Gadget Reviews

Lenovo can’t be feeling too much warmth toward the FCC right now. After Intel and Wistron combined to remove any mystery from its next IdeaPad, here comes the latter with yet another filing revealing yet more tasty morsels of knowledge. Wistron’s latest submission is for a “Notebook Computer with Wacom Digitizer,” which immediately points us toward the high-end ThinkPad W series,with the W700 being the only Lenovo laptop to sport such an appendage so far. Reassuringly, the new model name appears to be W701 and we’ve spotted a 2GHz Intel CPU, 320GB Fujitsu HDD, and a Samsung-made 17-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) display in amongst the test specs. If your appetite hasn’t been titillated already, the only contemporary mobile CPU from Intel that we know to run at a default speed of 2GHz is the quad-core Core i7-920XM, which comes with 8MB of L3 cache, 3.2GHz single-core max speed, 55W TDP, and a truly stratospheric price. We might have a Holiday Gift Guide candidate for 2010 already.

Filed under: Laptops

Lenovo ThinkPad W701 hints at Core i7 Extreme in FCC reveal originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that Pine Trail fast-tracking we were talking about? Yeah, it’s for real. Intel’s latest submission to the FCC reveals details of a new member of Lenovo’s IdeaPad netbook range, and is the first confirmed sighting of the Pineview processor every netbook diehard has been waiting for. The documentation suggests an S10-3 moniker for the new 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 machine, which is likely to pair up that Atom N450 with 2GB of RAM and 250GB of storage. Click past the break to see the sticker with all the specs on it, and do make your voices heard in the comments below regarding that buttonless touchpad — a Synaptics ClickPad, perchance?

[Via SlashGear]

Continue reading Lenovo IdeaPad shown to possess Pineview CPU by FCC photo shoot

Filed under: Laptops

Lenovo IdeaPad shown to possess Pineview CPU by FCC photo shoot originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel sure sells a lot of chips, but man — it sure blows a lot of that profit on lawyers. Just months after it got nailed with a $1.45 billion fine from the EU in an AMD antitrust case, nearly two years after AMD hit Intel with another antitrust probe and nearly 1.5 years after the FTC sparked up an investigation of its own, Intel has finally decided to pony up in order to rid itself of one of those back-riding monkeys. In an admittedly brief joint announcement released simultaneously by both firms today, Intel has agreed to cough up a whopping $1.25 billion in order to settle “all antitrust and IP disputes” with AMD. In fact, the pair went so far as to say the following:

“While the relationship between the two companies has been difficult in the past, this agreement ends the legal disputes and enables the companies to focus all of our efforts on product innovation and development.”

Aside from AMD’s coffers filling up with cash, the agreement also gives both firms patent rights from a new 5-year cross license agreement. Of course, we’re betting that this isn’t the end of this exceptionally bitter rivalry, and we highly doubt Intel wrote a check this large while grinning from ear-to-ear. That said, we’re eager to see what AMD does with its newfound cheddar, and if we had our druthers, we’d sit back and watch it invest heavily into beating Intel to the punch with its next few platforms.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Intel shells out $1.25 billion to settle all AMD litigation originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who’s up for some more Intel roadmap rumoring? The latest scuttlebutt from “notebook players” over in the far East is that the chip giant has finally settled on names, speeds, and prices for its first three Arrandale CPUs, which are expected to arrive in the first half of 2010. The Core i5-520UM and Core i7-620UM both run at 1.06GHz, while the top Core i7-640UM model speeds ahead at 1.2GHz, with bulk-buying prices of $241, $278, and $305 per unit of each processor. Even if the processing speeds might not impress on paper, these 32nm chips splice two processing cores, the memory controller, and graphics engine all into the same package and thereby deliver major power savings. Platform pricing is expected to remain at around $500 for netbooks, while the ultrathins these chips are intended for should hit the $600 to $800 range… if Lord Intel wills it so.

Filed under: Laptops

Intel Arrandale chips detailed, priced and dated? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s hoping you held off on purchasing that Core 2 Duo G51 just a few months ago, ’cause ASUS has just pushed out the exact same laptop with a Core i7 within and a price tag that’s $200 skimpier. The G51J-A1 was launched alongside Windows 7, and the crew over at Hot Hardware managed to toss it on the test bench to find out what kind of gains could be expected when going from Intel’s last-gen CPU to the newly-announced Core i7-720QM. The long and short of it is this: the new CPU enabled this machine to smoke the C2D sibling in every test, with graphical performance being nothing short of astounding. ‘Course, the omission of a Blu-ray drive was somewhat of a bummer, but for just $1,499, it’s not like we really expected one to be included. Hit the read link for the full skinny, but only if you’ve got some disposable income that you don’t mind parting with.

