Samsung Series 7 laptop now available for pre-order at Best Buy

About a month ago, we got handsy with a certain 15.6-inch Samsung Series 7 laptop. Now, it appears that svelte, quad-core notebook’s ready to flood the mass marketplace. Up for pre-order on Best Buy, Sammy’s 4G WiMAX-enabled entry for the “design conscious” will cost you about $880 — already chopped down from its near $1,000 price tag. For that handful of Benjamins, you can look forward to a 2.2GHz Core i7-2675QM, a 1600 x 900 HD matte display, 750GB of storage, 6GB of DDR3 RAM, a couple of USB 3.0 ports, an optical disk drive and Windows 7 Home pre-installed. If you were hoping to get your game on, then we’d advise you to hold out for the company’s other Series 7 family member slated to hit this fall. You can get a head start on the anorexic goods by hitting up the source link below.

Samsung Series 7 laptop now available for pre-order at Best Buy originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel’s Skoool software brings study materials to healthcare workers in developing countries

When we consider Intel’s contributions to developing nations, it’s hard not to hone in on the 5 million-plus Classmate PCs it’s shipped over the past four years. This time, at least, Intel is leaving the hardware part of the equation to the Lenovos and HPs of the world and focusing on the software instead. The company just announced the Skoool Healthcare Education platform, a collection of online and offline educational materials designed to help healthcare workers in developing countries better treat women and children, tackling malnutrition, vaccination, communicable diseases and childbirth safety. To be clear, Intel isn’t getting into the medical content business — it didn’t write these resources but instead culled them from various third-party sources. The idea is that the company will provide the platform to governments and healthcare workers for free, forgoing what might otherwise be an opportunity to collect licensing fees. (It’ll be up to local governments to work with companies like Dell to secure low-cost PCs to run the software.) For now, Intel’s launching the program in Sri Lanka, where it already has a working history with the President and Minister of Health, but a rep tells us the outfit hopes to expand the program to sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Central Eastern Europe and parts of Asia, reaching 1 million healthcare workers by the end of 2015.

[Image courtesy of Intel]

Continue reading Intel’s Skoool software brings study materials to healthcare workers in developing countries

Intel’s Skoool software brings study materials to healthcare workers in developing countries originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook opened up for the FCC, should have showered first

Dark stains aside, it looks like the S3’s WiFi and Bluetooth credentials are all in order so we’ll hopefully see its skinny 17mm (0.67-inch) form stateside before too long. The regulatory teardown pics don’t tell us a great deal, but then we already know plenty from our earlier hands-on: a choice of Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, a 13.3-inch (1366 x 768) display and a competitive €799 European price tag, not to mention some heavy expectations from the Ultrabook promoters at Intel.

Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook opened up for the FCC, should have showered first originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 09:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2011 wrap-up

We came, we saw, we conquered — and just like that, Intel’s Developer Forum was over. Much like years past, Chipzilla was proudly beating its own drum: we saw demos of Ivy Bridge and Haswell, a healthy helping of Ultrabooks and of course its high speed interconnect du jour, Thunderbolt. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t see a lot of other random, mind-stimulating otherness. Did you catch all the treasures we found lurking deep within the halls of this year’s show? Unfortunately, we can’t tell from here, so you better hop past the break for the full listing and find out.

Continue reading Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2011 wrap-up

Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2011 wrap-up originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MSI demos X79 motherboards with PCI Express 3.0 and UEFI BIOS at IDF 2011 (video)

While MSI wasn’t quite ready to publicly divulge all the details of its forthcoming X79-based motherboards, it was more than happy to give us a teaser. We were shown three upcoming models from the company at IDF, all toting PCI Express 3.0 slots, overclocking buttons and that snazzy UEFI BIOS. The latter makes changing settings a snap, and is carried over from the company’s existing Sandy Bridge boards — it even comes with a button that launches a browser, but unfortunately the machines in the booth weren’t configured to support it. We’ll know more in Q4, but in the meantime a gallery awaits you below, along with a video after the break.

Myriam Joire contributed to this report.

