Microsoft buys Canesta, continues camera-based domination of our interfaces

Share

It seems that Microsoft's taken the camera to heart following its dismissal of the pen -- the company bought 3DV, collaborated with PrimeSense on Kinect, and today it's apparently finalized a deal to acquire 3D CMOS camera chipmaker Canesta as well. In case you've already forgotten, the latter company is the one that made an paid actor look particularly smug last year, by allowing the gent to control his television with a flick of the wrist. Things have progressed a good bit further than that, however, as you'll see in a demo video after the break, and Canesta president and CEO Jim Spare says he expects the company's stuffs to "see wide adoption across many applications that embody the full potential of the technology" under Microsoft's reign.

Fox blackout on Cablevision ends after 14 day standoff, glaring contest continues on

Share

Evidently missing the first two games of the World Series was about all Cablevision thought it subscribers could take, as news just hit the wire: the fourteen-day standoff is over and both tonight's game three of the World Series and tomorrow's Jets vs Packers game are available to subscribers. While these carriage disputes are pretty common, it is very rare for channels to be pulled and downright unheard of for a channel as popular as Fox. It came to this because Cablevision was very unhappy about News Corp's new terms and after many pleas to the FCC and politicians to intervene, an advertising campaign, and eventually an unaccepted offer to match the price that Time Warner Cable pays, a deal has finally been done. Not exactly all's well that ends well, though, as Cablevision released the following statement: "In the absence of any meaningful action from the FCC, Cablevision has agreed to pay Fox an unfair price for multiple channels of its programming including many in which our customers have little or no interest." Talk about sour grapes. Well at least we can hope that Cablevision's efforts paid off a little bit and your cable bill won't go up as much as it would've if the outage never occurred to begin with. We can hope.

Apple sues Motorola right back over six patents

Share

What, you didn't think Apple was just going to sit around and take it after Motorola first sued for patent infringement and then asked to court to declare some 20 of Cupertino's patentsweren't applicable to its products, did you? Apple's fired back with two lawsuits claiming that Motorola's Android phones, including but not limited to the Droid, Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq, Cliq XT, BackFlip, Devour A555, Devour i1, and Charm, infringe a total of six multitouch and OS patents. That would be pretty much par for the course -- you sue me, I sue you -- but there are a couple interesting strategic wrinkles to note:

• We've only seen Apple litigate one of these patents before: #7,479,949, Touch Screen Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Determining Commands by Applying Heuristics. You should remember it well -- it's the patent covering scroll behavior on multitouch screens that was hyped as "the iPhone patent" and triggered a press frenzy over a possible Apple / Palm lawsuit. As we predicted at the time, that hasn't yet materialized, but old '949's gotten pretty popular: Apple's asserting itagainst Nokia and HTC as well.
• Apple might be suing over six patents in these two cases, but ultimately Apple will claiming Motorola's devices infringe a total of 26 patents -- part of Apple's defense to Motorola's 20-patent lawsuit will be to claim that that Moto's in fact infringing each of those patents. That's a lot of patents across a lot of devices, and it'll just take one finding of infringement to cause a lot of pain.
• Apple's filed its two cases in the Western District of Wisconsin, a patent "rocket docket" that tries cases quickly and are often perceived as being plaintiff-friendly. (Part of the Apple / Nokia lawsuit is happening in this same court.) Moto's obvious next move will be to try and consolidate all these cases into a single proceeding at one court, a procedural tactic that will take likely take months. And that's just the first step. Don't expect these cases to be decided for at least a year -- probably many years -- unless Apple and Motorola decide to settle, which is always possible.
• Apple's now seriously engaged in litigation with the two largest Android handset makers (HTC and Motorola), largely over OS-level patents. At some point Google has to get involved, if only to indemnify its partners against further liability for using Android, and we can't help but think Apple and Google are eventually bound to face off directly. Or perhaps not -- by suing Android handset makers, Apple's essentially putting a tax on Android without having to further muddy up its complex competitor / partner relationship with Google by adding in a major lawsuit.

We've added in a list of the patents after the break, if you're interested -- and we know you're interested, right? It's not like it's a beautiful Saturday afternoon or anything.

• 7,812,828, Ellipse Fitting for Multi-Touch Surfaces
• 7,663,607, Multipoint Touchscreen
• 5,379,430, Object-Oriented System Locator System
• 7,497,949, Touch Screen Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Determining Commands by Applying Heuristics
• 6,493,002, Method and Apparatus for Displaying and Accessing Control and Status Information in a Computer System
• 5,838,315, Support for Custom User-Interaction Elements in a Graphical, Event-Driven Computer System

The Apple Store is down, nobody here but us chickens

Share

Could it be a Verizon iPhone? The white iPhone 4? Perhaps a surprise Core i3 ULV in the 13-inch MacBook Pro? We can't tell for sure, but our money's on none of the above, folks. We'll be sure to dig through for changes as soon as the house that Jobs built is up and running once more.

