Computer Hardware

Lenovo Celebrates 16 Years of ThinkPad

October 2, 2008

Lenovo is celebrating sixteen years of continuous ThinkPad innovation (most of them of course under the Big Blue of IBM) with -- what else? -- a sale.

Lot of fun to look at the "Legends of ThinkPad" to see some of the amazing feats this little gadget has been through.

You can take your choice of "melted," "sunk," "crunched," "trekked" and "stolen."

Actually some stuff you won't believe!

And of course there are many awards ...

Reminds me of all of TPs I've owned -- T20, A Series, etc. -- some still in fact ticking still!

See the Legends here.

Get the sale here.

Posted in Computer Hardware

Is Your City One of the Most Connected?

October 1, 2008

Among the top designated marketing areas (DMAs), San Francisco, Miami and Los Angeles are the most connected cities based on home networking adoption.

What does connected mean: A wired or wireless home network allows consumers to connect multiple PCs and printers, and to share Internet access among computers.

MultiMedia Intelligence's research identifies significant variations among major metropolitan areas. San Francisco has the highest household home networking adoption rate of 28% among the top DMAs. In contrast, the San Antonio, Chicago and Cleveland DMAs have among the lowest home networking adoption. This reflects, in part, the varying regional demographics.

Home networking adoption correlates directly with household income.

Posted in Computer Hardware, Computer Software, Wireless

Smelly MacBook Pros Not Good for You

October 1, 2008

Strong-smelling MacBook Pros have been discussed on Apple forums, but an anonymous French molecular biologist/researcher went to Greenpeace to check out why his smelled. Greenpeace got Analytica involved, and then Inéris, France's national institute covering the industrial environment.

Apparently benzene is a component of the smell, and this could be risky -- over time, sensitive people could develop leukemia.

Unconfirmed stories suggest the problem Mac Pros have been built in China, not at Apple's European factory.

Note, we're not talking about an ordinary "new equipment" aroma. The original poster at MacRumours said his new 3.0 Mac Pro Octo:
"Stinks to high heaven.

Posted in Apple, Computer Hardware

Asus Going 3.75G for Eee

September 25, 2008

Asus has announced that it will be adding 3.75G connectivity to its hugely popular series of Eee PC netbooks, enabling convenient and high-speed access to the Internet anytime, anywhere.

The inclusion of 3.75G is a perfect addition to the Eee PC's existing set of travel-friendly features such as its high portability, shockproof data storage and all-day battery life -- strengthening its reputation as the solution for computing on the go.

Frequent travelers will particularly welcome the timely addition of 3.75G support, which comes as service providers around the globe are ramping up their adoption of 3.75G High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA). This means that they will be assured of a reliable, high-speed mode of Internet access in many destinations around the world.

Read more about it at the Asus web site.

Posted in Computer Hardware

Netbooks Yes or Netbooks No?

September 25, 2008

A new report predicts that ultramobile devices will reach 200 million in unit sales by 2013 and will match the market for notebook PCs.

ABI Research said products such as netbooks and mobile Internet devices, or MIDs, will gross $27 billion by then, with MID units growing in popularity to surpass its rival.

All this from ZDNet.

On the other hand, in a wide-ranging interview, Dell CEO Michael Dell (in photo) voiced suspicion that small-screened netbooks will shake up the computer industry or become the primary computer in developed parts of the world.

"I think it's a second machine in developed countries and a first machine in newly developed countries," he said, according to a report in CNET.

So is it yes for netbooks or no for netbooks?

Time will tell ...

Posted in Computer Hardware

How About OS X on EEE?

September 17, 2008

Feel like stepping beyond the limits of Apple hardware?

Want a Mac netbook for under $650?

How about an EeePC running Mac OS X?

If you answered "Yes!" to any of these questions, then read on!

At least part of the appeal of the dimunitive EeePC netbook is its hackability -- from Linux to Vista, intrepid hackers have figured out how to run just about everything on the EeePC.

While many would question why you'd want to go to the trouble of installing OS X when there are many Windows and Linux distributions available out of the box?

Maybe you're looking for a challenge. Installing OS X on non-Apple hardware provides plenty of chances to flex those (very metaphorical) geek muscles.

More at Wired.

Posted in Apple, Computer Hardware, Computer Software

A Supercomputer for Everybody?

September 16, 2008

Microsoft and Cray are set to unveil the Cray CX1, a compact supercomputer running Windows HPC Server 2008.

The pair is expected to tout the new offering as "the most affordable supercomputer Cray has ever offered," with pricing starting at $25,000. (That is amazing!)

The CX1 combines compute, storage and visualization in a single integrated system that's designed for non-traditional environments like labs or offices. If space is a problem, not to worry, it's compact enough to fit in a broom closet. Perfect for home!

How can you get one?!

Posted in Computer Hardware

Time for a Netbook?

September 16, 2008

Small is cool, and smaller is even better!

No doubt inspired by the drive to create the $100 laptop, netbooks (teeny, tiny laptops) have been coming on strong.

The Aspire One (photo at left) and the Eee PC 1000 are popular options. This is a HOT segment right now.

And you're right that the little Atom chip from Intel is awesome.

At 2W max power consumption (compared to something like 35W for a Core 2 Duo laptop chip), with a big 6-cell battery, you can easily get five or six hours of battery life.

Read a lot more about this at The Dawn of Atom.

Posted in Computer Hardware

Make Mine a Mini: Mini-Laptops Driving PC Sales

September 12, 2008

Mini-laptop computers, typified by the popular ASUS Eee PC (in photo at left), have been derided by some analysts as little but low-cost toys. But they are changing the shape of the PC business throughout the world, bringing computing power to many who could never have afforded it.

As small laptop sales increase, their popularity is redefining the nature of the computing experience, taking it off the desk and making it an integral part of peoples' lives, wherever they are.

With the Internet playing an essential role, the devices are well-suited to an increasingly connected mobile population, in many cases supplementing rather than replacing one's computing power.

Notebook PCs in general are experiencing torrid growth, according to the latest quarterly PC sales statistics from IDC, a research firm.

Worldwide, portable computer sales for the second quarter were up 37 percent year over year.

Even the United States saw growth in notebook computer sales, although it was less dramatic: up 17.7 percent, while desktop machines and servers sales declined by 4 percent.

Still, IDC expects the portable computer market in the United States to double, from 30 million units sold in 2007 to 61.1 million in 2012.

All the news that's fit to read in the New York Times.

Posted in Computer Hardware

Microchip Celebrates 50th Today!

September 12, 2008

Notebooks, smart phones, Blu-ray players -- name a gadget, and it probably wouldn't exist today without the tiny little integrated circuit (IC).

Not only did the IC give rise to the modern consumer electronics industry, but it has also kept that industry moving at breakneck speed, allowing for cheaper, smaller and more-powerful chips to be produced year after year with dazzling consistency.

So, it's easy to forget that it's only been five decades since Texas Instruments' Jack Kilby demonstrated the first working IC, a discovery that earned him a Nobel Prize for Physics in 2000. (That's the little baby in the photo above.)

While that device started out as nothing more than a single transistor with a smattering of other components on a thin slice of germanium -- -- its silicon progeny now contain hundreds of transistors in a space the size of a single red blood cell.

So let's fill that cake with candles and blow them all out -- we have great reason to celebrate!

More at Wired.

Posted in Computer Hardware

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