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In its upcoming “Interlagos” and “Valencia” Opteron chips for servers, AMD will offer a feature called TDP Power Cap. The technology, designed to let users reduce power usage while minimizing the performance consequences, could find a home in future AMD-powered embedded devices too.
The Thunderbolt technology created by Intel and Apple received a stamp of approval from Sony, whose svelte new Vaio Z notebook uses it to add discrete graphics externally. Meanwhile, Apple has begun selling a six-bay RAID system manufactured by Promise, along with a $49 Thunderbolt cable.
Acer began accepting pre-orders for its Wi-Fi only AC700 Chromebook for $350 on Amazon.com. Following Samsung's $430 Series 5 Chromebook — and again based on Google's Chrome OS — the AC700 notebook offers the same dual-core Intel Atom N570 processor, a slightly smaller 11.6-inch display, 2GB of DDR3 memory, a 16GB solid-state disk, a multi-card reader, and a webcam.
T-Mobile unveiled an Android 2.3-based 4G slider phone with an advanced camera. HTC's MyTouch 4G Slide is equipped with a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a 3.7-inch, WVGA touchscreen, and an eight-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, “zero” shutter lag, a backside illuminated sensor, and a wide aperture f/2.2 lens, says the carrier.
Microsoft says it has joined nine other partners in a U.K.-based consortium that will test “white space” networking in and around Cambridge. The wireless broadband technology will initially be trialed by streaming audio and video content to mobile devices in a variety of locations, the company says.
Italian vendor Ekoore announced three tablets with capacitive multitouch displays — two Atom-based tablets that run Ubuntu 11.04 or Windows 7, and an ARM-based tablet running Android 2.3. The 11.6-inch “Perl” offers a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450; the 10.2-inch “Python” moves to the DDR3-ready Atom N455; and the seven-inch Android 2.3-based “Pascal” uses a new 1.2GHz Telechips TCC8803 processor, according to the company.
NEC unveiled a computing module that complies with Intel's Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) for digital signs but uses an AMD processor. Designed to slot into the back of the company's displays, the SB-02SC includes a dual-core T56N processor, has either a 32GB solid state drive (SSD) or a 160GB hard disk drive (HDD), and comes in a Windows 7 version as well as a barebone version that supports Linux.
Microsoft has continued to push its patent claims into Android territory by signing a patent agreement with General Dynamics' rugged device subsidiary Itronix. The agreement provides broad coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio for Android devices, says Microsoft.
The Sabayon community released version 6.0 of its Gentoo-based Linux distribution, moving up to Linux 2.6.39.1, but opting for GNOME 2.32.2 and KDE 4.6.4 desktop environments instead of the controversial GNOME 3.0. Sabayon 6.0 adds support for the Btrfs filesystem, switches to LibreOffice 3.3.3, and updates to version 1.0 of its Entropy package manager.
MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Google have devised a method of transferring tasks between your smartphone and your computer by merely pointing the cellphone camera at your PC's screen. “Deep Shot” uses pattern recognition and an extended version of a standard URI (universal resource identifier).
Norco announced a barebone, 1U rackmount network security appliance that supports Intel's “Pineview” generation of Atom processors. The FW-7874 offers up to 2GB DDR3 memory, PCI and mini-PCIe expansion, CompactFlash and SATA storage, and four gigabit Ethernet ports with LAN bypass, among other I/O.
Archos announced two Android-based “Home Connect” devices with 3.5-inch touchscreens and front-facing webcams. The Archos 35 Home Connect is a $149 portable Internet radio that runs Android 2.2 on a 1GHz TI OMAP3630 processor, and the Archos 35 Smart Home Phone is an Android-based DECT landline phone.
Google has selectively released Google TV 2.0 “Fishtank” beta code based on Android 3.1, featuring the ability to run an Android app and stream TV at the same time, says a Geek.com report. The company is said to have sent out a Fishtank developer's system to about 50 developers, while another report says Logitech will offer a 2.0-based system in late summer.
Advantech-DLoG announced a 15-inch touchscreen PC that resists harsh environments and may be mounted on forklifts or in truck cabs. The IPC 7/215 is IP67-rated, comes with or without 21 programmable keys, has two PCI expansion slots, and is offered with either Celeron or Core Duo processors, according to the company.
Archos announced two high-end Android 3.1 tablets that use Texas Instruments dual-core 1.5GHz OMAP4 processors. The eight-inch Archos 80 G9 and 10.1-inch Archos 101 G9 are both offered with a 250GB hard disk drive option, available 3G, as well as standard Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and HDMI.