Techiton

HP is soon going to be out with its Mini series netbook - the Mini 1101, Mini 110 XP and 100 Mi. All the three models have similar baseline specifications, they are expected to be released early next month - June 2009.

Mini 110 Specifications:
CPU: Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz or N280 1.66GHz
RAM: 1GB or 2GB
HDD: 160GB or 250GB HDD or 32GB SSD
GPU: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Weight: n/a
Screen size: 10.1 inch (1024 x 576) LED display
Price: Mini 1100 for US$329, Mini 110 XP for US$329.99 and Mini 110 Mi for US$279.99

[Source: Slashgear]

Microsoft has recently said that its Xbox 360 video game console has reached life-to-date sales of 30 million units. They are ahead of their main rival Sony Playstation 3 with 22 million sold. But are much behind Nintendo Wii with about 50 million units sold to date.

Microsoft's senior vice president of the interactive entertainment business said, “We’ve always been confident that Xbox 360 offers more entertainment value than any other console on the market, and these latest numbers show that consumers agree. We expect our growth to continue to accelerate. Our news at E3 next week will underscore our commitment to bringing blockbuster entertainment experiences to everyone and to growing the Xbox entertainment brand globally.”

Microsoft also announced that to date, consumers have downloaded nearly 1 billion pieces of gaming and entertainment content from Xbox Live Marketplace, including a broad array of premium high- and standard-definition movies and TV shows from top studios and networks around the world. In addition, the software giant indicated that Xbox Live community had reached 20 million users.

Microsoft Xbox 360 console is based around triple-core microprocessor developed by IBM, high-definition visual processing unit designed by ATI Technologies, I/O controller engineered by SiS and some other key components. The gaming machine provides a broad set of multimedia capabilities in addition to games. Different versions of the console cost $199, $299 and $399.

[Source: X-Bit Labs]

SATA 3.0 specifications have been oficially released this week by the Serial ATA International Organization (Sata-IO). It takes the speed from the current SATA 2.0 3 Gigabits per second to 6 Gigabits per second this equals to data transfer speed of 600 MegaBytes per second.

This increases the transfer speeds between storage drives, optical drives, motherboard and other SATA 3 devices to twice the current speed of SATA 2.
The SATA-IO president said, "As speed becomes critical to today's storage, the Sata Revision 3.0 specification doubles the maximum transfer speed enabled by technology, paving the way for a new generation of faster Sata products".

SATA 3.0 is also specially designed for slim notebooks that makes the SATA connector compatible with thin optical disk drives. A small Low Insertion Force (LIF) connector is also been included for 1.8-inch drives which makes it compatible with more thinner disk drives. With the new Native Command Queuing (NCQ) streaming command, video playback is made more smoother.

Sata 3.0 is backward-compatible with the current Sata 2.0 which makes it possible to use existing cables with the new interface.

AMD is soon going to launch its new Radeon HD4730 which is based on the 55 nanometer RV770CE chip according to the news posted at VR-Zone and Expreview.

The HD 4730 will come with 512MB GDDR5 of memory and 128-bit memory interface.

The HD 4730 card will compete with Nvidia's GeForce 9600GT card. The price of the card is still unknown but it is expected to cost around US $79. Expect the cards to be launched by end of May, 2009.

Update Saturday, May 30, 2009:
PowerColor has official announced the HD4730 graphics card called the PCS HD4730.

HD4730 Specifications:
RAM Size: 512MB GDDR5
Memory bus size: 128bit
GPU frequency: 700Mhz
Memory frequency: 900Mhz
Stream Processors: 640
DirectX Support: Version 10.1
Price: US $80

LG has introduced the world’s thinnest Full HD LCD TV display. The TV display come in 42-inches and 47-inches and measures 5.9 millimeter (0.23 inch) thick making it a millimeter slimmer than JVC’s.

For those of you who want to get one, don’t get your hopes up yet. There is still no word on when these products will ship or how much they will eventually cost. Aside from that, we don’t even know if picture quality on these slim TVs are any good or if they could compete with existing technologies when it comes to image quality. We won’t know for sure until we see these panels in action.

