Hasta La Gadget!

Hey, you there, wanna check out some unreleased new hardware from NVIDIA? Donanimhaber, the same site that brought us early (and accurate) specs of the GTX 470 and 480, is back with the above shot of an ASUS-built GTX 465 that is intended to entice the more mainstream crowd into the Fermi party. Essentially a GF100 with its wingtips trimmed, this’ll offer the same 607MHz graphics and 1,215MHz processor clock speeds of the 470, but comes with a narrower 256-bit memory interface, a tamer 3.2GHz effective memory clock, 352 rather than 448 CUDA cores, and — happily — lower power requirements. This word is also corroborated by Bit-tech, whose scribes expect a launch at the start of Computex. The Turkish site also has news of a GTX 460, which they say will show up in the middle of July with 768MB of GDDR5, while also being “cheaper and slower” than the 465. Hit the Hexus link below for some early benchmarks of the latter card.

NVIDIA GTX 465 detailed ahead of June 1 launch, GTX 460 also rumored originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 10:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Hexus  |  Donanimhaber (465), (460), Bit-tech.net  | Email this | Comments

Acer said it would be first to market with a Chrome OS netbook, and it’s looking like it may meet that lofty goal. Sources told VentureBeat that the company will debut multiple new products featuring the cloud-based operating system at Computex in June, less than three weeks from now. Then again, Chrome OS has been slated for the second half of 2010 for some time, so Acer may not be alone in introducing insanely-quick boot times at the show. We could even see devices earlier; we’ve been invited to an Acer press event in NYC on the last week of May, and it’s not too late for Samsung, Asus or Verizon to show off a partner device at Google I/O. It’s going to be a exciting few weeks, eh?

Acer to launch Chrome OS devices at Computex? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 May 2010 18:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  VentureBeat  | Email this | Comments

DigiTimes has it that MSI will be showcasing a 10-inch Windows 7 “Slatebook” tablet at Computex in June — just as we had heard a few weeks ago. According to its sources which tend to be pretty solid at Taiwanese shops, the sub-$500 tablet will feature an e-book reader with a negotiated content provider, 3G and WiFi wireless, and Windows 7 running on Intel’s old Menlow-class of Atom Zxx processors. It’s not running Android on Tegra 2 like the unit above that we handled at CES six months prior, MSI is apparently still evaluating market demand before making any such commitment. So dear readers, why not let MSI know exactly how you feel about its design choices in the comments below.

MSI’s Slatebook 10-inch Atom tablet is not what we’ve been waiting for originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 May 2010 09:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  DigiTimes  | Email this | Comments

It looks like ASUS won’t be the only Taiwanese manufacturer whipping out new tablets at Computex in early June, and MSI will be joining the party with its Android and Windows 7 touchscreen devices. According to the company, the tablets will come in 8.9- and 10-inch varieties, and will ship sometime in the third quarter. We can’t promise you big M’s Tegra 2 and Atom-powered slates will be all that different from what we’ve been seeing from the others out there, but we are told the pricing will be “extremely aggressive.” That’s intriguing, but unfortunately, that awesome dualscreen tablet we saw at CES is farther behind. According to MSI’s Andy Tung, the hardware implementation is the reason for the delay as the Atom-based tablet is not providing adequate endurance. “The two screens are a major drain on the battery, and even with a higher density battery and the Menlow CPU we are only getting three hours,” he said. It looks like we will be waiting until the fourth quarter to get some two screen action, though we guess we could always pick up an Android and Win 7 slate and tape ’em together.

MSI Android, Windows 7 tablets launching in June, dualscreen delayed until Q4 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

While the verdict is still out with regard to consumer appetites for a 3rd portable computing device, PC makers are betting the farm on consumer interest in tablets that fill the gap between small-screened smartphones and bulky (by comparison) netbooks/laptops. We’ve already seen an uptick in tablet devices on display at the big CES and CeBIT trade shows, now tablet and MID device vendors look ready to blow out Computex when it kicks off on June 1st in Taipei. According to Roy Chen, ARM’s ODM manager for worldwide mobile computing, more than 50 ARM-based tablet PCs will launch in 2010 starting in Q2 with “a lot more” landing in the third quarter — a date that just happens to line-up with the most optimistic Chrome OS launch schedule. ARM’s seeing so much interest that it had to rent additional floor space to show off the devices. Chen said that many of the tablets are slated for China although all of the world’s top 10 carriers have signed up as well. ARM was showing off two Android based tablets at the press event, including the 7-inch Compal device (pictured above) we gave a whirl at CES. Let’s just hope that tablet makers have plans for some compelling content and service hook-ups with a focus on the user experience — 50 near-identical slabs of touchscreen computing won’t generate much enthusiasm around here.

Over 50 ARM-based tablets launching this year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Computerworld  | Email this | Comments