Nvidia Ion netbooks: first look

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

The first Ion-based netbooks are beginning to trickle in, so yesterday Nvidia took the opportunity to introduce the technology to us formally. And if there was any doubt as to the focus of the demo, it was quickly made clear by the presence of a gigantic 1080p Sharp Aquos TV with a tiny netbook attached.

The netbook in question was HP’s Mini 311, announced today, and it offers a very similar core spec to others we’ve already seen from the likes of Samsung. The usual 1.6GHz Atom N270 and 2GB of RAM are joined by an 11.6in 1,366 x 768 LED screen and that shiny new Nvidia Ion GPU, which also allows manufacturers to include an HDMI port for hooking up to an HD TV. The Mini 311 is pencilled in for a £349 launch price, which is actually a rather competitive price for its size and spec. (more…)

Hands on with Nvidia Tegra

Friday, June 19th, 2009

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.

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Full HD – not all it’s cracked up to be

Monday, March 30th, 2009

Being embroiled in a digital compact cameras group test at the moment, I’ve noticed an insidious little logo starting to appear on boxes and the little tags attached to new cameras. The logo says, “Full HD”. Nothing wrong with that of course, except it often refers to still-image resolution.

It’s not wrong but it’s certainly surprising, if you do the maths. (more…)

How to get the most from your video camera

Saturday, December 27th, 2008

So you’ve just unwrapped that sexy new HD camcorder the other half bought you for Christmas. You’ve annoyed everyone by recording them getting drunk and embarrassing themselves over the festive dinner. So what next?

You could go out and spend loads of money on a decent editing suite, but you don’t have to – there are plenty of ways of editing, playing back and sharing your video that you don’t have to spend any money on at all.

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First look: Toshiba Qosmio F50-10Z

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

While we have seen a trickle of Centrino 2 laptops arriving in the PC Pro Labs of late – the Sony VAIO FGN-FW11ZU and Advent 5511 are two of the more recent examples – the new Toshiba Qosmio F50-10Z has to be one of the most exciting, at least based on first impressions.

The keyboard, for instance, is surrounded by a chrome border which extends to the pair of unusually-shaped mouse buttons, and the panel of touch-sensitive controls above the keyboard glow white, rather than the more reserved blue we’ve seen from Dell’s XPS laptops.

Audio is provided by a pair of harmon/kardon speakers – similar to those in the Toshiba Satellite P300 – and volume is altered by a circular control just below the keyboard. Predictably, it’s chrome-covered and bordered with bright white light. There’s also a huge Qosmio logo that arches its way across the lid, as if you didn’t know that this extroverted notebook had been designed, from the ground up, to entertain.

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