MSI brings graphics switching action to 15.6-inch FX600MX laptop

Share

MSI stops short of calling the graphics switching technology within the FX600MX "Optimus," but it's pretty obvious what's behind the curtain. The outfit's latest 15.6-incher is equipped with a Core i3 or i5 CPU, Windows 7 Home Premium, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory and a 320/500GB hard drive. There's also a 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 310M GPU, and MSI has thrown in a handy control panel to make switching from discrete to integrated a lesson in simplicity. Moving on, you'll find a DVD SuperMulti drive, two USB 2.0 ports, a 4-in-1 card reader, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, gigabit Ethernet, an HD webcam and a conventional six-cell battery. You'd be wasting your time hoping for a price and release from these guys, but usually a proper announcement means it'll be on shelves soon.

Intel, Samsung, Toshiba form consortium aiming for 10nm chips by 2016

Share

There isn't much to say here, so let's just get on with the facts: Intel, Samsung, and Toshiba are joining forces and pooling R&D efforts in a consortium funded in part by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (an expected 50 percent, or 5 billion yen / US $62 million) and the rest from the members. The goal? Semiconductor chips nearing 10nm by 2016. Ten more companies are expected to be invited once things get sorted out, so major chip-related corporations, please keep checking your mailboxes daily.

CrystalRoc Galaxy Tab: 5,700 Swarovski crystals, zero shame

Share

We can only assume that Stuart Hughes will eventually one-up it with a gold-plated, diamond-encrusted model of its own but, for the time being, it looks like this new CrystalRoc Galaxy Tab is the most "exclusive" Android tablet around. While there's no word on a price (we assume it's on a need to know basis), CrystalRoc does proudly boast that the tablet packs 5,700 Swarosvski bright crystals, not to mention a custom logo to match.

Sprint CEO thanks iPad for uptick in Overdrive demand

Share

Well, wouldn't you know it? Seems that tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign may actually be working. Way back in April of this year, Sprint decided it would begin offering its own iPad case, despite the fact that even today the iPad isn't sold in Sprint stores. The reason? It's the perfect opportunity to push the Overdrive, a 4G mobile hotspot that's able to take the iPad (and any other WiFi-enabled device) to 4G speeds where available. In a recent interview withGigaOM, the carrier's CEO (Dan Hesse) confirmed that most iPads being sold are of the WiFi variety, and due to that, "the company has seen an uptick in demand for its Overdrive (3G/4G) MiFi wireless-hotspot device, as people use it to connect their iPads to the Internet when on the go." He failed to exaggerate on actual numbers, but it's obvious he's in favor of Apple's darling tablet selling like hotcakes -- after all, how else are you going to get an iDevice into 4G territory?

China's Tianhe-1A is world's fastest supercomputer, plans to usurp the West now complete

Share

It happened. China just passed the US and the world with the reveal of the world's fastest supercomputer. The fully operational Tianhe-1A, located at the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin, scored 2.507 petaflops as measured by the LINPACK benchmark. That moves it past Cray's 2.3 petaflops Jaguar located at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee. Tianhe-1A achieved the record using 7,168 NVIDIA Tesla M2050 GPUs and 14,336 Intel Xeon CPUs consuming 4.04 megawatts. Knowing that 10 petaflops is within reach by 2012, we'll see if Tianhe-1A can maintain its title when the new Top500 supercomputers list is released next week.

Microsoft announces a record first-quarter revenue of $16.20 billion, $5.41 billion in profit

Share

Microsoft just beat analyst expectations, announcing $16.20 billion in revenue for the first quarter of its 2011 fiscal year, with $5.41 billion in profit. Microsoft cites Office 2010, the sustained "PC refresh cycle," and 38 percent growth in the Xbox 360 biz for its good news, with overall revenue up 25 percent over the same quarter last year and a 51 percent gain in profit. The Xbox 360 has been at the top of the console heap for four months running, which can't hurt. Microsoft will have an earnings call to discuss its results at 5:30PM EDT, so we'll be keeping our ears peeled for Steve Ballmer to pull a Steve Jobs, hijack the call, and rag hard on the competition -- if only we lived in a world of such beautiful symmetry.

iBuyPower revamps Gamer Mage / Paladin desktops with Radeon HD 6800 GPUs

Share

You're already sold on ATI's new Radeon HD 6800 series, but your existing motherboard and CPU just feel too aged to become home to such a shiny, fresh piece of silicon. We hear you. So does iBuyPower. Rather than forking out and upgrading just your GPU, these guys are hoping you'll ogle the newly revised Gamer Mage D295, Gamer Mage D355, and Gamer Paladin F820, all three of which are available with the HD 6870 and HD 6850. The Gamer Mage D295 gets housed in a Thermaltake V9 enclosure and ships with a liquid cooled Athlon II X4 640 quad-core CPU, 4GB of RAM, a Radeon HD 6850 (1GB), LG Blu-ray reader / DVD combo drive, 1TB of HDD space and a 700 watt power supply -- all for the low, low price of $899. The D335 (starts at $1,239) steps up to a liquid cool Phenom II X6 1055T, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a Radeon HD 6870 GPU, 64GB SSD and an 800 watt PSU, while the F280 (starts at $1,369) goes all-out with a liquid cooled Core i7 950, 6GB of DDR3 memory, an HD 6870 GPU and NZXT's Guardian 921 R case. Hit the links below to get your customization on.

