AMD Vision makes labeling simple

Sean Kalinich | Computer Systems | Sep 10, 2009 9:20 AM CDT

So, everyone loves taking a stab at nVidia for its rebranding and why not, it is fun and very easy to do. Plus re-branding is pretty dishonest.

So I wonder what the reaction will be with AMD's new "Vision" labeling system. To me is seems like a re-hash of their older "AMD Game" labeling.

The labels are meant to take the place of the usual stickers that list out the actual CPU and GPU names. They come in three flavors (just like AMD Game) and are; AMD Vision, AMD Vision Premium, and AMD Vision Ultimate.

Continue reading: AMD Vision makes labeling simple (full post)

AMD outs new Ultra Thin and Light Platform

Sean Kalinich | Computer Systems | Sep 10, 2009 8:15 AM CDT

Well well well, AMD is getting back into the thin and light game. After a few years of claiming the netbook was a fad and not really anything that AMD was interested in we see that AMD is preparing to release their platform for Ultra-Thin notebooks.

As is now typical with AMD this is a market they talked about and even demoed last year. However they were late to the ball game as Intel managed to get their CULVs into most thin and lights first.

So why would you be interested in AMD's version? Well there are a few reasons. The first is not as big of a deal as it sounds; this is 1080P playback for video. Now I love my HD TV and Projector, I even love the Blu Ray player on my notebook, but I my notebook is a 20-inch book so I can actually see the impact from 1080p Blu-Ray.

Continue reading: AMD outs new Ultra Thin and Light Platform (full post)

AMD's new marketing strategy

Sean Kalinich | Business, Financial & Legal | Sep 9, 2009 11:32 AM CDT

Hmmm, methinks AMD might have a new marketing strategy. So think on this...AMD cannot compete one on one with Intel. If you put them up clock for clock there is very little chance that an AMD CPU will beat the correspondingly clocked Intel CPU.

So if you are AMD what do you do? Well you start by pricing your products lower than the other guy and say that Dollar for Dollar you have the better product. Now that marketing strategy is great, but really will only last so long. So what else can you do?

To put it simply to take CPUs with Cores and Cache that do not meet full QC. This is not to day they are bad, just that they do not meet full QC. You market these as less expensive products so as to mitigate the normal loss you would have with these "failed" parts.

Continue reading: AMD's new marketing strategy (full post)

Apple event today!

Sean Kalinich | BREAKING STORY | Sep 9, 2009 10:24 AM CDT

Ah Apple has a Carnival...Um I mean event planned for today. The net will be awash with the gushing of the technical press. What I wonder is, is the launch of another iPod really that big of a deal that it needs its own event?

Probably not but then again this IS Apple. From what I can put together there is going to be very little that is ground-breaking. We will see a new iPod touch and iPod Nano. They will have larger capacities; the Touch will have a 3 MP camera, and a few new features.

Apple should announce its new complete music service called Cocktail. This is supposed to give people the same feel as a CD or Album (if you are older than 30). Again not much to crow about but hey, this is Apple.

Continue reading: Apple event today! (full post)

Dinar2 motherboard pictures popup

Sean Kalinich | Motherboards | Sep 8, 2009 12:01 PM CDT

Last week we told showed you a couple of CPUz results for AMD's Magny-Cours K10 CPU. These had some interesting information but in reality did not tell us anything more than what we already knew (although there are rumors of thermal issues at full speed and 100% load).

Today we have a picture of the board that was used for the testing. This is a dual socket board that showed up as Dinar2 (Dinar is a form of currency used in the Middle East).

The picture does not show us much other than the name and the edges of the CPU sockets and RAM slots.

Continue reading: Dinar2 motherboard pictures popup (full post)

First look at the ASUS Sabertooth 55i motherboard (video)

Cameron Wilmot | Motherboards | Sep 8, 2009 8:30 AM CDT

During the Intel Lynnfield and P55 Express chipset launch press conference earlier today in Taipei city, we managed to spot what we believe is an unseen motherboard from ASUS.

The ASUS Sabertooth 55i motherboard is obviously based on Intel's recently launched P55 Express chipset for the Socket LGA-1156 Core i5 and Core i7 processors and includes dual channel DDR3-1333 memory support.

What is interesting about this board is that it is part of the Ultimate Force brand from ASUS, which we have heard little about in the past. Sadly we couldn't find any ASUS reps during the event, so we are a little unclear on details, but you can get a good look at the upcoming motherboard in the video below.

Continue reading: First look at the ASUS Sabertooth 55i motherboard (video) (full post)

New Eee Reader could have dual color screens

Sean Kalinich | Mobile Devices | Sep 8, 2009 8:16 AM CDT

Today is pretty much all about Intel's Lynnfeild. You will be inundated with reviews and articles about this new (and impressive) CPU. However as this is my first day back from a long 3-day camping trip, I wanted to start things off with some other news.

In the world of small portable electronic devices there is nothing quite as trendy as the netbook. At least that was the "In" thing until the e-book reader hit the market.

Now just like the netbook, everyone has one. Including it would seem Asus. The interesting thing about the Asus offering is that it just might ship with dual color LCD screens. If this is the case it will offer something that no other e-book reader currently has. This is the ability to allow someone to actually read an e-book like a real book.

Continue reading: New Eee Reader could have dual color screens (full post)

Loopt for iPhone to track you all the time

Sean Kalinich | Mobile Devices | Sep 4, 2009 9:21 PM CDT

So remember how Apple would not let Google have Latitude because they said people might get is confused with the existing map application (already from Google). Well...it seems that the confusion thing might not have been the full reason that app was rejected.

A new app called Loopt actually performs a similar function and is possibly much more intrusive. It is capable of updating your location all the time. This means even if you have the application shut down it is still logging your every move.

The concept is one straight out of Minority Report. In that movie ads and services were custom tailored to you based on where you had been and what you bought previously. Well Loopt wants to do that too. They want to create a life track so that they can force ads on you based on where you have been. of course this is not a free service you actually have to pay $4 per month to be tracked all the time. This is probably why Google's Latitude did not make it. Google wanted it to be free, so Apple and AT&T were not getting anything for the extra bandwidth usage.

Continue reading: Loopt for iPhone to track you all the time (full post)

Another CPUz of Magny-Cours

Sean Kalinich | CPUs, Chipsets & SoCs | Sep 4, 2009 9:09 PM CDT

Ok so right after I posted the screenshot of the early K10 CPUz dump I received an e-mail from a reader saying this is not the first one. Apparently the person that posted that one has done so before.

The CPU in question is a very early engineering sample of the new Magny-Cours CPU. This will indeed features a handy 12 CPU cores on the die but will run at a much more respectable speed than the 800MHz we saw in the other shot.

Still this early in the game it is hard to tell anything other than very basic information. This one shows the CPU running at 3.2GHz and having a 45nm process (as we stated earlier today).

Continue reading: Another CPUz of Magny-Cours (full post)

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