It has been rumored for past few months that Apple is looking to improve performance of the MacBook lineup by using more powerful chipset along with Intel’s new Core 2 Duo processors. Many news websites and blogs have been reporting that Apple will use upcoming NVIDIA MCP7A-U chipset, which will give MacBook more graphical performance and decrease power requirements. NVIDIA plans to release the new chipset around mid-October, which adds fire to the speculation that Apple will announce the redesigned MacBook on 14th October.
 TUAW is also reporting that their sources are saying new MacBooks are right around the corner, and that they might use NVIDIA’s chipset. A source has informed TUAW that NVIDIA is showing off new MacBooks to their employees and word is getting around that the new MacBook will be released on 14th October. It is not a normal practice and Apple wouldn’t normally allow its partners to show unannounced products to their employees. In fact, TUAW itself points out that these are just rumors.
But, more and more evidence is piling-up and it’s more likely than not that Apple will launch the new MacBook on 14th October. It is also very likely that Apple will pair a NVIDIA chipset with Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor. As it is always with Apple, we will only know for sure when Apple announces the product. But we would advise our readers to not buy an Apple computer for next 10 to 14 days, as we are very sure that Apple will announce new product in that time range.

Andy Rubin, head of Google Android said that Google would differentiate Android Market from Apple’s App Store by not imposing many of the restrictions Apple does. He added that developers using Android would be able to allow consumers to try their applications for free before they buy them. According to Rubin, this is one of the biggest complain from developers about the App Store.
Another example, Andy gave about how the Android Market will be different, is that it won’t place limits on how much bandwidth a given application may use up. App Store doesn’t allow applications more than 10MB in size to download over cellular network, you need to use WiFi or computer for that.  Now the problem with this is that developers who have free apps bigger than 15MB will have to pay T-Mobile $2 monthly fee. Rubin believes that because of the less restrictive nature of the Android Market Apple developers might migrate over and Android could become bigger hotbed of innovation than even the App Store.
[Via Business Week]

Asus officially announced the new high-end fashion-friendly Eee PC S101. To make S101 fashionable Asus went Microsoft’s way (brown Zune) by designing brown casing, which is never a good idea. Anyway, the high-end features on the netbook include 10.2-inch LED backlit LCD screen, up to 64GB of flash memory, multitouch trackpad, Bluetooth and WiFi b/g/n support.
The processing power for the machine comes from 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, which is supported by Intel 945GSE chipset and 1GB RAM. The choice of operating system depends on size of solid state drive (SSD) and price. The 16GB SSD version comes with Windows XP and includes additional 16GB SD card for $699, whereas the 32GB and 64GB SSD versions use Linux operating system, and are priced $699 and $799 respectively. 
The other features on the netbook are 4-in-1 card reader, three USB ports, VGA out and 0.3-megapixel webcam. The netbook will come with a 6-cell battery that will give it 5 hours battery life. And, don’t be sad, it will come in two other colors except brown, champagne and graphite. 

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer said in an Interview that the company is planning to port aspects of Zune interface to Windows Mobile devices. Ballmer didn’t talk about the rumored Zune phone, but said that some parts of the Zune interface will be ported to the Windows Mobile software to give it better media capabilities.
Steve Ballmer stated “ What you’ll see more and more over time is that the Zune software will also be ported to and be more important not just with the hardware but on the PC, on Windows Mobile devices.”  He didn’t say when it will happen or whether we will see use of Zune interface in Microsoft upcoming Windows Mobile 7, which will be released in 2009.
Microsoft has said previously that updates in Windows Mobile 7 will be more focused on touchscreen friendly user interface and easy of use, but will it include Zune media interface has never been revealed. Now, it is evident from Ballmer’s comments that we might see the use of Zune media interface in Windows Mobile 7 after all.

Sony today announced a new electronic Reader PRS-700 that will feature an e-ink display with touchscreen capabilities. The touchscreen will allow users to make swiping gestures with finger to turn pages, use stylus to select text, run search and take notes using the on screen touch keyboard. Sony claims that they are the first to use both touchscreen and LED reading light in a reader.
The battery life of the device will be same 7,500 pages per charge as the pervious device. And, there is no change in format support, it includes, PDF, Word, BBeB and EPUB files. Sony has increased the onboard storage and now the device can store 350 typical books without the need of adding more storage via Memory Stick or SD card. For now, Sony will be marketing the new PRS-700 as the high-end Reader and not a replacement for the pervious generation model; the older model will also be on sale for $300. Sony will ship the PRS-700 in November for $400.

