09/09, 6:45pm
QNAP NAS servers get 8TB capacity, hot swap bays
QNAP recently announced it has added two new Turbo NAS servers to its extensive lineup, including the TS-419P for desktops and the rack-mounted TS-419U. Their specs are nearly identical, including the same Marvell 1.2GHz processor, 512MB of DDR2 RAM and support for up to 8TB. Either can hold both 2.5- and 3.5-inch hard drives in four hot-swappable bays. Storage expansion is made possible thanks to four USB ports and two eSATA ports.
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08/20, 3:30pm
Chumby software in gadgets
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.
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06/19, 4:40pm
SciPhone N12 with Android
China's SciPhone has recently announced the future release of its N12 handset which, most notably, will ship with Google's open-source Android operating system, according to a report. One of the first Android phones from a small manufacturer, its processing power comes courtesy of a relatively powerful 624MHz Marvell Monahands CPU sitting in a Qualcomm MSM6246 chipset. The quad-band GSM device has 3G WCDMA data network support and built-in Wi-Fi, GPS and CMMB TV support.
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06/10, 11:15am
Palm Pre Final Cost Study
The Palm Pre may cost significantly more to make than first anticipated and has surprising similarity to the iPhone's supply chain as it's existed in the past, according to a post-launch cost breakdown by iSuppli. Originally thought to cost $138 in raw manufacturing and parts, the smartphone is now estimated to cost at least $140 and as much as $160. Much of the price is attached to the 3.1-inch Sony multi-touch LCD, which with its Cypress controller costs about $40.60.
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05/06, 10:05am
WiGig Alliance
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.
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03/09, 3:50pm
Motorola intros MC55 EDAs
Motorola on Monday announced the upcoming North American release of its MC55 Enterprise Digital Assistants (EDAs). The devices act as cellphones, two-way radios, bar code scanners, digital cameras, and mobile computers in the same device and are meant to alleviate the need for more than one device. The pair feature 3.5-inch, 320x240 resolution displays and are differentiated by the inclusion of wide-area wireless data in the MC5574 while the MC5590 makes do with an Ethernet port and a Wi-Fi connection for accessing the Internet on local networks.
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02/24, 11:45am
Marvell Plug Computing
Marvell on Tuesday announced the introduction of Plug Computing, a concept which involves a tiny computer module that plugs into a wall socket and hooks up to a home network via a gigabit Ethernet cable to run network-based services while saving energy compared to traditional PCs. The small PC will let users access services such as social networks, multimedia sites or personal libraries via their wireless networks on their personal electronics devices without the need for a server or PC to be up and running.
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10/29, 7:55am
ASUS Android Enroute
ASUS could be the next Asian cellphone maker after HTC to make Android phones, according to claims by reported market insiders. The company until now has made Windows Mobile devices almost exclusively but would launch a device based on the Google mobile OS sometime within the first half of 2009, releasing self-branded models first in its Taiwan-area home and later customizing the devices for "overseas" regions. No technical details have been released, though ASUS focuses heavily on 3G data and regularly adds GPS.
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06/26, 11:00am
Analyst on 4G iPod nano
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.
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01/02, 10:05am
Marvell 450Mbps Wi-Fi
Marvell today unveiled a new version of its TopDog wireless chipsets that could dramatically improve the speed of already fast 802.11n Wi-Fi connections. The 11n-450 will use three transmitters and three receivers to achieve a maximum speed of 450 megabits per second. The connection is 50 percent faster than the 300Mbps peak for today's draft spec 802.11n chipsets and results in even more range: the new chip increases range by 160 percent over 300Mbps models and sports about five times more range than the earlier 802.11g standard, Marvell claims. The advancement should allow multiple streaming videos at once over longer ranges.
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