11.6-inch MacBook Air cleared to remain packed through security, but we'd remove it anyway

Share

Really, TSA? Are you honestly so stoked to disappoint? If you'll recall, the American Transportation Security Administration got up close and personal with a first-generation MacBook Air after wrongly assuming it was an Apocalypse-bringer, and even after adjusting rules so that iPads, netbooks and other smaller electronics could fly through carry-on screening equipment without being unpacked, we've still heard of (and personally experienced) occasions where agents have demanded that tablet PCs be ran through naked. If there's a lesson to learn here, it's that the TSA is consistently inconsistent, and you're probably better off putting everything you own in a separate grey bucket for the sake of covering your bases. The same applies to Apple's new 11.6-inch MacBook Air, which is cleared to undergo TSA scanning while packed under the aforesaid amended rules. In theory, you shouldn't have to remove it from your backpack as you struggle to reach your gate, but if we had to guess, we'd say you'll be ask to take it out and re-run it if you try. But hey, you're only being victimized and scrutinized in the name of security, so it's all good. Trust us.

Motorola's mobile unit posts first operating profit in a long, long time

Share

As a whole, Motorola is no stranger to profit... thing is, Moto won't be "whole" for much longer, and when the split happens, we're sure it'd like all of its divisions to be profitable. The mobile unit, of course, has been the struggling one, trying to pull out of a multi-year post-RAZRnosedive under the leadership of CEO Sanjay Jha -- and it looks like his all-in bet on Android is starting to pay off at the bank on today's news that they've posted a non-GAAP operating profit of $3 million. Yes, sure, that's razor-thin when you consider that they sold some $2 billion worth of phones -- but these guys haven't seen black ink in three years, so it's definitely cause for celebration. Looking at the bigger picture, the entirety of Motorola posted non-GAAP earnings per share of 16 cents -- handily beating the estimate of 10 to 12 cents -- on sales of $5.8 billion. Not out of the woods yet, but certainly rolling toward the end of the year on a high note, we'd say.

Microsoft 'Tags' 2 billion real-world objects with its phone-friendly barcodes

Share

Microsoft might be late to the cameraphone-able barcode game, but it appears to be making up for lost time. Its multi-colored (and, frankly, rather attractive) Tag barcodes added a few important innovations on top of the general QR code concept, and apparently to good effect: 2 billion Tags have been printed since the January 2009 launch, and 1 billion of those Tags were printed in the past four months. Sounds like Microsoft has found some momentum, and they claim to have gained a lead in the publishing industry already. Obviously, the analytics, customization, and anti-fragmentation nature appeals to Big Barcode, but we'll have to wait and see if Tag is the ultimate choice of the everyman. Plus, won't ads be able to hack our brains and implant URLs at-will soon enough? We're holding out for that.

Munk Bogballe debuts Classic Bespoke luxury laptop line: $7,000 and way, way up

Share

With a name like Munk Bogballe, it has to be pricey... right? Right. 2.5 years after launching what's likely the most expensive MacBook of all time, the aforesaid purveyor of fine, fine mobile computers has introduced its Classic Bespoke collection -- at the Millionaire Fair in Moscow, no less. So, what does a base price of €5,200 ($7,180) buy you? A 5.1 pound slab of aluminum, accented with lush leather, a mahogany screen frame, freshwater pearl on / off button and oodles of gold. Oh, and a single line of diamonds, presumably for squeezing out six to ten more frames per second in Portal. You may also expect to get only the latest and greatest when it comes to technology, but you'd be badly mistaken; the standard configuration ships with a Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and a paltry 500GB hard drive. If you're hot for an SSD, ostrich leather or an 18 carat gold power button, that'll be extra. Not like you really care, Mr. Millionaire.

HP Envy 17 3D laptop now available starting at $1599

Share

If you've been kept awake at night wondering when the HP Envy 17 3D laptop would finally be available for purchase, well you'll have sweet dreams tonight. HP's officially thrown this bad boy up on its website for all those out there whose laptops are just too... two dimensional. If you've forgotten, the Envy 17 3D boasts a 17.3-inch 3D Ultra BrightView display, packs AMD's 3D tech, and it comes with active shutter glasses. Specwise, you get a choice of Intel Core i7 processors, ATI Mobility Radeon graphics, a wide range of hard drive options and Windows 7 operating systems. The base configuration comes with a $1,599 price tag. In other HP availability news, the Wireless TV Connect device, which will stream 1080p video from your laptop to your HDTV, is also up for order for $199.99. Hit up the source link if you're ready to start shopping.

