Hasta La Gadget!

AMD fans have endured a long wait for this, while being reduced to spectators as Intel spews out an ever-increasing horde of Sandy Bridge variants and builds up the hype around its next-gen Ivy Bridge architecture. But the new FX series of processors is finally here and will be available to buy in the next few days, with the top-end FX-8150 priced at $245 in exchange for eight cores, a 3.6GHz base clock speed and easy over-clocking to 4.8GHz using the packaged Overdrive software. Your AM3+ motherboard is crying out for the upgrade, but don’t succumb until you’ve clicked past the break — we’ve got details of the full range and pricing, our initial impressions and an eyes-on video that includes a detailed chat with the guys from AMD.

Continue reading AMD FX processor brings eight cores to battle, we go eyes-on (video)

AMD FX processor brings eight cores to battle, we go eyes-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CinemaNow’s movie library is about to get a bit larger and a good deal sharper, thanks to a new deal with Intel. Yesterday, the video on-demand service announced that it’s now offering a slate of 1080p HD movies for the first time, available on PCs packing a second generation Intel Core CPU. According to the company, “several hundred” new releases and other popular films from 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. have already been added to its library, in addition to the 15,000 movies and TV shows already on file. CinemaNow didn’t offer an exact number of titles, nor did it provide names of any specific films, but you can stream through the entire press release for yourself, after the break.

Continue reading CinemaNow strikes deal with Intel, adds new movies in 1080p HD

CinemaNow strikes deal with Intel, adds new movies in 1080p HD originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If the name Cyberdyne doesn’t immediately ring a bell, its HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) robotic suit sure will. Here at CEATEC, we bumped into these folks who kindly offered to strap us onto their latest prototype arm — a slightly smaller variant of the one installed on Cyberdyne’s current suit. Most of the HAL’s main part was strapped to the outer side of our upper arm with velcro, while our wrist was tied to the much smaller extendable piece; both parts were hinged together with a power unit. Additionally, a sensory pad was applied onto our forearm’s medial cutaneous nerve (around the elbow area) to pick up our muscular nerve signal — similarly, Cyberdyne’s lower-body exosuit requires two sensors on each leg.

Our HAL was energized as soon as we tensed our arm muscles, so lifting up the tray of four 1.5kg water bottles was a piece of cake consistently throughout the demo — we even managed it with just our pinky (see video above)! And as soon as Cyberdyne’s lovely assistant Fumi turned the dial down, our superhuman powers were instantly taken away. We weren’t given any dates or specs for this piece of kit, but if all goes well, we may well see a brand new full-body suit at CES 2012 in January, so stay tuned. Oh, and can someone please get Cyberdyne some WD-40?

Zach Honig contributed to this report.

Cyberdyne HAL robotic arm hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Attracted by all that Cedar Trail gossip about 10-hour battery life and weeks of standby time? Then you’ll be pleased to see that Asus’s Eee PC 1025C and higher-end 1025CE models have received their nods from the FCC. Both pack the latest 32nm Atom processor under their 10.1-inch hoods, along with an HDMI-out, Kensington lock and flush trackpad. The CE additionally serves up a USB 3.0 port, 4x zoom on its webcam and a metallic finish. NetbookNews got some hands-on time with these babies at Computex and reported prices of $249 and $279 for the C and CE respectively — whet your appetite at the More Coverage link.

Asus Eee PC 1025 treads a Cedar Trail through the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MeeGo OS, the bastard love child of Intel and Nokia, isn’t dead yet. The operating system is being re-packaged as “Tizen,” as Intel and Samsung shack up with a host of partner companies on the mobile OS front.

Tizen is based on Linux and will be an open-source operating system hosted by the Linux Foundation. Also backed by Samsung, the OS will place a heavy emphasis on HTML5 development and web apps, as opposed to a native app emphasis like iOS and Android have. Tizen will support a variety of devices such as handsets, tablets and connected TVs.

Why the switch to Tizen? Five words, one abbreviation: HTML5. Imad Sousou, director of Intel’s Open Source Technology Center, believes HTML5-based apps are the future, and a simple upgrade to the MeeGo OS just won’t cut it. “Shifting to HTML5 doesn’t just mean slapping a web runtime on an existing Linux,” said Sousou in a recent blog post. This would mean that APIs not visible to HTML5 programmers could be more flexible, allowing them to “evolve with platform technology” and vary from market to market.

MeeGo was originally a combination of Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin operating systems. Nokia dropped the platform in favor of Windows Phone earlier this year and Intel reportedly halted development of the platform in early September. Currently, there aren’t too many devices that run MeeGo with the exception of the Nokia N9 smartphone and an Asus Eee PC netbook.

It’s interesting that Tizen is an effort endorsed by Samsung, as Samsung has its own mobile operating system called Bada (its SDK was recently released to developers). But the move actually makes sense: software giant Microsoft teamed up with hardware manufacturer Nokia. Software giant Google teamed up with hardware manufacturer Motorola. Teaming up with an open-source software platform like Tizen could give Samsung — which endorses a number of platforms including Android, Windows Phone and Bada — additional control over its mobile future.

Intel is pushing Tizen for developers, endorsing the OS with its AppUp developer program and HTML 5-based developer framework. The new OS will “incorporate the same principles and open source philosophies” as MeeGo.

Tizen will also support the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) web development environment for cross-platform applications. Web-based apps can run on any phone, and as more are developed, could potentially break down “platform wars” barriers by letting more native apps run on the current major mobile platforms. Services like Appcelerator’s Titanium Studio are also bucking the native app trend by providing tools for developers to publish cross-platform web apps.

Intel plans to make the transition to Tizen over the next few months and aims to make the transition to Tizen as easy as possible for devs. Code already contributed to the MeeGo project will be ported over to and compatible with Tizen.

A release date for the Tizen OS is set for early 2012, with Tizen-running devices arriving mid-year.

Image: The MeeGo phone browser (Steve Paine/Flickr)