Desktops -- Engadget

Toaster Computer is fine for email, useless for Pop Tarts

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Sep 15th 2008 at 3:36PM

After discovering the Scan Toaster a few days ago (and who can forget the Nintoaster?) we had really high hopes for Gordon Johnson's Toaster Computer Project. Unfortunately, though it sounds exotic (like some sort of WiFi, dual-core, programmable toaster oven), the Toaster Computer turns out to be little more than a PC housed in the classic Black & Decker Toast-It-All 4-Slice Toaster enclosure. There are a plethora of photos -- and a YouTube video -- to take you through the process (complete with a stomach churning trance techno version of "The Final Countdown" on the soundtrack). According to Johnson, the next step will be to replace the machine's "regular cooling method" (also known as a "fan") with a thermoelectric cooling process he calls the "Passive Laxative Copper Cooler Concept." We look forward to seeing how that turns out. Video after the break.

[Via Hack A Day]

Continue reading Toaster Computer is fine for email, useless for Pop Tarts

Windows 7 coming June 3rd, 2009?

by Donald Melanson posted Sep 15th 2008 at 12:37PM

As you may recall, Bill Gates himself mentioned a little ways back that Windows 7 could possibly be arriving as soon as next year, which prompted some quick backtracking on Microsoft's part, but that earlier-than-expected date has now cropped up yet again, this time supposedly in Microsoft's internal calendar. According to InternetNews.com, that calendar pegs the planned release date as June 3rd, 2009, which is a good deal sooner than the "early 2010" date we've been hearing all along, and quite a significant cut into Vista's planned three-year lifespan. What's more, the site also says that Microsoft will take advantage of its Professional Developer's Conference on October 27th to launch the first public beta of Windows 7, although that doesn't quite match up with earlier word that it'd only be revealing some "in-depth technical information" about the OS.

[Via The Earth Times]

Abaco announces the production of Europe's 'first' Atom dual-core desktop

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Sep 15th 2008 at 12:06PM

Italian Engadget readers, take note: Abaco Computers of Milan just announced the production of Europe's 'first' Intel Atom dual-core PC. Measuring up to a mere 27 x 20 x 10 cm (just under 11 x 8 x 4 inches) in the classic and classy "box" configuration, what appears to be a Betamax VCR at first glance is actually a reasonably stacked PC. The machine boasts a 1.6 GHz Atom CPU and up to 2GB RAM; oddly, the site says it sports a "generous" six USB ports, while the pictures clearly show only four and a single firewire jack (which they failed to mention altogether). The Abaco comes loaded with Ubuntu 8.04. Available in Desktop, Thin Client and Solid State flavors, according to your needs. Price varies by configuration, and needless to say, this isn't available Stateside.

Update: According to an email from Abaco, we weren't seeing things when we noted a firewire port in those pictures on the site: they were promo shots from a different unit, albeit one with the same case.

Voodoo can't just come clean, has to tease yet another new product

by Darren Murph posted Sep 14th 2008 at 1:52PM

Most everyone digs a surprise, but the novelty tends to wear off after the third or fourth iteration of the same trick, wouldn't you say? Rather than just coming right out and showing us the wares, Voodoo's Rahul Sood is playing the tease card again with an obviously undisclosed new product. In an apparent attempt to keep the wave (started by the Omen and Envy 133, by the way) rolling, Mr. Sood has dropped a sliver of a hint on The Next Bench. He states that "there's also this other thing [Voodoo is] working on right now," but he very purposefully fails to elaborate. Just keep it sexy and overpowered and we won't kvetch about the build up... too much.

[Thanks, William]

Lenovo stops selling Linux-based PCs via the web

by Darren Murph posted Sep 13th 2008 at 8:24PM

While Dell seems to be madly and passionately in love with Linux, rival Lenovo is breaking things off... or at least refusing to take things any further via IM. Reportedly, the computer maker has decided it best to stop offering Linux-based machines via its online sales portal, though open-source fanatics can still snap up Linux-infused rigs through Lenovo's own or partner direct sales teams. Ray Gorman, a spokesman for the company, noted that its "commitment to Linux has not changed," and he continued on to say that "what has changed is that customers will no longer be able to order Lenovo ThinkPads and ThinkCentres with pre-installed Linux via the lenovo.com website." Truthfully, there's no bitterness with Linux here -- online sales figures simply didn't justify keeping 'em on there. And you know, money talks.