LG was able to accomplish the task of creating a very slim TV by using LED or light emitting diode lighting, which enables a thinner, lighter design. This is in contrast with conventional LCD TVs which use Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (CCFL) backlighting. The new sets weigh just 6.1kg (13.45 lbs) and 7.3kg (16.1 lbs) each, making them roughly half the weight of same-sized CCFL-backlit LCD TVs.

As mentioned, picture quality is not definite. We do have some info that these sets will feature a 120Hz refresh rate, which improves the appearance of fast action. And then there’s motion picture response time (MPRT), which also improves the quality of fast-moving images. The slim LG sets have a 8ms response time.

As expected, the new LG sets are full HD (1920 by 1080 pixels). They also provide a color saturation level of 80 percent (NTSC), which is above average but not stellar for LCD TVs. Many displays use new CCFLs that manage an impressive 92 percent color representation.

But whatever the case, expect these sets to cost big time. LED is a much more expensive solution than CCFLs. So, if ever these things do get into the market, then early adopter would probably have to stack up on a huge load of cash.

[Source: HDTV News]

Dell's new laptop, the Latitude E6400 features dramatic improvements in performance, durability and security. According to Dell, "the new design of the Latitude E6400 and E6500 combines stunning style and thoughtful details: robust hinges and latches, a bright screen, and a precision-tuned keyboard which is accurate, comfortable, and comes available with a backlit option. The new Mainstream laptops also incorporate smaller docks and peripherals which enable a seamless transition from on-the-move to desktop computing."

The 14 inch Latitude E6400 laptop provides up to 19 hours of battery life configured with solid state drive, Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, 9-cell primary battery and 12-cell slice battery.
The laptop is powered by Intel's Core2Duo 2.8 GigaHertz processor with upto 8 GigaBytes of expandable memory. The laptops weighs 1.95 Kgs with a 4-cell battery.

Latitude E6400 Specifications:
CPU: Intel T9600 2.8GHz (6MB L2 Cache) Core2Duo
RAM: upto 8 GB DDR2 800MHz
HDD:

• Solid State Hard Drive up to 64GB
• 7200RPM Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive up to 250GB
• 5400RPM Encrypted Hard Drive up to 120GB
• 5400RPM up to 250GB

GPU:

• Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M1 256MB DDR2
• Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD

Weight: 1.95 Kgs (with 4-cell battery)
Screen size:

• 14.1 inch UltraSharp Widescreen WXGA+ (1440x900) LED Display
• 14.1 inch Widescreen WXGA (1280x800) Display

Other Features: DVD burner, card reader, 1 Gbps Ethernet, Wi-Fi a/g/n, HSDPA mini-card, fingerprint reader (optional), bluetooth, integrated camera, IEEE port, eSATA port.
Price: n/a

[Source: Dell]

Sony Playstation 3 found itself beaten out for fifth place by its predecessor, the Playstation 2. According to official April figures released by the NPD Group,

A 50% leap in PS2 sales accounts for the surprising change, an increase likely prompted by the system's price cut on April 1, a move which apparently electrified interest in the nine-year old platform.

The PS3 and PSP posted disappointing results, with the PS3 placing sixth with its worst performance in over 18 months, and the PSP limping in seventh with a total of 116,000 sales -- down over 30% on March's numbers.

The news has revitalized persistent rumors of price cuts for Sony's PS3. The system's base model is between $150 and $200 more expensive than its competitors, the Wii and Xbox 360. Industry news site Gamasutra predicts we'll see a $100 cut in the $400 Playstation 3 announced at the E3 video games trade show in Los Angeles in early June.

So if you're contemplating taking the Playstation plunge -- and with top exclusive superhero thriller Infamous just a week away, we're betting some of you are -- you might well want to hold off and wait to see what June has in store.

