Hasta La Gadget!

So small, and yet potentially so disruptive. AMD’s 1.6GHz Zacate chip, bearing a pair of Bobcat modules, has been taken off the leash today, resulting in a torrent of benchmarks pouring down onto the internet. While perusing the sources below, you might think to yourself that it’s not exactly a world beater, sitting somewhere in the middle of the pack on most tests, but compare it to Intel’s dual-core Atom D510 — its most immediate competition in the target sub-$500 laptop price range — and you’ll find a thoroughgoing whooping in progress. The highlight of these new Fusion APUs is that they integrate graphics processing within the CPU chip, and Zacate didn’t disappoint on that front either, with marked improvements over anything else available in its class. The resulting chips might still not have quite enough grunt to earn a place in your daily workhorse mobile computer, but their power efficiency and netbook-level pricing goals sure do look delightful. Or dangerous, if you’re Intel.

Read – AnandTech
Read – Tech Report
Read – PC Perspective
Read – Hot Hardware
Read – Legit Reviews

AMD’s Bobcat APU benchmarked: the age of the Atom is at an end originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rather like Nokia and its market share obsession, Nintendo just can’t seem to stop talking about its hardware sales lead. The company’s US chief, Reggie Fils-Aime, recently dished some NPD data detailing the specific advantage that the Wii has over its competitors in the US since the current console generation launched: Mario’s team has managed to sell 30.4 million units of its hardware, followed by Microsoft’s Xbox 360 at 21.9 million and Sony’s PS3, which lags somewhere far behind with 13.5 million total sales. On the more mobile front, DS sales have ratcheted up to 43.1 million, more than doubling the PSP’s 17.7 million shipments to the US of A. Nothing we haven’t heard before, really, but it’s always good to get a statistical update for the sake of keeping flamewars as informed as possible.

Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime dishes cumulative sales numbers for current console generation originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 08:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not that anyone really needed to have this spelled out, but America’s tots are apparently spending too much time in front of the telly tubes. The latest study, conducted by the Seattle Children’s Research Institute and the University of Washington, finds that children under the age of five are spending 4.1 hours of each day watching movies or TV, doubling the recommended maximum of two hours a day. Whether you take the slightly arbitrary two-hour RDA to heart or not, it’s undeniable that all of us — not just the young ‘uns — are spending increasingly larger chunks of our time looking at the world through a screen and not through our own retinas. And, if you want an extra topping of alarmist extrapolation, these figures come from a research sample concluded in 2006, today’s better-equipped toddlers are very likely to outdo those numbers when mobile devices and the like are factored in. Imagine how bad this would all be if the US didn’t have so much quality programming to entertain and educate them with.

Shocker! Kids spending too much time in front of TV screens, too little in loving parents’ embrace originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Nov 2010 01:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint and Clearwire have characterized LTE as complimentary to WiMAX time and again, but if that doesn’t allay your suspicions of turncoat tactics in the wireless data space, take it from Sprint CEO Dan Hesse’s lips. “Our 4G strategy is WiMAX, full stop!” he told GigaOM, adding that LTE isn’t necessarily on Sprint’s roadmap. Quizzed about WiMAX partner Clearwire’s LTE trials, however, he dropped a very intriguing hint about the possible shape of phones to come: “We have so much spectrum that we decided to do tests so in case we have multi-modal phones with other air interfaces, we can add LTE on top of WiMAX and run both networks,” he told the publication. Dual-mode WiMAX / LTE smartphone, anyone?

Sprint CEO claims WiMAX is here to stay, says Clear’s LTE trials were for potential multi-mode phones originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Oct 2010 14:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s October 28th, and Verizon’s full suite of data plans have changed just as foretold — if you want to save a few bucks, you can revise your megabyte-munching lifestyle right now. There’s no need to fear for unlimited 3G smartphone data, as it’s still available for the usual $29.99, but that plan’s no longer required when buying a new Droid, as you can opt for a new $14.99 plan if you can bare to live with just 150 megabytes. We’ll spare you the full breakdown on mobile broadband plans — as you can find it at our original post right here — rght down to that promotional 3GB MiFi and Fivespot plan for $35 a month.

[Thanks, Cody W.]

Verizon’s tiered data plans go live, including $30 for a smartphone buffet or $15 for 150MB originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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