Archive for May 16th, 2008
If you needed evidence of the popularity of cheap ultraportables in foreign lands, the news leading up to the release of the MSI Wind should be a good indicator. Last month it was a Turkish video of the thing, now it’s a detailed Chilean writeup of a pre-release model. We’re relying on Google Translate to parse out the details here, but from what we can understand the article indicates the keyboard to be “sufficiently comfortable,” the LED-backlit screen impressive, and the performance in XP to be quite good. This despite a glitch that left the Intel Atom processor gimped short of its 1600MHz maximum speed, which will surely (hopefully) rectified before the 10-inch model finds release here next month at $549 with XP and a 6-cell battery, or SuSE flavored (and smaller batteried) for just $399.
We’ve heard plenty of promises of external graphics solutions for laptops in the past, and it looks like Fujitsu Siemens is now about to join the party as well, with it reportedly set to debut its AMILO GraphicBooster in the “next couple of weeks.” That word apparently comes from a leaked presentation from the company which, unfortunately, doesn’t include all the details we’d like, but does at least reveal a few tantalizing bits of information. As Notebook Review reports, the device is based on ATI XGP technology, which supposedly provides a 4.7X boost in graphics performance over a standard Fujitsu AMILO laptop (it’s not clear if they’re talking about integrated graphics or not), or a score of about 8,000 in 3DMark06 benchmarks. What’s more, the device will also apparently let you connect up to three external displays to your laptop, with both DVI-D and HDMI ports provided. Of course, there’s no word on pricing or availability, which could lead one to suspect that this is yet another device we’ll still be hearing about a year from now — if you’re the cynical type, that is.
[Thanks, Master_P]
From what we can tell, this is just marketing hoopla to get you to buy a drive “certified” for use in a particular application; in all actuality, users can connect any USB 2.0 external hard drive to their DISH Network HD DVR and expand their storage capacity for a one-time fee. Nevertheless, Western Digital has just let loose its 500GB My DVR Expander, which “more than doubles” your available recording hours by storing up to 300 hours of SD content and 60 hours of high-def goodness. As predicted, the drives work with the satcaster’s ViP family of HD DVRs, and WD is apparently looking to expand the brand to other carriers as soon as they get with the program and enable USB storage. Those willing to fall for this ploy can procure the half-terabyte drive for $149.99, but considering that the port activation fee is still charged, we can’t imagine looking elsewhere first.
[Via FarEastGizmos]
Yeah, let’s get this out of the way first, the SGH-i900 does share a design aesthetic with another handset we hear about all the time. That aside, the SGH-i900 seems set to bring everything we could ever hope — or need, to be honest — for in a Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro package. Measuring a scant 112 × 56 × 13, the i900 is finished in shiny metal, only features two buttons on the face, and what appears to be a fingerprint reader or perhaps a touch-sensitive pad. Loaded with HSDPA, a 3.5-inch 400 X 240 display, 5 megapixel cam with auto focus, 16GB of onboard memory, microSDHC support up to 8GB, TV-out, FM radio, Bluetooth, WiFi — see what we’re saying here? This thing could almost be a mini media center — it’ll definitely please our pockets. It also seems like two versions will be in the offing, the i900 branded as Samsung and the i908 branded as Anycall — but sadly we’re at a loss on how they differ. We’ll definitely be keeping our eyes wide open watching for updates here, but in the meantime, follow the link for pages of pretty pictures and poorly translated Chinese.
[Via UnwiredView]
See how easy it is everyone? All that’s required to snag a BlackBerry Bold well before its public release is to become a Grammy award-winning artist, sell out shows worldwide, date a smattering of superstars and convince Fender to create and sell your own branded guitar. While you’re off working on step one, John Mayer is living it up with his brand new