Hasta La Gadget!

Despite various mobile graphics solutions making laptops a little better at slinging pixels while maintaining great battery life (Ion, Optimus, etc.), sometimes you have ready access to an AC outlet and just want to get your game on. This is a situation that external graphics adapters are looking to manage, and while we’ve seen a variety of official options in the pipeline we just had to share this rather unofficial solution from HardForum member Cyclone. He took an $85 PCIe to ExpressCard adapter, slotted in a 2GB Radeon HD 5850, added a 550 watt power supply, and connected it all to his Lenovo T410s. The result? A “major pain in the ass” to configure, apparently, but it bumped his 3DMark06 score from a 1,720 on integrated graphics to a 12,765! That’s a bit low compared to running that card in a dedicated gaming rig, as it’s being forced to run at 1x over ExpressCard, but it is impressive regardless, and a possible option for anyone looking to turn their portable into a rather more grounded gaming machine.

[Thanks, Chris R.]

PCIe Radeon HD 5850 connected to Lenovo T410s, great gaming ensues originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pick any of the smartphones launched this year and chances are it has a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor in it. The Snapdragon chips, which can run at up to 1 GHz, have been at the core of devices such as Google’s Nexus One, HTC’s Incredible and the HTC Evo 4G.

Now Qualcomm is getting ready to introduce dual-CPU chipsets that boost the speed to 1.2 GHz and 1.5 GHz. The chipsets, called MSM826, MSM8660 and QSD8672, are likely to show up in stores by the end of the year. Handset manufacturers are currently designing products based on the processors, says Qualcomm.

The dual cores and higher processing speeds will allow for better multimedia performance. The chipsets also include a graphics processing unit with 3-D and 2-D acceleration engines for better rendering, 1080p video encoding and decoding capabilities, and integrated low-power GPS. They can support 24-bit 1280 x 800 resolution displays, says Qualcomm.

As smartphones get more ambitious in their desire to offer a video and web experience similar to that of PCs, there’s greater need for increased processing power. Last month, Adobe showed an early version of the Flash Player 10.1 for the Android operating system. Flash Player 10.1 on Nexus One can display video and animation unmatched by most other smartphones. But the technology also requires more processing power than current devices can offer. In Wired.com’s tests, the Nexus One’s 1 GHz Snapdragon processor seemed sluggish and struggled to render Flash sites quickly using Flash Player 10.1. Adobe has said it is hoping a newer generation of smartphones will change that experience.

Qualcomm is certainly trying to encourage it. At the Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwan, Qualcomm is showing a range of new Snapdragon-powered devices — not all of them phones. Among them are Acer’s newly launched Liquid and neoTouch smartphones, Dell’s Streak 5-inch Android tablet, Huawei’s S7 tablet and Lenovo’s LePhone smartphone.

See Also:

• Intel Introduces Ultra-Low-Power Processor for Smartphones
• Netbooks Set to Get More Video and Audio Oomph
• Review: HTC Droid Incredible Smartphone

Photo: Qualcomm Snapdragon (doctorserone/Flickr)

While everyone else in the tri-state region spent Memorial Day weekend outside in 90-degree bliss, Wilson locked himself in his house playing Batman: Arkham Asylum.” pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-13952_1-20006448-81.html” class=”origPostedBlog”The 404 Podcast/a/p

HTC’s next Android-powered missile is a big-ass smartphone called the Evo. Designed to run on Sprint’s 4G network, the Evo is packed with a number of powerful features underneath its beautiful 4.3-inch touchscreen.

To give us a look at the Evo’s guts, repair company iFixit disassembled the smartphone in an exclusive video shoot with Wired.com. Some of the most notable observations include the behemoth 8-megapixel camera sensor, accompanied with a much smaller 1.3-megapixel front-facing cam for video conferencing.

Also impressive was the HTC-branded battery (3.7-volt, 1500 mAh rechargeable Li-ion), which contains 23 percent more capacity than an iPhone 3GS, 15 percent more than an HTC Droid Incredible, and 7 percent more than an HTC Nexus One.

The Evo is due in stores June 4, just three days before Apple is expected to announce its fourth-generation iPhone at the Worldwide Developers Conference. Leaked prototypes of the next-gen iPhone revealed a front-facing camera, also presumably designed for video conferencing. The Evo and the fourth-gen iPhone may be the first mobile contenders to spark a battle for video calls.

Check out the video above for a deep dive of iFixit’s dissection, starring iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens.

This episode of the Gadget Lab video podcast was produced by Annaliza Savage, with editing by Michael Lennon and audio engineering by Fernando Cardoso. For more video from Wired.com, go to www.wired.com/video.

See Also:

• HTC EVO 4G $200, on Sale June 4
• EVO 4G Hacked, Rooted Before Arriving in Stores
• Sprint, HTC Unveil First 4G Android Phone

Continue reading Meizu CEO Jack Wong leaks, pulls M9 pics

Meizu CEO Jack Wong leaks, pulls M9 pics originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 13:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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