Archive for the 'Hardware' Category



Dell X50 Windows Mobile 5.0 Upgradable

Wednesday 11 May 2005 @ 3:18 pm

Dell X50
Good news for Dell X50 series PDA current and future owners,

Dell has just announced that it will offer a Windows Mobile 5.0 upgrade for the Dell Axim X50 series later this year. Currently, all Dell X50 series PDA are using Windows Mobile 2003. The next version of Windows for handheld devices does not follow the same naming system, like Windows Mobile 2003, which is widely used in PDA and smartphone today. Hence Windows Mobile 5.0 will be named instead of Windows Mobile 2005.

The following are some of the new features found in Windows Mobile 5.0 :-

  • New mobile versions of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
  • Improved one-handed navigation.
  • Better WiFi support for Smartphones.
  • Support for “persistent memory”, which means that you won’t lose all your data when your battery dies.

For those who are considering getting Dell X50 series PDA, now do not have to worry about the lack of support for latest mobile operating system anymore. What a nice attempt done by Dell, again. :)

However, Dell did not say what the Windows Mobile 5.0 upgrade will cost yet.

[Source]




AMD’s Dual Core Athlon64 X2 Debut

Tuesday 10 May 2005 @ 3:32 pm

AMD Athlon X2
AnandTech has written a an article about the launch of AMD’s Dual Core Athlon64 X2, which will be taken place this coming May 31.

There will a total of 4 models of this dual core desktop processors, the details are as follows:-

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+
(2.4GHz w/ 1MB L2 cache-per-core) = $1,001 each
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
(2.4GHz w/ 512KB L2 cache-per-core) = $803 each
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
(2.2GHz w/ 1MB L2 cache-per-core) = $581 each
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
(2.2GHz w/ 512KB L2 cache-per-core) = $537 each

[Source]




iDog

Saturday 7 May 2005 @ 9:53 am
iDog

Received some photos from a friend about iDog, product from Sega Toys, then I managed to dig out some information about iDog.

It is actually a small little toy, which has a dimension of 116x107x100 and weighted 170g. It operates on 3 AAA batteries.

iDog Size

Basically iDog has the following functionalities:-

1. When you press its noce (the only button on its face) or move its tail, iDog will play you some melodies whie flashing you with combination of LEDs colours. It will sort of shake its head and move its ears as well.

Play iDog
iDog Tail

2. iDog is able to act as a small speaker, though the quality is not that good. You just have to plug your source of music, such as a mp3 player, into the jack on its left rear leg.

iDog Music

However, iDog can’t move. It will stay stationary while it is playing with you.

As a conclusion, iDog is a nice toy to play when you are bored, but it will never replace Aibo, from Sony, due to its limited functionality.

I’ve zipped up all full size pictures, feel free to download it here.




Intel Lost The Dual-Core War ??

Friday 6 May 2005 @ 1:40 am

Finally I come across article debating this hot issue.

Now Intel and AMD dual core processors are already available in the market, but have you thought that are they value for money spent? It is no doubt dual core processors would certainly take computing to the next level, the question now is by how much and are those two Intel and AMD dual core processors will perform the same?

AMD Opteron
Anyway, I would have to agree with the following quote from the article regarding the thermal issues. AMD is proud of their Opteron dual core processors regarding low power consumption and low heat generated. AMD stresses on “2 cores with 1 core power consumption“.

Although Intel may have won the race-to-the-launch game, they still lurk behind AMD in majority of the performance tests conducted by various media outlets.

We all know Intel’s recent history with its desktop processors. They were sub-par, to say the least. The Prescott chips were plagued with thermal issues, performance lags due to the use of 31 stage pipelines, high prices and the fact that they couldn’t come anywhere close to what AMD had to offer.

Intel Pentium EE
I still remember how Intel was touting “Speed Is King” by emphasizing on the Mhz they labeled on their processors since Pentium III. If you noticed Intel’s move in re-labeling all their processor’s code names last year, you’ll have a doubt why did they do that. I think the reason would be the same as the following quote says: Performance Is Far More Important Than Speed.

Continue Reading »
Intel Lost The Dual-Core War ??




