Hasta La Gadget!

After 3-D movies and 3-D TVs, it’s time for computers to go into the third dimension.

Companies such as MSI and Asus will be showing 3-D PCs at Computex, a huge trade show for manufacturers of PCs and PC components held every year in Taipei, Taiwan. This year, Computex runs from June 1 to 5.

MSI plans to introduce a 24-inch 3-D net-top: a desktop computer with its internals built into the display case, similar to an iMac.

“We can run 3-D movies, games, photos and TV,” says Clifford Chun, product manager for all-in-ones and desktops at MSI, “and by just pressing a button you can switch between 2-D and 3-D modes.”

MSI’s rival Asus will debut a 3-D laptop with a 15.6-inch display and desktop similar in screen size to that from MSI. The 3-D PCs are expected to be available in the third quarter of the year.

“People may choose a 3-D PC because it is a less expensive way to get 3-D content,” says Rob Csongor, vice president of marketing for Nvidia, which makes graphics cards that power the 3-D PCs. “Companies are coming out with some beautiful devices that are going to be a higher-end product initially but they will be very attractive to consumers.”

With Hollywood’s success in films such as Avatar and Alice in Wonderland, the 3-D format has made a big comeback. And it’s not confined to just the big screen. The 3-D TV was one of the biggest stars of the Consumer Electronics Show this year. Almost every major TV maker, including Sony, LG, Panasonic and Mitsubishi, plans to offer big-screen 3-D TVs, while broadcasters such as ESPN and Discovery have promised 3-D channels by the end of the year or early next year.

Meanwhile, amateur 3-D content is taking off as consumers use 3-D cameras or homemade 3-D rigs to shoot photos. In a sign that homemade 3-D videos could soon be ready to hit mainstream, YouTube has started offering a 3-D display option.

Makers of 3-D PCs hope to step into this world. “3-D PCs are for consumers who see the 3-D stuff everywhere and wonder, ‘How can I get this home?’” says Csongor.

Close to a million 3-D PCs will ship in 2010, predicts Jon Peddie Research, and annual sales could reach 75 million by 2014 as 3-D PCs become ubiquitous.

With a powerful graphics card, most PCs are 3-D capable — in principle. But critical to the 3-D experience is a 120-Hz monitor and special glasses. PCs with 3-D have stereoscopic displays, which means their screens can present a rapidly alternating set of images for the right and the left eye so the brain can fuse them together into a single image that includes depth.

MSI’s 3-D desktop, called ‘Ripple,’ has an Intel Core i7 860 processor, an ATI Radeon HD 5730 graphics chip, 4 GB of memory, a 1-terabyte disk drive, a Blu-ray player, 1.3-megapixel webcam, and Wi-Fi capability. The 24-inch multitouch display has a refresh rate of 120 Hz and will come with its own pair of active-shutter glasses.

“With active-shutter glasses you don’t lose transparency or contrast as you do with the polarized versions,” says Chun. “We think its the best way to experience the 3-D feeling.”

If you are wondering what you will use your 3-D PC for, there’s plenty of 3-D content already out there, assures Nvidia’s Csongor. Nvidia’s graphics chips, which are embedded in Asus machines, can support any of 400 3-D-enabled video games already on the market. Of course, they can also show 3-D photos, streaming video from sports such as golf tournaments, and Blu-ray 3-D movies.

And if you get tired of all that 3-D, just switch the display back to the old-fashioned PC mode, suggest MSI’s Chun.

“Since we can move between 2-D and 3-D, you can see clear images even if you don’t wear the glasses,” says Chun. “No blurring or fuzzy images in 2-D.”

The 24-inch MSI desktop will cost $2,200 — not exactly cheap, but just a little more than what most users would pay for a high-end multimedia machine. For many, it will also be easier to buy a 3-D PC rather than a 3-D TV.

“Not everyone wants a 3-D TV when they are ready to buy their next TV,” says Csongor. “But a 3-D PC for their next laptop or desktop is something that may be willing to go for.”

See Also:

• 3-D Goes DIY With Amateur Photos, Videos
• 3-D Tabletop Display Gets Rid of the Glasses
• 4 Things That Could Keep 3-D TV Out of Your Living Room
• Why 3-D Gaming’s Future Is Still Blurry
• Wired Explains: How 3-D Television Works

Photo: (bigchus/Flickr)

As promised by yesterday’s leak from Vietnam, Apple has updated the plastic unibody MacBook. The new model, which appears on Apple’s traditional new hardware day – Tuesday – gets the NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor and the new aluminum MagSafe power-cord. It also gets another feature not revealed in the inexplicably leaked Vietnamese MacBook: a claimed ten-hour battery-life.

