VIA Technologies today introduced the new VIA OpenBook mini-note reference design targeted at the rapidly growing global market for ultra-portable notebooks. The OpenBook sports the next generation of VIA Ultra Mobile Platform, C7-M ULV processor and the new all-in-one VIA VX800 digital media IGP chipset. The 1Kg machine also boasts new generation connectivity options such as WiMAX, HSDPA and EV-DO/W-CDMA.
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by Darren Murph, posted May 28th 2008 at 10:04PM
We’re pretty certain the world’s big enough for the both of ‘em, but a graphene-polymer hybrid developed by a brilliant team from Northwestern University could prove to be a suitable — and much cheaper — alternative to polymer-infused carbon nanotubes. Put simply, graphite can be purchased for dollars per pound, while single-walled nanotubes are hundreds of dollars per gram. A breakthrough has found that tough, lightweight materials can be created by “spreading a small amount of graphene, a single-layer flat sheet of carbon atoms, throughout polymers,” and these composites could eventually be used to make lighter car and airplane parts (among other things). We won’t kid you, there’s a lot of technobabble in the read link below, but it’s well worth the read if your inner nerd is up for it.
Filed under: Misc. gadgets
»read more from "Graphene-polymer hybrid composites look to oust carbon nanotubes"
by Nilay Patel, posted May 28th 2008 at 6:27PM
Take this one with a huge grain of salt, but some enterprising members of the MacRumors forums went poking around the iphone SDK files and unearthed what might be an icon representation of the 3G iPhone. (We looked ourselves and it’s definitely there.) There’s only one tiny image (scaled up on the left), but it’s clearly different from the other iPhone icons in the bundle, and it matches up nicely with some of the other leaked images we’ve been seeing. Of course, this is more likely a bad render or even just temporary art for the SDK, but things certainly seem like they’re starting to domino here — June 9 can’t get here fast enough, can it, Steve?
[Thanks, Michael]
Filed under: cellphones
by Thomas Ricker, posted May 29th 2008 at 5:28AM
Look out Microsoft, Pioneer’s Linc series of in-dash and “on-dash” systems have their sights set on your voice controlled Sync. The first thing you’ll notice is Pioneer’s pixy-dusted UI which easily trumps the Sync’s rather staid presentation. The videos show off Pioneer’s real-time data feeds and natural speech recognition with the help of some smarmy actor-slash-models who’ll probably be serving you lunch today if you live in LA. But we digress. Videos after the break… which, let’s be honest, is the best we can do until the DivX-happy, SD-friendly AVIC-F900BT, F700BT, and F500BT (pictured) are released in June.
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video, Transportation
»read more from "Video: Pioneer’s AVIC-F Series of in-car navigators to take on Sync"
by Darren Murph, posted May 28th 2008 at 8:32AM
A general review is fine and dandy when you’re lookin’ at Hello Kitty laptops, but this is Dell’s XPS 730 H2C we’re talking about. A rig this big demands to be benchmarked, and the mad scientists over at Hot Hardware did that and a whole lot more after it arrived in their lab. Here’s the highlights: reviewers were able to hit 4.25GHz (though not for long), the unit itself walked all over its rivals and it was deemed “an absolute monster in any productivity and multimedia task.” Sadly, gaming performance was seen as “less decisive but still extremely impressive,” but it nevertheless managed to “blaze” through every title tossed at it. Grab your cup of joe and head on down, as you’ll be reading for quite some time before seeing that coveted Editor’s Choice award there at the end.
Filed under: Desktops
»read more from "Dell’s XPS 730 H2C gets benchmarked, overclocked and rated"
Planex has introduced its new USB Audio Adapter that allows one to benefit from crystal clear audio, whether from music play back or voice chats, simply by hooking it up to a laptop or PC via USB. Each adapter is equipped with a headphone and microphone input system, making it less susceptible to the noise inside the computer. It has its own volume controls along with a microphone input On/Off button, making it much easier to ensure that you won’t accidentally rat off to your colleague about your boss’ less desirable behaviors with him still on the line over a VoIP program. The Planex USB Audio Adapter will retail for approximately $19.
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Guess Dell wants to jump onto the mini UMPC bandwagon as well, with a mini Inspiron (not the official name as there is no announcement from Dell just yet) being the fruit of their labors. There is no word on what operating system will this diminutive computer run on, nor how much it will cost, but it does feature a trio of USB 2.0 ports, a memory card reader, VGA out, and an Ethernet port. Do you think this will be Atom-powered, and just how much internal memory will it hold? I wonder how Asus will innovate itself to stay ahead of the game they started.
If you repair PC’s, one of the biggest pains can be repairing a computer after a hard drive has crashed or experienced severe OS failure. This is especially true if the person wants to retain some of the data from the old drive. This means plugging in the old HDD as a secondary drive which usually entails tracking down another SATA cable and more screws. And if you’re working on a small form-factor computer, there is usually no room to mount a second drive which means you’re left with leaving case wide open while the old drive sits precariously on top while you transfer data. Thankfully there is a new gadget to make temporary HDD hook-ups a snap.
Brando is selling a new SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock that makes it easy to plug-in and examine SATA HDD drives. All you need to do is plug-in your 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SATA HDD into the dock opening and plug the dock into any USB port or eSATA port on your computer. No additional hardware or SATA cables are needed. If that wasn’t useful enough, the dock also doubles as a media transfer device with a built-in 2-port USB hub and 4-card slot reader. If you want to grab one of these sweet SATA HDD Multi-Function Docks for yourself, they are going for $80 dollars.
Read more at Brando, found via OhGizmo!
»read more from "Brando SATA HDD Dock makes examining drives a snap"
With touch screen displays being all the rage these days, it is no surprise that Microsoft will be including multi-touch features on its next operating system as an alternative to the tried and tested mouse. Needless to say, Microsoft executives secretly hope that Windows Vista’s successor will receive a much warmer reception when it rolls out sometime in 2010, bringing touch-based features that are currently available on the iphone (some of them, at least). Windows 7, as the new operating system is nicknamed, is tipped to change the way people interact with PCs in the future, but I think when it comes to everyday work the mouse is still more important and efficient. What do you think?
