Isaiah's Tech

Lenovo has just posted something good in PDF format. The upcoming ThinkPad X220 notebook looks like it'll be sporting a 12.5-inch display (IPS display optional) with a 1,366 x 768 resolution, up to a speedy Intel Core i7-2620M CPU, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, up to a 320GB HDD / 160GB SSD, and a 9-cell battery that'll last up to 15 hours. You can even opt for the external battery pack that'll give the notebook a whopping 23-hour life time. If you want to check out the full spec sheet then just check out the list below.

[Engadget]

Coming from Three Guys and a Podcast is word on the next-generation MacBook Pro and that it will likely be launched in April 2011. Apparently, Apple will be opting to go with SSD storage options that will go up to 512GB, which sounds great if they can keep the prices down to what they are right now. Other changes are said to be no optical (CD/DVD) drive), Intel's upcoming Sandy Bridge CPUs, and the introduction of Light Peak. We don't know if FireWire will still be on-board but USB 3.0 should be. This is all sounding like great news right now but everything's unconfirmed for the moment.

Other improvements could include a touchscreen display since you may be able to upgrade this to "Lion" when it ships in the Summer.

Sony has just updated their 13.1-inch Vaio Z notebook and it's a great update if you got the money. Beneath the Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 resolution) display you'll be getting an Intel Core i5-460M 2.53GHz CPU, 4GB of DDR3 RAM (up to 8GB), a 256GB SSD, a DVD burner (Blu-ray drive for an extra $500), Nvidia GeForce GT 330M graphics, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. While that may all sound great and dandy, the base model is going for a whopping $2,249.99 so you better have some money handy. Check it out on Sony Style if you don't believe me.

[Engadget]

Toshiba's AC100 netbook looks like it's now available in the UK if you're interested. This netbook is running Android 2.1 along with a 10.1-inch display, a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 250 SoC, a 32GB SSD, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, WiFi 802.11n, optional 3G support, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, a 1.3MP webcam, and an HDMI port. If you're interested then you can actually scoop one up for £292.52 (about $450 USD) and that's without 3G. Check it out on Toshiba UK.

[Engadget]

It looks like HP is about to push out another netbook and it'll be called the Mini 5103. This netbook packs Intel Atom N455 1.66GHz / N475 1.83GHz CPU options, a 10.1-inch display (optional touchscreen), 2GB of RAM, 160GB / 320GB HDD / 128GB SSD options, an integrated Intel GMA 3150 graphics, and you'll also be able to get the Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator along with an HD display if you want to.

Other specs include: three USB 2.0 ports, VGA output, an SD card slot, audio jacks, WiFi b/g/n support, optional Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, a 2MP webcam, a multitouch trackpad, and 4 / 6-cell battery options. If you choose not to get the Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator then you'll be able to get a Qualcomm Gobi mobile broadband chipset inside.

The standard model will be going for €429 ($565 USD) in Italy and will feature an Intel Atom N455 1.66GHz CPU, a 160GB HDD, and 1GB of RAM. The pricing for the other options haven't been mentioned yet, but you might want to save up a bit.

[Slash Gear]

In France, Archos has just released their 4.8-inch Internet Tablet. Dubbed the Archos 5 Internet Tablet, it's packing a touchscreen display and a 64GB SSD. This tablet is packing Android and is available for you to purchase for €399.98. Check it out here.

[Liliputing]

Way back in November we saw the W701 pass the FCC and it hinted at a Core i7 CPU. It's definitely launching with one, the Extreme Series line-up. Today's leak tells us that Lenovo is set to announce the ThinkPad W701 and the W701ds - a follow-up to the W700ds - as early as February 23. Both notebooks are extremely powerful, but of course, the more power you put into these notebooks the higher the price goes. You'll reportedly be able to pack up to 16GB of RAM, up to a 256GB SSD, DisplayLink port, and even Ultrabay storage. That's not all though, since there'll be a Wacom Digitizer and the 17-inch display will cover 100% of the NTSC colour gamut accompanied with 280 nits of brightness. Let's hope they have some lower-end Core i5 options cause I'm not willing to spend 2 grand on a Core i7 Extreme model.

[Engadget]

The Sony Vaio P has a striking design, but the performances was not doing so well at launch. This could be due to the fact that it had an underpowered CPU and was running Windows Vista. For future Vaio P users, they are in luck because Sony has just given the Vaio P an upgraded Intel Atom Z550 CPU and a WiMAX option. Along with the SSD drive, the Vaio P almost did twice as well as it did when it was originally launched - on the latest benchmark tests.