The battery life estimates keep on growing as Apple squeezes better power management out of its machines, but the biggie for buyers of the $1,000 MacBook is the new graphics chip, which is made by NVIDIA exclusively for Apple and also found in the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The 320M shares system memory and uses PureVideo HD to decode hi-def video within the GPU, helping to keep the fans from spinning up when watching video with compatible apps.

The new MacBook is available now, in Vietnam and elsewhere.

MacBook [Apple]

See Also:

• New, Faster, Unreleased MacBook Shows up in Vietnam
• New MacBook Pro: 10-Hour Battery, Hi-Res Screen, i7 CPU
• Chinese MacBook Air Knockoffs Actually Look Awesome

See Also:

• Stanza v2.0: The iPhone's Best E-Reader Just Got Better
• IPhone Stanza Downloads May Top Kindle Sales
• Gadget Lab Guide: How to Un-Cripple Your International Kindle …
• iBooks Store Loaded with Project Gutenberg Titles at Launch …
• Apple's Tablet E-Book App Rips off Indie Dev's Creation

ASUS has been attaching bamboo to its laptops for some time now, but it was only ever really for show — though the wood itself was certainly biodegradable, adding veneer isn’t exactly the greenest statement in the world. This year, however, the company’s Bamboo Collection will be completely slightly more recyclable. With Core i5-450M processors, they should be reasonably good performers as well, and NVIDIA Optimus switchable graphics technology gives them a factory-estimated (read: unlikely) 11 hours of battery life. The panda fodder cases will be found in Taiwan for around $40,000 NTD (approximately $1,300) next month, though US availability is yet to be announced. Check out the gigantic ASUS PDF for additional specs while you wait, and feel free to blow Ma Earth kisses all the while.

Update: Our friends at Engadget Chinese inform us the new U series laptops aren’t 100 percent recyclable after all; they still have a sizable plastic substrate underneath those thicker bamboo panels. It seems ASUS still hasn’t managed to shake its wooden façade. Get specs and first-hand pics from the event at our more coverage link.

ASUS Bamboo Collection laptops: now with Taiwanese pricing, more bamboo (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 May 2010 22:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony has dropped its not-a-netbook Vaio P into a vat of candy-colored paint, tossed in an accelerometer, a 3G chipset, GPS, a compass and a pair of touchpads and given it a good shake. Amazingly, given this low-tech approach to R&D, the new P turned out pretty good.

The Vaio P, now officially dubbed a notebook by Sony’s PR team, is the familiar purse-sized computer we’ve come to know and ignore: It runs Windows 7 on it’s too-small 8-inch 1600×768 screen via the ultra-mobile Atom Z540 chip (with Intel GMA 500 graphics), 64GB SSD and 2GB RAM, and it eschews a trackpad in favor of a nubbin. The new hardware certainly takes it into the iPad/iPhone/Android league of portability, with the compass, GPS and 3G hooking up with turn-by-turn navigation.

In fact, you can even wander down the street and use the Vaio P as you obliviously bump into fellow pedestrians, just like you can with a cellphone, thanks to an optical trackpad and mouse buttons either side of the screen, for “two-handed operation while standing or walking.” The cellphone/iPad comparisons fall down with the battery life. Sony claims just five hours, which should be halved to get the real time. You can, if you like, pop on a bigger pack for double the life.

Finally, the accelerometer will also flip pages as you turn the Vaio P on its side, which will let you read it like a book. A very tall and thin book, but you get the idea.

The new Vaio P will be available in June, price to be decided. Given that the current 64GB model is $1000, Sony might want to lower the price to a more iPad-competitive level. Then again, an extra $200 for a keyboard and crappy battery life might be just what some people are looking for.

Press release [Sony]

See Also:

• First Look: Sony Vaio P Series Lifestyle PC
• Just Why Isn't the Sony Vaio P a Netbook?
• Video: Sony's Svelte Vaio P Runs OS X

Today, I’m going to show you three new devices. A Bluetooth keyboard, an iPad case, and a stand. A keyboard, a case, and a stand. Keyboard. Case. Stand. Are you getting it yet?

I apologize for the Jobsnote iPhone parody, but the best way to think about the ClamCase is as a replacement for three otherwise separate iPad accessories. Because if you think of it as what it actually is – a box which turns your iPad into a barely functional laptop – you’ll hate it.

The ClamCase has a bay up top to accept your new Apple media-slab, and a Bluetooth keyboard down below. The bezel has cut-outs for the various buttons and the two halves are held together with a wraparound hinge which can flip 360-degrees to either encase the iPad or get entirely out of the way.

Yes, it is ridiculous to try to turn a specialist machine into an all-purpose computer, especially as you’ll be reaching up every few seconds to tap the screen. On the other hand, it does combine three popular accessories into one sleek (and currently CGI-only) package. The site is down due to traffic right now, but if Google’s cached pages are anything to go by, the price will be a more-than-reasonable $70. Video promo below.

ClamCase [ClamCase via Twitter]