Hasta La Gadget!

It’s crazy to think we’ve been writing about and waiting for AMD’s Fusion platform for close to five years now. Believe it or not, it was back in 2006 that the chipmaker first started talking about its “new class of x86 processors” and the idea of an Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) — a chip that would combine a CPU and a fairly powerful ATI GPU onto the same die. The company promised to have the silicon ready in two years’ time, but when 2008 rolled around, it was clear that all it was prepared to release was a series of roadmap slides. Now, don’t get us wrong, those charts and graphs made us pretty giddy about the superior graphics and improved battery life that AMD was promising to bring to affordable ultraportables, but then a year later, when AMD still had only PowerPoint slides to show for itself, we started to think “Fusion” was no more than a drunken fantasy.

And it only got worse — from 2009 to mid-2010 the company continued to talk up its never-before-seen and highly-delayed chips. (Just a read through the Engadget archives from that period pretty much illustrates that we had lost hope and started to think the chips would never see the light of day.) But then in June of 2010 the unthinkable happened — AMD finally demoed its first Fusion Bobcat cores, and proved, at least from afar, that the soon-to-arrive ultrathin laptop solution would chew through Aliens vs. Predator, support DirectX 11, and use a lot less power than its previous platforms. It seemed almost too good to be true — AMD looked ready to stick to its timing and deliver the first Fusion Brazos platform by early 2011.

So, what the heck does Fusion and AMD’s history of promises about the platform have to do with HP’s new Pavilion dm1z? Almost everything. HP’s newest 11.6-inch not-quite-a-netbook (or a notbook as we like to call it) is the first Fusion system to hit the market, and with a dual-core 1.6GHz E350 Zacate processor and AMD Radeon HD 6310 GPU on the same chip it promises… well, everything AMD has promised for so long. According to HP and AMD, the system should last for over nine hours on a charge, play full 1080p content, and perhaps more importantly, not fry our laps as some previous AMD Neo-powered systems have done. For $450, it sounds like a true no-sacrifice system, but is it? Has AMD finally delivered an Intel Atom- / ULV-killer and has HP put it in a no-fuss chassis? We’ve spent the last week putting this system through the paces — hit the break to find out if it has been worth the wait!

Continue reading HP Pavilion dm1z (with AMD Fusion) review

HP Pavilion dm1z (with AMD Fusion) review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

This article was written on October 25, 2010 by CyberNet.

Welcome to the WrapUp by CyberNet. This is a collection of news stories, downloads, and tips that we have collected over the last few days, but never got around to writing about. Don’t forget to send in your own tips, or just leave a comment on this page if you think you’ve got something we should include.

–News–

HP Slate Will Cost $799
Engadget has both some images and a video of the HP Slate in action, which will run you a cool $799 when it is released. Specs include a 1.86GHz Atom processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 64GB SSD for storage.

Summary of Apple Announcements
If you haven’t read about all of Apple’s announcements last week this will get you up-to-speed on the new MacBook Air, OS X Lion, Mac App Store, and iLife ’11.

Windows 7 Sells 240 Million Licenses
Microsoft announced that in the first year of availability they’ve sold over 240 million licenses of the Windows 7 OS, which makes it the fastest selling operating system in history.

Microsoft Office 365 Available Next Year
The cloud-based Microsoft Office 365 will offer online versions of the Office suite for a monthly fee starting next year.

HP Unveils webOS 2.0
The next generation of Palm Pre and webOS will include things like Flash Player, Skype, an updated Facebook app, and many enhancements throughout the entire operating system.

Hulu Blocks Google TV
Google TV users might be a little discouraged to find out that Hulu doesn’t work, at least for right now. There was a modification you could make to change the user agent, but that has since been plugged by Hulu. So you’ll just have to wait for the Hulu Plus subscription service to be made available.

Xbox.com Gets an Update
The redesigned Xbox.com now has a browser based Avatar editor, the ability to play web games with your Xbox LIVE friends, and more.

Dad and Son Send HD Camera and iPhone to Space
A father/son duo created a nice weather balloon rig that reached a maximum altitude of 100,000 feet, and captured it all on video. Thanks to the onboard iPhone they were able to retrieve the balloon about 30-miles from where it launched.

–Tips, Tutorials, and Reviews–

Insomnia Keeps Your PC Awake
Windows users can download this handy little utility if they want to prevent their computer from going to sleep. As long as the window remains open the PC will remain in “insomnia” mode.

Anandtech’s In-Depth Windows Phone 7 Review
If you enjoy reading long and detailed reviews about gadgets this is one you won’t want to miss. It covers just about every aspect of the new mobile OS.

Change Your Aero Color Based on Weather Temperature
Windows 7/Vista users can enjoy this nice free app that will adjust the color of the Aero glass to match the current temperature outside.

Opera 11 Alpha Available with Sample Extensions
The testing phase of the next major Opera milestone has begun, and there are some sample extensions available for you to take for a spin.

Desktop Email Notifications for Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, and More
This free utility will let you monitor and manage messages from all of your email accounts.

Play Most Video Types on Android with VPlayer
The free VPlayer app for Android lets users watch videos in DivX, Xvid, MKV, WMV, FLV, and RMVB formats.