[Source: Yahoo! Games]

NEC Electronics has introduced the world's first Universal Serial Bus (USB) host controller for the new SuperSpeed USB 3.0 standard. NEC Electronics expects rapid adoption of the device and standard as the need to transfer larger and larger amounts of information between PCs to external hard-drives, portable electronics devices, and flash-based thumb drives, continues to grow rapidly.

The host controller for PCs and other digital devices is based on the new version of the SuperSpeed USB standard. Supporting the world's fastest USB transfer speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second (Gbps) of data, which is 10 times faster than previous USB 2.0 transfer speeds. The NEC Electronics device, as well as the standard, is fully backward compatible with the USB 2.0, 1.1 and 1.0 versions of the USB standard.

With its high-speed transfer capability, the USB 3.0 host controller makes it possible to expand the boundaries of digital appliances such as PCs, digital TVs, and DVD recorders. The new SuperSpeed USB 3.0 chip from NEC Electronics requires only 70 seconds to transfer 25 GB of video content on a blu-ray disc, compared to 14 minutes to transfer the same content when using the high-speed USB 2.0 with 480 Mbps transfer capability. This enormous increase in transfer speed will enable system designers to transfer large-volume data quickly and without stress and develop a new generation of high-performance consumer electronic products.

The high data transfer rate also offers compatibility with recent high-performance computer interfaces such as PCI Express and SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment), which are capable of data transfer at speeds in excess of 3 Gbps.

NEC Electronics expects the market for USB 3.0 products to begin a rapid expansion in 2010. It intends to market the new USB 3.0 controller aggressively, and to offer a range of related products by incorporating USB 3.0 communications as an IP (intellectual property) core function in various application specific ICs.

[Source: Necel]

Intel has decided to phase out the first of the Nehalem Core-i7 processors - 965 and 940 which were released back in November, 2008.

The two chips have become an End-Of-Life (EOL) product within just 6 months of its release. The last date to order the CPU will be on September 4, 2009. After this it will be officially unavailable. The third CPU Core-i7-920 which was also one of the first Core-i7 chips will continue to be available as usual.
Intel said in a statement, "market demand for the same has moved to other products. Following the Core i7 940, Intel will next discontinue production of high-end quad-core 3.2GHz Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition.

Intel will replace these two processors with Core i7-975 and 950 which is expected to release at end of this month May, 2009.
Intel will be shifting from the 45 nanometer Nehalem architecture to the faster 32nm Westmere architecture later this year.

The Logitech z-5500 Speaker set is a 5.1 digital surround speaker which is THX-certified and a power of 505 Watts that can turn your home into a digital theater.

The speaker set comes equipped with a digital control panel and a wireless remote control to control much more than the volume. The 10-inch long subwoofer provides 188 watts of powerful, distortion-free bass. It also includes wall-mountable satellite speakers.

Z-5500 Specifications:
Channels: 5.1
Speaker Power:

• Front/rear satellites 4x 62W (RMS)
• Centre satellite speaker 69 W (RMS)
• Subwoofer: 188 W (RMS)

Frequency Response: 33Hz - 20kHz
Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR): 93.5dB
Input impedance: 8,000 ohms
Hardware decoding:

• Dolby Digital, DTS, and DTS, 96/24 soundtracks
• Dolby Pro Logic II (Movie and Music modes)
• 6 Channel Direct
• Stereo x2
• Stereo

Supported digital formats:

• Dolby Digital
• DTS and DTS 96/24
• PCM (uncompressed stereo): 44.1 kHz / 16 bit through 96 kHz / 24 bit

Compatibility: PC/Mac, CD, MP3, DVD, PlayStation, Xbox
Price: US $400

[Source: Logitech]

Global shipments of netbooks accounted for nearly 20% (One in every five) of all the laptops shipped in the first quarter, according to a market research firm.

Netbooks sold best in Latin America and the Europe, Middle East, and Asia (EMEA) region, which excludes China and Japan, where shipments were the lowest, along with North America, the research firm said. About 45% of all netbooks shipped into EMEA, compared with 26% in North America. European sales were helped by telecom companies, which offered heavily discounted netbooks with the purchase of two-year data plans.

