Mar 28

Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh Up for Auction on eBay

Posted in: Apple, Retro, Today's Chili, Weird News

20th Anniversary Mac

Long before the first iMac, long before the iPod or iPhone, and back when Apple was a company that sold beige boxes and OS X was little more than a gleam in Steve Jobs’ eye, there was the 20th Anniversary Macintosh. 
A special, custom model of the Macintosh built to celebrate Apple’s 20th anniversary in 1997, the system was a bronze, metallic beauty, almost cylindrical in shape, and earned rave reviews for its black, smooth design. Now, one can be yours, if you want to bid on it. 
The 20th Anniversary Mac featured a 12.1 LCD display, a 2GB hard drive, a TV and FM radio tuner, a 4x CD-ROM drive, a floppy drive, a 250MHz IBM PowerPC processor, and a high-end custom-made Bose sound system with a pair of speakers that shared the computer’s design. The Mac also featured a special keyboard with a built-in trackpad and leather palm rests, and could slide up under the Mac’s body when not in use. It ships with a brand new version of Apple’s Mac OS 7.6.1. 
Back when the 20th Anniversary Mac was released, it retailed for a whopping $7500. Only 11,60120th Anniversary Macs made it to users outside of Apple, and the one up on eBay now is in mint condition, and the unit has never been turned on. 
The boxes have been opened for inspection, but all of the original parts, documentation, and software are included. As of this writing, the bidding is up to over $1500 USD, with 6 days remaining in the auction. Only caveat: this unit is definitely not eligible for an AppleCare Protection Plan. 
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Mar 18

Asus Releasing $200 Netbook

Posted in: ASUS, netbooks, Today's Chili

 

asus-m50-Notebook.jpgAsus is gearing up for a release of a budget-friendly netbook. The computer should run between $200 to $250.

The new netbook will have two OS options–Android and Chrome. Asus will also offer a similar netbook with full Windows 7 installed at $500. No plans for a Linux edition as of yet.

No firm release date set for the netbook yet. 

Via TG Daily

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Mar 18

About Half of Today’s Microprocessors Include GPUs

Posted in: AMD, intel, Today's Chili

 

laptop-7-gpu.jpgIf you own a new computer, chances are that your proceesor chipset includes a GPU. Analyst firm IHS iSuppli looked into the matter and discovered that almost half of all 2011 processors will include a GPU. AMD and Intel are both leading this trend. 

According to iSuppli, by 2014, more than half of all computers will have a GPU in their chipset.

Via X Bit Labs

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Mar 15

Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Comcast, More Nominated for “Worst Company”

Posted in: Apple, att, Microsoft, Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, verizon
wcia_bracket_header_2011.jpg
Watchdog blog Consumerist this week announced the nominations for its sixth annual Worst Company in America competition. The list, which is is broken down in full March Madness bracket-style, features a number of high profile tech companies. 
In the first round, Apple will be competing with Microsoft, Facebook will be duking it out with Time Warner, DirecTV and Dish Network will be going head-to-head, and Sony and Dell will be doing battle. Also on the list: Tickemaster v. Paypal, Verizon v. AT&T, Radioshack v. Best Buy, Comcast v. Charter, and GameStop v. Wal-Mart.
BP makes a notable debut on the list this year, after an oil spill that proved one of the biggest man-made disasters in U.S. history. The oil company will be facing stiff competition in this round from Toyota–the car maker recalled millions of vehicles in 2010, over pedal-related problems.
Not surprisingly, in light of continued economic woes, banks and credit card companies had a big showing on this year’s list, with Chase, Wells Fargo, American Express, Capital One, Bank of America, and Citibank all making the cut. Interestingly (also in light of the year’s events), the number of airlines dropped to two, with only Delta an United making the final list.
The 32 companies will begin squaring off tomorrow. 
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Mar 14

AMD Releasing Bulldozer To Fight Against Intel

Posted in: AMD, intel, Today's Chili

 

bulldozer.jpgAMD has taken the backseat to Intel for years, but now the company is fighting back with a new line of chipsets. AMD is releasing a new line called Bulldozer to compete with the previously troubled Intel Sandy Bridge chipset.

AMD’s hope this round seems to largely rely on Intel’s Sandy Bridge launch issues. The company claims that the new chipsets will offer faster speeds than Sandy Bridge. The cores will be overclocked to the maximum limit that is safe for the processors. AMD is designing the Bulldozer processors for high end desktops at this point. No word on if it will crossover into other processors for other electronics.

