Hasta La Gadget!

Toshiba and Intel have announced that they’re partnering up to deliver the latter’s convertible Classmate PC to Japanese youths — just in time for the new school year. Sporting a 1.66GHz Atom N450 and an overhauled design, this latest iteration of the educational use netbook will start filtering through Nipponese school corridors this August. It packs 160GB of storage room and 2GB of RAM under a nice 1,366 x 768 10.1-inch touchscreen. The latter flips around to facilitate pen input with an included stylus, while the whole package is protected by a well rubberized and ruggedized case. Now if only it had some multitouch and one of those crazy 15-hour batteries, we might have considered going back to school and using it to finish our floristry studies. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Intel Classmate PC becomes Toshiba CM1 in Japan

Intel Classmate PC becomes Toshiba CM1 in Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Digging all the Moorestown tablets and phones we’ve been seeing at Computex? Yeah, us too, but it looks like we’re still going to be waiting a considerable amount of time for them to hit the market. According to Intel’s Anand Chandrasekher, the first Moorestown devices won’t pop up for at least six to twelve more months. That may be after the end of 2010 mark we had heard before, but let’s hope Intel is using the time to get things just right. Anand also said that the first Moorestown products will be tablets rather than smartphones, the latter arriving sometime in the first half of 2011 — not too surprising given handset manufacturers’ history of designing and optimizing around ARM silicon and the fact that the smartphone flavor of the Intel-friendly MeeGo OS is still in development.

Intel Moorestown tablets will arrive before smartphones, won’t hit for at least six months originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the more interesting devices that Intel Executive Vice President David Perlmutter showed off running Atom yesterday at Computex 2010 was a MeeGo-based tablet computer. The on-stage demo was brief, but I was able to grab some shaky-cam footage. The tablet uses 1.5GHz Moorestown CPU, features a 10-inch screen, and has a touch-and-swipe interface that looks a lot like the Apple iPad or even Android.  Physically, the device looks pretty much like the iPad and every other tablet computer on the market, so it will be hard to judge just how big an impact it could have until we get some hands-on with the software.

You’re really coming full circle at this year’s Computex, aren’t ya, Intel? It was at the Taipei show two years ago that Chipzilla introduced the first Atom netbooks, and though it’s taken awhile, the company is finally announcing dual-core Atom processors for the category (not to mention slightly changing its party line on the power of the sub-laptops). While the details on the speeds and feeds of the new Pine Trail N series CPUs are being kept under wraps for now, we’ve been told that they’ll support DDR3 RAM and provide comparable performance to the dual-core desktop Atom processors, yet still maintain similar battery life to current netbooks. Intel still plans to keep these Atom chips in 10-inch systems, and told us that users will see the speed benefits in multitasking and browsing, rather than in HD playback and gaming.

But netbooks aren’t only about to get faster, they’re also going to go on a serious diet. Intel also unveiled its new “Canoe Lake” innovation platform for netbooks, which is what’s behind that 14mm thick machine pictured above. The platform can support single- and dual-core Atom processors, but provides significant cooling to allow for 50 percent thinner systems. However, “Canoe Lake” is merely a reference guideline for other manufacturers to use, so there’s no telling what the machines that use this could end up looking like. The dual-core Atom for netbooks goes into production next week and should be shipping in netbooks before the holiday season. And as for that super thin laptop you’re inevitably still peering at? Intel expects its partners to use the platform and have products out by the end of this year. We don’t know about you, but the pictures below may keep us salivating until then.

Continue reading Intel boosts netbooks with dual-core Atom, slims ’em down with ‘Canoe Lake’

Intel boosts netbooks with dual-core Atom, slims ’em down with ‘Canoe Lake’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Speaking of revolution in Taiwan is always risky, but Nvidia
CEO Jen-Hsun
Huang didn’t mince words: “This is the beginning of the 3D revolution.”

Huang spoke at its 3D Experience Center, a few blocks away from
the Computex Taiwan World Trade Center Hall, where he had gathered a few
hundred tech reporters and graphics groupies. Indeed, although, Huang spoke for
a bit about Nvidia’s Optimus and DX11 support, most of his enthusiasm was
reserved for Nvidia’s 3D Vision.

“There is no reason to buy another PC unless it has 3D in
it,” explained Huang. To make it easier to tell if a PC is 3D capable, Nvidia
offers a simple formula, which, of course, puts Nvidia front and center. The
company calls a 3D PC any desktop or notebook that:

• Includes a pair of active shutter glasses
• Has a 120Hz 3D capable display
• Includes a discrete graphics processor that can render high
  definition 3D imagery.

Take a look at our ever-growing slideshow
of Computex 2010 at PCMag.com.