No Hassle Way to Download and Convert YouTube Videos
The DownloadTube.org site lets you paste in a link to any YouTube video, and have it converted into a more widely supported video format.

Keep iTunes Libraries in Sync with MediaRover
MediaRover is a free Windows and Mac utility that will keep your songs and playlists in sync across multiple machines.

KeySharky Adds Hotkey Support to Grooveshark
Firefox and Chrome users can grab an add-on that provides customizable hotkey support for the Grooveshark music streaming site.

TinyUmbrella Updated for iOS Users
TinyUmbrella is a free app used to save your SHSH blobs so that you can rollback to an older version of iOS if needed. The app has been updated to include a new UI, and has some other features that are pretty nice.

–Downloads–

• Digsby Build 84 ^Beta [Homepage] [Mirror]
• FeedDemon 4.0.0.1 ^Beta [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Firefox 3.6.11 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Foobar2000 1.1.1 ^{Beta 2} [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Google Chrome 8.0.552.5 ^Beta [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Growl 2.0.5 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Miranda 0.9.8 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• OpenOffice.org 3.3.0 ^RC1 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• PDF-XChange Viewer 2.057 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Picasa 3.8.117.16 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Pidgin 2.7.4 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Revo Uninstaller 1.90 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• SeaMonkey 2.0.9 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• Thunderbird 3.1.5 [Homepage] [Mirror]
• uTorrent 2.2.0 ^RC1 [Homepage] [Mirror]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Get a Hulu Invitation…Hulu Blocks Boxee… Community Finds WorkaroundHulu Gets Social and Adds Sharing FeaturesIt’s Official, Hulu Has Launched!How will Hulu Affect Joost?

It’s time again to look at the rapidly changing face of home computing. The last time we got an IDC report on US PC sales it showed generally rosy figures, with everyone other than Dell growing and Apple making a huge jump. This time we have numbers from both IDC and Gartner, and while they don’t agree on everything, it’s clear things are rather less positive. Overall growth in this quarter is negative (6.6 percent decline for Gartner, 4.8 for IDC) and Apple is now in position number five, dropping from number three, with the other top four comprised of HP, Dell, Toshiba, and Acer — though Toshiba and Acer swap places as you move from IDC to Gartner. Both reports cite tablet sales (i.e. the iPad) as being at least partly responsible for the decline in traditional computer sales, a trend that’s predicted to continue in 2011. Based on what we saw at CES, we’d say that’s a safe bet.

IDC and Gartner: US PC sales drop as tablets shake things up originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink AppleInsider  |  IDC, Gartner  | Email this | Comments

We do love to hear from loquacious execs, and HP’s Todd Bradley has been the very definition of one in an interview conducted with CNBC during CES. In a discussion revolving around webOS, Bradley was asked how HP intends to differentiate itself from the iPad and improve upon it, to which he quipped, “you and I will talk about that on the 9th.” If that’s not a confirmation that we’ll finally have our unicorn of a webOS tablet next month, we don’t know what is. Even more encouraging is the implication further on in the interview that HP could have debuted this slate at CES, but opted to do an unveiling at a separate event so as to properly highlight just how awesome it is. But wait, there’s yet more good news for webOS fans: Bradley’s crew sees its upcoming tablet as just “one piece” of the connected experience that is the company’s goal and we’re promised to be enlightened about a broad range of webOS devices at the February 9th event in San Francisco, though the lack of any Palm namedrops seems to suggest they might not bear the name of their maker. Even if they’re called iPaqs, we just want to see them already!

Continue reading HP’s Todd Bradley all but confirms webOS tablet for February 9th event, promises even more devices

HP’s Todd Bradley all but confirms webOS tablet for February 9th event, promises even more devices originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Pre Central  |   | Email this | Comments

The news we were all hoping for finally hit this week: HP is getting ready to show off its new webOS-based tablet.

Sadly for those of us in Las Vegas, it’s not going to happen at the Consumer Electronics Show here. Instead, HP’s planning an “exciting webOS announcement” for February 9 in San Francisco.

The invitations (shown above) went out today, and while they don’t mention a tablet, it’s a good bet that a webOS-based slate will be on the agenda — plus, perhaps, HP-branded successors to Palm’s tepidly successful webOS-based smartphones, the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi.

Hewlett-Packard acquired Palm in 2010 for about $1.2 billion, a purchase that more or less saved Palm from yet another ignominious decline into obscurity, but left many observers wondering what HP was thinking.

The Palm and Pre (and their successors, the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus) were ambitious attempts to compete with Android phones and the iPhone, and the phones offer striking industrial design, elegant user interfaces, clever multitasking and a web-based development environment.

But the phones haven’t proven popular with consumers, thanks in part to poor battery life and the relative lack of webOS applications.

HP’s intentions became clearer in July, 2010, when HP CTO Phil McKinney started promising a webOS-based tablet and webOS-based printer to come in “early 2011.” For such devices, a lightweight, web-based mobile operating system makes a lot of sense, and competitors have less of a head start than in the smartphone market.