Via X Bit Labs

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Mar 09

HP Claims Every HP Computer will get WebOS by 2012

Posted in: HP, palm, Today's Chili

HP Logo

If you’re still wondering if Hewlett-Packard had plans beyond mobile devices like smartphones and tablets for Palm and WebOS, wonder no longer. CEO Leo Apotheker is concerned that HP has “lost its soul,” according to an interview he gave to BusinessWeek at HP headquarters, and he teased that there would be more interesting revelations regarding HP’s plans for WebOS at an upcoming event on March 14th. 
He claimed that HP wants to make broader and better use of WebOS, with plans to bring the mobile OS not just to HP’s next generation of tablets and smartphones, but also to dual-boot WebOS with Windows on every desktop or laptop that HP ships before 2012. He pointed to the rapid growth of mobile development for Android and iOS as opportunities, and bemoaned WebOS’s 6,000 app catalog when compared to the 350,000 apps for iOS and 250,000 apps for Android. 
The goal, according to Apotheker, is to create a massive platform of unified devices, including new mobile devices like tablets and traditional desktop computers where developers can build applications and software that will work on any HP device, regardless of where or how it’s used. 
Considering even Apple noted recently that they wanted to bring more features from iOS into Mac OS X, HP isn’t the only company interested in unifying the mobile with the desktop. The question is whether or not users are interested in that kind of experience. 
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Mar 07

Intel Wants All-in-Ones To Go Mainstream

Posted in: intel, msi, Today's Chili

 

ViewSonic-VPC190-All-in-one-PC.jpgIntel is just a chip maker, but the company is uniquely positioned to influence computer manufacturers. Recently, the company has been reported trying to standardize components for the all-in-one PCs. Intel is working with Elitegroup Computer Systems, MSI, and Mitac International in order to start making all-in-one PCs a standard.

While some of the big PC manufactures have built all-in-one PCs before,they haven’t sold as well as their desktop counterparts. In spite, of Intel’s wishes, tablets really appear to be the wave of the future. Tablets, after all, tend to be cheaper and more portable. Perhaps Intel should shift the focus in that direction.

Via X Bit Labs

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Mar 07

Gigabyte Resumes Shipping Of Sandy Bridge Motherboards

Posted in: Today's Chili

 

gigabyte_logo.jpgIntel’s Sandy Bridge problems were big news last month. The company appeared to have fixed the issue in a few weeks time, and now Gigabyte is finally shipping out new motherboards. Gigabyte had to cease shipments of the motherboards that used the defective Sandy Bridge chipset.

This is good news for both Intel and Gigabyte. They needed to get those mainboards shipped out as quickly as possible. Since Intel started shipping the new processors out last month, Gigabyte appears to be late. However, Gigabyte likely also had to rebuild the mainboards. 

Via Hot Hardware

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Mar 02

Intel Update Atom Processor

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, netbooks, Today's Chili

 

Intel_AtomProcessorsCarStory.jpgIntel has had a busy 2011, from dealing with a faulty chipset to releasing new products. Now the company is releasing an updated edition of the Atom line chipset used in netbooks. The dual-core chip will still work best for light use, according to Intel.

The new Atom N570 features a single-channel DDR3 controller, 1MB cache, and an integrated graphics controller. Intel upgraded the speed from the last Atom chipset, but you can still expect the system to run slower that most full sized laptops.

ASUS, Samsung, and Lenovo will start shipping out systems based upon this chip in the middle of this month. Intel did not reveal how much the chipset will cost. It appears to be out now for those who wish to upgrade.

Via X Bit Labs

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Mar 01

Lenovo Shows Off Eye-Controlled Laptop

Posted in: lenovo, Today's Chili

eye laptop.jpg 

Ugh, I’m sick and tired of using my hands to control my laptop. I mean, I never really leave my computer–how am I supposed to find time to eat a sandwich? Swedish tech firm Tobii claims to have unlocked this age old sandwich/computing conundrum by harnessing the power of the human eye. The user’s eyes become the mouse, pointing, selecting, and scrolling based on ocular movement. The interface can also be used to zoom in on images or maps and brighten or dim screen brightness. 

Tobii has teamed up with Lenovo to offer up some laptop prototypes based around the technology–20 of which will be on display at CeBIT in Germany this week. Here’s what Tobii’s CEO Henik Eskilsson has to say about the partnership,
More than anything else, the Tobii laptop prototype is proof that our eye tracking technology is mature enough to be used in standard computer interfaces. To reach a state where the technology is part of the average computer, we need to make it smaller and cheaper. We believe that this can be realized in a couple of years by partnering with the right manufacturer

No word on when we might actually see a real world eyePa. Cheesy video the technology in action after the jump.

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