Archive for June, 2008
June 30, 2008
Filed under: Laptops
The non-stop barrage of Eee-branded gear from ASUS continues on today, with the first appearance of the Eee PC 903, 904 (above), and 905. It’s not clear exactly what the differences between the three models are, but as we’ve heard, they’re all basically the Eee PC 901’s Atom-based guts shoved into the Eee PC 1000’s case — which means you’re getting a larger keyboard, but the 8.9-inch display will have a pretty significant bezel around it. As before, final specs and pricing aren’t available, but since these are destined to replace the 900 and 901, we’d expect pricing to remain in the $600 range.
[Thanks, Sascha]
Read - Eee 903
Read - Eee 904 and 905
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June 30, 2008
There is a rumor on the NGOHQ forum saying that someone has been able to modify (”mod”) a set of ATI drivers to run NVIDIA’s GPU-accelerated PhysX code on older (pre-4800) ATI cards. At the moment, there is no proof that the claim is true, as the author of the forum post did no release the modified material for others to try. That seems pretty fish to me, as it seems to be a long shot to “port” (rewrite) PhysX over ATI without rewriting the CUDA driver and also parts of the ATI graphics driver that would access CUDA data. All that without the most recent top-secret ATI driver source code. Of course, “in theory” everything is possible, but “in theory” all the traffic from Google could also be diverted to this blog by accident… (and that would make us very happy)
PS: if the guy could actually do it, I’d like to order a DX10 driver for Windows XP, that would be far more useful…
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June 30, 2008
FonStruct is a free online font building tool. You create the font, and the service then turns it into a ‘high-quality TrueType font’ ready for Mac or Windows. You’re also encouraged to share the results of your brilliant genius via an online gallery which features tags, voting and intelligent categorisation.
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Filed under: Gaming
Well, what do you know? That Guitar Hero axe that was spotted a few months back on How I Met Your Mother was actually a sneak peek of the six string that comes bundled with the new Activision title. The unwavering rockers over at FW Labs were able to secure a copy of the game in Chile before most everyone else on the planet, and rather than enjoying their fortune without telling a soul, they decided to snap a host of photos and even upload a few videos of the experience. The new toys in the attic are right there in the read link.
[Thanks, David]
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June 29, 2008
Filed under: Laptops
Okay, so maybe Cizmo’s CX1730M is based heavily on Clevo’s M570TU, but it’s still one beast of a machine. This 17-inch monster packs a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, a 160GB SATA hard drive, WSXGA+ panel, a 2-megapixel webcam, dual-layer DVD burner (or optional Blu-ray drive), NVIDIA’s 512MB GeForce 8800M GTX and a plethora of ports. Amazingly, this one tips the scales at “just” 8.7-pounds, which actually isn’t half bad for a unit this potent. Additionally, it looks as if you can order this puppy in a variety of hues — including the above pictured camouflage — right now starting at €1,427 ($2,249).
[Via NotebookItalia]
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Filed under: Desktops
As if overnight, Eran Badit of NGOHQ.com has PhysX running on the AMD Radeon 3870. Badit said that the hack was “easy,” and NGOHQ.com will distribute the utility after a bit more testing. As for performance, he hit a 22,606 CPU score in 3D mark Vantage, which is nothing to sneeze at. He swears that AMD isn’t involved in any of this, and that the utility release will be entirely independent.
[Via TGDaily]
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June 28, 2008
Filed under: Transportation
While Audi is over there planning to produce an electric car within the next decade, Mercedes-Benz is hoping to be completely petro free within seven years. At least that’s the word according to a recent report in The Sun. Dr. Herbert Kohler, who is responsible for Mercedes’ advanced engineering, has reportedly suggested that “by 2015 motorists will have switched almost completely to alternative fuel cars.” In order to make sure it’s not left out, the automaker already has an electric car in the works for 2010 as well as plans to use its DiesOtto engine which will give motorists the ability to use biofuels should they choose. Still, aiming to phase petroleum completely out of its lineup by 2015 sounds overly ambitious from here, but we certainly won’t complain if it achieves said goal.
[Via AutoblogGreen, thanks Dan]
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June 28, 2008
Filed under: Transportation
Compared to the other single-seat electric vehicle that we had the misfortune of laying eyes on recently, Topia’s HUVO looks just magnificent. This clearly minuscule road warrior, which officially tips the scales at 150-kilograms (or just over 330-pounds), holds one lucky motorist and a small briefcase (if you’re lucky). Reportedly, the frame is constructed from high-tensile steel plate, the doors and the back panel from aluminum alloy, the roof from carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), the windshield from polycarbonate and the interior / wheels covers from ABS resin. Your guess is as good as ours when it comes to crash test ratings, but we suppose we should wait and see if this thing even sniffs the commercial market before worrying over that.
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June 28, 2008
Filed under: Transportation
Progressive insurance has been testing out the MyRate driving monitoring system for a few years now (it used to be called TripSense), but it’s finally taking the system national, bringing pay-as-you-drive insurance into the mainstream. The little blue box plugs into your car’s ODB II diagnostic port (all cars made after 1996 have one), and studiously records your driving habits, wirelessly sending the data back to Progressive HQ (it’s not clear exactly how). Every six months, Progressive will crunch the numbers and issue a new rate for you based on how you drive — savings of up to 40 percent are possible. That’s pretty tempting, depending on your current rates and driving habits, but we’re not so sure we’re willing to share that much data for an unspecified discount — especially since we’re confident the MyRate box will get cracked almost immediately.
[Thanks, Mike; image courtesy of Aaron Landry]
Read - MyRate press release
Read - MyRate video
Read - How MyRate works
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June 28, 2008
Filed under: Handhelds
Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader has been doing pretty well as a consumer device, but we’ve always thought it had amazing potential as a textbook reader — especially coupled iTunes-style with Amazon’s online distribution system. Apparently Princeton University (Jeff Bezos’s alma mater) agrees with us, because it’s just announced plans to publish Kindle version of its textbooks this fall, joining Yale, Oxford, and Berkeley in supporting the device. It’s not clear how many books are due to be published on the device or how content like photographs and full-color diagrams will be handled (what’s a bio book without red mitochondria? They’re the “powerhouse” of the cell!), but we’re certain students will gladly make the tradeoff to reduce their backpack loads just a little bit.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
