Hasta La Gadget!

Intel just did a pretty impressive demo of its new Light Peak optical device interconnect, driving a greater-than-HD display while saturating an SSD RAID all over one cable, but we couldn’t help but notice the monster Frankenstein test rig on stage was running OS X — looks like someone’s violating their EULA! Video after the break.

Continue reading Video: Intel’s Light Peak running an HD display while transferring files… on a hackintosh

Filed under: Peripherals

Video: Intel’s Light Peak running an HD display while transferring files… on a hackintosh originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look, Moblin and MIDs and USB 3.0 are all well and good, but the real highlight of IDF is hiding in plain sight: it’s Intel’s CE 3100 Media Processor-based Tru2way DVR server, which has three digital cable tuners that can be streamed over a regular gigabit Ethernet or MoCA to any number of clients, ranging from other 3100-based set-top boxes to DLNA devices like laptops and even the PS3. It’s seriously cool — the clients all see the server’s tuners as their own, so the experience is seamless, and since it all runs on the Tru2way stack, it doesn’t matter what kind of client you plug in — the three clients on the show floor were running interfaces from Intel, Comcast (Rovi), and Digeo. Of course, since it’s a DVR, you can actually add more clients than tuners and have them play back recorded content while your other boxes use the tuners — Intel was demoing XBMC on a Sony laptop connecting over DLNA and streaming a recorded program while a PS3 nearby ran a photo slideshow, all while the three cable clients streamed uncompressed HD video from the tuners. Intel says a number of cable companies are interested in deploying this stuff and that we should see things on the market in the next year — we honestly can’t wait. Check a video after the break.

Continue reading Video: Intel Tru2way server streams cable all over your house

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Video: Intel Tru2way server streams cable all over your house originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The world better be ready for SuperSpeed USB 3.0, cause it’s coming, baby — and by the looks of things at IDF, it’s coming soon. Intel’s “USB Community” pavilion is filled with SuperSpeed tech from a variety of companies, and while some of the demos are happening on crazy Frankenstein rigs, there’s a bunch of stuff here that’s basically ready to ship, including controller chips from NEC and Fujitsu, which are the heart of the whole shebang. Of course, while lightning-fast SSD transfers are nice, the showiest product on the floor is Point Grey’s prototype HD camera here, which streams uncompressed 1080p video over USB 3.0 — it’s not a final product, but it’s apparently quite close. Yes, we know the gallery below is basically cable porn, but here are the facts: USB 3.0 is 10x faster than 2.0 while using less power, and it’s entirely backwards-compatible, since the five 3.0 pins in the connector have been cleverly engineered to sit above the four legacy 2.0 pins. If that doesn’t get you dreaming of hard drives for the holidays, well, we don’t know what will. Video after the break!

Continue reading USB 3.0 has a SuperSpeed coming-out party at IDF

Filed under: Peripherals

USB 3.0 has a SuperSpeed coming-out party at IDF originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

It was the best of ideas. It was the worst of ideas. It was the age of innovation. It was the age of stagnation. It was the epoch of developing a bold new computing platform. It was the epoch of churning out another piece of converged electronics nobody needs.

Rumors have been swirling that PC operating system heavyweights Apple and Microsoft are developing forays into the world of tablet computing. Such devices will face strong competition from netbooks featuring low prices and a large library of applications remains to be seen. Two new entrants to the hardware world, the CrunchPad and Always Innovating’s Touch Book, have already begun panning for gold with their Linux-based tablets. However, the waters are now attracting larger rivals designing tablets powered by Microsoft operating systems, albeit different ones.

Entering one of the few new categories at IFA earlier this month, Toshiba announced the JournE Touch, a 7″ touch-enabled tablet running Windows CE designed for addressing the usual range of converged device chores, including accessing social networks and content playback, but there are a few tricks up its slender sleeve.

Continue reading Switched On: A tale of two tablets

Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs

Switched On: A tale of two tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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See that tiny little thing? That’s not just a CPU, it’s Intel’s next-gen Atom Pine Trail CPU / GPU hybrid, and it’s set to pop in all sorts of devices here at IDF. Intel was demoing it in a nettop running 480p video, but they assured us it was capable of 1080p playback — we’ll believe it when we see it, obviously. Also on display here at IDF: demo machines running 32nm Arrandale chips, with Intel’s Clear HD video playback system, and the next-gen Gulftown gaming chip, which has six cores and will slot right into your X58 mobo to provide more power than you possibly need sometime next year. Check it all in the gallery!

Update: So the first Intel rep we spoke to was a little confused — Pine Trail only supports 480p playback, although it can apparently do 720p if pushed. Native HD isn’t on Intel’s roadmap until the next generation of these chips, so If you want HD right now, Intel’s pointing manufacturers to the Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator, which usually ends up costing about $30 extra at retail. So to recap: Intel’s integrating graphics into its CPU dies, but in order to play back HD content, you still need a separate video processor to handle the decoding. How very efficient.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Eyes-on with Intel’s Pine Trail CPU/GPU hybrid and new Gulftown gaming chip (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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