Power in your Pocket

How about this for green energy? A pocket-sized device developed by a US company called M2E (Motion 2 Energy) promises to generated enough electricity to charge cellphones, media players and such, just by rattling around in your pocket or handbag. The gizmo is full of coils and magnets that convert movement into electricity, which is stored in a rechargeable battery, ready to be let loose when you need it. Apparently it generates between three and seven times as much power as rival ‘kinetic’ energy systems. The company has also developed ‘D’ cell type batteries that self charge as they are moved around, a bit like those torches that light up when you shake them. Read More »

Microsoft Blue Track Says Goodbye to Laser

Although Microsoft is not breathing a single word in relation to an event it has cooking for September 9, 2008, under the slogan “Say Goodbye to Laser,” leaks from its partners are managing to paint a more complete picture. As it has been speculated, the new technology, which will be unveiled in the second week of the coming month, has been incorporated in a mouse. The Microsoft Blue Track mouse, featured in the adjacent images, reportedly sports a LED in combination with wide angle lenses, instead of a laser diode. In this context, despite the attempt to build anticipation with consumers, the Blue Track mouse is by no means reinventing the wheel. Read More »

Free Games at Windows Live

Windows-Live

To compete with Apple’s successful iPhone and iPod App Store, Microsoft announced today that Windows Live will have free games for its PC users. What used to be only available to Xbox users is now available across the entire Windows platform.

Microsoft’s press release states “the launch of Games for Windows  LIVE marks a major expansion of the Xbox LIVE service across multiple platforms, uniting gamers with a single identity, a single gamertag, a single friends list and a single list of achievements attainable on the Xbox 360 and a Windows-based PC.” Read More »

Top Ten Notebooks You Couldn’t Do Without

Mobile computing has conquered both the high-end and the mainstream markets and analysts claim that the number of sold notebooks will outpace desktop systems by 2010. Mobile gaming is still a niche market, dominated by bulky notebooks with significant price tags, but most of the general-purpose laptops deliver optimal performance at a reasonable price tag.

The first entry in the mainstream notebook line-up is the Acer Aspire 5920 model, that comes rigged with an Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 chip running at 1.6 GHz. The system also packs 2 GB of DDR2 memory and runs Windows Vista Home Premium. The 15.4-inch LCD display sports anti-glare technology that boosts the video output and offers a comfortable computer experience. The system sells for about $910 via the company’s retail outlets. Read More »

Vista Price Changes on the Way?

Microsoft raised a few eyebrows late last week with an announcement that it is planning significant price cuts for some versions of the Vista operating system. So far we only have details of the US changes, which apply to the upgrade versions of Ultimate (down from $299 to $219) and Home Premium (drops from $159 down to $129), but according to a CNET News report the company also has plans to reduce prices in other ‘developed’ markets which presumably means Europe and Japan. There will also be changes too for emerging markets, where the distinction between full and upgrade versions will be eliminated. Read More »

Dell to Shovel New Low-Cost Mobile Computers

System builder Dell plans on introducing some more low-cost offerings on the Asian market during this year. The announcement was made by a company executive during yesterday’s meeting.

“We’ve been pretty much a leader in the mid- and high-end price bands. We haven’t played as strongly in the lower price bands,” said Steve Felice, president of Dell Asia-Pacific. The new policy will bring some new models of low-cost notebooks for both average users and small businesses on the Asian markets.

The company has previously hinted at a low-cost notebook PC to compete with Asustek’s Eee PC, but Felice refused to elaborate on this issue and only said that Dell is currently working on a new notebook offering that will hit the retailers’ shelves with various price tags. Read More »

Intel to Release 3.33GHz Dual Core, Axes Pentium D

Intel is ready to go beyond its chips’ current limit of 3.2 GHz with its new Core 2 Duo E8600 processor. The new CPU will be based on a 45-nanometer dual core Wolfdale architecture and seems to work at 3.33 GHz (the stock core clock speed).

The Wolfdale processor will come with 6MB of L2 cache and will feature a thermal design power of 65 watts, which is quite impressive, given its 3.33GHz core frequency. Moreover, its low thermal envelope will allow enthusiasts to overclock it without problems in order to squeeze some 300-500 MHz using air-based cooling solutions.

The Core 2 Duo E8600 will give Intel some maneuver space, as AMD is gearing up for launching its dual- and tri-cores during the second quarter of the year. The B4 silicon revision is promising excellent AMD overclockers.

However, Intel is still keeping its 45-nanometer CPU stash hidden from the eyes of its customers. Although the company has been shipping its 45-nanometer Core 2 Extreme 9650 for some time, there will be little 45-nanometer-based parts to emerge during this quarter. Read More »

Apple’s iPhone Top Gadget for 2007

Steve Jobs will be popping the cork tonight as he celebrates the fact that Time Magazine voted the Apple iPhone as the top gadget in their Top 10 list. Read More »

Nvidia’s New 780i Chipset Previewed

The next generation of Intel compatible mainboard chipsets made by Nvidia will be launched as part of the 700i line of products and the top of the line 780i offering hides a few surprises under its hood. While there are many rumors flying around forums and hardware related Web sites that concern the new 780i Nvidia mainboard chipset, it looks like it is not an entirely new design, but more of an improvement over the current line.

According to the hardware news site fudzilla, Nvidia once again takes on revamping an older product, in this case the 680i motherboard chipset, by adding one more PCI Express controller as well as a number of smaller additional improvements over the old design. Read More »