[Via The Inquirer]

Integrated circuit turns 50, now isn't that nifty?

by Darren Murph posted Sep 13th 2008 at 10:17AM

Hard to believe that Jack Kilby's unsightly concoction (pictured above) turned 50 yesterday, but it's true. Half a century ago, Mr. Kilby crafted the integrated circuit, which ended up having a monumental impact on taking computers from warehouse-sized to, well, not-warehouse-sized. As the story goes, the very first microchip was demonstrated on the 12th of September in 1958, and it passed its first test: "producing a sine wave on an oscilloscope screen." Safe to say we all know how things progressed from there. Here's to you, IC -- and here's to 50 more.

[Via MAKE]

HP said to be considering making its own OS to counter Vista

by Donald Melanson posted Sep 12th 2008 at 2:17PM

HP unsurprisingly isn't ready to touch this one in any sort of official way just yet, but BusinessWeek is reporting that at least some folks at the company are "exploring the possibility of building a mass-market operating system," which would be positioned as an alternative to Vista. That OS, as you might have guessed, would be based on Linux, although BusinessWeek's sources say it "would be simpler and easier for mainstream users." By all indications, however, this so-called "skunk works team" within HP doesn't seem to have moved much beyond the brainstorming stage, and HP is sticking strictly to its official line that it is more interested in "innovating on top of Vista," with HP chief technology officer Phil McKinney even going so far as to say that the idea that it's funding a huge R&D team to go off and create an operating system "makes no sense."

[Via Electronista]

AMD taking on Atom with Ultra-Value Client line

by Tim Stevens posted Sep 12th 2008 at 12:55PM

Another week, another AMD leak about taking it directly to Intel's minimalist Atom. No, not with Bobcat, but with the new Athlon Ultra-Value Client (UVC) series. AMD is targeting the 230 with its 2650e, a single-core 1.6 GHz chip, and the 330 with its 3250e dual-core 1.5 GHz processor. Both have 512KB of cache per-core, matching the competition, but are rated at 15- and 22-watts respectively, much higher than the Atom's miserly 4-watts. It's unclear if that rating is current for just the CPU or the matching 740 chipset as well, but given the fact that AMD's Athlon 64 2000+ is already quite frugal we wouldn't be surprised if it were for the package. There's no mention of price, and right now these chips are just for desktop OEMs, but laptop versions are said to be in the works and could be quite popular amongst the netbook crowd -- if they're cheap enough. 1.2GHz of Turon can do wonders, and we're hoping for even better from 1.6.

[Thanks, Luiz H]

Seinfeld and Gates get in touch with regular folks

by Joshua Topolsky posted Sep 11th 2008 at 11:46PM

The second installment of the Bill Gates / Jerry Seinfeld saga has been released, and we'll level with you: if they keep making them this good, we don't really care what they're about. See for yourself after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Seinfeld and Gates get in touch with regular folks

OS X-installing EFIX device gets unboxed

by Donald Melanson posted Sep 11th 2008 at 5:37PM

While some may have rightly questioned whether the OS X-installing EFIX device would ever actually see the light of day, it looks like the Apple irritant is very much real, and now in the hands of at least at two adventuresome InsanelyMac forum members, one of whom thankfully took time to snap a few unboxing pictures. The other member, "np_," went one step further and tested the device with an Asus motherboard and found that it worked "perfectly," despite the fact that EFIX only officially supports Gigabyte boards. Hit up the link below for a few more pics and impressions.

