News Archive for 09/08/25
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MSI has confirmed the introduction of mobile Core i7 processors with several of its upcoming Windows 7-based notebooks . The company is set to ship 15.4- and 17-inch notebooks based on the Core i7 7200M, Core i7 8200M, and Core i7 920XM CPUs. Along with the high-end notebooks, MSI is also set to release a Wind U150 netbook featuring a touchscreen and Intel's next-generation Pine Trail platform.
Product pages for an unannounced Magellan GPS, the RoadMate 1700, have leaked on several online retailers such as Tiger GPS. The 1700 matches many of the same features as the rest of the RoadMate series, but adds a larger 7-inch display. Otherwise, the GPS offers a AAA TourBook, 6 million points of interest, text-to-speech and multiple-point routing.
Facebook is looking to acquire Spotify in what may represent a significant change in the way listeners get music, a rumor claims. While Facebook has supposedly been in talks to buy the unlimited music streaming service for the past year, TechCrunch has heard that the recent MySpace buyout of iLike has stepped up the pressure to take action in the past week. Those associated with the company have lately been expressing public interest in the company, including compliments to Spotify from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in a status update and investor Li Ka-Shing putting money into Spotify alongside the social network.
As part of Samsung's initiative to promote environmentally-friendly efforts, the company has highlighted the energy efficiency of current SSD storage and DDR3 memory components. The use of higher-density DDR3 memory is said to reduce power consumption by up to 70 percent compared to DDR2 modules. The power savings is attributed to lower voltage requirements, as low as 1.35 volts, and the energy-efficient 40nm manufacturing technology.
Nintendo's Wii will get the ability to play movies on users' Windows PCs thanks to Media Mall's PlayOn app on Wednesday, August 26th. PlayOn has already allowed PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 users to access Netflix Watch, Amazon VOD and Hulu content. The Wii version will also have support for a few other unnamed online video services, though does require an Internet-connected Windows XP or Vista computer as the source.
The BlackBerry Storm's unofficial but likely successor, the 9550, has been seen in a new set of photos that detail a major change in how RIM approaches the smartphone's touchscreen. The photos of the naked 9550 from Engadget reveal the piezoelectronic technology that gives the touchscreen tactile feedback, and users who press it will get a click they can feel in a particular area rather than just a sound or a generic click.
AT&T made good on yesterday's promise of updating its BlackBerry Bold's operating system that enables visual voicemail. After upgrading to the new operating system, AT&T Bold owners can activate the visual voicemail option themselves by navigating to the AT&T website and logging into their Manage My Account section. As expected, the feature is free to subscribers, and will allow users to check their voicemail in any order they wish and not, as usual, in the order that they receive them.
Sony's slim PS3 gaming console, originally slated for an early September release, is already showing up in some Best Buy stores in Florida. One buyer has already bought the console in a Brandon, Florida Best Buy location, while a Tampa-based Best Buy employee is reporting that his store is authorized to sell the redesigned game console as of today.
Attempts by many Windows PC builders have pushed Blu-ray as a major feature of their systems have largely fallen flat, iSuppli said in a new study published today. The optical drives should only appear in about 3.9 percent of PCs this year but, even by 2013, aren't expected to occupy more than 16.3 percent of desktops and notebooks. It's not clear when or if Blu-ray would ever replace DVD drives as the primary optical format.
The UK government has introduced new measures in its Digital Britain report that could see individuals who illegally share copyrighted files have their Internet service cut off, says a Tuesday report. These proposed changed would give regulator Ofcom greater power in fighting web pirates, including said account suspensions. Previously, Ofcon was given until 2012 to develop technical measures to catch pirates, but this timeframe was deemed too generous, and "impacting unfairly upon rights holders," Digital Britain minister Stephen Timms said.
Motorola today set a date for the unveiling of its first-ever Android phones by inviting the press to a San Francisco event on September 10th. The cellphone maker doesn't provide any details as to what's involved, but it's frequently believed the introduction will center on the Sholes, a high-end smartphone with a fast processor and a 5-megapixel camera, and the Morrison, a more economical model meant for T-Mobile and its 3G network. Both are suspected of shipping in the fall.
Canon on Tuesday introduced two new high-speed business scanners that mark the company's first to be Mac-compatible. The two add to Canon's imageFORMULA DR series and include the DR-2510M and DR-2010M. Both have the TWAIN driver necessary for use with Macs, as well as Canon's CaptureOnTouch software that lets users quickly scan to e-mail, printers, shared folders or specific apps such as iPhoto.
