Hasta La Gadget!

Like a pesky video game villain that just won’t go away, Microsoft’s DirectX has been a mainstay of mainstream PC gaming pretty much since the inception. Its existence hasn’t been without its tensions, however, with notable graphics guru John Carmack of id Software ignoring it in favor of OpenGL — until last week when he finally acknowledged that Direct3D had outgrown its cross-platform alternative and was now the preferable API for PC game development. That’s all well and good, but plenty of game devs, says Richard Huddy, head of AMD’s developer relations team, don’t want any API at all. Huddy points out the sadly obvious fact that modern graphics cards can pretty much stomp any console hardware into the dirt in a straight fight and yet fail to show the full extent of their superiority in actual game visuals. He’d prefer to see developers given direct low-level access to the hardware, so they can maximize their own talents and really push things forward. Of course, the beauty of DirectX is that it’s a standard that every Windows game designer can code to, leading to predictable and more widely compatible (if not necessarily spectacular) results. For more on how the future’s shaping up, hit the links below.

Game developers want DirectX to ‘go away,’ says AMD man originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 04:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We may have to wait until summer to purchase a webOS slate, but it won’t be summer’s end — PreCentral reports that the company has confirmed a June release date for the HP TouchPad. At the enterprise-oriented HP Summit in San Francisco, CEO Leo Apotheker finally offered the month of release, and also reportedly said that the company’s full-force webOS on PC initiative will begin in a humble way — the beta will run in a web browser, and we’ll see it by the end of the year.

HP TouchPad coming June, webOS for PC beta by year’s end originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’d think Leo Apotheker, HP’s newest CEO, would want to save a bit of thunder for his March 14th event. Instead, the man continues to unleash stentorian quotes with unabashed candor like today’s claim that “HP has lost its soul.” He’s also making bold proclamations about every HP PC being able to run WebOS and MIcrosoft Windows as an integrated experience in 2012 — a move the company hopes will create a “massive platform” to attract those all important developers. Apotheker’s strategy will reverse Mark Hurd’s cost-cutting emphasis with a renewed focus on product quality and innovation — the latter achieved by breaking down inter-company barriers that currently separate product groups and by boosting the R&D budget already pegged at $2.96 billion last year (a pittance by some measurements). Click the source link below to read the Businessweek article in full if you’re interested in Leo’s issue with being the smartest person in the room and his attempts at Californication. Cool? Awesome.

WebOS will be on ‘every HP PC’ shipping next year, says CEO originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 07:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lenovo’s brick-like X220 will run for 24 hours with optional battery pack

If I was going to buy a non-Mac notebook, it would probably be a ThinkPad. Don’t worry — my reasoning is entirely shallow: I like Lenovo’s machines because of their styling, not their substance. When closed, the brutal, square-edged black cases look amazing, and I always think that you’d have to be an idiot to try and steal one: the owner could batter you about the head and upper body with it and the ThinkPad wouldn’t even show a scratch.

But the new X220 is also pretty on the inside, and its main selling point is a ridiculous 24 hour battery life. That’s enough to let you update Excel spreadsheets while a plane takes you anywhere on the planet.

The X220 manages this by packing in a 15 hour nine-cell battery, and offering an optional snap-on external battery to extend run time. But just the standard 15 hours sounds pretty impressive.

Otherwise, the 12.5 inch notebook can be configured to order, with your choice of Sandy Bridge Core 13, 15, and i7 chipsets, USB 2 or USB 3, SSDs up to 160GB and a 720p webcam. Prices start at a reasonable $900.

No word if Lenovo has fixed the keyboard, though. I have never typed on one at length, but every single time I have shared a table with a suit using a ThinkPad, he has been whacking away at the thing so hard that the table would shake, and I would shudder. I always assumed it was due to stiff keys. After all, not every BO-stained traveling spreadsheet jockey could be such a moron, right?

X220 data sheet [(PDF) Lenovo]

Lenovo ThinkPad X220 [PC Mag]

See Also:

• Rolling Drum-Shaped Battery Powers Office for Three Days
• The Cult of Apple: When Even a Battery Charger is Big News …
• New MacBook Pro: 10-Hour Battery, Hi-Res Screen, i7 CPU
• The Original IBM ThinkPad Was a Tablet
• Lenovo Thinks Big: 17-inch ThinkPad Coming September
• The ThinkPad X300 vs. MacBook Air: Fight!
• Review: Lenovo ThinkPad X300 Eats MackBook Air For Lunch

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

At the launch of the new iPad – superior for video chat, group presentations, and cutting cake — Apple didn’t miss a few opportunities to rub salt in the open air vents of Microsoft’s tablet efforts. Apple noted that sales of the iPad have exceeded those of every other tablet PC ever sold, and that Microsoft (along with other competitors) were chasing doomed strategies that extended outmoded models.

Microsoft has been clear that it will continue to use its “desktop” operating system – Windows – rather than its mobile operating system – the device-specifying Windows Phone 7 – as its operating system for tablets. Considering the critical importance of an intuitive touchscreen UI on tablet — where Windows Phone 7 excels and desktop Windows has struggled — this seems risky on its face. But it is important to remember from Microsoft’s perspective that the question is not whether Windows is the best choice for tablets but whether it is a better choice for Microsoft than Windows Phone. While the company faces an uphill battle regardless of which OS it chooses, its flagship could be the better answer for several reasons.

Continue reading Switched On: Padded Windows

Switched On: Padded Windows originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Mar 2011 19:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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