Acer has brought out US version of G24 LCD display that has highest contrast ratio to date, 50,000:1. The G24 supports 1920 x 1200 resolution and has 2ms pixel response time suited for gaming. The brightness on the display is 400cd/m2 and it has CrytalBrite anti-reflective LCD screen and eColor management. The ports on G24 include USB, HDMI with HDCP, DVI and VGA. It is available now in US for $400.
Acer also announced limited edition Ferrari branded F-22Bid LCD display. Acer will make only 500 units of F-22Bid. Its specifications are 22-inch screen, 1680 x 1050 resolution, 20,000:1 contrast ratio, 300cd/m2 brightness and 2ms response time. The ports on the display include USB, DVI, HDMI and VGA. There is no word on price and shipping date yet.
[Via Macnn]

Dell continued their week’s agenda by adding two more LCD monitors to its lineup. The 20-inch E2009W and the 22-inch E2209W are aimed at business users. Hence, they drop rounded look found on recent displays announced by Dell for a more serious squared design. Both the displays will have 1680 x 1050 resolution, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 300cd/m2 brightness, 5ms response time, DVI with HDCP support and VGA port. The displays are shipping now, priced $249 for E2009W and $279 for E2209W.

AppleInsider has got their hand on a new patent filed by Apple that explores ways to use cursor to provide additional information and usability options to the user. The patent says that it’s often useful for a user to be given an indication as to content of a target file or link, before the user clicks on the user-activatable element that will open the target. The methods used today do not generally provide any technique for providing detailed information about a target within a cursor in a manner that is responsive and dynamically controllable by the user.
Apple proposes methods for changing the appearance of the cursor to provide excerpt of the contents of the target, what applications are available to open the target, as well as meta-data or other description of the content. Similarly, a mouse over can present the user with an icon representing the type of document associated with the link. According to AppleInsider, the most useful applications are mouse-over events that cause the cursor to produce visual representations of options available for working with a file or link.
Even though, the patent talks only about the cursor and related function, these applications can be very useful in touchscreen environment also. Just image hovering you figure over content or link gives you various options for using the content differently. You can get more information about the patent on AppleInsider’s website.

Nokia today unveiled their first touchscreen handset at a press event in London. The handset that was codenamed “Tube” will officially be known as 5800 XpressMusic and it is based on Symbian S60 5th Edition. The S60 5th edition is the latest version of Nokia’s Symbian operating system that adds touch input to the OS. The 5800 will be available in three versions, quad-band GSM with 850/1900 WCDMA for North America, quad-band GSM with 900/2100 for Europe and other 3G regions and quad-band GSM without 3G for India and China.
The 3.2-inch touchscreen will have 640 x 360 resolution and tactile feedback. The touchscreen will support both finger and stylus inputs. Nokia has added a new media bar interface that can be accessed by touch-sensitive button above the display. The other features on the phone will include 3.2-megapixel camera, dual LED flash, Bluetooth, 81MB onboard memory, 8GB microSD card in box, 2.5mm headset jack, GPS, accelerometer and proximity sensor. The phone will measure 4.4” x 2” x 0.6” and weigh 3.8 ounces. The battery life on the phone will be 9 hours GSM talk time, 5 hours 3G talk time and 17 days standby time.
The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will ship to Europe and Asia in Q4 2008 for Euro 279 ($390). The North American version will ship in Q1 of 2009. In Q1 2009 Nokia will also launch music version of the 5800 that will include one-year music subscription with the phone.

Just three days after Samsung announced the M8800 Pixon touchscreen phone with 8-megapixel camera. LG follows Samsung with its own full touchscreen 8-megapixel camera phone LG KC910 or LG Renoir.
The main feature of Renoir is its 8-megapixel camera that comes with Schneider-Kreuznach optics, Xenon flash, auto/manual focus, sensitivity up to ISO 1600, geo-tagging and software to edit and share pictures online. The phone has a Touch Shot feature that allows you to focus on any object by touching it on screen and when you remove your finger the shot is automatically taken. This will reduce camera shake and eliminates the need to search for the shutter release button.
On the multimedia side that phone includes Dolby Mobile, an integrated suite of audio processing technologies from Dolby that provides deeper and richer music experience. The phone supports both DivX and Xvid encoded video, along with MPEG 4, H.264 and H.263 video. The camera on the phone can record high quality video at 120 frames per second, slow motion video or to compress longer events using five frames per second time-lapse recording.
Specification-wise the KC910 comes with quad-band GSM/EDGE, UMTS, 3-inch touchscreen, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, microSDHC slot and TV-out. Renoir is just 0.54-inch (13.95mm) thick. The phone will be released in Europe in October, it will come to Asia, Latin America and CIS in November, the Middle East and Africa in December and China in January of 2009. No plans for launch in US.