[Engadget]

Onkyo's latest netbook, the Sotec DC204A3, is putting a semi-twist on the netbook world. The DC204A3 has: a 10.1-inch display with a 1,024 x 600 resolution, Intel's Atom 1.6GHz N270 CPU, 945GSE graphics, WiFi, an integrated webcam, and 1GB of RAM. The semi-twist here is that it will have a 32GB SSD on-board, but it will not have a VGA output or an Ethernet port. This netbook will be available in Japan as early as the end of this month for ¥49,800 ($529 USD).

Just in case you still want the VGA output and the Ethernet port, there is an available adapter for the netbook that will be an external box, that is pictured below. I'm not sure if it comes in the box with the netbook, so I'm sorry for that.

[Engadget]

An updated version of the Dell Inspiron Mini 10, the Mini 10v, has just been found on Dell's official website. It isn't a complete shocker that Dell has upgraded one of their products because they do it all the time. The 10v will have an Atom N270 CPU (which is an upgrade compared to the old Z-Series Atom that it was bundled with before) and also the same old: 120GB HDD, 1GB of RAM, a 1.3MP webcam, and Windows XP. You can swap out its HDD with your choice of a 32 or a 64GB SSD for $75 and $125 USD, respectively. Dell has also decided to drop the base price of the Mini 10x to just $299 USD, so it could be a steal at that low of a price - that's up to you.

[Engadget]

It's a damn action-packed camcorder. The Samsung HMX-H106 is actually already shipping in Korea starting today. Amazon has the camcorder up for pre-orders now, so check it out if you like. The HMX-H106 is a pretty damn awesome camcorder, it has: a 64GB SSD, Full 1080p HD video recording capabilities, an SDHC slot, 10x optical zoom, a Schneider Kreuznach Varioplan lens, and a 4.7MP still-shooting camera with a flash. It's a nice looking camcorder, but it'll set you back $900 USD. Here's the Amazon pre-order link again, if you're still interested.

[Gizmodo]

Yes, it is quite expensive for the UMID M1, but if you take out Windows XP then it could immediately cut the cost by $110 USD. But, for most users that's not an option since some of us don't like to use Linux. Anyways, the M1 has a 1.33GHz Intel Atom CPU, 512MB of RAM and has a 16GB SSD inside of it. Remember that this $750 USD device doesn't have 3G so that's a huge negative. Looks like it's better to wait for the M2 MID from UMID - that is, if they sell enough of this one.

[Slash Gear]

OCZ recently released their Vertex SSDs and the Mac-certified SSDs are 10MB/s slower than the PC-certified ones in both reading and writing data. This is because of some Mac OS X limitations. So those of you who choose Macs over Windows, you're right. It is all about the OS. You can read the full article below, if you're interested.

[Bright Side of News]

Maingear is not exactly the most famous brand out there, but this laptop is definitely worth your time. I don't know why they chose to have a design like that on the notebook, but it is just optional. The notebook has an awesome spec sheet for a brand that's not that well known. The mX-L will have a 13.3-inch LED backlit display with a 1,280 x 800 resolution, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a GMA X4500HD graphics card, up to 8GB of RAM, up to 500GB HDD (or the more expensive 160GB Intel X25-M SSD), Bluetooth, gigabit Ethernet and WiFi. It also comes with a VGA and three USB 2.0 slots. Oh wait, don't forget that you can cram a dual-layer Blu-ray reader in this notebook which is very impressive. If you want the completely upgraded model, it'll cost you quite a bit. With the four-cell battery the laptop will weigh 4.4 pounds. Right now, it doesn't look like you have the option to upgrade the battery, so that is a huge disappointment. The base price will be $1,099.99 USD, but if you factor in the Blu-ray and the SSD, it could surpass the $2,000 mark.

[Engadget]

AMD has announced the new ATI FirePro 2450 graphics card which has quad-monitor support. "The FirePro 2450 comes equipped with 512MB of GDDR3 memory, variable speed fan sink, maximum resolution of 1920 x 1200, DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 2.1 support, native PCI-E x16 and x1, and [like I said] support for up to four independent DVI or VGA monitors." That's incredible, seeing how it only takes up one PCI-E slot in you computer. "The new card consumes less than 18W on average for 2D business usage, and no more than 32W when fully stressed." The FirePro 2450 is now available for just $499 USD.

I don't know the speed of normal SSDs, but A-DATA is reportedly rolling out a "high-speed" SSD line for notebooks. "The 300 Plus series takes advantage of a new memory controller to maintain constant 250MB per second read speeds as well as 160MB per second while writing data. It also has an uncommonly large 64MB cache to keep the system fed with information even in characteristically slower sequential reads." There will be 4 versions of the SSDs: a 32GB, 64GB, 128GB and a 256GB. They will all be available soon, but A-DATA hasn't given a shipping date or a price for that matter.

