Nvidia’s Tegra was first introduced in June 2008, touted as a “computer on a chip” that would saunter into numerous types of device - most notably MIDs – and beat Intel’s Atom at its own game. It’s been all quiet on the Tegra front since, but we’ve finally had the chance to go hands on with Nvidia’s exciting new technology.
The ARM11 core (which is also used in the Zune, several Nokia phones and the HTC Dream) is the main processor but, for tasks that have specialist demands, several other chips are included: a GPU handles gaming and 3D tasks, an audio unit is optimised for mp3 and radio playback, a 2D graphics chip can handle a camera.
Separate chips tackle video encoding and decoding, with Nvidia promising the ability to encode and decode 720p video simultaneously. The board also houses flash and system memory, which are the larger chips towards the bottom of the PCB.
Lenovo’s Ideapad S12 is one of the first netbooks we’ve seen to use Nvidia’s Ion platform, which can allegedly “turn a netbook into a notebook” thanks to its combination of Intel Atom CPU and Nvidia GeForce 9400M GPU.
That ambitious claim comes courtesy of Matt Wuebbling, a senior manager in Nvidia’s notebook division, who’ll understandably talk up the chances of his own product in the face of endless scepticism. However, having been hands-on with Lenovo’s latest offering and seeing the Ion in action, we’ve seen plenty of evidence to support his claims.
A briefing this week from Dell, which has started down the path pioneered by IBM, in retreating further away from hardware sales and tentatively towards various methods of consulting for businesses.
The company wanted you to hear about its pre-virtualisation check, done entirely remotely. It wanted to pass on the news about its new smaller business servers - T400 and T710 - which are decently configured for VMware and Hyper-V, and made a point of mentioning its next-generation remote management card, which will update drivers and patches for you as they are announced.
I’m writing this at some speed, just after the end of its embargo period, though to be perfectly honest I couldn’t see any Big Secrets being let out of the bag. When I asked the questions that PC Pro is getting a bit of a reputation for, about how Dell’s remote access services would be legally defined to protect the client’s data and help to disclose exactly where the team of consultants furtling round your servers, are based… then I got a few simple, honest ‘don’t knows’.
I caught a glimpse of the Dell Adamo concept design at a pre-Christmas briefing last year, where Dell was so nervous about security they banned our phones (little realising that my faithful HTC Touch’s camera is barely worthy of the name).
So it was with some pleasure that I could finally get my hands on a production model at Dell’s Versailles-based event today. And I have to say, it’s a very impressive piece of kit. (more…)
Almost a year ago I blogged about a tiny PC, the Space Cube, which had landed in the PC Pro Labs and got quite a bit of attention – but, while that machine was undeniably impressive, its usefulness was limited to those who happened to own space shuttles and were familiar with its obscure version of Red Hat.
The latest miniscule computer to turn up, though, is far more practical for those who don’t engage in interstellar travel. The Anders Fit-PC2 may only be 27mm tall and weigh just 370g, but it’s a fully-fledged nettop with an Intel Atom processor lurking inside its tiny frame.
While Packard Bell is making plenty of fuss about its AMD-powered netbooks, the firm’s new line-up of full-size laptops has plenty of potential, too.
The most exciting of the new models is the EasyNote TR series, which takes a leaf out of Apple and Sony’s books by concentrating on design just as much as hardware. And it’s not just any old in-house designers who are putting together these latest laptops, either – Packard Bell has enlisted the help of Italian design house Pininfarina to make sure that the TR can match up to the best in the business.
At a lavish event last night at London’s Sketch Bar, Sony Ericsson unveiled four new phones, all with the focus squarely on entertainment, gaming and multimedia.
While they may have unusual names – only one of the four new products has the traditionally impenetrable code – Sony Ericsson see this is a positive move, replacing the older names with more memorable phrases.
We’ve been hands-on with the quartet of new phones to find out if they’re up to the job – or if they’re all mouth and no trousers.
Netbooks have fallen into a steady routine since their 2007 debut: get a small chassis, cram it with an Intel Atom processor and integrated graphics, and watch them fly off the shelves. However, Packard Bell’s latest attempt to crack the lucrative netbook market, the 11.6in “dot m”, is a little different.
A glance at the exterior suggests that little about the classic netbook formula has changed: the 11.6in screen has a native resolution of 1,366 x 768, the trackpad is small but has a decent pair of buttons and supports multitouch functions, and the keyboard is reasonably spacious but also felt quite spongy. Three USB ports, an Ethernet socket and D-SUB output aren’t exactly groundbreaking, either.
Peek under the hood, though, and Packard Bell’s latest looks far more interesting than the average Atom-based products that have flooded the netbook market.
Samsung’s monitor range has been hugely successful over the last couple of years, combining excellent image quality with living room design, and after seeing the 2009 additions today I can safely say that winning formula looks set to continue.
The majority of the displays on show were impressive refreshes, such as the polished and angular ‘Lavender’ line and the ‘Ecofit’ low-power models - all of which we’ll be reviewing over the coming months. But in amongst them a few interesting additions caught my eye.
The first was the so-called ‘lapfit’ display (LD220 and LD190N), which is essentially a widescreen monitor without the traditional stand. Instead it rests on an arm in the same way as a picture frame.
Sony has taken the wrapping off its most obvious iPod Touch competitor yet - the OLED-equipped X-series Walkman.
We’ve been hands-on with Sony’s latest addition to the Walkman family at the London launch and, while it’ll have to go some way to beat the all-conquering iPod Touch and iPhone duopoly, we’ve come away impressed.
Nvidia’s Tegra was first introduced in June 2008, touted as a “computer on a chip” that would saunter into numerous types of device - most notably MIDs – and beat Intel’s Atom at its own game. It’s been all quiet on the Tegra front since, but we’ve finally had the chance to go hands on with Nvidia’s exciting new technology.