Last week, it was rumored that Nokia will have press event to Launch the Tube aka 5800 on October 2nd. Well Nokia has sent out invitation for the event saying “Join us to hear big news that looks set to mash up the world of mobile music.”  Nokia will be doing live streaming of the event on its website starting at 16:30 GMT (11:30 EST, 8:30 PST). Click on the link below to watch the live stream.
Nokia “Tube” Event Live Streaming

Reuters is reporting that Nokia’s President and CEO, Olli Pekka Kallasvuo gave credit to the new competitors like the iPhone, but said that Nokia is prepared to take on the challengers. He said that emerging rivals from the computer world have helped to accelerate interest in broadband Internet on mobile phones.
He single out the positive impact that Apple has made on the industry with its iPhone by saying that Apple has done a big favor to the mobile phone industry. “We have a new, credible competitor in this business. You know I need to take my hat off,” Kallasvuo said about the iPhone. “Of course we need to be able to respond to any competitor and we will.”
Kallasvuo said, “Europe propel the global rise of mobile communications in the 1990s but Silicon Valley created and continues to dominate the Internet. As the Internet moves onto phones, the US is poised once again to lead that convergence.”

Nintendo today unveiled DSi an update to its DS handheld gaming system. Nintendo has transformed the once gaming only system into multimedia device by adding media player, 512MB onboard memory and SD card slot to expand memory for media storage. Nintendo has also added two cameras to the system, a 3-megapixel camera on the outside and a 0.3-megapixel camera on the inside hinge. The outside camera can be used to take photos and the camera inside can be used for gaming and other apps.
The DSi has a touchscreen layout almost similar to DS, except the screens are slightly larger at 3.25-inch. The device is 12mm thinner than DS because Nintendo has omitted the GBA cartridge slot. The basic software has also been update and it now comes with a web browser that can use WiFi connection present on the device. Nintendo is launching “DSi Shop” that will sell content directly over WiFi and in Japan the company has partnered up with McDonalds for free WiFi. The DSi shop will use same Nintendo Points system for buying stuff. The DSi will come with 1000 free points and the content will be priced in 200 / 500 / 800 point brackets.
The system will ship in Japan on November 1st and it will be available in matte black and white color for Yen 18,900 that’s around $179. According to Engadget rest of us will get the DSi early next year. Below is a video demo of the new DSi, it awesome, go-ahead and watch it.

Information that LG will launch budget touchscreen handset KP500 was leaked yesterday. Very little was known about the specifications and pricing for the new handset. And, just a day later we have complete specs and price point for the new handset. The features on the handset include quad-band GSM/EDGE, 3-inch touchscreen 240 x 400, 3-megapixel camera, FM radio with RDS, accelerometer, 46MB onboard memory, microSD slot and Bluetooth. The phone will measure 4.2” x 2.18” x 0.46” and it will weigh 3.13 ounces. LG will price the phone for $350 without subsidy and around $100 with contract subsidy.

Sony today launched the new AW series laptop that comes with an 18.4-inch screen and is designed as a desktop replacement product. Sony says that the laptop uses the same backlighting technique as its BRAVIA LCD televisions and will offer full HD 1080p resolution. The laptop is geared towards home entertainment as it features Blu-ray drive, 2.1 channel speaker, Dolby surround sound and HDMI video out.
The processing power comes from 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo T9600 processor and 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics card. Sony claims that the laptop is world’s first to use 128GB SSD and 500GB hard drive as RAID array to increase performance. The AW-series is shipping now in UK for £999 that around $1,750 for base configuration.
[Via Pocket Lint]

Lacie has added three new 700 series displays, the 20-inch model 720, the 24-inch model 724 and the 30-inch model 730. All three displays use RGB LED backlighting that provides 123 percent color gamut of Adobe RGB space. They also have 14-bit Gamma correction to produce improved gradients and color transitions that are more precise than 8-bit monitors. The displays feature ColorKeeper stabilization technology that analyzes the brightness and chromaticity of the backlight to constantly adjust color. The 700 series displays come with Blue eye pro Proof Edition software that assist users to calibrate, profile, verify accuracy and sustain uniformity.
The 20-inch model has 4:3 aspect ratio, where as the 24-inch and 30-inch have 16:10 aspect ratio. The 730 model has 2560 x 1600 resolution and 1000:1 contrast ratio, the 724 has 1920 x 1200 resolution and 1000:1 contrast ratio, and the 720 has 1600 x 1200 resolution and 600:1 contrast ratio. The 720, 724 and 730 displays are available now for $2,000, $3,000 and $5,800 respectively.
[Via Macnn]