If you can't manage to fork over at least $1,000 USD on LG's watch phone, you can always go for the alternative. The Hyundai MB-910 watch phone has a 132 x 176 resolution (which is slightly larger than LG's), but only has 65K colours. The Hyundai watch phone also has: a 400mAh battery (enough for 70 hours of standby / 3 hours of talk time), SMS, MMS, email, video / music playback, but it lacks 3G. A watch phone without 3G may not be as big as a loss as we think it is, since a watch phone is new technology and may not even entirely take advantage of 3G anyway. If you're still interested in this watch phone by Hyundai, you're looking at spending only £200 ($277 USD) and this includes a Bluetooth headset.

MSI VX600 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/10/msi-announces-the-vx600-15-4-inch-notebook/
ATI FirePro 2450 (and picture): http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/amd_announces_ati_firepro_2450_graphics_card_with_quadmonitor_support
A-DATA's SSDs (and picture): http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/03/10/a.data.300.plus.ssd/
Hyundai MB-910 Watch Phone (and picture): http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/03/10/hyundai-announces-mb-910-watch-phone/

This is clearly a sign of Motorola falling to their doom. They are releasing these 1990-looking phones in Q2 this year (yes, 2009). The spec sheet was not revealed, but who really cares? Who the hell is going to want these Motorola? They do have one thing going for them, rugged cases!! Other than that these smartphones are pathetic. Motorola must be  trying to bring back the old school, but i think i'd rather have a Blackberry, thank you very much. These look like walkie-talkies for 4 year olds. Seriously Motorola? Is this the best you can do? Maybe they'll miraculously develop the Motorola Touch ZINE HD. I wish.

A new rumour has it that the next update to the Mac OS X will be available on June 8. The new update, dubbed Snow Leopard will include a new QuickTime, the new Safari 4 Beta and will be a "push" for 64-bit. I don't really care for the Mac OS, but i thought that maybe some of you do, so i guess it'd be good to talk about it. It is said to be a "solid" update though, so be on the lookout for it.

Some Samsung techies linked 24 SSDs together to make the SSDs even faster than normal. During the video (below) they mentioned that they achieved a speed greater than 2GB/second, but clearly it was under 2GB/second (being 2014MB/s on the screen and 2048 MB = 2GB, duh!). But, i mean it was close enough and it was mighty fast. I still give them major props. They tested out exactly how fast the SSDs were and it was able to do a number of things: open all of Microsoft Office in 0.5 seconds, open 53 programs from the Start Menu in 18 seconds, complete a system defrag in 3 seconds, burn / rip a CD (700MB) in 0.8 seconds, etc. Anyways, you can view the video below, via Youtube from Gizmodo.



Motorola MC55 (and picture): http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/03/09/motorola-announces-mc55-handsets/
Snow Leopard On June 8? (and picture): http://lifehacker.com/5166664/snow-leopard-may-drop-june-8-include-new-finder-and-quicktime
The Power of 24 SSDs (and video): http://i.gizmodo.com/5166798/24-solid-state-drives-open-all-of-microsoft-office-in-5-seconds

Kicking off this blog post with MSI. MSI's all-in-one Wind NetOn A1900 is decent. Apparently, this is the M19 from last November and it was also shown off at CES a couple of weeks ago. "The 18.5-inch desktop houses an Intel Atom N270, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 160GB SATA HDD, DVD burner, 4-in-1 card reader, 1.3 megapixel webcam, and an optional 802.11 b/g." As of right now, there is no word on the pricing or the availability. The screen itself has a 16:9 resolution, has a 1000:1 contrast ratio and a 5ms response time.

"Intel has confirmed it is already shipping the next incarnation of the Atom processor." If you read the last paragraph, i mentioned that the MSI Wind NetOn A1900 has an Intel Atom N270 chip. These chips are actually coming out 6 months earlier than the expected release date. It was expected to ship in mid-2009, but the N270 and the N280 chips have already made their way to laptop makers. The N280 and N270 are very similar and the N280 is only a tiny bit faster than the N270. "The N280 is clocked at 1.66GHz and connect across a 667MHz frontside bus." The N270's speeds are 1.6GHz and 533MHz, respectively. The Asus EeePC 1000HE is the first netbook that has the N280 processor, just in case you wanted to know.

Intel is looking to push their SSDs out more frequently this year. They have now cut their SSD prices by a third. Although, they are still expensive, a price drop is a price drop. We are that much closer to SSDs taking over HDDs with every price drop.

A new leak, regarding Microsoft's Skybox has been found. Apparently, Microsoft put up a website about Skybox, but then pulled it immediately. Skybox is "a service that would let Windows Mobile users back up and access information stored in the cloud." Skybox will do a various number of things, such as: letting users "access their contact lists and calendars and share photos through a Web account." There are a bunch of other features but i, myself, don't know much about it. Microsoft may mention this kind of service at MWC, which is a couple of days away.