Sprint's Hesse commits to phasing out iDEN

Share

Echoing sentiments of Sprint's senior VP of networks from last month, CEO Dan Hesse has said that the company will be saying goodnight to its aging push-to-talk network -- iDEN -- that it inherited from its Nextel acquisition several years ago, "just like 1G was shut down." Of course, the difference between 1G cellular and iDEN is that iDEN still holds a very unique position in the wireless marketplace: even though it sucks for data, it's really the only popular, successful way to route push-to-talk over a cell network of any kind. To that end, the company is actively soliciting bids to build out CDMA 1X Advanced right now, which may allow the company to have another go at moving its PTT services over to a CDMA-based technology (the first attempt, QChat, already failed). In the meantime, Hesse says that the company is putting most of its marketing efforts into attracting customers to its CDMA airwaves, not its iDEN ones, in the hopes that they'll be able to smooth out the transition and free up iDEN spectrum for other services. It's had a good run, hasn't it?

Office 2011 for Mac is available today.docx

Share

There are plenty of free, paid, web-based, desktop-bound, cross-platform, or uni-platform alternatives, but there can only be one Office. Microsoft's flagship desktop suite of productivity applications just got a major new update. Office 2011 for Mac replaces Microsoft's Mac-specific Entourage email app with the industry standard Outlook, brings in some interface tweaks from Office 2010 over in PC land, and integrates with those Office Web Apps you've been hearing so much about. The entire "Home & Business" bundle goes for $279, and if you're not so into Outlook, you can get the Word / PowerPoint / Excel "Home & Student" version for $149.

Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 sees public beta release

Share

We knew good and well it was coming, and here it is. Microsoft has today introduced the Release Candidate (RC) of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) to the public, and for those unaware of how these software rollouts "work," the RC release generally signals that a final build is just about ready. As previously announced, the only new features added to the SP1 are the Windows Server 2008 R2-related virtualization technologies, Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX, and while Windows 7 SP1 will enable PCs to take advantage of these server-based features to provide a more scalable and richer VDI experience for end users, there are no additional new features specific to Windows 7. If that's cool with you, there's a source link (and a download) waiting for you just below.

Nokia's Savander: 'the Symbian Foundation will exist as an open source movement and we will use it'

Share

The veracity of The Register's information regarding theSymbian Foundation's future remains to be seen -- but for what it's worth, Nokia's outspoken vice president of markets, Niklas Savander, seems to have some pretty strong language about the platform's future in a recent interview with CNET Asia. Here's the money quote in response to a question about whether Espoo will pull the Foundation's operations back in-house after having spun them off as an open-source operation in 2008:

"I don't see any reason for that. What would be the benefit of doing that? We have made it open source, so it's, of course, up to the different users whether they want to use it. The whole notion behind the open-source community is that people can choose to leave or not to leave. We have quite a few Japanese vendors that are pushing Symbian products. The Symbian Foundation will exist as an open source movement and we will use it. Other people are welcome to use it if they want to. If they don't, that's not going to change things. That's how open source works."

So Nokia's public-facing philosophy seems to be that they don't care who -- if anyone -- uses Symbian, they're going to continue to let the Foundation do its thing. Meanwhile, another part of the interview highlights the fact that they're still planning to continue to drive Symbian downmarket. Obviously, Nokia's internal roadmap could differ significantly from Savander's message, but so far, we don't have any hint from these guys that changes are afoot. That said, the Foundation's funding situation could force Nokia to take action if it wants the platform to continue to develop and evolve, but we suppose we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Another interesting tidbit in the interview highlights the fact that one of new Nokia CEOStephen Elop's edicts has been to significantly reduce the amount of time between a product's announcement and its release, which might be the driving force behind his decision to push the introduction of Nokia's first MeeGo products into 2011. As much as we hate waiting, we'd say that's a stellar direction for the company to take -- nothing builds animosity toward a product more than letting it waste away in a purgatory of unattainability (assuming your name isn't Eldar Murtazin) for six-plus months.

Adobe confirms Flash Player 10.1 is coming to BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7 and more

Share

We've already known that Adobe would be bringing Flash Player 10.1 to Windows Phone 7, but the company has just now made that fully official at its currently-happening MAX conference (alongside itsAir 2.5 announcement), and it's also confirmed exactly which other mobile platforms the plug-in will be headed to. That includes WebOS 2.0, which we've already seen first hand, along with BlackBerry OS, Symbian, MeeGo and, last but not least, the LiMo platform -- those will all of course join Android 2.2, which already supports the plug-in. Unfortunately, there's still no timeline for a release on each platform, with Adobe only saying that that Flash 10.1 is "expected" to hit each mobile OS. Head on past the break for the relevant snippet from Adobe's press release.

