Jul 1, 2010

Finland celebrates as Internet access becomes a legal right

1Mbit of reasonably priced broadband, now that’s freedom

HOW TIMES HAVE changed, Finland has just entered a new era in history where reasonably priced broadband access with a minimum downstream speed of 1Mbit/s has become a legal right for its citizens and businesses. This is an issue that’s been discussed by many other European countries, but most of them came up with the view that internet access isn’t a right, it’s a privilege and then went on to implement various regulations based on that.
Read more ▶


Jun 30, 2010

Asus Eee PC 1215N gets official

Of sorts

IN THIS DAY in age it seems like companies are relying a little bit too much on social media to get their message out and Asus has announced its Eee PC 1215N on facebook, yet there’s no mention of it on Asus’ website. The latest addition to the Eee PC family features a dual core Atom D525 processor an Nvidia ION 2 graphics which makes this 12-inch “netbook” a rather interesting offering.
Read more ▶


Jun 29, 2010

Cisco announced Android tablet for business users

8h battery life, 1.5lb, Atom powered

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, but Cisco has announced a tablet of its own that’s powered by an unspecified 1.6GHz Atom processor, 32GB of flash memory and a claimed 8h battery life. Considering that Cisco has managed to squeeze this into a 1.5lb (520g) package is pretty impressive, but is this really the business tool we’ve all been waiting for that’ll make us more productive?
Read more ▶


Jun 29, 2010

MSI’s two new Fuzion boards nearly here

Intel P55 and AMD 870 with Lucid Hydra

MSI IS GETTING ready to unleash two new motherboards with Lucid’s Hydra chip, but unlike the Big Bang Fuzion, the two new models should turn out to be a bit more wallet friendly. First up we have the P55A Fuzion which is the Big Bang Fuzion’s little brother so to say, as this board is also based on the Intel P55 chipset. The second board, the 870A Fuzion is based on AMD 870 chipset and is MSI’s first AMD board to feature Lucid’s Hydra.
Read more ▶


Jun 28, 2010

Texas Instruments USB 3.0 host controller almost here

Other key parts ready today

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS HASN’T been in a hurry to bring its USB 3.0 products to market, but it now appears that the company is getting ready to start rolling out its first few products. Today TI announced the availability of a USB 3.0 physical layer transceiver called the TUSB1310 which is targeting a wide range of devices such as smartphones, portable media players, navigation devices and digital still and video cameras etc.
Read more ▶


Jun 28, 2010

Asus rumoured to outsource motherboard production again

ECS seems to be the likely partner

THERE’S NO DOUBT that Asus is getting ready to outsource more and more of its production now that the Pegatron spinoff has finally been set in stone. As of the end of last week, Asus and Pegatron are two entirely separate businesses trading on the Taiwanese stock market as separate businesses. As the two didn’t part as friends, it now looks like Asus is looking at outsourcing options for its motherboard and graphics card business and it seems like ECS is on the cards once again.
Read more ▶


Jun 25, 2010

iPhone 4 has reception problems

Whatever you do, don’t touch the side of the phone

LO AND BEHOLD, Apple’s new baby, the iPhone 4 isn’t more than a day or so old in terms of retail availability and there are already reports of problems with the signal. Despite Apple’s new “magic” antenna design, the web is full of complaints from people that are having reception problems with the iPhone 4. The solution to the problem is actually rather simple; don’t touch the lower left side of the phone.
Read more ▶


Jun 23, 2010

New SD card speed classification system arrives

For high-performance SDHC and SDXC cards

THE SD ASSOCIATION has announced new high-speed symbols for SDHC and SDXC cards which are once again meant to make our lives easier. The old Class 2, 4, 6 and 10 ratings will be kept for older memory cards that don’t meet the new UHS or Ultra High Speed SD card standard. The new UHS speed classifications as plenty of room to grow, especially as we’ve only hit the first generation of SDXC cards.
Read more ▶


Jun 22, 2010

Toshiba working on boosting SSD write speeds to 4.2Gbps

Using a boost converter

WITH THE INTRODUCTION of SATA 6Gbp, SSD drives got a much needed, faster interface, but it appears that we’ve hit another “wall” when it comes to performance of SSD drives, at least higher density drives. SSDs with more than 16 NAND Flash memory chips on them will have power issues in the near future which prevent them from reaching optimal write speeds. The good news is that Toshiba is already working to solve this problem with the help of a Japanese research group headed by Ken Takeuchi.
Read more ▶


Jun 22, 2010

Acer Aspire TimelineX finally launches stateside

Thin and powerful, yes, it’s possible

IT’S TAKEN ACER a good few months to get the Aspire TimelineX series of notebooks to the North American market, but for anyone wanting a thin and light, yet powerful notebook with decent battery life for an affordable price, then this is what you’ve been waiting for. Acer is offering models ranging from 11.6 to 15.6-inches with a selection of Core i processors and even discrete graphics in some models.
Read more ▶


Jun 22, 2010

CULV notebook pricing in free fall, getting replaced

Notebook manufacturers favours full fat CPUs

CULV NOTEBOOK PRICES started falling a while back and in Taiwan “high-end” models with SU7300 processors have been sold at what must be close to cost from less well known notebook manufacturers such as ViewSonic. Now the big brand names are following suit and we should see this price and stock dumping take effect in other markets as well within the near future.
Read more ▶


Jun 18, 2010

Marvell working on “free” hybrid SSD/HDD solution

Not exactly free, but…

THE NEXT BIG thing appears to be hybrid drives, although Seagate’s new Momentus XT failed to impress most reviewers, despite offering some clear advantages over a traditional hard drive. The downside here of course is that we’re talking about a 2.5-inch notebook drive, but what if you want a hybrid drive for your desktop PC? Well, Marvell might very well have the solution to this problem with its upcoming “free” HyperHDD solution.
Read more ▶