HP today entered the 13.3-inch consumer notebook segment with dv3500t. It is HP’s first consumer notebook to feature 13.3-inch LCD screen. The notebook comes in a unique bronze pattern that extends up to the keyboard. Two feature that HP has added to the notebook, which are uncommon in this price range are dedicated 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS graphics card and a option of selecting LED backlit display for $100 more. The other unique feature on the dv3500t is combo external SATA port that can double as an extra USB port.
HP is trying to establish the notebook as a portable entertainment PC by giving it HDMI 1.3 output and a mini remote. Specification-wise the laptop comes with minimum 2GHz Core 2 Duo processor you can go up to 2.53GHz, 160GB hard drive minimum (up to 400GB), DVD burner, 2GB RAM (Up to 8GB), WiFi, and optional Bluetooth. The laptop will weigh 4.12 pounds with a 6-cell battery. You can get more information on HP’s website.

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple is preparing to unleash first pre-release copies of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard since an inaugural build was issued to attendees during WWDC in June. Apple is planning to distribute the build to select few developers only. In fact, the group will be so exclusive that even members of Apple Developer Connection won’t see the new build. Though not much information is available about the new build, it is believed that the software has undergone a number of enhancements since its earlier appearance. Apple had announced at the WWDC that they plan to release the new Mac OS X 10.6 in first half of 2009 and it seems that they are on track to do that.

Laptop Mag tested the only fully functional XOHM (WiMAX) network in US. Sprint has launched citywide XOHM network in Baltimore and Laptop Mag’s Todd Haselton went for a test drive. Laptop Mag compared the WiMAX network speed to Verizon’s EV-DO network. The installation and setup of the XOHM card was similar to most mobile broadband ExpressCards. They tested various popular websites and the XOHM just plain blew away Verizon EV-DO.
The second test was watching video on Hulu, on EV-DO it took 13 seconds before video started and it buffered twice in one minute. On the XOHM it took 9 seconds and it never buffered. In online gaming there wasn’t much difference between the two services.
The XOHM really shined in file transfer test, Laptop Mag downloaded and uploaded a 25MB file via FTP using Filezilla. The XOHM uploaded the file almost 5 times faster at 2.4Mbps compared to EV-DO’s 0.54Mbps. In download test also XOHM was twice as fast as the EV-DO at 3.05Mbps compared to 1.43Mbps.
Cost-wise also Sprints XOHM network is better, on-the-go plan is $30 and Home Internet service is $25 per month. Whereas Verizon Wireless charges $39.99 for just 50MB data usage or $59 for 5GB data usage.
Laptop Mag says “ During our entire day of testing XOHM, we didn’t lose a connection while we were stationary, we were able to test inside Baltimore’s train station, as well as inside a few eateries downtown. While moving we dropped the connection only one time and were able to quickly reconnect.”
So basically, if you are in Baltimore XOHM is a very good option, otherwise you have to suffer with your Verizon EV-DO network. Sprint plans to expand the XOHM network to Chicago, Washington D.C., Dallas, Forth Worth, Boston, Providence and Philadelphia.

Today, Apple did what every iPhone developer had be asking since the iPhone 2.0 software was released in July. Apple announced that they are dropping the Non Disclosure Agreement for released iPhone Software. The statement released by Apple says:

The removal of NDA will allow discussion between various iPhone app developers and it will also allow publication of books based on iPhone SDK.

If you see the ratings downgraded by some of the brokerage firms for Apple, you would believe that financially Apple is doing really badly. On the other hand, if you look at the continues rise in market share of both Apple’s computers and iPhone it is a totally different story.
According to the latest data from Net Applications stats for September 2008, Apple’s Mac OS and Safari both hit a new all-time high with the OS share reaching 8.23 percent and the browser share reaching 6.65 percent. Both have almost doubled the market share since May 2006. The other good news for Apple was that iPhone OS continued the rise and reached 0.32 percent market share highest for any smartphone. If iPhone continue at the same speed, it will cross Linux in market share by mid of 2009.
Well it’s difficult to understand how the share market work because every time Apple announce a recording breaking quarter the share value goes down. But if you consider past 8 financial quarters and the above data it looks like Apple will continue the record breaking trend for coming fourth quarter.

