| MacUpdate Weekend Sale | :This weekend MacUpdate has slashed prices on Painter 12 and Painter Lite. Painter 12 retails for $429, but has been reduced by 54% to $199. Painter Lite has seen a 58% price cut from $69 to $29. Hurry, because these deals are only available until May 19th 2013. |
Acer is launching its Revo RL100 Media Center in the US. The small footprint PC's signature trick a detachable wireless pad that acts either as a keyboard or a mouse and helps it fit into home theaters with a minimum of extra space. It is powered by a 1.3GHz Athlon II Neo dual-core processor that gives it unusual performance for something in its size class.
Acer's Revo 2 nettop, introduced at the IFA in late summer, is now arriving in Europe. The multimedia nettop supports Acer's Clear.fi home networking system and is renamed the Revo 100 instead of the Revo RL100 for Euro duty. Processing power comes from a dual-core AMD Athlon II Neo CPU paired with NVIDIA's Ion for 1080p HD playback.
PC maker Acer will bring a newly redesigned Aspire Revo nettop PC to the IFA show that begins on Friday. The first in the series will be the Revo RL100 that is even thinner than the original. It's powered by a 1.3GHz dual-core AMD Athlon II Neo CPU along with NVIDIA's Ion graphics processor and gets 2GB of RAM.
Dell today shipped the US version of the Inspiron M101z. It marks Dell's official leap into the crossover category between netbooks and notebooks with an 11.6-inch screen and a faster AMD Athlon II Neo processor. Making the switch in processors gives it faster RS880M graphics and opens the door to upgrades that aren't practical or possible on Atom netbooks, such as 4GB of RAM.
Samsung has introduced a new netbook in Europe, the 11.6-inch X125. The system is a break for Samsung as it's powered by the new, 1.7GHz AMD Athlon II Neo and gets 3GB of RAM. It uses an HD (1366x768) screen with graphics handled by faster than average integrated ATI Radeon HD 4225 graphics.
Dell will soon replace the 11.6-inch Inspiron 11z with the Inspiron M101z. It comes powered by either a 1.7GHz single-core or 1.3GHz dual-core Athlon II Neo, unlike the outgoing 11z's 1.2GHz Celeron. It offers a 500GB hard drive, with Windows 7 pre-loaded and as much as 8GB of RAM.
AMD today posted mixed but largely positive results for the spring. The firm's pure revenue surged 40 percent over last year to reach $1.65 billion, setting a record for the company, but was balanced by a $43 million net loss. Operating income also flipped from a $67 million loss the year before to $128 million today.
HP has quietly began selling its new 11.6-inch notebook, the Pavilion dm1z. It sports AMD's new Athlon II Neo and Turion II Neo processors, ranging from single-core 1.7GHz for the Athlon part and moving to 1.3GHz dual-core Turion parts. Otherwise, 2GB of RAM is standard, though it can be upgraded to 3GB or 5GB. It can also be equipped with a hard drive as large as 500GB or a 128GB solid state drive.
Gateway hoped to blur the lines between netbooks and notebooks on Wednesday by launching the LT32. It has an 11.6-inch, 1366x768 display that provides more usable space, but unlike most Intel-based alternatives, has the graphics to handle the extra resolution. The system runs on a 1.7GHz Athlon II Neo with a Radeon HD 4225 graphics chipset that can smoothly render Aero Glass effects in Windows 7 Home Premium and 1080p video at its native resolution over HDMI.
Acer's 11.6-inch Aspire 1551 netbook with AMD's dual-core, 1.5GHz Turion II Neo and 1.3GHz Athlon II Neo CPU is now available for sale in North America through Amazon. The former has 3GB of RAM, while the latter gets 4GB and that new AMD netbook chip. Shared features include the 1366x768 display and ATI's Mobility Radeon HD 4225 with 384MB of dedicated RAM. The Turion II Neo system gets a 250GB hard drive, with a 320GB drive optional, while the Athlon II Neo model gets the larger drive as standard fare.
eMachines staked out an unusual first today with the first Athlon II Neo-based nettop in the US. The Mini-e uses AMD's very low-power 1.7GHz processor to provide an entire computer in a box just 7.1 inches across and 1.2 inches deep. Being so small lets the desktop either sit at an angle on a pedestal or graft on to the back of a desktop display or TV with VESA mounts.
Acer upgraded its entire Aspire One lineup for the US today to take advantage of newer processors. The 10.1-inch AO521 and 11.6-inch AO721 together are Acer's first netbooks with AMD processors and use a 1.7GHz Athlon II Neo instead of the usual Atom chip. For either system, the greatest leap is graphics: either uses a Radeon HD 4225 integrated chipset that can handle HD video and other tasks usually off-limits for Intel netbooks.
Toshiba's notebook launches were bolstered today by two rare AMD-based ultraportables. The 11.6-inch Satellite T215 and 13.3-inch Satellite T235 both use Athlon II Neo chips to provide a one-inch, under four pounds design that still has integrated graphics capable of HD video and modern 3D. The T235 adds an option for faster Turion II Neo hardware or Intel's CULV-based Pentium dual-core.
Judging by a new notebook being shown off at Computex this week, Toshiba is likely to update the styling of its Satellite M135 notebook with an ultra-thin design, complete with a chiclet keyboard and wide trackpad. Spotted by Engadget, the 13-inch notebook is about one inch thick, and will be powered by at least a choice of a 1.06GHz Intel Core i5 or a dual-core AMD Athlon II Neo CPU.
Dell is now shipping a new notebook PC in Singapore, the Inspiron M301z, as its first to sport AMD's dual-core Athlon II Neo. The standard 13.3-inch M301z gets a 1.3GHz processor, though a 1.5GHz Neo is optional, along with between 2GB and 4GB of RAM. An integrated Mobility Radeon HD 4225 graphics chipset gives it relatively fast 3D out of the box.
After brief teases from HP and others, AMD today confirmed full details of its 2010 notebook chips. The mainstream processors are now known to be much more power efficient than both previous AMD chips and Intel's quad-core hardware. The four-core 2GHz Phenom II N930 and the 1.6GHz P920 use just 35W and 25W of power, rendering either of them miserly enough to sit in thin-and-light notebooks.