History Of Apple Ipod

Thursday 5 May 2005 @ 3:46 pm
Ipod

Apple Ipod has been in the market for quite some time already, but did you know the idea of Ipod was not originally from Apple?

The iPod was almost not released by Apple. The products creator, Tony Fadell, had shopped the idea to Phillips and RealNetworks before proposing the idea to Apple. Fadell found a welcoming environment at Apple, who agreed almost immediately to produce and market the device.

Several limitations were found in the first version of Ipod. There was no remote control, this despite a connector designed for such a purpose. There were no games available for it too.

One month after the domestic launch of the iPod, the iPod was launched in Europe and was accompanied by new peripherals, such as charging adapters, FM broadcasters and a plethora of cases. By the end of 2001, Apple had already sold as many as 125,000 units.

In March of 2002, a 10 GB version of the iPod was released. Along with the new iPod, came a software update that included several bug fixes, and a new equalizer. Just four months later, in July 2002, a new 20 GB version was released, with a major price drop for the 5 and 10 GB versions. This new veriosn is IBM PC compatibled.

Limited Edition

Shortly before New Years of 2003, Apple announced that it would ship special edition iPods that would feature text or graphics engraved on the back, as their new marketing strategy. A customer could opt for their own design, or choose the signature of Madonna, Tony Hawk, Beck or the NoDoubt logo on the chrome back. The service cost $50.

As a summary of the year 2002, iPod having sold already 700,000 units thoughout the year.

In June of 2003, Apple shipped its millionth iPod, and by September of the same year, it had sold 1.4 million. Apple replaced MusicMatch on the PC with its own iTunes software thus allowing Windows PC users to use the iTunes Music Store and sync the songs with their iPod.

Apple was preparing to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Macintosh at the end of 2003, that’s the time their new player — the iPod mini get its debut. It was to be outfitted with a new 4 GB hard drive, in stark contrast to the hundreds of megabytes offered by flash based players of comparable prices.

On January 8, 2004, Apple and HP joined forces to co-market the iPod and iTunes Music Store. The new HP+iPod is based on the 4th generation iPod, and was released in September of 2004.

Ipod U2

In the year 2004, Apple also released a U2 special edition of their iPod, in all black with a red scroll wheel. The U2 version was bundled with a discount off a digital boxed set of music from the group. To celebrate the launch, the group did its very first advertisement. Apple did not have to pay U2 for their endorsements — U2 figured the iPod was enough recognition.

Ipod Shuffle
Later in the year 2004, Apple’s first flash-based MP3 player, Ipod Shuffle was released. Ipod Shuffle is the only flash player that can play encoded AAC files. Unlike other models, the shuffle does not have a FireWire port. Instead, it relies on USB 2.0.

[Source]




Alienware Released Star Wars PC

Wednesday 4 May 2005 @ 2:49 am

PC maker, Alienware Corporate, have released 2 Aurora PCs with Star Wars themes on it, named Light Side and Dark Side.

Aurora Star Wars

Amd64
Both Aurora Light Side and Dark Side models are built on AMD64 Technology, combine innovation, simplicity, and the foresight to deliver next-generation computing performance today. For hardcore gamers, here is a great news, it can be configured to have NVIDIA SLI Technology too. :) Nvidia SLI NVIDIA SLI takes advantage of the increased bandwidth of the PCI Express bus architecture, and leverages hardware and software features inherent to NVIDIA GPUs (graphics processing units) and NVIDIA nForce4 MCPs (media and communications processors).

Need security? Both Aurora PCs have NVIDIA® ActiveArmor™ as well. NVIDIA® ActiveArmor™ is a hardware-accelerated firewall that works seamlessly at all times to ensure your network connection is fully protected at all times – even during wicked-fast multiplayer gaming sessions and large file downloads or network transfers.

[Source]





Apple iPad & Maxis WiFi Modem Reviews «
Apple iPad & Maxis WiFi Modem Reviews
Nokia N8 Reviews «
Nokia N8 Reviews
Samsung Galaxy S Reviews «
Samsung Galaxy S Reviews
Nokia N900 Reviews «
Nokia N900 Reviews
Nokia N97 Reviews «
Nokia N97 Reviews




.................................

Live Stats

Recent Posts

Favorite Icon



My QR Code A List Blogger