Continue reading MSI demos X79 motherboards with PCI Express 3.0 and UEFI BIOS at IDF 2011 (video)

MSI demos X79 motherboards with PCI Express 3.0 and UEFI BIOS at IDF 2011 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel: Ivy Bridge GPU to support 4K resolutions

Color us unsurprised that Ivy Bridge is destined to be faster and smaller than its predecessor, but unbeknownst to us is an interesting tidbit concerning the upcoming architecture’s GPU. The revamp will support resolutions in excess of 4K (topping out at a maximum of 4,096 x 4,096) — a sizable jump from the WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600) limitation of its Sandy Bridge’s forebearer — opening the door to all sorts of resolution independent goodness. Guess that means you won’t need a discrete GPU in the future to power that bodacious (but pricey) pro-level display. Have a peek in the links below if you’re hungry for more.

Intel: Ivy Bridge GPU to support 4K resolutions originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Iomega’s TV with Boxee (Box) hitting Europe by ‘by mid-October,’ or so it says

Forgive our skepticism, but when your product has missed its original ship date by over half a year, we aren’t believing anything until we see it. Or, should we say, our colleagues in Europe see it. Iomega’s Olivier D’Eternod — Head of Product Marketing for EMEA — was recently on-hand at IBC in Amsterdam, and he was quoted over at Intel’s blog as saying that the ‘TV with Boxee’ would be “available in Europe by mid-October.” For those who can’t remember last week (let alone January), here’s a bit of a refresher — the company actually demoed its own version of the Boxee Box at CES, and promised then that it’d be out in February. Since? Radio silence. If all goes as planned, though, consumers in Germany, UK, Sweden, Spain and France should see it in around four weeks, with Holland, Belgium, Ireland, Switzerland and Portugal in line behind ’em. He also hinted at a future where “access to premium content” was available, but smartly suggested that the company “bring this one to market first” before looking too far forward. Smart man.

Continue reading Iomega’s TV with Boxee (Box) hitting Europe by ‘by mid-October,’ or so it says

Iomega’s TV with Boxee (Box) hitting Europe by ‘by mid-October,’ or so it says originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How would you change Dell’s XPS 15z?

It’s the slickest mainstream machine to emerge from Round Rock in years, and outside of the short-lived Adamo XPS, it might just be the most beautiful Dell laptop from the past decade. It’s the XPS 15z, and it’s winning the hearts of folks who were previously dead-set on HP’s Envy line. We obviously found favor with our review unit, and we’re pretty sure the company has managed to move quite a few of these things. If one (or more) ended up on your doorstep, here’s your chance to speak out. Are you satisfied with the keyboard design? How’s the panel treating your retinas? That hardware configuration living up to your needs? Would you offer the next one in a multitude of hues? Go ahead and get crafty in comments below — maybe that whole “Design Studio” thing will bleed over to here.

How would you change Dell’s XPS 15z? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 22:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lego’s augmented reality at IDF, eyes-on (video)

It’s not as cool as Chipzilla’s other augmented reality project, but at least this one exists out in the real world. Present at branded storefronts, the camera-based AR tech uses image recognition on Lego boxes to superimpose their brick-ladden contents in fully animated form. New at IDF was the second generation of the already existing product, which despite being functionally identical to its predecessor, has now been miniaturized thanks to second generation Core processors. Ready to see it in action? Peep the gallery below and the video after the break.

Myriam Joire contributed to this report.

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Lego’s augmented reality at IDF, eyes-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 14:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Opera Mobile on Android x86 at IDF 2011 (video)

We discovered this little gem hidden deep within the recesses of the show floor at IDF 2011. It’s none other than Opera Mobile running on a Honeycomb tablet — not just any tablet, mind you, but Intel’s Oak Trail-powered (Atom Z670) Green Ridge device. That’s right, you’re looking at Opera’s web browser, compiled using the latest Android NDK and running natively on top of Android x86. First impressions? It’s fast, even without hardware acceleration — scrolling and zooming are smooth as butter, with no signs of checkerboarding anywhere. According to Phillip Grønvold of Opera software, this is just the beginning. Hardware acceleration is already in the works, along with Flash support. So go ahead if you dare — browse our gallery below and watch our hands-on video after the break.

Dante Cesa contributed to this report.

Continue reading Opera Mobile on Android x86 at IDF 2011 (video)

Opera Mobile on Android x86 at IDF 2011 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 10:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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