Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category
Alienware X51 mini-PC launched
January 19th, 2012 | 
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Dell has announced a new machine in the Alienware range.
The X51 is a mini-PC designed to fit under the television, and it’s around the same size as an Xbox, taking care of HD gaming and movie duties.
The compact box, which is around 12 inches square and just under 4 inches thick, comes loaded up with an Intel Sandy Bridge processor, GeForce GT or GTX graphics card, wireless-N for net access, HDMI 1.4 to hook up to the TV, along with USB 3.0 ports.
Much like the Xbox, it can be stood up vertically or laid down horizontally, and indeed the base black and green colour scheme of the pictured model gives it a very Microsoft console vibe.
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World’s largest OEM notebook maker sues AMD over hot chips
Chipmaker AMD is facing a lawsuit from the largest OEM notebook manufacturer Quanta, with the notebook maker alleging that AMD sold chips that were too hot and unreliable.
It seems that the suit relates to AMD chips that featured in notebooks that Quanta built for NEC some time in 2006. The part in question is an integrated graphics chip marketed as the ATI RS600ME.
Quanta fired a legal broadside at AMD, accusing the company of civil fraud, breach of warranty and a host of other civil claims in addition to the central claim that the company sold faulty chips to Quanta.
Kindle Fire sales have cannibalised iPad
BlackBerry PlayBook in US price plummet
RIM’s frenzied attempts to offload bags of its unpopular PlayBook tablets continues, with prices on all models in the US slashed to $299.
Lucky Americans can now buy a 16GB, 32GB or 64GB version of the fondleslab from the US BlackBerry shop website at the reduced price (obviously there’s no point opting for less memory when you can get one with the most memory for the same price – until stock starts running out, of course).
The Commodore 64 is 30
Commodore took the wraps off the Commodore 64, one of two immediate follow-ups to its popular Vic-20 home computer, 30 years ago this week.
The 64 made its public debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), though it wouldn’t go into production until later in the year before going on sale in the US market in August. It didn’t make it across the Atlantic until late Autumn.
iPad still selling strongly
And there’s good news for Apple, with the iPad continuing to sell strongly and retain its market dominance.
Lenovo’s new Cedar Trail not-a-netbook
Chinese laptop giant Lenovo has begun marketing a new netbook based on Intel’s brand new Cedar Trail Atom but New Technik noted that a YouTube video called the Ideapad S110 a ‘mini notebook’ rather than a netbook.
There had been some earlier speculation from the notebook supply chain gossips that Intel would move to kill off the Atom brand, given that it was associated with the netbook category which, some argued, was a brand tarnished by low performance expectations.