Flash Player 10.1

Already one of the top free apps on Android Market, with more than 50,000 users giving it a 4.5-out-of-5 star rating, Flash Player 10.1 brings rich Flash based content to mobile devices inside the browser. The runtime is now certified on close to a dozen Android devices and will become available on dozens more over the coming weeks and months. Adobe also announced that Flash Player 10.1 was downloaded more than 2 million times from Android Market. In addition to Android Market, the runtime is distributed directly by device manufacturers and operators via pre-installs and operating system upgrades. Flash Player 10.1 is available on Android and Google TV today, with BlackBerry platform, HP webOS 2.0, future versions of Windows® Phone, LiMo, MeeGo, and Symbian OS also expected to support Flash Player 10.1. For a list of devices supported today, visit Adobe Flash Player 10.1 certified devices.

Recycle old gadgets (and make a buck or two) with eBay Instant Sale

Share

You might already hawk your valuable old gadgets on eBay, but the auction house wants to broker your smaller transactions too -- that's why it launched eBay Instant Sale this last week. If you've got a (moderately recent) gizmo you want to get rid of right away, it looks as easy as can be -- answer the two questions above and get an instant offer, plus a free shipping label to mail it out. From the looks of a few sample queries, you won't get much for older items like the Dell Inspiron 8200 above, but we found a used Palm Pixi in good condition was worth a respectable $57, and even if your old featurephones aren't worth a cent, eBay's partners will recycle them for you and pay your shipping fees. Sure, you could donate the lot and write them off your taxes, but this sounds like it might be a worthy alternative to us.

Windows 8 about two years away, according to Microsoft Netherlands

Share

When will Microsoft bring Windows 8 to market? 2012's looking like a safe bet -- not only was it slated for that date in an allegedly leaked product roadmap, but Microsoft Netherlands hints that the OS is just two years away. Buried at the bottom of a press release celebrating the first birthday of Windows 7, you'll find the above Dutch phrase, which Google Translate returns as "Furthermore, Microsoft is of course the next version of Windows. But it will take about two years before "Windows 8" on the market." There are certainly plenty of reasons why Microsoft's riskiest product bet might not hit its target date, but the machine translation seems clear. Here's hoping the OS will ship with some suitably futuristic hardware.

Viewsonic VX2258wm 22-inch multitouch display hits stores in Europe

Share

It looks like the folks at Viewsonic never got the memo that people don't want touchscreen displays on devices that don't lay flat. (Maybe Steve forgot to CC 'em?) That, or maybe they just have a rebellious streak -- which we can certainly respect. Either way, the company has just announced the VX2258wm, a 22-inch monitor that uses Infrared Optical Imaging to bring Windows-certified multitouch to the table (er, desk). And that, alongside 1080p HD resolution, ClearMotiv II Technology, a 5ms response time, a dynamic contrast ratio of 100,000:1, and support for HBDP (High Bandwidth Digital Protection) Blu-ray devices, sounds pretty good to us! Available now in Europe for £189 (roughly $300). PR after the break.

ASUS Eee PC 1015PW peeks out of hiding with dual-core Atom, royal purple shell

Share

Can you keep track of all the different variants of ASUS' Eee PC netbook? It's not easy when the Taiwanese computer company pumps out new ones nearly every month, but we doubt we'll easily forget the Eee PC 1015PW's distinctive shade of purple. Otherwise, TechinStylereports it's much the same as the 1015PEM, which isn't a terrible thing -- it's got a dual-core 1.5GHz Intel Atom N550 CPU, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and a 250GB or 320GB hard drive under that chiclet keyboard, plus the usual 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600 LED-backlit screen. No word on pricing or availability, but the way these things usually go, you'll find it in Europe well before the States.

Ballmer: next release of Windows will be Microsoft's 'riskiest product bet'

Share

Windows 7 might be a massive commercial success and an undeniably rock solid piece of software, but Microsoft is apparently unwilling to rest on those soft and cozy laurels. Asked about the riskiest product bet the Redmond crew is currently developing, its fearless leader Steve Ballmer took no time in answering "the next release of Windows." His interviewers sadly failed to probe any deeper on the subject, but it might be notable that Steve calls it thenext release rather than simply Windows 8, while the idea of it being risky also ties in with previous indications that Microsoft is aiming for a revolutionary leap between iterations. We'll have to just be patient and wait for more on that, though if you'd like a peek at Steve dodging question on tablets and the potential for Windows Phone 7 appearing on them.

Update: It's also worth noting that Ballmer may not have been talking about revolutionary leaps as much as he's referencing the past issues the company has had when it's issued a major OS update (hello, Vista). The idea that making any big change to the operating system most of the world runs would invite a certain amount of high risk makes sense to us.