[Thanks, Rich]

AMD slashes prices on triple-core Phenom X3 processors

by Donald Melanson posted Sep 10th 2008 at 2:57PM

AMD may have some new dual-core Phenom processors around the corner, but it looks like those wanting to build an AMD rig on the cheap don't have to wait until then, as the company has just slashed the price on its triple-core Phenom X3 processors, a move that follows some similar price cuts just a few weeks ago. As of now, you can get an X3 8450 for $104 (down from $125 in July), an X3 8650 for $119 (down from $145), an X3 8750 for $129 (down from $175), or even an X3 8750 Black Edition with overclocking support for just $134. As TG Daily points out, that pits the processors up against the low-end of Intel's Core 2 Duo offerings, which certainly makes 'em an attractive option for those looking to get the most bang for the buck.

ATI Radeon HD 4670 and 4650 released, tested

by Nilay Patel posted Sep 10th 2008 at 1:04PM

ATI just announced its new mainstream graphics cards, the Radeon HD 4670 and 4650. At the heart of both cards is a 55nm 320-core TeraScale GPU, which is a modified version of the RV770 chip found in the Radeon HD 4800 series -- it's a lower spec chip, but it has essentially the exact same feature set. The $80 HD 4670 has 512MB of GDDR3 RAM, while the $60 HD 4650 uses 512MB of GDDR2 memory; both are relatively power-sipping with 60 watt and 50 watt draws respectively under full load. Should be out soon -- HotHardware just tested an HD 4670 and found it to be quite a performer, check it all out at the read links.

Read - ATI Radeon HD 4600 series PR
Read - HotHardware test

Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex is raring to go, 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope already in the works

by Paul Miller posted Sep 10th 2008 at 9:15AM

We can't say enough about the joys of a 6 month product release cycle. We put Ubuntu through its paces on personal computers with every refresh, and while it never seems to do everything we need it to, it's so tantalizingly close that we just can't help trying it out 6 months later. This October we're getting 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" to play with, which is supposed to bring performance gains and a much-improved Network Manager for working with 3G connections and such -- it's currently in Alpha 5 state. Meanwhile, Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope," due for April of next year, is already being sketched up, and will make boot / resume times and the integration of web apps priorities for the OS. Both are bound to suck up valuable hours of our lives, installing and then uninstalling, and will be worth every minute of it.

EA's Crysis Warhead PC can, uh, play Crysis

by Nilay Patel posted Sep 9th 2008 at 8:32PM

Looks like EA's about to cash in on all that "can it run Crysis" chatter -- Crysis Warhead will be accompanied by the launch of a $699 Ultra-built gaming tower that should manage a consistent 30fps. Crytek has been testing on the so-called "Warhead PC" since early on the dev process, tweaking the engine to make sure the game ran well on the 2.66GHz E7300 Core 2 Duo, 512MB GeForce 9800GT and 2GB of RAM-- the rule was "if it sucks on this, the whole thing sucks" -- and it apparently cranks out consistently solid framerates at high quality settings. No word on an exact release date, but for $699 it's not a bad deal -- and hey, it plays Crysis.

[Via CNET]

Read - Article on Warhead PC's development
Read - Tiger Direct info page

Apple launches iTunes 8, NBC comes back, TV shows at $1.99, Genius in the house

by Joshua Fruhlinger posted Sep 9th 2008 at 12:05PM

Just in time for couch season, Apple has busted out iTunes 8 with a slew of new features, like the Genius sidebar. Also, NBC is back on board with its lineup of TV shows. According to Jobs, "The Office is coming back, Monk, Battlestar Galactica, 30 Rock... and they're coming back in HD." HD versions of shows will run you $2.99 while SD versions run a reasonable $1.99 (when compared to, say, a full month's cable access). Meanwhile, "Genius" is a new feature that Apple says will change the way you browse your media. "Old browsing wasn't efficient," said Jobs. "in iTunes 8 you can look by album cover, and this new bar at the top let's you look at anything graphically in little tiles." Basically, Genius is a contextual iTunes store recommendation tool that will, in essence, make it easier for you to spend money. It also makes custom playlists on the fly based on your habits, and shares them (anonymously, they promise) with other users. So what's missing so far? None of the rumored subscription services, for one, and any mention of new hardware or iPhone functions, like, say disk mode. We'll keep wishing. Apple says it is making iTunes 8 available immediately (which, to them, may mean "some time later"), so let the download races begin!

Update: We've got a gallery of iTunes 8 -- check it out below.