Even though, solid state drives have come a long way, they are nowhere near the storage capacity offered by hard drives. And, the latest development by TDK will increase that gap bit more. TDK announced that they have achieved the world’s highest surface recording density of hard drive disk (HDD), 803Gbit/inch2, with track recording density of 1,771kBPI, a track density of 454kTPI and a track pitch of 56nm.
The increase in storage density will allow a 1.8-inch double-sided disk to store 260GB. This will result in a dual disk 1.8-inch hard drive to store 520GB of data. TDK is using the same perpendicular magnetic recording technology used in hard drives available today, but they increased the magnetoresistance ratio by more than 80 percent while keeping the bond resistance of the reproducing head’s TMR element low.
Katsumichi Tagami, director of the SQ Research Center at TDK believes that they will be able to achieve up to 1Tbit/inch2 with the TMR element. TDK has not announced when they will start commercial production of hard drives based on new technology. Above is the image of the new TMR head that increases the data density.
[Via Tech On]

Adobe’s director of engineering said that his team is working on version of flash for the iPhone, at Flash On The Beach conference in Brighton. He added that because the iPhone is a closed system, Apple will have final say over whether the application makes its way onto the App Store. If Apple approves, the flash software will be available on App store in a very short time.
Adobe has always wanted flash on the iPhone since it was launched last year. Company’s CEO Shantanu Narayen had confirmed that their engineers were working on a version of flash for the iPhone. On the other hand Apple has always said that flash is not capable enough. Steve Jobs said in an interview that Flash Lite is not capable of being used with the web and the regular version is a processor hog and can’t be used on handheld devices.
But many iPhone users have asked for flash support as many websites use flash animation or video, and some are made completely using flash. The best thing for the user will be if Adobe is able to design flash for iPhone that is similar in functionality to the regular version, but doesn’t suck up processing power and battery like the regular flash version. And, yes Apple approves it.

LED maker Kenmos technology anticipates LED backlit unit (BLU) shipments for notebooks to hit a record in the fourth quarter of 2008. The company expects that 70 percent of the shipment will be for high-end models, but the use in budget laptops will also increase.
Two laptop makers Dell and Apple, to whom Kenmos has previously shipped LEDs, have already said that they will use mercury-free LED backlighting as a standard feature. Dell has committed that 80 percent of its total laptop volume will ship with LED as a standard by end of 2009, where as Apple has said that all its laptops will come with LED in 2009. It is also believed that Apple’s redesigned MacBook and MacBook Pro, which it will ship in fourth quarter of 2008, will use LED backlighting.
Kenmos says that the shipments of notebook LED BLU will top 200,000 units in fourth-quarter of 2008, even though the shipment has been falling for past three quarter. It was 200,000 units in first quarter, 160,000 in second quarter and 80,000 in third quarter. If Apple starts using LED BLU made by Kenmos in its upcoming MacBook, the LED shipments will definitely cross 200,000 units in fourth quarter of 2008.
[Via Digi Times]

The all glass top and the slim profile of the iPod touch makes it look fragile, but don’t get deceived by its looks. A guy has posted on iPod touch Fans that a pickup truck ran over his iPod touch and the device is still working. As you can see in the pic above the screen was cracked and the back was dented from the pressure of the pebbles on the road. After getting the damaged iPod touch he pressed the black button to turn on the iPod. It worked perfectly, the touchscreen, the music and the WiFi all was working. He says even though the glass it cracked none of the pieces are elevated and he can use it without hurting his finger.

 Western Digital has rolled out ShareSpace network storage system in 2TB and 4TB capacities. The system uses Gigabit Ethernet for networking your small office or home network for centralized storage. The storage system comes with four hard drive bays and can be used as RAID system. The 4TB model is shipped in RAID 5 mode for maximum reliability, whereas the 2TB model is shipped in Spanning Mode for maximum capacity and the flexibility to add additional drives without reformatting the system.
The other features on the system are, easy setup and discovery, email alert, Microsoft active directory support, single push-button transfer, remote access, iTunes server support, built-in FTP and three USB ports. The 2TB system WDA4NC20000 is available now for $699.99 and the 4TB system WDA4NC40000 is priced $999.99 but out of stock.
[Via Western Digital]

Dell has started shipping their new 19-inch and 17-inch LCD monitors that share design traits of their larger 24-inch displays announced few days back. The 19-inch display is aimed for watching movies, playing games or getting some serious multitasking done. The S1909WX features 1440 x 900 resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio, 5-millisecond response time, 1000:1 contrast ratio and 300cd/m2 brightness. The display comes with DVI-D that supports High Definition Content Protection (HDCP) to let you view Blu-ray movies via your desktop or laptop. The S1909WX is available now for $199.00.
The second display S1709W is a 17-inch display with 1440 x 900 resolution, 600:1 contrast ratio, 8-millisecond response time and 250cd/m2 brightness. This display is geared towards office use and hence it comes with only VGA connection. The S1709W is priced $179 and is available now.