 Up to this point, Microsoft has managed to keep their mouth shut about what their going to announce at MWC. The Microsoft Zunephone rumours are looking to be false, as of right now. A new rumour has surfaced about the renaming of "Windows Mobile" to "Windows Phone." Yes it's just a rumour, but if Engadget is willing to believe it, then i guess i do too. Their guess is much better than mine. They are the professionals.

MSI Wind NetOn A1900 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/06/msi-wind-neton-ap1900-gets-official-photography-treatment/
Intel Atom Chips Coming Early: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/06/intel_ships_n280_chips_early/
Asus EeePC 1000HE picture: http://ijcopon925.blogspot.com/2009/02/south-korea-at-1gbps-by-2012-samsungs.html
Intel Cuts Prices of SSDs: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-266676.html
Microsoft Skybox: http://www.pcworld.com/article/159088/microsoft_leaks_skybox_mobile_storage_site.html?tk=rss_news
Windows Mobile Changing It's Name To Windows Phone (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/06/microsoft-insists-its-not-making-a-phone-rumored-to-be-rebrand/

Today, i've had a pretty busy morning. I've already vacuumed my whole house. It took a while, but it's alright. I'm actually cold in my house because i have to resort to wearing shorts right now. The pants i usually wear are in the dryer, so i have to wait about an hour until they are all dry. While i was eating this morning, i caught a glimpse of the introduction to Barack Obama's inauguration. Anyways, time for the daily news.

Speaking of Barack Obama, he actually supports the Wii. The makers of the Wii, Nintendo (duh!), have spoke out and said that they are "99% responsible for the [gaming] industry's growth [in 2008]." Nintendo's hardware "sold more than 20 million units in the U.S. last year, with 132 million software units sold on the company's platforms." In 2007, Nintendo only sold around 15 million consoles and portables, so in 2008, they had a huge increase. "That increase in sales, Nintendo says, is 99% of the reason the video game industry saw revenues increase by $3.35 billion last year." Incredible statement from Nintendo and there is also a nice pie chart for everyone. Nintendo owns. I still don't like the Wii or the DS / DSi, just in case you're wondering.

A couple of days ago, i talked about a rumour about a new Grand Theft Auto 5 possibly coming out later this year (here). The makers of Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar, have stepped up and denied all rumours of a Grand Theft Auto 5 release this year. "For Xbox 360 and DS gamers, at least, there's no shortage of GTA loving this year. The DLC for GTA IV, the Lost and Damned, is on its way, and GTA: Chinatown Wars will be released this March." At least there is still some good news from Rockstar this year, right?

A couple of days ago, i also talked about a Microsoft worm that infected 1.1 million PCs in under 24 hours (here). Well, i have more news on that worm, called Downadup. After just 4 days, Downadup has now, reportedly, hit over 9 million PCs. Downadup also has another name, Conficker. This Microsoft worm actually infects a hole that Microsoft already patched up. How does Downadup (Conficker) infect so many PCs then? Because one-third of all Windows PC users have not installed this patch, which was released last October. "Those PCs are the ones being hijacked by the worm." So, if you haven't updated your Windows PC, i would think that this is a good time to do that. This is another reason why you should keep your Windows Update and all of your anti-virus / anti-spyware programs up-to-date.

Dell is in the news today, regarding SSDs. The Dell XPS M1330 and M1730 laptops now have an option for you to install a 256GB SSD on your model. SSD's (Solid-State Drives) are fairly new technology. "Solid-state drives are generally faster at getting data than [HDDs] hard-disk drives, but pricing is a hurdle for consumers." In our computer / laptop, we store all of our information onto our hard-drves, which are HDDs. Currently, we are trying to make a move towards SDDs. SDDs are much faster and also much more compact than HDDs. But, the SSDs main flaw is that they are, in some cases, 10 times pricier than HDDs. 99% of PC owners, right now, are using HDDs in their computer, but soon (meaning a couple of years) that will change. "Currently the price of consumer-grade SSD costs from $2 to $3.45 per gigabyte, with hard drives going for about 38 cents per gigabyte, according to Gartner Inc. and iSuppli Corp."

Nintendo Owns Gaming Industry (and picture): http://kotaku.com/5133243/nintendo-says-its-responsible-for-99-of-game-industry-growth-in-2008
No Grand Theft Auto 5: http://ps3.qj.net/Rockstar-Grand-Theft-Auto-V-rumor-was-just-a-rumor/pg/49/aid/128093
Downadup Microsoft Worm: http://www.pcworld.com/article/157858/downadup_conficker.html?tk=rss_news
Dell and SSD (and picture): http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10144985-64.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
SSD in the Future: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Storage&articleId=9126238&taxonomyId=19&pageNumber=1