Nissan Leaf goes 116.1 miles in first anecdotal test, with the air conditioning on

Share

If there's one thing we've learned from years of toying with technology, it's never to believe a manufacturer's estimate regarding battery life, but it seems like the estimates Nissanprovided for its Leaf electric car may not be too far off the mark. Though the vehicle obviously isn't getting 367 miles to its non-existent gallon, PluginCars did manage to eke out a solid 116.1 miles in the car's first anecdotal test, and all they had to do to go the distance was drive casually and slightly below the speed limit. "It wasn't like I was driving like an obsessed hypermiler," said the driver, who spent most of the trip with the A/C blasting. Nissan recently revised their range estimates for the Leaf to anywhere from 62 to 138 miles depending on speed and weather conditions, so 116.1 is a pretty solid run, but until thosecharging stations permeate the countryside, we're still going to take the ol' gas-guzzler on our road trips.

MSI brings Core i5, GeForce GT 425M to 15.6-inch GE603 laptop

Share

It looks about like every other MSI 15.6-incher out there, but for those who prefer classy over vivacious, he GE603 might just be right down your alley. Designed primary as a multimedia laptop with the ability to handle a modest amount of demanding games, this here rig will be available with a Core i5-460M, i5-450M or i5-430M processor, NVIDIA's GeForce GT 425M (1GB), HDMI and VGA outputs, a 320/500/640GB hard drive, a DVD burner, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and a foursome of USB 2.0 sockets. You'll also find 802.11b/g/n WiFi, an ExpressCard reader, 5-in-1 card reader, gigabit Ethernet and up to 8GB of DDR3 memory. As you'd expect, Windows 7 is running the show, and the nine-cell Li-ion should keep it humming for at least a couple of hours. Per usual, MSI's not serving up details regarding a price or release date, but we both know it's aiming to have it on store shelves pre-Christmas.

NVIDIA lists unannounced GTX 580 graphics card on its page, quickly puts it back in hiding

Share

What's this, a bit of intrigue from NVIDIA? The company is due for a refresh on its DirectX 11 line and, with AMD's Cayman series floating its way to availability on crystal-clear waters, the competition appears to be teasing its response. NVIDIA briefly listed a card called the GTX 580 on its System Requirements page and, while we don't know how long it was there, it was quickly pulled after news of its presence started making the rounds. Accidental addition or the intentional planting of a seed of doubt in the minds of AMD fans? We'll never know, and we don't know the details of the card either, but expectations are that it contains 40nm construction with 512 CUDA cores, 2GB of GDDR5 memory, and a due date before the end of the year. That should give you plenty of time to upgrade your power supply... again.

Microsoft Games for Windows Marketplace relaunches in your browser on November 15

Share

Microsoft just announced that its new Games for Windows Marketplace online PC games store will launch on November 15th. Think Steam, but not quite. The store offers online web access from anywhere and features fast purchase and download turnarounds to accelerate the time to game play; discounted games; and game search by title, genre or publisher. Games for Windows Marketplace is integrated with Microsoft's existing Xbox LIVE and Windows Live services and will launch with over 100 titles including "Fable: The Lost Chapters" and "Grand Theft Auto III." Anyone with a Windows Live ID can login. Check out the full press release after the break before heading over to Joystiq for more detailed coverage.

Apple responds on missing Flash in new MacBook Airs, says get used to it

Share

The other day, we reported on the fact that those tiny new MacBook Airs are shipping without a pre-installed version of Flash. Based on Apple's recent, vocal anti-Flash opinions, we took it as a sign that the company was putting even more distance between itself and Adobe, but according to a statement we've just received, that might not be the case. Apple spokesman Bill Evans just pinged us with the official word on the situation, claiming that it has more to do with making sure users have the most recent version of the software and less to do with politics. Here's the word from Apple:

We're happy to continue to support Flash on the Mac, and the best way for users to always have the most up to date and secure version is to download it directly from Adobe.

Interestingly, he also notes that this will be happening across all Macs in the future, though there may be some models still in the channel with Flash pre-installed. Obviously this makes some sense, but it's hard not to see it as a dig against Adobe -- there must be other solutions for ensuring users are up to date (like, oh, putting the plugin into your auto-updater). Also, it would be nice if those "missing plug-in" messages actually worked as links to the Adobe install page (because they don't, at least in Safari). Hey -- at least we know it wasn't a fluke!