One thing that iPhone had and most other smartphones lacked was 16GB of storage. Well, now other smartphones can also have 16GB storage, if they support 16GB microSDHC or M2 memory card. SanDisk today announced 16GB microSDHC and Memory Stick Micro M2 mobile memory cards – the world’s largest removable storage capacity for mobile phones.
According to SanDisk, the fingernail-sized 16GB memory cards allow consumers to “wake up” the many storage-intensive features offered by today’s portable handset such as music and video playback, high-definition digital camera functions, gaming and GPS applications.
The 16GB microSDHC card will be priced $99.99 and the 16GB M2 card will cost $129.99. Both the cards will be available at Best Buy in October and Verizon Wireless stores in November – the only major retailers in the United States to carry this mobile storage capacity in 2008. Buy it in January 2009 and you will get it for half the price.
[Via SanDisk]

Just one day after, Samsung officially announced their 8-megapixel camera phone Pixon, images of the LG KC780, an 8-megpixel slider phone have been leaked online. LG claims that the KC780 is the slimmest 8-megapixel camera phone to date. Not much information is available about the new handset, but it will likely come with quad-band GSM support, limited touchscreen features, 30fps video recording and maybe 3G. We will find out more about the KC780 very soon.
The second phone KP500 is a budget touchscreen phone. Like the Nokia’s upcoming Tube or 5800 touchscreen phone this phone will also focus on mid-segment of cellphone market. It features the same 3-inch LCD touchscreen found on LG’s other phones like Prada and Viewty. The phone will come in multiple color choices like brown, black, silver and gold. The high-end feature on this budget phone will be its 3-megapixel camera and accelerometer that will help manage display orientation. There is no mention of 3G but the phone will have quad-band GSM/EDGE and will support microSD cards for data storage. The KP500 will ship in Europe around October 2008; other areas will receive the phone later this year. No word on price yet.

After troubling NVIDIA in both performance and mainstream segments of graphics card market, AMD is now focusing on budget segment by announcing two new graphics cards that undercut NVIDIA’s price point while offering performance. Both the cards HD 4550 and 4350 are based on same graphics engine found in Radeon HD 4800 series, and include capabilities like support for DirectX 10.1 and HD multimedia.
Both the cards are based on 55nm processor architecture. The HD 4550 has 80 stream processors, which delivers 96GFlops of performance. The graphics chips runs at 600MHz and the GDDR3 memory runs at 800MHz that offer 12.8 GB/s bandwidth. The HD 4350 also comes with 80 stream processors but has just 8.0 GB/s memory bandwidth. The graphics chips clocks 600MHz and the memory clocks 500MHz for HD 4350.
The ATI Radeon HD 4550 card plays demanding game titles and will come with 512MB video memory for just $59. The HD 4350 will come with 256MB memory for just $39. Both the cards will ship in October. You can get more information about both the graphics cards at TG Daily.

CEATEC 2008 expo opened today in Japan and Sharp officially announced LC-65XS1U-S and LC-52XS1U-S, a 65-inch and a 52-inch AQUOS LCD HDTV respectively. Both the HDTVs are super thin at 22.8mm (0.89”), have contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 and support full HD 1080p. The displays come fitted with 2.1 channel surround sound that uses five three-way speakers that Sharp developed with Pioneer. Sharp claims that the new displays will see 26 percent reduction in power use compared to similar sized HDTVs. Both the HDTVs will be available in Japan starting October 15th for undisclosed price.
[Via Engadget]

The first thing that comes to ones mind when talking about Solid State Drives (SSD) is 1GB to $5 price ratio. Basically a 64GB SSD can cost anywhere from $300 to $1,000. Super Talent Technology wants to change that and is launching a pair of new affordable SATA II SSDs. The new SSDs will cut the price ratio in half bring down per GB cost to only $2.30. The Super Talent’s new MasterDrive LX SSDs will be available in 64GB and 128GB capacities for $179 and $300 respectively.
The MasterDrive LX is built using MLC NAND flash chips and uses SATA-II interface with 3Gbps data transfer speed, making them perfectly ideal for interchanging with hard disk drives. The SSDs will have sequential read speed of 100 MB/s and sequential write speeds of 40MB/s. To improve the reliability and lifespan of these SSDs, Super Talent has integrated ECC, wear leveling and bad bit management functions. Both the models will ship in first week of October and come with one-year warranty.
[Via Digi Times]

