Samsung Rumours, Killzone 2 Demo, Silicon Mountain's Atom-based Allio LCD TV-PC, Rambus' 4.3Gbps Mobile Memory, IE Losing Users

Earlier today, i mentioned the 12MP Samsung cameraphones that may be weeks away from being announced (here). Well, that's not the only news that Samsung is stirring up. Apparently, there is also a rumour of a new Samsung Omnia. It will have the same features as the 8GB Omnia, but it will instead have 16GB's of internal memory. I don't know why Samsung would do this, since the UI is pretty non-responsive. My friend got one for Christmas and it was kind of annoying to use. I only used it for a couple of minutes though, so i couldn't exactly do a thorough review. Yesterday, my friend Yang, finally got his Samsung INNOV8 for only $580 CAD. I thought that was a bit of a steal. Anyways, the phone is a bit bigger than my phone (Nokia N81) but it obviously packs a heck of a lot more features inside, such as having 8GB of internal memory and a 5.0MP camera. I didn't get to play around with the phone too much, since it was so new and i didn't really want to break it or anything. Hopefully, i'll be able to take some pictures and record some video with it, to see exactly how it is. I noticed that it's running a modified Symbian S60 OS though. I noticed this because it's the same OS as my phone. He told me that he uses Opera Mini for his browsing and that it doesn't save his passwords. He also mentioned that the browser is really fast. More on the INNOV8 when i get a chance to hold it some more. It's only missing a touchscreen.

If you're waiting for the Killzone 2 demo date, it will be on February 5. There will only be one demo, with the exception of Japan, of course. They will be receiving 2 demos. I don't know if the 2 demos will be released on the same day though.

The TV and the PC continue to bump heads. It was mentioned at CES 09 that the distinct line between TV and PC will disintegrate in the upcoming years. Silicon Mountain just pushed out it's first LCD TV-PC, the Allio. The Allio will have 2 models: a 1080p 42-inch and a 720p 32-inch model going for retail prices of $1,599 USD and $1,299 USD, respectively. Both models will have the same internal hardware. A dual-core Atom 330 processor, a 250GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM, a DVD drive and it will run on Windows Vista Home Premium. Engadget also mentions that there is "no Blu-ray option, it seems." Interesting. No? Tell me in the comments if you like that the TV and the PC are coming together as one.

Rambus has been getting into a bit of trouble lately, but if we push that aside, they may have something interesting to mention. They are calling it the Mobile Memory Initiative, "a 4.3Gbps phone-oriented variant of the XDR RAM used in the PS3 that requires just 100mV of power. That means companies can either build super-powerful phones that take advantage of a complete MMI system's estimated 17GBps throughput, or build cheaper devices that offer performance equivalent to today's memory with fewer MMI parts." A long quote, but it is very informative. Basically, the message is: super-powerful phones can be made by utilizing MMI. Unfortunately, we will have to wait until early 2010 for the first products.

What a delightful introduction to this article on ZDNet. "The reign of IE is coming to an end." I love that line. Internet Explorer's market share has dropped 7% over the last year. This is because those users still using IE6 are dumping that browser for newer browsers, such as Firefox, Safari or Chrome. This is really interesting because 20% of people cruising the Internet are still doing so using IE6. Those people must be out of their mind, in my opinion. If you enlarge the chart you will notice that IE's market share is on a steady pace downwards, while Firefox, Safari and Chrome continue to gain market share. Firefox is projected to grow at least 4% from March 2008 - 2009, Safari should gain about 3% from March 2008 - 2009 and hopefully Chrome can stay above the 1% mark by March. I hope that Chrome releases their extensions / themes soon because they should start to make their move now, while users are trying to make the switch from IE6 to a better browser.

Samsung Rumours (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/16gb-samsung-omnia-shows-itself-other-samsung-rumors-surface/
Killzone 2 Demo: http://ps3.qj.net/Killzone-2-demo-coming-February-5/pg/49/aid/128589
Silicon Mountain's Atom-based Allio LCD TV-PC (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/silicon-mountain-debuts-atom-based-allio-lite-lcd-tv-pc/
Rambus' 4.3Gbps Mobile Memory: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/rambus-introduces-4-3gbps-mobile-memory/
Internet Explorer Losing Users (and chart): http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=1116