Hasta La Gadget!

Finding itself with a wealth of a additional bandwidth thanks to a new satellite going up today, DirecTV may have already decided its first big addition will be 3D. Citing the always popular unnamed sources, HD Guru says we should prepare for a CES announcement that the bird will be up and running by March beaming down a collection of movies, sports and TV shows in 3D HD, requiring only a firmware upgrade on existing set-top boxes to tune into the new stations. UK satellite provider Sky has already tipped its hand about 2010 3D plans, with a newly freshened HDMI spec expected to ease things along and nearly every manufacturer either already producing compatible displays or planning to announce them in less than a week there’s very little doubt remaining about whether broadcast 3D is coming home this year, only how and when.

DirecTV 3D broadcasts coming in early 2010? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, the first bit of news here is immediately apparent — the heretofore untitled tablet device coming out of India has now been given the name of Adam. After ruffling a few feathers a week ago with its extremely ambitious battery life projections and admittedly mouthwatering Tegra plus Pixel Qi combo, Notion Ink is back with more details on the project. We understand the company is now discussing 3G testing with Indian and US operators (its 3G bands are compatible with AT&T’s networks), and there’s also a planned landing date in June. Can’t say we’re too excited about a launch six months from now — other Pixel Qi devices may well beat the Adam to market — but there’s also the pleasantly small matter of the price, which in this case is projected to be an aggressively low 15,000 rupees (about $321). CrunchPad part deux? Only time will tell.

[Thanks, bala]

Notion Ink’s Adam gets a name, June 2010 release originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort may be enjoying the spoils right now, but the world’s most popular port may just give ’em a run for their collective dollars by the end of next year. DisplayLink, which enables monitors to receive signals via USB instead of through one of the more conventional cables, has been mildly successful with USB 2.0 at the helm, but a whole new world is about to open up with the introduction of USB 3.0. As you’ve no doubt seen by now, the third iteration offers up over ten times the bandwidth of v2.0, which would obviously allow for great resolution support when channeling video. In reality, USB 3.0 is the first USB protocol that could support a legitimate high-def video stream, and it’s expected that a prototype device will be shown at CES next month transmitting content at up to 4.8 gigabits per second. In theory, at least, USB 3.0-enabled DisplayLink would allow vast 30-inch panels to be connected to netbooks via USB without having to rely on a sub-native resolution, but then again, said netbooks will probably need a GPU with a bit more oomph than the current Ion can provide. Not like that’ll be an issue for long, though.

USB 3.0-infused DisplayLink products coming in 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Details are still fuzzy at best, but word on the street has it that ASUS is preparing to unveil a new mobile gaming rig in short order. The biggest news is the powerhouse within: it’ll purportedly be based on Intel’s dual-core Core i5-430M processor. In addition to that, the rumored GPU will be a potent ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730, which is likely to feature DDR3 memory. You’ll also find a pair of 500GB hard drives, 4GB of RAM, an eSATA and HDMI port and a 1,600 x 900 LED panel that spans 17.3-inches diagonally. There’s no official availability or pricing information to speak of, but Fudzilla is reporting that it should show up in just a few weeks for around€1,000 ($1,435).

[Thanks, Karl]

ASUS prepping 17.3-inch Core i5-powered X77 gaming laptop? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, here we go: NVIDIA just gave us the heads-up that the next generation of Ion chips (which we’ll be calling Ion 2 until it gets a proper name) will be compatible with Intel’s new Pine Trail platform and arriving in Q1 of 2010. That’s good news, seeing as the Pine Trail-based Eee PC 1005PE we just reviewed didn’t offer much of a performance benefit over the older Diamondville chips and definitely couldn’t bust through the first few seconds of a YouTube HD clip. Though we got NVIDIA to confirm that it’ll improve some of the battery life concerns we’ve had, we couldn’t get much out of them in terms of how Ion 2 will play with the Intel GMA 3150 GPU that’s now integrated into the Atom N450 die. NVIDIA also didn’t hold back when it came to Intel’s reliance on third-party HD accelerator chips for video duties — they think customers want richer gaming and multimedia experiences on netbooks than Atom alone can offer, and they don’t seem to care that Intel keeps calling Ion “overkill.” All drama aside we’re looking forward to just getting some YouTube and Hulu HD playback on our netbooks — we’ll see what NVIDIA has to show off at CES.

NVIDIA Ion 2 coming in early 2010, compatible with Pine Trail originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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