Filed under: Laptops

ASUS’ $1,500 Core i7-equipped G51J gaming laptop gets reviewed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While we’re busying ourselves with arguing about how to replace the perfectly usable book gadget, Intel is right to point out that plenty of people, for whatever reason, can’t read at all. Presenting its Reader as a necessity rather than luxury, Intel has shown off its vision for how visually impaired and dyslexic people can obtain access to the written word. Combining a text-scanning camera with a text-to-speech engine (powered by an Atom inside) is certainly no bad idea, but as the video beyond the break will show you, Intel’s execution isn’t exactly stellar. The arrhythmic, robotic reading from Alice In Wonderland left us shaken, but what floored us was the $1,499 asking price. Yes, it’s a customized niche device, but we reckon we could build something similar for a third of the price. Full PR and video after the break.

Continue reading Intel Reader reads books to the lazy and infirm (video)

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Handhelds

Intel Reader reads books to the lazy and infirm (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NVIDIA’s feud with Intel may be at an all-time high these days, but it looks like the company isn’t about to go as far as to produce its own Intel-compatible x86 chip, despite persistent rumors to the contrary. That word comes straight from NVIDIA’s always talkative CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, who flatly said “no” when asked if there was any truth to the rumors. He further went on to add NVIDIA’s focus is on visual and parallel computing, and on “getting our GPUs into the lowest power platforms we can imagine and driving mobile computing with it” — as it’s now attempting to do with Tegra. In a separate discussion after a talk in Dubai, Huang also interestingly revealed that the computers in his household are “all Apple,” but he naturally didn’t just leave it there — head on past the break for the complete, must-read quote (as reported by Shufflegazine).

Read – CNET News, “Nvidia CEO says ‘no’ to Intel-compatible chip”
Read – Shufflegazine, “NVIDIA CEO, visiting Dubai, says “I’m all Apple”

Continue reading NVIDIA CEO shoots down talk of Intel-compatible x86 chip, says his home is ‘all Apple’

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

NVIDIA CEO shoots down talk of Intel-compatible x86 chip, says his home is ‘all Apple’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Say it with us now: “freaking finally!” The world at large seems perfectly fine with using Atom N270 and N280 CPUs for the rest of eternity (judging by the latest netbook sales figures, anyway), but techies like us are sick and tired of dabbling with the same underpowered chips and the same lackluster capabilities. At long last, we’re hearing that Intel will supposedly officially announce the Pine Trail platform in late December, with a raft of netbooks based around the new Pineview chips hitting the CES show floor in January. The 1.66GHz Atom N450, dual-core 1.66GHz Atom D510 and Atom D410 are expected to be all the rage at the show, with the existing N270 and N280 making an expedited trip to the grave. Good riddance, we say.

[Via Register Hardware]

Filed under: Laptops

Intel purportedly fast-tracking Pine Trail platform, forgetting all about N270 / N280 at CES originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

NVIDIA takes its feud with Intel to cartoonish new levels originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What was once an unverifiable rumor from an anonymous source has now, sadly, become a confirmed fact. Intel won’t be integrating USB 3.0 support into its chipsets until at least 2011. Motherboard makers such as ASUS can still opt to add discrete 3.0 controllers at an extra cost, but Intel — already accused of dragging its heels on the standard’s development — won’t be. NVIDIA spokesman Brian Burke has expressed, in no uncertain terms, his company’s disappointment with Intel, while also claiming that chipsets by NVIDIA are more feature-rich and just plain better than Intel’s own efforts. We’ll add this to our ever-growing collection of things NVIDIA doesn’t like about Intel, but we also hope that the immature outburst doesn’t obscure the real issue. NVIDIA is correct in noting that Intel needs competition in the chipset space, and the new interconnect’s dependence on Intel’s whims demonstrates the market-altering powers that reside in Santa Clara, CA. Unless another chipmaker gets serious about competing with Intel, we could face plenty more of these seemingly arbitrary delays in tech rollouts.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

NVIDIA confirms Intel chipsets won’t support USB 3.0 until 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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