself to be less than half an inch thick.
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01/14, 4:35pm
Bada and Tizen to merge platforms I
Samsung's Senior VP of Contents Planning Tae-jin Kang in a discussion Friday gave surprise word that his company's Bada and Intel's Tizen would merge. The strategy mapped out for Forbes would let Tizen run any apps written for Bada. Ultimately, the two would end up sharing the same developer interfaces and effectively share the same roots.
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01/13, 11:20pm
We try Samsung Chrome OS, 5 Ultra, 9 series at CES
Samsung had one of its most sweeping notebook updates yet at CES this week and introduced multiple major updates to its notebook line. We had the opportunity to try them all at CES and came away with mixed reactions. Read on for early impressions, including whether or not the Series 9 will give Apple heat in the ultrabook category.
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01/13, 2:25am
Razer 2012 lineup tested at CES
We had the opportunity to explore Razer's whole CES 2012 lineup this week. The company kicked off the year by shipping the Blade and revealing thhe Naga Hex mouse, but its true surprise was exploring tablets with Project Fiona. We'll see how all three have fared after the break.
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01/12, 12:15pm
Apple likely to refuse use of Intel chips
The VP of Intel's architecture group, Dave Whalen, says the company has been "talking to everybody" about using its Medfield chips in mobile devices, according to UK paper The Telegraph. "When we took over [development] in April we took a conscious decision to focus on Android," Whalen elaborates. "Windows, other operating systems -– we recognize that there will be opportunities. It’s not a 'no,' it's just not now. When the time's appropriate we'll look at other OSs."
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01/11, 4:00pm
K2110 pairs Medfield hardware with ICS
Intel is currently showing off a Lenovo tablet, the IdeaTab K2110, that appears to be the first Atom-based Android device to run the latest Ice Cream Sandwich build. The tablet utilizes the same Atom Z2460 processor that powers Intel's own Medfield smartphone reference design and Lenovo's K800 Android smartphone that are also on hand this week at CES.
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01/11, 2:15pm
Clamshell & convertible PCs hardened for students
Intel has released its next generation of Learning Series platform for the educational market. The Learning Series is a collection of hardware, software, content, infrastructure, and training programs for which Intel provides the Product Reference Designs and development requirements to local vendors to use to produce PCs and related collateral. Lenovo, one of Intel's partners in the program, has said at the same time that it will soon begin shipping its latest iterations of these devices, the Classmate+ Clamshell and Classmate+ Convertible laptops.
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01/11, 3:55am
We test the HP Envy 14 Spectre at CES
We had an opportunity to try the HP Envy 14 Spectre this evening. The ultrabook is HP's most advanced and bears an uncanny similarity to a cross between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro through its attention to design. Is it a replacement for a Mac, though, or a try at riding Apple's coattails? Read on for our take.
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01/11, 2:35am
First mainstream Intel Android smartphone
Lenovo brought its new Atom-powered smartphone, the K800, to a special event following Intel's keynote at CES. Electronista had a chance to try out the unique device, which is expected to be the first Android handset to arrive on the market equipped with Intel's mobile processor.
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01/10, 7:35pm
Chip maker highlights strategy
Intel is currently holding a keynote event at CES in Las Vegas to highlight its latest endeavors. Check out our live page for details as they happen.
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01/10, 3:25pm
Atom-based smartphone reference design
Although Intel is focusing on ultrabooks this week at CES, the company also brought along a prototype Android handset referred to by the CPU code-name Medfield. Electronista had a chance to try out the Atom-based platform, which aims to compete with ARM-based hardware utilized by most Android smartphones.
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