ASUS is not actively developing an Android-based smartbook, the company's CEO informs. Although members of the company have expressed mild interest in smartbooks in the past, and displayed a prototype, Jerry Shen notes that he still does not see a "clear market" for the computers, which constitute a step below netbooks. Whereas netbooks operate on a standard Intel platform, smartbooks are dependent on processors meant for smartphones, which prevents them from running conventional desktop software.
A collection of groups dedicated to warning about electromagnetic field effects today published a report it claims should prove that cellphones can create brain tumors. The UK and US organizations behind the study maintain that an Interphone study that has been used to gauge the threat of wireless radiation has been intentionally misrepresented by the phone industry and that the only parts publicly touted have been those that downplay the actual effect of putting a cellphone close to an ear. A "systemic skew" has been in place ever since the Interphone study appeared, according to the activists.
Nokia's first netbook, the Booklet 3G has got an unofficial price ahead of what is expected to be its official release at next week's Nokia World show. The 10-inch netbook is expected to cost $799, while processing power is expected to come from Intel's 1.6GHz Z530 Atom CPU. Windows 7 should be preloaded onto the system, according to the newest report, and Nokia is claiming a 12-hour life for the near 2.8lb device.
Sony today claimed the trophy of the second company in the US with a 3G-aware reader by unveiling the Reader Daily Edition, its third new e-book reader this year. The new model is intended for reading newspapers and other periodicals and comes with a larger 7-inch, touchscreen display. Unlike Amazon's choice of Sprint for the Kindle, though, the Sony device will have free 3G access through AT&T. Adding the always-on data link lets users sync books over the air instead of having to transfer through USB.
ASUS today catered to the US with three new Eee Top all-in-ones. The regular ET2002 and touchscreen ET2002T are the first of the systems to use NVIDIA's Ion hybrid graphics and system controller and consequently have much better graphics performance than Intel's own parts without the cost of a dedicated chipset. Both 20-inch units also break out of nettop limits with dual-core 1.6GHz Atom processors, 2GB of RAM, 320GB hard drives and DVD burners in addition to the usual 802.11n Wi-Fi and webcams.
Acer on Tuesday began shipping its Veriton Z280G all-in-one PC in the US. Meant for work, its processing power comes from a 1.6GHz Intel Atom, but unlike many nettops there is 2GB of RAM onboard to smooth out memory-intensive tasks. Graphics processing is still handled by Intel's GMA 950 graphics on the 18.5-inch LCD, which nets a 1366x768 resolution and a 1,000:1 contrast ratio.
OmniVision today unveiled a new sensor that could make 1080p video capture widespread in mobile devices for the near future. The OV2710 can record the HD resolution at 30 frames per second but is notable for using a 2-megapixel sensor that matches the video format. As a result, a device with the sensor doesn't need the expense and image cropping of a larger sensor and gets better performance in low light and with reduced noise. Through this and using a CMOS sensor instead of CCD, a small camera can still be usable in light levels "well below" 15 lux, or lighting closer to what would be expected in a poorly-lit room.
Corsair today put out a new capacity leader in its Extreme Series SSDs as a bid to claim the best of both worlds. The X256 reaches 256GB of storage but will theoretically cost less than the earlier P256 through slight sacrifices in speed: it reads faster at 240MB per second but gives up a slight amount of write speed, dropping down to 170MB per second, and halves the cache to 64MB. An Indilinx Barefoot memory controller and Samsung flash memory prevent the drive from bogging down.
Sony today updated its Walkman players in the US with updates to its staple non-touch models. As rumored, the S540 series has its own stereo speakers to let users play music or video without headphones. Its display is larger than in the past, now up to 2.4 inches, and users can now record both voice through a microphone as well as the built-in FM radio.
Nokia in the run-up to its Nokia World show next week launched a touchscreen phone made to give it a better foothold in budget touchscreen smartphones. The 5230 is sometimes more advanced than the more expensive 5530 XM and adds both 3G as well as data-assisted GPS; in return, it drops Wi-Fi and scales back to a 2-megapixel camera. It still holds on to the 640x360 touch display, 3.5mm headphone jack and smartphone-class Symbian S60 OS from every previous Nokia touchscreen phone.
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