ARM, Chartered Semiconductor, IBM and Samsung today formed Common Platform, an alliance between the four companies for advancement of ARM processor platform. The alliance will work towards development of ARM processor based on 32nm and 28nm manufacturing technology. They will use the high-k metal gate technology in the new processors, which will better manage heat and electricity leaks. This will allow shrinking of processor size without heat and electricity related penalties.
Use of 32nm and 28nm-manufacturing process to build chips will result in faster and more energy efficient ARM processors. This will also allow integration of various processes performed by different chips on the main processor, decreasing the overall footprint of the chipset. The increase in performance and decrease in size will be very beneficial to ARM's core market that includes mobile handset, portable media players and other handheld devices.
The Common Platform alliance haven’t yet announced when the new processor technology will enter production, but it’s not likely that we will see chips based on Common Platform before 2010.

A French website MacBidouille is reporting that Analytika Labs has done testing, using multiple sensors, over a period of eight days on MacBook Pro. The lab collected the air circulated and exhausted by cooling fans in MacBook Pro. By doing gas chromatography and mass spectrometry on the air sample the lab found out that the exhaust air contained propanal, benzene, ethanone, isobenzofurandione, propanone and acetic acid. Most of the chemicals mentioned are considered irritants, but benzene has been found to elevate cancer probability in workers exposed to just 10 parts per million, according to the American Cancer Society.
The Analytika lab didn’t provide any details about what quantity of chemicals were present in the exhausted air. And without knowing the exact quantities of each chemical, an accurate assessment of health risks cannot be made. An anonymous Mac user, who experienced considerable irritation of his eyes, nose, and larynx after just 10 days of exposure, approached the lab. He said Apple initially tried to fix the notebook, but the smell did not subside, even after a replacement notebook was issued.
Greenpeace, the activist group known for their environmental campaigns targeting Apple referred the man to Analytika. The lab is known for their involvement in various high profile environmental issues. The company advertises its analysis services for the purposes of respecting the environment and quality control.
We understand that both Greenpeace and Analytika are working for betterment of environment. But, we don’t understand why they can’t do and release complete details of the amount of chemicals found in the air from MacBook Pro. This makes us suspicious that these groups are doing this just to get attention and advertisement.
[Via Macnn]

LG’s new “Momo” or X110 netbook have appeared on its Arab Emirates site. The name Momo stands for “more mobile” as the netbook features built-in 3G receiver. The first thing we noted about this netbook is it doesn’t look cheap like most of the netbooks on the market today. Specification-wise it is almost similar to most of the netbooks with 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, hard drive up to 160GB, up to 1GB RAM, WiFi b/g, optional Bluetooth, 1.3-megapixel webcam, multi-card reader, three USB and VGA port. LG has decided that they will use Windows Vista Home Basic for the X110, which we don’t think is such a good idea with just 1GB RAM. The X100 will weigh 2.6 pounds and measure 10.3”x 7” x 0.74-1.22”. It will be available in three colors black, silver and pink. There in no information on LG’s website about when or for how much this netbook will be released.

Last week, rumors were that Apple would add around 29 more countries to its iPhone available list on last Friday.  But, Apple added just five countries namely Brazil, Latvia, South Africa and Turkey.  Brazil got iPhone via Claro, Latvia got it via LMT, Lithuania got it via Omnitel, South Africa got it via Vodacom and Turkey got iPhone via Turkcell. According to a Russian newspaper both Russia and Ukraine will get iPhone on 3rd October. In Russia the iPhone will be carrier by multiple carriers including MTS, MegaFon and Vimpelcom.
Based on the latest information on Apple’s iPhone 3G site for new countries, Apple is currently selling iPhone in 53 countries and will add 24 more countries by end of this year. By doing so Apple will bring the total number of countries where iPhone is sold to 77 by end of 2008.

