The end of the week is here again and here we go with a rundown of some of the coolest stories we have seen this week. Monday marked the day the Asus Eee PC 1101HA went on sale in America. The rig is a netbook in name only; the beastie is expensive at about $430. The same day Gigabyte quietly unveiled the T1028X convertible touchscreen netbook. The device has a screen resolution of 1366 x 768 and other than the screen, the rest of the machine is typical netbook fare.
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It looks as though NVIDIA and Apple may have kissed and made up after GPU issues soured their business relationship. According to Digitimes' sources, the Cupertino company will use NVIDIA's upcoming MCP89 and MCP99 chipsets for Intel-based notebooks when they launch in Q1 2010. The MCP89 is known to be the successor to the well-received GeForce 9400M (aka the NVIDIA Ion).
MSI have announced five new notebooks in its C-Series, the 16-inch WXGA CX600, CR600-013 and CR600-017, and the 17.3-inch WXGA++ CX700 and CR700. Each packs a Pentium Dual Core processor – the T4200 2.0GHz, aside from the CR600-017 which gets the slightly faster T4300 2.1GHz – together with 4GB of RAM and a 320GB hard-drive.
Microsoft have officially announced the Zune HD for pre-orders, with the OLED touchscreen PMP set to land in pockets on September 15th. Given the numerous leaks over the past few days, it comes as no great surprise to hear that the Zune HD is priced at $219.99 for the 16GB model and $289.99 for the 32GB model. Your money gets you a 3.3-inch 16:9 480 x 272 display, NVIDIA Tegra chipset and – via an optional dock – 720p output for your HDTV.
Sony have admitted that certain models of VAIO notebook may be affected by the notorious NVIDIA “bump” material issue, which can see the GPU overheat and eventually break completely. The nine model types on Sony’s list join the existing roll-call of faulty notebooks, which includes machines from Apple, HP and Dell. In response, Sony are offering free repairs for affected VAIOs, and to extend the standard warranty (on the GPU alone) from the regular 12 months to four years in total.
Fresh Samsung ultraportable tidbits for you today, with the news that not only will the company’s N510 NVIDIA Ion netbook be shipping in the US come September, but that it will be the first of three models to use the GeForce 9400M GPU. According to documentation acquired by Netbook Choice, the N510 will be joined by the Samsung NP-N511 and NP-N508.
Sony Ericsson are tipped to be working on a smartbook, a non-Intel ultraportable device that would bundle high-speed wireless connectivity, lengthy battery life and a compact keyboard and display. The news comes via NetbookNews, who have been talking to a “reliable Taiwanese source” connected to both existing smartbook developers and to upcoming manufacturers.
It may not be quite as striking as Mobinnova’s elan, but that doesn’t mean Inventec’s Rainbow smartbook doesn’t have the same NVIDIA magic going on inside. CNET Taiwan caught up with the 10.1 inch, 1024 x 576 ultraportable, which uses NVIDIA’s 600MHz mobile chipset for lengthy battery life as well as copious wireless networking.
HP have announced two new graphics enhancements for their Z-series of workstations, including an optional Elemental Accelerator for use with NVIDIA’s Quadro that will see Adobe CS4 gain access to the CUDA processing. There’s also the option for up to two NVIDIA Tesla GPUs in HP’s flagship workstation, the Z800.
BFG Technologies have announced their latest liquid-cooling system, this time for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 and GeForce GTX 295, promising maintenance-free performance cooling. The two cards come pre-fitted with BFG’s ThermoIntelligence advanced cooling systems, with the company claiming running temperatures of up to 30-degrees centigrade cooler than standard air-cooled models.
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