Maingear slides out Clutch-13 and Clutch-15 gaming laptops

Share

If we didn't know any better, we'd easily mistake Maingear's newest duo as the sexiest portable duo we've seen today. And maybe it is. The up-and-coming pre-fab PC builder has just unleashed a new pair of laptops, the Clutch-13 and Clutch-15. Predictably, the former is a 13.3-incher while the latter clocks in at a more usual 15.6-inches, and both feature Intel's newest Core 2010 CPUs and looks that (almost) kill. The smaller guys is equipped with a WXGA (1366 x 768) resolution panel, 1.2GHz Core 330UM, integrated Intel graphics, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, a 750GB HDD (or 512GB SSD if you're feeling whimsical), 802.11g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, gigabit Ethernet, an HDMI output, eSATA, ExpressCard slot and compatibility with an optional docking station that adds an ODD among other useful niceties. The Clutch-15 sticks with the same WXGA resolution (disappointingly, might we add), but offers up a choice of Core i3/i5/i7 CPU, NVIDIA's GeForce GT 330M GPU (1GB), WiDi support and a full-size keyboard with number pad. They're available as we speak starting at $1,099 and $899 in order of mention, so feel free to gloss over the next hour of work while configuring your own.

The ASUS 1015PN is officially the newest entry in the Eee PC family

Share

It was rumored back in August for a September release and, though it did miss that by a full month, we're definite believers of "Better late than never." The ASUS 1015PN is officially the newest entry in the Eee PC family with its 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600 LCD, a dual-core AtomN550 processor, 1GB of RAM, 250GB of platter-based storage, and, perhaps most importantly, NVIDIA Ion 2 graphics that won't put a hurting on your battery life thanks to Optimusswitching tech. That means an estimated 9.5 hours of longevity on a charge so long as you don't spend your time pumping out reams of legally acquired full HD test footage. If all that sounds good you can order yours right now for around $429.

ATI Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850 reviewed, deemed worthy of the midrange

Share

AMD's Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850 graphics cards are here, but they might not be what you expect -- though alphanumerics suggest they'd succeed the lauded Radeon HD 5870 and 5850, these new "Bart" chips are actually a pair of solid plays for the PC gaming mainstream. $180 buys you a Radeon HD 6850 with 960 stream processors, a 775MHz core clock and 1GB of GDDR5 memory at a 1GHz effective rate, and $240 nets the HD 6870 with 1120 stream processors and 900MHz / 1,050 MHz clocks respectively. On paper that puts them a good bit behind the finest, but a collection of reviews show they can keep up with the pack, as the 6870 consistently manages to surpass the framerates possible with NVIDIA's $200 GeForce GTX 460, and even the cheaper 6850 can do the same in certain games. Some reports indicate they run a good bit hotter than their predecessors, however, so despite the bevy of ports they're probably not right for your next HTPC. Hit up the reviews below for some promising benchmarks, and if you aren't turned away by AMD's lipsticking of the pig after, you'll find ten varieties already for sale at our source link.

Apple quietly updates MacBook Pro with optional 2.8GHz Core i7 processor

Share

Sure, Apple's "Back to the Mac" press conference was all about software and a manila envelopeor two, but Cupertino also sent out a silent love letter to its MacBook Pro lineup. Specifically, the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro laptops can now be configured with a 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 processor, up from the 2.66GHz model they were limited to before, for the primo price of $200 more. That's a pretty penny to pay for a simple 140MHz boost, but base clockspeed is only part of the story -- this is almost certainly the Core i7-640M that Intel owned up to just last month, which can turbo to a lap-scorching 3.4GHz under load. If you feel like buying one, do be a dear and let us know for sure?

Lenovo's ThinkCentre M75e desktop range introduced, complete with business socks

Share

They ain't much to gawk at, and they certainly won't satisfy your craving for tomorrow's best first-person shooter, but Lenovo's newest ThinkCentre machines will undoubtedly tear through an Excel spreadsheet and block your access to any website deemed remotely entertaining. The M75e will be arriving in two versions: a small form factor mini-tower starting at $504, and a standard tower starting at $524. Both units ship with a baseline configuration that includes a 2.8GHz AMD Sempron 145 AM3 processor, Windows 7 Professional, 2GB of DDR3 memory, an integrated AMD GPU (capable of driving two displays by its lonesome), a 250GB hard drive and a three-year warranty. Big spenders can upgrade to an Athlon II or Phenom II CPU, up to 16GB of memory and a Haspel tuxedo. Or so we're led to believe.

Intel announces plans to spend up to $8 billion on U.S. factory upgrades

Share

Apple and Google may be sitting on their piles of cash, but Intel sure is dipping into its reserves in a big way these days -- the company has just announced that it's following up its nearly $8 billion acquisition of McAfee with a multi-billion dollar investment in upgrades to its factories in Arizona and Oregon. That investment will total between $6 billion and $8 billion, and include the development of an entirely new fabrication plant in Oregon, in addition to upgrades at the two existing facilities that will allow Intel to move forward with its 22-nanometer manufacturing process. As you can no doubt guess, the investment will also be quite a boon to both areas -- Intel says that the upgrades, which will take place over "several years," will create as many as 8,000 construction jobs and between 800 and 1,000 permanent jobs at the facilities.