Overall, EMEA accounted for 38% of the total laptop market, while North America was less than 30%. Acer passed Dell for the No. 2 position, capturing 18.8% of the market. Dell fell to No. 3, followed by Toshiba and Lenovo, respectively. With the exception of Acer, the other top five computer makers shipped less than 10% of their volume as netbooks, DisplaySearch said.

"It is clear at the moment that mini-notes play a vital role in the total PC market," DisplaySearch analyst John F. Jacobs said in a statement. Without netbooks, the laptop market would have been down 19% from the first quarter of 2008, instead of only falling 3%.

DisplaySearch isn't alone in finding netbooks driving the PC market in terms of shipments during the economic downturn. Gartner and IDC have drawn similar conclusions. However, the low-cost devices, which typically sell for as little as $300, have significantly lowered the average selling price of products for Acer.

[Source: InformationWeek]

Intel will soon launch new Core i7 processors around the end of this month or early next month. Intel had launched three Core i7 processors - i7-920, i7-940 and the extreme edition i7-965 around last November 2009 and they are currently the fastest desktop processors and will soon be replaced by these two new chips.

The Core i7-950 is a performance edition bloomfield chip which is clocked at 3.06 GigaHertz with 8 MegaBytes of cache. The Core i7-975 is an extreme edition bloomfield chip clocked fastest at 3.33 GigaHertz and the same 8 MegaBytes of cache. These two chips will replace the i7-940 and i7-965 respectively when released. The specifications and price are listed below.

Update Saturday, May 30, 2009:
Intel Core i7-975 and 950 have been released, and they have began to appear in several retail stores this week.
These two new releases are replacing the Core i7-940 and i7-965 which will be discontinued soon.

Core i7 975 Extreme Edition Bloomfield:
Speed: 3.33 GHz
Cores: 4
Cache Size: 8 MB
Memory controller: DDR3 800/1066/1333 MHz
Bus Interface: 1x 6.4 GT/s QuickPath
Socket: LGA1366
Power TDP: 130 W
Price: $999

Core i7 950 Performance Edition Bloomfield:
Speed: 3.06 GHz
Cores: 4
Cache Size: 8 MB
Memory controller: DDR3 800/1066/1333 MHz
Bus Interface: 1x 4.8 GT/s QuickPath
Socket: LGA1366
Power TDP: 130 W
Price: $562

Asus has announced a new version of the Eee PC 1008HA nicknamed Seashell as the design is inspired by a seashell. According to Asus this new netbook is a "Timelessly Elegant and User Centric Design Provides Users with Stylish Poise and Effortless Mobility Anywhere". The Eee PC Seashell aims to provide users with the best mobile computing experience, wherever their journeys take them.

The Eee PC is powered by Intel's Atom N280 processor clocked at 1.66 GigaHertz. It has 1 GigaBytes of memory and 160 GigaBytes of storage capacity all this weighing in at 1.1 Kilograms and lasts 6 hours on battery.

The netbook comes with a 10 inch LED display and includes the new 'n' specification wifi which offers 6 times faster connectivity. It comes in six color choices - White, Black, Blue, Pink, Sapphire Blue and Ruby Red. Detailed specifications are listed below.

Asus Eee PC 1008HA Specifications:
CPU: Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz
RAM: 1 GB DDR2
HDD: 160 GB HDD + 10GB Eee Storage
Weight: 1.1 Kgs
Screen size: 10 inch (1024 x 600 resolution) LED display
Battery Life: 6 hours
Other Features:

• External stereo speaker
• Intel 802.11 b/g/n Wireless connectivity
• Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR
• 100 Mbps Ethernet
• 1.3 Mega Pixel Web Camera.

I/O Ports:

• 2 x USB 2.0
• 1 x Integrated 10/100 LAN (RJ45)
• 1 x 15-pin VGA video connector
• 1 x line out
• 1 x mic-in
• 1 x MMC/SD Card Reader
• 1 x AC adapter connector

Price: n/a

[Source: Asus]