Samsung today officially launched the new M8800 Pixon mobile phone with 8-megapixel digital camera. The camera on the phone will include 16x digital zoom, dual LED flash, advanced shake reduction, wide dynamic range, face detection, smile shot, face link, geo tagging, auto panorama shot, photo memo and photo browser. The camera will also be able to capture 30 fps at 720 x 480 resolution and 120 fps in QVGA resolution.
For communications the phone will have quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), HSDPA 7.2Mbps (2100 MHz) and Bluetooth 2.0. Pixon will come with a 3.2-inch LCD screen with 240 x 400 resolution, FM radio with RDS, 200MB of onboard memory, microSD card slot, accelerometer and TV out connection. The phone will measure 4.24” x 2.16” x 0.54” and weigh 4.26 ounces. Battery life on the phone will be 3 hours and 40 minutes of talk time and 290 hours standby.
The Samsung M8800 Pixon will be available in France in mid-October and will ship in rest of Europe and Asia soon thereafter. No word on price yet.
[Via MobileBurn]

Walmart started selling DRM free MP3 music in August last year, before that its online music store use to sell DRMed WMA songs. For DRMed songs to work they need to authenticate the user if the hardware is changed via DRM server. Walmart has sent email to its customers that starting October 9th it will transition to DRM free MP3 only and its servers will no longer support the DRMed music. 
In the email, Walmart has informed customers to burn the DRMed music files as music CD that they can use, if they change their computer. The email says that after 9th October you will be unable to transfer your songs to other computers or access your songs after changing or reinstalling your operating system or in the event of a system crash. In short, Walmart’s DRMed online music store is joining Yahoo Music and MSN Music. So, if you are one of the few Walmart online music store customers better write audio CDs, if you want to continue using your purchased music.

Till now only few camera makers like Hasselblad were in medium format digital cameras business. But, it seems that will change soon. Last week, Leica announced that they will launch S2, a 37-megapixel medium format digital SLR. And now, SlashGear is reporting a rumor that Nikon will launch its 40.7-megapixel medium format digital SLR in February 2009 at Wedding & Portrait Photographer International expo (WPPI).
A picture teaser for WPPI 2009 says “ Something big is coming to WPPI this year. Something so big we can’t even tell you what it is. How big? Big enough for WPPI and Nikon to reserve the world-class MGM Grand Arena! You can’t afford to miss what WPPI and Nikon have in store for February 2009. We really shouldn’t say anymore, but we will. Next Month!”
 It has been rumored for quite sometime that Nikon is working on a medium format digital camera. Additional, recent Nikon lenses have been purposefully over-provisioned with larger image circle than needed for 24” x 36” image sensor. According to SlashGear, these lenses will be useful for both current Nikon camera and the medium format MX DSLR that will have bigger image sensor. We will definitely get more information before the February event via leaked information and images, so stay tuned.

Last month, Hynix become the first company to show its new 16GB DDR3 memory module at Intel Developer Forum. Now, Samsung has joined Hynix by announcing their new 16GB memory stick based on 50nm manufacturing process. The company has started sampling their new 2Gb DDR3 chips that use 40 percent less power when compared to their predecessors. Samsung says that because of the new 50nm manufacturing technology there will be a 60 percent productivity gain also.
The new process allows up to 8GB of memory for RIMMs and up to 4GB for SODIMMs focused on notebook market. The company said that by using dual-die packages, the memory density reaches 16GB for desktop and server memory. Each 2Gb (256MB) chip will have data rate of 1.3Gbps at 1.5 or 1.35 volts.
Samsung will start production of the new 2Gb chips in Q4 2008 and plans to make 2Gb DDR3 primary DRAM process technology in 2009. It is good that with in a month, two companies, Samsung and Hynix have announced high-density memory modules, this will increase competition resulting in price drop for DDR3 memory.
[Via TG Daily]

The two future RAM technologies that the scientists have been working on are STT-RAM and MRAM. Spin torque transfer RAM (STT-RAM) has advantages of lower power consumption and better scalability over the Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM). The main reason behind high power requirement of MRAM is that it uses electromagnet as the middleman to flip domains. Domains are the tiny regions inside magnetic materials that behave like individual magnets and can have their north-south orientation flipped to store information.
Scientists in Japan have developed a new method that can be used to manipulate domains in a semiconductor without using magnets. They simple use an electric field, generated by applying voltage to a nearby electrode, to shift magnetic domains. This process removes the need of electromagnet and will make the MRAM more energy efficient and faster. The scientists used an iron-based semiconductor, in which there are two kinds of charge carrier – electrons, and the voids – “holes” that can accommodate them. Applying an electric field to material via a nearby electrode can change the density of both voids and electrons.
To record data the domains have to flip by 180 degrees, but the Japanese were able to move it just by 10 degrees. Hideo Ohno, leader of Tohoku team that developed the method, said they have started working on tweaking the chemistry of the material used, to make it rotate 180 degrees. The scientists say that once this is achieved MRAM will require less power, be more compact and faster than STT_RAM.
[Via New Scientist]