Apple introduces 11.6-inch MacBook Air, available today for $999

Share

Hoo boy, our tipster was spot on with this one, Apple's adding an 11.6-inch sibling to its newly redesigned 13.3-inch MacBook Air. It'll have a dual-core 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU (upgradeable to 1.6GHz on the more expensive model), 1366 x 768 resolution, and a $999 starting price for the 64GB SSD model, with the 128GB version setting you back $1,199. It carries over the aluminum unibody construction from the 13-incher, along with the same 2GB or 4GB DDR3 RAM options and NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics, but has to settle for a briefer 5-hour battery life.

Dell marketing makeover simplifies brands, kills off Adamo altogether

Share

We knew something was going on with Dell's branding with the resurrection of the XPS laptop line, and this morning we caught up with a few of the company's executives to learn all about the entire restructuring. As you can see above, there will now be three core brands -- Inspiron, XPS and Alienware -- all focusing on different "performance seekers." However, you'll notice that Adamo is nowhere to be found on that flow chart. Turns out, the sneaky disappearance of the Adamo XPS from Dell's site hasn't exactly been a coincidence -- it's completely killing off the premium brand and has actually tamped down volumes of the super thin machines. Now, that doesn't mean systems like the original Adamo and the Adamo XPS won't exist ever again as Dell VP Ed Boyd tells us similar products will be coming to the XPS line early next year. Simplifying the brands sure does make a lot of sense to us -- all the Adamo XPS, Studio XPS, Studio laptops have seriously confused us over the last couple of years -- but it's all part of a larger marketing campaign that will attempt to move Dell away from being a low cost brand and instead portray the company as providing choice -- a campaign Dell CMO Paul-Henri Ferrand told Reuters will ultimately cost hundreds of millions of dollars. We look forward to seeing what you've got Dell, but all we know is that we're finally going to say the following words with affirmation: "rest in peace, Adamo."

Microsoft to spend one billion dollars advertising Kinect and Windows Phone 7

Share

Microsoft's serious about making Kinect a success. A $500 million kind of serious. That's the latest report, courtesy of the New York Post, on the change Steve Ballmer and company intend to drop to make sure that every living and breathing creature in the US knows about the controller-free controller this holiday season. That mirrors earlier analyst estimates placing the Windows Phone 7 marketing budget at a similar figure, which in total would amount to a cool billion dollars in advertising expenditure. We already know Microsoft's scooped the Old Spice Guy for WP7, but Kinect is getting the extra special carpet bombing treatment with Burger King, Pepsi, YouTube, Nickelodeon, Disney, Glee, Dancing with the Stars, People and InStyle magazines, and even Times Square all having a role to play in spreading the word. Yup, it's gonna be pretty hard to miss it.

Apple TV hits 250,000 in sales, says Steve Jobs

Share

Deep within the heart of Apple's fiscal earnings call Q&A session, straight from the mouth of CEO Steve Jobs: "I can report that we've sold a quarter million Apple TVs." Quite an impressive number for a device that's only been out for 18 days but by no means on par with the likes of some other Apple debuts (the iPad, for instance, sold 300,000 on day one). Still, not bad for the once (and possibly still) hobby.

HyperMac will stop selling MacBook charging cables on November 2 -- Apple wins, you lose

Share

Uh oh, HyperMac just announced that it will cease the sale of MacBook charging cables and car chargers -- on November 2nd at 00:00 US Pacific Time, they'll be gone for good. While the HyperMac batteries will be sold, you won't be able to charge your MagSafe-equipped MacBook without the cable, so what's the point? This, obviously, is the direct result of the patent-infringement lawsuit Apple filed over Sanho's unlicensed use of Apple's MagSafe power connector. And while it may be a victory for Apple legal, it's an unsettling blow to consumers like Engadget editors who need the extra juice to augment the life of Apple's non-removeable MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro batteries. Read the full statement after the break.

Update: We've spoken with Daniel Chin, President of Sanho Corporation, who tells us that his company is, "in middle of license negotiations with Apple and ceasing the sale of the MagSafe cables was a perquisite for negotiations to go on." So there is still hope for a legal solution to this mess. Otherwise, it'll be soldering guns and X-Acto knives at dawn.

Dear Valued Customers,

As part of our ongoing comprehensive licensing negotiations with Apple regarding a wide array of technologies and issues, we have decided to cease the sale of the MacBook charging cables and car charger on November 2, 2010.

While we will continue to sell the same batteries together with the rest of our product line after November 2nd, they will not be able to charge MacBooks without the cables.

If you wish to get the world's ONLY external battery and car charger solution that works with ALL MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro (supports dual voltage) as well as the iPad, iPhone 3/3GS/4, iPod and all other USB devices, NOW is the time.

On November 2, 2010 00:00 U.S. Pacific Time, they will gone for good.

As we have very limited stocks, do order early to avoid disappointment. We will continue to sell until November 2nd and while stocks last.

We wish thank the many customers who have already gotten the HyperMac External MacBook Battery and those of you that gave us wonderful reviews.