Acer’s Aspire Revo nettop has just received a welcome shot in the arm, courtesy of a dual-core Atom 330 processor and an extra gig of RAM. The Aspire Revo R3610-U9012 kicks out its predecessor’s Atom 230 chip in favor of the quicker alternative, and pairs it with 2GB of RAM, Windows 7 and NVIDIA Ion graphics. That should hopefully make the system a little better at coping with non-1080p video tasks, something the first model had issues with.
Memorex obviously reckon there’s a gap in the market – seriously, where? – for yet another point-and-shoot camcorder, and so they’ve announced not one but two of the little devils. Looking somewhat curvier than what’s on offer from Flip, Creative and Kodak, the Memorex MyVideo (MCC221) and Memorex MyVideo HD (MCC225) each offer an integrated USB port, digital zoom and 2-inch LCD display, with the MyVideo capturing up to 2hrs of VGA quality footage to its 2GB of internal storage, while the MyVideo has 4GB for up to 1hr of presumably 720p video.
Each also grabs still shots – the MyVideo at VGA resolution, the MyVideo HD at a presumably interpolated 5-mexapixels – and has onboard software to make uploading to Flickr, YouTube and other sites straightforward. Memorex quote up to 5hrs of battery life for the low-res model and half that for the HD version.
ASUS’ Eee Box range arguably came of age when the company announced the 1501, their first NVIDIA Ion based model. Packing a DVD drive and various video output options, we’ve been waiting to see when it might show up in the wild; that question has been answered by the guys at Newgadgets.de, who grabbed some live shots of the Eee Box 1501 at a press conference in Munich.
We’re so used to seeing Intel’s Z-series Atom processor range show up in netbook-sized ultraportables that it almost comes as a surprise when a manufacturer puts one in a MID like Intel expected. uSmart have been demonstrating this 4.8-inch WVGA M1C MID at the Hong Kong Electronics fair, complete with an Intel Atom Z530 CPU, GMA500 graphics and an HDMI output.
HP have gone touch-crazy in the run-up to Windows 7’s release, pushing out several new touch-sensitive products including a 42-inch widescreen LCD. The HP TouchSmart tx2 updates the original convertible tx2, and has a 12.1-inch capacitive touchscreen which also accepts stylus input; meanwhile there are two new TouchSmart desktop ranges, in the shape of the consumer-oriented HP TouchSmart 300 and 600 – at 20- and 23-inches respectively – and the business-centric HP TouchSmart 9100, a 23-inch model targeted at the hospitality and retail markets.
Been waiting for some of that sweet NVIDIA 40nm GPU action, but aren’t keen on buying a new PC with an OEM card installed? You’ll be pleased to hear that the first retail versions of NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 220 and G210 video cards have emerged, initially courtesy of Gigabyte, and both carrying prices well under the $100 mark.
Fujitsu have outed two new notebooks, the AMILO Pi 3560 and 3660, with optional Blu-ray, HDMI connectivity and NVIDIA GeForce GT240M 1GB graphics. The AMILO Pi 3560 has a choice of 15.6 or 16-inch 16:9 LED-backlit displays, while the AMILO Pi 3660 has an 18.4-inch 16:9 display; both have standard WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth.
Opening up your brand new HDTV and soldering wires directly to its control board takes a certain type of devil-may-care attitude, but in doing so one new owner found he could bypass HDCP. HDCP is the often-frustrating copy-protection system that insists on a “digital handshake” between DVI/HDMI connected components; however, the InstaPort Fast HDMI Switching system in this “big brand” TV fails to re-encrypt with HDCP in-between the control board and the switcher.
ASUS have stepped up their nettop game with the arrival of the ASUS EeeBox EB1501. The first of the company’s range to include an integrated optical drive, the EB1501 also includes Intel’s Atom 330 dual-core CPU and NVIDIA’s 1080p-capable Ion graphics chipset, turning the neatly-balanced nettop into a pretty impressive media center PC.
ASUS’ diminutive O!Play HDP-R1 HD Media Player has finally gone on sale, with the 1080p-capable box priced at $99.99. Announced back in June, the O!Play offers playback of local, network or internet content, via various USB 2.0, eSATA or wired ethernet ports.
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